From a Zhengyi Taoist Child to a Master of All Laws

Chapter 99: Stone Shrine
When we arrived at the foot of Nanshan Mountain, just as the old village chief had said, after midnight, the clouds and fog on Nanshan Mountain began to thin, and the true appearance of Nanshan Mountain was soon revealed.

Standing at the foot of the mountain, Lu Ping stared blankly at the clouds that had condensed into substance and then dissipated in an instant, and the mountain gradually became green and dark.

Gong Qi originally accompanied Lu Ping on the adventure and never believed in ghosts and gods. However, when such a wonderful sight was right before his eyes, he racked his brains for a long time but could not come up with a scientific explanation.

The blockade of Nanshan Mountain could stop curious tourists from other places, but it could not stop Zhao Ziyao, a local. She took Lu Ping and Gong Qi up a deserted mountain road.

Nanshan Mountain is not steep, and its ruggedness is far not as great as Mount Emei and Mount Qingcheng, but it still threatened the lives of Lu Ping and Gong Qi who had neglected exercise.

The journey was unusually quiet. After the mountain fog cleared, there was no sound of birds or animals in the forest. There was only the rustling of leaves. All was silent, which made the three of them feel a little uneasy.

"Zi Yao, there are so many willow trees on this mountain. I've only seen so many willow trees in the north." Feeling a little uneasy, Lu Ping had no choice but to chat with the two while climbing the mountain.

"I don't know. I'm also quite surprised. Willow trees usually grow on roads and by water. I didn't expect them to grow so well here?"

Zhao Ziyao also knew the peculiarity of Nanshan. The weeping willows like light, warm and humid climate and moist and deep areas for their growth habits. They are relatively cold-resistant and are generally cultivated as greening tree species. How could there be such a large tree growing on half of the mountain?
"Which tree is your godmother then? But the life span of a willow tree is only thirty years at most? Junior sister, you are already twenty years old now?"

Gong Qi asked Zhao Ziyao, Lu Ping hasn't paid much attention to him since she got up in the morning. Gong Qi hit a wall a few times and decided not to bother himself anymore.

"My godmother is the oldest willow tree on this mountain. It's not on this side. That tree was there when my father was a child."

Lu Ping had done her homework for this trip to Nanshan, and helped Zhao Ziyao explain: "Not all willow trees can only live for 30 years. There are also some species that can live for more than 100 years."

The three of them chatted while searching Lin Yuejian. Zhao Ziyao was fine, but Lu Ping and Gong Qi were at the back and couldn't even speak. They followed Zhao Ziyao with pale faces.

The mountain fog disappeared and no one knew where it went. At this moment, there was no longer any cloud to be seen in the mountain.

Finally, they followed a mountain stream up to the top and Zhao Ziyao shouted happily, "We're here!"

Lu Ping raised her head, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and looked at the scenery in front of her while breathing heavily.

Above the mountain stream is a moss-covered stone bridge, and the water under the bridge is clear and visible to the bottom.

Across the bridge is a collapsed and abandoned stone shrine.

The plaque on the shrine had been eroded by time and its original appearance could no longer be seen. Zhao Ziyao looked at it from this side of the bridge for a long time, and suddenly cried out in surprise and ran to the other side.

Lu Ping and Gong Qi gritted their teeth and followed, and also crossed the stone bridge.

When they got closer, they found that in front of the abandoned shrine, there was a charcoal-wood stake. The stake was so large that five or six people could hug it.

"Oh my god, my mom is gone!!"

Zhao Ziyao squatted down in a daze and almost cried.

It was only from Zhao Ziyao's crying tone that Lu Ping realized that this charcoal-blackened wooden stake was Zhao Ziyao's godmother when she was a child.

Zhao Ziyao's eyes were red and her voice was sobbing. It could be said that this old willow tree had accompanied her throughout her childhood.

Lu Ping comforted her with a few words and then couldn't wait to enter the stone house.

