Demon General's Longing

0. Ruins and Shadows

A long, long time ago, somewhere in the blessed land graced by all walks of life - mortals, deities and demons - stood the ruins of a temple.

The temple came across as a bit of a mystery, the blessings bestowed by its deity unknown – but people say, you could let go of the ominous once you prayed there.

Dark pasts.

Dirty secrets.

Garish family histories, hidden under layers of lies and deceit.

Mysterious happenings that make one's voice tremble in terror.

You could dispose of them all – just by burning a single incense stick at the Mimi Shen Temple.

Did someone even believe this? 

Hm, who knows. Humans are unpredictable after all.

When rumors had first begun to circulate, some six hundred years ago, the people were naturally skeptical of it. How could the shackles of one's deepest fears and tangled miseries be broken off just by praying to some nameless god of a desolate temple located well outside an unremarkable town? What a joke. People waved their hands and laughed it off whenever this topic rose in idle afternoon talk. 

However, this didn't change the fact that no matter how dilapidated, the temple was really there. It even had a resident, a subject of rumors himself.

As that one lone priest passed the marketplace by the same route every other day, people would firstly ignore the nimble figure as it swept past them and then whisper and stare, incredulity and retorts lacing their tone. A priest who doesn't preach a word from a temple with no believers – what better topic to gossip about? But then, as the phoenix rises from its own ashes, from the state of mystery and disbelief rises one's insatiable curiosity. Soon, the very same gossipers found themselves at the door of the exact temple they were happily exchanging half-truths about.

"We have nothing to hide – we shall just expose this fraudster and quickly leave." They reasoned to themselves and to each other, "What's the price of one stick of incense anyway?"

The wind had then howled in their ears and a few dead leaves danced up, only to fall lifeless in less than a breath. The price? Good question.

They entered.

Days went by, and the seemingly deserted temple seemed to have some visitors now. None in daytime though, mind you. Under a menacing sun, the temple looked as run down as it already was, adding to it the creepy feel that no living beings were in close proximity. But if you could sneak out of your house in the dead of night without getting caught by the patrolling watchmen, then hide behind the wild thorny bushes lining the temple's backyard, sometimes you might even spy a lone lantern floating in the air – stopping at the back door as its bearer hesitated before finally stepping inside.

Of course, before you could investigate more of this unusual phenomenon, either your angered-to-death relatives or your worried-to-death spouse would show up and drag you away. In case you hid particularly well and they didn't find you,  the crazy beggar sitting under one of the huge dried up trees flanking the temple would coincidently start throwing stones at you with deadly accuracy while yelling 'scram!' as if he's shooing away a stray animal.

Not untrue, ahem. Back to the story.

The ones who dared visit first – to catch the 'fraudster' red-handed – eventually returned after three days. When asked about what happened to their glorious mission, they would laugh in a manner even a toddler will find suspicious and say, "Oh nothing! It's no bother at all. It's just all dilapidated ruins – there was no one in there."