At four quarters past three in the afternoon, at the gate of Xiangyang Temple, halfway up Qifeng Mountain on the northern outskirts of the capital of Laifeng State.
"Master, help...help!"
"I...I haven't eaten in two days."
There was a boy dressed in tattered clothes, with disheveled hair and barefoot. He stretched out his trembling little hand and tightly grabbed the clothes of the Taoist priest guarding the gate of the Taoist temple, and then he fainted.
"Little layman!"
"Little layman!"
…
"Supreme Taiyi Deliverer of Evil!"
Seeing the boy fainted beside him, the Taoist priest guarding the gate frowned slightly, and then he heard a sigh of sympathy.
Then the Taoist priest guarding the gate picked up the boy from the ground and walked into the Taoist temple.
Just as the Taoist priest guarding the gate was about to take the boy to a dormitory to let him rest for a while, he unexpectedly ran into the fat Taoist priest Qiming from the kitchen.
"Junior Brother Qishan, what's going on?"
The fat Taoist priest glanced leisurely at the boy in the arms of the Taoist priest guarding the gate. He looked to be about eight or nine years old.
"It turned out to be Brother Qiming from the kitchen! It's like this, just now this young layperson fainted from hunger at the door of the Taoist temple. I saw that he looked so pitiful, so I thought of rescuing him first and then letting him go." The Taoist guarding the gate answered truthfully.
"Supreme Taiyi Deliverer of Evil!"
"He's dressed like this in the middle of winter, and he fainted from hunger and cold. This boy is truly pitiful..."
The fat Taoist sighed a few times, then continued to say to the Taoist guarding the gate: "Junior Brother Qishan, we can't leave anyone at the gate. You should go back quickly. Just hand this boy over to me. I will take him to rest for a while. When he wakes up, I will let him eat something before leaving."
The Taoist priest guarding the gate glanced worriedly at the gate upon hearing this. He then handed the boy in his arms to the fat Taoist priest and said gratefully, "Thank you, Brother Qiming. I'll trouble you now."
"It's just a piece of cake." The fat Taoist said indifferently.
After bidding farewell to the Taoist priest guarding the gate, the fat Taoist priest looked at the boy in his arms with shining eyes. Such a fresh boy had come to his door voluntarily, so why not take him away...
The fat Taoist priest laughed twice and then carried the boy back to the big kitchen connected to the Xiangyang Temple dining hall.
"Senior Brother Qiming!"
As soon as the fat Taoist priest walked into the big kitchen, the Taoist priests who were picking vegetables inside greeted him one after another.
"Okay, watch the kitchen door and don't let anyone in." The fat Taoist shouted.
"Yes, brother."
After giving instructions to the young Taoist priest who did odd jobs in the kitchen, the fat Taoist priest holding the boy walked to the large built-in wooden cabinet where the dishes and chopsticks were placed.
Shan Zuo, dressed as a homeless child fainted from hunger and held in the arms of a fat Taoist priest, secretly observed the surrounding situation through the slits of his squinting eyes.
The fat Taoist priest freed one hand, opened the cabinet door, and turned a large bowl inside counterclockwise. Then, with a rumbling sound, a tunnel entrance appeared on the ground. The dim light inside the tunnel shone dimly, and it looked a bit eerie and scary.
Then, Shan Zuo felt his vision gradually becoming blurry. It turned out that the fat Taoist priest had already carried him down the secret passage.
The fat Taoist priest walked slowly down the steps of the tunnel. Dan Zuo not only felt uncomfortable because of the Taoist priest's fat body, but also smelled the stinky body odor coming from under the fat Taoist priest's armpits.
The secret passage was dim and gloomy, candles lit on both sides of the stairs. Dan Zuo, enduring a nausea, continued walking inside, carried by the fat Taoist priest.
The stairs were about three to four meters high. After going down the stairs and walking into the secret passage, Dan Zuo found that there were two forks in the road ahead, and there were two wooden signs at the forks in the road, one with "Melon Field" written on it and the other with "Plum Trees" written on it.
Shan Zuo, puzzled, was carried by the fat Taoist priest towards the secret passage to the "melon field." After walking for a while, Shan Zuo saw two stone chambers side by side, with wooden signs on the doors reading "melon" and "bitter melon" respectively.
The fat Taoist priest stopped at the door of "Bitter Melon" and reached out to turn the left eye of the stone dragon on the door. With the piercing sound of stone millstones, the door of the stone chamber slowly opened. Shan Zuo felt a cold breath mixed with the smell of blood rushing towards him.
Looking at the bloody, mutilated corpses piled up like a mountain in the ice room, Dan Zuo nearly vomited all the food he had eaten in his previous life. Even more disgusting was that the fat Taoist priest kicked the pile of corpses a few times and cursed, "Damn! Wrong way! Bad luck!"
After leaving the stone chamber, the fat Taoist priest moved the right eyeball of the stone dragon on the stone door again, and after a moment he saw the stone door slowly close again.
After closing the door of the secret room, the fat Taoist priest carried Shan Zuo to the door of the stone chamber next door called "Melon".
Similar to what he had done before, the fat Taoist priest first stopped at the door of "Melon." Then, he reached out and turned the left eye of the stone dragon on the door. With the piercing sound of a millstone, the door to the stone chamber slowly opened.
However, this time Shan Zuo did not smell the cold breath mixed with blood, nor did he see a mountain of corpses. What caught his eyes was a group of children.
However, they all looked listless, with no light in their bright eyes. Seeing another person being brought in, they simply glanced at Shan Zuo with sympathy before slowly looking away.
"One, two, three, four, five..."
The fat Taoist counted them, but always felt like there was one missing, so he counted them again.
"Could it be that... there's something wrong with my memory?" the fat Taoist asked doubtfully.
Then the fat Taoist priest shook his head. This place was so secluded that no one outside could find it. The children inside were also under strict guard and there was no way they could get out. Perhaps he was overthinking it...
"Bang"!
After throwing the boy in his arms to the ground, the fat Taoist priest turned around and walked out of the stone chamber, closing the door.
After the fat Taoist priest left, Shan Zuo, who had his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes.
"Little brother, are you okay?"
As soon as Shan Zuo opened his eyes, he saw a girl about eleven or twelve years old squatting in front of him, looking at him with great concern.
“How pitiful…”
The girl looked at Dan Zuo, who was disheveled, wearing tattered clothes, without even shoes, and was red from the cold, and couldn't help but burst into tears.
"I don't know if Ermao has escaped. I don't know if we can get out alive..."
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