I, disguised as a white dragon, was supported by the state.

The old man had a very good attitude and was always cheerful.

Earlier, when they saw Lei Yao sitting at the village entrance with a piece of bread, they even asked him if he wanted something to eat.

Lei Yao naturally had no need to freeload at such an old man's house, but since he had met such a kind old man, he was very interested in chatting with him for a while longer.

He had already understood what Bai Lin meant.

He had made several wasted trips to the previous sites, and there was no trace of dragon energy in the site here either. However, he had inquired about Changbai Mountain and knew about its legends, so he had been deliberately looking for similar rumors along the way.

Some folk tales that are not officially recorded may actually conceal the truth!

Elderly people who have lived through many years are the perfect subjects for investigation.

Sure enough, after chatting for a while, Lei Yao heard some interesting news from him.

……

Chapter 124 Damn it!

"It's something special. To talk about this, we have to mention our Dragon King Temple!" The old man took a sip of water, his eyes shining, and his whole spirit seemed to have been lifted.

"Dragon King Temple?" Lei Yao asked in confusion. "I asked around before, and it seems there are no temples nearby."

“It was demolished decades ago,” the old man said with a sense of loss. “If the temple hadn’t been demolished and the Dragon King’s protection hadn’t been lost, there wouldn’t have been so many floods!”

Lei Yao's interest, which had just been piqued, immediately faded again.

He suspected that the old man was just like the people he had encountered elsewhere, boasting and talking nonsense.

It's also possible that they themselves don't understand and have mistaken some stories for history.

This place is right next to the Yellow River, how could it not be affected by floods?

As if guessing his thoughts, the old man said, "The Dragon King Temple used to be so popular, with people coming from far away to offer incense. Back then, the surrounding area suffered many floods, some natural disasters and some man-made ones, but none of them affected our area..."

"Otherwise, think about it. Our village is next to the Yellow River and the terrain is low-lying. Why don't people move away?"

His words made Lei Yao suspicious.

"Grandpa, is the Dragon King Temple really that effective?" he asked.

"Of course! Go ask around the surrounding villages, and everyone will praise our Dragon King for his benevolence," the old man said with a hint of excitement. "When I was a child, I accidentally fell into the water, and it was the Dragon King who saved me!"

Lei Yao asked in surprise, "You've seen it before?"

Could there really be another dragon in this world?

“How could an ordinary person possibly see him?” The old man shook his head, then said with certainty, “The Dragon King definitely exists. You didn’t see the grandeur back then. The continuous torrential rains flooded villages and towns upstream and downstream, but our area was spared from any flooding…”

The old man became indignant again as he spoke: "It's all their fault for tearing down the Dragon King Temple, which angered the Dragon King. The next day, a sudden downpour washed away all the cattle and sheep in the village..."

Lei Yao listened attentively as the old man recounted his past experiences.

The dim yellow light from the streetlights shone through the eaves, illuminating the old man's deeply lined face.

His teeth were almost all gone, and his face was covered with age spots, but his eyes were exceptionally bright.

Lei Yao, however, felt that the stories he told were becoming increasingly bizarre.

Does the Dragon King also intervene in cases of difficult childbirth for pregnant women?

There's also a story about a farmer who lost his cow, and the Dragon King appeared in his dream to tell him its location... Isn't that a bit too far-fetched?

However, he still planned to go and take a look.

What if there's something to gain?

Seeing that the old man had finished speaking, he asked, "Grandpa, where was the Dragon King Temple originally located?"

“The mountaintop,” the old man said, pointing to the small hill behind the village, “you can see it once you go up there. It’s a pity that even the old locust tree in the temple is now just a stump.”

After chatting for a while longer, the old man seemed tired. He waved his hand, said "I'm getting old," and said goodbye to Lei Yao.

Lei Yao tried to help him up, but he refused.

He stopped again when he reached the door.

"You are all capable. If you have the chance, rebuild the Dragon King Temple. The Dragon King is a good god!"

After watching the old man finish speaking and enter the room, closing the door behind him, Lei Yao stood up.

Just then, a subordinate walked towards him.

His subordinate was named Wang Jianqiang, and he was dark-skinned and thin, and was jokingly called a "shrew".

"Team Leader Lei, the food's back!" Wang Jianqiang said.

They spent a bit too long exploring the site today, and it was already evening when they returned. They asked one of the villagers to borrow an electric scooter to go to town and buy some food.

After Lei Yao's strength improved, his appetite also increased considerably. He had eaten a piece of bread earlier, and was now quite hungry. He nodded and asked, "What did you buy?"

Wang Jianqiang quickly repeated it, then chuckled and said, "It will definitely fill Lei's stomach."

Lei Yao glanced at the guy.

He had the biggest appetite, and these guys always teased him about it.

“Then eat less today, since Xigou doesn’t eat much anyway,” he said.

"Team Leader Lei, please don't! I've been waiting for you here for ages!" Wang Jianqiang cried out.

"Wait for me?" Lei Yao asked, puzzled.

He didn't see anyone come over for a long time.

“Yes, I didn’t dare disturb you while you were thinking about things alone there,” Wang Jianqiang said.

"Me alone?" Lei Yao was even more puzzled.

He turned his head instinctively, and suddenly froze, completely dumbfounded.

There were no houses behind them; under the dim streetlights, it was clearly a ruin, with only a section of broken wall about a meter high!

