Chapter 168: Secluded Mountain God Temple

The forest by the river is lush and hard to see the sky.

I don't know if it's water vapor or miasma, or morning fog, but the forest is dark and looks much colder than other places.

There are also some wandering ghosts lost in it, confused by demon energy, unable to get out. Because occasionally sunlight shines in, they have to turn into soul beans the size of houseflies, hiding under tree roots or in the shade, waiting for a day to be found and swallowed by a demon.

The old goat is lying under the tree sleeping peacefully.

"..."

A crow glided silently and landed on the treetop. In the sun, its black feathers reflected a metallic five-colored luster.

The crow looked down at the goat.

This goat looks much bigger than an ordinary goat, with a very long beard. When it lies down and closes its eyes, it actually has a kind of kind and benevolent taste like an old man. It's just that it is full of evil energy and fishy smell.

But as soon as it opens its eyes, it reveals shrewdness and weirdness.

The goat noticed something wrong and raised its head.

Looking left and right, it didn't see anything. After thinking for a while, I don't know why, just as it wanted to fall down and continue sleeping, it suddenly raised its head and looked at the sky—

The crow's bean-like eyes met it.

The goat's ears moved, and it stood up immediately.

Looking back, I saw that I don't know when, a clouded leopard the size of a money leopard had quietly reached behind it, hunching its body, and its bright yellow eyes were staring at it.

"Mehh!"

The goat felt fear for the first time. This is really an instinct. Then after thinking about it, it was even more terrified.

Fortunately, it noticed something wrong just now. If it hadn't been discovered, what would be the consequence of a sleeping sheep being touched behind by a leopard? It didn't dare to think about it.

At this time, it was discovered in advance, and it didn't hesitate—

"Boom!"

As soon as the sheep and the leopard met, they exploded with the strongest power at the same time, pushing their bodies away from this place, and for a while, it was like an explosion.

One ran, one chased.

The goat is indeed a spirit, not fake. If it encounters an ordinary clouded leopard, it is naturally not afraid, because the clouded leopard itself is not big, and its power is completely enough to fight it.

But if it encounters a wolf pack or a money leopard with greater power, even if it becomes a spirit, it has to weigh it. In the end, it will still choose to run away—after all, becoming a spirit is rare, and the life of a demon is more expensive. Higher intelligence sometimes brings greater courage, and sometimes brings measurement and cowardice.

But this clouded leopard was already much bigger than an ordinary clouded leopard. The gap between it and an ordinary clouded leopard was greater than the gap between itself and an ordinary sheep. How could it dare to compete with it?

So following its instinct, it ran for its life.

Soon it discovered in horror that this clouded leopard was faster than itself.

Several times the claws grabbed its butt, and even felt the sharp claws embedded in the flesh, and wounds appeared on its body and it was bleeding, but it didn't turn its head to look, and didn't care at all, just relying on its familiarity with the terrain, biting its teeth and running.

In the dense forest, both sides chased and fled, and several times they escaped dangerously on the edge of victory, defeat, and life and death.

"Awoo~~"

Wolf howls sounded in the distance again.

The goat discovered in more horror that I don't know when, there were wolf packs around it. These wolves were also slightly bigger than ordinary wild wolves, and they surrounded and intercepted it together with the clouded leopard.

The goat couldn't figure out the reason, and had no time to think, so it ran away even more desperately.

Suddenly it took a bite forward and spat out yellow smoke.

"Puff..."

Then it jumped and jumped into the yellow smoke.

The terrain advantage was not enough, so it had to create cover itself. This yellow smoke can block the line of sight, and can also confuse ordinary birds, beasts, and wandering ghosts. If people are not firm in mind and blood is insufficient, they will also be confused, but the effect on fierce beasts like tigers and leopards is not good.

After the goat jumped out and landed, it looked back, and sure enough, the clouded leopard and the wolf pack also jumped out of the yellow smoke.

Those wolves were a bit confused and dizzy, as if they couldn't stand still, but they were recovering quickly, while the clouded leopard just shook its head and raised its head to stare at it dead.

The goat immediately sprayed another mouthful of yellow smoke at the clouded leopard.

"Puff..."

But saw the clouded leopard was agile, its four limbs exerted force, and it jumped sideways in a way that most animals couldn't do, avoiding this group of yellow smoke, and rushed towards it against the ground.

What else can the goat do? Can only run again!

Fortunately, it was already a cliff in front.

So it accelerated and ran a few steps, running towards the cliff.

That is an almost vertical cliff, with only a few bumps. Climbing the cliff will definitely escape.

