This place is fun

Chapter 166 Ancient Temple
Su Daoshan kicked a short and strong crazy puppet with pale skin and bulging veins, pulled out the sword that had pierced the opponent's heart, dodged its struggling and twitching corpse, and continued to move forward in the mountains and forests, panting.

He brushed away the branches that were brushing against his face and cursed his bad luck in his heart.

Originally, Su Daoshan thought that even if he wanted to leave the city, he would have to wait until daybreak. He would have to explain to his family that he had to stay in the camp for the next few days because of the heavy military duties. He would also have to explain to the camp, either asking for leave or finding a mission to escort patrol outside, and then take the opportunity to leave. As for the change of clothes and food for the journey, they had to be fully prepared.

In his previous life, Su Daoshan was an obsessive planner. Whether it was studying or working, he had to make detailed plans in advance. Even if he suddenly wanted to go on a so-called spontaneous trip, he would read the guide again and again, and arrange the route and accommodation in advance, otherwise he would always feel like something was missing and feel empty and uncertain.

But this time, Su Daoshan didn't expect Song Xier to be so anxious, and she dragged him away without saying a word. In order to avoid alerting the city defense, the two of them didn't even ride horses. After leaving the city, they started to run all the way here.

Su Daoshan could fully imagine how panicked his family would be if they didn't wait for him to return for two hours, and what kind of chaos would be in the camp when they learned that he was missing.

The only thing to be thankful for is that I have now entered the Cold Valley and am part of the sect's disciple system. Even if I join the army, I have considerable freedom. Moreover, I am only joining the militia. Even if I disappear for a while, the violation of discipline is only at the level of the Yishan City Guard. Otherwise, the crime of deserting the battlefield alone can cost me half my life.

But after leaving the city and walking along the way, Su Daoshan found that the changes in the situation were far beyond his imagination.

The area within 10-20 kilometers from Yishan City was fine. This area was under the strong control of the military. Troops were currently heading to various places. Everywhere you looked, there were temporary camps and torches on the march. Occasionally, you would encounter some crazy puppets and strange beasts, and the battles would also start and end quickly. Apart from the shouts of people and the neighs of horses, even the chirping of birds could not be heard.

But the further you go outside, the more chaotic the situation becomes.

With the appearance of the You Clan's wormhole, the mad puppets and strange beasts within a radius of hundreds of miles seemed to be mobilized by invisible commands. They poured out from the mountains and forests, the ruins of towns, and every corner where few people went, like tributaries converging together, madly attacking and killing all life within sight.

Now in Su Daoshan's memory, there are still memories of the original body running away from home and running to Chongguang City. Compared with that time, there are dozens of times more crazy puppets and strange beasts in the mountains.

It can be said that it is everywhere in the mountains and plains.

Also driven out by the war were refugees and bandits.

As Yishan City became a battlefield, a cold order was issued from the main camp, and many refugee settlements that smelled danger began to migrate.

Ordinary refugees were in rags, carrying the elderly and children, and trudging through the mountains. They were already skinny due to lack of food and clothing, and their bodies were full of poison accumulated from eating mutated wild vegetables and exotic beasts. Many people fell down on the side of the road while walking, becoming dinner for vultures. Others continued to move forward with numb expressions, and no one even looked at them.

If these refugees are sheep, then the bandits are wolves. These people have a certain amount of military power, and usually occupy the best resources in the camp, so their combat power should not be underestimated. They usually attack and kill caravans in groups of three or five, and now that they are in chaos, they naturally have no scruples. Even if they are fleeing to avoid the army's crackdown, they will still burn, kill and plunder along the way.

At this time, troops were being transferred from other counties and cities to Yishan City for assembly, and the troops in Yishan City were dispatched to different places. Coupled with the free-moving sect warriors, it can be said that the entire periphery of Yishan City was in chaos.

When he was in Yishan City before, Su Daoshan knew that the outside world would be very chaotic. But until he saw it with his own eyes, he realized that the cruelty of this chaotic world was more than ten or a hundred times greater than he had imagined.

Along the way, I saw countless corpses.

The two also encountered several groups of crazy puppets on the way. Although their number was not large, it still took some effort to defeat them.

"Bang bang..." The crazy puppet behind him was still jumping on the ground like a skinned frog, slapping the ground with its limbs, making noises. Su Daoshan panted and looked back, looking exhausted and frightened.

"It's really dangerous, Senior Sister, wait for me..."

In front, Song Xier, who had transformed into Fan Caiyi, turned around and looked at this guy coldly.

If there were outsiders, seeing this guy's appearance, they would probably think that he had gone through a hard battle along the way. But only Song Xier knew that since leaving Yishan City, this guy had been following her all the way, leaving all the crazy puppets and strange beasts encountered along the way to her, and he just watched the show idly by the side.

