Over there, Lan Sizhui and his companions had searched the ancient tomb mound to no avail, and had already moved to the Temple of the Goddess to look for clues.

In Dafan Mountain, in addition to the ancestral tombs of the residents of Fojiao Town, there is also a shrine to the goddess of heaven. The deity enshrined in the shrine is not the Buddha, nor is it Guanyin, but a "dancing goddess".

Hundreds of years ago, a hunter from Fojiao Town went deep into the mountains and found a strange stone in a cave. It was nearly ten feet high and formed by nature. It looked very much like a human figure, with all four limbs intact, dancing. What was even more amazing was that the facial features of the stone figure were vaguely discernible, and it was a smiling woman.

The people of Fojiao Town were amazed and believed that this was a magical stone that gathered the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. They also made up many legends. One legend said that an immortal had a crush on the Queen of Heaven and carved a stone statue in her image to comfort his longing for her. The Queen was furious when she found out, so the unfinished statue had to be abandoned. Another legend said that the Jade Emperor had a beloved daughter who died early, and the Jade Emperor's longing for his beloved daughter condensed into this stone statue. There were many legends, which were astonishing. These legends that came out of their mouths convinced them, so some people converted the grotto into a shrine, the stone platform into a throne, and worshipped the stone statue as "Dancing Queen of Heaven", and offered incense to it all year round.

The interior of the cave is as spacious as a two-story temple, with the goddess statue standing in the center. At first glance, it really looks like a person, even the waist can be said to be graceful. When you get closer and take a closer look, it is rough, but it is amazing that a natural creation can be so human-like.

Lan Jingyi raised and lowered the Fengxie Plate, but the needle remained unchanged. There were messy candle residues and a thick layer of incense ash on the altar, and the offering fruit dish gave off a sweet smell of decay. Everyone in the Gusu Lan Clan was more or less a germophobe. He fanned the air in front of his nose and said, "I heard from the locals that making wishes in this Tiannu Temple is very effective, so how come it is so dilapidated? Why don't you ask a few people to clean it up?"

Lan Sizhui said, "Seven people have lost their souls in succession. It is rumored that the evil spirit in the ancestral tomb of Fojiao Town was struck by lightning. No one dares to go up the mountain. The incense has stopped burning, so naturally no one will clean up."

A disdainful voice sounded outside the cave: "It's just a piece of broken stone. I don't know who made it a god. How dare they put it here and worship it!"

Jin Ling walked in with his hands behind his back. The effect of the silence spell was not long, so he could open his mouth. However, once he opened his mouth, he had nothing good to say. He looked at the statue of the goddess and snorted, "These country folks don't know how to work hard when they encounter problems, but burn incense and worship Buddha all day long to ask gods and ghosts. There are tens of thousands of people in the world, and gods and Buddhas are busy with their own affairs, so how can they take care of them! What's more, he is a wild god with no name or status. If it is really so effective, then I will make a wish now, asking this soul-eating thing in Dafan Mountain to appear in front of me immediately. Can it do it?"

A group of monks from small families followed him in, and immediately agreed with him and laughed. The originally quiet shrine suddenly became noisy and cramped because of the influx of people. Lan Sizhui shook his head secretly, turned around and glanced at the face of the goddess statue. The facial features were vaguely visible, and it seemed to be a compassionate smile.

However, he felt that this smiling face was indescribably familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

Where have you seen him before?

Lan Sizhui felt that this must be something very important, and he involuntarily moved closer to the altar, wanting to take a closer look at the face of the goddess. At this moment, someone suddenly bumped into him.

A cultivator who was standing behind him suddenly fell down silently. The others were all shocked and immediately alert. Jin Ling asked vigilantly: "What happened to him?"

Lan Sizhui held the sword and leaned over to check. The monk was breathing normally, as if he had just fallen asleep. However, no matter how he patted and called him, he would not wake up. He stood up and said, "He seems to be..."

Before he could finish, the dark cave suddenly lit up, and the whole cave was filled with red light, as if a layer of blood was pouring down the walls. The incense and candles on the altar and in the corners of the cave all began to burn spontaneously.

With a few clangs, people in the cave drew their swords or held talismans. At this moment, a man suddenly rushed in from outside the shrine, holding a gourd of medicinal wine and splashed it all over the stone statue of the goddess. The cave was immediately filled with a strong and choking smell of alcohol. He then drew a talisman paper in the air and threw it at the statue. A blazing fire instantly ignited on the altar, illuminating the cave like daylight.

Wei WuXian used up all the things in the Qiankun bag he had picked up, threw the bag away and shouted, “Everyone, get out! Be careful of the soul-eating goddess inside!”

Someone exclaimed, "The goddess's posture has changed!"

