When will greed be satisfied?

  Two people entered the temple, the statue had already collapsed, and the plaque on the door was gone. The temple gate could still be used with great effort, but they were worried that if they exerted too much force, it would fall apart. There were many places on the roof where sunlight was shining through, but there was a somewhat eerie feeling in the air, which they didn't take seriously.

  Liu Zhi knew cut down a branch full of leaves and used it as a broom to sweep out an area in the middle of the large hall, but the floor was made of stone slabs. The two men took out plastic sheets and laid them on the ground, then put down their backpacks. Cheng Zhen went to collect firewood, while Liu Zhi knew went out to gather some wild vegetables and fruits, and find water to prepare dinner.

  The two men had been in the mountains for the second day, and these things were starting to become familiar. Before long, a fire was lit, and several logs were set up as a tripod, with a stainless steel bowl underneath. Cheng Zhen had brought a stainless steel bowl from his backpack, which could be used as a pot if necessary. Inside, there were some snake meat slices and wild vegetables, mushrooms, and the like, including Huang Hua Cai. What was particularly eye-catching was that there was actually bamboo fungus among them, which Liu Zhi Zhi had discovered unintentionally in the bamboo forest. Liu Zhi Zhi immediately treated it as a treasure, carefully collecting it without dropping any, and also dug up quite a few bamboo fungus eggs. At the time, Cheng Zhen didn't know what they were and didn't pay attention, thinking they were just some kind of medicinal material. Now, seeing Liu Zhi Zhi put them in with the snake meat to cook soup, he couldn't help but ask, and when he heard that it was wild bamboo fungus, he was stunned on the spot.

  He had heard of bamboo fungi, especially wild ones, which were as valuable as gold and known as the "flower of fungi" or "queen of fungi". Bamboo fungi are a type of hypogeous fungus that grows on the roots of dead bamboo. They have rich nutrients, strong fragrance, and delicious taste, and have been considered one of the "Eight Delicacies of Grass" since ancient times.

  Cheng Zhenqian's eyes were fixed on the small pot, with a silly smile at the corner of his mouth, waiting for it to boil. Liu Zhizhi was roasting large pieces of snake meat, and soon the aroma wafted through the air.

  Liu Zhi poured wine, Cheng Zhenqian heard eating, regardless of hot or not, chopsticks directly stretched into the pot, a piece of bamboo shoots had been sent to his mouth, slurred and said: "Delicious!" Picked up the bamboo tube cup, took a sip of wine, chopsticks again stretched into the pot.

  In fact, the craftsmanship of the two is not good, from the taste, the good things are wasted by the two, let alone bamboo shoots, wild yellow flowers are also one of the eight treasures of grass, some places are called golden needle dishes, and snake meat is fresh, the two craftsmanship can't stand it, the materials are too good.

  Liu Zhi knew that while enjoying the good food and drink, he couldn't help but feel a sense of regret. Deep in the mountains, there were many great things, but due to the inconvenient transportation, few people came to visit. However, if it weren't for this, they wouldn't have had the chance to enjoy these things either!

  They ate their fill, added some wood to the fire and some lemongrass. Liu Zhi knew used a wooden stick to prop up the door, they simply washed themselves with water from the stream earlier, which was very little but enough for a simple wipe down. After a long day of hiking, it's essential to dry their feet by the fire at night, otherwise, they would be in pain the next day. They placed their shoes near the fire to dry off the moisture, then both crawled into their sleeping bags and soon fell asleep after a tiring day.

  It was around eleven o'clock at night, when some sobbing sounds came from outside. A faint wind started to blow, but it was different from the usual wind. A chill formed into small whirlwinds that appeared not far from the two people. The flames in the fire pit flickered and gradually turned a bluish-green color. Thin wisps of smoke drifted towards the two people.

  Outside the temple, a snow-white animal resembling a lynx cat stood at the temple gate, staring inside. Although the temple door was closed, if someone followed the animal's gaze and could see through the door panel, it seemed to be staring at the two sleeping people.

  Just as the misty air masses that were invisible to the naked eye were about to pounce, the Miao Dao placed beside Liu Zhi's body suddenly "ding"ed, automatically jumping out of its scabbard by two or three inches. A faint white light flashed, and in his sleep, Liu Zhi seemed to hear a sharp, mournful cry. All the whirlwinds exploded with a "poof", let out a few stifled sobs, and dissipated into thin black smoke that shot out through the gap under the door.

  The white animal, like a lynx, at the door suddenly stood up on its hind legs, arched its back, then turned around and left, with a hint of fear and surprise in its eyes.

