Chapter 2 Chixiao Temple
Qin Ziling's heart was shocked when he heard this, and he even felt it was difficult to breathe.
He just asked casually because he suddenly remembered the ancient well in his nightmare, but he never expected that there actually was a Taoist temple called Chixiao in reality.
"Ahem, I just happened to hear someone mention it yesterday, so I was a little curious." Qin Ziling naturally wouldn't say that he had a nightmare, so he just made up a lie.
Cui didn't think much about it and said "Oh", then said: "This Chixiao Temple is located at the foot of Xiaolong Mountain, about 14 or 15 miles away from our village. When you were a child, you still had some incense. That year, your father was seriously ill, and I accidentally heard the name of Chixiao Temple and made a special trip there."
"But the world is in chaos now, with bandits robbing and killing people everywhere. Xiaolong Mountain is far away from the county town and the official roads, and bandits are the most rampant. The villagers living in that area were either killed or fled, and most of the villages were looted and destroyed. The Chixiao Temple has already fallen."
At this point, Cui seemed to remember something and sighed softly, unable to hide her worry.
Qin Ziling felt heavy in his heart when he heard this. This world is not peaceful!
"Mom, Ranyue, I'm going to the martial arts gym first." Qin Ziling asked some questions about the location of Xiaolong Mountain, hurriedly finished his breakfast, then picked up the lunch snacks that Ranyue had prepared for him, stood up and said.
"Be careful on the road. I heard from someone yesterday that there are bandits roaming around the county town and committing crimes. Lijia Village was robbed a few days ago." Cui warned.
"I will." Qin Ziling nodded and left, feeling heavier in his heart.
Lijia Village is only about ten miles away from the city wall of the county town and not far from the official road. Logically, it should still be within the deterrence range of the county town defenders. Qin Ziling was surprised that it was looted.
"It seems that the world is becoming more and more chaotic. Only by moving to the city can I be safer. But I have no money and no strength now. How can it be easy to move to the city?" Qin Ziling strode along the official road in the opposite direction of the county town, thinking secretly, with an indescribable sense of urgency and powerlessness in his heart.
Walking along the official road for five or six miles, you can still see lively villages along the way. Fields are connected to each other, and farmers working in the fields can be seen from time to time.
But if you walk a little further, you will see stretches of wasteland covered with weeds and dilapidated villages with no one living there. Apart from caravans escorted by bodyguards, there are groups of skinny and pale refugees on the road. It is rare to see people walking alone.
After walking another four or five miles, Qin Ziling turned from the official road into the small path leading to Xiaolong Mountain.
Because no one has walked on these paths for a long time, they are now overgrown with weeds and thorns, making them quite difficult to walk on. In addition, there are many bandits who have become bandits in these hilly wildernesses.
Fortunately, Qin Ziling had practiced martial arts and was agile. He was acting alone and had strong mobility. And strangely enough, since his rebirth, he had sharp ears and eyes, and the kind of sharp ears and eyes also had a keen sense of changes in the aura around him.
Therefore, Qin Ziling was very careful along the way, which allowed him to discover several places where bandits were ambushing in advance and avoid the danger of being robbed.
More than two hours later, Qin Ziling arrived at Xiaolong Mountain safely.
Before actually arriving at Xiaolong Mountain, Qin Ziling smelled an extremely unpleasant odor in the gloomy mountain breeze blowing towards him, like the smell of rotting meat.
When they actually arrived at Xiaolong Mountain and saw the scene in front of him, Qin Ziling's heart beat faster involuntarily and he felt a creepy feeling.
I saw several peaks of Xiaolong Mountain collapsed, and rocks rolled down the mountainside and at the foot of the mountain. Among them, several rocks as big as houses were split in two from the middle, and the cracks were so smooth that they looked like they were split in half by an extremely sharp sword.
Not only that, rotten substances emitting the smell of rotten meat and flowing with yellow liquid can be seen everywhere on Xiaolong Mountain, which are extremely disgusting.
Wherever these rotten substances and yellow liquid flowed, all the grass and trees turned withered and yellow, losing their vitality.
Looking at the scene in front of him, Qin Ziling's mind couldn't help but emerge with the two giant swords he saw in his dream, as well as the old and ugly old man and the strange bird under him suddenly exploding, with blood and flesh flying everywhere. He couldn't help but tremble all over.
