My enemies became my companions

Chapter 498 One More Missing (Happy New Year)

“Funny.”

Fankong paused for a moment, then burst into laughter:

"Daoyou is really funny."

Chen Yi asked with a smile, "How do you do this?"

The old Taoist fanned the wind from his nose and said, "You may not know, my nose is full of dragon jade spirits, more powerful than a dog's. There is not a single evil spirit on you."

"What about you?" Chen Yi suddenly asked back.

Fan Kong stopped laughing and laughed even harder. He raised his hand and said, "It turns out that you were trapped in the mountains, and you suspected that I was a demon, so you wanted to trick me."

Most of the mountain cultivators have no sect or school, and they travel all over the world. When they encounter strange phenomena on the road, they are naturally extremely vigilant. If a person walks by at this time, they will be even more vigilant, suspecting that it is some kind of evil spirit. They will use false information and trickery to make it show up on its own. Fankong is very familiar with such methods.

The Taoist frowned and asked again, "Is it really not a demon?"

"Of course not."

"You have a good nose, if you don't smell it, there is really no evil spirit on you?"

The old Taoist lowered his head and pulled the collar to sniff, "It smells like human."

The Taoist seemed to be sure that he was not a monster, so he joked, "Then you are a human transformed into a monster."

As soon as these words came out, the old Taoist raised his eyebrows and smiled:

"Haha, I've traveled a lot, and I've heard of a tiger turning into a tiger demon, a snake turning into a snake demon, but I've never heard of a human turning into a demon."

"I've heard of it. It's called a shemale."

"Haha, I'm a shemale." The old Taoist immediately clapped his hands and laughed.

Yin Tingxue looked at the old Taoist, then at Chen Yi, grabbed his hand, and thought that her husband was too cruel.

Thinking of this, she immediately thought that it was fortunate that she was kind-hearted and could complement him.

Meeting is fate. After exchanging a few jokes and greeting each other, Fankong looked around again. The dense forest stretched out its branches towards the dim sky. The lush branches and leaves were intertwined with shadows, like a pitch-black with thorns.

The sound of the wind blowing through the forest gives people a creepy feeling.

"Moo."

The blue ox let out a cry and shook its head impatiently.

Chen Yi glanced at it and asked, "Is it feeling uncomfortable?"

Fan Kong took a step slightly to the left and said, "Cows have to chew the food they eat, it's nothing strange. Let's get back to business, Taoist friend."

"It is because I am lazy and don't know how to distinguish the five kinds of grains."

The green ox lowered its head and buried itself in the shadows. As its mouth opened and closed, Duan Siyuan's frightened face appeared, but was quickly chewed back.

Fan Kong said, "I am trapped here, do you have any ideas?"

"There are some clues." Chen Yi said.

"please say."

Chen Yi pointed at the mountain and said, "This mountain is dark green, with a strong spring atmosphere. The mountain is high in the north and low in the south, surrounded by water. It is a place where vitality 'gathers without dispersing, and flows but has a stop'."

He pointed to the ground again, "This is a crossroads, connected in all directions. It is a gathering place, welcoming people from all over the world, and guests from all directions. Moreover, the surrounding mountains are high, and this place is low-lying. It is the cornucopia that mortals know about."

Then he pointed at the trees and said, "There are willow trees on both sides of the road. Willow branches are yang in nature and can protect the house and drive away evil spirits. The feng shui of this place is really the best."

Fankong took a look at it. Although he was not proficient in geomancy, he could understand it to some extent. What Chen Yi said was true.

"This is even more strange. How could this blessed land be so densely shrouded in yin energy that it could have trapped you and me?"

"The key lies in the four words 'too much is as bad as too little'. This place is blessed with great fortune, but prosperity will inevitably reverse. If there is just one thing wrong," Chen Yi said slowly, "then the yang house will turn into a yin house, and the blessed land will suddenly become a ghost king's lair!"

"That means we have fallen into the ghost realm." Fan Kong asked in doubt, "What's wrong?"

The Taoist took out four statues, each only three fingers in size. He held them in his palms and said:
"Don't worry, let me tell you a story first."

............... ..
Inside the cave, a chilly wind blew, making the three ghosts' scalps numb. Duan Zeng, who was at the front, looked at the endless road and shuddered. They seemed to be squeezed into a thick black outline, and there was no telling where a ghost claw would extend from on the road ahead.

Duan Zeng originally thought that as a weak woman, she should walk behind the two men, and if she encountered anything ahead, she could just run away.

