Chapter 122 The Tragedy in the General's Temple

Last night's rain was a martial virtue. It rained at night and stopped during the day.

Di Renjie, Zeng Tai and Li Yuanfang led their men to Enji Village at the foot of Qingyang Hill.

The expressions of several people looked very bad, as if they did not rest well last night.

It was because last night a rare guest who was similar in size and tonnage to Di Renjie came to Di Renjie's house, He Yun, the Flying Dragon Envoy who was in charge of the idle stables in the Palace Province.

He gave Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang some knowledge about horses and confirmed that the horseshoe prints on the official road were undoubtedly from horses.

The Dayuan horse breed in the Western Regions, also known as the Ferghana horse, often has some exotic species that are huge in size, have strange coat colors, or are incredibly fast.

These exotic horses were often presented as tribute to the Chinese emperor. The most recent record of them was in "Book of Sui: Chronicle of Emperor Yang", so there is no such thing as them becoming extinct.

There are also unofficial historical records that the horse that was tributed that time was a divine horse with a huge body and a huge stride, and this divine horse happened to be awarded by Emperor Yang of Sui to the brave and warlike General of the Xiaoguo Army, Yuwen Chengdu.

What is even more surprising is that the hoof prints on the official road actually match the horseshoes used exclusively by the former Sui Xiaoguo Army.

This shocked Li Yuanfang. He seemed to firmly believe that the person who committed the crime on the official road was the evil ghost transformed from the wronged soul of Yuwen Chengdu.

Zeng Tai ran back to the county to look through the files and found out that Jiang Xiaolang had died in the Jiangjiazhuang bloody case decades ago, and the murderer was the incarnation of Yuwen Chengdu's evil spirit.

Decades later, the shadow of Yuwen Chengdu seemed to have fallen on Yongchang County again.

The original intention of Di Renjie and others was to find a guide to take them to the General Yuwen Chengdu Temple in Xilin.

But what he saw was a group of villagers gathered in a yard at the west end of the village, pointing and talking.

In the yard, Fang Gensheng, who was frightened silly by the headless general last night, was yelling crazily: "Ghost, there is a headless ghost!"

There was a villager named Pang San who was slightly smaller than Di Renjie. He was a straightforward and righteous man.

"We can't go on like this. He'll get tired to death if he keeps running and shouting like this. I think we should go in and hold him down."

As he spoke, Pang San rolled up his sleeves and was about to go into the yard, with a group of young men following him.

"Stop," an old man named Uncle Pang Jiu stood out from the crowd and shouted, "Are you going to die? Haven't you heard from the older generation that as long as you step into the Jiang family compound, you will die a miserable death?"

Pang San said impatiently: "I don't believe this. Come on, follow me in and take a look."

Uncle Pang Jiu looked anxious, as if some painful memories were coming to his mind.

He opened his arms and blocked the crowd: "You can't go in. Even if you are not afraid of death, you should also think about the villagers. What if you attract evil spirits to them?"

"The man inside is from another place. I think you should just ignore him. Go back, go back."

When everyone heard Uncle Pang Jiu say this, they all retreated in disappointment.

Pang San patted his chest and said, "Everyone is afraid of being tainted by bad luck, but I am not afraid. I will go in and take a look."

Uncle Pang Jiu wanted to stop him, but Fang Gensheng in the courtyard was running around and had already run to the door.

Suddenly, he rushed out of the courtyard, shouting, "Heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals are coming! Catch the ghosts!"

Seeing that he was acting crazy, many of the onlookers were scared and retreated.

Pang San was not afraid and pushed Fang Gensheng to the ground: "Hey, he's out, help me, hold him down quickly."

Fang Gensheng howled and struggled desperately. Several fearless young men rushed forward and pinned Fang Gensheng under them.

At this moment, Di Renjie and Zeng Tai arrived with the yamen runners: "What are you doing? Let him go!"

When the villagers saw the yamen runners behind Di Renjie and Zeng Tai, they realized that they were officials and quickly knelt on the ground.

Pang San also got up and explained the situation: "Sir, this is a madman who keeps yelling. We were afraid that he would lose his strength, so we held him down."

Fang Gensheng cooperated very well and shouted again: "There is a ghost, a headless ghost!"

The bailiffs hurried forward and took Fang Gensheng aside.

"Who lives in this yard?" Di Renjie asked.

"No one lives there. It has been a haunted house and has been abandoned for decades." Pang San replied.

"Master, look!" He Yun suddenly shouted from behind Di Renjie.

Di Renjie, Li Yuanfang and Zeng Tai walked over quickly and saw footprints of villagers scattered on the muddy ground. Looking further ahead, they saw several horse hoof prints the size of large bowls deeply embedded in the mud.

Li Yuanfang was horrified: "Sir, it's exactly the same as the horseshoe prints on the official road!"

He Yun immediately took out a pattern of horseshoes of the Xiaoguo Army, compared the two, and found that they were exactly the same.

Di Renjie's expression suddenly became serious: "It seems that the murderer has been here. Let's go into the yard and take a look."

