I changed the world.

Page 364

Of course, some people say that the Digong Temple is efficacious and that they will go there again soon. In short, there are all sorts of opinions.

Overall, this incident didn't cause much of a stir. An Huiling even found a video that's currently "unviewable," supposedly showing the scene at the time, but it's been downloaded and the poster hasn't offered any explanation. However, the comments following the video were mostly sarcastic and cynical, implying that the video didn't reveal anything...

Just as she was getting a little bored and was about to shut down her computer, she came across a new post titled "Encountered the City God's miracle today! True story! Pictures and proof included!"

Out of curiosity, I clicked on it and found that it was a folk custom blogger I had followed called "Xiao Tang's Folk Custom Book". These bloggers produce relatively niche content, but they usually have their own fixed audience.

The blogger claimed to be a college student from Linzhou. Because it was the Cold Food Festival and Linzhou was having a City God procession, she planned to make a video about it. She left home early that morning, dragging her boyfriend along to follow the procession and film it all day long. They waited until the procession returned to the City God Temple on City God Mountain in Linzhou. She originally planned to offer incense one last time before leaving, but then she encountered a scene that shocked her.

The City God has appeared!

To prove this, the blogger uploaded several photos, including one of clouds gathering above the Linzhou City God Temple, another of Taoist priests carrying out an offering table for a sacrifice, and even a picture of tourists and Taoist priests kneeling on the ground.

Even at the end of the article, she mentioned that she had a video and was working on subtitles for it, which she would upload shortly.

An Huiling quickly finished reading the article. She had to admit that the last few pictures were indeed very impressive, especially the one of standing on the top of Chenghuang Mountain and looking at the layers of blue clouds gathering in the sky above her head. The visual impact was truly stunning.

It's a pity that, although it's said that the shouts of "City God return to his place" could be faintly heard at the scene, they couldn't be displayed.

An Huiling immediately realized that such a scenario couldn't possibly involve only one article, so after saving the article, she immediately searched online and indeed found several more.

The article with the most clicks was titled "A Strange Scene Appears in Linzhou City During the Cold Food Festival," published by Jiangdong News, a well-known news outlet in Jiangdong Province.

The content of the filming did not seem to be related to the City God's procession. It's clear that the reporter's location was not near City God Mountain. It's just that the scene of the gathering clouds was visible not only from City God Mountain but also from half of the city, which is why it was filmed.

Of course, the reporter simply posted it as a visually stunning picture, and most of the comments were like: "Linzhou is so beautiful!" "A place you must visit at least once in your life!" "Wow! Such beautiful clouds, can I make a wish?" and so on.

After browsing for a while, An Huiling switched the webpage back to the previous one, "Xiao Tang's Folklore Book," only to find that the blogger had posted an apology, saying that due to an operational error during video production, the video had been mistakenly deleted, so it was gone...

This explanation immediately cast serious doubt on the blogger's credibility, and many skeptical replies followed. Strangely, for some reason, the blogger then fell silent and did not interact with those replies.

An Huiling was puzzled, and then she made some guesses: Could it be that some force had intervened?

As the eldest daughter of the Qianluo Group, she wasn't truly oblivious to the world around her. The Qianluo Group started in the social networking industry and its business has strong media attributes.

She had also heard that some departments within the group had close ties with the government. After thinking about it, she decided to ask Mei'er to inquire about this information tomorrow to see what level of control the government currently exercised over this kind of news. In addition to the platforms that Qianluo Group directly operated, its investment portfolio also covered some self-media and media platforms with social attributes. An Huiling wondered if she could see some information through some internal means.

I wonder if my senior brother and the sect are interested in this kind of information...

City God Temple, Earth God Temple... Hmm, I'll ask my senior brother later, he must know something.

An Huiling browsed the internet for a while, noticed the time, and then shut down her computer to prepare for her daily practice. Even after returning home, she couldn't neglect her practice; it had to be done every day.

Just as she was about to change into some looser clothes, the light in the room flickered.

"Pah..."

"Hmm?" An Huiling stopped moving. She keenly sensed that something that made her uncomfortable was invading her room.

"Splat... splat..."

At the same time, the room lights flickered twice more, as if the voltage was unstable.

Finally, after flashing several times, the lights suddenly went out.