But she never expected that the little nun, who looked harmless on the outside, was actually vicious and cruel inside. She even asked her to walk in front in the name of being afraid that she would get lost.

The cave was narrow and cramped, only allowing two people to walk side by side. The hazy darkness was uneven in color, and there seemed to be several shadows standing, waiting for them in the depths.

There was no light inside, only a faint glow, but a faint glow? It should be pitch black outside, so where did this faint glow come from?
The road under his feet became a little wet, and there seemed to be green algae and rocks growing on the wall. From time to time, something scratched his ankles, making Duan Zeng feel strangely itchy.

"Uncle Li... Where is the end of this? Where do we have to go to complete this mission?"

Duan Zeng's voice trembled and her pace could not help but slow down, hoping to unintentionally let the two of them walk in front while she walked behind.

But the father and son of the Li family always firmly protected Duan Zeng in front of them, and kept their eyes on the front with great responsibility to guard against danger.

"Probably we walked to a...crossroads." Li Xian said after a brief recollection.

"Crossroads..." Li Chengxing lowered his head as if thinking about something, and then shuddered.

His movements were not loud, but in this silent cave, everyone could hear them.

Duan Zeng stopped walking, suppressed her trembling and asked, "What did Mr. Li remember?"

Being in such a dark and treacherous place, if you keep your words to yourself, you might die without knowing how. The most important thing right now is to unite as one. Li Chengxing has been educated, so of course he understands this principle. He hesitated for a moment, but still decided to tell everything.

"I heard a story about a town. It was not told by the locals, but by outsiders who had been to the town..."

..........
What Li Chengxing said was spread from other places and circulated in the town for a while, but soon, perhaps for fear of slandering the town god, no one mentioned it anymore.

It's not because this story is fake, but because it is too real. Everyone knows the person involved in the story and has an impression of him. His name is Gong Sanniu, a man in his forties. Duan Zeng still remembers that he died of typhoid fever.

But Li Chengxing heard that this person died suddenly.

About seventeen years ago, there was a locust plague and a severe drought in the south. It was said that the ground was full of starving people. When walking on the road, the hard things they bumped into were all human bones. In order to survive, the starving people had to flee to the north where there was food. However, when there were many people, they had to eat food, and when there were many people, there was plague. Many county magistrates in the north refused to release food and open the city, so some people got sick and some died. People could only flee to the north, to towns and villages without walls. There was a couple who fled from the famine. The man was Gong Sanniu. He was originally a family of five, with his parents and children, but they all died of illness on the way, leaving only the two of them to escape to the town, and his wife was also in poor health and was sick.

Although the couple was unfamiliar with the place, the people in the town did not exclude them. They allocated one or two acres of idle land to them, and they quickly settled down.

When the New Year comes, it is natural to worship the City God. Generally, women go to worship the gods, while men go to the market. If his wife is sick, she can only stay at home.

Gong Sanniu was busy at the market all day and was exhausted. When he returned home, he wanted to rest after drinking some meat porridge, but he saw his sick wife burning incense to a bunch of idols that came from nowhere.

"Which god are you worshipping?"

"…It's a statue left by your father. I thought it was a god, so I worshipped it more."

People all over the world worship gods just like they eat at a banquet. When eating at a banquet, one just adds a pair of chopsticks, while when worshipping gods, one just adds three incense sticks. As long as it is a god, no matter where it comes from, one will worship it.

But Gong Sanniu reacted strongly. He scolded his wife for worshipping the gods blindly, and took a bamboo stick and beat her until her body was covered with wounds and her flesh seemed to be peeling off.

After this incident, his wife no longer dared to worship the statues left by Gongfu, and threw them all into a storage room with Gong Sanniu - there were five statues in total.

Soon, more than ten days passed and both of them had forgotten about the matter. The Lantern Festival arrived, and it was time to go to the market and worship the gods.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the heavenly officials bestow blessings, and the town is bustling. Many people give each other red envelopes and invite each other to eat porridge, just to celebrate. When guests come forward, the host will ask, "Are you full?" If they are full, they will wave their hands and leave. If they are not full, they will eat a mouthful of porridge, and then the host will seal a red envelope. Gong Sanniu also walks around on this day, just to receive more red envelopes and eat more porridge.

The town was crowded with people, and the crossroads were busy. When Gong Sanniu got his fourth red envelope, he heard the man ask, "Are you full?"

How could Gong Sanniu say he was full? If he was full, he wouldn't get the red envelope, so he quickly said, "I'm not full."

