Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 302: Strange Events in the Village
As Lu Zheng and his companion walked, they discussed how to cultivate herbs.

Along the way, Qing Wan also sent out several bean soldiers to search the surrounding mountains and fields to find some bean seeds to transplant into the Wen Palace courtyard.

Not long after, Lu Zheng and Qing Wan arrived outside Dayawan Manor.

A village came into view, and the houses in the village were much better than the mountain village we had just visited.

Lu Zheng even saw a courtyard with green tiles.

According to what the villagers said before, it was a landlord in Dayuan Village who sent people to invite two carpenters and stonemasons from the village to repair the temple in Dayuan Village.

The two men came to the village and asked someone where the two craftsmen were.

The villagers learned the two men's purpose and said, "You are looking for them. They are lying outside the temple! You are from their village, so you came at the right time..."

Lu Zheng's eyes changed slightly when he heard this, and he said, "The county officials asked us to come and find them. Where are they? Take me there!"

When the villagers heard this, they realized that it was related to official tea, so they did not dare to be negligent and hurriedly led the way.

The villagers murmured, "Come with me! Did they offend the gods? Did the government send you here to arrest them? I knew it, they were so well behaved when they came, but now they're in such bad shape..."

Lu Zheng was puzzled and frowned, asking, "What's going on?"

As they walked, the villagers said, "We asked them to come over a few days ago to help repair the temple! Yesterday, for some reason, they both fainted. Everyone thought they had offended the gods and collapsed in the temple. We didn't dare to move them, so we had to leave them outside. We don't know if they are dead or not..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Zheng couldn't help but quicken his pace and used his spiritual sense to check the village.

Soon, he discovered that the village temple was built inside the village and it was a relatively large temple.

At the foot of a wall outside the temple, two people were lying on a tattered straw mat, their faces pale and in a coma.

Lu Zheng quickly found the location, came in front of the two people, squatted down and used his righteous energy to clear the plague from their bodies, and then fed them two pills.

These two people are obviously sick. In addition, no one has taken care of them for a long time and their bodies are very weak. They cannot be awakened for the time being and need to rest well.

Some villagers from Dayuanzhuang came over to check on the situation, but they didn't understand what Lu was doing.

Lu Zheng asked, "Who is responsible for repairing the temple?"

A man stepped forward upon hearing this. "It's me, sir. What can I do for you?"

Lu Zheng said, "They are both sick. Please have someone take them to a safe place. Don't let them lie here."

"Sick? They were fine when they came here." The man asked in surprise. "I also fed them incense ash yesterday, but it didn't work. I thought they had offended the gods and were being punished."

The man had a strange expression on his face. The two craftsmen fell ill in the temple, so they thought that they were not working carefully and were punished by God. They did not dare to place them anywhere and could only leave them outside the temple.

Lu Zheng explained, "They were already ill, and it was a sudden onset. Ordinary incense ash can't cure it, so the county officials asked me to come and treat them."

Lu Zheng paused, then added: "I am a cultivator."

As he spoke, Lu Zheng raised his hand and cast a small spell.

Everyone was surprised to see this, and roughly understood what Lu Zheng said.

Although they didn't have much experience, they knew that people could practice cultivation and even become more powerful than the officials.

However, such people are rare, and each of them is very capable. Some of them are said to be able to call the wind and rain.

After seeing Lu Zheng's methods, the villagers looked in awe.

They had no doubts about Lu Zheng's identity and statement.

After all, this was outside the temple, and they felt that Lu Zheng was definitely not a demon in disguise, otherwise how could the gods in the temple tolerate Lu Zheng's behavior?

Lu Zheng turned and looked at the man again, "Put them both in a good place."

Upon hearing this, the man quickly called a few people to carry the two craftsmen away and settle them down.

Lu Zheng secretly investigated the surrounding villagers and found that they were not infected with the plague, which was a blessing.

The man in charge was all smiles as he invited Lu Zheng and the others to be his guests. He was also very respectful to Qing Wan, a little girl.

In Hanzi's opinion, some gods are served by golden boys and jade girls, so the little kid beside Lu Zheng is naturally not an ordinary person.

Even if she was a mortal, she must be of noble birth. After all, even the daughter of a village landlord could not be raised to be as delicate as Qingwan.

Lu Zheng had no intention of being a guest, so he walked to the entrance of the temple. He could vaguely see several statues enshrined in the temple, even a statue of the City God of Yang.

However, most of these statues are empty shells, and only one statue has spiritual aura.

It’s just that ordinary people cannot detect such phenomena.

The only statue with aura should be the local wild god, who lives here to help collect incense from the local people.

Lu Zheng took a look and asked, "There's nothing in need of repair in your temple. Why do you want to rebuild it?"

