Chapter 4 The Mountain Temple
The little wolf played with the two giant wolves for a while, and when he saw that it was not early in the night, he said hello to the two giant wolves and quietly returned to the camp.
The two giant wolves watched the little wolf disappear at the edge of the dense forest before slowly retreating into the dense forest.
There was a dark silence in the dense forest at night, silent and silent.
There was nothing to do all night, and just after dawn the next day, everyone in the convoy got up and finished breakfast and went back on the road.
Under the leadership of the little wolf, he came to the side of Jingshan in the afternoon, looking at the towering mountains in the distance, the little wolf turned around and came to the side of Uncle Liu, who was riding a horse behind.
"Uncle Liu, you are about to enter the mountain as you go forward, the trails in the mountains are rugged, and there are no roads in many places, and the carriages and horses can't move forward, so leave the carriages and horses outside the mountain, let's all go on foot." The little wolf said as he wiped the sweat from his head.
Hearing the little wolf's words, Uncle Liu looked at the towering mountains in front of him, the road had indeed come to an end, and he was about to enter the mountain in the future, and the path into the mountain was definitely not as good as the avenue outside the mountain.
"Little wolf, I'll go and talk to Miss, it seems that the road is more difficult to walk next, you make preparations first, and set off in a while."
"Uncle Liu, I say a lot, you may encounter danger at any time after entering the mountain, and the mountain road is rugged and difficult to walk, if the noble person just goes into the mountain to play, I suggest that it ends here, now the world is not peaceful, all kinds of strange things have happened in the mountains recently, I am afraid that if I encounter any evil, I am afraid that it will be very troublesome." The little werewolf persuaded without giving up.
"You kid, if you just come here, then this trip will be in vain, you can rest and continue to lead the way for a while." Uncle Liu patted the little wolf on the shoulder and smiled.
The little wolf squeezed his shoulder, it doesn't matter, everything that should be persuaded has been persuaded, and the rest depends on the will of God.
Seeing that Uncle Liu means to continue walking, it is really difficult to say if he is going forward, not only the evil spirits that often appear in the mountains now, but also some fierce beasts are difficult to deal with.
The fierce beasts in the mountains are not the kind seen in the Colosseum, they are really bloodthirsty beasts, and many veteran hunters are precarious when they enter the mountains, and often have their lives to enter the mountains without their lives to go out of the mountains.
The little wolf saw Uncle Liu walking towards the carriage behind, he should have gone to Miss Qi and Lord Liu to discuss the next journey, so he found a stone nearby and sat cross-legged to rest, waiting for the result of Uncle Liu's discussion.
At the same time, adjust your own state to the best, the next journey must be difficult, and the best state is also necessary to save your life.
After discussing with Miss Qi and the others in the carriage behind, Uncle Liu finally decided to move on, and there was no accident for the little wolf.
After agreement, a few people were left to guard the carriage and horses, and the remaining dozen or so people escorted the young lady, maids, and Taoist priests to follow the little wolf into the mountain.
Under the repeated requests of the little wolf, everyone streamlined their equipment and supplies, and put some unnecessary equipment or supplies in place.
Each person brought enough food and necessary equipment for three days, and was told to feed on the wild animals they hunted as much as possible after entering the mountain, and to keep as much food as possible for emergencies.
After everyone packed up their equipment and food, the little wolf led the way into Jingshan, and the people behind followed in a serpentine shape.
As you enter the mountain, the surrounding trees grow taller and taller, and the sunlight is slowly blocked, and in the distance there are endless mountains, which seem to be endless.
There is no time in the mountains, and there are many big trees that are more than 100 years old, and the sheep intestine path in the mountains winds ahead, and the big trees have covered all the sunlight.
The path we go forward is only a path often walked by herb pickers in the mountains, and sometimes when we encounter a narrow place, only one person passes sideways, and the other side is a cliff.
Walking on the edge of the cliff, as if dancing on the tip of a knife, everyone's spirit tensed, and they walked slowly close to the wall.
In the steepest places, ropes are even tied to every third person in a wave to prevent someone from accidentally falling off the cliff.
The biggest advantage of this is that in case of danger, at least the other two people can be rescued at the moment of danger, but there is also a huge risk in this way, and even lead to the death of the three people together.
After nearly two days of dangerous trekking, everyone's physical strength was exhausted on the steep mountain road, even if Miss Qi and her maid, who had entered the mountain before and still had exquisite makeup, were sweaty and disgraced.
Even many people's clothes have scratches, and everyone has a feeling of exhaustion and doesn't know when they will be there.
In the process of crossing the mountains, he also encountered many wild beasts, and although the little wolf had avoided some of the fierce beasts' territory as much as possible, he still encountered a fierce beast out of the nest once.
