Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu walked straight towards the Earth Temple.
When saying goodbye to the village chief, Qin Shaoyou deliberately mentioned that he was going to say goodbye to the caravan and asked the caravan to help send a suicide note to the families on both sides to explain his death.
If possible, they would also ask family members on both sides to help them build a burial mound and bury their clothes in the same tomb. In this way, even if they cannot live in the same quilt, they can die in the same cave, and they can still be husband and wife in the underworld.
This was Qin Shaoyou's excuse in advance to meet Zhu Xiucai and others.
Sure enough, the villagers didn't have any problems or doubts about their going to the Tutu Temple. They talked for a while and then went home.
After the village chief returned to the house, he took out the copper coins from his sleeve pocket.
After counting, he divided out half and hid it, and kept the other half to distribute to the villagers later.
After all, the villagers had heard about the caravan's accommodation fee.
Just now, someone asked him how much he had charged for accommodation, and asked him to divide it among them, but he put it off by saying, "The caravan hasn't left yet, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
After collecting the money, the village chief shook his head and said to himself: "These city people are just hypocritical. If they got into the tiger's belly together, wouldn't they just die in the same grave together? If they were pulled out by the tiger together, wouldn't they?" Are they going to share the same cave after death? What kind of burial tomb is it? It’s a waste of money.”
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu were walking when suddenly a translucent head popped out of Su Tingyu's chest.
It was Su Jianqing.
She stuck her head out and said, "After you left, some villagers suggested sending people into the mountain to report your affairs to the tiger..."
After Su Jianqing finished speaking, she saw Qin Shaoyou's calm face and couldn't help but wonder: "Why are you not nervous at all?"
"What's there to be nervous about?" Qin Shaoyou smiled, "When the scholar led the team to the Earth Temple, he had quietly sent people to hide around the village. If there is anyone in the village who really wants to report to the tiger, as soon as he leaves the village They will be targeted by our people and we will definitely not let them succeed."
"It turns out you were already prepared. Why are you not worried at all?"
The failure to scare Qin Shaoyou made Su Jianqing a little boring.
"The proposal to report the news was rejected by the village chief here. I really didn't expect that people here would believe your nonsense story. Your skills in talking are really amazing. It would be a shame to be a storyteller.”
Qin Shaoyou smiled and said: "Thank you for the compliment. If I can't survive in the Demon Suppression Department in the future, I will listen to you and become a storyteller. I might become famous."
Then he asked seriously: "Besides the rejection of the report, did you hear anything else?"
"The rest is just gossip and of little value."
Of course, Su Jianqing would not tell Qin Shaoyou. She also heard the villagers saying that he and Su Tingyulang were a good match, and that their love story was very sad and so on.
Qin Shaoyou nodded, cupped his hands towards Su Jianqing and said, "Thank you, Taoist priest Su continues to secretly keep an eye on the villagers here. If they have any suspicious behavior or words, please come over and inform me immediately."
"give it to me."
Su Jianqing did not refuse.
From the previous proposal from villagers to report to the tiger, it is not difficult to see that the villagers here are skeptical and opposed to someone coming to help them get rid of the monster.
After all, they had to pay a heavy price for not being able to eliminate the demon twice before.
Therefore, it is necessary to be on guard against them, lest they ruin the demon elimination plan.
Su Jianqing's translucent head disappeared from Su Tingyu's chest, and she continued to listen and monitor the movements of the villagers.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu quickly arrived at the Earth Temple.
The temple is not big, just a courtyard and a main hall.
The courtyard is so small that all the carriages cannot be driven in, so they can only park outside the temple gate.
After the horses were removed from their carriages, they were taken into the yard and fed and watered.
The night watchmen carried the iron cages covered with linen into the main hall of the temple.
Several villagers gathered around the Tutu Temple to watch the excitement, curiously guessing what kind of goods these were.
The iron cage was covered with linen, so you couldn't see what was going on inside. In order to prevent the children who were turned into dogs from barking in panic all the way and causing unnecessary trouble, the Su sisters cast a spell on them so that they could not bark.
Therefore, it is naturally impossible for the villagers watching the excitement to know what kind of 'goods' are being transported in the convoy.
Although they were curious, they had no evil intentions.
It's not that the folk customs are so simple, but that there are many guards with swords in the caravan, so they don't dare to have evil intentions.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu entered the main hall of the temple and saw a clay sculpture of a painted earth god.
An old man with a cane, white hair and white beard, and a smile on his face.
On the desk in front of the statue, there is an incense burner, which is full of incense ashes and there are several burning incense sticks.
It can be seen that this earth temple is not abandoned, and villagers often come to offer incense.
But this temple must be quite old.
