Ke Xue: He mastered the steel-cutting divine skill at the start.

It is the season when cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The cherry blossoms covering the mountains and fields are dazzling and beautiful. The petals falling in the air are a beautiful sight to behold.

The group felt refreshed and relaxed as they immersed themselves in the sea of ​​flowers.

Miyazaki Yu felt the same way; he felt a wave of comfort wash over him, and his tense body relaxed completely.

It was as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and one's state of mind seemed to have been elevated.

This made Miyazaki Yu secretly happy: "It seems that always staying at home to make sentences is not a good thing. I decided before that I should learn from nature and go out to get closer to nature more often in the future."

From within the sleeve, a small white head emerged—it was the little white snake. The little white snake peeked out, seemingly enjoying the fresh air.

The group laughed and played around amidst the beautiful scenery, enjoying the view and taking many photos. The day passed quickly.

However, a problem arose when they were preparing to return. The car that Kogoro Mouri rented was the cheapest one available. Although it wasn't to the point where everything except the horn was making noise, it was pretty much in bad shape.

So, unsurprisingly, this car encountered an unexpected situation.

Moreover, the sky darkened, and it looked like it was about to rain.

Helpless, the group could only search the vicinity to see if there were any houses, and Miyazaki Yu quickly discovered a temple.

This made them all happy; staying at a temple was ten times better than spending the night in a car.

So they set off immediately and soon spotted the ancient temple.

The three characters "Shanni Temple" also caught everyone's eye.

Chapter 259 The Legend of the Mist Tengu (3rd update!)

"Shanni Temple? I never expected to end up here."

Miyazaki Yu sighed inwardly. This was a very significant chapter in the original Conan timeline, and it had even become a childhood nightmare for many people.

She is just as good as the previous curator, Tsugawa.

However, the perpetrator in the case here is far more capable than Director Tsugawa, a good-for-nothing who couldn't even handle a few children.

This left a very deep impression on him, and he recognized the incident as soon as he arrived.

Of course, Miyazaki Yu still had the mind to observe detachedly, but had no intention of stopping anything, as every cause has its effect.

Some murderers are not necessarily heinous, and some dead people may not necessarily have excusable circumstances.

After all, apart from a few particularly ruthless individuals, killing requires immense courage and is not something that just anyone can do.

The group walked together toward the main gate of the temple. The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the entire temple was shrouded in a misty fog. Dark clouds obscured the moonlight.

The mountain temple, the wind and rain, and the cold night—these three elements constituted the environment at that moment, making the few people, dressed in thin clothes, instinctively feel a chill.

"Gentlemen, is there anything I can help you with?"

As soon as I pushed open the door, I heard an old man's voice. His voice was deep and resonant, yet sharp, like the cry of an owl, carrying a chilling quality.

Only then did they see clearly that a bald old man was standing inside the gate. His eyebrows and beard were white and very long. His thin face was deeply wrinkled. The old man was wearing a straw raincoat, and underneath the raincoat was a black monk's robe. Judging from his attire, he should be an old monk in this temple.

His face was very gloomy, giving him a fierce look at first glance. Although he was old and somewhat hunched over, he was still half a head taller than Kogoro Mouri and only a little shorter than Hayao Miyazaki.

Everyone except Miyazaki Yu was startled; the old man standing there looked like a demon.

Seeing everyone's expressions, the old monk snorted coldly.

"I understand. Judging from your appearance, you must be from the newspaper or television company, right? You should leave now; this is not a place for worldly people like you!"

Miyazaki Yu stepped forward calmly and said directly, "Greetings, Master. We are not from a TV station or newspaper. We are travelers who came to the mountain to admire the cherry blossoms. Our car broke down, so we came to your temple to ask for lodging for the night."

Upon hearing the words "borrow lodging," the old monk's eyes suddenly lit up, and a smile immediately appeared on his withered face, as if a cunning merchant had succeeded.

"Oh, I see. That's wonderful! Of course, you can stay here. The accommodation and vegetarian meals are 10,000 yen for adults and 8,000 yen for children. We also run an accommodation business on the side!"

Upon hearing this, Kogoro Mouri became anxious. Ten thousand yen was no small sum. Ten thousand yen was equivalent to about 540 yuan in Chinese currency, and eight thousand yen was equivalent to about 430 yuan.

In other words, if there are three adults and two children, the total cost is 2500 yuan, which is quite a lot of money.

The old monk smiled slyly: "You can stay here, but then you'll have to take the children and walk six hours down the mountain."

This put Kogoro Mouri in a difficult position. Although he had earned a lot of money recently, he couldn't possibly carry it all with him. Besides, he was already living paycheck to paycheck, and his expenses on drinking, gambling, and other things added up to a considerable amount.

In addition, he has a daughter to support, so his money is actually quite limited. He is in a bit of a dilemma to spend so much money just for one night's accommodation.

The old monk suddenly glanced at him sideways, a mysterious expression appearing on his face.

"I'm not trying to scare you, but you'd better stay here, because on a rainy night like this, that guy might be watching you from somewhere!"

Seeing the old man's mysterious demeanor, Xiaolan couldn't help but become curious.

"Is there a bear lurking nearby?"

As she spoke, she smiled slightly at Miyazaki Yu. With this guy by her side, it shouldn't matter if wild bears or even tigers appeared, since this guy was one of the few super strong people in the entire country.

