I manage female characters in all the heavens.

All of this was observed by "Nie Xiaoqian" who was standing at the second-floor window.

A slight smile played on her lips, and a hint of amusement flashed in her eyes.

Even heaven and earth are leading people towards evil; this is indeed a powerful world.

As evening approached, the rain intensified, blurring the sky and earth as if to engulf the world.

The monks of Lanruo Temple began to get busy. The clattering of pots and pans came from the kitchen, and soon, the aroma of food filled the air.

The temple prepared a vegetarian meal, which was provided free of charge to everyone in the group.

Although everyone had brought their own dry rations, who would eat dry rations when they could have a hot meal? Everyone immediately thanked the hospitable monks of Lanruo Temple and then wolfed down their food.

The escorting troops were not allowed to eat outside food at will according to military regulations. During the mission, they had to either eat the dry rations they brought with them or cook their own meals.

However, the Changming Dynasty was in decline, and it was difficult to implement the laws of the court and the regulations of the army. The military command system was also filled with incompetent officials, and this army was no exception, making it impossible to strictly control.

Seeing that they were getting free hot meals, everyone immediately forgot about the laws and regulations.

"Thank you all so much, masters!" the captain leading the group said with a grin. "Please give my thanks for your guidance!"

With that, he waved his hand and said, "Brothers, let's go eat!"

The soldiers cheered and put down their rations, rushing towards the kitchen.

Before long, a long queue formed in front of the kitchen.

The monks carried out several large buckets of steaming hot vegetarian food, as well as several buckets of vegetable soup. Although they were all vegetarian dishes, they were quite oily and tasted good. Being able to eat a hot meal in this desolate wilderness was a rare treat.

The soldiers wolfed down their food, their mouths greasy with oil.

Qingluo, Nie Xiaoqian's maid, also went to get a vegetarian meal and brought it to her mistress's room, afraid that she would go hungry.

Nie Xiaoqian casually rummaged through the food, finding only the delayed-acting sleeping potion as an extra ingredient, but nothing else particularly interesting.

She was very disappointed. The monks at Lanruo Temple had indeed been eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist scriptures for too long, and all they could come up with was sleeping potion.

Unlike her, who had only been in this world for two days, she already had all the necessary medicines on her person.

Whether it's murder and arson, or destroying evidence, she has specific plans to avoid exposing her absorption technique.

She didn't care that the food had been spiked with drugs and ate it all without a second thought.

For ordinary people, sleeping pills are a drug that causes sleep disturbances, but for her, they were just a seasoning.

If I don't add some medicine to her diet, she'll feel that her food isn't getting enough nutrition.

After the meal, Nie Yan brought "Nie Xiaoqian" to the main hall of the temple.

The hall was brightly lit by candles, and the air was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood.

Nie Yan sat upright on the prayer mat, his hands clasped together, his eyes closed in prayer, looking like a devout Buddhist.

The abbot sat opposite him, holding prayer beads, with a compassionate expression, and chanting mantras.

As the leader of the group that came to the temple to stay overnight, Nie Yan had a duty to come and symbolically express his respect for the Buddha, and at the same time offer some money for incense and oil, which was a matter of social etiquette.

We can't let the masters work for nothing, can we?

"Nie Xiaoqian" stood behind Nie Yan, arms crossed, looking at the Buddha statue with a bored expression.

The Buddha statue's gold paint was peeling off, and its face was mottled, giving it a somewhat eerie appearance in the flickering candlelight.

She stared at the hole in the Buddha statue's eye for a long time, silently wondering what it would be like if a centipede suddenly crawled out of it.

She stood there for a while, then grew impatient. She looked around, glancing at the murals in the hall, then at the night view outside the window, and then at picking at her nails. In short, she showed no sign of piety whatsoever in worshipping Buddha.

The host couldn't help but glance at this beautiful but completely ill-mannered girl a few times. Seeing her carefree demeanor, he frowned slightly, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Nie Yan was chanting sutras with his eyes closed, but Benxin's expression changed unexpectedly, which caught his eye. His heart skipped a beat, and when he turned around, he was immediately furious.

