The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 37 Evil Spirits Cause Chaos
Offering incense?

The beautiful woman's perfectly shaped phoenix eyes couldn't help but look at the broken statue.

After gazing at her for a moment, she didn't answer Du Yuan's question, but instead asked:

"Since you claim to be a Taoist priest and came to this dilapidated temple first, do you know which deity's image this is?"

Du Yuan recalled what she had seen earlier and said:
"Mountain God".

"Mountain god? This mountain has a mountain god, and even a temple like this?"

The woman examined the dilapidated temple. It wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. Normally, a temple of this size wouldn't be found in such a desolate place.

Seeing the woman's confusion, the maid immediately looked at the guard beside her, who promptly bowed and said:
"Please forgive me, Madam. Although I have carefully studied the route to ensure your safety, I truly do not know the story behind this mountain that would lead to a temple dedicated to it."

"It's likely been abandoned for many years and isn't a well-known temple, which is why we haven't been able to find any clues."

"After all, the temple of Duke Pinglan is..."

The woman didn't finish her last sentence, but she nodded knowingly and said:

"It's rare to find something that's still relatively intact after being abandoned for so long."

"It seems that passersby took precautions."

As they were talking, the first two men, having received some food and drink, thought the woman must be kind-hearted, so the somewhat timid one mustered his courage and said:

“My esteemed guest, we have actually traveled this road quite a few times, but this is the first time we have noticed that there is a temple here.”

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

The woman simply smiled and said:
"That's probably because you just didn't notice it before. After all, a temple like this wouldn't just appear out of thin air."

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

"But from now on, you'd better watch your words. There's a severe drought in the southwest, and some sorcerers are bewitching people and inciting uprisings. So if you encounter scribes or clerks in the future, you must never say anything about 'gods and ghosts'."

"So that they won't capture me and use me as a tool for their own merits."

The two men quickly bowed their heads and agreed.

After giving the two men a few instructions, the woman looked at Du Yuan and said:

Do you know the origins and history of this temple?

"What difference does it make whether you know or not? In the end, you offer incense on the road and the mountain protects you for a while. Madam, are you really not going to offer incense?"

Du Yuan roughly understood the situation: the person in the temple wasn't bad, but he really lacked incense offerings.
Otherwise, why would He have given me a small seal after I merely swept the altar and lit an incense stick?
Considering the dizziness and weakness, there might be other issues we don't know about, but that's roughly how it should be.

"You Taoist priest are quite eloquent, but we'll skip the incense offering."

A sorcerer was causing trouble in the southwest, which made the emperor extremely disgusted with the belief in gods and ghosts. As a member of the imperial family, she naturally could not afford to make any mistakes in these matters.

No one may care, but that doesn't mean it should be done.

There's no need to tell these things to a few ordinary people.

“In that case, I have spoken too much. However, would the two of you over there be willing to offer incense? I happen to have some incense prepared here.”

Feeling much better, Du Yuan took out two incense sticks from her bundle.

The timid man wanted to come up, but the leader, who was called Second Brother, glanced at the woman and then shook his head, pulling him away.

If the important person says they are unwilling, how could they possibly agree?

Fortunately, the woman noticed this and laughed:

"I am me, and you are you. Don't worry about my opinion. It's just that ordinary people want peace. Who can say they're wrong?"

The timid man was overjoyed and went forward to ask Du Yuan for two sticks of incense.

His companions couldn't dissuade him, so they had no choice but to join him in offering incense to the broken statue.

Du Yuan watched them the whole time and found that it was indeed as she had predicted, except that she would feel weak and dizzy.

Was it because I cleaned the altar extra, or because I'm different from ordinary people?

Or perhaps both?
Du Yuan couldn't understand it, and the statue wasn't speaking either.

After shaking her head, Du Yuan smiled at the woman:

"A kind-hearted woman is bound to have good fortune!"

The woman did not answer, but smiled and then led her maid behind the screen to rest.

That's it. Everyone tidied up afterward.

Only two guards remained outside to keep watch. The first half of the night passed peacefully, but in the second half, the two guards outside were preparing to call for their replacements to take over the shift when...

One of them suddenly called out to his companion:
"Something's not right!"

"what?"

The guard didn't speak, but simply gripped the hilt of his sword, then held the torch forward and said in a deep voice towards the darkness:

"Who is it? Come out!"

"What did you see?"

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

But the other party shook their head suspiciously.

"I don't know either, but I heard sounds coming from over there."

"Did you hear that right?"

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

"animal?"

"No, it didn't sound like footsteps. What I heard was footsteps, but they were very heavy."

The companion fell silent, only listening intently into the depths of the darkness.

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

"No, no, it's probably because you haven't been resting properly that your hearing is failing."

The other person started to doubt themselves after being told that.

"Okay, that's settled then. I'll go get the person on duty."

Soon, the two people who were replacing them came over.

Upon seeing the other person, he still stared intently into the depths of darkness.

The person who came to relieve the shift asked curiously:

"Is there a situation?"

His companion waved his hand and said:
"It's nothing. I listened for a long time and there was no sound. It must be that he hasn't been sleeping well these past few days, which caused a problem with his hearing."

But at that moment, the person who had spoken first suddenly spoke up:

"wrong!"

A low shout pierced the night, and the three guards behind him exchanged bewildered glances. Then, the leader's expression suddenly changed, his voice filled with horror:

"Horses, why haven't we heard a sound from our horses?"

His companions were still puzzled, and he grew impatient, lowering his voice and growling:

"We had over twenty horses tied up there, how could there not be a single neigh or any other sound?"

These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over them, instantly waking the three of them. Almost simultaneously, they exclaimed, "Go and see!"

"No, it's too dangerous to go there rashly."

The man stopped them again. After a moment's hesitation, he suddenly threw the torch in his hand toward the direction where the horse was tethered.

A sudden burst of firelight illuminated a small patch of darkness—and there they saw that their horses were still standing in the same spot. The four men breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately a chill ran up their spines.

The horses stood motionless, as if nailed to the ground. Even as burning torches rolled to their hooves and sparks splattered their manes, they didn't even blink, remaining frozen like stone statues.

This caused a guard's palms to break out in a cold sweat—last night, when he was tying up the horse, the Hequ horse had clearly kicked him. How could it be like this today?

"Throw it again!"

The guard who spoke first turned pale and snatched another torch, throwing it fiercely into the deeper darkness.

A second burst of firelight swept across the night sky, illuminating several more horses standing stiff as stone sculptures. This time, they noticed even more that the horses' manes remained perfectly still in the night wind.

At this moment, all four guards were trembling with fear, but they dared not stop what they were doing.

The third torch remained the same, but as the fourth torch flew deeper into the night, the group finally saw a partial interpretation of the nightmare: the once sleek and shiny horse lay emaciated on the ground, as if some terrifying thing had sucked the last drop of blood and flesh from it.

"What's this?!"

The four people's exclamations could no longer be suppressed and resounded through the silent night sky.

(End of this chapter)