Chapter 176: Cult

They parked the car outside the village. Luo Qi's heart was drumming; the frozen lake outside the village had only just begun to show signs of thawing, a completely different world from the warm, apricot-blossom rain of the south. And this place was by no means a beautiful world of ice and snow; the accumulated snow on the lake surface had melted and mixed with the coal ash emitted from winter heating in the north, leaving the lake surface looking filthy.

Looking at the lake, he remembered Du Zhengyi tormenting Zhao Zhiyan here—that completely crushing battle, with changes in tactics occurring in the blink of an eye. He turned his head to glance at Du Zhengyi, who was walking calmly beside him. Perhaps because they were growing closer day by day, he always felt that Du Zhengyi looked harmless to both humans and animals, and when he was wearing clothes, one couldn't even tell how strong he was.

Du Zhengyi sensed his gaze and turned his head to give him a sidelong glance. There was no need to ask; he surely thought he was up to no good again. Luo Qi put on his most pure and innocent expression, but Du Zhengyi just gave a lazy hum.

Luo Qi secretly gathered his mental energy. With Du Zhengyi as a stable presence, his nervous tension was relieved to some extent. For a Mind Mage, a Battle Mage like Du Zhengyi, who possessed high mobility and rapid adaptability, was an excellent person to watch his back. When they came here last time, he hadn't realized that Du Zhengyi had already been a Battle Mage before he even graduated from school.

He didn't know what it felt like to be a Battle Mage. Thinking this didn't mean he was interested in the profession; he didn't want to pledge loyalty to those old men at the Qionglin, he would rather open a pet shop to sell cats and dogs.

Thinking messily, he followed Du Zhengyi as he walked slowly into the village. He knew he had to give Du Zhengyi time to scout for Magic traces. Now he could understand why Du Zhengyi would sometimes appear sluggish, and why he was so annoyed by him crossing the threshold first.

Luo Qi nervously observed Du Zhengyi's expression, and in the end, Du Zhengyi shook his head at him. He understood; there was nothing here.

They walked along the familiar village road. The Guan Family's black iron gate stood in the twilight, shrouded in an ominous silence. Everything was very much like the situation when they last came. They passed the Guan Family Old Residence and headed straight for the temple.

The gate of Jingtu Temple was tightly shut, which was the norm for ordinary temples. Unless it was the first or fifteenth of the lunar month or an important Buddhist day, the gates of the Buddha were not that wide open. This time, Luo Qi's heart was filled with a vengeful pleasure, waiting for Du Zhengyi to go up and smash the door. This time, he was going to grab the old monk in this temple directly to see if he would still be afraid when he saw him. If he tried that act again, he would drill open his head to see which evil spirit he looked like in his consciousness.

Before he could finish his daydream, Du Zhengyi, who was walking in front, suddenly said, "Hm?"

"What is it?" Luo Qi asked hurriedly, then took two swift steps forward, staring in shock at the gate of Jingtu Temple.

Du Zhengyi didn't speak for a long time, then finally turned his head to ask Luo Qi, "Anthropology expert, this is a seal, right?"

Luo Qi was still speechless and nodded stiffly.

"Posted by the government?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Luo Qi nodded again, pointing at the red stamp on it, "There's an official seal; no one dares to fake this."

"This is interesting," Du Zhengyi said in a foul tone.

Luo Qi sensed that Du Zhengyi was truly about to lose his temper this time. He had some impression of things like seals; at the very least, he had seen them on TV. He knew that the date would be written on the seal in lighter-colored Chinese characters. Now that the sky was a bit dim, he hurriedly leaned in to take a closer look, and sure enough, the date was written stroke by stroke by hand.

"The seal was posted within a week after we left," Luo Qi said, pointing at the seal. "Even if we had come earlier, it would have been useless."

As Luo Qi spoke, he hurriedly expanded his Consciousness World. Behind this door, there was only emptiness; there were no humans, no Mages, not even any living creatures. He felt extremely uncomfortable at first, but then he remembered that this was the bleak Bei Guo, where life wasn't so easy.

However, in another direction, he suddenly sensed a jubilant consciousness approaching.

Luo Qi abruptly withdrew from the Consciousness Space and turned to look in that direction. The person coming was not a Mage, so Du Zhengyi's reaction was slightly slower.

Next to Jingtu Temple was the old residence of Guan Xinyue's family, and past Guan Xinyue's family was a village Christian church—the one with a huge red plastic Chinese character "Love" carried on its roof. The courtyards in the village were quite large, not comparable to the bungalow courtyards in typical urban-rural fringes, so it was actually still a bit of a distance in a straight line from the church.

The church's main gate was pushed open from the inside with a bang, and a middle-aged woman with an air of confident demeanor walked out. She first looked in their direction, then headed straight for them.

"Damn," Luo Qi couldn't help but say, "Brother, can you beat that middle-aged woman? Don't say I'm not loyal, but if she comes with ill intent, then I'm running first."

Du Zhengyi didn't even react. Luo Qi felt that he was also somewhat stunned by the woman's vigorous, tiger-like stride.

Fortunately, when the woman reached the halfway point of the Guan Family courtyard, Luo Qi's Mage eyes finally saw her clearly. The woman definitely had no malice; her whole person, from head to toe, radiated the joy of victory after a struggle of faith.

"Here to worship the Buddha?" While still ten meters away, the woman's loud, shrill voice pierced Luo Qi's eardrums.

"Um... yes?" Luo Qi answered vaguely, suddenly remembering that he bore the mission of communicating with humans.

"Don't bother worshipping, hahaha, this is a fake Buddha," the woman laughed, walking up to them.

"Hm?" Luo Qi said, bewildered.

"Oh, you outsiders, coming from thousands of miles away and you can't even see the real Buddha," the woman laughed, curling her lips.

"Ah... ma'am, what do you mean by that? If you don't go to the Western Paradise, who can see the real Buddha?" Luo Qi said cautiously.

"That's not it," the woman said contemptuously, not knowing if she could understand Luo Qi's words. Regardless, she pointed at the temple and said with the tone and posture of a woman scolding a neighbor's widow for stealing her husband, "This is a fake monk temple! It's not a real temple at all; this is a cult den, it's swindled people to death, hey."

"What?" Luo Qi said, "Who told you this is a cult?"

"Who told me?" the woman asked back angrily, then pointed to the sky and the ground heroically, "The government told me! See that? The government's stamp, is there anything fake about it?"

Luo Qi and Du Zhengyi exchanged a glance, and they already understood a few things in their hearts. Luo Qi asked again, "Then how did the government think to investigate this place?"

"Someone reported it," the woman said lightly. "Can such a harmful thing really be hidden from people forever?"

Luo Qi couldn't help but blurt out in anger, "Then who was it? Which hero acted on behalf of heaven?"

"That I wouldn't know," the woman curled her lips and said, "Karma, I suppose."

"Damn," Luo Qi said, "Aren't you a Christian? You even believe in karma?"