The temple in Dayuan Village was already better built than those in many other villages. He didn't understand why it needed to be renovated, which was such a waste of time and money and unnecessary.

The man hesitated, "Well..." Lu Zheng said, "If you have anything to say, just say it directly. If it is the will of the gods, tell me here. How can the gods blame you?"

The man thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he whispered, "It's like this. Recently, a monster came to the mountain outside the village, and some people from our village went up the mountain and were eaten. Recently, the monster also came to the village to cause trouble and took away a few sheep..."

"We prayed to the gods, and they gave us a talisman. That talisman temporarily wards off the monsters from causing trouble in the village."

"A few days ago, a god appeared in a dream to Mr. Zhang, the landlord of our village, saying that the monster was too powerful and asked us to renovate the temple and apply some gold powder to the statue to create a golden body. This way, the various gods would have enough power to subdue the monster..."

Since the gods had come to them in their dreams, how could these villagers dare not disobey their orders?

So, every household in the village raised money, and those who had no money contributed to repair the temple as soon as possible.

Upon hearing this, Lu Zheng thought to himself, could it be that the gods are playing some tricks to gain worship?
Lu Zheng asked, "What does that monster look like? Did you see it clearly?"

The man scratched his head and shook his head, saying, "When the monster entered the village, it went to Master Zhang's house. It is said that a strange wind blew up at that time, and then Master Zhang's three sheep disappeared... The people in Master Zhang's house didn't see what the monster looked like."

Lu Zheng pondered in his heart, how could the monster eat people who went up the mountain, but when it entered the village, it took away the sheep? This obviously did not make sense.

"Has there been anything unusual in the village these two days?" Lu Zheng asked again.

The man said, "No, the monster is full, so why would it come every day? It doesn't have such a big appetite. We worked overnight and added some more materials, hoping to finish repairing the temple before the monster comes again."

"There aren't many stonemasons and carpenters in the village, so we hired a few from other villages. But two of them are sick, and I don't know if the gods will blame us..."

As he spoke, the man looked worried.

When encountering such unlucky things, he was afraid that the gods would be angry.

Lu Zheng could only console them by saying, "If the gods blamed them, how could they still be alive?"

"That seems to be the case!" The man's eyes lit up.

After hearing this, the villagers nearby couldn't help but feel relieved.

Lu Zheng sighed in his heart, how could the gods in this temple care about these things?

Moreover, the wild god here is not in the temple at all, and he probably doesn't know about this.

Lu Zheng pondered for a while and asked, "A god gave you a talisman. Where is it now?"

The man said, "It's behind the village. It's far from the temple, so let's put it there."

Lu Zhengdao: "Take me to see it."

The man hesitated and said, "You can look, but you can't move."

Lu Zheng smiled and said, "Don't worry, I have no reason to touch your talisman. I can help you check if it is still effective."

The man was surprised and asked, "You can even see this?"

"I know a little bit." Lu Zheng said.

Seeing this, the man no longer hesitated and took Lu Zheng and Qing Wan to the back of the village.

After walking for a while, the three of them came to a stone tablet behind the village.

The stone tablet is a monument of merit, recording the deeds of the people in the village, and it is quite old.

On top of the stone tablet, there is a piece of golden talisman paper with complex patterns and symbols outlined on it.

"Ok?"

Lu Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly. He found the pattern on the yellow talisman somewhat familiar. It seemed to be a low-level talisman for exorcising evil spirits.

The power contained in the yellow talisman is spiritual power, and it does not have much divine aura. It is obviously a spiritual talisman, not a divine talisman. It has a certain effect of exorcising evil spirits, but not much.

It is obviously unlikely that this talisman can protect this village. It can barely drive away first-level demons and ghosts, and it cannot be triggered at all if the target is far away.

Lu Zheng secretly shook his head in his heart. This trick can only fool these ignorant villagers.

I don't know where that wild god got the talisman from. It's rare that he didn't just scribble a talisman randomly...

The man next to him couldn't help but whispered, "Is this talisman still useful now?"

It was really difficult for Lu Zheng to tell the truth, and even if he did, the other party would not believe it. Instead, they would accuse him of talking nonsense.

Lu Zheng looked at the talisman carefully again and said slowly: "It's not very effective."

The man couldn't help but feel a little worried when he heard this, "What should we do? This talisman is not easy to obtain. It seems we have to hurry up and repair the temple..."

Lu Zheng said, "Take me to see Master Zhang. I'll go to their house and take a look. Maybe I can find some traces of the monster. Then I can help you."

"This..." The man's eyes flickered, "Young Master, you are capable, but I'm afraid our village can't afford it now."

Their village has already raised funds to repair the temple, so they don't have the money to hire other experts. They don't even want to report to the authorities, after all, it is very expensive to ask the government to intervene.

(End of this chapter)