Lingxian Zhenjun

Chapter 117
"Boss, master, how did these villagers become wooden figures?"

Sun Zhengde lifted the quilt from the bed, knocked on the soles of the village elder's feet, and made a sound unique to wood. Over there, Zhenhai frowned, checked from beginning to end with the Buddhist beads in his hand, and shook his head. .

"It's just ordinary wood, and it doesn't seem to be mixed with other things."

"Maybe it has something to do with the censer. Do you remember that when the ghost chased Sun Zhengde, he said something like 'Have you seen it?' He should be looking for something. That's why he would go around the village after his death. Activity."

Hearing Chen Yuan pick up the message, Zhenhai also nodded slightly: "Then he is looking for the incense burner and returning it to the temple."

The fat Taoist looked at them, then at the crazy old man.

"What are you talking about?!"

The crazy old man spread his hands, "I'm crazy, how do I know what to say?!"

While talking, Chen Yuan and the monk walked out of the room tacitly, each cast their magic of finding objects, and walked around the village. Sure enough, at the corner of a field at the end of the village, they dug up the soil, revealing a bronze incense burner, three bronze The feet are engraved with Dharma seals.

Chen Yuan always felt a little familiar, feeling these glyphs with her fingertips, and suddenly remembered that the runes on the huge stone tablet in the Yongxiang Catacombs were similar to this one.

"Looks like I have to go to that temple, maybe the cave in Hengyan Mountain is over there."

After reuniting with Zhenhai, they showed the incense burner to the other party, and then discussed going to the temple. However, the villagers now turned into wooden figures made them feel a little strange, so they decided to wait until dawn before going to have a look.

After arranging for Master to sleep, Chen Yuan, Sun Zhengde, and Zhenhai stood guard at the gate of the village's hometown.

The sky turned white, and the rooster in the yard jumped on the fence and crowed towards the sun. The moment the sun shone through the darkness, there was a sudden coughing sound in the room, and the door creaked open. When he was about to fetch water to wash up, he saw three people, and they also looked at him.

"You guys are... hey, what are you doing, Daoist Priest?!"

Sun Zhengde groped the old man in amazement, and was so frightened that the village elder quickly retreated to the door with his arms around his obscene clothes, glared at the fat Taoist priest and shouted: "The old man is a decent person, the Taoist priest really insulted the face of the monks!"

Saying that, the door closed with a bang.

"Old man, no, you misunderstood!"

Sun Zhengde knocked on the door a few times before being held back by Chen Yuan, who whispered, "Don't tell them."

Immediately, he took the fat Taoist and left, and when he went outside, the smoke was rising in the village, and the young and strong were squatting by the door with bowls in their hands, digging food; there were also farmers who had eaten early and walked to the entrance of the village with hoes on their shoulders. Work and greet the group of them; the younger children are shaking their braids and feeding a few hens at home.

Everything was business as usual, it was hard to imagine that last night was their lifeless wooden man.

"It's really scary..." Rao is a picture of ordinary life. After last night, Sun Zhengde looked at the villagers who were smiling and greeting each other, and his heart felt chills. When he turned around to speak, he found that Chen Yuan and Monk Zhenhai had disappeared. Walking towards the outside of the village, he quickly grabbed the spell book and followed.

"Boss, where are we going?"

After walking for several miles, they had basically passed the village, and the ox cart was still moving forward. However, Chen Yuan didn't answer, but just raised her chin, motioning him to look ahead.

In the distance, behind a forest, there is an old temple standing on a barren hillside.

Walking through the weedy and gentle slope, the bullock cart will stop. The old temple in the four people's vision is mottled and left by the wind and rain, but it can be seen that there are always people taking care of it. The stone steps of the temple gate are clean, and there are few fallen leaves. There are no weeds or moss in the gaps.

Walking along the road, stepping into the temple gate, you can see the magnificent courtyard, the stone lamps are new and not old, the towering hall with blue tiles and flying eaves, and the eaves and pillars are carved with colorful rare animals.

Under the main hall, there are three golden characters of "Yunzhen Temple" engraved on the door plaque.

Through the bright morning sun, one could faintly see incense burning slowly from the open hall, as if there were pilgrims worshiping the Buddha.

"Feihe told me that old trees accompany ghosts, and deserted temples breed evil. The more glamorous the surface, the more powerful the things inside may be."

Thinking of the evil things in the village, the fat Taoist was a little timid this time.

"Are we really going there?"

Chen Yuan on the side ignored him, stepped up the stone steps in front of the main hall with Monk Zhenhai, stepped over the calf-high threshold, surrounded by lotus Buddha lamps on the altar, and a big Buddha was dressed in colorful clothes, gold beads and jade, and held in his hand. Wuweiyin looked kindly at the four people who came in.

