Holy Bone

Chapter 2092 Building a Jingguan on the Snow Mountain and the Strange Figure Appears Again
Nothing happened that night.

The next day.

early morning.

When the old Taoist priest woke up, Jin An briefly recounted his discoveries from the previous night to him.

Upon hearing this, the old Taoist priest frowned deeply and said, "A face mask? A fur coat?"

"Indeed, it looks like it's designed to block out the outside world and prevent contact with it."

The old Taoist priest continued to speculate, "Add to that the fog and the mysteriously disappeared figure, and this situation just doesn't seem like the work of a living person!"

"Could it be that the snow mountain is haunted by evil spirits, and something from the underworld has escaped, wrapping itself up tightly to avoid contact with the living world?"

Jin An thought for a moment and said, "Looking at them, they don't seem like ghosts or corpses from the underworld."

"Well..."

"Because there is no yin energy!"

"Yes, there's no yin energy!"

Jin An said solemnly, "If it is truly an evil spirit causing trouble, it will definitely spread outwards with yin energy. That yin energy cannot be hidden no matter what, and I cannot possibly fail to detect it."

The old Taoist priest looked at Jin An with some surprise and doubt, and asked in a low voice with a hint of speculation, "Young brother, do you think those people are from the mortal world?"

"More precisely, do you think they are living, breathing people in the mortal world?"

After pondering for a moment, Jin An shook his head and said, "I don't know. Unless I experience it again, I will definitely be able to observe some clues carefully this time."

The old Taoist priest nodded and said, "Since we've met once, I think we'll meet a second time."

"Yesterday was our first day in the snow mountain, and we encountered those strange people who were neither here nor there. This means that such people are very common in the snow mountain. If there is one, there must be two or three."

Jin An said, "I hope so."

The old Taoist priest asked curiously, "Young man, besides their completely covered appearance, did you find anything else on those people?"

"If those people are living beings in the mortal world, and their behavior is so different from ordinary people, are they some kind of demonic cultivators or evil practitioners?"

“When I was traveling around the world in my early years, I also encountered some evil people who were hated by everyone. Those evil people knew that they were not tolerated by human beings and would be besieged by righteous people all over the world, so they chose to stay in the deep mountains and forests where few people went out and had no contact with the outside world.”

"I once encountered a group of human traffickers, including wet nurses. Those traffickers hid deep in the mountains, concealing the abducted children there. They would only blindfold buyers and lead them into the mountains to choose a child when they met them."

"Fortunately, I know some talisman magic. I used yellow talismans to mark the eyes along the way and left clues. Afterwards, I was able to lead the government officials to wipe out that group of human traffickers. These human traffickers deserve to die. None of them deserve to be called human."

The old Taoist priest gritted his teeth as he spoke of human traffickers.

The old Taoist priest from Jin'an gave a thumbs up, praising and agreeing with the old Taoist priest's actions.

"An unorthodox path..."

Jin An frowned slightly as he pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It doesn't seem like it. I didn't sense any uncomfortable aura..."

"but……"

The old Taoist priest asked curiously, "But what?"

After thinking for a moment, Jin An said, "It's nothing. I'll verify it next time I meet these people."

The old Taoist priest was impatient and kept urging Jin An to answer his questions. Jin An smiled and said, "Old Taoist priest, aren't you hungry so early in the morning? Why are you asking so many questions?"

As soon as food was mentioned, the old Taoist priest forgot everything else and went to busy himself with preparing the food.

The steppe khanate is located at a high altitude, and the days are long and the nights are short. When Jin An and his group finished breakfast and prepared to set off for the snow-capped mountains, it was only early morning.

That is, just after 5 a.m., at sunrise.

By the time of Mao Shi (5-7 AM) on the grasslands, it was already bright daylight, roughly the same time as Chen Shi (7-9 AM) in Kangding.

They set off from the capital at the end of summer, and by the time they arrived at the grasslands and snow-capped mountains, it was already autumn. Jin'an told the old Taoist priest to wrap himself up warmly before setting off into the snow-capped mountains.

"I, this old Taoist priest, am more used to sheepskin coats. They're big and warm. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do. I have to wear mink coats, which I'm not used to. Young brother, do I look like a woman?" The old Taoist priest glanced at the goats in the group, pursed his lips, and then asked Jin An with longing eyes.

Jin An said, "No, it has the air of a country gentry."

"They look like a very wealthy and powerful merchant family."

Jin An gave a thumbs up and said.

The old Taoist priest looked around and said cheerfully, "Really?"

Jin An said in a serious tone, "Really."

