Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 129: The Evil Monk in the Shrine
The cool breeze from the mountain at night blows on people, giving them a slight stinging sensation.

A bonfire on the top of the mountain roared in the wind from time to time, and the firelight reflected on Xiao Ran's face, making that face dark and uncertain.

He looked up at the old Taoist priest sitting on the edge of the cliff, then looked back at the two guys who looked like meat mountains behind him, and had already planned more than a dozen escape plans in his mind.

But in the end, Xiao Ran dismissed them one by one.

This cheap master of his is no pushover, and is obviously an experienced veteran.

If I wanted to run, I was afraid that even if I moved my butt he would be able to detect my intention.

And what the Taoist of Yinshan said made Xiao Ran feel a little worried about his future as a corpse stitcher.

He likes to sew up corpses, and occasionally he will talk to the corpses while doing so. Perhaps it is due to his personality, which makes it difficult for him to fit in with the group of normal people.

But this doesn't mean that I want to turn myself into a corpse, nor do I want to take off the bits and pieces of my body and replace them with someone else's.

Feeling conflicted, Xiao Ran sat on the mountain in the cold wind for the entire night.

It was not until the next morning that he lay on the ground with an exhausted look on his face and fell into a deep sleep.

Anyway, he was not worried that his cheap master, Yinshan Taoist, would do anything to him. With this old guy's methods, there was no difference whether he was awake or asleep. It would be too easy for the other party to kill him.

When Xiao Ran opened his eyes again, it was already afternoon. The weather was gloomy in the distance. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but when he looked up, he could not see any moon or stars.

"woke up!"

The Yinshan Taoist turned his head and waved towards Xiao Ran, motioning him to come over.

Xiao Ran rubbed his eyes, got up from the ground, and walked to the side of the Yinshan Taoist priest. The old Taoist priest pointed down the mountain and said, "Look, it's quite lively down there now. Do you want to go down the mountain with Master?"

Xiao Ran looked down the mountain and saw that it was brightly lit. On the streets, there were dragon and lion dances, and various acrobatic troupes walking along the main road towards the Wang family's mansion.

What could Xiao Ran say when he heard the invitation from the Taoist priest of Yinshan? Could it be that he just didn't want to go if he said so?
Besides, there are so many people here, there might be a chance to escape.

"The disciple will never leave the master's side."

Xiao Ran stood firmly beside the Yinshan Taoist, with an attitude of "wherever the master goes, I will go."

Taoist Yinshan was very satisfied with Xiao Ran's obedience. He stood up and patted the dust off his pants: "Let's go, but let's go to another place first."

"Another place?"

The Yinshan Taoist did not explain, but just took Xiao Ran down the mountain. When they reached halfway up the mountain, he turned around and walked towards the beggars' den.

Xiao Ran suddenly felt something was wrong.

It is a lively time down there now. Many beggars have gone down the mountain to take advantage of the festival. Some beg for money, some steal. Only a few old beggars are left halfway up the mountain.

The beggars noticed someone coming and picked up their dog-beating sticks and became alert.

However, after seeing that it was Xiao Ran, the beggars relaxed. An older beggar even came forward to greet him enthusiastically: "Why are you here, Master Buddha? If you have any instructions, just let us pass on the message."

Xiao Ran looked at the enthusiastic beggar in front of him and was about to say something, but the Yinshan Taoist next to him smiled and said, "Nothing, no problem. I came to bother you today to get something."

The beggar looked at the Yinshan Taoist and thought that he was with Xiao Ran. He said politely, "Master, you must be joking. We are all beggars here. I don't know...Master, what do you need?"

"Hahahahaha."

The Taoist of Yinshan smiled and raised his hand, making a salute: "I want to go to the Wang family to see the treasure, but I am a foreigner, with nothing to lose. I came here to ask for a favor and borrow a birthday gift."

After these words were spoken, the beggars looked at each other in bewilderment.

Xiao Ran, who was standing by, felt his heart skip a beat. He took a step back, winked at a few people, and signaled them to run quickly.

Unfortunately, it was dark and cold, and the beggars' eyesight was not that good. They didn't notice Xiao Ran's hint at all, and asked in confusion, "What favor? What birthday gift?"

"Humanity has nothing to do with you, but I do need your help with the birthday gift to add some incense to this poor Taoist."

"Incense?"

The beggars were confused at first, but soon realized something. One of them raised his hand and threw a handful of lime from his sleeve at the Yinshan Taoist, shouting, "Where did you come from, you wild Taoist who dares to act wild here!"

The beggar was very skillful in his actions, using lime to clear the way and then the stick. If it were an inexperienced person, he would definitely suffer a great loss.

But facing the Yinshan Taoist's tricks, it was as ridiculous as a child stepping on his toes.

The wide robe brought up a gust of cold wind, which blew back all the splashed lime. However, the lime caught the beggars off guard and blinded their eyes. Then, without the Taoist Yinshan needing to do anything, the two mountains of flesh on the left and right behind him began to move.

These two meat mountains looked fat and white, and even a bit honest and cute, but when they really started fighting, the two machetes as big as door panels rolled up a sharp wind, and they cut the beggars in front of them in half with one encounter, just like cutting melons and vegetables.

"puff!!"

