The Legend of the Guardians of the East Gate
Ch. 9

The Golden Lotus Holy Temple.

Every one hour in a day Zhi Yuan was fed pure qi energy by the Great Monk Luo, but with great caution given that the boy had silk bones, making him now look fresh and healthy.

After a month of Zhi Yuan having finished undergoing soul refining, the boy had now fully become a small servant in the Golden Lotus Sacred Temple, he said, and in the morning the boy had to go to the Sky Sword Sect to study in the realm of basic swordsmen.

That morning Zhi Yuan did not study to the Sky Sword Sect, he had plenty of time to work as a servant, and now the boy was already at the back of the temple.

Zhi Yuan stared around while holding the hilt of his broom, his greenish eyes were so astonished by the scenery in that place.

The back yard is the most spacious place in the temple, and almost the entirety is a lake, and it grows thousands of lotus trees, but unfortunately most of the plants look brown and even black, and they look very dark, only a few looked fresh, and the lotus had such a beautiful flower that was pure white yet golden in color at the tip and also the base of the flower petals made it look so beautiful and luxurious.

"let's just say all these plants are fresh and flowering," inner Zhi Yuan, and again swept the floor not far from the well

A wooden bridge stretches across the lake right in the middle, and at the end of the wooden bridge there is another large yard that grew several large trees around it, only an old temple was in the courtyard, and the unkempt temple had its back attached to a cliff.

Zhi Yuan saw the two servants carrying wooden buckets like a place to put food, their faces looked so frightened and cold sweat soaked their faces, and the two maids seemed so reluctant to cross the wooden bridge, occasionally staring at Zhi Yuan.

The two servants stopped and whispered to each other.

"hey little sister come here," shouted one of the servants, waving at Zhi Yuan.

Zhi Yuan nodded and approached the two maids.

"sister, did you call me?" zhi Yuan said as if unsure as this was the first time they met.

"yes, we called you, did you see anyone other than us in this place?" said the waiter with an annoyed look.

Zhi Yuan simply nodded, though,

"well, today you're assigned to bring this potion to the monk inside the temple, do you understand?" said the servant, pointing at the old temple at the end of the wooden bridge.

"Well brother, I'll bring him, but which monk should I bring?" ask Zhi Yuan.

"Little servant you don't talk much, the temple is very small and old, you just have to put this food place on the stone table behind the big statue," the waiter said like so happy.

the three crossed the bridge, approaching the temple whose roof had been destroyed in some parts, it appeared that large ropes hung by small bells were seen so firmly binding the top end of the temple pillars, and the other end of the ropes was tied up in the old trees around the temple.

The three of them stopped in front of the door, the wind suddenly blew, and the small bells started to sway and let out clinking sounds made the atmosphere different, they were like being in another realm.

The faces of the two new friends Zhi Yuan started to pale again, both of them gulped but it was like it was so difficult to do, and like strengthening the determination of one of them pushing the old temple's main door.

"Wussshhhh.." The wind blew out of the old temple, with dust and dry leaves swept out of the room, making the three hold their breath.

"hufffff.." said the two friends of Zhi Yuan closing their noses together, and took a few steps back, a stench so foul smelled from inside the old temple, only Zhi Yuan seemed to not smell anything.

"Little sister when we don't have much, quickly bring this food place to the back of the big statue," said one of the servants and gave a wooden bucket to Zhi Yuan.

Zhi Yuan simply nodded and received the wooden bucket from the two seniors, and stepped lightly through the worship hall against the backdrop of a giant Monk-sized statue made of copper.

The two servants stared at each other,

"was the boy's nose broken?" said one of the servants to his colleague.

"it doesn't matter sister, at least from now on there's someone who replaces us doing this terrible task" said one waiter.

"i have to put this food place on the stone table" Zhi Yuan said and looked for the whereabouts of a stone table.

His steps came to a halt and saw a table about twenty meters from the mouth of the gate.

Zhi Yuan approached the stone table, and entered a room more like a passageway into which all of his walls were made of stone, and, beside the stone table were two small benches and not far there were long benches and all of them were made of stone, lighting in that place was minimal, too, only a few immortal fire torches on the wall illuminated the place, yet strangely even though it looked so stuffy, yet the place had so good air circulation, it was like there were hard cracks in the dim walls.

After putting the food place on the stone table, his eyes looked around, his curiosity looking for a figure who was brought potions by him.

The boy's eyes began to adjust in the darkness, and there were iron bars in the corner of the passageway.Suddenly, a wrinkled hand passed through the gap from the iron bars, and, and the long, pale-colored fingers like corpses with long, black-colored nails began to move.

White-coloured smoke started coming out from that palm and moved towards Zhi Yuan, making the boy move backwards and fall down.

Zhi Yuan tried to stand up and tried to leave the passageway, but the white smoke was already wrapped around his neck and chest, making the boy float in the air.

The two maids who were beginning to be confused because Zhi Yuan had not yet come out of the Temple looked panicked,

"sister what should we do? we should have told the boy not to linger at the stone table" said one of the servants, who looked younger than his colleague.

"calm down, we better get out of this place, and pretend nothing happened, no one will care about the loss of a little waiter in this place" said the older waiter, and closed the door of the temple and quickly left the location.

Zhi Yuan's body was now stuck in the iron bars, and the boy's eyes began to see clearly a hooded creature wearing thick clothes like a tattered blanket, and in some parts of the thick clothes seemed wet by the sticky liquid, even the sticky liquid appeared to bathe the floor of the barred room.

The creature began to crawl closer to Zhi Yuan's body.

"aahhhhh.." there was a breath from behind the veil, and brought his face closer to Zhi Yuan's face.

"like this time I got raw and fresh meat," said the hooded figure, his voice sounding so hoarse and echoing throughout the stone passage.

"My elder sister forgive me" said Zhi Yuan who began to close his eyes as he was already unable to move anymore.

The hooded figure just snorted,

"Mister? aahhh like her I got stupid food," muttered the creature sounding a little annoyed.

"Before you eat me tell me how can you avoid my first attack?" ask that figure.

Zhi Yuan tried to break away from the white smoke ties again, his little fingers tried to hold the smoke around his neck but the smoke could not be held in his grasp as it was translucent by the boy's fingers.

The hooded figure was slightly surprised to see the hand movements of the boy, and loosened the smoke chuckle on the boy's neck, and positioned Zhi Yuan's body standing in the air, making the boy a little calmer.

The figure was playing his fingers now another smoke was twitching in front of Zhi Yuan's face,

Zhi Yuan moved his face dodging the white smoke that was dancing in front of him,

"it's interesting, you can see my flow of qi," said a hoarse voice in the air.

"alright boy, I pulled my words earlier, I won't eat you, quickly bring me my potion," said the figure, and let go of Zhi Yuan.

The boy staggered slightly and quickly picked up a bowl from the wooden bucket he was carrying, and took out the bowl and put it outside the iron bars because the bowl was too wide to pass through the narrow gap.

The figure's right fingers began to hold the bowl, while his left hand opened the dirty veil from his head, and now Zhi Yuan was starting to see the face of the figure, making him even more surprised.

"you are not a monk" said Zhi Yuan