Cultivating Immortality from the Book of Life and Death

Chapter 292 Dawn. (Second update!)

Wanshan Temple

Lu Maohong, leading the few remaining cultivators, hurried toward the gate of the Taoist temple.

The group was on edge, carefully making their way through the courtyards, constantly glancing around warily.

Just as they stepped through a begonia gate, the gloomy sky suddenly lifted a bit, revealing a sliver of dawn in the distance. A faint glow shone from behind the mountains, tinging the pale moonlight with a few streaks of almost imperceptible crimson.

Its daybreak!
Realizing this, Lu Maohong and his group were all invigorated!
The dawn broke quickly in the mountains; the first hint of light appeared in an instant, and a ray of pale golden sunlight crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, gently falling on their faces.

At the same time, as dusk receded like the tide, the vast sky was quickly ignited, and the brightness of daylight finally arrived.

Gazing at the sky above, which had turned from inky black to deep blue, the cultivators couldn't contain their excitement and breathed a sigh of relief: "It's dawn! We can go out now!"

But soon, someone thought of something and turned to Lu Maohong, asking, "Senior Lu, should we go to the guest rooms and call the others?"

Before he could finish speaking, he was immediately stopped by others who said, "What are you hearing?! Senior Lu just said he's not going back to his guest room!"

"Alright, stop arguing! What if we attract the ghosts from the temple?"

After a brief commotion, everyone quickly realized they were still in danger and immediately fell silent.

Lu Maohong's face was gloomy. He didn't say a word and kept walking forward with the group.

He was thinking rapidly when he realized that this "strange" power had weakened even further.

If there were any living monks in the guest rooms, he would indeed try to save them.

However, nowadays, they may be the only living people left in the entire Wanshan Temple!

When he last visited Wanshan Temple, many people died, but the speed and frequency of the deaths were far less than this time.

At least on the first day, although many cultivators went out to explore, as long as they didn't go to the main hall to draw lots, they were considered to have been bewitched, and they were able to wake up in their guest rooms at dusk the next day...

But this time, after inexplicably receiving an extremely unlucky fortune slip, he knew something was wrong.

Such an anomaly must be because Chen Zhentao from Xuanyuan Pavilion went to the main hall to draw lots and violated some rule of the temple, causing all the cultivators who were not in the guest rooms to suffer as a result.

Afterwards, Zheng Que also went to the main hall to draw a fortune stick. Then, ghosts from the outside world, the "Scissors Prison," came to cause trouble in this "strange" place.

When he tried to go back to his room to find Zheng Que, Zheng Que had also disappeared...

Unexpected events have occurred one after another, and now, most of the cultivators still alive in the entire convoy are just these few.

Including Chen Zhentao from Xuanyuan Pavilion, they may have already perished.

With that in mind, Lu Maohong led his group of people and soon arrived at a spacious courtyard. The courtyard was paved with blue bricks and was a very open space. In the inner part, dozens of hitching posts were lined up.

At this moment, most of these hitching posts were empty, with only a dozen or so corpse puppets standing motionless beside them, waiting for orders.

The reins and bridles on these corpse puppets were all cut off. Except for the "A" chariot which remained in place, the other six tax-collecting chariots that had been parked here earlier had all disappeared without a trace.

Upon seeing this scene, Lu Maohong frowned, but when he saw the car with the "甲" (jia) designation, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Of the ten cartloads of taxes, only this one remains. Upon arrival in the prefectural city, it will undoubtedly face a reprimand and be accused of embezzlement.

But as long as the taxes for this "Class A" vehicle are not lost, then he has completed his mission this time!
You will then have the opportunity to establish your foundation!
At this moment, the cultivators nearby also realized what had happened and asked in hushed tones, "Senior Lu, why is there only one cartload of taxes left?" "Senior Lu, what happened?"

"Senior Lu, it's still early. Shall we go and find out where the taxes for the other vehicles might be hidden in the temple?"

Hearing the questions from the cultivators all at once, Lu Maohong snapped out of his reverie, shook his head immediately, and decisively said, "Leave here immediately!"

"All the lost taxes are my sole responsibility; they have nothing to do with you!"

Without waiting for their agreement, he immediately took out an array plate from his storage bag and began to control the corpse puppet in front of him, pulling the severed rope to move the "A"-shaped vehicle forward.

step... step... step...

Soon, the corpse puppet, surrounded by its entourage, pushed the "A" shaped cart and began to move outwards.

Lu Maohong walked beside the "A" shaped vehicle, maneuvering the corpse puppet pulling the vehicle while leading it quickly toward the gate of the Taoist temple.

Seeing this, the other cultivators dared not say anything and quickly followed.

The vehicle rolled over the blue bricks, pebbles, and moss... and with a clatter of the well pulley, it quickly left the courtyard.

As the sun rose, it cast pale yellow shadows behind the group.

The shadow beneath the corpse puppet writhed like a living thing, vaguely revealing countless human faces, glaring venomously at Lu Maohong and the others.

However, Lu Maohong and his fellow cultivators were completely unaware of this.

Rushing into a familiar courtyard, ahead stood the emerald green glazed screen wall depicting plum blossoms and deer carrying lingzhi mushrooms, just as one would have seen upon entering the Taoist temple.

It was daytime, and the gate that Mu Xiangu had drawn on the wall last night had disappeared without a trace. In its place was the real gate of Wanshan Temple.

This gate stands tall and imposing, exuding an aura of antiquity and history.

Lu Maohong maneuvered the "A" car to the back of the door. Looking at the knee-high threshold in front of him, he suppressed his excitement and was about to command the corpse puppet to continue moving out when suddenly his body stiffened. A strong sense of crisis suddenly surged into his heart.

His expression changed, and he immediately stopped in his tracks.

Immediately afterward, he looked down and found that the array plate in his hand had disappeared. In its place was a smooth, murky yellow bamboo stick with a familiar inscription on it: "Wanting to cross the Yellow River, the ice blocks the way; wanting to climb Mount Taihang, the snow covers the mountain."

This is the fortune stick that suddenly appeared in my hand last night!
How come I still have this fortune stick?!

In a flash, Lu Maohong picked up the bamboo stick and turned to look behind him: "Have any of you suddenly found sticks like this in your hands...?"

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Maohong's voice abruptly stopped. He saw that the several cultivators who had been following him had somehow turned into twelve corpse puppets!

Linghu Yuniang, Wei Yingjuan, Zhang Shiwei... all the remaining cultivators have vanished!
Lu Maohong frowned and quickly threw the bamboo skewer in his hand to the ground.

pat.

With a soft thud, the bamboo skewer fell to the ground and into the moss.

But as soon as Lu Maohong raised his hand, he found that the bamboo skewer had returned to his fingertips!
Seeing this scene, his face instantly darkened.

(End of this chapter)