"Yaoguang!" he said in a low voice, a hint of anger in his voice, "What are you doing?!"

"I didn't do anything."

"Nie Xiaoqian" looked completely innocent. "I was just standing here, I didn't do anything."

"Then you have no manners!" Nie Yan glared at her. "When facing Buddha, one must be respectful, solemn, and dignified! What kind of behavior is this?!"

"Buddha is compassionate, how could he mind my rudeness? If he did mind, would he still be compassionate?"

“The Buddha is not in temples, not on lotus thrones, not on the surface, but in the heart. As long as I have the Buddha in my heart, even without these superficial practices, can I be said to be disrespectful to the Buddha?”

Nie Xiaoqian looked at the abbot and asked in her soul, "May I ask the abbot, should we respect the Buddha in our hearts or the Buddha statue in the temple?"

I remain silent, letting the benefactor understand for themselves.

"Enough! Stop arguing!" Nie Yan snapped. "Stand still!"

Nie Xiaoqian pouted and reluctantly straightened up, but her eyes still darted around, clearly not taking her father's words to heart.

She doesn't respect Buddha statues at all; she wouldn't even respect a real Buddha.

What a great Buddha he is, worthy of the respect of the Sun God King, the Great Sun Immortal Venerable, the Heavenly Flower Emperor, the Purple Star Sword Ancestor, and the Netherworld Saint Ancestor?

Nie Yan sighed helplessly and cupped his hands in greeting to Benxin: "My daughter is unruly and has made you laugh, Master."

"It's alright, it's alright. Your daughter is innocent and carefree, with a pure heart, which is a good thing." Benxin smiled warmly and spoke gently, seemingly without any temper.

Nie Xiaoqian didn't even lift her eyelids, thinking to herself that Nie Yan was still too young and was getting into all this formalities.

If she were the leader of this group, she wouldn't care about social niceties or offering incense money; she could simply order everyone here to be killed and the Lanruo Temple to rest.

How can I tolerate someone else snoring beside my bed?

Seeing her nonchalant attitude, Nie Yan felt another headache coming on. He waved his hand and said, "Alright, get out of here. Don't get in my way."

"okay!"

"Nie Xiaoqian" immediately turned around and walked out of the main hall without hesitation.

Nie Yan watched her departing figure, shook his head, and gave Benxin a bitter smile: "My daughter lost her mother at a young age and was spoiled by me. She is lacking in manners, and I hope you will forgive her, Master."

Benxin smiled slightly: "Lord Nie is overthinking it. Your daughter is innocent and carefree, and has a genuine nature. Come, let's continue."

As he spoke, he twirled his prayer beads and began chanting scriptures again. He would chant a sentence, and Nie Yan would chant a sentence after him, their attitudes very upright.

But in reality, he was also daydreaming about which mountain to worship after arriving in the capital so that he could retire alive.

Therefore, he resorted to superstition, consulting his conscience about his career prospects, risks, and so on.

Alas, this is not how officials behave!

After leaving the main hall, "Nie Xiaoqian" did not return to her room, but instead began to wander around Lanruo Temple.

She was trying to find the Tree Demon Granny, whose current cultivation status was unknown.

The Tree Demon Granny's true form is a thousand-year-old locust tree, which is rooted near Lanruo Temple. Due to the restrictions imposed by the Tree Demon, she cannot move her home and can only use Lanruo Temple and the surrounding area as her territory.

The story of A Chinese Ghost Story takes place several decades after Nie Xiaoqian's death. By then, the Tree Demon Granny had already cultivated herself and started causing evil. However, it is still several decades ago, and it is still unknown whether the Tree Demon Granny is a simple thousand-year-old locust tree or has become a demon.

Nie Xiaoqian speculated that the Tree Demon Granny should not have become a demon yet, since Lanruo Temple was not abandoned. If it had become a demon by now, there should be no living people in Lanruo Temple.

