Chapter 332: Strange Corpse

"It's a bear."

Li Yan laughed dumbly and shook his head slightly.

Bears are very smart. In some ancient hunting tribes, there is even a saying that bears are people who have been cursed and forced to crawl on all fours, which shows how much they are feared.

The most common thing this creature does is stand up and wave when the visibility is dim, attracting people to come over.

By the time people get close and see clearly, they have no chance to escape.

But provoking them is purely seeking death.

"Let's go."

Li Yan quickened his pace and smiled at Lu San: "I was just saying we'd find someone to ask for directions; the local wild beasts will do."

As they spoke, they were getting closer and closer to the mountain forest.

After getting closer, they could see more clearly.

It was indeed a bear, tall and strong, with thick brown hair, a slightly reddish chest, a wide nose and large mouth, and eyes like copper bells.

It stood in the forest, one claw leaning against a tree trunk, the other claw waving up and down, its eyes bright and piercing, full of gloom.

A man-bear?

Li Yan was a bit surprised when he saw it.

The "man-bear" commonly referred to by the folk is mostly a brown bear, which is common in cold plateau areas, while in Ezhou, there are more black bears.

There is no doubt that brown bears are more terrifying, with larger bodies and fiercer temperaments, and sometimes they even prey on black bears.

But soon, Li Yan knew the reason.

Around the neck of this man-bear, there was actually a collar, which looked like Tibetan silver, not short of years, and inlaid with jewels.

Because it was covered by thick hair, it was only seen after getting close.

And this man-bear had already sensed something was wrong.

Li Yan and the other two were not like the common people before; not only did they not run away, but they also made it feel palpitations.

"Roar——!"

The man-bear roared and turned to flee.

This move, however, was beyond Li Yan's expectations.

He was about to chase, but Wu Ba, the savage beside him, also let out a low growl and rushed out.

His figure was agile, his feet were like wind, his muscles exploded, like a cheetah, and he even lowered his body, using both hands and feet.

Li Yan and the other two only felt a gust of wind blow by, and the savage Wu Ba had disappeared into the forest. Where was the timidity from before on the boat?

Soon, the roar of the brown bear sounded ahead.

Lu San frowned, patted the demon gourd at his waist, and immediately poisonous bees whistled out to help Wu Ba.

And Li Yan shook his head and shouldered the luggage.

The two quickened their pace and passed through the dense forest.

They saw the savage Wu Ba with bulging muscles, actually grabbing the bear's head and pressing it firmly to the ground.

The man-bear roared and struggled wildly, its huge bear paws splashing mud everywhere, its butt and body twisting left and right, but it still couldn't turn over.

And this savage Wu Ba had eyes full of excitement, even carrying a trace of fanaticism, revealing ferocious fangs, and even his skin began to turn red.

This guy's hair was abnormally lush.

He had shaved it clean at the time, and it had grown into an inch-long stubble in these two days. In his excitement, every hair stood on end, making him look even more like a wild beast than the man-bear below.

Feeling the man-bear's struggle, Wu Ba's eyes were full of ferocity. He pressed the man-bear's head with one hand and smashed down with his other fist.

"Wait!"

Seeing something was wrong, Li Yan hurriedly stopped him.

However, it was already too late.

The savage Wu Ba had awakened the supernatural power of the body. The methods he learned from childhood were all to deal with various wild beasts, and at the same time, he imitated them, more like a primitive form of imitative boxing.

He had long ago learned dark energy in his ignorance, concentrating his whole body's strength, and knew the weaknesses of wild beasts.

Crack!

With one punch, the sound of bone cracking immediately rang out.

The man-bear's neck twisted abnormally, blood and brain matter splashed from its ears, half of its head collapsed, and its body stopped moving.

Li Yan stopped his steps immediately and narrowed his eyes at Wu Ba.

Subconsciously, he still didn't treat him as a companion. He had temporarily taken him in because Lu San was kind-hearted and wanted to save the savage's life.

After all, this is a man-eating ghoul, a half-human, half-monster existence.

Just like now, after hammering the man-bear to death, Wu Ba seemed to have stirred up some kind of ferocity. He didn't seem to hear Li Yan's words at all, and with *thump thump*, he threw two more punches.

*Pfft! *

The man-bear's brain was completely shattered. Wu Ba reached out and grabbed the sticky brain matter, intending to send it to his mouth.

"Wu Ba!"

Just then, Lu San gave a stern reprimand.

Wu Ba shuddered and stopped. The blood color in his eyes faded rapidly, and he secretly looked at Lu San, hurriedly rubbing his hands on the man-bear's body to wipe off the brain matter.

Afterward, he stood up awkwardly, standing there at a loss.

Seeming to know Li Yan's thoughts, Lu San shook his head and whispered: "You can't look at him with human eyes. When a wild beast joins a new tribe, it always needs time to adapt."

"Give me some time, he will be a good companion..."

After saying that, he walked up quickly, his expression stern, muttering in the upper language.

Wu Ba shrank his head, and his body seemed to have shrunk by a head.

