Sixteen.

Xuan Yin asked me to lead the way, not because he was blind, but because he was too strong.

As the beggar said through the mouth of Old Lu, he is young, but he is very profound. But this too deep Taoism sometimes has a bit of a counterproductive effect, because it has a certain 'chemical reaction' with the evil qi in Jinhua Mountain, so he has been in Jinhua Village for so long, and he has never been able to find the beggar's hiding place.

That's right, Xuan Yin's purpose in coming to Jinhua Village was to get rid of that beggar.

Like me, when Xuan Yin heard about the many cases of missing children in Jinhua Village over the years, he was very interested in the village.

With his intuition, he felt that it must not be an accident that those cases would happen in a place like Jinhua Village.

So I inquired in many ways, and personally went to the village to inspect everywhere, and from this, I slowly formed a general idea in my heart.

As he mentioned, Jinhua Village was originally a treasure of feng shui, and Jinhua Spring is one of the best parts of feng shui, so for thousands of years, the locals have rarely been troubled by minor ailments.

But if you don't get sick from a small illness, it doesn't mean that you won't get any disease at all, how can people eat whole grains and grains without getting sick for the rest of their lives. However, it is precisely because the people in Jinhua Village are usually in good health that once they really get sick, it will always be more serious, especially in the sixties and seventies when the living conditions in all aspects were very poor, and there were many people who fell ill.

At that time, there were no better medical conditions in the village, so once most people were sick, they were equivalent to stepping into a coffin, trembling, and life and death.

And this situation, in the late seventies, somehow suddenly changed.

There is a saying that the local spring water shows the spirit, so after drinking the spring water, it can only prolong people's life, but now it can also cure all diseases, and the water can make many diseases cured without cure. So from that time to the present, Jinhua Village has always had only a small health center with only one doctor. Because the locals don't need more medical resources at all.

But the spring water obviously has no effect on foreign tourists. Anyone who has heard the legend of Jinhua Spring once flocked to gather here, but no matter how much they drank, they were still sick, and they had never seen anyone who could really drink away from the disease by that water. So after more than ten or twenty years of excitement, this rumor gradually became less popular with people's enthusiasm for tourism in Jinhua Village. At the same time, however, incidents of missing children occur quietly in the village every few years.

Since the 80s, there have been one case after another of missing children, but because of the long time between them and the influence of various other aspects, no matter how much trouble the families of those children make after the case, it will eventually be resolved.

And it was from that time that Jinhuaquan gradually began to change.

Originally, the water was clear and flowing, but it gradually became more and more turbid and scarce. It took twenty or thirty years to become what it is now, from the 80s to the present.

This period of time may seem like a long time, but for natural things, it is very strangely fast.

After looking at the rocks around Jinhua Spring, Xuan Yin could almost conclude that this spring had been polluted by evil spirits.

Over the course of twenty or thirty years, long-term infestation eventually led to the depletion of water sources and the decay of stones. This is the most obvious dilapidated appearance.

Even the entire feng shui land has also changed its original spiritual peace, and has become smoky and yin. It's just that ordinary people can't see or feel it at all.

With this in mind, Hyun Yin set out to find the culprit who caused all this.

Subsequently, he targeted a young Taoist priest who had been removed from the True Martial Arts Temple in the late seventies.

That Taoist priest can be regarded as a talent, in addition to the ordinary Taoism learned in the Taoist temple since he was a child, he has studied all kinds of gossip and five elements, knowing yin and yang, and passing spells, and he is a real talent.

It was a rare good material, but he was extremely ambitious, and did not use these good things on the right path, but went to the left side of the door, and finally was hunted down by his peers for all kinds of evil deeds, and was expelled by the same door, when he was desperate, he happened to pass by Jinhua Village, and was shocked by this primitive and simple natural feng shui treasure, and immediately lived in seclusion inside, using his familiarity with feng shui, cleverly evaded all the people who pursued him, and since then he has lived in seclusion while concentrating on cultivation in this piece of feng shui.

