Chapter 236

The atmosphere in the temple fell into a cold stagnation, everyone looking as if they had been frozen. After a while, they began to thaw one after another.

Yin Meng: "Such a character from mythology actually exists?"

Tan Wenbin: "Mengmeng, it's normal for others to say such things, but don't you find it strange that you are the one expressing this sentiment?"

Yin Meng: "When I read about my ancestors' deeds as a child, I treated them as fairy tales. Besides, I haven't even seen my ancestors to this day. If it weren't for Brother Xiao Yuan, my grandfather wouldn't have been able to enter the Yin family ancestral grave."

Tan Wenbin: "Shouldn't you have seen them in your dream last time? Your ancestor even took the initiative to urge you to go back and burn paper money. It seems they are very fond of you."

Yin Meng rolled her eyes at Tan Wenbin, and then, she smiled.

Runsheng took off his blood-stained clothes and changed into a clean set.

The seawater outside had all flowed into the earth-fissure canyon; he was too lazy to run back the way he came to cross the bridge for a shower, so he would just make do for now.

Tan Wenbin: "Why not pour some drinking water to wet a towel and wipe your body? Isn't it uncomfortable to be sticky?"

Runsheng: "Forget it, I'll have to bleed more later."

Tan Wenbin picked up the blood-stained clothes Runsheng had taken off, touched them, and weighed them: "Why does it feel like there isn't as much blood as it looked?"

Runsheng: "At first, a lot of blood flowed out, but later, the blood that flowed out came from my qi gates, and I absorbed it back into my body through the qi gates."

Tan Wenbin swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "Giving yourself a blood transfusion, Runsheng, can you still be considered human?"

Runsheng raised his arm and sniffed. When he was fighting intensely just now, he smelled a rich evil aura on himself, very much like a 'dead-fall', but purer than the aura of those he usually saw.

Xiao Yuan had helped him suppress and seal it at home before, but just now, the seal seemed to have been broken by him, though he couldn't smell it now.

Lin Shu thawed out for a relatively long time, murmuring:

"So, it wasn't me who inspired the Tongzi, but the Tongzi who overcame his fear and decided to act?"

Tan Wenbin: "Without you, the Tongzi wouldn't have had the courage or the motive to overcome this fear. He knew what he was doing. He acted, proving he decided to take a side. Isn't it all for your sake?"

Lin Shu: "Thank you, Brother Bin."

Yin Meng: "Tan Wenbin, your body is cold, but the wind blowing from your mouth is warm."

Tan Wenbin: "Don't say that, I really intend to install an air conditioner for Grandpa Li's house in the summer."

Yin Meng: "How many units?"

Tan Wenbin: "One is enough. Put it in the living room on the first floor. When the air conditioner is turned on in the summer, everyone can hug their straw mats or coffins and sleep on the floor together."

Lin Shu: "We have to rewire Grandpa Li's house first, otherwise it's easy to trip the breaker."

Li Zhuiyuan stood quietly on the side, not disturbing his partners as they self-decompressed.

Soon, the talk about the air conditioner was finished, and everyone wore deliberately relaxed and leisurely smiles on their faces.

Li Zhuiyuan swept his gaze over them, as if he saw four "new patients."

"Let's tidy up this place, Brother Runsheng, set up the sacrifice."

"Alright."

Runsheng spread out the folding altar table; the offerings were all in the grooves, ready to eat upon opening the lid.

Li Zhuiyuan was responsible for burning paper, while his partners offered incense in turn.

The life records on the stone tablets shouldn't be fake. In the era these people lived in, they had also fought to eliminate demons and defend the Dao, and they deserved respect.

The young man felt that since he had molded their remains into puppets, he should give them an explanation.

Although he wasn't wrong to do so—the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun was clearly bewitched and controlled, and the main contradiction just now was definitely to solve him—under the premise that conditions allowed, Li Zhuiyuan was still accustomed to doing a wrap-up.

There was no time to wait slowly for the incense in the burner to burn out. After the sacrifice was set up, Runsheng pulled out all the incense inside and ate it together with the compressed biscuits.