  Liu Zhi and Cheng Zhenqian ventured deep into the mountains, neither of them having much experience. Although Cheng had been on a few so-called adventure tours with others in the past, they were not truly exploratory. Liu, on the other hand, had no experience at all. This time, as they entered the mountains, they didn't think twice about it. In their minds, ferocious beasts like those found in the southwestern mountain ranges had long since disappeared with the progress of times. They only knew that many years ago, there might have been South China tigers, but no one had seen any sign of them for decades. Many experts even suspected they were extinct, and a fake photo of a South China tiger had caused quite a stir. Liu and Cheng didn't consider the possibility of encountering ferocious beasts at all.

  As for other supernatural things, both of them were new era citizens who had been influenced by materialistic philosophy. Cheng Zhenqian didn't believe in it from the bottom of his heart, while Liu Zhizhi possessed magical skills but didn't think they would encounter such things, so both of them were careless, especially Liu Zhizhi, who knew that the world wasn't as simple as he had imagined, and deep down didn't really believe it, after all more than a decade of scientific education couldn't be easily erased.

  Deep mountains and vast marshes, where dragons and snakes are hidden. When Liu Zhi knew he was entering the temple, he felt a bit gloomy, but didn't think much of it. He had some magical powers, so his abnormal feelings were more pronounced than those of Cheng Zhen, yet he still ignored them, unable to say that his mentality was still that of an ordinary person. Those almost invisible energy clusters were actually a mixture of the mountain's yin energy and the lingering spirits of dead creatures in the mountains, forming a kind of low-level ghostly existence. Not all animals that die in the mountains become this way, only those whose spiritual awareness has opened up and is transforming into a demonic creature have the possibility of becoming this way. And not every living being with initial spiritual awakening can do so after death, only an extremely small number can become this kind of existence due to coincidental circumstances.

  This kind of existence, similar to a yin soul, if it attaches itself to the upper body, cannot directly take a person's life, but instead manifests as a possession state. In folk terms, it is called "zhòng xié" (撞邪), like Liu Zhi Zhuang, a high-level master with strong internal energy and blood, generally cannot be possessed, but Cheng Zhen Qian was in trouble.

  It's also the yin soul's bad luck that Liu Zhi knew unintentionally today, due to spiritual resonance, turned the Miao knife into a low-level artifact. As soon as the yin soul arrived, it immediately triggered the artifact's resonance, just like how electromagnetic changes naturally produce induced currents in metal. In an instant, a wave of energy sufficient to kill the yin soul burst out, and the yin soul instinctively fled. The white lynx-like animal at the door had actually been born with spirituality and was considered a demon from its essence, although it was still one of the lowest levels. Originally, the temple's human aura caught its attention, and it came over to investigate. When the artifact resonated and burst out, it instinctively felt a huge threat and turned around to leave, knowing that there was something in the temple that posed a mortal threat to it.

  The sword's single cry of alarm startled Liu Zhi, who was not yet fully awake. With a drowsy gaze, he looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the flames from the fire had died down, but the light was still reflected onto his eyes by the snow-bright blade. Liu Zhi was suddenly wide awake, wondering how the sword had been drawn out some distance. He seemed to recall hearing a faint cry in his dream, which pierced deep into his heart. What had happened?

  Something didn't feel right, the temple felt different from before. Liu Zhi knew fell into deep thought, recalling the feeling from when he first entered the temple to when he fell asleep. Cheng Zhen also woke up dazed and confused: "What happened? I think I heard some noise. Hmm, could it be dawn already? It's not that cold outside!" He poked half his body out of his sleeping bag and spoke incoherently for a while.

  Liu Zhi suddenly realized that he had been too careless, and the cold feeling was not just a matter of temperature, but a psychological chill. He understood that this was the effect of yin evil energy, but what exactly was yin evil energy? It couldn't be explained by science, so he put it aside for now.

  "The sky hasn't lit up yet, Brother Cheng, you can continue sleeping. It's not that cold outside because the fire has been burning all along. Just now it was me who bumped into a knife and made the noise." Liu Zhi knew said a lie, telling others would only add chaos. Hearing Liu Zhi say this, Cheng Zhenqian again crawled back into his sleeping bag and fell fast asleep.

  Liu Zhi didn't sleep, something must have happened here, otherwise how would the knife come out? Could it be that the treasured sword was protecting its master? This idea Liu Zhi himself wouldn't believe, could the knife he spent 1,000 yuan on really be a divine sword?! If he didn't figure it out, he couldn't rest assured, what an idiot! He possessed the Five Ghosts Technique, couldn't he apply it?!

