From then on, it was out of control. In the nearly 100 years that followed, a total of 17 brides disappeared in the Yujun Mountain area. Sometimes, there was no incident for more than ten years, and sometimes, two brides disappeared in just one month. A horror legend quickly spread: there was a ghost groom living in Yujun Mountain. If he took a fancy to a woman, he would kidnap her on her way to get married and then eat the bride's party.

This matter was not originally known to the heavens, because, although 17 brides were missing, there were thousands of brides who were safe and sound. Anyway, they could not be found or protected, so they could only make do with it. It was just that fewer families dared to marry their daughters to this area, and the local couples did not dare to hold a grand wedding. But it happened that the father of this 17th bride was an official. He doted on his daughter very much. Hearing the legend of this place, he carefully selected 40 brave military officers to escort his daughter to the wedding, but his daughter was still gone.

This ghost groom stirred up a hornet's nest. The people that the official could find in the human world could not do anything to him, so he joined forces with a group of official friends in a rage, performed a lot of rituals, and opened warehouses to help the poor according to the advice of the experts, which caused a sensation in the city, and finally alarmed several priests above. Otherwise, it would be almost impossible for the voices of those tiny mortals to reach the ears of the gods in heaven.

Xie Lian said, “That’s basically it.”

Because the two people looked very uncooperative, he didn't know whether they were listening or not. If they didn't listen, he had to repeat the words again. Nanfeng raised his head and frowned, "What do the missing brides have in common?"

Xie Lian said, “Some are rich, some are poor, some are beautiful, some are ugly, some have wives, some have concubines. In a word, there is no pattern. There is no way to judge what the taste of this ghost groom is.”

Nan Feng hummed, picked up the teacup and took a sip, as if he was thinking. Fu Yao did not even touch the tea Xie Lian pushed to him, but just wiped her fingers slowly with a white handkerchief, and said coldly: "Your Highness, how do you know it must be a ghost groom? This is not certain, no one has ever seen it, how do you know if it is a man or a woman, old or young? Are you taking it for granted?"

Xie Lian smiled and said, “The scroll was written by the civil servants of the Spiritual Literature Hall. Ghost Bridegroom is just a popular name. But what you said makes sense.”

After a few more words, Xie Lian found that the two young military officers had clear ideas. Although they looked unfriendly, they were very clear about the issues. He was quite relieved. Seeing that it was getting late outside the window, the three of them left the store for the time being. Xie Lian walked for a while wearing a bamboo hat, and suddenly realized that the two people behind him had not caught up. He turned back in confusion, and found that the two were also looking at him in confusion. Nan Feng asked, "Where are you going?"

Xie Lian said, “Looking for a place to stay. Fuyao, why are you rolling your eyes again?”

Nan Feng asked again in confusion: "Then why are you going to the wild mountains and wilderness?"

Xie Lian often slept on the streets, and he would just spread out a piece of cloth to lie down for the night. Naturally, he was used to finding a cave to make a fire. After Xie Lian reminded him, he realized that Nanfeng and Fuyao were both military officers under the God of War. If there was a Nanyang Temple or Xuanzhen Temple nearby, they could go in directly. Why did they have to sleep in the wilderness?

After a while, the three of them found a shabby earth god temple in a very inconspicuous corner. With the remaining incense and broken plates, it looked very deserted. There was a small round stone earth god worshipped there. Xie Lian called out a few times. This earth god had not been worshipped or called for many years. Suddenly, he heard someone calling him. He opened his eyes and saw three people standing in front of the temple. The two on the left and right were covered with a layer of nouveau riche aura around them, and their faces could not be seen clearly. He jumped up in shock and said tremblingly, "Is there anything the three immortal officials can do for me?"

Xie Lian nodded and said, “No need. I’m just asking if there is a City God Temple nearby that enshrines General Nanyang or General Xuanzhen?”

The local god did not dare to neglect it and said, "This, this, this..." He counted with his fingers and said, "Five miles from here there is a City God Temple, which is dedicated to, yes, General Nanyang."

Xie Lian put his hands together and said, "Thank you." The land god was blinded by the two spiritual lights next to him and quickly disappeared. Xie Lian took out a few coins and placed them in front of the temple. He saw some scattered incense sticks beside him and picked them up to light them. During this time, Fuyao rolled her eyes and Xie Lian almost wanted to ask him if his eyes were tired.