Many of the paintings on the Earth God Statue have faded, making it look less majestic and more strange and eerie.
Especially on its face, there are several places where the plastic clay has fallen off, as if it has big sores. It makes people feel uncomfortable just looking at it. It also makes the smile of this earth god statue less amiable and more amiable. A bit ferocious and terrifying.
There is also a couplet hanging on the pillars on both sides of the statue of the earth god, which reads: "The temple is small and the supernatural power is great, the sky is high, the sun and the moon are long."
"A small temple has great supernatural powers?"
Qin Shaoyou couldn't help but snorted, glanced at the land statue, shook his head and said: "If you really have magical powers, the villagers here worship you every day, but they haven't seen you appear. Can you bless them?"
In this world, gods are more unreliable than humans.
In the main hall, the night watchmen were busy feeding and watering the children who were turned into dogs in iron cages.
Zhu Xiucai came up to him, and first reported on the dispatch of sentinels around the village, and then asked Qin Shaoyou: "Sir, have you convinced the village chief here?"
Qin Shaoyou lifted up his sleeves, revealing the grass ring on his wrist.
"I've been convinced. Tonight, Taoist priest Xiao Su and I will wait as boys and girls in the village ancestral hall for the ghost messengers to pick us up. This grass ring is a token of sacrifice."
"Your Excellency is indeed eloquent." Zhu Xiucai complimented him, and then got down to business: "Then please make preparations... take off your armor now."
Qin Shaoyou was shocked: "What? Take off your armor? Why?!"
Zhu Xiucai knew that he would react like this and patiently persuaded him: "Sir, think about it, how can there be sacrifices wearing armor? When the ghost comes at night and sees the armor under your robe, shouldn't it be revealed immediately?"
Qin Shaoyou opened his mouth and wanted to find a reason to refuse, but he couldn't find one.
You can't say that you are born in the year of the tortoise and you are born to wear armor, right?
Sighing, Qin Shaoyou could only accept the reality helplessly, and with the help of several strong men under his command, he took off his armor.
What people didn't expect was that after taking off the heavy armor on the outside, Qin Shaoyou also wore a soft armor on the inside and placed a thick breast shield on his chest.
Several Xiaoqi and their night watchmen were stunned.
It's not enough to wear thick armor, but also put soft armor inside, and also put such a thick goggles? Haven't you already entered the realm of muscles and bones? Do you still need to wear so many armors?
That is to say, Qin Shaoyou doesn't know what they are thinking, otherwise he will definitely tell them that no matter how much defense is piled up, it will never be too much, but not enough.
Zhu Xiucai also noticed the soft armor and breast goggles Qin Shaoyou was wearing, shook his head and said, "These must be taken off too."
Qin Shaoyou made a last-ditch effort: "You can take off the soft armor, but keep this one. This is my longevity lock."
Zhu Xiucai had an expression that said, "You think I'm blind." He shook his head and said, "Sir, it's better to take it off. Whose life lock looks like a mirror? It's so big and thick."
After taking off his armor, soft armor and breast shield, Qin Shaoyou put on his robe again and was about to get the knife.
"You cannot bring knives." Zhu Xiucai said, "Apart from the few weapons that fell out when you just took off your armor and soft armor, do you have any other weapons hidden on your body? Please take them out too."
Qin Shaoyou accepted his fate and took out several hidden weapons from his body, putting them together with the long knives from before, as well as the sleeve arrows, darts, etc. that fell out when taking off his armor or soft armor.
Suddenly a long row was released.
Zhu Xiucai and others were already used to this, but the other night watchmen in the team were stunned and amazed.
Everyone sighed secretly in their hearts: "This Qin Xiaoqi is simply a humanoid arsenal."
Zhu Xiucai glanced at the weapons on the ground and felt a little worried: "Sir, have you taken out all the weapons on you?"
Qin Shaoyou said: "There are a few more. You have to leave me a few for self-defense, so that I don't have to fight with my bare hands, right?"
Zhu Xiucai thought for a while and realized that this was also the case, so he compromised and said, "Then you have to hide it well so that the tigers and ghosts don't find you."
"Don't worry, I'll definitely hide it." Qin Shaoyou breathed a sigh of relief.
He would feel uncomfortable without a weapon by his side.
The night watchmen around him were shocked again: Qin Xiaoqi still had weapons hidden on his body? Damn it, he...where is he hiding?
Everyone's curious eyes kept glancing at Qin Shaoyou.
After a simple meal of dry food, the sky turned dark.
Night falls.
There are no stars tonight, only a gray moon hanging alone in the night sky.
The world seems to be swallowed up by darkness at any time.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyuku were sitting in the village ancestral hall, listening to the crows outside making a hoarse cry that was so breathtaking.