The goat felt angry, wanting to take advantage of the escape to turn around and butt the clouded leopard, and vent its anger, but thinking of the sharp teeth and claws of the clouded leopard, thinking of the scene where it had seen such fierce beasts press down and bite the throat of other sheep, primitive fear arose in its heart, which easily annihilated its ferocity, making it unable to use its strength no matter how big it was.

Just quickly rushed to the cliff.

Deng deng deng deng!

It was already familiar with the road, and with the momentum of running, its body went straight up, and suddenly it was two or three feet away from the ground.

The clouded leopard ran up a section with it, then bit its teeth and jumped fiercely, grabbing the goat's butt with one claw, and grabbed a few pieces of sheep wool and a little blood. In the end, it was not as familiar with this mountain as it was, so it had to fold its body and step on the cliff to jump down dangerously and fall back to the ground.

"Ah~~"

The clouded leopard called angrily.

The goat lowered its head and looked, just breathed a sigh of relief, and felt something wrong again.

Looking up—

I saw a white fox sitting on a small piece of protruding stone above, focusing on licking its paws. After licking its paws, it used its paws to frantically scratch its face.

As if feeling its gaze, the white fox put down its paws and looked at it. Its eyes were clear and calm, like water.

Then on this steep and dangerous cliff that even it had to walk carefully, this white fox actually stood up and lazily stretched, and then walked towards it on the vertical cliff like walking on flat ground, head down and tail up.

"?"

The goat's shrewd eyes immediately showed surprise, and in the surprise there was fear.

Looking up, the fox was walking down, and the clouded leopard was waiting below, and the pack of wild wolves also gathered, looking up at it.

For a while, it felt that going up was not right, and going down was not right.

Fortunately, this fox is not big.

The goat thought like this, and made a fierce move, quickly running up, while lowering its head to make a collision posture.

Just in time, the mountain wind blew. In this mountain wind, the fox above grew with the wind, and it grew to the same size as the clouded leopard. Behind it, a second tail grew. Its hair was fluffy, and it swayed softly under the mountain wind of the cliff, looking like a god for a while.

But this god rushed towards it.

"Mehh!"

The sheep horn collision was fierce, but on this cliff, the white fox was much more agile than it. It easily avoided it in one step, and instead patted its neck with one claw, and the sharp claws passed through the sheep wool and embedded in its flesh.

At the same time, the sharp teeth had already bitten over.

The goat was naturally struggling desperately.

For a while, yellow smoke and cold air sprayed at intervals, stirring in the air. The sheep horns hit the cliff several times, and both sides fell down during the fight.

With a bang! The goat fell to the ground, but the white fox left when it was still more than half a foot away from the ground, stepped on the cliff to stabilize its body, and its four limbs exerted force again, and the whole body fell lightly.

At the same time, the crow also found the heavenly soul of the Yan family's grandson and brought the soul.

Sure enough, as Fourth Third Third Shixiong said—

Just in the morning, the crow brought back the heavenly soul of the Yan family's grandson. At first glance, it looked like a green-headed fly. After being placed back, the boy groaned and gradually restored his even breathing.

Second Third Third Shixiong took another soul-calming pill and fed it to him amidst the Yan family's thousand thanks.

Then Fuyao also came back, sitting at Lin Jue's feet, constantly organizing its dirty paws and face.

"This is fine. The demon by the river has been eliminated by this poor Daoist's friends, and the grandson's soul has been found. After taking my Second Third Third Shixiong's soul-calming pill, I think the soul will be stable in the future. Even if there is trouble, come to the mountain god temple to find this poor Daoist."

Fourth Third Third Shixiong said to him.

"Thank you, True Man."

"True Man dare not be, just call me Daoist."

Although the Yan family didn't see the Daoist find the soul and eliminate the demon with their own eyes, seeing the Daoist sitting here without moving, and the demon was eliminated and the heavenly soul was found during the conversation, it was as if it was more shocking than seeing him use magic to eliminate the demon with their own eyes.

For Fourth Third Third Shixiong and Lin Jue and others, they naturally respected them much more.

Not long after, the eldest son of the Yan family came up with a tray, respectfully offered ten taels of silver wrapped in red cloth, and invited them to stay for lunch.

In the afternoon, the Yan family really brought brand new quilts and mats, which were probably prepared for the daughter's marriage, and also brought some pots and pans, all of which were carried by the same-surname children in the village, sending the Daoists to the mountain.

This place looks like it is at the foot of the mountain, but to really walk to the place where you climb the mountain, there is still more than a mile of road. When you reach the real foot of the mountain, you have to walk a section of mountain road to reach the mountain god temple.

The road is full of deep grass and heavy forests, and it is difficult to walk.

I also heard the Yan family say that there are wolves and leopards on the mountain, and some people have seen bears and tigers when cutting firewood on the mountain.

