By this point in the monkey story, Song Laosan and I had begun to have strong doubts about its authenticity.
In particular, Song Laosan directly exposed the monkey's lies: "There have been many legends of monsters and strange things throughout history, but even the corpse puppet we encountered in the Demon Monk's Tomb can be proven to exist from a scientific perspective. It was just a kind of ancient parasite. As for the monsters you mentioned, I can't say whether they exist or not, but our ancestors have been in contact with circles outside of mainstream society for thousands of years, yet they have never seen any related records. So I really don't think that animals becoming spirits exists."
At this point, I also began to doubt the authenticity of the story: "I feel that Third Master is right, this is probably just a story that Lao Tian told you to amuse you, don't take it too seriously."
"Listen to me, if this is really a story, then what happens next is even more inexplicable."
The monkey remained unmoved by our doubts, appearing to firmly believe in the story, and continued its tale.
When Lao Tian met the customer at the market, he was told that the customer was being haunted by a demon. Lao Tian didn't take it seriously. After all, he was a tomb raider. People in this line of work are all about being bold and fearless. He even dared to lift up ancient zombies from a thousand years ago. Why would he believe a liar?
So, Lao Tian gave his mountain goods to that guy and left without saying a word, because he was in a hurry to find a blacksmith to make equipment.
The guest grabbed him and wouldn't let Lao Tian leave, saying he was a lay disciple of the Taoist temple and could only see that Lao Tian's forehead was dark and he had a demonic aura. He insisted on taking Lao Tian to the mountain to find his master. Lao Tian wanted to refuse, but their argument attracted the attention of the police officers patrolling the market. In order to avoid investigation, Lao Tian had no choice but to be taken to a Taoist temple outside the town by the man.
The Taoist temple was built during the Qing Dynasty. It was not large and only had an elderly Taoist priest in his seventies. As soon as the priest saw Lao Tian, he exclaimed, "That was close!"
Old Tian thought the old man and the young man were trying to swindle him out of money, so he took out all the several hundred yuan he had on him as donations to the temple and then tried to leave.
Unexpectedly, the Taoist priest refused to take a single penny, scolded Old Tian for being blind and letting the demon absorb his yang energy, took him to a mountain spring pool for a bath, gave him a peach wood sword, and sprinkled some incense ash into his crotch, instructing him not to take a bath for the next month.
This left Lao Tian somewhat confused, not for any other reason than that it was really strange that the master and apprentice wouldn't accept his money.
When people go to a fortune teller, they tend to believe it more and more. They combine the fortune teller's words with their own psychological suggestions and try to find commonalities in the things they encounter. Since the fortune teller says that if they follow his advice, things will definitely turn around, the fortune teller will also look for evidence that the fortune teller is right and that they will definitely be able to change their luck.
Tomb raiders are generally superstitious, but in some ways, they are also the least superstitious group of people.
Old Tian was forcibly taken up the mountain, but by a twist of fate, he was still thinking about opening the fox den as soon as possible so that he could elope with the girl. So he returned to the town, had the tools he needed made at several blacksmith shops, bought a lot of wine and food, and went home.
That night, Lao Tian drank quite a bit of alcohol and, emboldened by the alcohol, confessed his feelings to the girl, saying that he was going to take her to the city to live a better life. However, the girl was not as excited as he had imagined; instead, she decided to stay in the mountains and refused to leave no matter what.
Because of this incident, the two had a very unpleasant argument, and the girl even ran away from home in anger.
Old Tian was already deeply in love with her and couldn't extricate himself. Thinking about the many wild animals in the mountains, he was afraid that something might happen to the girl, so he followed her out and finally found her in a ravine in the middle of the night.
Seeing that the girl refused to leave no matter what he said, Lao Tian had no choice but to stop bringing up the topic and comforted her by saying that they would not leave and that they would set up a breeding farm in the mountains when they had money, and then live a peaceful life here.
The two were whispering sweet nothings under the moonlight. Old Tian, emboldened by the alcohol, began to make love to the girl. Just as they were getting into the swing of things, the girl suddenly screamed and then, as if she had gone mad, pushed Old Tian away and ran away.
Old Tian had never seen a woman run so fast before, and he was completely stunned by this sudden scene. After he came to his senses, he pulled up his pants and chased after her, but he couldn't find the girl anywhere.
Old Tian was extremely anxious after searching all night without success. He thought the girl might have gone home, so he went back to look for her, but the house was still empty.
At that time, his mind was completely focused on the girl. He searched for her in the mountains for two days without any results, so as if he were possessed, he chose to call the police.
Hearing this, Song Laosan squinted and asked, "Didn't Lao Tian go to Daxian Mountain to rob tombs? Would he dare to call the police on his own?"
The monkey lit a cigarette: "Let me continue!"
Ever since that woman disappeared, Lao Tian has been unable to eat or sleep, determined to find her no matter what. He knew that he could not find her by himself alone. As time passed and the woman remained nowhere to be found, he was on the verge of madness and had no choice but to ask the police for help.
Then, things took a dramatic turn.
When the police arrived at the foot of the mountain after receiving a report, Lao Tian led them to his and his woman's home. However, the police did not see the house at all; instead, they found only a small, abandoned earth temple.
These kinds of land temples still exist in some rural areas. They are only a little over a meter high, and the statues inside are only a dozen centimeters tall. Not to mention people living in them, even large animals can't get in.
When the police saw all this, they used a test strip to confirm that he had not taken drugs. They all thought that Lao Tian was drunk and making a false report, and immediately wanted to take him back to the station for criticism and education.
But what Lao Tian saw was completely different from what the police saw, so he started yelling at them.
Seeing Lao Tian's strange behavior, the police concluded that he had mental problems, so they called for backup and requested a vehicle from the mental hospital.
Similarly, when Lao Tian looked at that group of police officers, he looked at them as if they were mentally ill.
He didn't understand why these people called him a madman when he had clearly called the police to ask them to help him find people. So he started yelling and revealed everything about his tomb raiding, kidnapping of the forest ranger, and how his accomplices had all gone mad.
Although the police all believed that Lao Tian was mentally ill, they saw that he spoke with clear logic and explained the location and division of labor of the tomb raiding in great detail, so they sent someone up the mountain to investigate.
Unexpectedly, they actually discovered the tomb robber's tunnel that Lao Tian had mentioned.
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