Cultivation is still not the right path, because the pursuit of one is fast and the other is fierce, so Feng Shui treasure alone cannot satisfy him.

So, in that poor era, he took advantage of people's simplicity and ignorance, and used the name of Buddhism to treat their minor ailments.

But illness can't be cured at all without relying on proper medical treatment, so it seems that those people have been cured by him, but in fact, he secretly used the technique of transmutation, collecting part of the lifespan of those people and the yang energy in their bodies as props for his cultivation. From then on, he became more powerful and more unscrupulous, so that in the eighties he was no longer satisfied with the small tributes, but turned to the greater goal - the life of a boy and a girl.

As time passed, the Taoist priest realized that no matter how powerful his cultivation was, he was always just one person. Therefore, bound by human life, sooner or later it will become old and decrepit, and will eventually be taken away by time.

So he had to find some way to keep those years that had passed.

Coincidentally, he had seen the records of those Taoists refining the longevity pill for him during the Qin Shi Huang period.

So he knew what he had to do, even though he knew what terrible the consequences would be if he did that.

Compared with Shou and Tianqi, no matter what the consequences are, they are not worth mentioning to him.

So every few years, on a suitable day, he would kidnap one or two children and use their bodies to make alchemy pills for himself. So to this day, when I meet him, this old beggar who should be sixty or seventy years old, at first glance feels like he is only thirty or forty years old at most. In fact, since the 80s, he has no longer had any age changes because of the pill that was cursed by God.

Indeed, he has turned from a human to a demon.

Therefore, he knew that all the prerequisites for the eradication of this demon path were met, and when he was found, he could be killed and eradicated from this evil thing.

However, it is not so simple for the demon Dao to survive after doing so many evil things.

Presumably, with the help of the feng shui of Jinhua Mountain, he used some means to hide himself very carefully. So no matter what method Xuan Yin used, he couldn't find the slightest trace of him in this place, and in the end, he also used the feng shui of this place, and spent a few days laying a very powerful enchantment in the feng shui of Jinhua Village.

As a result, even if he couldn't find the demon path, at least he couldn't escape easily. But in the same way, it also made us people who were trapped in it with the eyes of mortals, going around and around and unable to find a way out, thinking that we had hit the wall with a ghost.

When I heard this, I couldn't help but be scared for a while, because I couldn't calculate how long the demon path would be trapped before it was forced out and let Xuan Yin catch it. Therefore, if it weren't for what happened just now, if Xuan Yin hadn't been able to stand by and watch me being killed after all, and appeared in his own enchantment, then I'm afraid that before the demon path appeared, a few of us mortals would have been inexplicably trapped in this enchantment first.

Xuan Yin heard me say this indignantly, and immediately smiled and said, "How could it be so miscalculated, with my genius, I have already calculated this heavenly opportunity, and the mistake will be at most a day or two, otherwise, how can I not come early or late, I just want to pick this time to come." ”

"What heaven?" I asked.

He pointed to heaven: "Damned." As long as the hour comes, he will not be able to continue to endure in this hiding place, and he must find a way to try to get out of trouble, so as not to create a curse and fall into a catastrophe from now on. ”

"Damnation, is there such a thing in the world?"

He smiled but didn't answer, but followed me on the hill.

The mountains are full of people.

Villagers in the village. They wandered along the mountain road, their eyes open, but they all looked like they were daydreaming, because their pupils were empty. Even if I waved at them, no one looked at me, as the monk judged, the demon Dao summoned them up the mountain, not to let them listen to the lecture at all, but just to let them be trapped here for the time being, so as not to hinder him from doing things.

But this mountain road is not the one that the villagers often go to the temple, so I can't help but ask Xuan Yin again in confusion: "But why are you sure that I can take you to that temple, to be honest, the road we are walking on now is not the one that those villagers took me at all, and the direction doesn't feel right, the distance between the two ends is too long, I can't tell clearly......

"It doesn't matter, it's not you who will lead the way, it's someone else, as long as I take you all the time, those people can always lead me to my destination. ”

"Those people?" subconsciously turned his head to look to the side, and there was only the rustling wind around him except the shadows of the trees.

