20demayo Chapter 169 The Faceless Evil God!
Chapter 169 The Faceless Evil God!
Lu Yuan suddenly turned around.
Under the moonlight, another tiger-rabbit stood three steps behind him, exactly the same as the one in front of the temple.
When someone is so focused on something, it would startle anyone if someone suddenly appeared behind them.
Especially in this situation.
However, Lu Yuan's reaction was alright; he calmed down in an instant.
Without any movement or exclamation, the other tiger-rabbit in the valley below did not notice this place.
Why won't you listen to me?
The tiger and rabbit in front of him sighed, their tone carrying a maturity beyond their years.
Although Lu Yuan couldn't tell which of the two tigers and rabbits was which with the naked eye.
However, if the tiger and rabbit were to speak, Lu Yuan would still be able to discern some of their meaning.
This is the living tiger rabbit in front of me.
Looking at the tiger and rabbit in front of him, Lu Yuan wasn't too afraid.
Putting aside the fact that Lu Yuan has Qingwan's jade pendant in his possession, even considering the current situation, Lu Yuan might not need Qingwan's help.
Tiger Rabbit, a child.
Of course, this tiger and rabbit may not be seven or eight years old as they look, but at most they are only teenagers.
Even if someone is incredibly talented, at their age of ten, they wouldn't be stronger than Lu Yuan.
Of course, there are not only tigers and rabbits here, but also the faceless evil god that we haven't seen yet.
only……
Even that faceless evil god would have a hard time defeating Lu Yuan.
After all, what kind of "deity" is the Tiger family continuing to light the lamp for?
It is to continue the lamp for "gods" who are about to die, about to perish, about to vanish.
Presumably, that faceless evil god isn't in a good state right now; he's probably even having trouble condensing.
Otherwise, Lu Yuan wouldn't still not have seen that faceless evil god.
This faceless evil god wouldn't need the Tiger family, one of the ten families outside the pass, to continue its work.
and……
Lu Yuan looked at the tiger rabbit in front of him. The moonlight shone on her face and into her mature eyes.
Even now, Tiger Rabbit has not shown any malice.
Even her words...
It seems like things are starting to go wrong.
Of course, it's also possible that her adorable appearance made people overlook the malice hidden beneath that cute face.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath and spoke.
The voice wasn't loud, but every word was heavy, as if it were being forced out from the depths of the chest:
Do you know who I am?
Tiger Rabbit blinked.
"Of course, you are the Taoist priest of Zhenlong Temple."
Lu Yuan ignored Hu Tutu's words and instead raised his head slightly, looking arrogant, and said:
"I am a legitimate Celestial Master who has received the inscription, inheriting the orthodox lineage of the Three Pure Ones, and adhering to the rules of Taoism."
Lu Yuan stared into Hu Tutu's eyes:
"But the Taoist sect has only one rule: to protect all living beings!"
"The ten families outside the pass each have their own unique skills."
"Your family, the Xu Deng Hu family, continues the lamps for the gods, just like the matter of continuing the lamps for the Flower Goddess at the Zhenlong Temple. It is a great thing."
Then, Lu Yuan changed the subject:
"But who are you keeping the light on for now?"
"The Faceless Evil God".
"Is that a god?"
Tiger Rabbit pursed her lips and didn't answer.
Lu Yuan stared into her eyes:
"A faceless evil god, a spirit born from incense offerings, a trickster; this is an evil god, a malevolent spirit!"
Although Lu Yuan's voice was low, his tone already carried a hint of sharpness.
"You, the Xudenghu family, are continuing the lamps for legitimate deities; this is a good thing."
"What is this that can rekindle the lamp for an evil god?"
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, his voice becoming calm:
"I, Lu Yuan, possess legitimate Taoist lineage; I am a true Celestial Master!"
"Although I haven't fully recovered yet, as long as I wear this Taoist robe, as long as I continue to offer incense at Zhenlong Temple!"