No… With a narrowing of her eyes, An Huiling’s inconspicuous gold bracelet on her right wrist unfurled like a fish awakening, instantly transforming into a sharp short sword that silently slid into her hand.

At the same time, a gloomy wind seemed to blow through the darkness. An Huiling suddenly dodged back two meters, and then, like a nimble ape, shrank back and moved three meters to her bedside.

At the same time, her face had turned to the corner of the west ceiling of the room. In the dimly lit room, where the lights had been turned off, An Huiling's pupils contracted sharply to allow her to adapt to the environment.

She clearly saw a small monster, resembling an infant, looking quite filthy and covered in what she couldn't tell was blood or some other filth, climbing there and baring its teeth at her.

Before she could see clearly, the strange thing lunged forward again, heading straight for her.

Only then did An Huiling realize that the thing had a pair of wings that seemed both real and illusory. Half of the wings were like bone wings, while the other half were like an invisible gray mist.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 731 An Huiling Slays the Demon

In the blink of an eye, An Huiling nimbly spun around, wielding her short sword and striking the little monster squarely in its path. The sharp blade cleaved into the monster's right side of its head and exited through its left neck, severing its head completely.

The next moment, the little monster, like a sandcastle hit by a baseball bat, turned into specks of gray dust and disappeared from the room.

"Snap..." Just then, the overhead light flickered and then came back on.

Everything in the bedroom was normal, as if nothing had happened. An Huiling squinted and scanned her surroundings again. Then, she took a step to the window, opened it, and looked outside. The monster had entered through this window, but after observing for a long time, she found nothing else.

After closing the window again, An Huiling thoughtfully recalled the strange monster from before. Now that she thought about it, the monster wasn't strong. Compared to the series of monsters she had seen before, it should only be at the level of an ordinary evil spirit. But why would such a thing appear in her own home?

In An Huiling's view, the thing just now seemed to have a very clear purpose; after entering the room, its target was her, which made her think a lot...

An Huiling subconsciously recalled the gloomy feeling she had sensed from her cousin Xu Hanzhang, and from Master Liyuan, the feeling seemed even stronger.

Is there any connection between these events?

An Huiling was not a stupid girl. She recalled that her mother had told her that she had been having trouble sleeping at night and had nightmares, and that it was only after Master Liyuan recited a mantra that she felt better.

Considering the strange situation I encountered tonight, if I hadn't already become a cultivator, encountering that monster would likely have had dire consequences. Being entangled by such evil entities could lead to nightmares and a gradual weakening of the body, or even endanger one's life.

No, this matter must be clarified! An Huiling thought to herself, opened the window, and silently leaped out…

At this time, it wouldn't be appropriate to openly visit anyone, so An Huiling decided to sneak over and take a look.

An Huiling was very familiar with the layout of her family estate. She had heard that Master Liyuan had been living in Yanfu Palace and managing the family temple these days, displaying the demeanor of a highly accomplished Taoist master who was dedicated to his spiritual practice.

At this time, apart from some security personnel on patrol, no one else was out in the An family manor. An Huiling, like a bat in the night, silently darted through the trees and soon arrived at the location of Yanfu Palace.

In the dead of night, Yanfu Palace was deep and quiet, its gates locked, and apart from the occasional bird call, there was no other sound. An Huiling observed for a while, then leaped and landed silently on the roof tiles atop the mountain gate.

Yanfu Palace was built according to the traditional southern palace and temple style. The side halls and the mountain gate are connected by a gable wall, which is covered with glazed tiles. It is said that the glazed tiles were made of cinnabar and clay according to the imperial tile-making method, and the craftsmanship is complicated and exquisite.

An Huiling skimmed across the roof tiles without making a sound, and soon reached the top of the side hall. She crouched down and listened intently from above.

She had noticed before that there were guest rooms in the side hall of Yanfu Palace. Since that Master Liyuan had been living in Yanfu Palace, he must have been living in one of the guest rooms.

In the dead of night, An Huiling soon noticed the sound of conversation coming from a certain room. She went over to listen and soon realized that two temple workers were playing cards.

There are also temple workers in Yanfu Palace, currently two people, who handle all the cleaning and miscellaneous tasks, while the only real Taoist priest is Master Liyuan.

The two chatted as they played cards, and what made An Huiling frown was that they were actually commenting on her...

