The monkey weighed less than 60 kilograms, and in my haste, I practically dragged him out.
The monkey nearly tumbled over when I pulled him: "Young Master Duan, what's wrong with you? What's there to be afraid of about a monk?"
"I just looked at the monk's feet, and he didn't cast a shadow!"
At this moment, my heart started pounding wildly. Although the Judge's Record contained many strange and unusual things, I had never experienced them in person.
Just now, when the monk approached, although the light of the lantern illuminated his body and the ground around him, nothing cast a shadow.
It wasn't until the monkey shone his flashlight that shadows appeared on the stones and grass on the ground, but there was absolutely nothing under the monk's feet.
Although I've experienced people faking their supernatural powers, such a large temple and a person without a shadow can't be faked.
Hearing what I said, the monkey turned its head to see what was going on, but its body visibly froze for a moment: "Young Master Duan, that monk... is gone!"
I glanced back, and just as the monkey had said, the temple in the distance was still there, but the monk had vanished without a trace.
Previously, he was at least ten meters away from the temple, and it only took me a few seconds to run away with the monkey.
There was nowhere to hide in this open space, so even if the monk walked very fast, there was no reason for him to disappear into thin air.
Just as I was wondering where the monk had gone, a chilling voice came from behind me: "Benefactor, why don't you go to the temple to pray?"
I turned around, and there he was, the monk, who had appeared behind me at some point, blocking our escape route.
The monk's face wasn't frightening, but his smile was extremely eerie. His eyes stared straight at me, devoid of any human vitality. He simply repeated in a sharp voice, "Go into the temple and pray."
My gaze fell to the red lantern in the monk's hand, which emitted a faint glow.
Although the lantern can emit light, nothing it illuminates casts a shadow, including me and the monkey.
The monkey drew a dagger from its waist and pointed it at the monk in front of it: "Damn it! I don't care what you are! Get the hell away from me!"
The monk didn't even look at the monkey, but reached out and grabbed me: "Benefactor, come into the temple and pray!"
"I'll pay homage to your great-grandfather!"
Seeing that the monk was blocking the way down the mountain, the monkey thrust out his knife, but missed.
The monk simply vanished from our sight.
At that moment, I stopped thinking about why I was encountering such a strange thing. I turned on my flashlight and was about to rush forward, but before I could even shout "Run!", I felt a hand grab my arm.
That hand was as cold as ice, and the moment it touched my wrist, I lost all feeling in it.
The monk who had just disappeared reappeared to my side, smiling at me: "Go inside the temple and offer your prayers."
I tried to break free from the monk's grasp, but his hands were like iron clamps, pulling me with immense force into the temple.
"Young Master Duan!"
Seeing me being dragged away by the monk, the monkey pounced on me again and stabbed the monk with a knife, but it seemed to pass through the monk's body as if it were a projection.
The monk dragged me a couple of steps. I tried to reach out and pull his arm away, but my hand passed right through his body.
When the monkey realized it couldn't touch the monk, it reached out and grabbed my body. Even with our combined weight, we were no match for the monk.
The monkey, dragged on the ground, hissed at me, "Young Master Duan! Think of something! This monk is too evil. If he really takes us into the temple, we might never get out!"
As I struggled, I drew the wooden sword from my waist and stabbed him fiercely.
"Pfft!"
This time, the peach wood sword pierced the monk's body smoothly. He let out a scream that was not human, his skin began to fester rapidly, and putrid black blood seeped from his body. The skin on his face peeled off, but he was still smiling at me: "Benefactor, come into the temple and pray!"
I struggled to pull my arm away and tore the monk's arm off his body. His body was piled on the ground and turned into a pile of mangled flesh, unrecognizable as human. The lantern in his hand turned into a dry twig.
"vomit!"
The monkey, gagging at the stench in the air, exclaimed, "Young Master Duan, what's going on? I clearly couldn't touch it before, so how did it turn into a pile of rotting flesh? Is this thing some kind of monster or a ghost?"
"Something's not right here! Let's get out of here!"
I didn't have time to explain to the monkey. I stepped over the rotten flesh on the ground and started running back the way I came.
As soon as we moved, a dozen more lanterns appeared in the direction of the temple, circling around us.
Behind each lantern is a monk in a different pose.
"Benefactor! Please come into the temple and offer your prayers!"
"Let's go into the temple and pray!"
"Goodbye!"
"..."
Their voices seemed to come from my heart; the more I tried to ignore them, the more they seemed to penetrate my ears.
The monkey, its eyes gleaming with malice, gripped its knife and blocked my path: "Young Master Duan! You go first!"
"These guys are beyond our capabilities! Let's run!"
To lighten my load, I threw my travel bag off my shoulder, grabbed the monkey, and started running back.
The Judge's Records do not mention places like ghost temples, but they have appeared in the records of yin houses more than once.
This type of burial site is where ghosts live. It is commonly found in places with heavy yin energy, such as mass graves. Most of these sites are within a certain area, and the unclean things inside cannot stray too far away.
In other words, as long as we can escape this area, we are very likely to get rid of their entanglement.
After I ran for more than ten meters, the black fog reappeared around me, and my vision became unclear again.
I finally stopped, panting heavily, "Monkey, are you alright?"
There was silence, and no one answered me.
"monkey?!"
I turned around with my flashlight in hand, but in the thick fog, there was no sign of the monkey.
But when I stopped, the monkey was clearly right next to me; I could even hear his breathing clearly.
How can a perfectly healthy person just suddenly disappear?
"Monkey! Monkey! Can you hear me?!"
I screamed at the top of my lungs, but received no response.
The vast darkness had swallowed my sense of direction; even if I wanted to look for someone, I had no way of knowing where to go.
Suddenly, I saw a light appear in the darkness to one side, but it wasn't the white of a powerful flashlight like those used by monkeys; instead, it was a flickering orange-red.
When people are frightened, they generally have two reactions: one is mental breakdown, with their limbs going weak and them paralyzed on the ground.
I belong to the latter group. The extreme fear triggered my survival instinct and also made me inexplicably irritable and angry.
Seeing the eerie light flickering in the darkness, I put the flashlight in my mouth, gripped the peach wood sword in one hand, drew my pistol in the other, and strode forward to meet it.
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