"The little god is a local village god. His surname was Wang when he was alive. May I ask who you are?"
"I'm traveling to the Song Dynasty. Master picked up the word Menglai."
"Are you a member of the Taoist sect?"
"I grew up in a Taoist temple."
"I wonder if there is a code?"
"We don't have a name yet." Song You looked at the local god calmly, "Why did the good Lord come to me?"
"The little god will call you sir, Mr. Menglai." Wang Shanggong was still polite, "It's really presumptuous to disturb my husband in his dreams late at night. However, this matter is related to the livelihood of the local people. Mr. Xiao Shen Guan has a profound spiritual practice, so he came here to ask for help."
"Good Lord, please speak out."
"This matter started ten years ago."
Wang Shanggong pondered for a moment and spoke in the procrastinating style of the previous dynasty: "Ten years ago, a big demon came to this place and deceived people's hearts. It also asked the local people to build temples and ancestral halls for it. It is twenty miles away from here. place."
When Song You heard this, he almost understood.
One person and one god stared at each other with big eyes and small eyes. Song You was waiting for him to continue speaking, and he seemed to be waiting for Song You to answer.
"Why not report it?"
"Sir, please listen to me."
"..."
Song You immediately showed a look of helplessness.
It's just that most of these local ghosts were transformed after the death of people with outstanding virtues, and they are so old. As a junior, he should be more respected. As a young man, it is difficult for him to speak out and find fault.
"Then I'll keep the story short."
"……please."
"Although that big demon has great magic power, it was exterminated a few years ago. It was killed by the masters of Tianhai Temple and Zhou Lei Gong. But at that time, I thought that the obscene temple was not far from the main road, so it would be a pity to destroy it. I smashed the stone statue to provide shelter for tourists, so I stayed there. Recently, the little god went on a tour and swam to Majiawan, and found that the temple had incense again for some reason."
"Good Lord, have you gone to check?"
"Ashamed, ashamed. The little god has low magic power and doesn't know how to fight. When he saw the incense from a distance, he didn't dare to get closer." Wang Shanggong looked ashamed.
"A wise act of kindness."
"This time, I just want to ask you, sir, to check it out. If it is true, the little god will report it to the top during the full moon in a few days."
"Good Lord, do you suspect that the monster is reborn through incense?"
"The little god thought that was probably the case."
"I'll go take a look tomorrow."
"Sir, you are of noble character. I would like to thank you on behalf of the people around you." Wang Shanggong bowed deeply again, and then said, "Sir, your cultivation is not ordinary. Even if you are reborn, the monster will not have the same abilities as before. During the day, Mr. It’s not too important to go there, I just need to trouble you, sir. As for the address, the little god has already written it on a piece of paper and placed it in front of the altar.”
"Good Lord, farewell."
"..."
Wang Shanggong was stunned for a moment and then saluted.
As soon as the gift was given, before he could stand up, everything around him turned into smoke and dispersed instantly, and Song You's eyes also turned dark.
When he opened his eyes again, he was still huddled in the corner of the village temple.
The village temple has a dull door, and the wooden door is not tight. The moonlight shines in through the gaps, leaving a long slanting line of white frost on the floor tiles, and a row of statues of gods is vaguely visible.
People in the world were snoring one after another.
Song You got up and searched on the altar, but did not find the paper in front of the statue of Wang Shanggong. Instead, he found it in front of the statue of the Red Gold Emperor.
The yellow rattan paper commonly used for drawing symbols has good calligraphy.
Song You put away the paper and looked at the statues of gods again.
This kind of village temple has always ignored Buddhism and Taoism. The common people don't have the money to build a temple for both parties, so they have to squeeze you together. Don't feel aggrieved.
The one in the center is naturally the current Taoist god Chijin the Great, and the Buddhist Lord of Ten Thousand Buddhas. There are gods on both sides, basically all of them are famous gods in the current society for various reasons. For example, there was a widely circulated story-telling novel in which Zhou Lei Gong, the deity of the Thunder Department, was mentioned. As a result, Zhou Lei Gong's popularity in people's hearts has increased. His position has also become more prominent in many newly built temples, especially small temples built voluntarily by the people. Be conspicuous.
I don’t know if he personally benefited from it.
The development and evolution of gods are mostly like this.
Then there are the local gods. In terms of jurisdiction and authority, there are mountain gods, river gods, road gods, and village gods, and most of them are human beings.
After the death of these people, people will never forget them, wish to bless them, and naturally turn into gods. The imperial court will most likely grant them the title of righteous god.
In fact, in this world, whether it is the Taoist Heavenly Palace or the Buddhist Western Heaven, the so-called gods and Buddhas in the sky have a high status in the hearts of the people, especially believers, but their essence is no different from these small local gods who became gods due to their wishes.
Therefore, it often happens that there is an emperor and a god.
Take the Red Gold Emperor, for example. It is said that he was born at the beginning of heaven and earth. He practiced hard for 1,350 kalpas, each kalpa worth 129,600 years, before he attained the throne of the Heavenly Emperor. Many people are interested in this. I firmly believe this. Even those who don't believe in him think that people have believed in him since ancient times, but in fact his name was only born in the past two hundred years. Two hundred years ago, no one in this world believed in him, or even had his name.
It is necessary to maintain a lofty image of gods in the hearts of the people, but Master has warned Song You since he was a child that as a practitioner, he is different from ordinary people and must have a correct and clear understanding of them.
But the master never told him what this knowledge should be, and only let him know it by himself.
Song You is still building his cognition.