"I can't just stand by and watch this happen!"
Lu Yuan stared intently into Hu Tutu's eyes:
"I cannot stand by and watch someone keep the evil god alive."
Under the moonlight, after listening to Lu Yuan's words, Tiger Rabbit did not rush to defend itself, nor did it show any grievance.
She just stood there, waiting for him to finish speaking.
Then she spoke.
The voice was still the same crisp voice, but there was something new in the tone.
It was a strange feeling, like saying something that should be taken for granted.
"Master, are you finished speaking?"
"Then let me say a few words."
She paused, then looked up at the moon in the sky.
"Do you know what the Ten Families outside the Pass do?"
Uh……
This question stumped Lu Yuan.
Who knows?
Lu Yuan had never really thought about this.
At first glance, it doesn't seem like something worth thinking about.
Do whatever you want!
Just don't hurt anyone!
But on second thought, this is something worth considering.
To put it another way, what is the Taoist sect for?
The Taoist sect is, of course, dedicated to protecting all living beings!
So these ten companies...
Before Lu Yuan could think further, Tiger Rabbit continued speaking on its own:
"The ten businesses outside the pass are ten different trades, each doing its own thing."
"Our Xu Denghu family is one of them, and there's also the Yu Gui Liu family, which you know, and others."
"Every family has its own things to do."
She turned her head and looked at Lu Yuan:
"I won't tell anyone else."
"Just say that your path is about clear thinking and protecting all living beings."
"Our Tiger family doesn't have that much ability; we're just building a path to survival."
A way out?!
Hearing what Hu Tutu said, Lu Yuan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly.
"How do I fix it?"
Tiger Rabbit pointed to the dilapidated temple in the valley:
"Continue the lamp."
"That faceless deity, you said he was an evil god, that's right."
"But to our Xudenghu family, it is a lamp."
"Whether it's an evil god or not doesn't matter, as long as we continue the story!"
Lu Yuan frowned.
Tiger Rabbit looked into his eyes, the moonlight shining on her face and into her calm eyes:
"Master, do you know why we're called the 'Continuing Lamp Tiger Family'?"
"It's not because we can keep the lights alive."
"It's because if we keep the lamp lit, we can get something from it."
"A bit of that divine power."
"Right gods give power to right gods, and evil gods give power to evil gods."
"The power we acquire is the foundation for our cultivation."
Tiger Rabbit paused, her tone as calm as if she were asking what she ate that day:
"I don't know how many people that faceless being has eaten, how many years it has accumulated, or how much it possesses."
"I knew it. Every time I relight the light for it, it shares a bit of its energy with me."
"Just a little bit is enough."
Tiger Rabbit looked at Lu Yuan:
"You ask me why I'm extending the lamp for the evil god?"
"Because it gives me strength."
"It's that simple."
After Tiger Rabbit finished speaking, she looked at Lu Yuan with utmost seriousness.
He seemed to be trying to get some kind of reaction from Lu Yuan's face.
but……
What puzzled Tiger Rabbit was...
Lu Yuan barely reacted.
From the moment he started talking about Tiger and Rabbit until he finished, Lu Yuan's face showed absolutely no reaction.
This matter...
To be honest, it's really...
Lu Yuan already had a plan in mind.
Although Lu Yuan came here secretly this time to see what Xu Denghu's family was up to.
Why would you extend the lamp for an evil god?
But in reality, Lu Yuan already had a vague answer in his heart before he came.
It's not that Lu Yuan was exceptionally intelligent and guessed it immediately, it's just that...
This was something that Lu Yuan had already done before!
When Lu Yuan first wondered why the Xu Deng Hu family continued to extend the lamps for the real rural deity and also for the evil god, his first thought was... that the Xu Deng Hu family must be able to gain something from it.
Aren't you surprised that Xu Denghu's family did this?
There really isn't...
Because Lu Yuan had encountered a similar situation before.
