River Temple
South City
Li Xingzang followed the people in front of him, walking on the rugged mountain road.
"Master Gao, we are really sorry to trouble you. This road is a bit difficult to walk on..." The Chen family wiped the sweat from their heads, feeling a little embarrassed.
"That's nothing!" Gao Yuan laughed heartily. "When I was learning from my master, I had to hike deep into the White Mountains. In winter, it was cold and hungry. If I didn't climb to the top, there would be hungry wolves and tigers on the road, and I would have been killed. Now, as long as I'm careful, at least my life can be guaranteed."
"Ah? Brother Yuan? Are there really tigers and wolves in Baishan?" Chen Jingyi asked in surprise.
"Of course!" Gao Yuan pulled the three of them along. "Isn't there an unopened tiger park at the foot of the mountain? Some of the tigers there are cubs that were rescued in the mountains."
"Wow!" Chen Jingyi's eyes lit up. "We looked it up before we went to Snow City, but the tiger park wasn't open yet, so we didn't get to see the tigers there."
Gao Yuan glanced behind him and said, "When you go to Snow City again, just act coquettishly to Boss Li and ask her to take you there." Li Xingzang on the top of the mountain rolled his eyes when he heard this.
"Sister Zang, is that tiger park Wu Fei's?" Xiao He poked her little head out of the small leather bag beside her.
Li Xingzang rubbed the child's forehead and said, "I'll take you to his house to see the kittens when we get home."
"Is it just ahead?" Gao Yuan pointed at the river flowing quietly down the mountain. It had only just turned a corner, and the river had suddenly appeared, having made no sound before. A smile played at the corner of his mouth. There really was something there.
"Yes, it's that village." Father Chen had a complicated expression. How could he accept that his mother, who had raised him with so much difficulty, had actually harmed his own daughter?
"It seems that's your home." Gao Yuan looked at the eye-catching two-story building in the village, a gleam in his eyes.
Li Xingzang also looked in that direction. Amidst the jumble of low-rise bungalows and crooked buildings, a sturdy and beautiful building stood out. The son's filial piety had become a death warrant for the child.
In their eyes, the small building was surrounded by clouds of black mist. It was the jealousy and resentment of others, the unwillingness, guilt, and resentment of the homeowner, and the negative energy transmitted to the place through the river. It was better to say that the entire village had become a puppet of the thing in the river.
"Knock, knock, knock--" Father Chen knocked hard on the door. Mother Chen hugged Chen Jingyi's arm tightly. If she hadn't insisted on coming, and Gao Yuan also said that she was involved with something in the river and it would be dangerous for her to stay in Nancheng alone, she would never let Chen Jingyi come here.
No one came to open the door. Instead, other neighbors who heard the noise came over to watch the fun, "Ah! Qiangzi is back!" The flattering tone, the grinning face, the greedy eyes mixed together, and it was hard to tell whether it was a human or a ghost.
Chen Qiang glanced at the old man coldly. After knowing everything, he did not do anything to the murderers who killed his daughter. This was the result of his efforts to stay rational.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, a trace of resentment flashed in the old man's eyes. Then he looked at Chen Jingyi who was blocking Gao Yuan behind him and laughed obscenely, "It's no use for you to open the door. Sister Chen went to the River God Temple."
Twenty years have passed. Although there is no longer any practice of sacrificing "brides" to the river god, a river god temple has been built.
Gao Yuan glanced at Li Xingzang not far away, and narrowed his eyes in the direction she pointed.
"Let's go." Since the old man was not at home, there was no need for them to go in. It would be better to solve everything as soon as possible.
The Chen family and their group walked towards the River God Temple, and the sticky gazes behind them lingered for a long time.
"Is this the River God Temple?" Chen Jingyi looked at the temple in front of her in surprise and drank up the water in the bottle.
Deep in the mountains, deep in the dense forest, there is a magnificent building. The red brick walls, green glazed tiles, and shiny gates are enough to show how much it is respected and admired by the villagers.
"This... has it been approved?" Mother Chen looked at it for a while and suddenly asked.
"Why does this even require approval?" Chen Qiang snorted. He didn't have a good impression of this place anymore. "Evil spirits and demons are bewitching people. The villagers are all crazy. How could this be built through legal means?" He took the bottle of mineral water his wife handed him and drank it all in one gulp. "Master Gao, have some water."
Gao Yuan shook his head and measured something around him with his footsteps in a certain rhythm.
Li Xingzang on the tree frowned and said, "Stop drinking!" Something is wrong with this family.
The Chen family looked at her in shock, "Boss Li, why are you here?!" And... she was able to stand on the tree all the time, which didn't look normal.
Li Xingzang jumped down and snatched the mineral water from Chen Jingyi's hand, "Don't drink it anymore!"
Chen Jingyi's current condition is very abnormal. If her parents can still be considered thirsty, she is like a fish out of water. After a while, her face is even a little wrinkled.
"Bride... bride..." Li Xingzang and others turned their heads and saw that the villagers were surrounding them one after another on the small road leading to the river temple.