Even though he was no ordinary person, Lei Yao still felt a chill run down his spine at this moment.

Damn it!

What on earth was I talking to?!

After a moment of shock, Lei Yao quickly became excited again.

Being haunted isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Doesn't this mean that this place is even more unusual?

Seeing his ever-changing expression, Wang Jianqiang looked completely bewildered.

"Team Leader Lei, what's wrong?" he asked in a low voice.

Lei Yao looked at his subordinate in front of him, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I just saw a ghost!"

"Team Leader Lei, you're kidding!" Wang Jianqiang initially didn't take it seriously, but seeing Lei Yao's serious expression, he gradually panicked. "Really?"

Lei Yao nodded, pointed behind him, and said, "Right there, he claimed to be ninety years old, was carrying an enamel mug, and told me that there used to be a Dragon King Temple on the mountain..."

As he described the situation in more and more detail, Wang Jianqiang got goosebumps all over his body and felt that the surroundings were becoming gloomy.

Lei Yao's expression grew more and more excited as he spoke: "The Dragon King Temple was originally on the mountaintop. Let's call the brothers and go up there to take a look!"

Wang Jianqiang has always been fearless, but at this moment he was genuinely a little flustered.

"Captain Lei, now that we know our enemy, why don't we find out where he came from first?" he said. "What if he's setting a trap for us?"

"There's no rush!" he advised.

Lei Yao initially wanted to say that a dead man could do nothing to a living person, but looking at the weeds behind the courtyard wall, he gradually calmed down.

As a Dragon Guard, he himself was not afraid, but he had to consider the brothers under his command.

What if the other party really does have some special methods?

This old ghost's arrival is truly bizarre; he specifically came looking for me, he must have some ulterior motive.

Is it all for the purpose of rebuilding the Dragon King Temple he mentioned?

So why didn't he look for people from the village?

In recent years, domestic policies have not been strict, and there are quite a few unlicensed temples in the private sector.

If all you want to do is build a temple, it's obviously much easier to find local villagers.

After all, people have always had a sense of awe towards ghosts and gods, and if he were to approach a villager, that villager would probably find it difficult to refuse.

"When I chatted with the villagers before, they never mentioned anything about the village being haunted!" Lei Yao wondered to himself. "And I've never heard anyone say they've actually seen a ghost before, so why is this kind of thing suddenly appearing?"

He always felt that there must be a big secret hidden in this matter.

Perhaps his ability to see that thing is related to his identity as a Dragon Guard.

Looking back at the dilapidated courtyard wall, Lei Yao seemed to see an old face smiling at him.

He turned around, patted Wang Jianqiang on the shoulder, and left with him.

……

Chapter 125 Dragon King Temple

The next morning, Lei Yao led his men to the village chief's house.

The village chief is quite old, and his family is having breakfast around the table.

Upon seeing Lei Yao and his group, he warmly invited them to join him.

Seeing the meager amount of food on the table, Lei Yao resolutely refused.

They all had big appetites; any one of them could finish the meal for the village chief's family of five in just a few minutes.

After waiting a while, when the village chief, who had hastily finished eating, came over, Lei Yao explained his purpose.

"A ghost?" The village chief was completely bewildered upon hearing this.

The men in front of him claimed to be from an exploration team and even showed him their credentials, but he felt that these men didn't have the right demeanor. Now they were asking him if anyone in the village had ever seen a ghost.

What does this mean?

Test the strength of your faith.

"I'm a veteran Party member, how could I believe in such demons and monsters?" the village chief said with a righteous expression.

He suddenly suspected that someone had reported him, and these people had secretly come down to investigate.

However, the village is small, and the villagers are all related. Even though he has been the village chief for more than ten years, there is not much money to be made. At most, when reporting impoverished households, he favors his own relatives, but those people all meet the criteria.

If you're upright, you have nothing to fear; what ghosts could there be?

"Has no one else in the village seen this either?" Lei Yao asked.

"Captain Lei is joking. How could there be ghosts in this world?" the village chief probed. "Why is your exploration team getting involved in ghost stories?"

Seeing that several subordinates were staring at him, Lei Yao hesitated for a moment and said, "I saw them."

The village chief looked at him like he was an idiot.

He had lived in the village for decades and had heard stories of people losing their souls or being haunted by ghosts and having to be exorcised by shamans, but he knew they were all fake.

The sorceress was his deceased mother.

How could he not know that his own mother had inherited his maternal grandmother's "tradition"?

Seeing that he didn't believe him, Lei Yao realized that ordinary people really hadn't seen, or rather, couldn't see, that old ghost.

He thought about it for a moment and decided that it wasn't exactly a secret. Besides, he would need the cooperation of the village chief in the meantime, so he simply said, "There's an abandoned house at the entrance of the village, with only a section of broken wall left, overgrown with weeds. Do you know whose house that is?"

The village chief pondered for a few seconds, then asked with a strange expression, "Why are you asking this?"

"When I passed by there yesterday evening, I saw it was a small house with a red-painted door, high windows covered with newspapers, and a blue stone stool at the door..."

As he spoke in more and more detail, the village chief's expression gradually changed.

When Lei Yao said that a ninety-year-old man with gray hair and a cane had appeared, his expression turned horrified.

"A ghost...you really saw a ghost?" the village chief asked, trembling.

"Do you know that person?" Lei Yao stared into the village chief's eyes.