The old monk chuckled and said, "It's not some cute animal like a wild bear. I'm talking about an ancient monster that loves rain and darkness and enjoys eating human souls—the Mist Tengu!"

"Mist Tengu?"

Everyone was filled with doubt and uncertainty, after all, in the mythological system of Japan, the Tengu is a very ferocious symbol.

Miyazaki Yu shook his head, stepped forward and said, "Master, there's no need for further words. We've decided to stay. It'll cost 46,000 yen in total, right? This money will appear in the donation box when we leave."

The old monk beamed with joy.

"Young people are so sensible. When I was young, I was a very straightforward person, and I never dragged things out."

Before he could finish speaking, a series of hurried footsteps sounded, and it was four young monks.

The old monk then proceeded to introduce the subject.

He pointed to a handsome young monk at the head of the group and said, "This man is the one who has been practicing the longest among the four of them, and he can be considered the elder brother of the group!"

Then he pointed to a fat monk with a big head and ears and said, "He has a huge appetite, but his cooking skills are quite good!"

Then there was a tall, thin guy.

"He is a very skillful carpenter who oversees all the carpenters in the temple!"

"As for the last one, it's the newcomer who just joined this year. Although she hasn't achieved anything yet, she's very smart and hardworking."

Miyazaki Yu's gaze swept over Xiu Nian.

From her appearance, Xiu Nian was quite ordinary. She was not tall and was a bit chubby, with an indifferent look in her eyes.

The old monk continued, "And I am the abbot of this mountain mud temple, Monk Tianyong!"

Then he hurriedly instructed, "Tun Nian and Mu Nian, quickly prepare dinner. Kuan Nian and Xiu Nian, take the guests and let them tour the place."

Kogoro looked at Miyazaki Hajime somewhat embarrassed.

"Oh dear, we agreed that I would treat you, but now..."

Miyazaki Yu smiled and said, "It's alright. I'm quite well-off now, so the cost of accommodation is nothing. Uncle Mori, please don't mind. Let's take a tour together with the two masters now."

This made Kogoro Mouri very happy.

He thought to himself, "Compared to this kid, that detective kid is far inferior. Indeed, if he were to be my son-in-law, I would definitely choose this kid."

Then, led by the two monks, Kuan Nian and Xiu Nian, the group toured the temple together.

The temple doesn't cover a very large area, but it contains many historical sites, especially the wooden buildings, which are modeled after a famous historical site in China. They are definitely worth seeing.

After touring the hall for a while, everyone came out. Conan, however, inadvertently saw a room with a lock on it.

So I couldn't resist pushing open the door and going in, only to be startled.

Chapter 260 Who says human power can't do it?

It turned out to be a very peculiar room. The room was square in shape, with an area of ​​only about four or five square meters, but the height of the roof reached more than ten meters.

At the top of the room, there was only a very small vent to keep the air flowing between the room and the outside. Overall, it was a very standard dark room.

Kogoro Mouri walked in and looked around with some curiosity.

"Young master, this room looks very strange. What is it used for?"

Kuan Nian hesitated, looking reluctant to speak, but Xiu Nian, who was wearing glasses, returned to Kogoro's question.

"This is a room for meditation, a place where monks who have broken their vows are imprisoned."

Ai, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "I see. This is the dark room you monks use, right? Locking them up here, making them all alone, to taste the bitterness of loneliness, even the strongest person wouldn't last more than a few days here, right?"

"what?"

The monk Kuan Nian looked at the frail little girl with some surprise, as she had actually said such things, but he still answered her.

“Little girl, you’re right. The ceiling here is very high, but the space is very small. Once the door is closed, it’s almost a sealed space. Only the small window at the top leads to the outside.”

Conan, standing to the side, found it slightly strange; this little girl was quite odd.

Because of his inner fear of Miyazaki Yu, he instinctively felt somewhat concerned about anyone who appeared around Miyazaki Yu.

So this morning, after meeting this girl named Ai Haibara, he couldn't help but observe her for a while.

However, aside from discovering that the girl had a somewhat aloof personality, they gained nothing else.

The only thing that could be called a discovery was that this girl was extremely intelligent; once she opened her mouth, she could get to the heart of the matter.

However, there was nothing else unusual, but I didn't expect him to say something like that at this moment.

After observing for a while, Conan noticed that the entire room was made of wood, but there was one area whose color was different from the surrounding wood, which caught Conan's attention.

"Master Xiu Nian, why is it that only this one area in the whole room has a different color of wood?"

Xiu Nian's eyes flickered slightly, and she explained, "I heard that this place was damaged because of a previous incident, and it became like this after Senior Brother Mu Nian couldn't fix it. Am I right, Senior Brother Kuan Nian?"

Kuan Nian's expression turned somewhat solemn. He knew exactly what Xiu Nian meant by her words, and he hesitated.

Kogoro Mouri, however, was completely oblivious and immediately asked the question.

"An incident? What incident? It's not a murder case, is it?"

Xiu Nian, however, did not shy away from the topic and spoke directly.

"That was an incident that happened at the temple before I entered it. I don't know the specifics, but it seems to involve the Tengu..."

But before he could continue, Kuan-nian forcibly interrupted him.

"Xiu Nian, these are things you absolutely cannot tell the guests. How could you forget all of this?"