Forbidden Read!
Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Discussion Between Three Fools At Ju Yang Temple At Night

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From that moment on, everything started to get out of control. Within a hundred years later, there were a total of seventeen brides who had disappeared in the territory of Mount Yu Jun. Sometimes, for years there will only be peace. While in the following year, two brides suddenly disappeared again in a short span of about a month. Soon, a terrifying legend circulated: that in the interior of Mount Yu Jun lived a ghost of the groom. If she likes a woman, she will kidnap her during the delivery procession, before she devours all the relatives who have delivered her.

Initially, this situation would not be communicated to Heaven. Because, although there are seventeen brides who disappeared, but hundreds of thousands of other brides around the world have passed their wedding day safely and peacefully. However, it was impossible to find or help them now, so people had no choice but to follow the path.

Families who dared to marry off their daughters in the region became a little less, and the newlyweds in the local region did not dare to make a big event during their wedding. However, the seventeenth bride happened to have the father of a high official.

This father loved his daughter so much; when he learned of the legend, he carefully selected forty outstanding and brave military officials to deliver his daughter to the groom. However, even though he had done all those preparations, his daughter still disappeared.

This time, the ghost of this groom had actually pierced the beehive.

This official did not manage to find anyone in the human world who could do something to help him. Thus, he angrily conspired with his official friends, before then performing a crazy ritual. The official even followed the advice of an expert and opened a rice barn to help the poor. After making a lot of commotion, he had finally managed to shake the Heavenly Official. Otherwise, it was almost impossible for those little mortal voices to reach the ears of the Heavenly Officials.

Xie Lian said, "It's more or less like it's a picture of the whole situation."

As the expressions of the two martial gods looked extremely unassailable to cooperate with, he was not sure if they were listening or not. If they did not listen, Xie Lian had no other choice but to explain the situation once again. Yet inversely proportional from his conjecture, Nan Feng raised his head before frowning. He asked, "Do the missing brides have anything in common?"

Xie Lian replied, "There are some rich brides and some poor. Some are beautiful and some are ugly. Some were married as wives, and others as concubines. In short, their disappearance has absolutely no particular pattern or habit. Thus, the ghostly disposition of this groom cannot be determined."

"Mhm," Nan Feng snorted, before he lifted the teacup and took a sip. He seemed to be starting to ponder their problems. While on the other hand, Fu Yao did not even bother to touch the teacup that Xie Lian had pushed onto her. He just casually continued wiping his fingers using a white handkerchief before he asked nonchalantly, "His Highness the Crown Prince, how can you deduce that the ghost is the groom? It's still not certain. No one's ever seen him before. How can you tell if he is a man or a woman, old or young? Is your thinking that simple?"

Xie Lian smiled before replying, "The conclusion written on this scroll is a summary made by the Heavenly Official from Ling Wen Palace Hall. 'The groom's ghost is just a name that people usually use. However, what you said made a lot of sense."

After exchanging sentences, Xie Lian realized that the way these two martial gods thought was quite sharp. Although their expressions did not look good, they were not careless regarding work matters. Makes Xie Lian feel very grateful. As the sky outside the window started to darken, the three of them left the small teahouse for now. Xie Lian put on her bamboo hat before she started walking. After walking for a while, he suddenly realized that the two people behind him were not following him. Perplexed, Xie Lian turned around and realized that the two people were also looking at her confusedly. Nan Feng asked, "Where are you going?"

Xie Lian replied, "I'll find a place to stay. Fu Yao, why are you rolling your eyes again?"

Nan Feng asked again confusedly, "Then, why are you walking towards the mountains and the wild?"

Xie Lian was used to eating and sleeping on the streets. As long as he could find a piece of cloth as a sleeping pad, he could lie there for an entire night. So, of course he prepared to search for the cave and light a fire, something he usually did. Only after Nan Feng said that did he remember; that Nan Feng and Fu Yao were the martial gods of their respective Palace Halls. If there was a Nan Yang or Xuan Zhen temple around, they could directly enter it. Why do they need to sleep out there, in the wilderness?