The corpses inside the eight stone statues were carefully rearranged by Tan Wenbin and Lin Shu.

Corpses molded into puppets would become very thin and brittle, and could potentially shatter into dust with a little force.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Lin Shu: "This place should be a lineage similar to the Official Generals in history that was submerged."

Lin Shu: "Brother Xiao Yuan, is it of the same lineage as us?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "The form has changed greatly, but in essence, it is the same."

After all, they all used the same set of core techniques.

Lin Shu nodded. He now understood a bit why the Tongzi had "fled" earlier. In the Tongzi's view, he should have personally killed a colleague from the distant past.

Thinking of this, Lin Shu looked at the red mark on the back of his hand again.

Li Zhuiyuan: "The Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun's lineage should mainly focus on body refining. When we go back, I will help you study this lineage he left behind."

Because the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun, who didn't get his starting weapon, never used any proper magic from start to finish. The Tongzi's trident broke, and he still knew how to continuously condense it with magic.

Tan Wenbin: "A-You, why don't you also get yourself a full set of wings on your back? Let's not have black ones, let's have pure white ones, stick more feathers on them. When one of us gets married in the future, you can be responsible for holding a small heart-shaped bow and arrow and flying a few laps around the wedding venue."

Lin Shu: "I have no problem with that."

The main thing was the defensive power of those wings; it was truly astonishing. If he could obtain it, Lin Shu would be willing to pay the price.

Li Zhuiyuan: "There's no need to follow the trend and get wings. You are currently tempering and improving your own physique, which is the righteous path."

The most important thing was that the materials for making wings were hard to find. The originally hard wing bones melted quickly after the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun died; these materials seemed to have some kind of spirituality.

Li Zhuiyuan: "However, there are still things left behind here that can be taken."

The young man climbed onto the altar, first dispelling the formation he had set up, and then tearing open the seals on the two stone pedestals.

"Brother Runsheng."

"Coming!"

Runsheng understood, jumped onto the altar, and raised his shovel to smash down.

"Bang!" "Bang."

Two stone pedestals; one contained a mace, and the other also contained a mace.

Tan Wenbin asked suspiciously: "Why would he store a set of things separately?"

Li Zhuiyuan grabbed a mace; it wasn't as heavy as imagined, and the middle seemed hollow. The young man tossed this mace to Tan Wenbin.

Tan Wenbin reached out and caught it: "So light, does it hurt when you hit someone?"

Saying this, Tan Wenbin held the mace and smashed it hard against the ground.

"Thud!"

It only left a tiny, barely perceptible white mark.

"This doesn't work either. Is there a hidden mystery?" Tan Wenbin checked the mace in his hand over and over again. "Huh, I don't see any trick to it. The feel of hitting someone isn't even as good as a brick."

Li Zhuiyuan tossed the second mace to Tan Wenbin, and Tan Wenbin caught it with his other hand.

In an instant, Tan Wenbin was forced to hold his hands out to the sides, because a powerful repulsive force appeared between the two maces.

"Damn, how do you use this thing?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Bin, turn your wrists."

Tan Wenbin turned his wrists, and the repulsive force turned into suction. The two maces quickly adhered together. It was fortunate that Tan Wenbin let go quickly, otherwise his arms would have been pulled and injured by them.

"Too exaggerated, even magnets don't have such a fierce effect, right?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "A-You, pick them up."

Lin Shu bent down, picked up the two maces, and after testing them a few times, turned his wrists to separate them, then tried to dance with them a few times. At first, the movements were a bit awkward and slow, but they gradually accelerated.

Finally, the double maces crossed, utilizing their repulsion and suction to stack, and smashed into the ground.

"Bang!"

A dent was smashed out, and Lin Shu hadn't even fully exerted his strength to swing them yet.

A-You said excitedly: "Good stuff, Brother Xiao Yuan, this is truly good stuff."

Tan Wenbin looked at the white mark he had made, then looked at the dent A-You had smashed, and nodded: "Is this martial arts talent?"