"Sword Slicer, tell me, is what I said true?"

To prove his innocence, Jin An even brought out a sword to cut.

Xiao Jian glanced at the old Taoist priest, nodded slightly, and remained silent.

"See, I told you, old Taoist, you look way more imposing in a mink coat than in a sheepskin coat," Jin An praised again, giving a thumbs up.

The old Taoist priest couldn't stand being praised; it was his old habit. One moment he was complaining, and the next he was happily wearing a mink coat as he entered the snow mountain. Along the way, he would occasionally adjust the fur coat, for fear of messing up his clothes and lowering his dignified air.

Jin An watched with a smile.

Having the old Taoist priest as a companion along the way was indeed much easier and more relaxing. The old Taoist priest was like a refreshing spring, relieving a lot of pressure and constraints, bringing joy, peace, and a sense of ease.

After entering the snow mountain, Jin An and his group had a clear objective: following the guidance of Mr. Yi and Senior Zhong, they would first find the White Coffin Fierce Corpse, Da Piao Liang, and then set off for the Rakshasa Kingdom.

Mr. Yi and Senior Zhong are both highly skilled, having reached the third realm. They are making rapid progress in the snow mountain. According to them, they have already traversed the low snow mountain range and reached the boundary between the permafrost and the snow mountain.

However, they were unable to enter the permafrost region due to some obstacles, which is why the White Coffin Fierce Corpse Da Piao Liang thought of using the Kunlun Mirror to clear the way.

Although the Kunlun Mirror was not a genuine divine artifact of the Queen Mother of the West, but merely a reflection of the Kunlun Snow Mountain, it was still a reflection of an ancient divine artifact, and using it to break through the perilous snow mountain in the mortal realm would not be difficult.

Next, Jin An and his group traveled through the snow-capped mountains for three days, encountering several blizzards along the way. The high altitude of the mountains made the blizzards far more intense than in ordinary northern regions, but fortunately, Jin An and his companions were cultivators, and they escaped unscathed. Then they encountered an avalanche.

However, the avalanche was a bit far from them, and they easily avoided it by taking a slightly longer route.

Until this day, they encountered the Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese structure) in front of a snow-capped mountain valley.

The mound of heads was not large, consisting of only a few dozen heads.

The temperature in the snow-capped mountains was frigid, and the dozens of heads were frozen black and shriveled by the ice and snow, but they did not rot into bones.

The sight of this mound of corpses, still covered in flesh and blood, is truly unsettling and creepy.

If Jin'an and his companions hadn't been used to seeing dead people, an ordinary merchant caravan would probably have been terrified by such a sight.

"The scale of this Jingguan is much smaller than the Jingguan that Brother Lin described. It seems that it is not the Jingguan that Brother Lin and his companions encountered."

"It seems there's more than one Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese mound) in these snow-capped mountains, sigh."

The old Taoist priest chanted the name of the Supreme Taiyi Heavenly Venerable who delivers from calamities before the Zhujing Temple, bowed to it, and said with compassion.

Jin An and Xiao Jian also bowed.

As the old Taoist priest bowed in greeting, his head lowered, bringing him closer to the shrine of Jingguan, he suddenly exclaimed in surprise and asked suspiciously, "Young brother, do you see something wrong with this shrine of Jingguan?"

Jin An carefully examined the mound of capitals, and after a long while, he said with a puzzled look in his eyes, "This is the first time I've ever seen a mound of capitals. Have you seen any other mounds of capitals before? Is there something wrong with this one?"

The old Taoist priest said, "I have indeed seen a Jingguan before, in the jungles of the Southern Barbarians. However, that Jingguan was much smaller than this one. It was a Jingguan made up of the heads of more than twenty burly men from a village that had been slaughtered. Moreover, that Jingguan had long since rotted into bones, and it was very different from this Jingguan, which was still intact with flesh and blood."

“Old Daoist, what I meant when I said this Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese structure) was that it seemed too new. Young brother, don’t you think it’s very new? Although there are fallen leaves covered by snow around it, the leaves are very shallow, unlike the thick, layered snow that has accumulated over decades. Moreover, the snow on this Jingguan is very thin and new, unlike the old, dilapidated feeling of snow that has accumulated for over a decade.”

Upon hearing this, Jin An carefully examined the Jingguan before him. The more he looked, the more his brows furrowed. Just as the old Taoist had said, the Jingguan looked brand new.

Upon seeing this, Jin'an praised the old Taoist priest, saying, "Old Taoist, you have such rich experience, profound understanding of life, and keen observation skills that you can observe more local customs and traditions than we young people do."