"Why don't you worship this big Buddha?" Chen Yuan looked at the monk next to him.

Zhenhai stared closely at the big Buddha sitting cross-legged on the opposite lotus platform: "No matter what Buddha is enshrined in the Temple of the Wilderness, I will not worship it. But, do you think this Buddha statue is a bit weird?"

Perhaps her cultivation level is lower than that of a monk, except for the extravagant decoration of the Buddha statue, Chen Yuan can't see anything, it's just an ordinary mud tire in her eyes.

The master beside him was stroking his beard, and when he was eager to try to climb up, a Buddha's cry sounded.

"My Buddha is merciful!"

The Buddha's chant was not from Zhenhai, but from the side of the main hall. An old monk with white beard, thin and dressed in cassock appeared at some unknown time, and bowed to Chen Yuan, Zhenhai and Sun Zhengde.

You must know that Chen Yuan and Zhenhai would not be aware of the slightest disturbance, and even if it was hidden, the crazy old man over there would be able to detect it immediately.

Over there, Zhenhai closed his seal to return the gift, looked at the old monk who was slowly approaching, and said softly: "Old abbot, why is there a lonely temple and a lonely Buddha?"

"There is a temple on a lonely mountain, and there is naturally a Buddha in the temple." The old monk replied.

Sun Zhengde moved to Chen Yuan's side and asked in a low voice, "Master, what are they talking about?"

"I don't know." Chen Yuan shook her head. He came here for the matter of the crypt. It took a lot of effort to guess the charades. When he saw the two people looking at each other, he simply went to interrupt and took the bronze incense burner from the fat Taoist. In front of the altar.

"Old abbot, is this incense burner from the temple?"

The old monk looked away from Zhenhai, looked at the incense burner on the ground, and bowed to Chen Yuan with a smile.

"Exactly!"

"But... I don't think so." Chen Yuan scratched her palm and took the incense burner back into her hand, "As far as I know, the runes on it are not Buddhist scriptures, but from somewhere in a cave. , old abbot, can you tell me how the censer came from, how did the villager outside die, did he look for the censer after his death, and why did the villagers turn into wooden figures in the middle of the night?!"

The old monk seemed to know the purpose of everyone's visit, and he was not in a hurry. He walked slowly with a slight smile on his face.

"The villains in the village are too lazy to do anything. They stole the incense burner and wanted to sell it for money. But the Buddha in the temple just dreamed of persuading him because he didn't want to kill. The rascal just fell into the water and died in an accident. The Buddha punished him to find the incense burner and go to the underworld."

Zhenhai looked back expressionlessly: "It seems that the Buddha in this temple values ​​this incense burner more than humans." Turning around abruptly, he cast the demon seal and raised his voice: "Bold evildoer, dare to pretend to be a ghost! Show your body!"

The moment the Buddha's light came on, a puff of white smoke suddenly appeared all over the old monk's body, scaring Sun Zhengde to hide behind Chen Yuan's back.

After the smoke dissipated, the old monk was still standing there, but inside the monk's robe and cassock were cracked rocks with human facial features, body shape, and limbs.

"Is it really a monster, or a stone monster?" Sun Zhengde called out.

The old monk over there didn't panic, but just bowed to Zhenhai on the opposite side lightly, "This master has profound Dharma, and the poor monk admires him, but I am not the one who killed the Lai Zi, and I did not cast spells on the people in the village to turn them into demons." wooden man."

"you say!"

Chen Yuan walked to the middle and stood in front of Zhenhai, fearing that the bad-tempered monk of Wanfo Temple would go up and slap the magic seal. After a while, he asked the old monk opposite, "It's not you, so do you know who it is?"

"he!"

The old monk raised his head and looked at the majestic stone Buddha, "Do you know why this place is called Yunzhen Temple?"

Before everyone could answer, the old monk put the censer on the altar devoutly, put his palms together and worshiped the Buddha, and a soft voice echoed in the hall.

"More than a hundred years ago, this place was just a rocky slope, and there were huge boulders rolling down the mountain everywhere, endangering the village below the slope. Later, a stone fell into the village and killed people. Not long after, a young man came. People, he cried and cursed at the mountain, and left. Two years later, he came back from outside with carving tools. On this slope, he carved stones into bricks and paved stone steps. , the courtyard wall, and a simple Buddhist temple was built, and he carved the largest piece into a stone Buddha and enshrined it in the temple, hoping to protect the village under the mountain from suffering from falling rocks."

