Mysteries of the Great Zhou Dynasty

Chapter 65 Hostages
Rong Wanyin saw a mountain rising from the ground in front of her, with a vertical height difference of nearly thirty feet. The upper part was divided into two, and there was a flat land on each peak, as if it was flattened by someone's sword. There was an arch bridge across the two peaks. The arch bridge was an open-shoulder arch with high-angled wing corners and painted tassels. It was high above the sea of ​​clouds and fog. There was a courtyard on each side, connected by a bridge in the middle. It seemed to be about to fly into the sky, which can be described as "Ten thousand scenes overlooking the valleys, and thousands of peaks arching above."

The mountain was surrounded by sheer cliffs, suspended only by a single iron rope. Rong Wanyin had no choice but to climb the rope. Nearing the summit, she saw a nearly vertical stone staircase. She climbed the rope and then the stone steps, finally reaching the summit. She then saw the gate of a courtyard, with the three characters "Feitianyuan" inscribed in large cursive script. Written in a single stroke, the characters were uninhibited yet possessed a certain spirituality.

"What a beautiful calligraphy!" Rong Wanyin was shocked by the majestic building and praised the wildness of the calligraphy, which was enough to show that the owner of this courtyard was a wild and unrestrained madman with a deep mind.

The door creaked open, but there was no one inside. The courtyard was full of lush trees. Suddenly, Rong Wanyin smelled a strong scent. It was the same smell as before, camphor tree!

Rong Wanyin recalled the smell of the living dead, and her stomach suddenly churned, and she began to retch. This forest wasn't big, but it wasn't small either, and yet there was no way out. It seemed the trees were arranged according to a certain formation.

Rong Wanyin retreated to the gate, pulled out a dart and a bundle of red silk thread, tied the red silk thread to the end of the dart, and then threw it out with force and stability. The dart flew straight into the depths of the woods, finally getting stuck in a tree. Rong Wanyin walked to the tree with the dart, and without removing the dart, she prepared it according to the same method, comparing it to the red silk thread from before, and threw another one. After several consecutive darts, she finally reached another courtyard gate, which she thought should be the gate to the inner courtyard.

Rong Wanyin was about to knock on the door when suddenly, with a creaking sound, three puppets appeared, each armed with a knife. Each puppet had wheels under its feet, and it was unknown how the mechanism worked, but each had its own trajectory, yet it managed to avoid colliding with the others. Although the puppets were clumsy, they coordinated well, and Rong Wanyin was momentarily unable to escape. One puppet swung at Rong Wanyin with a knife, but Rong Wanyin dodged with a deft movement, drawing the flexible sword from her waist and stabbing the puppet. However, due to the wood the puppet was made of, the flexible sword bent and could not penetrate, leaving only a small mark on the wood.

Rong Wanyin quickly retreated, thinking to herself: Oh no, what is this puppet made of? It's so hard!

This battle is bound to be a difficult one!

Rong Wanyin tiptoed up the tree, crouching on a thick branch, carefully observing the puppets' movements and trajectories. Holding her breath, Rong Wanyin retracted her soft sword and drew the dagger from her boot. Grasping it with both hands, she leaped down from the tree, aimed it at the gap between the puppets' arms and bodies, and thrust it straight in. With a flick of her wrist, the puppets' arms were instantly detached. In a few strokes, the three puppets were shattered. A slight bead of sweat formed on Rong Wanyin's forehead. Finally, these annoying puppets had been dealt with.

At this moment, a creaking sound echoed behind Rong Wanyin. She turned around and saw dozens of the same puppets rushing towards her! Just these three were already a bit of a stretch, and now there are so many! And who knows how many more there will be! Rong Wanyin took a step back, swallowed, and beads of sweat dripped down her forehead. This was probably going to be a fierce battle! She clenched the dagger in her hand.
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The palms of his clenched hands were full of sweat, and the situation on Yan Mingzhang's side was not optimistic either.

It was already night, and a circle of villagers holding torches formed outside the inn. Leading the group was Taoist Master Xuanji and a group of young Taoist priests. No one knew how Taoist Master Xuanji had instigated the villagers, but they were filled with righteous indignation and wished to tear everyone in the inn into pieces.

Inside the inn, a circle of firewood was burning, with flames shooting up into the sky. Changfeng and his subordinates confronted it. It seemed that the first layer of canal defense had been breached.

"Hand him over quickly! He has angered the mountain god. If we don't hand him over, the mountain god will be angry and our village will be in danger!" "That's right, hand him over! Don't let him get us into trouble!"

The villagers of Wenquan Village were filled with righteous indignation, holding hoes and other farm tools and shouting.

"Don't be bewitched by this evil Taoist. We are the servants of Fengxian County's government office. Inside is our Chief Justice, Lord Yan! Are you trying to murder an official appointed by the imperial court? This is a serious crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of your clan! Lord Yan is kind-hearted and knows that you have been bewitched by this evil Taoist. He will not pursue your responsibility. Do you still want to be stubborn?" Changfeng said solemnly with full energy, and the firelight made his face red.

When asked by Changfeng, the villagers looked at each other in confusion. Although they still shouted at each other to hand over the person, their arrogance had subsided.

"Fellow villagers, they say they are the Chief Justice. Are they really the Chief Justice? Maybe it's just an excuse. Besides, we have offended the Mountain God and attracted the Red Spider. If they don't hand over the people, we will die now. As long as we kill them all, no one will know whether they have been here or not. Why bother about whether this Chief Justice is real or fake? If he is real, he should be killed. We have already offended them. Do you think we will still have a chance to survive if we let them escape?" Taoist Xuanji encouraged.

The villagers, fooled by this, hesitated again, not knowing what to do. One villager bravely retorted, "But they said that if we leave now, they won't hold us accountable... I think we should just leave!"

A trace of murderous intent flashed in the eyes of Taoist Xuanji, and the fingers in his sleeves moved. The red spider that was originally circling the inn turned around in an instant, pounced on the person who had just spoken, and instantly sucked the person dry.

The villagers screamed in fear, and some of the timid ones even wet their pants.

"Who among you wants to leave now? This has offended the Lord Mountain God, and you will suffer the consequences!" Taoist Xuanji said unscrupulously. If he hadn't kept these villagers to help him attract business, he would have killed them all long ago!
The villagers were terrified, yet they also saw the true face of this demonic Taoist. But who dared speak out at this moment? The one who regretted the most was the village chief. He secretly lamented how he had let the profit blind him and believed the demonic Taoist's words. To attract more guests to his inn, he helped spread the rumor that the mountain temple could bring the dead back to life. Even after his grandson was harmed, he still helped commit murder and robbery. Now it was too late to regret. He had truly been blinded by greed.

"I heard that our Chief Justice loves his people like his own children. I believe you don't want to see these people die for you, right? I'll give you a quarter of an hour. Quickly surrender. Maybe if I'm in a good mood, I can leave your bodies intact and make you all into puppets for me to control. Wouldn't you be honored? Hahahaha!" The Taoist Xuanji's eyes were red, and he had already been possessed by a demon.

Seeing that the previous method didn't work, Taoist Xuanji raised his arm and waved it. The red spider instantly surrounded all the villagers, and the villagers who were trapped in the middle screamed continuously.