Thanks to Lord Liu and Xu Daoren's timely joint action, they finally annihilated all the fierce beasts, but in the end they still injured one person, but this was already a good result in the eyes of the little wolf.
In this way, after two days in the mountains, everyone did not eat well, and they did not sleep steadily, and everyone felt exhausted.
On the third day, when the sun was about to set, the little wolf led everyone to a canyon.
The outside of the canyon seems to be an old blue brick road, and the whole road is mostly damaged, and the crevices are overgrown with weeds.
The entire green brick road is almost out of sight, and along this green brick road into the distance, it extends to an old building in the canyon.
At this moment, near evening, the surrounding area of the canyon is lush with wild grass, and the air is full of moisture, condensing a thick fog, and people cannot see it clearly when they stand a few feet away.
The little wolf turned around and said to Uncle Liu beside him: "Uncle Liu, it's getting dark in the mountains, everyone has been working hard to walk the mountain road these days, there is an abandoned mountain temple here, we have a good rest here tonight, repair and pass through the canyon tomorrow, and we will soon be able to reach the Valley of the Fierce Beasts." ”
Uncle Liu and the surrounding warriors listened to the little wolf's words, and their spirits seemed to be lifted.
In the past few days, I have been sleeping in the open air, and I am really about to toss to death, and I heard that there is a broken temple that can shelter from the wind and rain, and I can't help but be a lot happy.
Uncle Liu turned around and asked a warrior beside him to go to the back to inform everyone to go quickly, and together they rushed to the mountain temple to rest while it was not yet completely dark.
The group walked along the blue brick road in front of the canyon, and when they entered the canyon, they saw the mountain gate of a temple, which seemed to have been abandoned for a long time.
The entrance of the temple is overgrown with wild grass, the vermilion paint on the door wall has already been mottled and peeled off, the half-hidden mountain gate almost topples over, and there is a plaque hanging crookedly on the door, which is engraved with the three big characters of "Mountain Temple".
The little wolf and the others came to the door of the mountain temple, Miss Qi looked at the deserted appearance of the mountain temple, and muttered to herself: "Look at this mountain temple, it is estimated that it will be abandoned for more than a hundred years." ”
Hearing Miss Qi's self-muttering, the little wolf said: "This place has been abandoned for a long time, hunters or woodcutters who come to hunt in the mountains sometimes spend the night here, everyone is tired from running around all day, let's rest here tonight." ”
At this time, the Taoist also stepped forward, and after entering the mountain for so many days, the little wolf already knew that this Taoist's surname was Xu, and he heard Uncle Liu say that he was a Taoist priest from the Great Dao Temple, and he had some skills.
This can also be seen from the encounter with the fierce beast a few days ago, and the sword made the little wolf dazzled.
Xu Daoren stepped forward and looked left and right at this abandoned land temple, while Miss Qi said curiously: "Xu Daoren, do you see anything wrong?" ”
Xu Daoren touched the short beard of his chin and said: "In this deep mountain, how can there be such a big mountain temple, and the mountain road is rugged, I don't know who built it at the beginning, such as temples and Taoist temples, and land and city gods, if it is usually when the incense is at its peak, it has its own gods to protect it, but if once the incense withers, it will be reduced to ruins......"
Saying this, Xu Daoren looked at the surroundings again, and seemed to feel uneasy about the desolation of the surroundings.
Seeing that Miss Qi was still waiting for his next words, she sighed, and then said: "Once this kind of place, after the incense withers, it is easier to attract some evil spirits than ordinary places, especially here, it seems that it is not a year or two years old, and it is easier to be entrenched by evil, so everyone should be careful for a while." ”
"Xu Daoren's words are very kind, everyone will be careful for a while, Miss Qi will stay outside first, and I will take someone in to clean it up first, so as not to frighten Miss with any evil." Hearing Xu Daoren say this, Lord Liu on the side immediately said.
After finishing speaking, Miss Qi also nodded yes, so she asked Miss Qi, Xu Daoren and others to stay outside and wait, and Lord Liu, Uncle Liu and Little Wolf brought a few warriors into the mountain temple to clean up first.
At this moment, there was a muffled sound in the sky, and a strange yellow wind blew out of nowhere, and everyone couldn't open their eyes.
In a matter of moments, the strange wind roared and completely obscured the sky, and the sky, which was supposed to be dark, turned out to be dim with the help of the wind, almost indistinguishable from night.
The fog that was not too thick around was also swept by this strange wind, thick like a wall of air rolling and surging, and it was so powerful that everyone staggered and could hardly stand normally.
Seeing this scene, the original plan could not be continued, and under Miss Qi's order, more than a dozen people surrounded Miss Qi, Xu Daoren and others against the strong wind, and walked into the dilapidated mountain temple step by step.