"Indeed, this mound of skulls is quite new; it looks like it's less than a year old."

The old Taoist slapped his thigh and said, "I told you, this Jingguan is definitely not right. Sure enough, you noticed it too, young man."

"That's really strange. If this mound of skulls is new, then who built it?"

"and……"

The old Taoist priest swallowed hard, his gaze lingering on the depths of the snow-capped mountains. With a hint of worry in his eyes, he said, "Brother Lin encountered an even larger Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese mound) in the snow-capped mountains. I wonder if that Jingguan and the one before us were built by the same group of people?"

"It's best if they're not all written by the same group of people."

"If it was done by the same group of people, wouldn't that mean that these people are all ruthless, heinous murderers?"

The old Taoist priest continued solemnly, "Building a Jingguan (a mound of skulls) is related to religious beliefs. If these murderous maniacs believe in some cult or are followers of a certain religion, then it means there are more than one group of them, which will be troublesome! Who knows how many groups of people we will encounter chasing us in the snowy mountains? I'm afraid these people will relentlessly pursue us!"

Jin An was still examining the Jingguan (a mound of skulls) being built when he said, "Old Taoist, what you're saying is indeed a troublesome matter."

“These mounds of Jing should have been built by people living nearby, not by outsiders. There’s no reason for outsiders to travel so far to the depths of the steppe khanate to practice some kind of religious belief.”

"This is no other place than the snow-capped mountains leading to the Rakshasa Kingdom. The only people who can live in this area are the Rakshasa people and the former inhabitants of the steppe Khanate."

"This snow-capped mountain is closest to the steppe khanate. Could it be a remnant of the old inhabitants of the steppe khanate, used for human sacrifices to ancestors or to worship some divine object?"

"There is more than one country on the steppe than the Steppe Khanate. It is just that the Steppe Khanate was the most powerful empire on the steppe. There are actually many tribes that act alone on the steppe. It is understandable that the Steppe Khanate killed people from these tribes to hold some kind of sacrificial ceremony."

The old Taoist priest clapped his hands and exclaimed, "That's actually possible!"

"Although I have a wealth of life experience, when it comes to having a sharp mind, you young people are the ones who can help. Young man, with your simple analysis, you have figured out the origins of these Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese structure) quite well."

Jin An frowned and stood up, saying, "We can't say that yet. We need to find more Jingguan (a type of ancient Chinese mound) and observe more of them before we can finally conclude whether that's the case."

The old Taoist priest immediately declared with a proud and imposing air, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get going!"

Jin An looked at the old Taoist priest's anxious appearance and laughed, saying, "Old Taoist, why are you being so proactive this time? Are you in a hurry?"

The old Taoist priest straightened his robes with a serious expression and said solemnly, "Because the sooner we set off, the sooner we can find our younger siblings and protect them!"

"Who knows if these serial killers will have designs on my sister-in-law!"

Uh.

What could Jin'an say? He had nothing to say. He took the old Taoist priest and the sword and continued on his way, trudging through the snow-covered mountains.

just.

They couldn't find the second mound of Jing.

They encountered the mist and the strange masked figures again.

The story begins at night. They spent the night in a canyon, where there was a cave containing dried animal droppings, likely the habitat of a black bear or wolf. However, judging from the dryness of the droppings, the cave had been abandoned for a long time, and no wild animals had stayed there for quite some time, which was perfect for Jin An and his companions.

The snow mountain climate was cold, and the wild animals were frozen into clumps, making them very easy to clean. The old Taoist priest simply swept a few times and cleaned the cave. The three of them then moved into the cave.

That night, Xiao Jian kept watch for the first half of the night, and Jin An kept watch for the second half.

As for the old Taoist priest, Jin'an deeply upheld the virtues of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. Since entering the high-altitude grasslands, he had not allowed the old Taoist priest to stay overnight, fearing that the old Taoist priest's body could not withstand it. If the old Taoist priest fell ill, it would be a great loss to the Taoist temple.

Inside the cave, Jin An sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, meditating and recuperating while simultaneously cultivating his spiritual practice.

When it was about 2:45 AM, Jin An, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

At the same time, Xiaojian, who was sitting next to the goat, suddenly stood up, went to the cave entrance, and looked out.

Seeing that Jin An had also woken up and walked over, Xiao Jian said, "Master, did you hear that too?"

Jin An nodded with a slightly solemn expression and said, "Yes, this noise sounds very much like the noise we heard at the Snow Pass a few days ago."

"It seems those people with strange behavior have reappeared."