Or rather...
After Lu Yuan learned that Hu Tutu was going to rekindle the lamp for the evil god...
His opinion of Xu Denghu's family changed from that of fellow believers to that of the ten families outside the pass, all of them were the same.
The first person that came to Lu Yuan's mind at that moment was Tan Jiji.
Previously, Lu Yuan thought Hu Tutu was special and that the Xu Deng Hu family was good because Lu Yuan disliked the way the Ten Families outside the pass behaved. They felt that anything outside the Ten Families had nothing to do with them.
They only concern themselves with matters within ten households.
Take Tan Jiji for example, who knew perfectly well that the Yu Gui Liu family was raising evil spirits.
In particular, the Xingyou Tan family also wants to find the Yugui Liu family because of this matter.
However, he still refused Lu Yuan's help, even though Lu Yuan was an outsider.
In Tan Jiji's words at the time, it was a matter between the ten families outside the pass.
They're family behind closed doors.
No matter how things escalate, no matter what the other ten companies do, they are still one family.
And this Xu Denghu family...
Lu Yuan had already thought of this after he learned that Hu Tutu had renewed the lamp for the evil god.
Now it seems that it was indeed true...
The reason why Xu Denghu's family continued to uphold the Dao and protect the common people was not because of anything else.
He was not a fellow traveler of Lu Yuan or the Daoist sects outside the Great Wall.
They do all this simply for their own family's methods.
As for whether the evil god will suffer harm from the people beyond the pass after the lamp has been relit...
They don't care at all.
As expected...
Not a family, do not enter the door.
Ten families outside the pass...
They're all like this...
I really shouldn't have had too many good thoughts about these people...
After figuring this out, Lu Yuan raised his right hand, which was holding the apotropaic dagger, and stared expressionlessly at the living tiger rabbit, saying:
"Are you done talking?"
A night breeze blew by.
The leaves rustled.
In the distance, the lamp in the valley still glows faintly.
The next second, before the living tiger rabbit could react...
Lu Yuan turned around and rushed down the mountain.
"Master Taoist!!"
Tiger Rabbit's exclamation came from behind, but Lu Yuan didn't turn around.
The hillside was very steep, and the loose stones and fallen leaves made it slippery underfoot.
But this meant nothing to Lu Yuan, the Celestial Master.
He held the dagger in his arms with one hand and grabbed the tree trunks along the way for support with the other.
Moonlight filtered through the leaves, dappling Lu Yuan's body.
almost.
There are still 300 meters to go.
The lamp in the valley shone with a pale blue light, its glow soft and dim.
Beside the lamp, the small figure was still squatting, throwing the last few pieces of yellow paper into the incense burner.
It's a paper tiger and rabbit.
Just as Lu Yuan charged full speed into the edge of the valley.
The wind stopped.
It didn't stop gradually; it stopped with a "snap."
The leaves fell silent.
The grass stopped shaking.
That kind of quiet was not ordinary quiet.
It's as if all the sounds have been taken away.
Then Lu Yuan saw it.
The lamp in the valley went out.
The moment the bluish-white light disappeared, the entire valley was plunged into darkness.
Only moonlight.
The pale moonlight.
The light shone on the dilapidated temple, on the open ground, and on the crouching, motionless tiger and rabbit.
Then one
The temple gates opened.
It wasn't blown open by the wind.
It opened it itself.
squeak
The sound was very soft, but it could be heard clearly in the deathly silence.
It was pitch black inside the door.
I can't see anything.
But Lu Yuan knew that something had come out.
It wasn't something you walked out of.
It was "written" out of nowhere.
Like an invisible fog, it slowly seeped out from the crack in the door.
The fog had no shape or color, but if you looked in that direction, you knew there was something there.
It's moving.
It's spreading outwards.
Lu Yuan didn't have any other thoughts about this.
The danger indicator for the "Slay Demons and Exterminate Evil" system was not triggered.