Lin Shu: "Brother Bin, I can teach you."

Tan Wenbin: "Don't, no need, you can't teach it. You could dodge bullets even before you performed rituals."

Li Zhuiyuan: "A-You, these double maces are handed over to you. It just so happens that your trident is broken too."

Lin Shu heard this, first happy, then looked at Runsheng: "But I think Brother Runsheng's strength, paired with this, could exert even better results."

Runsheng shook his head and refused: "Using this, it wastes brainpower."

Yin Meng stretched her foot and stepped in the dent: "Thanks to Brother Xiao Yuan for sealing these double maces in time. If that Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun had been allowed to hold this thing just now, and paired with his power..."

Runsheng: "I would have been smashed to death."

Yin Meng: "With Brother Xiao Yuan here, you wouldn't have been smashed to death."

Runsheng: "Then I would have lost something very precious."

Yin Meng: "What."

Runsheng: "You don't understand."

Yin Meng: "Heh, forget it if you won't say."

Runsheng: "Because I don't understand either."

On the altar, Li Zhuiyuan turned around, facing the cloud wall.

The Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun had been hung on the wall earlier, with auspicious clouds and sun and moon arrangements around to create an atmosphere.

After observing for a while, Li Zhuiyuan took a step back, condensed a formation flag in his right palm, and waved it gently.

"Crack........."

The cloud wall separated to both sides, revealing the path leading inward.

The others restrained the smiles on their faces one after another, packed their things, and walked inside.

This was a complex of buildings, not temple after temple. What the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun was guarding was really just a temple gate.

After walking into the temple gate, it was vast outside, and the ground was covered with grass that looked like hair. At first glance, it looked like countless heads with thick hair were buried underneath.

Yin Meng: "This is soul-breath grass."

Saying this, she bent down, cut a handful with a dagger, hesitated, cut another handful, rolled them up like a braid, and stuffed them into her mountaineering bag.

Tan Wenbin: "Very precious?"

Yin Meng: "This kind of grass only grows in chaotic graveyards."

Tan Wenbin: "That's not too rare then."

Yin Meng: "Even if a chaotic graveyard has it, it grows at most one blade."

Tan Wenbin: "I still have space in my bag, I'll cut some more for you."

Doing as he said, Tan Wenbin really bent down and cut a handful. The touch was greasy; not only was it "thickly haired," but it was also an "oily head."

Tan Wenbin: "You say, if we cut a bit more and take it back to sell to wig makers, wouldn't we get rich?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Wei Zhengdao mentioned in 'Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu' that if you weave a straw hat with this kind of grass according to a special method, after wearing it, you can open your Yin eyes to see evil, which is a kind of 'fake Yin-walking' state."

After hearing this, Yin Meng immediately squatted down and started cutting grass again. In the entire team, only Runsheng couldn't walk in Yin.

After she finished cutting, everyone continued to move forward.

As they walked, another temple appeared in front.

Yin Meng: "Can we bypass this one?"

Tan Wenbin: "Not really. The layout here is like mosquito coils. Although the interval between every two circles seems large and the space is vast, if you want to enter the next circle, you must pass through fixed nodes."

Yin Meng: "Then if we don't follow the rules, will there be formation restrictions?"

Tan Wenbin: "My level isn't high enough, I didn't see any formation traces."

Li Zhuiyuan: "There is no formation, but if you don't follow the rules, it's easy to enter a 'vortex', just like when we came in."

Yin Meng: "Then that's not as good as a formation; at least you can feel a formation for real."

Li Zhuiyuan looked at everyone and asked: "Are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Let's enter the temple."

Before entering this temple, everyone thought they would encounter the same situation as the temple gate earlier, but after entering, they discovered it wasn't so.

It could be clearly seen that this should also be a temple of a Guarding Guarding Zhenjun, but the altar in the center was empty, and the stone statues serving on both sides had all been smashed to pieces.

This temple was almost empty.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Check it, see if there are any inscriptions."

The big guys climbed toward the platforms on both sides, rummaging through the piles of rocks. Lin Shu was the first to lift a corner of an inscription and read: "Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren, Chen Huaiyue, born in..."