Unexpectedly, the two temple workers who seemed so honest during the day were talking about him behind his back with quite a few offensive words...

Frowning as they listened, the two temple workers quickly changed the subject, talking about Master Liyuan. They speculated about how much the An family had spent to hire this master... their words were full of envy.

To An Huiling's surprise, the two temple workers seemed to have a good reputation for Master Liyuan, aside from their envy. He was very disciplined and followed the rules every day, and the two workers even complained that he was "too strict."

An Huiling continued to listen on the rooftop for a while, but didn't hear anything useful. An Huiling thought to herself that she would definitely find an opportunity to ask her mother to replace two temple workers, preferably two more honest ones...

After that, she carefully made her way across the rooftop and soon discovered a faint breathing sound coming from another house. She listened for a while while lying on the roof and found that the breathing was gentle and rhythmic, as if the person was sleeping.

Hanging upside down from the eaves and peering through the window, An Huiling found the room completely dark, with no lights at all, as if they were truly asleep.

Clearly, apart from the two temple workers, there was only Master Liyuan in Yanfu Palace, who must be the one sleeping there.

Had she guessed wrong? An Huiling was puzzled as she didn't encounter the expected situation of catching a thief red-handed.

After lingering on the rooftop for a while, An Huiling found that the people inside were still sleeping. Feeling somewhat helpless, she had no choice but to leave Yanfu Palace quietly.

As for his cousin Xu Hanzhang, he did not stay at the An family's manor at night, but had other places to live outside.

We'll have to wait and see... An Huiling didn't like this feeling, but there was no other way at the moment.

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Several kilometers away from Anjia Manor is a villa area called Huaishan Manor. This is a low-density residential area located on the outskirts of Jin'an City. It is nestled against the mountains and by the water, with an extremely quiet environment. It is a high-end residential area, and ordinary people cannot enter except for the owners.

Some of the owners here live here themselves, while many others come here for weekends or holidays.

At this moment, in a two-story detached villa near the west side of the villa area, Xu Hanzhang spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor in front of him.

But now he was wearing a Taoist robe, his hair was disheveled, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was pale with a bluish tinge. He was nothing like the refined and gentle man that An Huiling had seen during the day.

Thick curtains had been drawn over the windows around him, and the walls were covered with strangely shaped talismans. The characters on these talismans were bright red and bizarre, as if they were written with the blood of something.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 732 Backlash

Before him was an offering table covered with a yellow cloth, on which were inserted many Taoist flags, and a dozen oil lamps arranged in a complex shape.

Apart from that, there were no statues or memorial tablets of any deities, but instead, a withered and emaciated baby was enshrined!

The tiny infant was curled up in a ball, retaining the shape it had in the womb, only the size of a fist, and completely dried to a purplish-black color. It was placed in a glass niche with gold trim.

Unlike normal, the tiny baby's head had fallen off its neck, as if it had been severed by some sharp weapon!

Xu Hanzhang coughed up another mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale, his expression one of utter terror. Ignoring the fact that he was vomiting blood, he clasped his hands together and chanted, "Namo Dasha, Bhagavato, Yalahato, Panma, Yixi, Gumanlang, Gumanlina, Umanuni..."

As he chanted the incantation, the oil lamp on the offering table suddenly lit up, as if some kind of accelerant had been added.

As the chanting became more and more urgent, the lamp flames began to flicker. Even though there was no airflow in the room, they swayed like candlelight in the wind. Finally, all the lamp flames went out at once!

At the very moment the lamp went out, Xu Hanzhang seemed to have been struck a heavy blow, spitting out another mouthful of blood. He spat out three mouthfuls of blood in succession, finally unable to hold on any longer. His face turned ashen, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious...

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承和三十七年 2016年4月5日08:32 建安省晋安市安家大宅

"Oh...oh...okay, it's alright. Guanyun, take good care of yourself, and get some rest."

"Have you seen a doctor? Oh...oh...okay, then take good care of yourself, and let me know immediately if anything happens."

"Okay...okay...goodbye."

After putting down her phone, An Xuqing turned to An Zhengquan, who was reading a newspaper, and said, "Guanyun said she had a fever today and couldn't get out of bed this morning. She took medicine and is resting at home, so she can't come with us to sweep the tombs."