Chapter 62

At this time, there were probably two or three hundred taels of silver on the ground in the temple, mostly official silver, all stolen from this temple. Lin Jue knew that they probably all came from the merchants who stayed here.

"Squeak squeak..."

The mouse soldier responsible for moving called out.

"That's all."

The mouse soldier leader looked at Lin Jue, its eyes flashing with light, with obvious worry.

"Rest assured! I am very trustworthy!"

"Many thanks, true person, many thanks, true person..."

"You may not necessarily be able to survive." Lin Jue didn't soften his heart because of the seemingly harmonious conversation just now, nor did he break his promise because they were monsters, "Wait for me to move aside, then start counting."

Waiting to see them either shaking the knocked-out mouse soldiers awake, or helping the injured mouse soldiers stand up, while the old woman was personally helped by the mouse soldier leader, all of them became nervous, ready to escape. Lin Jue moved aside, and at the same time began to count.

Inhale...

Exhale...

The breathing was steady, neither hurried nor deliberately slowed down.

Five breaths ended in succession—

He turned his head suddenly and happened to see the last two mouse yaoguai gathered at the hole in the corner of the wall, drilling into it in a panic.

This time was calculated by him. These mouse yaoguai could just barely run to the distance of the hole. If anyone fell behind due to injury, or if there was pushing and crowding, it would be very difficult to run over. And his own movements were also faster than most normal people. For killing them, he also had some confidence.

Unexpectedly, they were quite united.

Lin Jue rushed forward without hesitation.

He rushed to the corner of the temple furthest from him in a few steps, and happened to see the last mouse yaoguai drill into the hole. Lin Jue didn't have any delay, took a deep breath, and spat into the hole.

"Whoosh..."

Spiritual fire energy filled the hole.

Then Lin Jue pointed his finger.

"Bang!"

The spiritual fire energy immediately turned into flames, squeezing in the narrow hole, so that a loud explosion occurred, and then the flames mixed with wall dust suddenly rushed out from the wall.

Even Lin Jue avoided to the side.

He waited in the hole for a while, didn't hear any sound, didn't know the result below, but vaguely smelled a little burnt smell. Feeling that waiting for a long time didn't make sense, Lin Jue walked back to the two people.

Looking down, the little fox followed him.

"You have made a great contribution!"

This sentence from Lin Jue was much gentler.

Then he walked back to the wall and sat down.

The light was still on the altar, about as bright as an ordinary oil lamp or candle, illuminating this temple.

"It seems there are other yaoguai behind these mouse yaoguai." Lin Jue glanced at the statue in the temple. I don't know if this statue was originally without spirit, or if this matter was originally related to the deity, or if there was an incredible yaoguai here, so that even the local deity had to retreat because of it. Lin Jue felt that this might be a great yaoguai different from all the spirits and monsters he had met along the way, so he said, "Let's not sleep tonight."

"Reasonable."

"Third Shixiong brother, usually when you encounter such things, what do you do?"

"Usually, the matter of subduing demons is mostly done by the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Third Shixiong Brothers coming down the mountain. Besides, speaking of which, the spells cultivated by our Daoist temple are actually not specialized demon-subduing methods. Listening to the matter here, I'm afraid it's more complicated than we thought, so we have to go back and tell Master first."

"Good."

The temple was quiet for a while.

After a while, Seventh Third Third Shixiong spoke, breaking the silence: "Junior brother has such courage. In the future, after Master passes away, after going down the mountain, I think you don't need to worry."

"Third Shixiong brother praises me too much, it's just that I met many spirits and monsters before going up the mountain." Lin Jue said, and looked to the other side, "Junior sister is also brave."

"I was thinking that I can't drag senior brother down." The junior sister answered seriously and earnestly, "I want to learn spells well and protect senior brother in the future."

"Very good."

Lin Jue was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the little girl could remember that casual sentence until now.

It's been two months, right?

"Seventh Third Third Shixiong, what spell is that?" Lin Jue couldn't help but ask curiously, "With a wave of the sleeve, you could take away the arrows shot by those mouse yaoguai and change them into your sleeves."

"Just a trick."

"There are such tricks?"

"Tricks are also divided into categories, and there are many spells. You just haven't seen them in big cities. Taking things from the air, peach pits taking root, the Qingfu method, the barrier method, are all tricks." Seventh Third Third Shixiong looked left and right, and told the two junior brothers and sisters, "I heard that twenty years ago, the Emperor held a banquet in the palace, widely inviting strange people and scholars from all over the world to compete in tricks for fun. At that time, someone in the palace built a high building on flat ground, ten thousand zhang high; someone caught fish from ten thousand miles away, all sea fish; the Moon Palace fairy sent flat peaches to the Emperor from the sky; dragons and phoenixes danced in the sky; murals became real; and the gods carved on the beams also flew down to wish a long life."

