The more you believe me, the more true I am. Chapter 037

“Paying respects with incense?”

The beautiful woman’s standard phoenix eyes could not help but look at the broken divine statue.

After staring for a moment, she did not answer Du Yuan’s question, but instead asked:

“Since you say you are a Taoist priest and arrived at this dilapidated place first, do you know whose divine statue this is?”

Du Yuan recalled what he had seen earlier and said:

“Mountain God.”

“Mountain God? This mountain has a Mountain God, and it’s even a temple like this?”

The woman examined the dilapidated temple. It was not large, but it was not small either. Under normal circumstances, a temple of this size would not appear in such a remote wilderness.

Amidst the woman’s doubts, the maid immediately looked at the guard next to her. The guard immediately cupped his hands and said:

“Madam, please forgive me. Although I have carefully studied the route to ensure your safety, I truly do not know the history of this mountain that would lead to a Mountain God temple.”

“It must have been abandoned for some years, so we couldn’t find any clues.”

The woman nodded and said:

“It’s been abandoned for so long, yet it’s still relatively intact. That’s rare.”

“It must be that passersby have maintained it.”

While they were talking, the first two men, having received food and wine, felt that this woman must be kind-hearted. So the slightly timid one boldly said:

“Noble lady, we have actually taken this path several times, but this is the first time we’ve noticed a temple here.”

He must have been scared and felt that something was wrong, wanting to say there might be a problem, but no one paid attention to it.

The woman merely smiled and said:

“That’s most likely just because you didn’t notice it before. After all, how could a temple like this appear out of thin air?”

But after speaking, she turned to the two men and said:

“But from now on, you must be careful with what you say. The great drought in the Southwest has led to evil Taoist priests bewitching people and inciting civil unrest. So, if you encounter officials or scribes in the future, you must never say anything ‘supernatural’ or ‘ghostly’.”

“Lest they seize you to claim credit.”

The two men quickly bowed their heads and assented.

After cautioning the two men, the woman looked at Du Yuan again and said:

“Do you know the origin of this temple?”

“What if I know, what if I don’t? In any case, a path needs a stick of incense, and a mountain protects a journey. Madam, are you really not planning to offer a stick of incense?”

Du Yuan roughly understood. The deity in the temple was not bad, but truly lacked incense offerings…

Otherwise, why would He give him a small seal just for sweeping the altar and offering a stick of incense?

Considering the dizziness and exhaustion, there might be other unknown problems, but generally, it should be like this.

“You, Taoist priest, are quite eloquent, but I’ll forgo offering incense.”

With evil Taoist priests causing trouble in the Southwest, the emperor had grown very disgusted with talk of gods and ghosts. As a noble relative, she naturally could not make mistakes in these matters.

It might not matter to anyone, but that didn’t mean it should be done.

However, there was no need to explain these things to common folk.

“In that case, this humble Taoist has spoken too much. However, are those two gentlemen willing to offer incense? This humble Taoist happens to have incense prepared.”

Feeling much better, Du Yuan took out two sticks of incense from his bag.

The timid man wanted to come forward, but the leader, called Second Brother, looked at the woman and then pulled him back, shaking his head.

If the noble lady said no, how could they?

Fortunately, the woman noticed this and smiled:

“I am me, and you are you. You don’t need to care about my opinion. It’s just common people seeking peace and safety; who can say that’s wrong?”

The timid man immediately rejoiced and stepped forward, asking Du Yuan for two sticks of incense.

His companion couldn’t dissuade him and had to follow along to offer a stick of incense to the fragmented divine statue.

Du Yuan watched them the entire time and found that it was indeed as he had expected; only he experienced that exhaustion and dizziness.

Was it because I additionally cleaned the altar, or because I am different from ordinary people?

Or both?

Du Yuan couldn’t figure it out, and the divine statue did not speak again.

After shaking his head, Du Yuan smiled at the woman and said:

“Madam is kind-hearted, and surely has good karma!”

The woman did not reply, but merely smiled before taking her maid behind the screen to rest.

At this point, everyone tidied up.

Only two guards remained outside to stand watch.

The first half of the night passed peacefully. In the latter half, as the two guards outside were about to call the next shift to relieve them.

One person suddenly stopped his companion and said:

“Something’s not right!”

“What?”

The guard did not speak, but pressed his hand on the hilt of his waist saber, then extended his torch forward, and said in a deep voice to the dark void:

“Who’s there? Come out!”

“What did you see?”

His companion also pressed his hand on his waist saber and looked around, but found nothing.

However, the other person suspiciously shook his head.

“I’m not sure, but I heard a sound from over there.”

“Misheard?”

“I heard it three times in a row. Each time was the same, so it can’t be wrong.”

“Animal?”

“Doesn’t sound like it. I heard what sounded like footsteps, but they were very heavy.”

His companion stopped speaking, merely tilting his ear to listen into the deep darkness.

After listening for a long time, he shook his head repeatedly and said:

“No, no, you must not have rested well, causing your ears to be faulty.”

The other person was also starting to doubt himself.

“Alright, let’s leave it at that. I’ll go call the people for the next shift.”

Soon, the two people for the shift change came over.

Seeing that the other person was still staring intently into the deep darkness.

The person who came to take over the shift asked strangely:

“Something wrong?”

His companion waved his hand and said:

“Nothing, I listened for a long time and there was no movement. He must not have slept well these past few days, causing his ears to have problems.”

But just then, the person who spoke first suddenly exclaimed:

“No!”

The low shout cut through the night. The three guards behind him exchanged bewildered glances, their faces full of confusion. Then they saw the lead guard’s face suddenly change, his voice filled with alarm:

“The horses, why haven’t our horses made any noise?”

His companions were still puzzled. He anxiously lowered his voice and growled:

“We have over twenty horses tied there, how could there not be even a whinny, not a single sound?”

These words were like a basin of ice water poured over them. The three instantly sobered up, almost simultaneously saying, “Go quickly and check!”

“No, going rashly is too dangerous.”

The man stopped them again. He pondered for a moment, then suddenly threw the torch in his hand towards where the horses were tied.

The fire flared up, illuminating a small patch of darkness—they saw their horses indeed standing still. The four initially breathed a sigh of relief, but the next second, a chill ran up from their feet.

Because the horses seemed to be nailed to the ground, not moving a muscle. Even when the burning torch rolled to their hooves, and sparks splattered onto their manes, they didn’t even blink, standing rigid as stone statues.

This made one guard’s palms uncontrollably break out in cold sweat—last night when tying the horses, that Hequ horse had clearly kicked him. How could it be like this today?

“Throw again!”

The guard who first spoke, his face pale, snatched another torch and fiercely threw it into the deeper darkness.

The second ball of fire rolled across the night sky, illuminating a few more horses standing rigid as stone statues. This time, they noticed even more that the horses’ manes were completely still in the night wind.

At this moment, all four guards’ hearts were pounding, but their actions in their hands did not dare to stop.

The third ball of fire was the same, but when the fourth torch flew into the depths, everyone finally saw half of the nightmare: the sleek, well-groomed horses from the daytime now lay shriveled and lifeless on the ground, as if some terrifying entity had sucked out their last drop of flesh and blood.

“What is this?!”

The four men’s exclamations could no longer be suppressed, echoing thunderously in the silent night.