Blood splattered on the ground, and the two men walked in at a rapid pace. Wherever they passed, only screams could be heard. "Master!"

Xiao Ran listened to the screams inside and suddenly felt angry. Although these beggars had some grudges against him before, they later respected him very much. That day, they even took out pheasants that they were reluctant to eat on weekdays to cook for him. Seeing these people being slaughtered, Xiao Ran immediately couldn't help but want to dissuade Yinshan Taoist.

"Master, they are just a group of beggars. I have some acquaintance with them. Please spare their lives for my sake."

Hearing this, Yinshan Taoist looked at Xiao Ran with a half-smile: "Want to be a good person?"

Xiao Ran felt a little frightened when being stared at by the Taoist priest from Yinshan.

"Fox, today the master is going to teach you a lesson. In the underworld, you can kill people, rob people, or even be a thief, but you want to be a good person? It's hard. The master also wanted to be a good person, but later he found that the hardest thing to do in the world is to be a good person."

As the Yinshan Taoist said this, he deliberately lifted up his robe to reveal his skinny body, pointed to a sunken spot on his chest and said, "I was nearly beaten to death because I was a good person."

"I asked for help from people everywhere, prayed to gods and Buddhas, but was it any use? It was useless."

"Later I realized how difficult it is to be a good person."

The Taoist of Yinshan slowly put on his clothes.

"Later, I started to be a bad person, killing people, setting fires, raping people, and committing all kinds of evil." Yinshan Taoist turned his head and looked at Xiao Ran, "Don't they say that evil will be punished? Look at what kind of evil I have been punished for, Master?"

Xiao Ran had a cold face. Although he did not agree with what Yinshan Taoist said, he did not have the ability to refute him.

Seeing that Xiao Ran didn't say anything, the Yinshan Taoist made some gestures with his fingers, and the blood on the ground seemed to be attracted by some kind of gravity and attracted to the Yinshan Taoist's hands. Then he clenched his hands, and a thick and big red incense stick appeared in his hands.

"Some people say that this human incense requires a willing heart. In fact, it's not worth the trouble. This thing is originally prepared for those man-eating creatures. There is no need for willingness. It's all a trick used by those sneaky evil creatures to play with people's hearts. It's a pity that these idiots still believe it so wishfully."

After saying that, he inserted the incense stick into Xiao Ran's collar and said, "If you don't believe me, I'll show you a big show later."

"Hahahahaha, silly disciple."

The Yinshan Taoist pointed at Xiao Ran and strode into the dilapidated temple in front of him.

At this moment, the screams in the temple have quieted down.

The ground was covered with black blood.

The Yinshan Taoist did the same thing again, and in a blink of an eye, six more human incense sticks appeared in his hand.

"Alas, what a pity for this Buddhist temple."

The Taoist of Yinshan sighed for a while, then walked to the shrine in the corner and untied the red cloth covering it.

Sitting upright in the dark shrine was a figure that looked like a big-headed monk.

The monk was wearing a cassock covered with blood-red handprints, holding a Zen staff in his hand, and seven skulls hung on the front.

The Taoist from Yinshan took out a stick of human incense, pinched it with his fingers, and a flame ignited on the tip of the incense. He gently shook it with his left hand to extinguish the flame, and then inserted the red incense into the incense burner.

As a wisp of green smoke rose, the monk in the incense burner slowly opened his eyes. After looking at the Yinshan Taoist with greedy eyes, he immediately shifted his gaze and set his eyes on Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran became alert and calmly put the knife behind his back.

At this time, the Taoist priest Yinshan raised his walking stick and knocked on the shrine: "Master, my disciple has never seen much of the world. I'll trouble you to take him to the Wang Mansion to take a look at the old man of the Wang family."

The shrine was knocked loudly by the Yinshan Taoist, but the monk inside did not dare to show the slightest anger. He nodded his huge head, walked out of the shrine, opened his mouth and took a breath towards the incense burner.

"Sigh~~"

The red incense in the furnace instantly turned into a wisp of green smoke, which the monk inhaled into his mouth.

As the green smoke entered the mouth, the monk shook his head and his body became bigger and bigger. In a blink of an eye, he stood in front of Xiao Ran like a little giant.

There were five or six mouths split open on the huge head. As the huge head swayed, muttering came from these seven or eight big mouths.

"The Taoist priest has ordered me to take him with me, but I am greedy. I have eaten all seven of my fellow apprentices and even the bones of my master. If I lose control of my mouth and eat this kid, please don't blame me, Taoist priest."

When Xiao Ran heard this, he felt a chill in his heart and his skin tightened. He immediately turned to look at the Taoist priest Yinshan.

The Taoist of Yinshan said indifferently: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Elder."

After saying that, he walked to Xiao Ran's side, and the smile on his sallow face became weird: "Zhonghu'er, Master will not accompany you on this trip. If you see the treasure of the Wang family, read this letter in public, and Master will ensure that you escape unscathed."

As he spoke, the Taoist priest from Yinshan took out a letter from his sleeve. On the letter was a red-headed centipede.

Before Xiao Ran could pick it up, Yinshan Taoist stuffed it into his arms. For a moment, Xiao Ran actually felt that the centipede followed the letter into his arms and crawled all over his body. He could even hear the rustling sound of the centipede in his ears...

(End of this chapter)