Tan Wenbin: "Then this Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren should be the owner of this temple, and the Chen family is also the medium family of his lineage."

Lin Shu: "According to what Brother Xiao Yuan told us on the road just now, it should be like this."

Tan Wenbin: "Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren is worthy of the name Ciren (Benevolent). He doesn't even guard his own temple, just letting us pass like this, really good."

Yin Meng: "Why was this place smashed, but the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun's temple is generally normal?"

Lin Shu: "The Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun was bewitched and controlled."

Yin Meng: "Oh, right."

Tan Wenbin: "Maybe the fortress was breached from the inside, so he, the one watching the gate, was able to be spared."

Li Zhuiyuan agreed with Tan Wenbin's view.

The Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun should have guessed something before he died. His "I didn't guard the gate well" might not be a statement, but a sigh containing deep meaning.

On the altar wall of the Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren temple, black waves were painted. There should have been a small boat hanging three-dimensionally on the wall to support the statue of Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren, but now the broken boat body had long since scattered on the altar.

Tan Wenbin and Lin Shu, one on each side, looked for stone pedestals on both sides of the altar, but unfortunately, they couldn't find any.

Lin Shu: "Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren doesn't have the habit of hiding weapons."

Tan Wenbin: "I suspect he took his weapon out to fight."

"Crack..."

The young man on the altar had already opened the passage to the next circle.

Everyone looked back at this dilapidated temple and followed him out.

In the next circle, three Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temples appeared side by side.

The temples here all had a unified characteristic, which was that before walking in, looking from the outside, it was always pitch black and could not be probed.

Li Zhuiyuan stopped and said: "Three choose one."

If they could choose the Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren temple earlier and pass through without injury, that would naturally be the best.

Tan Wenbin stretched out his finger and chose while chanting: "Point, point, sesame oil, rapeseed flowers blooming... the first one!"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then the first one."

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiao Yuan, don't be like this, I can't bear such a big responsibility."

Li Zhuiyuan: "The temples here cannot be calculated or analyzed."

Tan Wenbin: "Then let Mengmeng choose one?"

Li Zhuiyuan didn't speak, taking the initiative to step inside. Runsheng quickened his pace, walking in front of the young man.

The situation in this temple was even more chaotic than the Guarding Guarding Zhenjun Ciren temple. The serving stone statues had all turned into powder, and not a single floor tile was intact. A very high-intensity battle should have broken out here, resulting in not even a stone tablet with text being found.

Li Zhuiyuan stood in front of the cloud wall, hesitated for a moment, and didn't choose to open it.

Tan Wenbin took the initiative to suggest: "Brother Xiao Yuan, why don't we retreat now and probe the other two Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temples together? I think the probability is high that it's very similar to the situation here; it's mainly that I don't want to miss any possible clues."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "Hmm, then let's take some risks."

Everyone retreated and headed to the second Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temple, still entering in a defensive formation, but the degree of damage here was even worse than the first one, as if it had been burned, pitch black, with no information to be found.

They exited the second one and went to the third one. The situation in the third one was about the same as the first.

Tan Wenbin: "Five Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temples already. Except for the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun who had someone, the other four temples are all empty. Could they all be dead?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "According to the layout, there should be twelve True Lords here, plus a Dizang Bodhisattva temple."

Everyone knew clearly that the real secret must be hidden in the deepest part, which was the Dizang Bodhisattva temple. That place should be the key position of this wave.

Li Zhuiyuan opened the cloud wall.

This time, the young man didn't rush to walk inside, because in front of him, a one-meter-high river of blood appeared.

The reason it was called a river was because it was flowing. Although the cloud wall was opened, the river of blood outside didn't pour in here, as if an invisible barrier was blocking it.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, detained some from the outside, and smelled it in front of his nose.

It was blood, no mistake.

Li Zhuiyuan climbed onto Runsheng's back, Runsheng waded in first, and the others followed behind.

This circular area was completely filled by this river of blood.

