Chapter 164: Dizang Hall

Sheng Hui said "Amitabha" and said: "More than forty years ago, a donor came here and asked many questions about this Xu Chunxia. So many years have passed in a flash, and when you mentioned this person's name, this poor monk remembered."

"Is this person named Ye Ming?" Qi Fei asked immediately.

"He was like you, came to the Liuli Ta, but didn't explain his purpose, just stood at the top of the tower and looked at the wind bells for a long time. You all know that at the Yin hour of the first day of the lunar month, the Liuli Ta has the spectacle of the treasure orb projection. This Donor Ye came exactly on the first day of the lunar month. The reason this poor monk remembers it so clearly is because the temple monks advised him that it was dark and the temple was closing, asking him to go down the mountain, but he waited until the 'Heavenly Talisman Suppressing the Night' appeared at the Yin hour.

This poor monk was not the Abbot of Da Baoen Si at that time, just a patrol guard of the Zen barrier, and was worried about him staying in the courtyard alone, so I had to accompany him on the side.

He moved with the moonlight and recorded the trajectory of the talisman's landing on the square.

At that time, Da Baoen Si did not have the good street lighting conditions it has now.

I remember I was carrying a lantern, helping him illuminate the notebook in his hand, and watched him take out a map and circle and draw on the notebook.

When the sky was about to brighten, he seemed to have found the answer and pointed to the northeast corner, asking what that place was.

This poor monk replied that it was the Dizang Hall.

After hearing this, he asked this poor monk to take him to see it.

This poor monk still remembers that the sky was just starting to brighten, and the two of us were standing here.

At that time, the Dizang Hall had just been built, and there were not many memorial tablets enshrined.

Among them, he found this Xu Chunxia's memorial tablet and asked who this person was."

"Then who is this person?" Qi Fei asked immediately, as if he were taking over from Ye Ming to continue the investigation.

Dharma Master Sheng Hui shook his head slightly: "The origin of this person, this poor monk was only told before the old Abbot passed away. This Xu Chunxia is the Ghost Wife of the Wuyin Bai Clan."

"What does that mean?" Qi Fei didn't understand at all.

On the contrary, Meng Apo on the side actually showed a look of understanding on her stiff face—she knew.

Zhong Kui said on the side: "Those without records in life enter the Yin Registry in death, and the Yama does not investigate their cause and effect in the human world. It seems this Xu Chunxia is an unregistered person; no wonder you checked for a long time and couldn't find this person." Zhong Kui said, looking at Sheng Hui, "It seems the legend about the Wuyin Eighteen Gates is true?"

"This poor monk was just a small patrol guard back then, only knowing that Xu Chunxia was enshrined by Bai Congshan, and nothing else is clear."

Zhong Kui looked at Sheng Hui with a trace of disdain in her eyes, as if saying that even a high monk is just like this, protecting himself when things happen.

Qi Fei was at a loss, asking Zhong Kui as if seeing a savior: "Are you speaking in riddles? Why can't I understand any of it?"

"I don't blame you. If it weren't for my fortune-telling career and the need to study the customs of Nancheng, I wouldn't know about this Bai Clan. At the end of the last century, this notorious family was finally wiped out in the action of cracking down on black and evil forces."

The familiar words "black and evil forces" finally activated Qi Fei's related knowledge: "Bai Clan..." he muttered, suddenly realizing, "You mean the Bai Congshan criminal group, the famous village bullies back then. These people built their own village and had homemade firearms. It was a sensation when they were wiped out. This Xu Chunxia actually got involved with this gang?" His head "buzzed," not expecting that the already confusing "Demon Mirror Case" would actually get involved with Bai Congshan.

He suddenly realized one thing—why Ye Ming suddenly stopped synchronizing information with Li Jianjun after tracking down Xu Chunxia.

If it was the Bai Congshan criminal group, he knew very well what it meant in Nancheng in the 1980s. After this local snake, which had been entrenched in Nancheng for many years, was wiped out, it pulled out the radish and brought out the mud, taking down quite a few protective umbrellas.

Ye Ming must have realized that things were not simple at that time, and in order to protect Li Jianjun, he decided to carry everything alone.

"Bai Family Village is the only village in the mountains in Nancheng. It is said that the Bai Clan is the descendants of pirates who rose during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, fleeing to the mountains to occupy the mountains as kings. The alleys in the village are laid out according to the 'Mysterious Gates and Hidden Trigrams,' with eighteen stone gate checkpoints. Because of the special terrain, it is covered by thick fog all year round, so there is the saying of the Wuyin Eighteen Gates. It's quite interesting..." Zhong Kui said.

Sheng Hui said: "The temple doesn't know much about the ins and outs. Only knowing that this Xu Chunxia was enshrined by the Bai family, and that was what was reported to Donor Ye back then, and he never came again after that."

"Ha, it seems that it is destined to take advantage of this beautiful weather to travel through the mountains and play in the water." Zhong Kui looked at the bit of sunlight leaking through the window lattice and said with a smile, "When I was flipping through the local chronicles, I was very interested in this Wuyin Eighteen Gates. It seems that this time I have a chance to go and see it on the spot."

Qi Fei immediately opened his mobile phone and searched for the situation of Bai Congshan: "Bai Congshan was already shot dead during the siege and confrontation back then. Except for a few core gang members who were executed, most of the others should have been released from prison by now."

After noon, Qi Fei and his party stepped over the broken leaves under the bluestone archway, and a new antique wooden sign from the Bureau of Culture and Tourism was hung under the mottled four characters "Wuyin Bai Clan."

Unlike the mysterious scene he imagined, the Wuyin Eighteen Gates are very lively now.

The mountain wind wrapped around the electronic explanation of the tourist loudspeaker and passed through the forest. Qi Fei looked up at the top of the seventh arch—it was originally a defensive net woven with iron caltrops, but now a white-bottomed red-letter sign "Century-old Ancient Village Tea House 200m" is hanging there.

The bunker that once set up earth cannons has been repainted, and the eaves are crowded with tourists holding selfie sticks. Only the bullet holes in the stone wall are circled in red paint as "Education Point for Sweeping Away Black and Evil."

"Make way! There is a Nu Opera performance at ten o'clock!" The mountain porter shouted and bumped into the crowd. The mugwort sachets and Broken Mist Bells swaying at both ends of the bamboo shoulder pole were all rough wholesale goods at a glance.

When Qi Fei turned sideways to avoid, the bronze Taotie door knocker brushed against the back of his neck. The Thousand-Catty Sluice Gate mechanism used to strangle intruders back then is now stuck with an acrylic warning sign to prevent children from climbing.

Turning past the stone gate of the Kan water position overgrown with wild ferns, the core area of the real ancient village was revealed.

At the entrance of the Bai Clan Ancestral Residence, which is listed as a cultural relic protection building, the couplet on the stone pillar is still there, writing: "The Bai quality is originally firm, wind and snow cannot destroy its ambition; the clan heart shares the pulse, spring and autumn do not forget the same root."

The legendary thick fog, perhaps because of the popularity, was not seen.

On the square, a middle-aged woman in a jacket walked towards them.

"You must be Police Officer Qi, hello, I am Chang Ying, the director of the Wuyin Bai Family Village Cultural Relic Protection Center and the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage."

"Hello Director Chang, the general situation has been said on the phone before. We just want to understand the parties involved in the Yin Marriage of Xu Chunxia around December 1983," Qi Fei said. ===== CHAPTER 165 =====