  As he thought of this, he pinched his fingers together and muttered under his breath: "Green ghost enter my liver, red ghost enter my heart, white ghost return to my lungs, black ghost reside in my kidneys, yellow ghost dwell in my spleen, return to your positions! As commanded!" The incantation was spoken, and from the piece of hawthorn wood inlaid with a soul-nourishing jade at his waist, five faintly colored light orbs shot out and entered Liu Zhi's body. The five ghosts entered his body, and his ghost eyes opened wide. Liu Zhi saw that dagger, especially the two or three inches exposed outside its scabbard, which shone with a faint white spiritual glow. Liu Zhi couldn't believe his own eyes - could this dagger really be a treasured blade?

  A sudden movement, he drew out the Miao Dao, the entire sword faintly shrouded in a thin layer of spiritual light. He then drew out another sharp Miao Dao from his body, but found no spiritual light on it. Liu Zhi knew looked around again, at the corner of the wall and by the door, some faint black air remained, slowly fading away. Liu Zhi understood that something unclean from folk legends must have come, the treasured sword protecting its master, automatically ringing out of its scabbard to drive the thing away. In the past, it was said that treasured swords protected their masters, it seems it's true.

  Liu Zhi knew that this Miao Dao had something inside, and after focusing his attention, he saw a shadowy image of a snake, which should be the python. Liu Zhi suddenly understood that it was because this sword had cut the python, and the python's soul had attached itself to it, making the sword a special existence, just like some of the legendary magical artifacts.

  Liu Zhi Zhi was wrong, it wasn't because the python's soul attached to the knife making it a magic tool, but because the knife unintentionally resonated with Liu Zhi Zhi's vital energy and was refined into a magic tool. After beheading the python, some of its life information was absorbed onto the knife, creating this python shadow. Of course, this could only be observed after Liu Zhi Zhi opened his ghost eye, others couldn't see it at all.

  Liu Zhi Zhi made some guesses, unfortunately he was originally only half-understanding of cultivation, and didn't even understand the surface, so it's no wonder he couldn't think too clearly, and could only make guesses based on his current level.

  Liu Zhi knew that he still had his sword in its scabbard, but even with it by his side, he couldn't shake off the feeling of insecurity. He smiled to himself and thought, "I have five ghosts at my disposal, why not use them?" He made a hand gesture, and the five ghosts emerged from his body. He ordered them to guard the perimeter of the ruined temple, only then did he feel at ease and crawl into his sleeping bag.

  Five ghosts emerged, a surge of yin energy rose, enveloping the broken temple. The five ghosts were cultivated by Liu Xingxu and later passed down to Liu Zhizhi, they were unlike ordinary ghost spirits, their power far surpassed that of regular ghost spirits, and they wouldn't proactively harm people. However, as soon as they appeared, the white cat that had escaped far away stopped in its tracks, staring at this place from a distance, its eyes revealing a thoughtful expression.

  Liu Zhi didn't know all this, he woke up from his sleep and the sky was already bright. He put the five ghosts into the waist玉 to nourish his soul, moved around a bit, packed his things, ate some dry rations, and left the temple with Cheng Zhen. They didn't walk far before coming to a mountain stream, where they washed up a bit. According to their plan, this time they would be walking an irregular circle on the map, without repeating any roads.

  Cheng Zhenqian is now particularly interested in wild fungi in the mountains. Last night, he had wild bamboo fungus for dinner, and today, he encouraged Liu Zhizhi to search for various types of fungi along the way. They really found a lot, with the most being wood ears and silver ears. As for mushrooms, Liu Zhizhi only picked those he recognized, but didn't dare pick those he didn't recognize because he didn't know if they were poisonous. Perhaps it was just their luck, but they again found bamboo fungus in a bamboo forest.

  The two of them put these on the stone to dry at noon, although they can't be dried all at once, but in order to keep them for a long time, they have no choice. In the afternoon, the two continued to set off, and their interest shifted from sightseeing to picking wild herbs, of course, limited to what the two knew, and Liu Zhi was much stronger than Cheng Zhenqian in this regard. He had entered the mountain several times with the villagers and medicine collectors over the past two months, although not deeply, but he recognized many things.

  The two of them actually walked back and forth, but the direction they came from was not the same road, which is equivalent to a new road. They didn't encounter any danger, nor did they see anything like a giant python again. However, the two almost got stung by wild bees, which was entirely their own fault.

