Chapter 91
The footsteps faded away. Lin Xing opened the envelope and found a hand-drawn map inside besides the letter. After reading it word by word, her wavering heart became firm. She had to go to the temple, but she didn't know if she could come back. She took out the jade pendant in her arms and rubbed it carefully, recalling the scene when she first arrived here.
Boom, boom! The signal sounded, and it was time for them to set off.
The three of them did not go through the main gate, but chose the hidden side door that Sun Banfo had discovered in the past two days. They walked around the large patch of chrysanthemums and came to a place hidden by dead trees, and left quietly.
The temple was located on the road they took into the city. Yu Hang had already memorized the location, and the map was just icing on the cake. However, it was too quiet at night and they couldn't ride their horses, so they had to walk. It took them a full hour to reach the outside of the temple. To be on the safe side, the three of them took a small path and hid in the bushes outside the door to wait and see what was going on. Lin Xing was already out of breath.
She was already at her limit trying not to fall behind, so she took a deep breath to regain her strength. After catching her breath, she said, "This place is more remote than I thought."
There were dead trees all around, and no houses. Yu Hang said softly, "Be careful."
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, not only dispersing the clouds covering the moon, but also blowing the temple door open a crack. Lin Xing was puzzled and asked, "Is there anyone watching outside the temple?"
Yu Hang said, "Not at the moment." Sun Banfo also nodded in agreement.
Lin Xing gritted her teeth and said, "Then just go in. Isn't it an invitation to us if the door is open?"
Seeing that the other two had no objection, the three of them walked in through the main gate. All the rooms in the temple were dark, and even the place where the Buddha statues were enshrined had no candles lit. Sun Banfo took out the fire starter he carried with him, and was about to blow it when Lin Xing held it down.
He did not ask any more questions, but put them away and put his hands on his face for protection. They went deeper step by step. There were many sycamore trees planted in the courtyard, and a thick layer of dead leaves piled up on the ground. No matter how careful they were, they could still hear rustling sounds. They stopped after walking on the corridor. Sun Banfo took the initiative to say, "This place doesn't look like a place where people live. Logically, it should be very lively when the county magistrate's wife comes here once a month, but now it seems that this is not the case. There must be something else going on."
Lin Xing looked into the dark room and said in a deep voice, "I should have thought of this before I came here."
Yu Hang noticed her change in mood and secretly touched the back of her hand. He stared at Lin Xing worriedly, but she didn't react at all. She just continued, "There are many rooms here. It will take a long time to look at them one by one. Let's split up."
"No." The two said in unison, strangely agreeing.
Seeing that the two were adamant, Lin Xing tried to persuade them, "If you are worried, I will search the rooms on the outside. If there is any emergency, I will immediately run out and hide. After all, there is no one waiting outside the temple."
Sun Banfo's expression relaxed, but Yu Hang remained motionless. Lin Xing blew the fire stick directly, and almost at the same time, the shadows of the three of them appeared on the wall behind them. She explained, "This way, you in the rooms inside can also see what's going on here, and you can rush over immediately if there's any change."
Seeing her firm attitude, Yu Hang had no choice but to agree. He quickly went deeper to search, moving quickly while keeping a close eye on Lin Xing's moving figure.
After searching several rooms, he did not find any useful clues, but these were no longer important at this time. He hurried to Lin Xing's side. Suddenly, a black shadow appeared on the wall of the temple. Yu Hang immediately drew his sword and headed in that direction, but the black shadow did not run away and stood there motionless.
At this time, Sun Banfo had not come out of the house yet, but he heard Yu Hang's sudden and hurried footsteps, and hurriedly drew his sword and walked out. The moonlight was not good tonight, and it was too dark, making the black shadow's movements blurry and unclear. His intentions could not be seen, but he knew that he did not have a bow and arrow.
This also made the two of them relax their vigilance and not worry too much. At this moment, a sound that pierced the darkness sounded. Yu Hang reacted immediately and shouted, "Be careful." Then he ran towards the direction where the silver needle came from, just to block it.
The figure holding the tinder in the room was stunned for a moment, and did not make any immediate move to dodge. At this moment, the silver needle penetrated the window paper and shot into Lin Xing's body.
The man in the house and the tinder fell heavily to the ground. For some reason, this house stored a lot of hay, and a fire broke out almost instantly. The flames climbed up the roof along the pillars, adding a bit of light to the dark night. The black shadow took the opportunity to jump off the wall and escape, but Yu Hang had no time to care. He did not dare to stop at all, for fear that he would be too slow to save his beloved.
Sun Banfo, who was some distance away from here, saw the black shadow slip away, guessed his route and decisively took a detour to surround him.
The temple had fallen into disrepair and Pengze County was very dry, so the fire spread much faster than Yu Hang had expected. By the time he arrived, the roof beams had collapsed, and there was no sight of Lin Xing, only red everywhere.
He rushed into the sea of fire without hesitation, shouting loudly: "Lin Xing! Lin Xing! Lin Xing!" In fact, he knew that Lin Xing would not respond, but these were the only words Yu Hang could say at the moment, and he prayed for a miracle to happen.
But he failed. No one responded to him. Not only was there no miracle, but even Lin Xing was not in the house. Yu Hang wandered around the house in the fire, searching every corner, but found nothing. After a sudden sound of wood cracking, the fire became bigger and it was no longer possible to stay in the house.
