Black Lotus

5

Lan SiZhui did not find anything in the area of the ancient tombs and had moved on to search for clues in Goddess Temple.

In Dafan Mountain, aside from the tombs of the Buddha's feet ancestors, there was also the Goddess Temple. The being of worship was neither Buddha nor GuanYin, but the statue of a "dancing goddess".

The townspeople of Buddha's Feet were all astonished when they found it and thought it was a magical stone formed by gathering the energy of Heaven and Earth, making up a series of legends about it. Some told the story of an immortal falling in love with the Goddess of the Nine Heavens, and carved a stone statue from the goddess' appearance to convey the hardships of being lovesick.

The inside of the cave was spacious, similar to the size of the erjin temple, with the statue set in the center. At first glance, it did look like a human. But at a closer look, it was rougher. Then again, it was so human-like, it was uncanny.

Lan JingYi lifted and lowered the compass of evil, but its pointer still didnt move. A thick layer of incense ashes covered the table for offerings and disordered candles lay on there as well. A sickly sweet scent came from the fruit plates. He fanned at the air in front of his nose and spoke, "The locals said that it is quite effective to pray at Goddess Temple, but how can it be this ruined? They should at least come and clean once in awhile. "

Lan SiZhui spoke, "There has already been seven people who lost their souls. Everyone is saying that lightning has let out a fierce creature from the ancient graves of Buddha's Feet, so why would anyone dare come up the mountain?"

A disdainful voice came from outside of the cave, "It's only a stupid rock, given the title of a goddess by who knows who, and people dare to put it here, accepting incense and worship!"

Jin Ling came inside, with his hands crossed behind his back. The time limit for the silence spell was not long enough. "I'm gonna pray for the soul-consuming creature in Dafan Mountain to appear in front of me right now. Can the statue do it?" The group that came in after him all started laughing and agreed.

Lan SiZhui silently shook his head, turning around and glancing without any aim. His gaze landed on the head of the goddess statue, the features of a compassionately smiling face could vaguely be seen.

Yet, he felt a strange sense of familiarity towards the smile, as if he had seen it somewhere before this.

Where had he seen it before?

He couldnt help but approach the statue, wanting to examine the goddess' features carefully. At the same time, someone bumped into him.

A cultivator who was originally standing behind him had fallen down without any noise. The others were alert with surprise. Jin Ling spoke in a vigilant tone, "What happened to him?"

Lan SiZhui held his sword and bent down to examine it. There was nothing wrong with the cultivators breathing, like he had just suddenly fallen asleep. Yet, he wouldnt wake up. "He seems as if.."

Before he could finish his sentence, the dark cave lit up. The cave was suddenly covered in red light. The candles on the platform had ignited themselves.

At the same time that everyone drew their swords, someone burst into the cave, holding a gourd of medicinal liquor. He threw it towards the stone statue and raging flames sprouted from it, illuminating the stone so that it could pass for daytime.

Wei Wuxian had used up all of the items he had found in the bag. He threw it away and shouted, "Everyone, out! Be cautious of the soul-consuming goddess!"

Someone else yelled, "The statues pose changed!"

The next moment, the statue lifted one foot and stepped out of the fire.

Wei Wuxian shouted, "Run! Run, run, run! Stop slashing around, it wont work!"

Most of the cultivators ignored him. The soul-consuming monster that they had searched for finally appeared, why would they miss out on this chance? However, even with many swords and talismans and tools, nothing stopped the statues advances. It picked up two cultivators and sucked the souls out.

With no methods working, the others were finally willing to listen to Wei Wuxians words. Everyone rushed outside, scattering in all directions as fast as they could. With so many people, it was hard for Wei Wuxian to find Jin Ling. Wei Lin was already with the juniors from Gusu.

Wei Wuxian eventually saw them and called for them, "Children! Wei Ziyou!"

Lan JingYi replied, "Who are your children? Do you really think that you would be considered a senior just because you washed your face?"

Wei Wuxian spoke, "Ok, ok, gege-s. Send a signal and get HanGuang-Jun up here!"

The juniors nodded and searched for signal fireworks and found none. "The signal firelights...were all used up during the night at Mo Village."

Wei Wuxian was shocked, "You guys didnt restock?"

"We forgot.", Lan SiZhui replied bashfully.

The twins groaned and Wei Lin sat on the donkey.

Suddenly the donkey took off towards some grass. Wei Lin fell off, his hand still wrapped around the rope, so he was pulled with it. However, in the bushes in front of him, there came a noise of chewing, complete with crunches and slurps. An immense figure was crawling in the bush, its head on the ground and moving using his stomach. Hearing the noise, its head snapped up. Their eyes met. Wei Lin's breath hitched in his throat. "Xi..Xuan!", he whimpered before being pulled up and put back on the donkey by the same person he had called for.

Everyone, following the donkey, ran in the other direction.

Lan SiZhui was breaking down, "This isnt supposed to happen! The Yiling Patriarch had said before, that high-level ones eat souls and only low-level ones eat flesh!?

Wei Wuxian couldnt help but comment, "Why are you blindly worshipping him? Even his own inventions were a mess! No rules stay the same in all situations! Think of it like a baby! When it has no teeth, it can only eat congee and soup but when its teeth grow, it can eat meat! Her powers just grew so of course she'd wanna try new things!"

The soul-consuming goddess stood up from the ground. Her body was tall. She used her arms and legs to dance with uncontrollable excitement, seeming like she was very happy. Out of the blue, an arrow came and pierced her forehead, splitting through to the back of her head.

Wei Wuxian looked in the direction of the bows release. Jin Ling stood atop a tall hill, not far away, and already had his second feathered arrow on the bow. He pulled and another head-penetrating arrow was released, causing the goddess to stagger a few step back.

Lan SiZhui called, "Young Master Jin! Send off your signal!"

Jin Ling didnt listen, determined to kill the monster.

After three more shots were fired, Wei Wuxian figured that if fire didnt work, he'd use water. He took the sword on Lan SiZhui's waist and chopped up a thin bamboo piece, swiftly making it into a flute. He lifted it to his lips and took a deep breath. The shrill timbre of the flute was like an arrow, slicing through the night sky and shooting into the clouds.

This shouldve been a last resort for him, but however with the situation already like this, it didnt matter what he summoned. As long as its dark energy was strong enough so it could rip the soul-consuming goddess into pieces!

The boys commented on his horrible playing but he ignored them.

The sounds of chains being dragged and colliding echoed through the silent woods. It came closer and became louder.

The sound gave the people an uneasy sense of threat. Even the soul-consuming goddess stopped dancing. It raised its arms, blankly staring into the dark of where the sound came from.

Then, all of a sudden, the noise stopped. A figure emerged from within the darkness.

After getting a clear view of the figure and face, the cultivators expressions twisted into ones of fear.

Even when facing the goddess, the group did not cower, but now their voices filled with terror.

"..The Ghost General..its the Ghost General...its Wen Ning!"