Butterfly Man is a decisive person. After agreeing on a time to talk to me, he quickly disappeared into the woods.
Looking at the stone in my hand, I felt a little irritated.
Just a day ago, our team was strong and well-equipped, and we successfully seized the two beast heads that Wei Shengnan and her group had obtained.
I never imagined that in just one day, I would be all alone, with all my possessions reduced to just a pair of underwear.
After the butterfly man left, Song Laosan said to me, "Although Wei Shengnan and the others have been captured by the men in black robes, the Wei family members are still in Qingyun Town. I'll talk to Old Master Wei, and it shouldn't be a problem for us to get command of these people. There's no point in us staying in the mountains anymore. If we want to turn things around, we have to go back to Qingyun Town."
"Um!"
My thoughts on this matter are the same as Song Laosan's, and I asked Miao Xiaoxian, "Can you find the way down the mountain?"
"Come with me."
Miao Xiaoxian agreed and took the lead in walking to the right. At the same time, she said to me, "I have limited time and need to get back to the village camp as soon as possible. Otherwise, if I leave for too long, it may arouse suspicion. I can only send you out of this mountain. You will have to walk the rest of the way on your own!"
I nodded: "You said you wanted to talk to me about the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, can you tell me now?"
When Miao Xiaoxian heard my question, she turned her gaze to Song Laosan.
After a moment of surprise, Song Laosan smiled and nodded, "Ah, I understand. You guys go ahead, and I'll follow behind!"
Miao Xiaoxian shook her head: "You go first."
Song Laosan shrugged and then walked in the direction Miao Xiaoxian pointed. After he was about ten meters away from us, Miao Xiaoxian whispered, "I already know the location of the Temple of the Ferocious God."
I immediately perked up: "Where?"
Miao Xiaoxian said, "It's in Qingyun Town, but the entrance has been destroyed."
"Qingyun Town?"
When I heard the location Miao Xiaoxian gave me, my eyes widened in disbelief.
Before this, I had considered countless possibilities for the existence of the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, but I never imagined that the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace we had been searching for had actually been right under our feet all along.
Miao Xiaoxian continued, "After we arrived in Qingyun Town, the clan chief deployed a large number of Gu poisons around the area as a defensive measure, and even had his clansmen transport the Gu poisons from Ping'an Village over. I and the other three elders from the village were each assigned a guard position. The clan chief has already laid his cards on the table with us. The purpose of Ping'an Village is to be the guardian of the Fiend God's Palace. As for what exactly is inside the Fiend God's Palace, even he doesn't know. The only thing that is certain at the moment is that the entrance to the Fiend God's Palace has been filled in!"
Based on the information I had gathered, I shared my guess: "As far as I know, Qingyun Town was originally a natural village. Back then, the surrounding villages were hit by flash floods, so the county government merged them into Qingyun Town. Was the entrance sealed off at that time?"
"No, the entrance was filled in earlier than you think!"
Miao Xiaoxian shook her head and said, "According to the clan leader, the entrance to the Temple of the Ferocious God is a structure on the ground. It is a huge temple built with giant stones, and there are many giant stone statues outside! After the Taiping Rebellion in the Qing Dynasty ended, many incidents of zombies injuring people occurred in Guangxi, Sichuan and other places!"
According to the clan chief, the creature wreaking havoc in the area wasn't a zombie, but rather the remains of several ancestors from a village that had been responsible for guarding the temple during their turn. The village's ancestral hall was destroyed by a flash flood, and these remains were swept away! And these remains are the very same human-poisoning Gu I told you about!
Hearing Miao Xiaoxian's answer, I immediately thought of the things we encountered in Liulin Village.
In order to deal with those wax corpses, we even used firearms, and lost one of the Wei family members as a result.
In ancient times, when cold weapons were the primary means of weaponry, the danger this thing would have caused was unimaginable.
Miao Xiaoxian, oblivious to my distraction, continued, "After the human Gu, swept away by the flood, revived, it wreaked havoc on the world, slaughtering several villages in just a few days. The newly appointed Sichuan Provincial Surveillance Commissioner was greatly shocked upon hearing this news. After reporting the matter, Wu Tang, the then Governor-General of Sichuan, dispatched a pacification commissioner to lead two hundred Green Standard Army soldiers to exterminate the zombies!"
Upon hearing this news, the tribe responsible for guarding the Temple of the Ferocious God spent money to bribe officials, hoping to persuade them to withdraw their troops. However, the order was issued by the governor-general, and no one could change it.
So the leaders of several tribes gathered together and discussed the matter. They all agreed that the secret of the Temple of the Evil God must never be known to the outside world. Therefore, they decided to destroy the temple, fill in the entrance, and erase the Temple of the Evil God!
However, manpower was scarce in that era. Several tribes worked for more than ten days and only managed to demolish the temple. They had no way to move the huge stones! Just then, the government's search party for zombies entered the mountains.
The pacification commissioner who led the team into the mountains had some knowledge of feng shui. Upon seeing the stone carvings on the ground, he immediately concluded that the place must contain a treasure and prepared to lead his troops to excavate it! At that time, the tribe guarding the temple of the evil god had no choice but to release another group of people under the cover of night to use Gu poison to kill all the soldiers and silence them!
Before that, the various tribes of Ping'an Village were not in seclusion. It was only after the disappearance of these two hundred Green Standard Army soldiers that the imperial court took the matter very seriously, and even the capital sent an imperial envoy to investigate.
It was the rainy season, and there was a constant risk of flash floods. The chief of the tomb-guarding tribe led the entire village to dig a canal down the mountain to divert the floodwaters and completely erase the traces of the evil god's temple!
After that, to avoid the imperial court's encirclement and suppression, this tribe ended its rotation five generations early and moved to a secluded place a hundred miles away. That tribe is the village I live in! After that, other tribes took over our duties and settled there, waiting for their turn to continue for ten generations, as agreed.
After listening to Miao Xiaoxian's story, I slowly nodded.
Historical records show that there were many zombie incidents during the Ming and Qing dynasties. I used to think that these were just rumors, but now I think that the so-called zombies may have been created by humans.
Miao Xiaoxian continued, "According to the clan chief, Ping'an Village was once a depression, but now it has become a hill. The Fiend God Temple beneath it has been buried for who knows how deep! The chances of outsiders finding it are extremely slim. Even if they do find it, they must gather the hearts of the three gods to open the gate. As long as we can firmly hold onto the bull's head, outsiders will not be able to enter the Fiend God Temple... If you want to get the bull's head, you must act quickly, because the clan chief plans to destroy it!"
"Destroy?"
When I heard Miao Xiaoxian's answer, I was stunned: "Isn't that bull-headed creature the forest god you worship? How can you destroy the statue of the god you believe in?"
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