Chapter 68: Ancient Temple in the West of the City
The night sky is dark and the moon and stars are sparse.

The gentle breeze lightly sweeps away the thin clouds, which are ever-changing, like gauze or mist. The bright moonlight pours down on the earth, charming and beautiful, like a dream.

Dressed in black, Liu Xunyi left Long'an Inn unnoticed, sneaked out of the city, and headed west to Luohan Temple.

Luohan Temple is an ancient temple with a small scale, and there are only three courtyards in total. Inside the temple gate, the first courtyard has the Heavenly King Hall, the second courtyard has the Luohan Hall, and the third courtyard is the Wuchan Residence.

Outside the Luohan Hall is an open-air ritual field covering an area of ​​five mu. The Wuchan Residence behind it is built along the mountain, with dozens of meditation rooms lined up for the monks in the Luohan Temple and pilgrims from outside to rest.

Although it is an ancient temple, due to the constant wars in recent years, the incense has been declining. Now, there is not a single believer in the temple for three years, so the monks in the temple have returned to secular life or traveled around. I don't know when, this place has become a deserted temple.

Today, there is only one old monk in his seventies left in the Luohan Temple. He drinks simple soup every day, chants Buddha's name and enters a state of meditation. He cleans the temple every now and then, and lives a peaceful life without competing with the world.

Half an hour later, Liu Xunyi arrived at the mountain gate, only to see the temple door wide open. Looking around, the temple was pitch black, with everything silent and no sign of life.

After stepping over the one-foot-high threshold, Liu Xunyi quickly moved his body to the side of the gatehouse, slowed down his pace, and walked cautiously into the temple. After resting for a moment, and after confirming that there was no one around, he flew across the courtyard in one leap, and suddenly jumped up from the steps in front of the Heavenly King Hall. He deliberately bypassed the door of the hall and jumped in through the half-open window. His movements were as light as the wind blowing cotton wool, without making any sound.

As soon as he entered the Heavenly King Palace, a faint and strange fragrance immediately hit his nose, making Liu Xunyi's mind concentrate.

Looking up, I saw the four heavenly kings standing on the left and right in the Heavenly King Hall, and the front and back clay bodies of Maitreya and Skanda in the north. However, the four heavenly kings and the two Buddha statues have become mottled and their original colors can no longer be seen. Even the eyes, ears, mouth and nose have become a little blurry due to years of disrepair. On the altar in front of Maitreya Buddha, three tall incense sticks were inserted diagonally in the broken incense burner.

The incense smoke curls up and dissipates with the wind, and the strange fragrance that fills the hall comes from this.

"Someone is burning incense?" Liu Xunyi was shocked and looked around hurriedly, but found that it was pitch black all around and there was no sign of life at all.

The so-called entering the temple to worship the gods, Liu Xunyi broke in late at night and was not fair, so he jumped up and knelt in front of the Buddha statue, and said in a pious voice: "I beg for mercy in the middle of the night, I hope you will forgive me!"

"Since you know it's a disturbance, why did you come?"

Suddenly, an old and hoarse voice sounded at the foot of the Guangmu Heavenly King statue. There was no candlelight in the Heavenly King Hall, only the moonlight reflected from the window. The light was very weak, and the foot of the Heavenly King statue was even darker. If someone hadn't suddenly spoken, Liu Xunyi really wouldn't have known that there was a person hiding there.

"Who is it?" Liu Xunyi was so frightened that he shuddered and rolled backwards. At the same time, his sword was unsheathed, and the tip of the sword pointed directly at a dark mass in the distance.

"I am the one who should be asking this question. You came here late at night and disturbed my sweet dreams. Why do you ask who I am?"

As the old voice slowly sounded, Liu Xunyi vaguely saw a blurry figure slowly sitting up at the foot of the Heavenly King sculpture. In the dim moonlight, Liu Xunyi could barely make out that it was an old monk wearing a tattered monk's robe and with white hair and beard.