Just now, the statue had its arms raised, one arm pointing to the sky, one foot raised, and a graceful posture. But now, in the red-yellow fire, both its arms and legs were lowered. It was absolutely true, and it was not an illusion!

The next moment, the statue raised another foot - and stepped out of the flames!

Wei WuXian shouted, “Run, run, run! Stop chopping! It’s useless!”

Most of the monks ignored him. The soul-eating monster that they had been looking for for so long finally appeared. How could they let it go? However, the use of so many immortal swords, slashing and stabbing, and the throwing of talismans and various magic weapons did not stop the stone statue. It was nearly ten feet tall and moved like a giant. It was full of oppression. It lifted the two monks in front of its face. The stone mouth seemed to open and close. The swords in the hands of the two monks fell to the ground with a clang, and the head drooped. It was obvious that its souls were also sucked away.

All the attacks were completely ineffective. This time, the others finally listened to Wei Wuxian and rushed out, desperately scattering in all directions. With so many people, Wei Wuxian couldn't find Jin Ling the more anxious he became. He rode his donkey into a bamboo forest and ran back to see the younger generation of the Lan family catching up with him. Wei Wuxian called to them, "Children!"

Lan Jingyi said: "Who are your children? Do you know whose family we belong to? Do you think you can act like an elder just by washing your face?!"

Wei WuXian said, “Okay, okay. Brothers. Give a signal and ask your… that HanGuangJun to come up!”

The younger generation nodded repeatedly, running and jumping on top of each other. After a moment, Lan Sizhui said, "The signal fireworks...were all set off at Mojiazhuang that night."

Wei WuXian was shocked: “You didn’t make up for it later?!”

This signal firework wouldn't be used once in eight hundred years. Lan Sizhui said ashamedly, "I forgot."

Wei WuXian threatened, “Can you forget this? If HanGuang-Jun finds out, you’ll be in trouble!”

???? En Jing's study room ~ www = En Jing = c om

Lan Jingyi’s face was ashen: “It’s over, I’m going to be punished to death by Han Guangjun this time…”

Wei WuXian: “Punish him. He deserves to be punished! He won’t learn his lesson if he is not punished.”

Lan Sizhui: "Mr. Mo, Mr. Mo! How do you know that the one sucking souls is not the Soul-Eating Demon or the Soul-Eating Beast, but the statue of the goddess?"

Wei WuXian ran while searching for Jin Ling: "How do I know? I saw him."

Lan Jingyi also caught up with him, running with him on the left and right: "What did you see? We saw a lot too."

"I see. Then what? What's near the ancient tomb?"

"What else can there be? Dead souls." The Three-Body Novel

"Yes, there are dead souls. So it's definitely not a soul-eating beast or a soul-eating evil. It's obvious. If it were one of those two, with so many dead souls floating around, would it not eat them? No."

This time, more than one person asked: "Why?"

“I’m talking to you, the Gusu Lan Clan…” Wei WuXian couldn’t help himself, “Can’t you teach less nonsense like immortal sect etiquette and the history of cultivation family genealogy, and more practical things? What’s there to not understand? Dead souls are much easier to absorb than living souls. The flesh of a living person is a barrier, and if you want to eat living souls, you have to break through this barrier. It’s like…” He glanced at the donkey that was running while panting and rolling his eyes, “It’s like an apple is placed in front of you, and another apple is placed in a locked box. Which one do you choose to eat? Of course, the one in front of you. This thing only eats living souls, and it has a way to get them. It’s very picky and very powerful.”

Lan Jingyi was surprised and said, "Is that so? It seems to make sense! Wait, it turns out you are not crazy!"

Lan Sizhui explained as he ran, “We all thought that the landslide and the thunderbolt that struck the coffin caused the loss of souls, so naturally we thought it was the Soul-Eating Demon.”

Wei WuXian said, “Wrong.”

"What's wrong?"

"The order is wrong, the cause and effect are wrong. Let me ask you, which came first, the landslide or the soul-eating incident? Which was the cause and which was the effect?"

Lan Sizhui said without hesitation: "The mountain collapsed in front, and the soul was eaten in the back. The former is the cause, and the latter is the result."

Wei WuXian said, "That's totally wrong. The soul-eating happened first, and the landslide happened later. The soul-eating was the cause, and the landslide was the result! On the night of the landslide, it suddenly rained heavily, and the sky was struck by lightning, splitting a coffin. Remember this. The first person who lost his soul, that lazy guy, was trapped in the mountains for one night, and got married in the past few days."

Lan Jingyi said, "What's wrong?" The Chronicles of Narnia

Wei WuXian said, “Nothing is right! How can a poor guy with nothing to do get the money to hold a grand wedding?”