Moments later, the three of them find the local temple worn out and damaged, in a small, unattractive corner. The incense plates in the temple were already broken, and the entire interior of the temple gave the impression that the place was rarely visited. The name of the Earth God was engraved on a small round stone plaque. Xie Lian called out to him a few times. It had been many years since someone called or made an offering to this local Earth God. When he suddenly heard someone calling him, his eyes widened. He saw three people standing in front of him. The area around their bodies was even covered by a rich layer of divine light. It was impossible to see their faces clearly. Jumping anxiously, the Earth God trembled before asking, "Do these three Heavenly Officials have orders for servants?"

Xie Lian nodded in greeting before saying, "There are no orders. We just want to ask if there is a General Nan Yang temple or a General Xuan Zhen Temple around here?"

The Earth God did not dare to underestimate them and replied, "One, two, three..." He counted with his finger before saying, "About five li[1] from here, there is a temple offering to, for, for General Nan Yang."

[1]: Ancient Chinese measurement unit, 1 li about 500 m. So, 5 li is about 2500 m.

Xie Lian put her hands together before replying, "Thank you very much." However, the Earth God felt as if he had been blinded by the two lumps of dazzling divine light standing beside Xie Lian. So he rushed to hide himself again. Meanwhile, Xie Lian fumbled around before she found some coins to use as an offering to the Earth God. Then, after seeing some incense sticks scattered to the side, he straightened the incense back before lighting it. During that process, Fu Yao had rolled her eyes so many times that it almost made Xie Lian ask if her eyes were tired.

As expected, five li later, they actually saw a temple. Standing right by the roadside, the temple looked quite prosperous and famous. Although the temple was rather small, everything needed to make an offering was there. Making the place full of happiness and unusual noise when people come and go. The three of them hid themselves to be invisible before entering the temple. And sure enough, an armored Divine statue of Martial God Nan Yang who was holding a bow was actually located on the offering altar.

As Xie Lian looked at the divine statue, she muttered "Uh huh.." inwardly.

For the size of a small temple in this kind of countryside, neither the divine statue nor the paint that coated it was made rather roughly. Overall, the look of the statue was in stark contrast to Xie Lian's impression of Feng Xin herself.

However, most Heavenly Officials were already familiar with how their Divine statues were inaccurately depicted. Let alone their mother, some Heavenly Officials could not even recognize their own Divine statues. After all, not many master artists had ever met a Heavenly Official in person. Therefore, their sculptures if it did not have an extraordinarily beautiful look, then it would be extremely ugly. People could only see from the specific posture of their statues, weapons, and clothes to be able to recognize which Heavenly Official the statue depicted.

In general, the richer a region was, the more Divine Sculptures built in that area would become more and more similar to the original Heavenly Official. As the worse the place got, the lower the taste of the artist, resulting in their divine statue becoming a truly tragic sight to behold. As of now, only the Divine statue of General Xuan Zhen looked quite good overall.

Wh why? Because most of the Heavenly Officials did not really care if their Divine statues were made ugly.

As for Xuan Zhen, whenever he saw someone make his Divine statue look ugly, he would secretly damage the statue to make the artist remodel it. Sometimes, he would even create a vague dream of expressing his dissatisfaction to that artist. So before long, everyone now believed that they needed to make their master's divine statue look good!

The heavenly officials who came from the Xuan Zhen Palace Hall all had personalities similar to their Generals. I like to pay attention to detail. During one shichen[2] after entering Nan Yang temple, Fu Yao continuously found fault in the details of the Divine statue there. He continued to comment like "the shape is distorted", or "the paint colors are too vulgar", or "the technique the artist uses is of low quality". He even commented on how the artist's taste was too strange.

[2]: One shichen: about two hours.

When Xie Lian saw the veins on Nan Feng's forehead slowly appearing, she began to think how she should quickly find another topic to distract him. Coincidentally, Xie Lian saw a young girl enter the temple to pay her respects to Nan Yang. As the girl godly knelt down, Xie Lian began to speak warmly. "All things considered, as the original land of Nan Yang ZhenJun was in the Southeast region. I didn't expect the incense burning for Nan Yang to be this strong as well in the North."

When humans built the temple, they were actually trying to imitate the Palace Hall that was in Heaven. The Divine Statues, on the other hand, should be a reflection of the Heavenly Official himself. Worshippers gathered in a temple and the incense they burned became an important source of spiritual power for a heavenly official. In addition, due to the geographical location, history, social customs, class, and various other reasons of each individual, people living in different areas would usually worship different Heavenly Officials.