After five miles, they saw a City God Temple standing on the roadside. Although the temple was small, it had everything it needed, and it was bustling with people coming and going. The three of them hid their bodies and entered the temple. On the temple was a clay statue of the Nanyang Martial God wearing armor and holding a bow.

When Xie Lian saw the statue, he said “hmm…” in his heart.

It was a small country temple, and the statues were crudely sculpted and painted. Overall, they looked quite different from the Feng Xin that Xie Lian had in mind.

However, it is common for the priests to have statues that are out of shape. Not to mention that their mothers don’t recognize them, some priests don’t even recognize their own statues. After all, few craftsmen have actually seen the priests themselves, so they are either too beautiful to be shaped or too ugly to be shaped. One can only identify which priest it is by its specific posture, instruments, clothing, etc.

Generally speaking, the richer the place, the more the statues will suit the priests’ taste. The poorer the place, the worse the taste of the craftsmen, and the more horrible the statues will be. At present, only the statues of General Xuanzhen are in good condition overall. Why? Because other people’s statues are ugly, so they are ugly. When he sees that his statues are ugly, he will secretly destroy them and ask others to reshape them, or send a dream to express his dissatisfaction implicitly. So over time, the great believers know that they must find a master who can make beautiful statues!

The entire Xuanzhen Hall was exactly like their general, and they were quite particular. After Fuyao entered the Nanyang Temple, she spent an hour commenting on the statue of Nanyang, saying that the shape was distorted, the colors were vulgar, the workmanship was poor, and the taste was strange. Xie Lian saw that the veins on Nanfeng's forehead were slowly popping out, and he thought about finding a topic to talk about. Just then, he saw another girl coming in to pay homage and kneeling down devoutly, so he said in a gentle voice: "Speaking of which, Nanyang Zhenjun's main base is in the southeast, and I didn't expect that you are so popular in the north."

People build temples and palaces to imitate the palaces in heaven, and the statues are the reflections of the priests themselves. Temples gather believers and attract incense, becoming an important source of magic power for priests. Due to multiple reasons such as geography, history and customs, people in different regions usually worship different priests. In their own territory, the magic power of a priest will be at its strongest, which is the home advantage. Only for a priest like the Emperor Shenwu who has believers all over the world and temples in all directions, it doesn't matter whether it is the home court or not. It's a good thing that the temple of his own general is also prosperous in incense even when it is not the home court. Nanfeng should be proud, but looking at his face, it is not good. Fuyao on the side smiled slightly and said, "Not bad, not bad, deeply loved."

Xie Lian said, “But I have a question, I wonder…”

Nan Feng said: "If you don't know whether you should say it or not, then don't say it."

Xie Lian thought to himself, “No. What I want to say is ‘I wonder if anyone can answer this question.’”

However, he had a feeling that this would not be a good thing, so he decided to change the subject. Unexpectedly, Fuyao said leisurely: "I know what you want to ask. You must want to ask why there are so many female believers coming to worship?"

This was exactly the question Xie Lian wanted to ask.

The number of female followers of the Martial God Sect has always been smaller than that of male followers, except for him who was an exception 800 years ago. However, the reason for the exception is very simple, in two words: good-looking.

He knew very well that it was not because of his high moral character or extraordinary power, but simply because his statues and temples were beautiful. Almost all of his temples were built by the royal family, and the statues were carved according to his face by summoning top craftsmen from all over the country. Moreover, because of the saying "the body is in hell, but the heart is in the paradise", craftsmen often like to add some flowers to his statues and like to plant the temple into a sea of ​​flowers and trees. Therefore, he had another nickname at that time, called "Flower Crown Martial God". The believers liked his beautiful statues and the flowers in his temples, and they were willing to come in and worship him just for this.

But the general martial gods, because of their heavy murderous aura, are often portrayed as serious, ferocious, and cold, and the female believers would rather worship Guanyin or something like that. Although this Nanyang statue has nothing to do with the murderous aura, it is even farther from being good-looking, but there are almost more female believers who come to worship than male believers, and Nanfeng obviously does not want to answer this question, so he is quite surprised. Just at this time, the girl finished worshipping, stood up to get the incense, and turned around again.

As Xie Lian turned around, he pushed the other two people. The two people were originally very impatient, but after he pushed them, they looked in the direction and their expressions changed instantly.

Fuyao said: "Too ugly!"

Xie Lian choked for a moment before saying, “Fuyao, you can’t talk about girls like that.”

