Chapter 152 Because I Love Reading
The five of them stood in a neat row in front of the house and had a clear view of the temple.
The statue had huge fangs, wide-open eyes, a face covered with patterns, and looked ferocious and fierce. It held an axe in its hand, which made people feel intimidated just by looking at it.
Even though the paint on other parts of the statue has faded and cracked, the statue still retains its original ferocious appearance.
Lin Du looked at it for a while and said, "It's probably a fierce god who kills evil spirits, so it was made like this to scare the evil spirits away."
Yan Qing nodded, "Indeed, if it is a border area, there is indeed such a custom when evil spirits invade."
The tall statue of the deity stood high on a stone platform. On the incense burner in front of the altar were countless short wooden sticks of incense sticks, so densely packed that they seemed to be about to fall off.
Lin Du looked at the statue and said, "With such strong incense, even if it is a clay figure, it will have some divinity."
Nowadays, Taoism, whether it is the side sect or the inner alchemy sect, focuses on self-cultivation and generating one's own strength. The Supreme Sect worships all things in the heaven and earth, and does not expect to be blessed, but only respects them.
The ancient incense and Shintoism was also recorded in the historical books of the Supreme Sect.
In the ancient times, the world was not stable, and many laws deviated from the way of heaven and became ancient gods.
The ancient gods themselves are the embodiment of the power of rules. Therefore, mortals worship and believe in the ancient gods, forming wishes, and the ancient gods give back to the believers, allowing them to learn and comprehend the power of rules. This is the original way of incense and Shinto.
The essential people believe in the rules of heaven, but they only choose one and believe in it deeply.
Afterwards, the operation of heaven and earth stabilized, and the ancient gods were reintegrated into the laws of nature, becoming part of the rules. They lost their self-awareness and were considered extinct.
After that, the Shinto religion no longer had its original divinity and gradually declined, not even being considered a path of spiritual practice.
After all, the ancient gods no longer exist, and what people worship later are nothing more than clay statues. Are these gods or ghosts created by these wishes? And what do these believers get?
Although the ancient history was general, the five of them had all read it. After hearing Lin Du's words, they understood the meaning of her words.
"Little Master, do you suspect that... the strong incense burning has given rise to wishes that have given the deity created by these people self-awareness?"
Lin Du nodded, "A suspicion may not be correct."
This sentence sounded very familiar, and the four of them were basically certain that every time the junior uncle said "doubt" and "may not be right", it was basically the correct answer.
"Well... this self-awareness depends on what the people of Liyang Town want." Yan Qing was able to grasp the key points.
"They want this god to protect them from evil spirits and ensure smooth business travel." Ni Jinxuan's little brain worked hard, trying to keep up with Lin Du's thoughts.
"That's all good." Jinxuan blinked her bright eyes.
"Yes, they are all good wishes, but this is just a common trend. Incense is poisonous. When people worship gods, they are not necessarily worshipping their own desires. If one or two people have bad intentions when praying, then the power of the wish becomes poisonous."
Ordinary people are not immune to this.
Lin Du's eyes were dark. "Where there is desire, there is evil."
The five of them fell silent at the same time, but Ni Jinxuan broke the gloomy atmosphere, "No matter what, let's look for clues, points are important! Junior Master Uncle always says that I have good luck, I'll go search first!"
Lin Du came back to his senses, looked at his little nephew in apricot clothes, and nodded with a smile.
Although Ni Jinxuan is extremely lucky, she cannot withstand Lin Du's weird and unlucky physique.
The summary is that if nothing unexpected happens, something unexpected will definitely happen.
Yuan Ye had already lifted the cloth on the altar with ease. The cloth had faded and only the original pattern could be vaguely seen.
The young man in naked clothes lifted the tablecloth with one hand and tilted his head almost parallel to the ground, trying to explore whether there were any secrets underneath.
Yan Qing saw that he was sticking his butt out and seemed to be working very hard, so he started to move his right foot and wanted to kick him.
"I'm telling you, your face is almost touching the ground, what can you see? You were a prince before, after all, why did you do such a thing..."
Yuan Ye suddenly fell backwards and sat directly on Yan Qing's shoes, just cushioning his buttocks and suddenly coming into close contact with the dusty ground.
Yan Qing: ...Okay.
"Junior Master! There is something under the stone platform!" Yuan Ye announced loudly before he even stood up.
"What is it? Why don't you take it out first?" Yan Qing felt his feet were a bit heavy and couldn't help but move.
Couldn't twitch.
"My arms are short and I can't reach it." Yuan Ye said righteously.