"After the temple was completed, there were indeed fewer rocks falling from the mountain. Occasionally, a few of them were blocked by this Buddhist temple. The surrounding villages saw its magic and came to worship it. After many years, someone found that there were no Buddha statues in the temple. Take care of it, it's still spotless..."

Chen Yuan frowned, looked up at the stone Buddha: "Why?"

"...The people who worshiped the Buddha were also confused and even a little scared. They asked the young man and found out that when carving the stone Buddha, he first carved the bones for the stone Buddha, and then carved the internal organs. The skill of combining the outer rock with the stone Buddha little by little, worshiping all the year round, burning incense and praying, made the stone Buddha spiritual. Unfortunately, the people didn't know it, they just panicked, and one day they overthrew him and came The young man who stopped him was also beaten to death in the chaos..."

The old monk straightened up, and the stone eye had a sharp expression: "...the temple has been abandoned since then. I don't know if the stone Buddha has magic power. Every night when people are quiet, he cuts his internal organs and restores his body. After a few years, he reappears. He sat back on the lotus platform, but the young man came without him. He remembered the kindness and wishes of that man, and still guarded the place. Unfortunately, mana was still not enough. Watching them die helplessly, at the last village he reached, Shi Buddha felt that he had done enough, so he quietly moved the fields of that village to form a magic circle to prevent the villagers from being disturbed."

"The people in those villages were killed by underground demons?"

"An invisible moon or sun, one village after another died in a few years. The stone Buddha recited the original wish of the young man named Yun Zhen, and appeared in the form of the Dharma, and went to the mountain to meet with him. The monsters fought each other, but it was a pity that their vitality was seriously injured, so they only brought back such an incense burner. Later, he sank into the stone statue. Before he fell silent, he still cast a spell to make the villagers turn into wooden figures at night, so as not to be hooked by the monster. .”

The main hall was quiet, Chen Yuan also thought that there would be such a long and tortuous story in a wild temple in the wilderness. After looking at the old monk for a while, he whispered: "You must be Yun Zhen."

"The Almighty Wisdom Eye." The old monk smiled, the stone face was no longer so strange, and gradually returned to the appearance of human skin, "Actually, I was beaten to death by accident, and my soul did not leave, and I was perched in the temple , I can see it, but I can’t hear it or touch it. I watched the temple built by myself from prosperity to ruin, and then recovered a little bit. Perhaps influenced by this stone Buddha, I found that I can use the stone spirit to revive. It’s only now, but it’s been a few decades.”

Chen Yuan looked at Zhenhai, the chill on the latter's face had disappeared, and he had no intention of subjugating demons.

"Old abbot, where is the cave in Hengyan Mountain?"

The old monk sized them up and tried to persuade them, but he also knew the determination of the two of them. He sighed and said after a while: "Going southwest into the mountain, you will find a water pool. There is half a stone tablet in the southeast of the pool. That's where it is, but there is no At the entrance, the stone Buddha can enter only by going through the mountains and entering the soil with the Dharma image."

When he said these words, the old monk looked serious, and suddenly took off his cassock, folded it up, and handed it to Zhenhai: "Take it, master, this cassock was given by an old monk who wandered in the sky, and the poor monk can feel it. There is a great Buddha Dharma, but it is a pity that it is of no great use to me."

Zhenhai looked at the cassock in the old monk's hand, took it silently, and shouted the Buddha's chant.

"My Buddha is merciful!"

The two joined hands and bowed to each other, Zhenhai threw the cassock and draped it on his body with a splash, turned around and walked outside the temple gate with big strides, Chen Yuan followed, and said with a smile: "You look more like an eminent monk now."

"..." Zhenhai looked at the tiny village in the distance, and suddenly said, "That old monk is not Yun Zhen, in fact..."

"It's actually the stone Buddha."

Chen Yuan smiled, and after listening to the story, she deliberately asked the other party's identity, and when he got the answer, he had already guessed it.Chen Yuan also looked into the distance calmly, with leaves falling across her eyes.

He said softly to the monk next to him: "Sometimes it's a good thing to let this story pass on without exposing it, right?!"

Zhen Hai pursed his lips and smiled, and strode forward.

The sun was shining brightly, and the Hengyan Mountain in the distance was hidden by monsters, and it seemed to be full of life at this moment.

……

'My Buddha is merciful! '

In the Yunzhen Temple in the mountains, the bells echoed, and the bright sunshine has not changed for years, decades, or hundreds of years. The old monk stood in the bell tower, looking at the figures of the few people going away under the sun, grateful recite the Buddha's name.

　I don't know if this story without fighting or killing is not good-looking?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)