Chapter Twenty: Corpse Feeding

  Four people quietly pushed open the temple door, gazing at the cold light of several lanterns in the Temple of Heaven and the ominous coffins illuminated by the lanterns. Their hearts felt a chill, but they had to steel themselves and walk inside. After all, they were just children; while they could boast loudly in front of others, who among them wasn't afraid when faced with corpses?

  He bowed three times to the statue of Taizhen Tianzun, and muttered: "Taizhen Tianzun, I didn't mean to disturb you, sir. Please don't be angry with me, bless me!"

  After listening for a while, they confirmed that no one would come and they wouldn't be discovered. The four children worked together to lift the coffin lid and gently placed it on the ground. One of the children moved a long bench from in front of the statue of the Heavenly Master and put it beside the coffin.

  Heavenly Feather climbed onto the bench, supporting the coffin, and was just about to peer into it by the dim light of the lamp when a gust of cold wind suddenly blew in from outside the half-closed temple door. The two tall oil lamps on either side of the Heavenly Master's statue were instantly extinguished by the wind, and the interior of the temple became much darker at once.

  Although there were still two oil lamps in the low place right in front of the coffin, they couldn't shine clearly inside the coffin. Huatian Yu didn't dare to look closely and glanced over, vaguely seeing the blurry head of the corpse in the coffin, motionless, but couldn't see the specific location of his mouth. His heart was beating with fear, and he said to another little boy beside him: "You come up too, pry open his mouth for me, I'll feed him noodles."

  The little boy climbed onto the bench as instructed, and after a bout of fumbling, they finally found the location of the corpse's mouth along the scalp. To their surprise, Zhao Lao's head was not icy cold like water, but seemed to still have a hint of warmth. His cheekbones appeared even more sunken than before. Hu Tianyu wondered if it was true what Shui Sheng had said - that Zhao Lao had been extremely hungry when he was alive?

  "Zhao Daozhang, I know you died with an empty stomach, that's not good. Now we'll feed you until you're full, if you have any consciousness in the afterlife, please open your mouth!" The two of them used force to pry open the corpse's mouth, which opened wide and remained still.

  A mournful cry of a night owl came from the big tree outside the hall, the sound was sorrowful, the north wind howled outside the hall, and the air inside the hall was gloomy. The four little boys were suddenly startled, their hearts beating rapidly and irregularly.

  "Don't be afraid? He's already opened his mouth, wait for me to feed him a few noodles and we'll leave immediately!" Huatian Yu said in a low voice, originally intending to boost the morale of the other three people, but found that her own voice was trembling unconsciously, as if it didn't come from her throat.

  Another child quickly delivered the bowl. Huatianyu picked up the bowl with chopsticks, picked up the cold noodles and stuffed them into the corpse's mouth. Just as he was about to pick up the second pair of chopsticks, the little boy standing at the other end of the board suddenly let out a loud cry, "Ah", and fell off the board. The board, which had lost one person, instantly lost its balance, and one end tilted upwards. Huatianyu stood unsteadily and also fell to the ground, the porcelain bowl in his hand falling to the ground with a crisp cracking sound.

  He Tianyu got up from the ground, ignoring the pain, and angrily said: "What are you yelling about? The noodles are all scattered on the ground, how can I feed them again?" The little boy who fell to the ground seemed to be terrified, his teeth chattering "ga ga" sound, stuttering and saying: "Zhao... Zhao... Zhao Dao... Long, mouth... mouth will move, took... took you... You fed noodles... eaten down!" A simple sentence, but he said it in several segments.

  Although the words were incoherent, the four of them heard it clearly, and instantly they got goosebumps all over their bodies, their hair stood on end, their scalps felt numb, and their mouths tasted bitter. Just as Huatianyu was about to shout at him for talking nonsense, another little boy pointed at the coffin and shouted: "Look, Zhao Lao Dao he...!" He only got halfway through his sentence before his teeth chattered uncontrollably and he couldn't say anything else.

  Under the dim light, several people looked up at the coffin, and in the coffin, a dark figure surprisingly slowly sat up from the upper body.

  "A ghost!" Tianyu shouted, turning around and running out of the hall, cold sweat streaming down his back. The other two children also let out a cry and followed Tianyu, one of them tripping over the high threshold and falling heavily to the ground, but scrambling up again, ignoring the blood flowing from his nose, and continuing to flee wildly behind the other two.

  The little boy who fell from the bench rolled and crawled out of the hall, only to hear the sound of clothes and coffins rubbing against each other behind him, which made him even more frightened. In his panic, he was also knocked down by the threshold, and with a "thud", his head hit the stone slab outside the hall, everything went black, and he fainted.

  The footsteps of the three people faded away, and the sound of flint and steel striking echoed in the great hall. Immediately after, someone lit the two oil lamps on either side of the Heavenly Lord's statue, and the hall suddenly became much brighter.

  With a few stifled giggles, the shadows of Da Niu and Wang Long flashed out from behind the statue of Tianzun. The figure in the coffin stood up with them, and upon closer inspection, it was indeed Shui Sheng.