Several young men were speechless. No wonder, the Gusu Lan Clan was originally a family that did not have to worry about the issue of being rich or poor. Wei Wuxian continued, "Have you seen all the dead souls floating on Mount Dafan? There was an old man who was killed by being hit on the head. The workmanship and material of his shroud were excellent. Wearing such a gorgeous shroud, his coffin could not be empty. There must be a few burial objects to press down the coffin. The coffin that was split open by a thunderbolt was most likely his. Later, the people who collected the bones did not find the burial objects. They must have all been taken away by the lazy man. This can explain his sudden wealth. The lazy man suddenly became rich and married one night after the landslide. Something unusual must have happened that night. It was raining heavily that night, and he was hiding in the mountains. Where can you hide from the rain on Mount Dafan? The Temple of the Goddess. And if an ordinary person goes to the temple, he has to do something."

Lan Sizhui asked, "Make a wish?"

"Yes. For example, she wanted him to have good luck, make a fortune, and marry richly. The goddess fulfilled his wish by sending down thunderbolts to split the tomb, allowing him to see the treasure in the coffin. His wish was fulfilled, and as a price, the goddess descended on his wedding night and sucked away his soul!"

Lan Jingyi: "You are guessing, right?"

Wei WuXian: “It’s a guess. But if we continue with this guess, everything can be explained.”

Lan Sizhui: "How do you explain Miss Yan?

Wei WuXian: “That’s a good question. You should have asked this before you went up the mountain. Ah Yan had just gotten engaged at that time. All newly engaged girls must have the same wish.”

Lan Jingyi asked in confusion: "What wish?"

Wei WuXian said: “It’s nothing more than, ‘I hope my husband will love me and only me for the rest of his life’, and so on.”

The young people were confused: "Can this wish really be fulfilled..."

Wei WuXian spread his hands and said, “It’s very simple. As long as her husband’s ‘this life’ ends immediately, wouldn’t that mean he has ‘only loved one person in this life’?”

Lan Jingyi suddenly realized and said excitedly: "Oh, oh! So, so, after Miss Ayan got engaged, her husband was killed by wolves in the mountains the next day, because it is very likely that Miss Ayan went to the Tiannv Temple to make a wish the day before!"

Wei WuXian struck while the iron was hot: "It's hard to say whether it was a jackal or something else that killed him. Ah Yan has another special thing: why is it that only her soul has returned among all the people? What's the difference between her and the others? The difference is that she has a relative who has lost his soul. Or to put it another way, a relative has replaced her! Zheng the Blacksmith is Ah Yan's father, a father who loves his daughter. When he saw that his daughter had lost her soul, medicine was useless, and he was helpless, what could he do?"

This time Lan Sizhui answered quickly: "——He could only place his last hope in heaven. So he also went to the Temple of the Goddess of Heaven to make a wish, which was 'I hope the soul of my daughter A Yan can be found'!"

Wei WuXian praised: “That’s why only Ah Yan’s soul returned, and that’s also why the third soul-lost person, Zheng the Blacksmith, lost his soul. Although Ah Yan’s soul was vomited out, it was inevitably damaged. After her soul returned, she began to imitate the dancing posture and even the smile of the goddess statue involuntarily.”

The common point of these soul-lost people is that they have made a wish in front of the statue of the goddess. The price of making the wish come true is the soul.

This stone statue of the goddess was originally just an ordinary stone that happened to look like a person. It was inexplicably worshipped for hundreds of years, and only then did it gain magical powers. But it was greedy and wanted to speed up the improvement of its magical powers by absorbing souls. The souls absorbed by exchanging wishes are equivalent to the souls voluntarily dedicated by the wisher. Both parties trade fairly and get what they want. It seems reasonable and reasonable, so the wind evil disk needle does not move, the Yin flag cannot be summoned, and the sword talisman is ineffective, just because the things in Dafan Mountain are not demons or monsters at all, but gods! This is a wild god that has been raised by hundreds of years of incense and worship. Using the things used to deal with evil ghosts and monsters to deal with it is like fighting fire with fire!

Lan Jingyi shouted, "Wait! But just now in the shrine, someone's soul was also sucked away, and we didn't hear him make a wish!"

Wei WuXian’s heart skipped a beat and he stopped in his tracks: “Someone’s soul was sucked away in the shrine? Tell me exactly what happened.”

Lan Sizhui repeated it clearly and quickly. When he heard Jin Ling say, "If it's really that effective, then I'll make a wish now, asking this soul-eating creature in Mount Dafan to appear in front of me right now. Can it do it?", Wei Wuxian said, "Isn't this a wish? This is a wish!"

The others echoed Jin Ling, and it was assumed that they all made the same wish. And the Soul Eater Goddess was right in front of them at the time, so the wish had been fulfilled. Next, it was time to ask for a price!