Tan Wenbin: "Runsheng, you were right not to wipe your body."

Runsheng: "Wipe it together later."

Yin Meng: "Selling wigs isn't as profitable as selling blood plasma."

Tan Wenbin: "Who knows how many blood types are mixed together, how to sell it?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Just one blood type."

Tan Wenbin was just surprised at how Brother Xiao Yuan also joined in their joking, when suddenly he looked up and saw a Buddha head standing in the blood in front.

Fresh blood flowed out from the Buddha head's eyes, pouring into this place; it could be called a true Buddha weeping blood.

Tan Wenbin: "Is this the Buddha head of the giant Buddha statue we saw when we came in?"

When everyone came in by boat earlier, they almost hit a headless Buddha statue.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Yes."

Tan Wenbin: "Why would it be here?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Go in and ask."

Tan Wenbin: "Hmm?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Bin, there is someone inside the Buddha head."

The young man heard movement inside other than the flowing blood; it was human murmuring.

What exactly was said, Li Zhuiyuan couldn't hear clearly, which meant that the other party wasn't human, and its voice didn't spread in a normal way, otherwise with his hearing, he would definitely have been able to capture it.

"Then I have to go say hello."

Tan Wenbin waded through the blood forward.

Li Zhuiyuan: "A-You, accompany him, protect him."

"Understood!"

Tan Wenbin climbed onto the Buddha head. Those two Buddha eyes were like two waterfalls; it was impossible to enter from there. Finally, he had no choice but to stick his head into the Buddha head's nostrils.

Seeing this, Lin Shu also learned from Brother Bin's appearance and drilled his body into the other nostril.

Now, the nose was stuffed full.

It wasn't dark inside; there were things glowing, sparkling, blood light flashing.

Tan Wenbin turned his head to check, and finally saw a shadow curled up in the corner. The rustling sound came continuously from there, as if it were talking to itself.

"Bodhisattva is not Bodhisattva... Bodhisattva is Bodhisattva... Bodhisattva is not Bodhisattva..."

Tan Wenbin: "Buddy, want to light an incense?"

The sound stopped, and the person turned around, revealing his face.

Seeing his appearance, Tan Wenbin swallowed a mouthful of saliva subconsciously. This person's face was dynamic, fresh blood rolling continuously, like an ice cream melting in summer.

Tan Wenbin: "Buddy, what bitter thing is bothering you, tell me about it."

Lin Shu was somewhat surprised; could communication like this be so simple?

"Clatter..."

The person walked over, or to be exact, flowed over. He came below Tan Wenbin, stood in the blood pool, and said:

"Bodhisattva is not Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva is not Bodhisattva!"

Tan Wenbin: "Then who is the Bodhisattva?"

"Bodhisattva is Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva is Bodhisattva!"

Lin Shu frowned; why could he only repeat these circular words?

Tan Wenbin suddenly said: "Wow, Bodhisattva is right behind you!"

The person immediately turned around, knelt down toward the back, and pressed his palms together:

"Ah! Bodhisattva, I have sinned, Bodhisattva, I have sinned!"

Tan Wenbin asked in a deep voice: "What sin do you have?"

"I didn't know he wasn't a Bodhisattva, otherwise I would never have helped him suppress the merit dojo!

Bodhisattva, calm your anger, Bodhisattva, forgive my sin, it was I who mistook him, it was he who deceived me!

He deceived everyone here, deceived them for a long, long time!"

Lin Shu took a deep breath. Does this mean someone is impersonating the Dizang Bodhisattva here?

Then what Brother Xiao Yuan said, that the Dizang Bodhisattva is right here, wouldn't that be wrong?

No, how could Brother Xiao Yuan be wrong?

Tan Wenbin: "Then can you admit your sin and be willing to be punished?"

"I admit my sin, I admit my sin, I am willing to be here, to receive the Bodhisattva's commandment punishment!"

Lin Shu frowned; this sentence seemed to have brought out the Bodhisattva again. Is it the Bodhisattva who is making him receive punishment here?

Tan Wenbin: "Has the person impersonating me admitted his sin?"