Gong Qi hurriedly followed him in, and looked in wonder as Lu Ping rummaged around curiously near the shrine, raising a lot of dust.

He quickly covered his mouth and nose, with a look of disgust on his face: "Lu Ping, are these what you are looking for? What is valuable here? It's just a shabby temple in a small mountain village."

Lu Ping did not answer, but just searched by herself, with an anxious light in her eyes. Lu Ping was worried at this time. She didn't know what immortal fate was, and what objects might be that kind of thing. She had to check every dusty object in the shrine one by one.

The more she looked, the more anxious Lu Ping felt. Nanshan had strange phenomena, and this shrine was the only thing on Nanshan that was related to metaphysics and mystery. According to what that great man said, there should be a fairy in this shrine, right? !

Seeing the madness in Lu Ping's eyes, Gong Qi had to calm down and help Lu Ping clean up the cobwebs and garbage in the shrine with branches, and then looked around the entire shrine.

This shrine must have been very popular in the past. Gong Qi found many offerings and the ashes piled up in the incense burner in front of the altar were already peaking.

Then his gaze rested on the center of the shrine altar.

In the center of the shrine, where the statue of the deity should have been placed, there was nothing there, save for a plate of dusty shortbread in front of it.

He couldn't tell which god was enshrined in the shrine. When he came out of the shrine, he found that the plaque on the shrine was blurred by weathering. Gong Qi looked at it for a long time and finally read a few words.

"Wu...Tongmiao?"

"Wutong Shen? What kind of god is this? Shouldn't a village like this worship the God of Land and the Kitchen God?"

Gong Qi felt a little strange, and suddenly heard Zhao Ziyao's surprised voice outside:

"Haozi, why are you here too?"

Gong Qi looked in the direction of Zhao Ziyao who was squatting on the ground, and saw a high school student wearing glasses looking at them shyly on the stone bridge over the mountain stream.

The surrounding ancient trees blocked out all the sunlight.

The mountain stream, the shrine, the charcoal tree stumps and Chen Hao on the stone bridge were all covered in shadows.

"Sister Zhao, is this what your friend is looking for?"

Chen Hao stood on the stone bridge and shook the things in his hands. Gong Qi adjusted his eyes and finally saw the object in Chen Hao's hand.

It was a stone statue about 30 centimeters tall with five heads. It looked eerie and mysterious, and Gong Qi could not see the expression of the statue with his eyesight.

As Chen Hao walked across the bridge and approached the shrine, Gong Qi suddenly felt a chill...
-
Li Yang was at his great uncle's house, flipping through the village history with great interest.

Nanxi Village was indeed not called Nanxi Village before, it was called Wutong Village.

The name Wutong Village was changed to Nanxi Village with a stroke of a pen during the rural reform in around 1970s as it was considered taboo.

Li Yang looked through the pages. Although Wutong Village is now very modern with a building every five steps and a villa every ten steps, it is actually a century-old ancient town. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was once prosperous due to water transportation and salt industry and was bustling with people for hundreds of years.

When commerce flourished in ancient times, people inevitably believed in some unnecessary things, such as the Wutong Village in the past.

Li Yang smacked his lips slightly. The village chronicles recorded in great detail a god who had been worshipped by the locals for hundreds of years, the Wutong God.

Wutong Village was a prosperous salt industry in ancient times, known as "coal in, salt out", with a profound historical background. According to the village records, the salt merchants here were most afraid of cattle plague in ancient times, and the ancient Wutong God was mainly responsible for managing plagues in folk legends, so the local villagers and past salt merchants worshipped Wutong God very much.

According to the village chronicles, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, every family in Wutong Village that did business would worship the Wutong God. The largest site dedicated to the Wutong God in the village is on the hillside of Nanshan Mountain, called the Wutong Temple. There is also the Wutong Bridge in front of the Wutong Temple, both of which have hundreds of years of history.

The reason why Li Yang was shocked was not because he criticized the tradition of worshiping gods, but because in the historical legends of Taoism, the Five-Directions God was not a good god.

(End of this chapter)