"You promised to keep me safe along the way."

Whenever Song Xier thought of how this kid felt comfortable hiding behind her and being lazy, and how he said some weird things like "spirit of contract", "I don't want to be a beast of burden", "why not lie down if you can", etc., she felt so angry that her teeth itched.

She felt that the people in Yishan City were blind.

How is it possible that such a guy could pretend to be honest and dull for so many years and no one noticed!
As for the crazy puppet in front of him, it was only the first one he had killed along the way. And it was this crazy puppet that suddenly jumped out of the forest, and it was too close for him to dodge, so he had to attack it. It only took one sword to kill it in seconds, so why did he need to look so scared and tired?

"There is an abandoned temple ahead. Let's go there to rest." Song Xier was too lazy to pay attention to Su Daoshan. She jumped onto a huge rock, and after a few leaps, she reached a high place in the forest.

"Yes." Su Daoshan agreed in a muffled voice, took two quick steps, and climbed the small slope. Looking up, he saw a stone embankment on the hillside several dozen meters ahead. On the embankment, an ancient temple showed half of its eaves among the leaves.

“There’s actually an ancient temple here?”

When Su Daoshan climbed up the steps of the fortress and walked in front of the ancient temple, he could not help but look around and marvel at the surroundings.

This place is more than 40 miles away from Yishan City. In order to avoid being seen, the two did not take the main road, but chose to go directly into the mountains and forests. Even some forest paths were deliberately avoided. In this case, the probability of encountering an ancient temple in the wilderness is about the same as winning the lottery.

The temple is not big, with only a square courtyard. In front is the temple gate, facing a hall, and on the left and right are the side rooms. Due to the long years of wind and sun, it has become dilapidated. There should have been a plaque hanging on the temple gate, but it has disappeared. Even the door beam, the wall next to it and the side rooms have collapsed in half.

Standing at the door, at a glance, only the main hall in front was still somewhat intact. But the crooked doors and windows were half-closed, and it was unclear what gods were enshrined inside.

"This is a family temple," Song Xier, who had walked to the other side of the fortress, suddenly said, "Look..."

Su Daoshan walked to Song Xier's side and followed her gaze. When he came up from the northeast side of the mountain, his vision was blocked. It was not until this moment that he discovered that there was an abandoned farm in the valley to the south.

The village is not big, with about 40 to 50 households. Most of the houses are concentrated on the hillside with a small river in the southeast direction, and the remaining seven or eight households are distributed in other directions of the valley. Although it has been abandoned for a long time and overgrown with weeds, you can still vaguely distinguish the farmland that was opened up according to the water source and terrain, the ladders built, and the stone walls built.

In the northern part of Xiazhou, due to the bitter cold climate, barren land, lack of rain and water, it is difficult to see large villages and towns with different surnames like those in the south. The indigenous people here live together based on their surnames and blood ties. Whether it is daily labor, going out to fight with others, or even doing murder and robbery, fathers, sons and brothers are all on the battlefield, and outsiders can't get into the circle at all. Therefore, such a temple can only be a family temple. There can't be outsiders in the manor of dozens of families. They built the temple here, naturally not for outsiders to worship.

Today was a sunny day with no clouds or rain, but at night it was freezing cold. After not sleeping all day, Su Daoshan took a quick look at the dilapidated farm and lost interest, so he went into the main hall of the ancient temple first.

There was a "boom".

The half-opened and loose wooden lattice door fell to the ground with just one push.

Walking into the hall, although it was pitch black, Su Daoshan could still see the whole room clearly with the eyesight of a scholar. He was surprised to find that although it had been abandoned for a long time, the hall was not as dirty and dilapidated as it looked from the outside.

The floor of the hall was paved with half-meter square tiles, which were straight and evenly spaced, and each tile was polished to be extremely smooth. The overall look was like a flat black mirror. Moreover, whether it was the floor or the beams, pillars, doors and windows inside, there was only a thin layer of dust, and there were no spider webs or bird nests in the corners. It didn't look like it had been abandoned for at least decades.

What surprised Su Daoshan the most was the shrine in the center of the hall.

There was obviously a statue enshrined on the high shrine. If it was a family temple, usually the one enshrined here should be an ancestor of the family who was worthy of respect and praise from descendants. But now, two-thirds of the statue has disappeared, and from the gap, it seems that it was not smashed, but cut in half by a sharp weapon.

The fracture is as smooth as a mirror.

It was this remaining one-third of the statue that attracted Su Daoshan's attention.