  Liu Zhi suddenly discovered a large beehive hanging from a tree, not wasps but honeybees. He immediately had the idea of collecting wild honey and mentioned it to Cheng Zhenqian. Cheng knew that wild honey was good stuff, but when he saw the dense cluster of wild bees on the hive, his scalp felt numb.

  Liu Zhi knew a trick, he also heard from others, first to beat the hay, look at the wind direction, pile it under the tree, set fire, then add wet hay, a thick smoke rose, and the bees immediately flew in confusion. When they saw that there were almost no bees flying around the beehive, they covered their heads with outer garments, went forward and cut off more than half of the beehive with a sharp knife. This was a good habit of mountain people, not taking everything, always leaving some for the bees.

  There were still a few bees chasing after Liu Zhi, fortunately they had been smoked into a daze, and Liu Zhi was also a skilled fighter, quickly dodging and avoiding being stung. They filled the gourd with the thick honey from the beehive, each getting about half a gourd, then divided the beehive in two, preparing to return and brew wine.

  From entering the mountain to returning to Mazhai Village, it took a total of five days. The greatest gain for both of them was that their backpacks were filled with wood ears and other wild game from the mountains. Cheng Zhenqian did not expect this result, which was completely different from what he had previously imagined.

  After seeing off Cheng Zhenqian, Liu Zhizhi returned to school and first laid out these things to air dry, and then dried them in the shade. The snake skin and gallbladder were also processed according to the rules.

  Two days later, the long holiday ended and the school resumed normal operations. Principal Du received a phone call from Li Mingliang, the director of the Education Bureau, asking why they had not handed over the donated funds to the bureau.

  Principal Du explained that he didn't receive any cash, everything was settled with goods. Principal Du knew that the so-called leaders of the Education Bureau had their eyes on this donation, and previously Liu Zhi had made it clear to Principal Du that all donations would be allocated by Liu Zhi according to specific circumstances, with mutual supervision between the two, which was also what Old Sun meant.

  Li Mingyuan was speaking in an official tone on the phone, wanting to get involved with these donations. At first, Principal Du was polite and courteous, but gradually became more and more agitated, his voice growing louder and louder until they ended up arguing over the phone.

  Principal Du was extremely indignant, originally the national appropriation items were embezzled by them, and very little actually reached the school, now they even came up with the idea of hitting up donations, these people are simply insatiably greedy.

  The principal and everyone work together in the office, this primary school only has one office, there are only three or four teachers, Liu Zhi knows that Du principal is arguing with someone on the phone, the words reveal that it is related to the charity fund supervised by Liu Zhi, so he takes over the phone.

  After hearing Li Mingliang's unreasonable request, Liu Zhizhi suddenly became angry. He didn't expect these officials to be so greedy that they had no shame. Liu Zhizhi coldly rejected the other party's unreasonable request.

  Li Mingliang immediately used his official power to suppress others, telling Liu Zhizhi that he was under his control. Liu Zhizhi let out a cold laugh: "Director Li, please make it clear, I am not an employee of your Education Bureau, I don't receive a salary from you, I'm just a volunteer!"

  "Volunteers must also obey the leadership of the party and follow the arrangements made by the bureau, otherwise you will be expelled from your job!" Li Mingliang's tone was also very angry, unexpectedly this young man actually didn't buy his own account.

  "Don't pretend to be acting on behalf of the party, your actions are a complete insult to the party! You're completely shameless! I'm only responsible for the Longteng Charity Fund, what qualifications do you have to control me? I'm the supervisor of the charity fund, every penny has its purpose, not one cent will be given to you!" Born into a wealthy family, Liu Zhi had always been smooth sailing, how could he have such a shameless experience? Plus, he had practiced martial arts since childhood, forming a strong and even violent personality. How could he buy into the accounts of these corrupt officials? After finishing speaking, he slammed down the phone.

  "Xiaoliu, don't be angry, such things are common in society, getting angry will only harm your own body!" Principal Du comforted.

  "I understand, but I'm still angry. The reason I stayed here to teach is that I was afraid the charity funds from the foundation would be embezzled by relevant departments. I didn't expect to encounter such shameless things!" Liu Zhi's anger had not dissipated yet.

  At this time, the phone rang again. Principal Du picked up the phone and listened for a while before sighing to Liu Zhi: "You still don't give up, three days later you want me and you to go to Linshan Town, the nearest town, for a meeting, along with several other principals!"

  "I'd like to see the faces of these corrupt officials!" Liu Zhi said with a cold smile, took out his phone and dialed a number for Old Sun. He briefly explained the situation, and Old Sun told him not to worry, that he would make proper arrangements and everything would be clear later.