The spiritual power possessed by a Heavenly Official would be even stronger in their own territory, which was also known as the primacy of the place of origin. Only a god like the Heavenly Martial God Emperor alone could have worshippers in every crevice and corner under the heavens. He was a Heavenly Official with temples standing in every direction, so whether Jun Wu was in his 'origin land' or not, it meant nothing. Nan Feng should be proud that the incense was burning so strongly in the temple that it was not in his General's territory. However, looking at the color of his face, it seemed that it was not something good for him. Fu Yao walked to the side and smiled faintly before saying, "Not bad, not bad. General Nan Yang received no small amount of love and respect.

Xie Lian replied, "Although, I have a question. I don't know..."

Nan Feng cut him off. "If you want to say 'I don't know if it's something worth asking', then don't say it."

Xie Lian thought in her heart, "No, I want to say, 'I don't know if anyone can answer it'."

However, Xie Lian had a premonition that the answer to her question would be far from good. Thus, he decided to better change the topic of their conversation once again. Unfortunately, who would have thought that Fu Yao would choose to talk casually at a time like this. "I know what you want to ask. You must be wondering, out of so many devotees who come here today, why are there so many women, right?"

Exactly, that was the question that Xie Lian wanted to ask.

Xie Lian understood that fact clearly. It was not because he was a virtuous and dignified person, nor was it because he was extremely talented. All of that was only because his Divine statue looked good and the temple looked good. Almost all of his temples were built by royal palaces, and his Divine statues were made by top artists from all over the country. The statues are carefully sculpted according to their original faces. Moreover, because of his sentence, 'the body is in the abyss, but the heart is in heaven', artists usually like to add flowers to his Divine statues.

They also love to turn their temples into a sea of flowering trees. As a result, at that moment, he had another name. Xie Lian was also known as the 'Defense God of the Flower Crown'. Thus, the women loved how her Divine statues looked so beautiful, and they also loved how her temple was filled with flowers. It was enough to make them run to his temple. Fortunately, they were also willing to step in and pay their respects to him.

However, martial gods were usually surrounded by powerful killing intent. Thus, the appearance of their Divine statues more often seemed serious, fierce, or heartless. For female devotees, they would rather worship the Mercy Goddess, Guanyin, than stare at such a statue. And even though this Divine Nan Yang statue was far from releasing killing intent due to its appearance, still, it was still far from something that could be considered handsome. However, there were more female worshipers than men who came to pay their respects to Nan Yang. Moreover, it was clear that Nan Feng suddenly did not want to answer that question. So, Xie Lian thought it was a little strange. At that moment, the young girl had finished paying her respects and got up to light an incense stick. He also turned around.

When Xie Lian saw him turn around, she slightly pushed the two others beside her. From the beginning, none of them refused to look. Driven like that, they also casually followed his gaze. However, the look of this one girl made both of their expressions suddenly change.

Fu Yao shouted, "It's so ugly!"

Xie Lian choked for a moment before she managed to speak, "Fu Yao, you mustn't say something like that about a girl."

In all fairness, what Fu Yao said was the truth. The young girl's face was very flat, as if someone had leveled it by slapping it very hard. In addition, if someone says his facial features are mediocre, it will cause the word 'mediocre' to feel unfair. If one had to describe her appearance, Xie Lian was afraid that they could only use the phrase 'bent nose and squinty eyes'.

However, Xie Lian did not distinguish at all whether she was beautiful or ugly. The main reason was that, when the girl turned around, there was a large hole that could be seen on the back of her skirt. It's impossible to pretend you didn't see it.

Fu Yao was initially surprised, but she quickly regained her composure. On the other hand, the veins on Nan Feng's forehead disappeared without a trace.

When he saw how the color of their faces changed, Xie Lian hurriedly said, "Don't worry, don't worry."

After which, the young girl took her incense and knelt down once more. He then began to pay his respects as he spoke, "Protect us, General Nan Yang. Worshiper Little Ying prays for the groom's ghost to be caught as soon as possible. Don't let an innocent man suffer for his crimes..."