"He, he, he..." The person suddenly paused. After a moment of silence, he suddenly let out a loud cry, "He is coming out, he is coming out!!!"

"Slap!"

Suddenly, the person's body exploded, turning into blood water. The height of the blood water inside the Buddha head rose sharply in an instant, spraying crazily outward.

The eyes were no longer enough; this time it rolled out directly from the ears, nose, and mouth.

Lin Shu had been guarding against accidents, but he really didn't expect the accident to unfold in this form.

He and Tan Wenbin were sprayed out from the Buddha head's nostrils like snot.

The only thing Lin Shu could do was to lift Brother Bin up the first moment he landed.

But just as he lifted him, Brother Bin broke free from his hand, shouted at him: "Quick, touch!"

Then, he drilled back down.

Lin Shu didn't know what Brother Bin was doing down there, so he followed suit, sank down, and felt around randomly below.

As a result, he really felt something the size of an egg. He floated to the surface, wiped off the fresh blood, and revealed the pure white inside.

And in Brother Bin's arms, he was holding a stack, all of these big white beads.

The two immediately waded back through the blood.

Tan Wenbin recounted the conversation, took out a white bead, handed it to Brother Xiao Yuan, and asked: "Brother Xiao Yuan, what is this?"

Li Zhuiyuan took it, rubbed it with his fingertips, and said: "Sarira."

"Sarira?" Tan Wenbin lowered his head, looking at the sarira in his arms, "How severe was this master's kidney stones to burn out so many sarira?"

"It should be the sarira of a group of eminent monks."

"A group?"

"They were arranged into the Buddha head, and the Buddha statue stood on the periphery, acting as the cornerstone of the legal field. Truly a grand gesture."

True eminent monks in the world were already hard to find. Those who could burn out this texture of sarira weren't burned after passing away, but "actively passed away" with utmost sincerity.

But thinking about it, if that person could use the Dizang Bodhisattva as a cover, it would be enough to make the eminent monks actively sacrifice themselves, viewing it as supreme glory.

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiao Yuan, then should we take all these sarira back?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "What you saw inside the Buddha head earlier was the manifestation of those eminent monks' collective soul thoughts through the blood water. As for these sarira, they have long since been worn away of their spirituality in the blood washing; they are just ordinary stones."

Runsheng reached out and took a sarira, bit it, chewed a few times, and spat it out.

Tan Wenbin shrugged, threw all the sarira he had just picked up down. Even Runsheng couldn't eat them; it seemed they were truly worthless.

After bypassing the Buddha head, everyone waded through the blood and continued forward.

In front, a Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temple appeared again. This time, it was one.

Moreover, in the blood water in front of the temple, a small vortex appeared.

The vortex grew larger and larger. Clearly, the blood water here was only one meter deep, but looking at the vortex from the side, it seemed terrifyingly deep.

"Tap... tap... tap..."

A figure walked out slowly from the depths of the blood-colored vortex.

He was hunched, with thick hair all over his body; he was human-shaped, yet had the appearance of a monkey.

After he walked onto the temple steps, he turned around, faced everyone, and his gaze met Li Zhuiyuan's on Runsheng's back.

"Heh, Gatekeeper Tongzi, you really couldn't stop them."

Li Zhuiyuan looked at him, not speaking.

The other party tilted his head slightly and said: "What, didn't recognize who I am?"

Li Zhuiyuan certainly recognized who the other party was. This was the guy who had laid out a plan on the island to join his team, only to lose his wife and soldiers.

Looking at it, he seemed to be a Guarding Guarding Zhenjun here too.

"Come, come into my temple and have a cup of tea."

After saying this, he walked into the temple, and his figure disappeared.

Only this road continued inward; the other party clearly wasn't afraid that they wouldn't go in.

"Let's go in."

Everyone silently formed a formation and walked into the temple.

Once inside, everyone was shocked by the exquisite furnishings and the layout rich in ancient charm here.

It was mainly because they had walked all the way here, except for the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun's place which was relatively well-preserved, the other Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temples had almost become ruins, while here, it was almost perfectly preserved.