"It's actually so profound..."

"It's not simple for any spell to be cultivated to a profound level."

"What about the spell of lighting the lamp?"

"It's called the lamp-lighting method, which is also a trick. Not to mention a place like Changjing, even in Yixian, on festivals like the Lantern Festival, when there is a lantern fair at night, there will be tricksters coming to sell palace lanterns and hairpins. They use this method to light them up. A plain hairpin can sell for ten taels of silver on that day." Seventh Third Third Shixiong said, "They are all high officials and noble lords, buying a curiosity."

"Are there so many types of tricks?"

"There are many."

"So that's how it is..."

Lin Jue nodded, remembered it, and then asked: "By the way, you also woke up just now, but why did you hold back and not make a sound?"

"I, your senior brother, have already said that I am not skilled in subduing demons, and I don't know what to do. Plus, that yaoguai came to my side, sniffed, but left again, so I naturally held back for the time being to see what kind of scene it was going to make. I also wanted to see how you, junior brother, planned to deal with it, and I would just help."

"I was thinking, I've already woken up, the two senior brothers must have woken up too. Since you didn't make a sound, I didn't make a sound either!"

"This..."

The three looked at each other and smiled.

This night was destined not to be slept. If they just kept watch, it would consume their spirit, and when they were weak, they would be more easily taken advantage of by yaoguai and ghosts, so they had to keep talking.

In the end, Lin Jue was really bored, so he ran to the front to count the pile of silver.

Just the honeycomb silver with the weight marked was two hundred and ninety taels, and there were some broken silver, estimated to be about ten taels, actually over three hundred taels.

Lin Jue had never seen so much money in his life.

As for what the person behind these mouse yaoguai was stealing so much silver for, he really couldn't guess.

Fortunately, nothing happened all night.

The next morning, the sky was just dawning.

The three of them packed the three hundred taels of silver into a bamboo basket, let the donkey carry it, and headed to the carriage and horse shop.

The carriage and horse shop was not far away. When the three people and one fox walked over with the crisp sound of donkey hooves, the merchants of Shu Village had actually already left the shop and were waiting at the shop door.

As soon as they saw the three, they immediately came forward.

"How is it! Lin Jue?"

"Third Uncle Shu, don't be anxious. We caught those spirits and monsters last night. They were some mice. Under coercion, we have already retrieved all the money and wealth. It's on the donkey's back." Lin Jue said, "How much money did you want for staying in this shop last night? I'll go and settle the money first."

"Really found it back? Oh my! This is too good!"

When the dozen or so merchants heard this, they were all overjoyed, so much so that their entire complexion changed instantly.

"Don't be anxious, don't be anxious, I'll go settle the bill first."

"Settle what bill? Where did we ask for money? No need to settle, no need to settle!" The middle-aged man waved his hands repeatedly.

"How so?"

"The money was all lost, how could we be embarrassed to stay in the shop? Besides, on the way we go out to do business, sometimes we can't avoid sleeping in the wilderness! Not to mention staying in the city!" The middle-aged man said, "It just so happened that when we came over last night, we met a group of merchants who also stayed at the Social Deity Temple the night before last. They also lost their money and knelt in front of the county government office for a whole day in vain. The shopkeeper of this carriage and horse shop is also a kind-hearted person. After knowing this, he specially allowed them to sleep on the grain grass in the courtyard for one night, so we followed and made do on the grain grass for one night."

"Hmm?"

Lin Jue's expression froze, and he hurriedly looked into the courtyard: "Then where are those merchants?"

"Just left."

"Where did they go?"

"The county magistrate didn't care about this matter, only saying that a notice was posted at the city gate, saying it was our own reluctance to spend money to buy iron boxes, so naturally we had to go home."

"Hurry and come with me to find them!"

Lin Jue followed a group of merchants and hurriedly rushed over.

Fortunately, the merchants hadn't left long, plus they were dejected and afraid they hadn't eaten, so naturally they walked slowly. After a turn, they caught up.

Lin Jue asked them how much money they lost, added the amount lost by the Shu Village merchant team, and calculated carefully; it matched almost completely.

The merchants here are indeed famous for their integrity.

What other way is there—naturally return the money to them.