The two exchanged glances. Just like the river, they hadn't heard a single sound when these people came up. It was all right on the plateau, but Li Xingzang wasn't human at all. Even with her five senses, she hadn't noticed anything.
"Pa..." Li Xingzang knocked Chen Jingyi on the neck decisively. Sure enough, after she fainted, her dehydration was curbed. It seemed that they were not really dehydrated, but something here affected their brains.
"Sacrifice!" The villagers' voices grew louder. At this moment, the temple door suddenly opened, and an old woman wearing a strange robe and with weird symbols painted on her face came out, like an ancient priest.
"Mom!" Chen Qiang shouted in shock. The old woman was his mother.
Gao Yuan shook his head. "She's no longer Grandma Chen."
Li Xingzang handed Chen Jingyi to her parents, winked at Gao Yuan, and stood in front of them.
"Master Gao... what... what should we do?" Although Gao Yuan was very good at divination, the current situation was obviously not something that could be resolved with just a few words!
"Don't be afraid, Boss Li is here." Gao Yuan comforted him gently, but it obviously didn't work. Chen's father and mother looked at each other. Father Chen stood next to Gao Yuan, looked around, and picked up a branch. "Boss Li is a girl. Although she has some martial arts skills, we two men can't let her deal with these people alone!"
Gao Yuan looked at him admiringly, "Uncle Chen, you're quite a nice guy. What's this? A bad bamboo will produce good shoots?"
Chen Qiang didn't know whether he was praising or scolding. Now was not the time to worry about this. The villagers in the front had already rushed over!
"Ah——" The cry was only half uttered, and Dad Chen stared at the scene in front of him with his mouth wide open. Boss Li...her kung fu is quite extraordinary...
The villagers who rushed over were knocked down by Boss Li in just one encounter. Although the villagers behind him were a bit fearless, they were still mortal after all. If the opponent was really suppressed by an ordinary person, he could be crushed to death. But the key point is that Li Xingzang is not a human being.
"Oh my god...what is this? The Flash?" Dad Chen widened his eyes and gave up his dignity as a man. It was nice to be a weak waste with Gao Yuan.
The priest in the temple was enraged by Li Xingzang's actions and shouted, "The river god is here, and we will not tolerate your insolence!"
The weather turned gloomy, and the dark clouds seemed so heavy that they would crush the forest. The fog in the forest suddenly ignited like a ghost fire in the dark night, wrapping around the red temple, making it look particularly eerie.
The originally flat and dry path became sticky. Li Xingzang lowered his head and frowned. The ground under his feet undulated like waves.
Li Xingzang reacted quickly, grabbing Chen Jingyi with his left hand and pulling up Chen's mother with his right hand, "Gao Yuan, take Chen's father up the tree!" Although Gao Yuan had not taken any action, he was a second-generation cultivator who grew up in a Taoist center. He opened his big hands and threw Chen's father directly onto the tree. He jumped hard to the top of the tree and grabbed Chen's father who was about to fall.
Several people looked at the tree in shock. The dirt road was surging like waves. After a while, the negative energy around the river temple merged with it, and the path turned into a monster that was neither snake nor fish.
"Wow..." Gao Yuan exaggeratedly looked at the giant snake that could bite them if it stretched its body straight. "Zang'er, this thing...are you going to do it or am I going to do it?"
Li Xingzang placed the mother and daughter on the big tree where they were and said, "Take good care of them."
Then, in the shocked gazes of the Chen family, he fell freely and landed directly in front of the big snake.
"Boss Li!" Chen Qiang looked at Gao Yuan in panic, "Master Gao, why don't you go and help? We can take care of ourselves."
"Really?" Gao Yuan looked under the tree and saw that the villagers had already started climbing it.
Chen's parents looked at the villagers, who looked like zombies, in horror. They didn't know what to do when they heard Gao Yuan beside them, stroking his chin and saying, "This scene reminds me of a game."
Before smartphones, there was a game where a panda would jump from tree to tree to avoid caterpillars crawling down from below. It could even attack by pressing and holding a button to slide down from the tree and scrape the caterpillars off.
"Let's play too!" Gao Yuan smiled brightly, looking very much like a madman.
Li Xingzang dodged the attack of the strange snake and looked at the green stains on her body with disgust. The rotten underwater water plants made it impossible for her to stand firmly on the snake.
In that case...
Boss Li's eyes darkened, and she simply gave up trying to climb higher. The snake's tail swung down heavily, and Li Xingzang didn't dodge but instead moved forward, his fingertips sharp as claws, piercing directly into the scales at the snake's tail.
"Hiss—" "Bang, bang, bang—" Dad and Mom Chen were sweeping down the villagers with branches in their hands. When they heard the sound of collision, they looked over hurriedly...
"Well……"
Li Xingzang was "holding" the snake's tail with both hands, switching left and right like making ramen, and pounding the big snake to the ground.
"Eighty—eighty—eighty—"
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