Seeing this, Uncle Pang Jiu wanted to stop it, but in the end he didn't dare to speak.

After the others entered, he began to mutter again: "You really don't know how to live or die. You dare to trespass into a haunted house. You will suffer disaster in the future."

Then he shook his head and stamped his feet and left angrily.

Pang San and others didn't care and continued to block the door to watch the fun.

When Di Renjie and his party entered the main hall, they were stunned by the scene inside.

More than a dozen bodies were lying on the ground, each without a head or left arm. The ground was covered with blood and scattered weapons. On one side of the wall was a huge bleeding eagle. "Teacher, the bleeding eagle, another bleeding eagle." Zeng Tai looked a little strange.

Di Renjie leaned over to examine the bodies: "It seems that these people were killed last night."

Li Yuanfang picked up a steel knife and said, "Sir, look."

"What is the name of this knife?" Di Renjie took the knife.

Li Yuanfang replied: "This sword is called the Looking Back Night Walking Sword. Because it is light, sharp, and easy to carry, it is often used by martial arts masters who have unique skills and are good at moving at night."

"Martial arts master?" Di Renjie was a little confused.

He pointed at the tables, chairs and benches in the room and said, "These dozen martial arts masters were killed silently without any trace of fighting in the room? How could the tables, chairs and benches not have been moved?"

Li Yuanfang frowned and simulated the scene of himself facing these people: cutting the necks of several people with one knife, dismembering them, kicking down his opponent, and the opponent fell on the table, smashing the table.

"This matter is indeed strange." Li Yuanfang nodded.

Di Renjie immediately ordered Zeng Tai: "Zeng Tai, order the bailiffs to collect the bodies. Let's follow the horseshoe prints again to see where the murderer has gone this time."

So they followed the horseshoe prints at the door all the way to an abandoned temple.

The temple is small, but there are weeds in front of the door and a strange, twisted pine tree grows in the corner, creating a dilapidated and desolate scene.

The temple gate had been burned down by the fire, and the main hall not far away was also burned to ashes, leaving only a base.

The sky was overcast and it was about to rain. The atmosphere in the small temple was somewhat depressing and eerie.

The bailiffs scattered to search, and Di Renjie, Zeng Tai, Li Yuanfang and He Yun walked to the base of the hall.

The base is paved with bluestone and carved with patterns.

Di Renjie looked at it carefully, and suddenly, his body shook and he waved to the other three people.

The two men quickly approached, and Di Renjie pointed to a piece of bluestone and asked, "Look, what is engraved on it?"

The two men squatted down, their eyes fixed on the bluestone.

He Yun hesitated and said, "It seems... to be a bird."

After careful observation, Li Yuanfang replied: "To be precise...it's an eagle."

Li Yuanfang looked at it carefully again and suddenly screamed, "Bloody Eagle!"

Zeng Tai was shocked: "What?"

Li Yuanfang said: "Look carefully, this eagle is exactly the same as the bleeding eagles we have seen."

Zeng Tai took a closer look and immediately began to tremble all over. He sat down on the ground, gasping for breath and almost crying.

Di Renjie took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "It seems that this bleeding eagle has a close connection with Yuwen Chengdu, the owner of the General Temple."

"Could it be that... the murderer is really the ghost of this former Sui general? No, this is impossible, there are no ghosts!" Di Renjie warned himself loudly.

Li Yuanfang said softly: "Sir, how do you explain all this?"

Di Renjie was a little panicked: "I... I don't know."

Suddenly, a shrill scream came from behind: "Ah!!!"

Di Renjie turned around suddenly and saw a constable kneeling in front of the strange pine tree with bared fangs and claws, vomiting continuously.

He walked quickly towards the strange pine tree, followed closely by Li Yuanfang, Zeng Tai and He Yun.

The constable was vomiting desperately, and the surrounding yamen runners and constables gathered around him.

Di Renjie frowned and asked, "What happened?"

The constable turned his head away, pointed tremblingly towards the inside of the pine tree, and then ran away as if escaping.

Everyone gathered around and the scene before them was horrifying.

Inside the wide tree hole, human heads and arms were piled up like a mountain, and blood was dripping, which was chilling.

Faces swollen and pale by the rain crowded in the tree hole, stacked up layer upon layer, like a terrifying hill made of blood and flesh.

Trypophobia combined with human body parts is a true childhood trauma, indescribably horrible and disgusting.

Di Renjie was so shocked that his eyes were dumbfounded and his lips trembled slightly.

Suddenly, Zeng Tai couldn't help but retching. He covered his mouth, ran to the side and vomited.

It was He Yun who planned all this, but after witnessing it with his own eyes, he could no longer bear it and ran to the side to vomit.

For a moment, all the yamen runners and constables felt a tightness in their chests and churning in their stomachs. Everyone dispersed and the sound of retching was suddenly heard in the temple.

Li Yuanfang had been on the battlefield for a long time and was used to seeing broken limbs and rotten flesh. At this moment, he also felt like vomiting.

He said to Di Renjie with a pale face: "It's a ghost! It's a ghost, sir!"

(End of this chapter)