However, there is another possibility: the Tree Demon Granny has now become a demon, but has not yet degenerated into an evil demon that eats people to cultivate. She is still a good demon, which could explain why Lanruo Temple has not been destroyed.

She walked along the corridor through courtyards and through several moon gates to the back of the temple.

There is a bamboo grove here, with raindrops still clinging to the bamboo leaves, rustling softly in the night breeze.

Deep in the bamboo forest, one can vaguely see some uneven mounds and stone tablets—the tombs of the monks of Lanruo Temple throughout the ages.

She sensed a faint aura of tranquility and peace emanating from these tombs, ensuring that the monks' bodies would not be corrupted into ghouls by the resentment of heaven and earth.

This undoubtedly shows that Lanruo Temple was indeed quite accomplished in the past.

It is much more difficult for plants and trees to become spirits than for animals. The fact that the Tree Demon Granny was able to achieve such great deeds in the future is probably due to some of the blessings of Buddhism.

Before long, she had explored the entire Lanruo Temple and found quite a few locust trees, but none of them were a thousand years old, so they were clearly not the tree demon's true form.

She activated her spiritual senses, trying to detect anything like demonic energy, and thus track down the Tree Demon Granny.

However, the resentment and gloom that filled the world were like a thick fog, completely obstructing her spiritual perception. She couldn't distinguish any demonic energy, evil energy, or ghostly energy at all, but her basic five senses remained unaffected.

Nie Xiaoqian leaped into the air, the raindrops blocked three feet away from her body by her true energy shield, unable to touch her at all. She arrived at the roof of the tallest building in Lanruo Temple and looked around.

Under the torrential rain, everything was shrouded in mist just a few dozen meters away, but she could still vaguely see a huge, dark shadow that looked like a tree in the southeast direction.

Although the details were obscured by the rain and darkness, the silhouette alone was already several times taller than the largest building in Lanruo Temple.

Standing neither too close nor too far between the mountains, it is clearly visible even in the darkness of night.

The moment she saw the dark figure, her senses jolted, and she felt a gaze upon her!

The gaze was cold, but not sinister; it carried a curious scrutiny, yet the nature of this colossal creature far exceeded human limits. The mere act of staring at it was enough to instill immense fear.

Instead of showing fear, Nie Xiaoqian smiled with excitement.

She channeled her inner energy to her eyes, and thousands of years of accumulated power surged into her vision like a mighty river, causing her eyes to suddenly burst forth with a sharp light!

In that instant, her gaze seemed to materialize, tearing through the rain and piercing the darkness, landing fiercely on the shadowy figure!

She saw clearly that it was indeed a large locust tree, far exceeding the size of a thousand-year-old locust tree in reality, reaching a height of tens of meters.

The trunk was incredibly thick, at least ten people could hug it, with gnarled and twisted roots; the canopy was overwhelming, with branches twisted like ghost claws, stretching out in layers and covering an area of ​​hundreds of meters, standing between the mountains like a monster.

The bark is dark brown and covered with rough cracks, making it look like a distorted old face.

This is the Tree Demon Granny's true form; she has clearly become a demon!

When the materialized gaze fell upon the tree spirit, the tree spirit, which had been as steady as Mount Tai, seemed to be startled, and its entire trunk trembled.

I was startled!

Then a huge crack appeared in the ground, like a gaping maw, swallowing up the entire locust tree's roots and trunk!

The next second, the ground closed up perfectly!

That giant tree, tens of meters tall, simply vanished into thin air!

It's as if they never existed!

Nie Xiaoqian's pupils contracted slightly, she was also a little frightened.

They run so fast!

She withdrew her gaze, stood on the rooftop, remained silent for a moment, and a look of solemnity flashed in her eyes.

I thought this tree demon was only as powerful as the one shown in the movie, with only supernatural and ghostly characteristics that made her difficult to deal with. But I never expected that she would have such a real body that could be featured in an entire episode of Ultraman!