  Three children carefully lifted Zhao Lao's body from behind the Tianzun statue, gently placing it in a coffin and closing the lid. Shui Sheng took small steps to run to the front of the coffin, knelt down on the mat, and knocked his head three times. He said: "Zhao Daochang, Grandfather Zhao, on this cold day, we three people asked you to come out for a walk, it's really sorry, if you know in the underworld, please don't blame us three, if you want to blame someone, blame Huatian Yu, he was the one who wanted to cause trouble and harm, causing you to suffer from the cold!"

  Wang Long and Da Niu also came over one after another, kneeling down on the rush mats on either side of Sheng's body, and kowtowed with a loud thud.

  At this moment, a man's voice rang out in the great hall: "It was clearly you three who did it, why are you blaming others?"

  Shui Sheng was shocked, cold sweat broke out, and he suddenly stood up from the couch, turning his head to look towards the gate of the main hall. However, he found that there was not a single person inside or outside the hall. His whole body was chilled to the bone, his face changed color, and he blurted out: "Who is playing tricks on me?"

  Suddenly hearing the man's voice, Wang Long and Da Niu also felt a chill all over their bodies, hastily got up from the couch, and scanned the inside and outside of the main hall, but didn't find even a shadow of a person.

  Wang Long, Da Niu slowly moved closer to Sheng Shui, the three of them shoulder to shoulder, back to back, tightly pressed together, as if doing so would alleviate some of the fear in their hearts. The three clearly heard the "thumping" sound of their own heartbeats, and the fear that had just been felt by the four children instantly shifted onto the three of them.

  Three little children opened their six eyes wide, but still couldn't see anyone's shadow in the hall. There was only that child who had fainted outside the hall, lying quietly on the ground, motionless.

  "Who's putting on a show? Who's pretending to be a ghost? Are you scared? Hehe! I'm right in front of you, can't you see me?" The man's voice echoed again, each word clearly resonating in the ears of the three people. This time, the man's voice was even closer, as if he had already arrived just a few steps away from the three people.

  The three of them suddenly felt their hearts were about to jump out of their throats, and even their breathing became unsmooth. Their scalps were numb, their body hair stood on end, and the light shone on their faces, each with a greenish complexion.

  Wang Long felt a bitter taste in his mouth, but he plucked up the courage to say: "Don't come over! I'm telling you, this is the Tianzun Temple. We're not afraid of you at all. You're just a minor demon, how dare you cause trouble in front of Taizhen Tianzun? Be careful or Tianzun will cast a spell and capture you."

  "Oh! Aren't you afraid? What are you trembling for? If Taizhen Tianjun can really descend to the mortal world and subdue demons, then there wouldn't be any evil spirits or monsters left in this world!"

  The big cow stretched out one hand, quietly feeling the bench not far in front. "Hey! Little devil's courage is not small, could you still want to use the bench to smash me? Don't you know I'm right above your head?" The big cow was shocked, hastily withdrew his hand, and looked up at the high dome of the great hall.

  At this moment, the tense little face suddenly relaxed, and he bowed his head to the empty space in front of him, saying: "Disciple Zhou Shuisheng greets Daozhang Wumu. Tonight's matter is solely my fault, and has nothing to do with the other two. Please, Daozhang, punish me!"

  The grand hall suddenly fell silent, with no sound coming out of it.

  Rumors of Shui Sheng's words, Da Niu and Wang Long suddenly woke up like a dream. After careful consideration, the tone and speed of the voice just now were indeed 70-80% similar to those of Wu Mu Dao Ren, the host of Guan Zhong. In a panic, he followed Shui Sheng and paid his respects to the empty space in front of him.

  In front of the three, a black light slowly emerged in the void, and with a soft "ding" sound, the black light dissipated, revealing the slender figure of Wumeng Daoist. He wore a thin black Taoist robe, his hair disheveled, and under the lamp light, his ugly face looked even more ferocious. However, a hint of approval flickered in his triangular eyes.

  It turned out to be Wu Mu Dao Ren, and the three people's fear disappeared instantly, but they added a few more anxiousness, hastily saluting Wu Mu Dao Ren again.

  Wumu Daoist chuckled and said, "Forget it, I don't like flatterers and sycophants." The three people suddenly felt that Wumu Daoist's ugly face seemed to have a few touches of kindness.

  Who would have thought that just as the three of them let out a sigh of relief, Wu Mu Dao Ren's expression turned stern and he said: "You three are really bold, daring to move Zhao Shixiong's corpse without permission. Don't you fear his resentment? Don't you fear punishment from your superiors? In the middle of the night, instead of sleeping well, you sneak around here pretending to be ghosts, scaring your companions unconscious and not caring about the consequences. What crime is this?" By the end, his voice had become increasingly severe.

  The three of them were shocked, and they hastily ran out of the hall, with seven hands and eight feet, they lifted the little boy who had fainted to the ground into the hall, and placed him flat on a wooden table where ritual instruments were placed.

  Wu Mu's expression finally eased, and he walked to the unconscious child's side, extending a finger to tap the child's brow. He turned to face the three of them and said, "Speak! You've made such a huge mistake, what do you think I should punish you with?"

  Shui Sheng hastily stepped forward and said: "Dao Zhang, this idea was mine, they two just came to help me. If Dao Zhang wants to punish, please punish only me!"

  "Is...that so?" Wu Mu Dao said in a drawling tone, looking utterly disbelieving.

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