The little white fox had already grown a circle, just following behind Lu San. Seeing Wu Ba being scolded, it was excited, jumping up and down, baring its teeth and hissing.

Li Yan laughed dumbly and didn't say anything more.

Since Lu San had spoken, he had to believe it.

Thinking of this, Li Yan also walked up to the man-bear's corpse, took off the collar hanging on its neck, and checked it carefully.

He saw that the collar in his hand was made of Tibetan silver, not short of years, and the patterns were full of auspicious clouds, treasure vases, lotus flowers, and carefully inlaid with red coral, turquoise, and blue lapis lazuli.

It looked like something from Tibetan Buddhism.

And there was yin-sha energy lingering, clearly a magic artifact, and a line of text was engraved inside:.

Li Yan couldn't understand it at all, but he had already guessed that this man-bear was probably raised by someone.

On the other side, Lu San had also finished scolding Wu Ba.

I don't know what Lu San said, but Wu Ba hurriedly took the luggage behind Li Yan, lowered his head, and peeked at him.

Li Yan didn't bother with him, but frowned, pinched the magic formula, and took a deep breath in the air: "Follow me!"

After saying that, he quickened his pace and walked in front.

Lu San and Wu Ba followed closely, while the little white fox flicked its big tail, galloping and jumping on the stone walls of the mountain forest, one step faster than Li Yan.

This little thing had quite a bit of spirituality; it already knew what he was going to do and used its sensitive sense of smell to lead the way in front.

The crowd traveled through, passed a mountain col, and a dirt road appeared ahead. Although it was covered by weeds, it could still be vaguely seen.

And on the ground, there were drag marks of blood and some animal hair, clearly hunted by the man-bear before.

Seeing this situation, Li Yan had already sensed it.

Sure enough, after turning a mountain ridge, he immediately saw a ruin.

This was an ancient kiln site. The kiln furnace had collapsed, but the structure could still be vaguely identified. Fragments of pottery and old tools were scattered in the grass, and the dirt piles around were messy and covered by weeds, looking like grave mounds.

In front of the kiln site, a stone platform was built, with a lot of traces of fire, and several battle flags were inserted on it, faded by wind and sun.

It was clearly a grand ritual that had been performed.

Li Yan shook his head slightly and said to Lu San who had followed, "It seems this place is one of the strange kilns the Shen family servant mentioned, but it has already been dealt with."

After saying that, he looked to the other side. The place where the kiln was located must be rich in high-quality porcelain clay. This place was also like that, with a hill that had even been dug away halfway.

Red mud, green vines, and a pitch-black cave, with the remains of animals and humans outside, and dense swarms of flies flying back and forth.

The originally agile little white fox had stopped, baring its teeth at the pitch-black cave entrance, its fur standing on end, as if guarding against something.

Li Yan pinched a mantra and sniffed, immediately detecting a faint yin energy inside, as if something was watching them in the darkness.

"Don't move around."

A flash of murderous intent appeared in Li Yan's eyes, and he quickly entered the cave.

As soon as he stepped in, he could feel that the cave was unusually cold, and a black smoke whistled out from the darkness, rushing toward his face.

"Hmph! Thinking quite beautifully!"

Li Yan raised his hand, and the invisible Soul-Hooking Rope whistled out. Feeling the movement of the hook, he pulled it again.

Whoosh~

The darkness scattered immediately, and a cold wind blew through the cave, which soon became quiet again. Although it was still somewhat cool, that bone-chilling cold was gone.

!.

Li Yan shook his hand and continued walking forward.

Sure enough, a corpse lay deep in the cave, having been decayed for a long time, wrapped in a dark red monk's robe, with items like a vajra pestle and a leather drum scattered around.

At the same time, Lu San also lit a torch and walked in.

"It's this guy."

Li Yan looked at the corpse on the ground and said, "This is a Tibetan Tantric master. I don't know why he ran here; even after death, he still wants to lure people to possess them."

That's right, in a short time, he had figured out the whole story.

This unknown monk had a powerful soul. After death, his yin soul did not dissipate, controlling the man-bear to go out and eat people.

Eating people was just a means; the goal was to attract people, and it had to be a Mystic Sect cultivator, so he could possess them.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky and ran into them.

Lu San was a bit surprised, "These people are rare in the Divine Land. Why would they run all the way to Ezhou?"

He was right. Since the collapse of the Si Tu Bo Empire, the Tibetan region had formed forces like the Guge Kingdom and the Ladakh Kingdom.

During the Daxiang years of the previous dynasty, the Golden Tent Wolf Kingdom's army approached the border, and the forces in this region surrendered one after another, with many Dharma Kings joining the Golden Tent Wolf Kingdom to fight against the Mystic Sect.

Seeing the rise of the Great Da Xuan Dynasty, these forces surrendered immediately, voluntarily becoming subjects and paying tribute, and were called Ü-Tsang.

That area had a vast territory, harsh environment, and sparse population, and there were remnants of the Golden Tent Wolf Kingdom secretly active, disrupting the situation.

The Great Da Xuan Dynasty didn't want to spend too much effort, so it adopted a strategy of appeasement as the main focus and military strikes as a supplement, gradually calming the turmoil.