Yan Qing was helpless, "If you can't reach it, then you can't reach it. You sit on my feet and lean back. What's wrong with you, brother?"
Yuan Ye suddenly realized, "I was wondering why I felt like I was sitting on a reclining chair."
He stood up and patted Yan Qing, "It's up to you, little brother."
Yan Qing: ...I really hate my mouth.
He bent down, stretched out his hand, and tried to use his hands for a long time. Finally, he began to use his spiritual power, but found that the object inside was not metal and he could not get it out.
Lin Du who witnessed the whole process:...My two useless and resentful nephews.
"Jinxuan, come here."
Ni Jinxuan came over with a whip in her hand, "I'm coming! You two get out of the way!"
She bent down and swung and retracted the whip. After just two tries, she managed to sweep out several items.
A short, dusty wooden sword and a jade hairpin carved into the shape of a magnolia were the most complete and eye-catching. There were also some bullets and rotten, shapeless objects that could vaguely be identified as toy jewelry.
There was even a half-broken Nuo mask that was similar to the face of the statue.
Lin Du looked at the familiar little wooden sword, which was stained with some dark stains. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was probably the result of blood stains that had seeped into it and been left in the wind for many years.
No matter how much people who come to burn incense lose, there will probably be no blood on the place, so one doesn't have to guess what happened here.
Only evil cultivators would eat human essence and blood.
That kid, he did fight until the very end.
She looked up at the statue, uttered a soft "tsk" and opened the mahogany box, "Senior Chen Yan, I have a few questions that I would like to ask you."
There was no answer from the dead jade.
But Lin Du said nothing, "You think your wife and children were killed by the statue, right?"
After a long while, Shen Yan finally answered, "Yes."
"So you want to destroy the statue?"
"yes."
"Were you killed by the statue, or by... the Jingzhong Formation?"
Chen Yan's tone contained a hint of surprise, "How come you know the Jingzhong Formation at such a young age? I was not even told about it until I was about to die."
Lin Du replied, "I love reading."
Shen Yan: ...That's fine too.
"Yes, I didn't expect that there would be a loyal formation in this temple. Or, I didn't expect that there would be people in this world who would be willing to set up a loyal formation for a statue of a god."
The so-called Loyalty Formation is set up for whomever it is, and that person is the only one who is recognized as the Lord. The formation is set up at the cost of the formation master's life, and the soul of the formation master is used to defend the things that need to be protected in the formation. This is what loyalty and service are all about.
"The last question is, part of your practice is also about incense and fire, right? Or in other words, part of your power comes from vows."
After Lin Du said this, the other four people all looked at her, and even Yuan Ye's red phoenix eyes widened.
Si Yuchi didn't move, but Lin Du had already got the answer she expected.
"I have always thought that the souls sealed by the Soul Sealing Formation must be filled with extremely heavy resentment that cannot be eliminated and sent underground. You were in the illusion and had just died. Even the blood was still flowing out, but they were in a hurry to seal your meridians."
"And you said that the pulse nail was shaken out by the earthquake, but in the illusion when you died and before the coffin was closed, I clearly saw that the pulse nail moved upwards a little."
"After death, you can't use spiritual power. Yin energy will slowly gather forty-nine days after death. How can a newly dead body use any power to expel part of the pulse nails?"
Lin Du lowered his eyes and looked at the death jade. A talisman was pasted on it, suppressing his action of struggling to escape from the death jade.
“It’s the power of will, isn’t it?”
"The power of will does not care about the life or death of the user, and can be used by both ghosts and humans."
A strange and indifferent smile appeared on Lin Du's pale face, which was more like sadness than a smile.
"In your fantasy, your children are lively and your wife is gentle, until one of them disappears and the other dies. Every place has your best and worst memories, but the backyard has never shown any scene. The Qian Palace is empty."
"That means that's the best place to look."
"How can the bone-eating worms that feed on evil spirits survive there? May I ask Senior Shen Yan, did the symptoms of the evil spirits in your wish backfire before your wife and children died?"
Several people were so shocked by Lin Du's speculation that they were speechless and looked at the dead jade in disbelief.
After a long time, so long that the evil-eliminating talisman ran out of power and spontaneously burned into ashes, Lin Du added another one, and the ghost in the death jade finally opened its mouth with difficulty, almost like the last word uttered by the ghost on the eve of death when its neck was strangled.
"Yes, I practiced incense and fire to kill evil spirits. It was me who harmed them."
Lin Du lowered his eyes, the corners of his mouth curled up, but there was no trace of relief that the mystery was half solved.