In other words, this faceless evil god is just as Lu Yuan had thought.
It was half-dead, on the verge of disappearing at any moment, posing no threat to Lu Yuan at all!
As long as we can stop the paper tiger and rabbit from continuing to light the lamp for this faceless evil god, that's all that matters.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan gripped the apotropaic dagger even tighter.
Admittedly, Lu Yuan was quite fond of that paper tiger and rabbit figurine.
This little girl is very polite, and incredibly cute.
Lu Yuan had thought about it before, and he hoped that if he had a daughter in the future, she would be just like that.
but……
This does not mean that Lu Yuan will show mercy to this paper tiger and rabbit!
They wouldn't show any mercy to this paper tiger and rabbit.
To say that the feelings between the two of them only lasted for that one day.
To be honest, I'm not as close to Tan Jiji as I am to her.
Just because of that one day, Lu Yuan showed mercy and allowed the paper tiger and rabbit to continue the lamp of an evil god...
That Lu Yuan is just too funny!
Lu Yuan didn't hesitate to renew the lamp for the evil god, which was tantamount to becoming an evil spirit!
Lu Yuan will absolutely not show any mercy!
Of course, Lu Yuan also understood that he might not be able to quickly capture the paper tiger and rabbit figures.
after all……
There are some "gods" following behind this tiger and rabbit.
As Lu Yuan charged towards Tiger Rabbit, he also looked around very alertly.
See if any danger signs suddenly pop up.
When Lu Yuan was still seventy or eighty meters away from the paper tiger rabbit, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
Looking down
His shadow.
The moonlight shone on him, which should have cast a long shadow behind him.
But now, that shadow is crawling forward.
It's not about following him and crawling forward.
It runs faster than him.
Lu Yuan's shadow was crawling towards the dilapidated temple.
Lu Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.
"Certainly!"
The shadow stopped.
But it was only for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, he heard a soft, rustling sound behind him.
He turned around abruptly.
Under the moonlight, the shadows of the trees on the hillside all seemed to be moving.
It wasn't blown by the wind.
They are moving on their own.
The shadows of the trees seemed to come alive, climbing down the hillside.
The shadows of grass, the shadows of stones, the shadows of everything, are all crawling in the same direction!
Climb towards that dilapidated temple.
The paper figures of tigers and rabbits were bathed in moonlight.
Her shadow was also moving.
Her shadow was creeping towards the dilapidated temple.
I climbed halfway up, then suddenly stopped.
Then one
The shadows of Tiger and Rabbit stood up on their own.
Then he turned around and faced the tiger rabbit squatting on the ground.
It has no face.
But it was "watching" her.
Lu Yuan couldn't care less.
He continued to charge forward.
After running a few steps, he found that it was getting darker and darker around him.
It's not the kind of darkness where the lights are off.
The moonlight is fading.
Looking up, I saw that the moon was still in the sky.
But the moonlight could no longer reach them.
Something is blocking the moonlight.
It's not a cloud.
It's a shadow.
It was as if countless shadows came together, like a huge black cloth, slowly covering the entire valley.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, took out the Thunder Ancestor Token from his pocket, and raised it into the sky.
The token suddenly flashed.
A golden light shot out from the token and went straight to the black cloth above.
The black cloth was torn open.
Moonlight leaked through the opening, shining directly on a spot three meters in front of Lu Yuan.
Using this little bit of light, Lu Yuan continued to charge forward!
ten meters.
five meters.
three meters.
Just as Lu Yuan was about to reach the paper tiger and rabbit figures, he suddenly froze.
It's not because I'm afraid.
Because of one
Lu Yuan saw himself.
There was a person standing three meters in front of me.
Wearing the exact same clothes as him, with the same face, and holding the same amulet dagger in his hand.
That was Lu Yuan himself.
It was Lu Yuan's shadow, standing in front of Lu Yuan, blocking Lu Yuan and the paper tiger and rabbit.