Suddenly, the donkey stopped and ran in the opposite direction. Wei Wuxian was caught off guard and was thrown off again. He held on to the rope with all his might, but heard a series of "crunching" and "slurping" chewing sounds coming from the bushes in front of him. An extremely tall figure was lying in the bushes, with its huge head moving on the ground. When it heard the strange sound, it suddenly looked up and met their eyes.

This soul-eating goddess originally had a blurry face, with only the rough outlines of eyes, nose, ears and mouth. After sucking in the souls of several cultivators in one breath, her facial features became clear, that of a smiling woman, with much blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. She was holding a torn arm in her mouth and eating it voraciously.

Everyone immediately followed Hua Luzi and retreated.

Lan Sizhui collapsed and said, "This is not right! The Yiling Patriarch said that high-level ones eat souls, and low-level ones eat meat!"

Wei WuXian said helplessly: “Why do you believe in him? He has messed up a lot of things himself! No rules are immutable. Just think of it as a baby. When it has no teeth, it can only drink porridge and soup. Once it grows up, of course it wants to eat meat with its teeth. Now that her magic power has greatly increased, it is natural that she wants to try something new!”

The Soul Eater Goddess stood up from the ground, tall and strong, using her hands and feet to dance wildly, seeming to be very happy. Suddenly, an arrow whistled and hit her forehead, and the arrowhead pierced out from the back of her head.

Hearing the sound of the bowstring, Wei Wuxian looked in the direction of the sound and saw Jin Ling standing on a high slope not far away. He had already put the second feather arrow on the bow and pulled the string to its full length. He let go and another arrow pierced through the skull and brain with such force that the Soul-Eating Goddess staggered back a few steps.

Lan Sizhui shouted, "Mr. Jin! Release the signal on you!"

Jin Ling turned a deaf ear to him, determined to take down the monster. He had a sullen face and nocked three arrows at once. After being shot twice on the head, the Soul Eater Goddess was not annoyed. She continued to smile and attacked Jin Ling. Although she was walking and dancing, her speed was terrifyingly fast, and she closed the distance by half in an instant. Several monks flashed out from the side, fighting with her and tripping her up. Jin Ling hit the target with every arrow, and he seemed determined to shoot all the arrows first, and then fight the Soul Eater Goddess in close combat. His hands were steady and his shots were accurate, but it was a pity that all the immortal sect magic weapons were useless against it!

Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji are both waiting for news in Fojiao Town, not knowing when they will be able to detect the changes and catch up. To put out the fire, water is needed, and immortal instruments are not enough, so let's use some evil tricks!

Wei Wuxian drew the sword from Lan Sizhui's waist, cut off a piece of thin bamboo, made a flute with his hands, brought it to his lips, and took a deep breath. The sharp sound of the flute was like a loud arrow, piercing the night sky and soaring into the sky.

He shouldn't have done this unless it was absolutely necessary. But now, no matter what he summoned, as long as the evil spirit was strong enough to tear this soul-eating goddess to pieces, it would be fine!

Lan Sizhui was completely stunned, but Lan Jingyi covered his ears and said, "Why are you still playing the flute at this hour? It sounds terrible!"

Three or four of the cultivators who were fighting with the Soul-Eating Goddess had already had their souls sucked away. Jin Ling drew his sword and was less than two feet away from the Soul-Eating Goddess. His heart was pounding and blood was boiling in his head. "If I can't cut off her head with this sword, I'll die here - I'll die!"

At this moment, a tinkling sound arose in the forest of Mount Dafan.

Ding-Ding-Dang-Dang, Ding-Ding-Dang-Dang. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes sudden, sometimes loud. Echoing in the silent forest, like iron chains colliding, iron ropes dragging on the ground. Getting closer and louder.

For some reason, the sound gave people an extremely uneasy feeling of threat. Even the Soul-Eating Goddess stopped dancing, raised her arms, and stared blankly at the darkness where the sound came from.

Wei WuXian put away his flute and looked intently at the source.

Although the ominous premonition in my heart was growing stronger, since they were willing to come here in response to his call, they were at least willing to listen to him.

The sound stopped abruptly, and a figure emerged from the darkness.

After seeing this figure and this face clearly, the faces of several monks twisted.

Even when faced with the stone statue of the goddess that could suck away their souls at any time, this group of people did not retreat, let alone show any fear. However, at this moment, their shouts were filled with undisguised fear.

"…'Ghost General', it's 'Ghost General', it's Wen Ning!"

The title of "Ghost General", like the Yiling Patriarch, is notorious and known to everyone, and the two usually appear together.

This word only refers to one object. It is none other than the number one helper of the Yiling Patriarch Wei Ying, who stirred up trouble, acted as an accomplice to the evil, and turned the world upside down. He should have been crushed to ashes long ago, Wen Ning!