And in terms of style, the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temple simply couldn't compare with this place.

However, on both sides of this temple, there were no serving stone statues, and they hadn't even been recessed; not even positions had been reserved.

On the altar, mountain forests and orchards were painted, as ethereal as a fairyland, but there was no Guarding Guarding Zhenjun statue either.

"Rest assured, my true body is not here. Heh, except for the Gatekeeper Tongzi, the true bodies of all our True Lords are not in their respective temples; they are all in the very inside."

Li Zhuiyuan got off Runsheng's back; the blood water hadn't flooded into the temple.

"Tea?" The other party issued an invitation.

"No." Li Zhuiyuan expressed his refusal.

The other party wasn't angry, just said faintly: "The three people on the island earlier were just toys I brought out casually decades ago; they don't count for much.

It's just that Gatekeeper Tongzi, actually, he's just like that, a fool.

If it weren't for seeing his hard work in guarding the gate, and the fact that a position among the twelve True Lords happened to be vacant at the time, I wouldn't have let him make up the numbers."

Li Zhuiyuan didn't speak.

"What, you think I'm deliberately scaring you, bluffing?" The other party reached out and pointed at Lin Shu, "This kid should know best how terrifying the power of an Yin God is, and I am the Yin God Lord he needs to worship."

Li Zhuiyuan opened his mouth: "You said the Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun was making up the numbers."

"That's right."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then what kind of thing do you count as?"

The other party's gaze sharpened, the hair on his body stood up, his lips flipped up and down, and his teeth rubbed against each other.

Li Zhuiyuan continued: "The Gatekeeper Guarding Guarding Zhenjun still had serving stone statues on his left and right, and medium descendants, while you, you don't even need that."

"Heh, that's because this Lord doesn't look down on those mediums."

"That's because you aren't human, just a beast. You can't possibly give birth to a group of monkeys to be your own medium-monkeys, right?"

"Ah!!"

Hearing this, the other party jumped onto the altar table fiercely, staring fixedly at Li Zhuiyuan, his hands scratching frantically at his body.

"You said the Gatekeeper Tongzi was there to fill the numbers. I think the one who was really brought in to make up the numbers should be you, this pet."

"Hehehehe..." The other party let out a sinister laugh, "Angering me, what good does it do you?"

"It makes me happy."

"This Lord is the Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun under the Dizang Bodhisattva."

"Oh, which Bodhisattva?"

"Acting as a Bodhisattva, naturally a true Bodhisattva in the human world!

No matter how outsiders look at it, in my heart, he is the supreme existence. If it weren't for his guidance and training, there wouldn't be the me of later."

"Then why did you betray him?"

Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun clenched his fists fiercely and shouted: "Who told you that! Gatekeeper Tongzi doesn't know at all what happened inside!"

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the surroundings: "The other Guarding Guarding Zhenjun temples were all destroyed, but your place here is perfectly preserved. Doesn't that mean you didn't resist at all back then, and even helped lead the way?"

Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun grinned grimly: "Heh, who told him to be so bold, actually daring to impersonate a Bodhisattva? This must be a huge sin. He not only went crazy himself, but also hid it from all of us, deceiving everyone into going crazy together!"

Li Zhuiyuan: "You really are a monkey face, changing as you please."

Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun: "Put yourself in my position back then, and you would have made the same choice I did."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then you regret it now, don't you? You betrayed him, and you yourself are forever trapped here."

Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun: "As you can see, compared to other True Lords, I possess greater freedom."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Let me guess, this is him deliberately showing mercy to you, right?"

Liyuan Guarding Guarding Zhenjun let out a sigh: "That's right, he knew that my betraying him was a last resort, so he forgave me. Although he shackled my true body in the main temple just like them, he still gave me freedom in consciousness."

"You really think so?"

"Otherwise? Between him and me, there is deep affection after all. Do you know? I was raised by him personally."

"I don't think so."

"Oh?"

"Because only when you are conscious can you feel the pain of being in prison."

(End of chapter)