The man handed the porridge over and Gong Sanniu took a bite. The meat was very fragrant. Although it was dry and tough, it had a fragrance that only pigs, cows, and sheep had. It felt like a sweet dew after a long drought in his stomach. A warm feeling spread in Gong Sanniu's stomach, reminding him of the first time he ate meat when he was fleeing famine.

Before he could even ask for the red envelope, he heard a sentence: "Son, keep eating."

Gong Sanniu was so frightened that he almost lost his soul. He ran back home as soon as he could. After he came back, he told his wife what had happened.

The wife looked pale and said:

"Didn't your father die a long time ago? We...eat, so why would we invite you to eat porridge?"

Eight out of ten people who survived the famine had eaten human flesh. They said they died of illness, but they only told outsiders in the town about it.

"How should I know?!"

Gong Sanniu was shivering. It was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. What had he encountered? And he had never encountered this before. There must be a reason.

He tried hard to recall, but he could not find anything unusual and could not remember which ghost or god he had offended.

After a while, Gong Sanniu suddenly remembered that his wife had burned a few incense sticks in front of the statue left by Gong's father some days ago.

"Could it be that Dad's soul is living in this statue? And it ran out after eating the incense?"

Gong Sanniu hurriedly took the key to open the utility room and began to look for the five statues inside.

The utility room wasn't big, and they didn't have many things. After searching for a few times, they found one, two, three, four...

"Can't find it..." Gong Sanniu shouted in shock, "One is missing!"

"wrong."

His wife suddenly spoke behind him. Gong Sanniu turned his head to follow the sound. In the darkness, his wife's skin and flesh peeled off bit by bit, revealing her bloody, knife-cut face. Beside her, the pale and blurry faces of his father, mother, and son vaguely emerged...

They all said:
"Yes, there is still one missing."

..........
"One more to go."

Fankong raised his head and saw that there were only four statues of gods in the Taoist's palm.

"My friend, your story... is so bizarre." He said.

The Taoist held up the statue and said slowly, "No one listens to ordinary things, but they all want to hear bizarre things. People live in such an ordinary way, how can they spend their tea without listening to some bizarre stories?"

"It's a good story, but I wonder...what is it?"

"The stories to be told in the ghostland are, of course, ghost stories."

The Taoist's voice was elegant, noncommittal, and even playful.

Fan Kong grinned and said, "Fellow Daoist, please stop joking. We are now trapped in this prison. What we are asking is whether this is true or false."

"A ghost story in the ghost realm," the Taoist smiled, "could it be fake?"

The tone was still joking and not trustworthy. Seeing that this man was still joking at this moment, Fankong thought he was probably not trustworthy.

It was getting late, dusk was approaching, the world was completely dark, a cold wind was blowing, the overgrown grass and trees were piled up layer by layer, it seemed like something was buried in the shadows, but there was no sound at all.

Fan Kong knew that books often said that this was probably the trace of evil spirits and demons...
And the crossroads are also the most likely to encounter ghosts...
Suddenly, he turned his head and grinned:

"I thought it was some Taoist friend, but it turned out to be a Taoist ghost who had died and was haunting us!"

Before the Taoist could react, the Golden Money Sword on Fankong's back was unsheathed with a clang, and a brilliant golden sword light surged up and slashed across. The Taoist's figure was torn away like clouds and mist, and the little Taoist nun disappeared without a trace.

The road ahead suddenly became clear and seemed to be clearer.

"Amitabha, you're wasting my time."

The old Taoist spat on the ground.
"It turns out that Niubizi is dead and is playing tricks here."

He immediately continued to pull the rope of the cow and moved forward.

After passing the crossroads, the road was straight without many twists and turns. The trees on both sides of the road were deep and there was no sound at all. The Taoist ghosts who blocked the road disappeared without a trace. Fankong felt light-hearted and walked up the hillside with faster steps.

But before long, his pace slowed down again.

familiar…

The scenes on both sides became familiar, and everything seemed to be the same as before...
The moonlight spread across the ground, over the hillside, and then down the hill. At the end was another crossroads.
I saw that Taoist again!

Fan Kong was stunned on the spot, but he saw the Taoist raised his hand again, holding up the statue and said with a smile:
"One more to go."

This chapter came relatively late, mainly because there was a lot to think about, and it also had to tie in with the previous clues, but it still came out better.

The New Year is here, and I would like to wish you all a happy new year, good health and all the best!
(End of this chapter)