The blow passed by me, and I couldn't help but feel a slight chill: "Who is it?"

"Protect those who you didn't find out from the demon path this morning, so you were able to run down the mountain safely from that temple. ”

“...... What?" this answer could not help but make me even more confused.

However, when he wanted to ask again, Xuan Yin suddenly stopped, raised his head and put his hand on the pergola and glanced ahead.

Then he took out one from his pocket, bit his finger and dipped it in his own blood, and wrote a few words on it, and before I could see what was written, I shook it in the air, and saw the paper burn on the ground, and in a moment it turned to ashes, and he blew it, and scattered it like gray butterflies.

Then I was dumbfounded.

Where the ashes fell, a row of children aged five or six, six or seven years old appeared.

There were at least fifteen or sixteen of them, tall and short, male and female. There was a girl in a white dress inside, and I recognized her as the little girl who appeared outside my window that night and thought she was looking for her room.

She stood hand in hand with another little girl with pigtails and a red plaid suspender dress, her big black eyes open and looking at me as she had done that night.

I was about to say hello to her, but when I saw that Hyun Yin shook his head at me, I didn't say anything.

Then I saw them wave their hands at me, and then disappeared with all the children.

The scenes are somewhat similar to those in the movie that express ghosts, but they are not the same. I saw that their originally clear figures slowly faded in the sunlight, and then flickered, and disappeared in an instant, as if they melted into the trees behind them.

As I continued to stare into the clearing after they had disappeared, I felt something tickle on the back of my neck.

Scratch it back until you get your hair.

I thought it was mine, but with a gentle pull, they fell off and landed in the palm of my hand, and I took a closer look and took a soft breath. The hair wasn't mine, it was dry, and there was a large shriveled scalp stuck to the roots.

It's the hair in the barrel in the temple.

I don't know how long it stuck to my hair, and I carried it all the way to the present without realizing it.

So what Xuan Yin is referring to is not this thing?

Thinking of this, my heart was bright, I clenched the hair in my hand and looked at Xuan, and my eyes couldn't help but be a little hot: "Yes...... Those kids. ”

He didn't answer. But his eyes told me everything.

Then he waved my hand to signal me to stand still, and he □□ himself, pulled out a string of white rosaries from his collar, and strode forward.

Following the direction he had been, and looking further up, I could see a small black temple like a silhouette, looming among the peaks of the branches of the trees, like a beast quietly peeking at me.

As the wind blows, the branches and leaves sway, its figure is fleeting.

Hyun Yin's figure quickly disappeared in the shade of those trees.

At that time, I really wanted to go with him and see what he was going to do, if he would find that terrible demon path in that temple.

But his gesture just now seemed to have a magical power, which just stopped my steps and suppressed my curiosity for a long time.

Then, I don't know how long I waited, I felt that the wind in the mountains seemed to grow stronger and stronger, and the sky had changed overhead, and the scorching sun was gone, leaving only a vast sky, with half of the rolling dark clouds, cold and silent, looking down on me.

Just as I was feeling uneasy about this, a strong white light suddenly flashed, and I realized that there was thunder.

Very big and very close to the thunder.

I was busy trying to find a place to hide, but before I could do it, the thunder followed by lightning and slashed down from the air, followed by a loud bang, so loud that I am afraid I will never forget it for the rest of my life.

The sound that almost shattered my heart made the whole mountain tremble.

I was so frightened that my legs fell to the ground.

I thought that a huge rainstorm was about to fall, but as soon as I raised my head, the clouds above my head opened, revealing the sun's brilliant face.

I've never seen a change in the sky faster than a change in face.

I don't know how many 'lifetime' series of wonders I'm going to encounter on this day.

Remembering the direction I had just seen the lightning splitting, I immediately turned my head and looked in the direction of the temple.

But I still didn't see the dark temple.

It seemed that it would really be invisible, but a puff of black smoke swayed up from the place where it had just disappeared, like a straight and immobile pillar, running through the junction between the top of Jinhua Mountain and the sky.