The lower half of the statue was carved with the hem of a robe. The carving was exquisite and the knifework was smooth. The folds of the robe were so natural that they seemed to be fluttering in the wind. However, the two feet exposed from under the robe, the left one was a normal boot, and the right one was a bird's claw!
The craftsman who sculpted the statue apparently did not intend to hide the bird's claw. On the contrary, this claw, which was covered with some fine scales and looked like an eagle's claw, looked much larger than another normal human foot.

"Look..." Feeling Song Xier approaching, Su Daoshan pointed at the bird's claw in surprise and asked, "What is this?"

"The Temple of the Strange God." When leaving Yishan City, Song Xier tied a red hairband and appeared in the appearance of Fan Caiyi. At this moment, she glanced at the statue, turned her head away with a calm face, and said indifferently, "Twenty years before the catastrophe of the destruction of the world, strange phenomena occurred frequently in various places, and strange events and legends emerged one after another. A large number of sacrifices to the strange gods were also popular during that period..."

She looked up at the hall and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this temple was also built at that time. Perhaps the people of this village saw some strange vision or came into contact with someone."

After saying that, Song Xier found a cushion in the corner and sat down. She took out a porcelain bottle and poured out two white pills. She took one herself and threw the other to Su Daoshan: "This is Ju Yuan Pill, which can replenish physical strength and restore internal energy."

Su Daoshan took the pill and when he looked closely, he found that Song Xier had closed her eyes and started meditating and regulating her breathing.

Seeing this, Su Daoshan also found a cushion not far away and sat down, but he did not take the pill in his hand.

Juyuan Dan is a pill used to replenish physical strength and restore Qi and blood. The spiritual power contained in it is equivalent to a pound of spiritual millet. However, spiritual millet can only be digested slowly and cannot be replenished in a short time, while Juyuan Dan can take effect quickly, so it is quite popular in the army. Especially in the case of long-term and high-intensity combat, for many ordinary warriors, a Juyuan Dan is equivalent to an extra half of their lives.

Su Daoshan was originally a man of great memory and knowledge, and he also knew something about elixirs. He knew that one of them cost at least three small jade coins. And if you were not a disciple of a sect with a deep foundation, you couldn't buy it even if you had money.

For such a good thing that can be converted into cash at a critical moment, Su Daoshan would definitely keep it.

As for recovering physical strength and internal energy... as long as the body is not overdrawn repeatedly to the point of exhaustion, it will not be a problem for Su Daoshan who has nearly 30,000 spiritual energy.

Su Daoshan used his divine sense to pick a twenty-coin Lingyun fruit from the sea of ​​consciousness, happily transformed it into vitality, and began to meditate and regulate his breathing. After a few minutes, his physical fatigue was eliminated, and his qi and blood became full.

This speed is much faster than the process of meditating for at least half an hour to refine the Ju Yuan Dan.

Seeing Song Xier still meditating, Su Daoshan was bored for a moment, and suddenly remembered the two skills Xie Xunbai gave him before he left. As the saying goes, more skills are better. Now that he has left Yishan City, there are dangers everywhere, so the more means and trump cards he has to save his life, the better.

The two jade tablets of martial arts skills are "Ice Armor Skill" and "Wind and Snow Meridian Cutting Hand".

Su Daoshan thought about it and decided to practice Ice Armor Technique first.

He put away the jade token of Fengxue's pulse-cutting hand, then took out the waist token of Hangu disciples and moved it close to the jade token of Bingjiagong. As the trace of blood in the waist token was activated, the jade quality of the surface of Bingjiagong's jade token instantly faded and turned into a stone token. And the next second, the torrent of information about the skill that could only be understood but not expressed in words poured into his mind.

The ancient temple was quiet, with only the breathing of the boys and girls and the sound of the forest trees swaying in the wind outside.

Su Daoshan has been completely immersed in the understanding of the martial arts.

Song Xier was originally meditating and regulating her breathing, but suddenly she seemed to feel something, so she opened her eyes and looked towards Su Daoshan.

Su Daoshan was sitting on a cushion three meters away, with his head down, leaning against the wall, his figure lazily and casually, holding a stone tablet of martial arts in his hand. He was just sitting there simply, but for some reason, Song Xier felt a sense of emptiness from him. It was as if he was here, but not here. He seemed to be sitting still, but also seemed to be floating and moving with the wind.

Then, Song Xier's gaze fell on Su Daoshan's exposed skin.

Face, neck, hands... His skin gradually began to change color. Originally his skin was fair, but now it became even whiter. It felt like being in an extremely cold winter night, and his whole body was gradually covered by falling snow.

At the beginning, the white color is as rich as milk, but the texture seems loose. However, as time goes on, the snow-white color becomes transparent, and the texture becomes pure and solid, like ice crystals.

"Snapped!"

The stone tablet of martial arts in Su Daoshan's hand suddenly turned into powder.

Ice Armor Skill, See God!

(End of this chapter)