Nowadays, it can be considered stable, but because the Tantric masters and the Mystic Sect fought too fiercely during the previous dynasty, although the Tea-Horse Road trade is prosperous among the people, the Mystic Sect does not have close contact with them.

"You'll know once you look."

Li Yan reached out and took a letter from the corpse's bosom, but after opening it, his face stiffened.

It was all in Tibetan, and he couldn't read it at all!

"What is this..."

Li Yan muttered and began to check other things.

Before this monk died, his cultivation should not have been shallow. At least these items on him were all Dharma artifacts, mainly a vajra pestle, a prayer wheel, and a small human-skin drum.

The first two still had a kind of gang-sha power, while the human-skin drum emitted a cold aura. When touched by a finger, white frost would spread.

Li Yan narrowed his eyes, clenched his fist, and electric arcs crackled. With one punch, he smashed the human-skin drum flat.

Bang!

An explosion sounded in the air, and a cold aura overflowed.

Afterward, he also smashed the vajra pestle and the prayer wheel.

These Dharma artifacts had been enshrined in front of the altar for years; they were useless to him, so it was better to destroy them directly and smelt the materials later.

Besides that, there was a small bottle of ghee. After opening the lid, a rich medicinal fragrance immediately hit his nose.

This should be an item for Tantric cultivation.

Tantric Buddhism emphasizes "Three Secrets": body secret, speech secret, and mind secret. It has various rituals as well as various hand seal secret arts.

Ghee can be used to practice hand seals and can also be used for offerings. It looks like many precious medicinal herbs were added.

Finally, Li Yan picked up a Thangka.

Since his last fight with a Tantric monk in the Phosphorus Mine Canyon, Li Yan had roughly inquired about relevant information from the Law Enforcement Hall.

A Thangka is also a Dharma artifact in Tantric Buddhism, used to help practitioners strengthen their faith and mindfulness, a bit like the Mystic Sect's "Cunshen."

It usually depicts images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

But the one depicted on this Thangka was somewhat creepy and strange.

It was two deities, a man and a woman, both with ghostly faces and fangs, pitch black all over, each holding a Dharma artifact in their six arms, entangled with each other, wrapped in flame-like patterns, forming something like an embryo.

Seeing this, Li Yan felt a inexplicable palpitation in his heart.

He was lost in thought and carefully put away the Thangka and the secret letter.

This monk ran all the way here. Although he didn't know his purpose or why he died, it certainly wasn't simple.

And he even brought a man-bear as a pet, and wasn't stopped by government soldiers along the way, which was also strange...

There are those in the Buddhist sect who are proficient in Tibetan; handing it over to Master Chengjue of the Law Enforcement Hall might reveal the reason.

Afterward, Li Yan moved the corpse out, piled it together with the remains outside, found some dead branches, and burned it all with a fire.

After doing all this, it was already afternoon.

And Lu San was also in the distance, calling out a few times. The birds around scattered and flew away. He walked over and shook his head, "There are two villages a few miles away, both are Miao villages."

"And twenty miles north, there is an inn on the official road."

Li Yan frowned, "Miao villages generally don't welcome outsiders. Let's hurry on our way and go to the inn to inquire for news."

After saying that, the three of them quickly left the valley.

The distance of twenty miles was neither far nor near. By the time they arrived, the sun was setting.

They saw an official road in the distance, close to a river, with a two-story inn standing alone by the road.

It was a dirt and wood structure, not high-end. Wine flags were fluttering outside, a few horses were eating fodder in the stable, and cooking smoke was drifting from the roof.

A waiter was busy in the stable.

Li Yan and his group's appearance was quite striking. As soon as the waiter saw them, he knew they were not to be trifled with, so he hurriedly walked over, bowing and scraping, "Guests, please come in. Are you staying for a meal or staying the night?"

"We want two upper rooms and a table of food and wine."

Li Yan ordered while walking into the inn.

After entering, he immediately felt several gazes.

Li Yan looked around and saw that the inn was very simple, with a floor made of rammed earth and the tables in the hall being somewhat dilapidated.

There weren't many people in the shop. A few people were sitting at one table, men and women, old and young, one of whom had a fishing drum on his back.

On the other side, there were also a few people. The leader was a middle-aged fat man in brocade clothes, surrounded by men in black, dressed like a merchant and his retainers.

Li Yan ignored them and, led by the waiter, went to a large room on the second floor and put down his luggage.

As soon as the door was closed, Lu San said in a low voice, "These people are a bit wrong..."

"I know."

Li Yan shook his head and smiled, "There's a smell of dirt on them, they're all grave robbers. Could this bunch have eaten a leopard's gall and want to rob a royal tomb?"

The second update will be later.

Also recommending a great book, "I Am an Immortal."

Here, there are Cloud Gods who use radios to forecast the weather, Ghost Gods who hold electric batons. There are Fire Gods carrying flamethrowers, Daoist masters who use pistols as palm thunder, and the Yangtze Dragon King guarding the dam.

When you possess technology and power that transcend the era, you are a god or immortal in the eyes of mortals...

(End of chapter)