Several senior brothers felt it was too remote, and some felt that it was quiet and conducive to practice. Fourth Third Third Shixiong was naturally the latter, and the more he walked, the more satisfied he was. When he turned his head to look around, he saw the forest was deep and lush, and the sunlight shining down was only mottled, and he couldn't help but smile.

There was often a rustling sound in the forest, which made the Yan-surname children uneasy. Fourth Third Third Shixiong only smiled and told them that it was his mountain friends.

After walking for another two quarters of an hour, they finally reached the mountain god temple.

The small path leads to a small flat piece of land, and everyone stopped here to look at the temple.

On the left is a small temple in the style of a courtyard, with a main hall in the innermost, two side halls on the left and right, and an instrument gate on the outermost, surrounding a small courtyard of more than ten steps square.

On the right, there are two houses, one big and one small, one for living and one for cooking.

Although this temple was built halfway up the mountain, because of the demon elimination by the uncle back then, several villages under the mountain did not fool around, and raised money and materials together, building it very carefully, and it was about the same as the Sangu Temple in Shu Village and the Qingdi Temple outside Luosu City.

The temple buildings lean against the stone mountain behind them. Looking up, you can see the stone mountain and the heavenly gate through the dense forest, which makes people worry about whether stones will roll down from the mountain on rainy days and destroy the temple.

But thinking about it, this is a mountain god temple...

"Rustle..."

The forest trembled again.

Two big and three small five clouded leopards, a large group of wolves came out of the forest, and eagles and crows descended from the sky. The Yan-surname children who sent them here were immediately frightened.

"Don't be afraid, these are my mountain friends. Because they have deep feelings for this poor Daoist and don't want to separate, they came here to practice with this poor Daoist." Fourth Third Third Shixiong said to them, "They have always followed us in the dark, afraid of scaring others. But from now on, this poor Daoist will practice here. If you come up the mountain in the future, you will inevitably see them, so let them come out first, let you see, don't be afraid in the future, most of them have practice and will not hurt people at will."

Everyone's expressions were dull, looking at Fourth Third Third Shixiong, and then at other Daoists who seemed to be used to it, and then nodded repeatedly.

Not long after, the Yan-surname children went down the mountain.

Many Daoists didn't feel tired climbing the mountain, but were energetic, and examined this mountain god temple more carefully, commenting on it.

"This place is good, the view is open, but it is too far from the villages below, which is suitable for our secluded practice. It must be the location chosen by the uncle." Third Third Third Shixiong stood on the edge of the cliff, borrowing the high place, and could see several villages including Shimen Village, as well as the river in the distance.

"Isn't our Mount Yishan like this?" Fifth Third Third Shixiong said.

"There are many people on our Mount Yishan." Third Third Third Shixiong said.

"This mountain god temple is not small, bigger than the houses lived by many ordinary people, but the place for people to live is too small. If Third Third Shixiong has free time in the future, he can build a few more houses next to it." Seventh Third Third Shixiong said.

"Junior brother can also open a few vegetable plots here in the future, and then plant some food here." Second Third Third Shixiong also planned for Fourth Third Third Shixiong.

"You are almost the same as First Third Third Shixiong." Third Third Third Shixiong said.

"Second Third Third Shixiong's words make sense. However, this open space in front cannot be used as a vegetable plot. A stone table and a few stone stools should be placed. When you are free, eat, drink tea, blow the wind, and enjoy the scenery here, and there are a group of friends to accompany you. Isn't it beautiful?" Seventh Third Third Shixiong pointed to the middle of the open space, and then looked at Little Xiao Shimei, "Why don't you take advantage of the fact that Little Xiao Shimei hasn't left yet, and there is no shortage of stones on this mountain, let her rub one out for you."

When Little Xiao Shimei heard this, she immediately became energetic.

Lin Jue didn't participate for the time being, but helped Fourth Third Third Shixiong put the pots and pans into the kitchen, and then looked around to see if there was anything missing.

For example, if a stone cabinet, a water vat, or a rice vat was missing, he would take advantage of the fact that he hadn't left yet and let Little Xiao Shimei touch one out for him.

It was really "touching"—

Nowadays, Little Xiao Shimei's method of stone-grinding is almost complete, but any stone, as long as she touches it with her hand, she can touch a layer off. Pick a big stone, and touching out a stone cabinet, a stone table is only a matter of time.

Many Daoists discussed excitedly and fiercely, as if it was themselves who would live here in the future, but the clouded leopards and wolf packs followed them all the way in the deep mountain forest, and were tired in the morning, and now their bodies and hearts were considered stable, and they didn't have to hide, so they lay on the ground, quietly watching several people talk. ===== CHAPTER 169 =====