After looking at the statue for a long time under the moonlight and unable to fall asleep, he turned around, stepped out and pushed the door open.
The middle of the night air rushed to my face instantly, but I didn't feel cold, I just felt fresh. I looked up and saw that the night was dust-free, the moon was like silver, and a few clouds seemed to be coated with a layer of silver under the moonlight, and seemed to glow. , the mountains are outlined with rolling outlines, which is a beautiful scenery under the moon.
Just sit here under the moon until the morning light breaks.
…
Song You left Jinyang Road and entered a branch line.
This is also a big road, but I don’t know the name. It is one level lower than the Guanma Avenue connecting the capital like Jinyang Road, but it is also spacious.
Song You was not in a hurry at all. He walked around and asked for directions several times before finally finding the temple.
It was said that it was not far from the main road, but in fact it was on the mountainside next to the main road. It could be seen from a distance, but it would take two miles to walk there. Song You began to think about Wang Shangong's words that it was not far from the main road, so he kept walking along it. I walked along the main road and passed it without realizing it. I turned back after asking for directions.
It was already afternoon when we arrived.
Song You hung his luggage on a branch about a hundred meters away and walked along the path to the ruined temple, as if he had no fear at all.
As soon as I got closer, I smelled the scent of incense.
There is indeed incense.
If you smell it carefully, you can still smell it. It should be local homemade incense. The smell is biased toward mosquito repellent herbs, which is refreshing and refreshing.
This ruined temple is about the same size as the one last night, and the shape of the palace is modeled after a regular temple, only slightly smaller. And there is only one single temple. Generally speaking, self-built temples in rural areas generally follow this kind of regulation, and usually there are no monks or Taoists to abbot them.
But it was much shabbier than the one last night.
Song You stopped at the door and looked at it carefully.
There are still doors and no windows, but this temple doesn’t even have a door. What’s blocking the door now is a bamboo fence. The walls were originally painted with red paint, but now they not only have peeling spots, but also have many cracks and scars. There are many traces of knives, axes, lightning and fire, and some have even penetrated the walls.
Song You's eyes followed these traces, as if he outlined the fighting phenomenon at that time in his mind.
He withdrew his gaze and walked towards the door.
The fence was only lightly covered and then easily removed.
Song You stepped into the temple and took a deep breath. There was no unpleasant smell, only the smell of homemade fragrant herbs.
Then he looked up at the altar——
The original statue has long since disappeared, but there are still traces of the statue being erected. But now there is a clay statue of a cat. Compared to the original statue, which was at least as tall as a human, it looks extraordinarily small, which is normal. Cat size.
The mud block in front was riddled with incense candles, most of which had been burnt out. Only three incense sticks were still burning, and the back half of them were also burned.
It is indeed a homemade earthy fragrance.
It's the kind wrapped in red paper with herbal powder and a bamboo stick inside. It's very flame-resistant and has a nice fragrance.
In addition, there are actually tributes on display.
There was cooked meat and raw fish as wide as a finger.
Song You stood in the middle of the temple, turned his head left and right, and looked around the entire temple. Then he walked up to the altar, twisted a piece of hair, put it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully for a long time, and then threw it away. It turned to find a place to sit down.
It seems that this person is not in the temple.
Out on business?
And he still can't determine what is going on.
Perhaps the local animals that became spirits were greedy for the incense in the world. When they saw that there was a temple here, they took it for themselves without knowing the importance of it.
Incense has a fatal attraction to mountain spirits and ghosts.
Perhaps it was a spontaneous act by the locals, and there happened to be a wild cat on the mountain that used this place as a nest.
In this era, cats were indeed worshiped as gods in some places in the hope that they would catch mice and leave more food for the family.
Maybe the monster was really resurrected back then.
After waiting for about an hour, I saw the sun getting closer and closer. The golden light shone in through the door and spread inside little by little. Just when the light was about to hit the feet of Song You who was sitting cross-legged, there was finally movement outside.
Song You stood up and looked around calmly.
A cat walked slowly along the path in the sunshine. The weeds growing on the path were no shorter than it, and it was often squeezed out of the way. When it encountered a ditch, its body seemed to have no weight, and it jumped lightly. Then he stepped over gracefully.
It had known for a long time that there was someone in the temple, but it was not wary and still walked over without hesitation until it reached the door, put a paw on the threshold, and looked up to see a man in Taoist robes inside. After a sudden pause, he gradually became alert.
Look left, look right.
Ponder, think.
He retracted his claws on the threshold and put them back again, and finally decided to walk in.
Seeing it turning over the threshold lightly, he raised his head and looked at Song You. Those eyes were like amber, and they could charm the mind without any means:
"Taoist priest?"
The structure of the vocal cords of spirits is different from that of humans. When they are not transformed into human form, even if they speak human words, it is impossible to distinguish between male and female. At most, the original race can be heard from the voice, and at most, the age can be heard.
This cat speaks in a clear voice, not hoarse.
"What do you call Shisama?"
Song You saluted it politely.
"I am Empress Sanhua."
"My surname is Song, empress Sanhua. You are so polite."
"What are you doing in my temple?"
"I stayed at the village temple yesterday night. I was entrusted by the local gods to come and see the incense in this temple." Song You stood up straight, but had to lower his head, "May I ask if Empress Sanhua can gather here to smoke incense?" Is there an imperial edict from a human being?"
"what is that?"
"that is……"
Song You looked at it, but paused.
This little kitten has a lowly demonic character, and most of the time he has become a spirit. Judging from the clear stupidity in his eyes, I am afraid he needs to organize his words well.