Walking into the mountain gate, passing through the courtyard full of fallen leaves, you can see the main hall inside, the appearance looks quite complete, but the doors and windows are many leaks, and there is a faint fire inside.
"Anyone?" Seeing this, Lord Liu raised his eyebrows, gestured to the back, signaled to wait, and walked over carefully with two guards.
When he came to the front of the hall, Lord Liu did not immediately push the door in, but leaned on the hole in the door and window and looked inside.
I saw that the hall was full of withered grass, desolate and abnormal, and on the throne in the middle was a strange-looking statue of a god, with a tiger head and a human body, with a hideous appearance, and a weapon in the shape of an iron shovel in his hand.
However, this is not surprising, the mountain temple is not the same in various places, almost every mountain, there is a mountain god, and the mountain god of each mountain is different.
Normally, each mountain temple will only worship the mountain god of the mountain, just like the land god, and the land god is also different in each place, so there is a mountain god with a tiger head and a human body, which is estimated to be a local custom.
At the foot of the idol was a small fire, and on the edge of the fire a pile of withered grass was simply made into a bed.
Lying on it was a stocky and ugly man in a short brown robe, with a short axe pinned to his waist, and two bundles of firewood beside him not far away, who looked like a woodcutter.
Lord Liu looked through the hole outside for a while, and saw that there was nothing unusual except for the woodcutter inside, so he gestured to the people behind him, raised his hand and pushed the door and walked in.
Who knows, the dilapidated temple door has been seriously damaged, Lord Liu pushed the door, the dilapidated temple door fell down with a "squeak", fell to the ground with a bang, smashed up the dust, and also fanned the fire on the ground to "whirring" and swaying.
The collapse of the temple gate startled the surrounding warriors, and the sound of drawing swords was endless.
Lord Liu slowly withdrew his hand stretched forward, smiled awkwardly with everyone, and pressed his hand down, signaling that there was no need to be nervous.
Seeing that it was a false alarm, everyone's nervous nerves slowed down slightly, and this loud noise woke up the sleeping woodcutter in the hall.
The woodcutter looked out of the temple gate, and then he noticed the people outside the door, as if he was startled, and his body couldn't help but shrink back, and his face was full of fear.
Seeing that everyone who walked in outside the door was armed with swords, the woodcutter fell to his knees in fright, his face was so white that he trembled like chaff.
pleaded: "Uncles, uncles...... I, Liu San, am a firewood collector in the village, and I don't have any money on me, please spare your lives, spare your lives......"
The woodcutter begged for mercy and prostrated as if he were a robber cutting the path.
Lord Liu led everyone into the main hall, and seeing that there were no other risks, he asked everyone to put away their blades.
stepped forward to appease the woodcutter and said: "Don't be afraid, brother, we are not thieves, we are merchants who go into the mountains to purchase mountain goods, it is windy outside, we come in and hide, rest for a night and leave." ”
The woodcutter saw that after a while, more than a dozen people came in, and each of them had a blade, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, revealing a timid and flattering smile.
Peeked at everyone, hurriedly looked away, looked restrained, carefully shrunk by the wall, and did not dare to speak casually.
The little wolf followed Lord Liu and the others into the main hall, and as soon as he entered the main hall, he couldn't help but wrinkle his nose, the smell in this hall was really bad, and there was a smell of dampness and decay everywhere, which made people feel disgusting after smelling it for a long time.
After checking that there was no risk, Lord Yanagi arranged for the samurai to clean the main hall and clear a large area for resting.
Then he went out of the hall to invite Miss Qi and Xu Daoren in, Miss Qi walked in with the maid, and when she smelled the smell here, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose slightly, but she didn't say anything.
After coming in, Miss Qi looked left and right in the lower hall, and seemed to be particularly concerned about the statue of the god enshrined, and after talking to Xu Daoren, she walked to the side and prepared to rest on the floor laid by the maid.
Several samurai re-erected the main hall door to block the strong wind outside, and several bonfires lit up the entire hall a lot.
After a few days of trekking, everyone was a little tired, so they ate some of their own food by the campfire, and everyone was already drowsy except for a few people on duty.
The little wolf was leaning on the edge of a pillar, thinking about tomorrow's trip with his eyes closed, when suddenly he seemed to smell something, a faint sweet fragrance, and suddenly felt weak and sleepy.
The natural vigilance made the little wolf immediately feel that something was wrong, and covered his mouth and nose with one hand and opened his eyes.
The samurai around him fell to the ground and fell asleep, and only a few people, such as Lord Yanagi and Xu Daoren, seemed to feel something and struggled to open their eyes.