Chapter 178 - 90: Wang Chu’s First Encounter with a Demon (7400 words)
Chapter Ninety [Wang Chuyi Encounters a Demon] (7400 words)
Chen Yan changed his shoes and put on his down jacket, then followed Chuyi out the door. The two of them walked westward through the village and came to the foot of the mountain, following the small path up the slope.
The mountain path was barely discernible and had some stones laid down, but after a day of snow, the road became very slippery. The hill where the wild temple was located wasn’t high, just a small slope, but the forest behind the mountain was quite large, stretching out for about two or three miles.
The two of them climbed the mountain in the dark and arrived at the entrance of the temple. Chen Yan looked up at the dilapidated gate; inside, the temple was pitch black... Beside him, Chuyi was slightly out of breath.
He suddenly frowned and looked at Chuyi beside him. This guy looked agitated, staring at him, and asked puzzledly, "Brother Xiao Yan? Why, why aren’t we going in?"
Chen Yan noticed a detail he had overlooked on the way.
After scrutinizing Chuyi for a few moments, Chen Yan suddenly asked, "How far did you run tonight?"
"Hmm?" Chuyi was startled for a moment. "I just went down the mountain to the village to look for you, then came back..."
Chen Yan calculated... It must have been a few kilometers, plus the climb up the mountain again!
This kid... His physical fitness is incredibly good!
Looking at the mildly panting Chuyi now, Chen Yan recalled the journey: he himself had the Essence Nourishing of Primordial Qi, his body much stronger than ordinary people, and he hadn’t been slow along the way!
Yet Chuyi had managed to follow him all the way without falling behind. Running to the temple at the top of the mountain, he was only slightly out of breath?
Chen Yan inconspicuously used his Qi Observation Skill to look at Chuyi, but there was no flow of Primordial Qi on him.
Forget it... Now isn’t the time to think about this.
Chen Yan shook his head, took a deep breath, and walked into the temple first.
·
The wild temple on the mountain was a place Chen Yan played at many times in his childhood.
Children in the countryside loved to run wild, climbing trees, going down rivers, and scaling mountains as common activities.
When Chen Yan was a child, he used to follow the village children up the mountain to play. He remembered seeing the old monk in the temple then—the old monk wasn’t as old as he was now back then.
The old monk was kind-hearted. When children climbed the walls to play in the temple, he wouldn’t get angry, scold, or chase them out with a broom. Occasionally, he would even smile and give them some malt sugar to eat.
He remembered there was an orange tree planted in the temple’s yard, and every autumn, he allowed the children to enter the temple to pick the oranges from the tree.
The children would climb the tree to pick oranges, and the old monk would sit under the tree, smiling gently.
In his impression, the old monk was a rather kind person.
·
The wild temple wasn’t big, just an outer courtyard.
Facing the main gate was the main hall—although called a hall, it was actually just a tiled house, not very large, but more orderly and higher than ordinary houses. Inside, there were clay statues of Buddhas, with the paint already peeling off, revealing the clay underneath.
There was no merit box, just an incense burner of unknown origin, still carved out of stone.
There were no meditation mats, only two wooden boards.
Besides that, the east wing room was the monk’s meditation room, while the west wing room served as the kitchen and woodshed.
Behind the kitchen, there was a small door leading to a vegetable garden behind it.
The wild temple in the countryside was about this big.
When Chen Yan was little, he heard about the history of this wild temple on the mountain: the mountain originally hosted an ancient temple, but exactly which dynasty it was built in was unclear. Anyway, the villagers couldn’t tell when it was built, but it seemed to always be there through the generations.
It was said that long ago, the temple’s incense offering was quite good—after all, it was the only temple within a ten-mile radius.
However, later, it was said that a hundred years ago, due to wartime chaos, all the monks fled, leaving the temple abandoned.
It remained abandoned for decades.
Now, the old monk in the village was a later arrival—he was originally from the area and had married a woman from the neighboring village.
It was said that during a big flood when he was young, his wife and child died, and he miraculously survived.
Afterwards, he left the village, wandering somewhere for years. Several years later, he returned to the village, probably unable to get past his grief, saw through worldly matters, sold off his house and land in the village, and with the money, signed a contract with the village to lease the mountain with the wild temple, settling in the temple and becoming a monk.
When Chuyi came to the temple, the old monk divided his east wing meditation room, creating a wall to partition off a small room for Chuyi.
Chen Yan followed Chuyi into the old monk’s meditation room. Upon entering, he turned on the light and checked the bed. When he touched it, the bed was ice-cold.
Looking around, Chen Yan suddenly raised an eyebrow!
He squatted down to check beside the bed—there was a pair of shoes placed there!
(The old monk was missing, and... he didn’t even wear his shoes!)
He glanced at the chair beside it, where an old padded monk robe was hanging.
(He didn’t wear his outer garment either!)
So it was impossible that he left on his own—such cold weather, and with the snow outside. Who goes out barefoot and without wearing outer clothes?
Chen Yan thought for a moment and seriously asked Chuyi, "Are you sure you searched the temple?"
"Yes, I searched everywhere: the main hall, the courtyard, the kitchen, even the vegetable garden in the back."
Chen Yan nodded, then took out his phone and turned on the flashlight mode, before heading out of the meditation room.