This scene can't help but remind me of the last conversation that the demon Dao made with the villagers when they sent them out of the temple—

"So either you stay here, or you go down the hill and wait, and as always, if you see green smoke coming from the top of the temple before dawn, come up and take him down. But if you see black smoke, you don't have to come up again. "Why, can't you save it?" "Not only can't I save it, I'm afraid I won't be able to survive either." ”

It seems that his statement is in front of him, so, is the demon Dao already dead?

I didn't get an answer to that question that day.

Because that day until evening, I never dared to rush to the top of the hill to find the temple.

I couldn't wait for Hyun Yin to come back.

The back of his departure, without warning, became my only memory of him in the future.

Later, I was scolded and taken down the mountain by the villagers who had regained their senses.

Between the words, they didn't seem to know what had happened that day, why I was on the mountain, and even less that Old Lou was dead.

They thought I wanted to run to the top of the mountain again, to find the temple where the dragon could not see the end.

Then Grandma Wang said to me quite angrily: "If you talk to yourself like this and run to the forbidden land, if the fairy master is upset by you, if you are no longer willing to treat Boss Lu, will you be happy?"

But then they fell silent. I think it's because they see the black smoke coming out of the mountains.

Later, when the couple who had escaped from the village rushed back to the village with the police, and took them to see the bodies of Lao Lu and the doctor, everything flew like a spinning top.

I had to be interrogated by the police again and again, and I took notes over and over again.

I was so busy that I almost felt numb.

When I decided to leave Jinhua Village with my luggage in tow, I saw that all the villagers were confronting the police because they wanted to go up the mountain to search the temple.

I didn't wait for the confrontation to end, and I didn't have the courage to continue facing the anxious couple.

Because at that time, I was full of thought that their two daughters must have suffered the same accident as those children.

It was only about the second week after I left Jinhua Village that I got an answer about the life and death of the demon in a piece of news in the newspaper.

The newspaper said that Huang, a homeless man who lived in seclusion in an ancient temple on Jinhua Mountain, was found to have died suddenly on the temple's incense case the day before yesterday.

The cause of death was an attack by a huge electric current.

The deceased was covered with a lot of hair with a scalp, so that most of the deceased's body was almost charred.

As a result of this discovery, the police carefully and thoroughly searched the temple for nearly a week, and finally found a huge lime pool in the basement hidden in the temple.

The pool was filled with the bodies of at least fifteen children. There are all kinds of indications that they all died at the hands of Huang. Two other living girls were also found, suspected to have recently been arrested, but fortunately did not be poisoned, but they were dying of hunger and thirst, and their parents have been contacted and sent to the hospital for treatment. At present, the investigation of this series of cases is still ongoing.

Photographs of the two rescued children were published in the newspapers, and although their faces were coded, they could still be identified as the girls who had disappeared in the hotel that day. So after reading it, I breathed a sigh of relief, and I felt that this news was undoubtedly the most fortunate thing I had encountered during this time.

It's a fluke that they're still alive, and that's better than anything else.

And when I think about it, everything that the monk did in order to kill the demons seems to be really casual and selfish.

He even led the heavenly thunder to kill the Taoist priest and left directly, completely ignoring the two children who were still alive.

Maybe he really didn't know about the existence of those two children.

No matter what, such a person, such an encounter, every time I think about it, I still hope to see him again.

But he also knew that he was afraid that he would never have the opportunity to see him again.

Today, even though I'm still working in journalism, I don't care about the subject matter anymore.

I won't even be curious to go online to watch other people's posts that I don't know if they are true or fabricated.

The best way to worship ghosts and gods is to stay away from them.

"There are warrior monks in Shaolin Temple, there are ascetics in Dabei Temple, and I am a Dharma monk. ”

"What is a monk?"

"Naturally, it is to learn the method of subduing demons and eliminating demons, and to destroy the demons and monks in the world for the Buddha. ”

——End of this volume—— 166 Reading Network