Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 4 The Five Internal Organs

Qi Yun heard a soft sound behind him, like a dry branch being broken.

His body suddenly stiffened, his blood ran cold, and his neck stiffly turned backward inch by inch.

With a trembling hand, he flung the flashlight beam behind him. The dim yellow beam pierced the thick fog, but it seemed to hit a soft wall, only creating a chaotic and blurry halo.

It barely illuminated a distance of two meters.

Nothing can be seen.

But the feeling of being stared at intently by something, like a cold snake's tongue licking the back of his neck, sent shivers down his spine.

Fear gripped his heart instantly. Qi Yun dared not linger any longer, turned around abruptly, and ran away!

The decaying leaves and slippery moss underfoot made him stumble, but he didn't care and charged forward, his feet sinking deep into the mud.

Before he could take ten steps, the voice behind him came again!

No longer a solitary sound, but a series of rapid, clear footsteps!
It followed closely behind him, and was even faster than him!
Qi Yun felt his soul tremble, and his lungs burned with rage!
The mountain path beneath my feet had become strangely unfamiliar; it was no longer the gentle downhill slope I remembered, but instead twisted and meandered, with jagged rocks.

My ankle was suddenly tripped by a tree root protruding from the ground!

The immense forward force caused him to lose his balance instantly, plunging face-first into the cold, decaying leaves! The enormous inertia propelled him uncontrollably down a steep slope!

The world is spinning!

His shoulder slammed into a hard rock, his ribs struck a broken piece of wood, and his cheek was slashed and burned by a sharp branch.

He instinctively gripped the old tin flashlight in his hand tightly.

However, during the first violent roll, a muffled "clang" was heard, and the dim yellow light of the flashlight suddenly went out.

Qi Yun was finally stopped by the trunk of a thick old tree. The huge impact made him see stars and felt a metallic taste rise in his throat.

Every part of my body ached, burning as if my skin had been peeled off. My thin clothes were torn to shreds, revealing abrasions and bleeding flesh.

At this moment, he was completely engulfed in suffocating darkness!
After regaining his balance, he immediately struggled to sit up, ignoring the excruciating pain all over his body. He gripped the metal tube tightly with both hands and frantically pounded and shook it!
The flashlight beam flickered a few times, extremely erratically.

Each brief, dim, yellow light is like a dying person's final burst of energy.

It was a difficult task to tear a small piece of chaos through the thick fog.

It was in this flickering, will-o'-the-wisp-like halo of light.

Ahead! Just a few steps below the slope he tumbled down!

A blurry, humanoid black silhouette suddenly appeared in the shimmering halo!
It stands silently in the depths of the thick fog, motionless, silently watching over Qiyun.

"what!"

Qi Yun shuddered violently, let out a cry of surprise, and froze on the spot, his breath caught in his throat, and only the flashlight trembled wildly in his palm.

The flashlight beam then went out again.

In the darkness, the only sound Qi Yun could hear was the pounding of his own heart.

It almost jumped out of my throat, and I started sweating profusely.

"Snapped!"

After an unknown amount of time, the flashlight beam came on again, stabilized, and stubbornly pierced the darkness, striking the humanoid shadow directly!

The halo dispelled the thin mist around it, clearly revealing its entirety.

Before my eyes appeared a stone statue with half of its body buried in the ground!
The stone statue is a child, about eight or nine years old, with extremely realistic proportions, and even a strange "life force".

It wore an old-fashioned Taoist robe, the stone folds flowing naturally, as if blown by the wind.

What's most chilling is its face. A round, childlike face with a huge, wide grin that almost reaches its ears!

The smile was sculpted with exquisite detail, even the outline of the teeth was clearly visible, yet it was hollow and lacked any childlike innocence, instead filled with an indescribable eeriness and coldness.

A pair of stone eyes stared blankly ahead, without pupils, staring straight at Qi Yun.

"A... a Taoist boy?!" Qi Yun's mind went blank.

The Taoist boy who guided him back then!
But... how could it be a stone statue?!
"Did the stone statue turn into a Taoist boy... or... did the Taoist boy from back then... turn into a stone statue?!"

The legend has completely veered off course, pointing to an even more sinister and terrifying unknown!

The Taoist boy statue is here, so the Taoist temple... that Taoist temple must not be far away!

He had previously harbored illusions and hoped to follow the legendary script.

Upon encountering a Taoist temple, the boy opened the door and pointed out the way, allowing them to descend the mountain smoothly.

But as footsteps sounded behind them, the script began to veer off course.

Now that the Taoist boy has turned into a stone statue, can he still go down the mountain?

"Calm down, calm down, let's find the Taoist temple first. The Taoist boy has already appeared, so the temple should be nearby!"

He endured the excruciating pain all over his body and struggled to get up from the ground.

The flashlight swept in all directions.

The beam of light pierced through the churning fog, laboriously plowing through the darkness.

Front left!
Not far to the side and behind the stone statue of the Taoist boy, the terrain seemed to flatten out.

The dim, yellowish light laboriously outlined the shape of a slightly square platform paved with bluestone.

The edges of the platform have been eroded by rampant weeds and vines.

At the end of the platform, a building looms out in the distance.

It was a temple. Or rather, it used to be.

The dilapidated state was shocking.

The rotten wooden door was half-open, the eaves had collapsed, and the broken rafters resembled broken ribs.

The walls were a mottled, earthy yellow, with large patches of plaster peeling off to reveal the dark rammed earth underneath, which looked like dried blood.

The entire building was tilted, as if it might collapse completely at any moment in the heavy, damp fog.

However, miraculously, a dark brown, almost black wooden plaque remained hanging above the rickety lintel, without falling completely.

Qi Yun immediately descended the slope onto the platform, dragging his heavy steps, each movement bringing a piercing pain.

But he still hurried to the front of the Taoist temple.

As I walked in, I focused my flashlight beam on the plaque.

The wooden plaque was severely eroded by time and moisture; its edges were rotten and riddled with wormholes and creeping mold.

In the center of the plaque, three large, equally blurred and eroded characters are barely visible in the dim light.

The strokes are distorted, the paint is peeling, and the edges are blurred.

Qi Yun squinted, struggling to make out the strokes that almost blended into the darkness:

"The Five...Organs...Observation...!"

(End of this chapter)