"So you are the eminent monk of this temple. I apologize for disturbing you!" Liu Xunyi was very surprised when he saw the old monk's appearance. With his martial arts skills, he didn't realize that there was someone in the temple. He couldn't help but respect this plain-looking old monk. He quickly put away his sword, bowed his hands and apologized, "I have no ill intentions in coming here. I just want to..."

"Since the donor has no intention, please leave quickly!" The old monk interrupted Liu Xunyi's greetings and said lightly, "There is no Bodhi tree, and the bright mirror is not a stand. There is nothing originally, so where can dust gather? Donor, go back to where you came from!" After saying that, the old monk turned over and lay down in the darkness again.

Liu Xunyi had not expected that the old monk would suddenly order him to leave. He could not help but laugh. He retreated outwards while apologizing, "Excuse me, Master, is there anyone else in this temple?"

Even though Liu Xunyi asked again and again, the only response he got was deathly silence.

Liu Xunyi slowly took a few steps back, then paused, suddenly leaped forward, quickly bypassed the Buddha statue, and rushed out from the back door of the Heavenly King Hall.

Not long after Liu Xunyi left the Heavenly King Palace, a faint sigh suddenly came from the dark palace.

"Could that eminent monk be the old monk who is said to be guarding the Luohan Temple?" Liu Xunyi recalled the old monk he had just seen and chuckled to himself, "The old man must be quite old. Even if there really is an outsider hiding in the temple, I'm afraid he wouldn't be aware of it. I'd better not disturb him again."

In a blink of an eye, Liu Xunyi had passed through the porch of the second courtyard. The first thing that caught his eye was a screen wall engraved with Sanskrit. Although Liu Xunyi did not know Sanskrit, he could feel a strong sense of solemnity and seriousness from the vigorous and powerful strokes on the wall. Standing in front of the screen wall, one could not help but feel awe, and even a master like Liu Xunyi subconsciously paused a little.

The entire scripture on the screen wall is as graceful as the movement of a dragon or the floating of a phoenix. There is no sign of the stiffness and dullness of carving with a knife or an axe. It seems more like someone wrote it in one go.

As soon as this strange thought came up, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but laugh at himself: "How could someone use a hard wall as paper to write these strange words? Even if someone wanted to write, I'm afraid there's no magic pen in the world that can penetrate the stone wall, right?"

Behind the screen wall is the open-air execution ground. The ground paved with square bricks has now become bumpy, and many withered and yellow weeds are growing wildly in the cracks between the bricks, making it look very desolate.

Just as Liu Xunyi was looking around carefully, he suddenly discovered that there was a pillar standing in the middle of the execution ground, and there seemed to be a figure tied to the pillar.

"Is that... Mr. Cao?" Liu Xunyi saw that the man was wearing gorgeous clothes, but his head was drooping, motionless, like a dead body. Liu Xunyi's heart sank immediately, and he quickly looked around, then rushed to the center of the execution ground.

Just as Liu Xunyi rushed out dozens of meters, his eyes suddenly changed, and he hurriedly stopped and shouted, "Not good!" At the same time, he turned around and retreated without hesitation. However, at the moment when Liu Xunyi turned around, the originally dark and lonely execution ground suddenly lit up with flames, and then saw more than a dozen ferocious knifemen, each holding a torch, approaching Liu Xunyi with a grim smile on their faces.

These people seemed to have been lying in ambush for a long time, and as soon as they appeared, they surrounded Liu Xunyi.

The torches lit up the execution ground as bright as day. Liu Xunyi turned his head angrily and looked at the figure tied to the pillar, only to see that the figure tied to the pillar was clearly a straw dummy wearing clothes.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly a whistle was heard in the air, and Liu Xunyi hurriedly raised his sword to guard against it, but saw a flaming meteor arrow shooting from the night sky and finally piercing the scarecrow. With a "boom" sound, a blazing fire immediately ignited.

"You stupid dog Song! I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

Accompanied by a sinister sneer, several burly men from the Western Regions strode out of the Arhat Hall. The burly man walking in front was the one who insulted Liu Xunyi on the street that day.