"Really! Everything in my dream turned out to be real! How is this possible? I was clearly reborn in Qin Ziling's body, how could it be related to that old man?"
Qin Ziling's heart trembled, and he looked around subconsciously.
Soon, Qin Ziling's heart was shocked again, and his eyes were fixed on a ruined Taoist temple at the foot of the mountain in the distance.
There is a plaque hanging diagonally on the lintel of the Taoist temple, with the three characters "Chixiao Temple" inscribed on it.
Qin Ziling swallowed hard, then suppressed the shock in his heart, carefully avoided the disgusting things on the ground that were flowing with yellow liquid and emitting the smell of rotten meat, and soon arrived in front of Chixiao Temple.
Just as his mother said, the Chixiao Temple had long since fallen into disrepair. Several parts of the temple's walls had collapsed, and the inside was filled with dust and spider webs.
There was nothing special about the Taoist temple. Qin Ziling quickly passed through the main hall of the temple and came to the backyard.
Sure enough, there was an ancient well in the back yard.
Qin Ziling walked quickly to the ancient well and looked down.
There was water in the ancient well, with some dead leaves floating on it. It was impossible to see clearly what was at the bottom of the well, but inexplicably when Qin Ziling looked down, he seemed to feel that there was something very familiar at the bottom of the ancient well greeting him.
Qin Ziling didn't bother to think about why this happened. After confirming that the rope was still strong, he immediately lowered himself into the well along the rope.
Since the dream is real, it is logical to infer that the old man can control the strange bird to fly in the sky and is chased by two flying swords. Both himself and the people chasing him are definitely top masters.
Because at least in the county city, Qin Ziling had never heard of anyone being able to kill people with a sword. That was already a top-notch figure close to the legendary sword immortal.
Therefore, the ring on the old man's finger is definitely not an ordinary item.
Considering Qin Ziling's current family background and his natural talent, if he wants to be able to protect himself in this chaotic world, the ring can be said to be his greatest hope.
After going down the well, following his heart's intuition, Qin Ziling soon saw the ring embedded in the cracks of the stone on the well wall.
As for the severed finger, no one knew where it had ended up in the ancient well.
Qin Ziling reached out and dug out the ring from the crack in the stone wall of the well.
The moment the ring fell into his palm, Qin Ziling felt a sense of blood connection and incomparable familiarity. At the same time, his brain seemed to be suddenly touched, and many chaotic image fragments flooded into his mind.
The chaotic footage was almost all extremely bloody, evil, and terrifying, and the old man he saw in his nightmare was the common protagonist in these scenes.
The pictures became more and more numerous and more and more confusing.
Qin Ziling had a splitting headache. He endured the feeling that his head was about to explode, quickly climbed out of the ancient well, and then fainted beside the well.
It was unknown how long it had been before Qin Ziling woke up from his coma.
His eyes were still black and clear, but in the depths of this black and clearness, there was a faint flash of wisdom that came from having experienced the vicissitudes of life and having insight into the world, as well as insidiousness, evil, and ruthlessness.
"It turns out that when my soul consciousness traveled to this body, the residual soul of Li Mo, the leader of the Corpse Demon Sect, was trying to take over this body, and it reached the most critical moment. As a result, my arrival finally made me the fisherman who benefits from the quarrel between the snipe and the clam." Qin Ziling woke up and after careful thinking and reasoning, he finally gradually understood that he, who came from another modern civilized world, had actually merged with the residual soul consciousness of Li Mo, the leader of the Corpse Demon Sect, one of the six major demon sects.
However, Qin Ziling didn't know why the leader of the Corpse Demon Sect was killed in Xiaolong Mountain outside the county city.
"Oh my God! I have actually merged with the residual soul consciousness of a demon! Doesn't this mean that I have the soul consciousness of two people and a residual soul consciousness? By the way , since my rebirth, not only have I been sharp-eyed and sharp-eared, I have also been extremely sensitive to changes in the external world, and I can even do many things at the same time. Could it be that this body has merged two soul consciousnesses and one residual soul consciousness?" After reasoning out the truth, Qin Ziling also figured out the many changes in his body.
Thinking in his mind, Qin Ziling's gaze fell again on the black ring that he was holding tightly in his palm.