When Sun Banfo came back, he saw only Yu Hang standing there. The clothes of the man in front of him were burnt to tatters, his face was black, and his appearance was a little funny, but what was even funnier was his half-smile.
Sun Banfo didn't know what happened, so he asked hurriedly, "Where is Lord Lin? Why are you alone?"
Yu Hang regained his normal expression as if waking from a dream, and said in a normal tone, "There's no one in the room." Then he noticed that Sun Banfo was also alone, and asked, "Did you catch up with the assassin?"
He shook his head and said, "That's not the case." At the same time, he handed over a jade pendant, the same one he had just shown the two of them. Yu Hang took it and clenched his hands unconsciously, then he took off his sword tassel and returned it to Sun Banfo.
"What does Lord Yu mean?" he asked puzzled.
The firelight made Yu Hang's expression obscure and somewhat horrifying, but his tone was steady as he said calmly, "Take these two items to the capital and give them to His Majesty. Tell him that the Prime Minister sent someone to assassinate Lord Lin and me, and that we have lost all contact."
"Okay, take care, Lord Yu." After saying that, he immediately turned around and left.
The fire in the temple burned all night. By the time the news reached the city, it was noon. The person who discovered it was a little boy who was herding sheep. He was running towards the county magistrate's mansion, shouting, "Magistrate Lu, the temple outside the city has turned dark." His ill-fitting straw sandals tripped him and he fell to the ground, but he seemed not to feel the pain. He stood up and didn't even bother to brush off the dust and continued to run forward.
Su Jingfeng was circling outside the county magistrate's mansion because the two of them had not returned home all night. He happened to run into the little boy. He heard the boy's words from a distance. For a moment, he didn't care about being a gentleman, and ran towards him in a state of disgrace, asking anxiously, "What did you say?"
The boy didn't know him and didn't want to say anything, but after seeing his scary expression, he relaxed and whispered, "The temple outside the city has become very dark and we can't go in."
Su Jingfeng took a moment to understand what the boy meant. Lu Yu happened to come out of the mansion. The little boy immediately broke free from the hand on his shoulder and ran away, ranting at the county magistrate. He was too young and his words were not very clear, but he was still able to piece together the truth of the matter.
Lu Yu immediately asked Xiao Xia, who was serving beside him, to inform the guards to go to the temple. He looked at the stunned Su Jingfeng and seemed to be hesitant to speak. In the end, Su Jingfeng spoke first: "I will go with you."
Lu Yu did not refuse, nor did he ask why he was the only one there. He just nodded calmly. Everyone was so confused that no one noticed his trembling.
The group led by Lu Yu and Su Jingfeng rode at full speed and arrived outside the temple in less than half an hour. They were the first to dismount and strode over the steps. In fact, there was no need to be so close. After a night of fire, the temple was no longer visible. From a distance, it was pitch black with broken walls and ruins, through which one could vaguely get a glimpse of the intensity of last night.
The wooden door was already in tatters and hung crookedly in the air, opening without wind. Su Jingfeng's hand stopped in mid-air as he tried to push the door. He had seen the dilapidated building. The smell of burning grass and trees was wafting in the air and was not unpleasant. All the houses were exposed to the sky and ashes were everywhere.
The two of them froze in their places, sketching the courtyard inch by inch, hoping to find a figure. The guards behind them were a little overwhelmed and looked at each other. A bolder one took the initiative to step forward and said, "County Magistrate, do you want to come in?"
Lu Yu woke up as if from a dream, he let out a long sigh, then said sullenly: "Clean up this place." After that, he stepped aside to make way, and the guards entered one after another. When the last person entered, he accidentally bumped into Su Jingfeng next to him. Just as he was about to stop and apologize, he saw him enter the temple before him.
After all the noise and cleaning up, it was already dark. Everyone had a torch in their hands. They stood in an orderly manner in the empty yard, waiting for orders from the two people in front of them. Su Jingfeng had adjusted himself by now. He recalled what he had learned from the girl in the morning and suppressed his anger and asked, "Does County Magistrate Lu have anything to tell me?"
Instead of feeling guilty as expected, Lu Yu smiled in relief. He waved his hand to let all the guards leave. After a moment, only two people were left in the backyard. Then he knelt down suddenly and said, "This humble official knows that his crimes are grave and there is really no way to refute it. No matter what the punishment is, this humble official will accept it."
Su Jingfeng raised his foot and kicked the man in front of him in the chest. Lu Yu was caught off guard and fell to the ground. Then Su Jingfeng quickly stepped forward and pulled him up by the collar, shouting, "You and Yang Fengluo used your official positions to embezzle bribes and make a lot of money. You ignored the suffering of the people and only cared about having fun. Your crimes are unforgivable. He died suddenly and strangely, but you invited us here. I thought you were repentant, but now you know that the prime minister sent people to secretly attack Lin Xing and Yu Hang, but you deliberately led them to the temple, and even didn't hesitate to involve your wife. What exactly do you want to do?"
Unexpectedly, Lu Yu suddenly collapsed and cried out in pain: "I didn't know the temple would catch fire, I didn't know my wife would..." At the end, only tears could be heard in his voice, and he really couldn't tell the truth that his wife was dead.
Su Jingfeng let go of his hand, he fell to the ground, and cried loudly without restraint. The ashes from the burning grass and trees were blown up by the wind, making it impossible for people to open their eyes and causing them to cry unconsciously.
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