With virtue

"Yes, me too." The Dream-Fulfilling Master smiled slightly. "And I was unlucky. I also met someone who took me in, but he wasn't as good as your uncle."

Wang Haiting couldn't help but press further, "Is he also a Taoist priest?"

"No," Master Yuanmeng shook his head, his gaze lowered slightly, then he reached up and touched his face, his voice softening, "He is a monk."

He stopped abruptly at this point and did not continue speaking.

The meditation room fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of the two little children licking their fingers being heard.

Wang Haiting wanted to ask more, but saw that Master Yuanmeng had already stood up and looked out the window: "Your uncle has arrived."

He walked to the door of the meditation room: "Now let's see how he gets in."

----------

Zhao Yun straightened up and walked briskly along a gravel path in the kiln site.

Sun Shouxin did not come along; he simply escorted them to the outskirts of the kiln and then pointed out the way.

The further into the mountains you go, the fewer people there are, and the shouts of the kiln workers fade into the distance, replaced by a dense forest.

Chen Wanchuan followed beside him, lowering his voice as they walked, "Master, something was off about that earlier. Chief Sun said he was inviting us, but those two men with knives kept following us, their eyes never leaving us. And that monk, who exactly is he?"

Zhao Yunshu didn't stop walking. She turned her head to look at Chen Wanchuan and said in a low voice, "I told you before, monks are not human."

Chen Wanchuan nodded, his voice extremely low: "I know... So the monk is a ghost? How come he's not afraid of the sun?"

"It might not be a ghost, but it definitely can't be a human," Zhao Yunshu said.

At this moment, Chen Wanchuan gritted his teeth.

However, he suddenly realized something and said to Zhao Yunshu, "Daoist Master... isn't something wrong around here?"

The woods were unusually quiet.

There were no birdsong or insect chirps, and even the sound of the wind gradually weakened, as if a tiger had passed through and frightened away all the beasts.

But even a tiger couldn't do that; there would at least be the sound of insects chirping, right?

But before Chen Wanchuan could figure it out, he immediately heard that voice.

A very light, very fine rustling sound, as many fingers simultaneously glide across the sand.

At first it was faint, but then it became more frequent, surging out from all directions. The fine, cold friction sound came from the stone steps, branches, cracks in the stones, the roadside, and the ground all around.

Chen Wanchuan's face turned pale instantly.

He opened his mouth, his voice suddenly becoming shrill: "What is it?!"

Zhao Yunshu did not answer, because he had already seen it.

On the gnarled branches of a pine tree, a black snake as thick as an arm slowly lowered its body. Its triangular head had its eyes fixed on him, and its black tongue flicked in and out of the air.

Looking around, countless similar black snakes were wriggling, coiling, and raising their heads in the grass, withered leaves, and crevices of rocks, densely covering the entire mountain path.

These black scales gleamed eerily in the sunlight, their fangs sharp as needles. The rustling sound just now was the hissing of hundreds of snakes scraping the ground at the same time, their tongues flicking.

This scene gave me goosebumps.

Viper.

They're all vipers!

Last night it was just a small snake, about the thickness of a chopstick, but now it's dozens or even hundreds of black snakes as thick as a forearm!

He already found the previous report suspicious, but it was only one report and didn't amount to much.

But how is this quantity possible?

A viper is the embodiment of a person's resentment, which can even drive one to one's own death.

So, how many people's resentment and venom must have coalesced to form these snakes that cover the mountains and fields?

At this moment, the snakes were coiled up on the mountain path in front of the two of them, one layer on top of the other, snakes pressing down on snakes, completely blocking the entire mountain path!

There were so many that the road surface was completely obscured!

"Daoist, Daoist Master..." Chen Wanchuan's voice trembled, but he gritted his teeth, gripped the knife, and didn't back down. "What the hell is going on?"

At his voice, the snakes on the mountain path suddenly stopped hissing in unison.

In that instant, hundreds of vipers raised their heads at the same time.

Clearly, the snakes had no intention of letting them pass.

Chen Wanchuan's face turned pale, cold sweat poured down his back, and veins bulged.

He had traveled all over the country for over twenty years and often boasted, "What kind of scene haven't I seen?" But this overwhelming swarm of snakes was something he had never seen before!

My scalp is tingling!

Those snakes were clearly no ordinary snakes; their fangs were so long, and their dripping saliva made a hissing sound as it fell onto the gravel, even corroding a small pit into the stone's surface.

The most dangerous thing is their sheer number; there are at least several hundred of them, completely blocking the mountain road.

Can't run away.

The thought flashed through Chen Wanchuan's mind. Without hesitation, he took a step forward and stood in front of Zhao Yunshu, holding the woodcutter's knife horizontally in front of his chest, assuming a desperate stance.

He turned back and yelled at Zhao Yunshu, "Daoist Master, you go first, I'll cover your retreat! You're very capable, think of a way first. I, Old Chen, have some martial arts skills, I can hold them off for a while!"

He said he could handle it, but his hands were trembling.

It's not because I'm afraid of dying, although I am indeed afraid of dying...

Even those who are not afraid of death can't help but feel scared in the face of this scene.

Several vipers shot up from the ground and lunged straight at Chen Wanchuan's face.

They are incredibly fast, almost instantly closing the distance to within three feet, which is nauseating.

"Aaaaah!" Chen Wanchuan roared, swinging his wood-chopping knife and sweeping it across, knocking the two snakes in front of him away.

But the third snake had already coiled around the hilt of the knife, and slithered up the blade with lightning speed, its fangs snapping open and closing, heading straight for his wrist.

He hurriedly shook off the snake, stumbled, and before he could regain his footing, five or six more snakes darted out of the grass and lunged at his ankles.

He said he could hold out for a while, but in reality, it would only take two or three breaths before he was about to fall into the snake swarm. He could only rely on his physical strength to buy some time, hoping that it would take the snakes a while to finish eating his hundred-odd pounds of snakes.

Just then, a hand reached out from behind, grabbed the back of his collar, and pulled him backward sharply.

Chen Wanchuan felt a strong force coming from him, and he was pulled back several steps before he could regain his balance.

He turned his head and met Zhao Yunshu's eyes...

A faint red glow shone in his eyes.

The red light bore a striking resemblance to the dark red in the eyes of the ghost general last night.

Zhao Yunshu remained silent.

He loosened Chen Wanchuan's collar and took a step forward.

It's just one step.

With that step he took, his aura suddenly changed.

Within his inner vision, the image of the Ghost General stood proudly, the bloodstains on his luminous armor burning like flames, the Ghost Head Blade held horizontally before his knees, and his dark red ghost eyes coldly staring at the swarm of snakes before him through his pupils.

That was the murderous aura of a survivor of a hundred battles, the oppressive force solidified from blood-stained battlefields.

He was just standing there, yet it was as if a phantom of a fifteen-foot-tall ghost general was faintly visible behind him.

The snakes all froze in their tracks!

The wriggling snakes stopped wriggling.

The snakes along the entire mountain road seemed to be frozen in place!

The dozen or so vipers that were closest to the snakes felt the most intense sensation, so they desperately tried to shrink back behind the snake group, retracting their fangs into their mouths and not daring to flick their tongues out. Their heads were pressed tightly against the ground, and their scales were all tightly closed!

But the snakes behind them wouldn't let them in either, because they didn't want to face them from the front!

The snakes further away were also restless. Those in front wanted to retreat, but those behind dared not. Hundreds of vipers crowded on the mountain path, pushing and shoving each other, not daring to take a step forward!