To be fair, Fuyao was telling the truth. The girl's face was extremely flat, as if it had been slapped flat by someone. It would be unfair to say that her facial features were ordinary. If I had to describe them, I'm afraid I could only use "crooked nose and slanted eyes".

But Xie Lian couldn't tell whether she was beautiful or ugly. The main reason was that when she turned around, there was a huge hole on the back of her skirt, which made it impossible for him to pretend not to see it.

Fuyao was startled at first, but quickly calmed down. The blue veins on Nanfeng's forehead disappeared instantly.

Seeing his expression change drastically, Xie Lian hurriedly said, “Don’t be nervous. Don’t be nervous.”

The girl took the incense and knelt down again, praying and saying, "General Nanyang, please bless me. I pray that the evil bridegroom can be caught as soon as possible, so that no innocent people will be harmed by him again..."

She was praying so devoutly that she was completely unaware of the strangeness behind her, nor that there were three people squatting at the feet of the statue she was praying to. Xie Lian felt a headache and said, “What should we do? We can’t let her walk out like this, right? People will see her all the way back.”

Moreover, looking at the tear on the back of her skirt, it was obvious that it was deliberately cut by someone with a sharp weapon. I am afraid that not only will she be watched by onlookers, but it will also be widely publicized and ridiculed. That would be a real humiliation.

Fuyao said indifferently: "Don't ask me. She didn't pay homage to our General Xuanzhen. Don't look at anything inappropriate. I didn't see anything."

Nanfeng, on the other hand, had a pale face and could only wave his hands, not speak. He was such a rebellious boy, but he was forced to become a mute. There was no hope for him. Xie Lian had no choice but to take action himself. He took off his coat and threw it down. The coat fluttered to the girl, covering the very indecent hole behind her skirt. The three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

But this gust of wind was so strange that it frightened the girl. She looked around, took off her outer robe, hesitated for a moment, and put it on the altar. She was still unaware of it, and after burning incense, she was about to leave. If she were allowed to walk around again, the girl would be too embarrassed to see anyone. Seeing that the people around her were either stiff or stiff, and they were useless anyway, Xie Lian sighed. Nanfeng and Fuyao felt that there was nothing around them, and Xie Lian had already appeared and jumped down.

The lights in the temple were dim and unclear. His leap created a gust of wind, causing the flames to sway. The girl, Xiaoying, saw a flash before her eyes, and then a man suddenly emerged from the darkness, shirtless, and stretched out his hand to her. She was scared to death on the spot.

As expected, there was a scream. Just as Xie Lian was about to speak, the girl slapped him in the face with her quick eyes and hands, and shouted, “Molesting!”

With a "slap" sound, Xie Lian was slapped in the face.

The slap was so loud and clear that half of the faces of the two people squatting on the altar twitched at the same time.

After being slapped, Xie Lian was not angry. He just stuffed the coat into her and whispered something quickly. The girl was shocked. She touched her back and her face suddenly turned red. Tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't know whether it was anger or shame. She grabbed the coat Xie Lian gave her, covered her face and ran away. Xie Lian was left standing there. The temple was empty and a cool breeze blew through the hall. Suddenly, it felt a little cold.

He rubbed his face, turned around, and with a big red palm print on half of his face, he said to the two young men, "Okay. It's okay."

As soon as he finished speaking, Nan Feng pointed at him and said, "You...is your wound broken?"

Xie Lian lowered his head and said, "Oh."

He took off his clothes, revealing a body of skin as fine as mutton-fat jade, but his chest was tightly bound with layer upon layer of white cloth, and even his neck and wrists were wrapped with bandages. Countless tiny wounds protruded from the edges of the white bandages, which was truly shocking.

Thinking that his sprained neck should be healed soon, Xie Lian began to untie the bandages one circle at a time. Fu Yao glanced at him and asked, "Who?"

Xie Lian asked, “What?”

Fuyao asked: "Who is fighting against you?"

Xie Lian: “Fight? No.”

Nan Feng: "Then what is your injury..."

Xie Lian said blankly, “I fell down by myself.”

“…”

This was the injury he sustained when he rolled down from the earth three days ago. If he had fought with someone, he might not have been injured to this extent.

Fuyao muttered something, but I couldn't hear it clearly. Anyway, it was definitely not to praise his strength, so Xie Lian didn't ask and finished removing the thick bandage on his neck. The next moment, Nanfeng and Fuyao's eyes fixed on his neck.

A black collar was wrapped around his snow-white neck.