She performed the worship in a completely sincere way, completely unaware of the hole in her skirt. He was also completely unaware of the three people crouched under the foot of the Divine statue he was paying his respects to. Xie Lian felt a headache as she asked, "What should we do? We can't let him go like that, can we? He'll be seen by everyone on the way home."

In addition, the tear on her skirt looked as if it had been deliberately made by someone with a sharp object. Xie Lian was afraid that not only would there be people coming and looking, but also people who would mock her arbitrarily, making the spectacle public. Something like that is really embarrassing.

Fu Yao replied nonchalantly, "Don't ask me. The one he worshipped was not my General Xuan Zhen. No abuse, I don't see anything."

On the other hand, Nan Yang's handsome face only changed color between green and white. He could only wave his hand, without being able to say anything. A worthy and proud master was forced to silence. Definitely no longer reliable. So, Xie Lian had no other choice but to do something on her own. After thinking for a while, he took off his outer robe and dropped it. Following the gentle breeze, the robe then floated towards the young girl's body before blocking the indecent hole in her skirt. When they finished, the three of them heaved a sigh of relief.

However, that gust of wind was truly too obvious. Scared the girl and made her look in all directions. He then took off the robe, feeling hesitant for a moment, before putting it on the statue stage. He was still completely unaware of his own situation. When his incense had burned out, he began to prepare to leave.

If they really let her walk out, Xie Lian was afraid that this young girl would no longer dare to face people because of her embarrassment. When Xie Lian saw the two people next to her looking stiff, completely useless—she slightly sighed. Nan Feng and Fu Yao only felt the space next to them empty before they realized that Xie Lian had already taken a form that could be seen by humans and jumped down.

The lights in the temple were not dark, but made everything seem unclear. Xie Lian's leap brought another gust of wind, making the candle flame sway. The young girl, Little Ying, only felt as if her gaze was gleaming before she saw a man suddenly emerge from the darkness. The upper part of his body was naked. Thus, when the man reached out to her, it was obvious that Little Ying's soul immediately flew up and scattered in fear.

As expected, the girl screamed. Xie Lian was just about to speak, when the girl reflexively slapped her while yelling, "Ah, harassment!"

"Plac!" Xie Lian got a slap in her face.

The sound of the slap was clear and sharp. When they heard it, the faces of the two people who were still crouching under the Divine statue began to twitch rapidly.

Even though he was slapped, Xie Lian was neither irritated nor angry. He just resolutely handed his outer robe to the girl, before quickly saying a few words in a soft voice. After hearing this, the girl was shocked. When she touched the back of her skirt, her face turned red as her eyes filled with tears in less than a split second.

It could not be said whether the girl was angry to the point of crying or crying out of embarrassment, but she firmly held onto the robe that Xie Lian had given her, before she rushed out of the temple and left. Only the fragile-looking figure of Xie Lian was left in that empty temple. When the breeze blew, he suddenly felt a bit cold.

Xie Lian rubbed her face before she turned around. Still with a red handprint on her cheek, she started talking to the other two young gods who were there. "alright. Everything's fine now."

When his voice disappeared, Nan Feng pointed at him before asking, "You... Is your wound open?"

Xie Lian looked down before saying, "Oh".

What appeared after he removed his outer robe was a beautiful skin as white as jade. However, his chest was completely covered by layers of white cloth, tightly wrapped. Even his neck and wrists were wrapped in bandages, with countless small cuts running from under the edges of the white cloth. What a shocking sight.

After thinking about it, Xie Lian made sure that her sprained neck should be fine by now. So, he began to untie his bandage. Fu Yao looked at him twice before asking, "Who is that person?"

Xie Lian replied, "What?"

Fu Yao explained, "Who is fighting you?"

Xie Lian: "Fight? Ah, there's no..."

Nan Feng: "Then the wounds on your body..."

Xie Lian hurriedly explained, "I fell by myself."

"..."

The wounds were obtained when he fell down from Heaven. If he were to really fight against someone, then it would be hard to tell if he could even be injured to this degree.

Fu Yao muttered something quietly. Xie Lian did not understand what she was saying, but because it was definitely not a compliment to her for trying to be strong, so Xie Lian ignored her. He just focused on opening the cloth around his neck. However as soon as he finished, the gazes of Nan Feng and Fu Yao became extremely focused, fixated on his neck.

A black shackle wrapped around his snow-white neck.

Seriate...