Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 115: Headless God
Under the dim moonlight, Ran Qing, who climbed to the top of the mountain, saw a deserted and dilapidated Taoist temple.

A half-collapsed courtyard wall, a yard overgrown with weeds, and several old houses swaying in the night wind.

The Taoist temple is not big, with low eaves and dilapidated walls, and a dull smell of corruption in the air.

It looks like an ordinary abandoned yard, nothing special about it.

Ran Qing, who had climbed up from the foot of the mountain, was a little out of breath. He stood outside the gate, looking at the Taoist temple in front of him, a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes.

Mo Li and I had a smooth journey up, it was safer and smoother than we could have imagined.

It went so smoothly that it was almost... weird.

Ran Qing frowned and said, "Is this place so normal?"

He looked around. In the cold night wind, there were only a few dilapidated old houses on this lonely mountain top.

There was a tripod in the yard, but the incense inside had long been extinguished.

Not far down the mountain is Guidong Village under the cover of night, with only a few scattered lights on.

Ran Qing took out the longan from the canvas bag, held one longan in each hand, crushed the shriveled longan seeds and injected Yin energy into them.

After the two longans fell to the ground, they immediately rolled and rolled towards the yard in front.

Only half of the threshold was left, and they crossed it.

However, after entering the yard, they began to fly around like headless flies, and finally disappeared in the dense weeds.

Mo Li looked at Ran Qing and asked in surprise: "What does this mean?"

Ran Qing was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Longyan asked for directions, but there was no trace of the path…which means there are no ghosts inside.”

But are there no ghosts in this Taoist temple?
The induction of the horoscope card clearly points to this place.

Mo Li was also surprised: "Is this true?"

The girl jumped over the threshold and into the yard, saying, "If there's no ghost here, then we've come all this way for nothing."

Mo Li stood in the yard and looked at the abandoned cauldron.

Ran Qing also brought Xiao Mianhua into the yard and came to the abandoned cauldron.

When the flashlight shone inside, the tripod was filled with turbid sewage and a pungent stench.

No one has taken care of it for many years, and the rainwater has soaked and fermented with the incense ash in the cauldron, breeding countless bacteria.

Mo Li picked up a dead branch from the yard and stirred it in the murky, foul-smelling sewage. He said, "Imagine if there's a corpse hidden in this cauldron, soaked until it's white. When we get out, it suddenly jumps out and blocks us, cutting off our escape route."

Ran Qing felt a little numb after hearing this.

Little Mianhua was so frightened that she tucked her tail between her legs: "Mo Li! Don't say weird things to scare me!"

Ran Qing also picked up a dead branch and stirred it in the big cauldron for a while. The half-filled cauldron of dirty water was made even more turbid and smelly by him and Mo Li.

But there can't be a corpse in this cauldron. It is too small, and the sewage inside is only half of the cauldron's capacity, so it is impossible to hide a corpse.

After stirring the cauldron with a dead branch for a while and confirming that there was no foreign matter in it, Ran Qing looked at the abandoned hall in front of him.

On the old and low main hall door, there is a simple wooden sign hanging in a formal manner, which reads [Xuan Du Temple].

Apart from that, there is not even a couplet.

This Taoist temple in a remote mountain area exudes poverty, pettiness, and inauthenticity everywhere.

Mo Li said that the Taoist priests in this Taoist temple were all tomb robbers in disguise, hiding here to avoid disaster, so it was no wonder that the temple was so dirty and messy.

Ran Qing threw away the dead branch in his hand, took out two longans, and threw them into the dark main hall.

There wasn't even a door in the dilapidated, empty and gloomy main hall.

The cold night wind blew through the hall. The house was made of bumpy yellow soil. It was exactly the most common house in the countryside at that time, without even floor tiles.

But in the darkness deep within the hall, a shrine loomed. On the shrine sat a dark clay figure, presumably a deity being worshipped.

After Ran Qing threw the longan into the hall, there was finally a reaction this time.

After rolling in the bumpy mud of the temple for a while, they all stopped in front of the shrine in the deep shadows.

Ran Qing said: "You guys wait for me outside, I'll go in and take a look first."

But as soon as he entered the hall, Mo Li followed him in and glared at him: "Haven't you heard of the law in horror movies that those who are left alone will die?"

Ran Qing looked back and found that Xiaomianhua had also followed in.

Ran Qing was speechless. He originally wanted Mo Li to stay outside to meet him.

But what the girl said makes sense. You really shouldn't be left alone.

Ran Qing didn't say anything else, but raised the flashlight and shone it towards the dark shrine deep in the hall.

On the dusty shrine, there are three clay statues standing side by side.

Due to its age, the paint on the statue has long faded and fallen off.

The scattered broken pieces and cracks on the statues make these three statues lose their sacred majesty.

They were in the shadows, their faces white and eerie under the flashlight, like three unrecognizable corpses sitting there.

Looking at these three dilapidated and old statues, Ran Qing felt an inexplicable chill in his heart.

Because the heads on the necks of these three statues are broken off and disappeared, what are now spliced ​​on their necks are three paper-mache human heads.

The light shone on the head of the statue, and the three pale paper heads stared at the gate like three dead bodies with their eyes still open.

Mo Li moved closer to Ran Qing and whispered, "Have you noticed something..."

Ran Qing glanced at her.

Mo Li lowered his voice even more: "Before we came in, there seemed to be only one statue on the shrine..."

Mo Li's words made the little girl standing beside him explode with anger.

"Momomomomoli..."

Little Mianhua stuttered in fear. She also remembered that when Ran Qing shone the light inside from the doorway, there was indeed only one statue in the dark shrine.

But now that three people walked in, the statues in the darkness became three.

Or three headless statues...

Ran Qing walked to the shrine, lifted the dusty and worn red cloth, and saw the solid and cold cement base underneath.

The red word "life" finally disappeared underneath.

But the cement base was solid and cold, and tapping with fingers on it was dull and without any echo.

The base is solid, not hollow.

Ran Qing looked up and began to examine the three headless statues.

The three statues had heads made of paper. The paper heads were pale and eerie, and looked eerie and scary under the flashlight.

Mo Li murmured, "Are the ghosts in this Taoist temple also cowardly? Are they hiding and not seeing us?"

It is totally abnormal that a Taoist temple that hides terrifying ghosts is so quiet and peaceful after entering.

Ran Qing, holding a flashlight, said expressionlessly.

"It came out a long time ago, but we didn't notice it..."

(End of this chapter)