"It's you!" Liu Xunyi stared at the knifemen around him with a cold look, and said in a cold voice, "It was you who kidnapped Cao Qin's son?"

Although Liu Xunyi appeared calm on the surface, he was actually very uneasy at the moment. What worried him most was not that he had been ambushed, but that he could not figure out why he had been ambushed. He had never mentioned his plan to anyone from beginning to end, so how did these Western Regions people know about it in advance and set up an ambush in advance?

At this moment, Liu Xunyi suddenly recalled that just now in the Heavenly King Hall, the old monk advised him to go back to where he came from. Now he suddenly understood the real intention of those words, which was actually to save his life. It was a pity that Liu Xunyi was dull and failed to understand the deep meaning of the old monk's words, causing himself to be imprisoned.

"Liu Xunyi, why do you always like to ruin other people's good things?"

Suddenly, a very pleasant laugh came from the Arhat Hall, and then Xunzhen, dressed in a white dress, accompanied by Abaolu, slowly appeared in front of Liu Xunyi.

"It's you?"

When Liu Xunyi saw Xunzhen, his mind was stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted and sighed uncomfortably: "They are just puppets, and you are the real mastermind behind the scenes. In fact, when I saw you in Huodu, I should have thought that your appearance was by no means a coincidence..."

"Are we enemies on a narrow road?"

Seeing Liu Xunyi's miserable and regretful look, Xunzhen couldn't help but reveal a satisfied smile. His clear and bright eyes stared at Liu Xunyi with ill intentions, and asked in a puzzled tone, "Or should I say... you always like to ruin other people's good things, so you have this retribution today?"

"What do you want?" Liu Xunyi was cautiously guarding against the knifeman behind him. He tightened the sword in his hand a little more and looked around, waiting for an opportunity to break out.

Xunzhen Wan'er smiled, pretending to be shy, and said softly to Liu Xunyi: "I don't want anything. I just want to tease you, humiliate you, torture you, and finally... kill you." Xunzhen seemed to like the feeling of teasing Liu Xunyi, which gave her a sense of pleasure of revenge.

Thinking back to the time when Liu Xunyi rescued Minister Jia in the thick fog at Yanmen Pass, Xunzhen felt so angry that she was fooled. Today, she locked Liu Xunyi up and beat the dog, which could be regarded as revenge.

“If you are not afraid of death, just come and try!” Liu Xunyi said in a firm voice without any fear on his face.

"No hurry! I know you are an expert, otherwise you would never have the courage to come to Huodu alone." Xunzhen chuckled slowly, "I'm just curious, which master ordered you to come here this time?"

As soon as Xunzhen said this, Liu Xunyi felt frightened. The "sir" in Xunzhen's words was already very obvious. If she continued to talk, Liu Xunyi's true identity would be exposed, and his situation would be even more dangerous than it was now.

Liu Xunyi did not answer directly, but suddenly had an idea and asked, "How did you know I would come here tonight?"

"How difficult can it be to find out your whereabouts?" Xunzhen replied with a half-smile, "In fact, I not only know that you will come here tonight, but also when did you come to Huodu? Which inn did you stay in? What did you do? Even what did you eat? I know everything clearly. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to introduce a friend to you."

After saying that, Xunzhen clapped his hands lightly twice, and a fat figure flashed out from the Arhat Hall. When the man came closer, Liu Xunyi was stunned.

The person who came turned out to be the manager of the grain shop whom he happened to have met once when he said goodbye to Old Xu at Fuhe Grain Shop today.

"You are... the head of Fuhe Grain Store?" Liu Xunyi looked at the man in surprise and said in disbelief, "How could you be with her..."

"He is not only the manager of Fuhe Granary, but also the manager of Long'an Inn where you are staying." Xunzhen said with a smile, "You have been here for a long time, so you must have heard of the name of 'Master Long', the richest businessman in Huodu City, right?"

"Master Long? He is the Dragon King?"

……

　It rained heavily during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road were heartbroken
　　
　
(End of this chapter)