India

The sudden shout made Mo Nan stop in his tracks. He looked back with a guilty conscience, and saw a young man standing beside the ancient trees beside the temple. It seemed that he was the one who said what he said just now.

The boy was not very old, and his body was thin. Standing next to a thick ancient tree, he looked very weak, but he had a pair of black and bright eyes, and there was a bit of perseverance in the depths of the eyes, which made the childish face look so tender. Slightly mature.

This kind of temperament Mo Nan seemed familiar, as if he felt the same way when he saw Ji Guiran for the first time.

Mo Nan asked him, "You were the one talking just now?"

"Yes." He answered.

"who are you?"

"You haven't answered me yet."

Well, it's quite principled, Mo Nan thought in his heart, wondering how to answer.He looked at the child, the more he looked at him, the more he wanted to tease him, and then he really did.

"We are Taoist priests who came from afar." What he said seemed to be true.

"Taoist?" The young man stared at Mo Nan suspiciously, as if trying to see some shadow of a Taoist in him.

"Yes, don't look at me dressed like this, but I'm really a Taoist priest. Alas, I just went out in a hurry, and left my Taoist robe and magical artifacts at home."

"Then why are you here?" He asked half-believingly.

"We... When we wandered around here, we found that the evil spirit here is very strong. After counting, I think there should be monsters haunting it... Hmm... I wonder if it is true?"

After Mo Nan finished talking, he saw the boy's expression hesitate for a moment, as if he had been hit by something, but he quickly returned to normal.The boy said with a little confidence: "Nonsense... There are no monsters, but here..."

"Huh? No," Mo Nan had a malicious look on his face, as if he was determined to tease him, "Come on, I'm not so easy to deceive, my eyes can see unusual things, For example... there is a monster behind you!"

"Ah!" The boy was frightened, jumped up and turned his head, but there was nothing behind him.

Mo Nan managed to hold back his laughter, and elbowed Ji Guiran who was on one side, raising his eyebrows, with a smirk on the corner of his mouth, and squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: "Did you see...you used to It was just that fun."

"..."

The boy in front of him belatedly realized that he had been tricked, and his face gradually turned red with shame.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I don't want to tease you," Mo Nan was embarrassed to continue when he saw him like this, "We are just travelers passing by here occasionally, seeing how the temple is so magnificently built, Just a little curious... can we go up and have a look?"

"This..." Hearing that Mo Nan said he wanted to go up to see it, the boy fell into hesitation again.

"What's wrong? No?"

He was silent for a while, and then said: "...you can, please, young masters."

Mo Nan got permission, and happily pulled Ji Guiran up the steps, and the boy followed them up.

After crossing more than a dozen steps and walking through the corridor in a few steps, you entered the hall.As soon as Mo Nan stepped in, he felt that the light dimmed, and the bright sunlight seemed to be blocked from the outside of the hall.

After he came in, he regained his composure and looked at the things in the hall. Unexpectedly, he took a few steps back in fright as soon as he took a look.

The enshrinement here is not an ordinary Buddha statue, but a huge snake entrenched in the center. The color of the snake is as red as blood. With its head raised, it looks down at the tiny people below. It was extremely dangerous, as if these uninvited guests were going to be swallowed up in the next second.

"What the hell is this?! It's scary!" Mo Nan was so shocked by the sight that he almost lost most of his soul.He hid behind Ji Gui in a daze, and asked the boy next to him with his teeth gritted.

The young man was frightened by his reaction, hurriedly made a booing gesture, and said seriously: "Be quiet! Don't disturb the adults to rest!"

"what?"

"The adults will be angry."

"Wait, what is it? Who are you talking about? It can't be this snake..." Mo Nan showed a look of fear, and was about to take another look at whether the snake was dead or alive, when he saw Ji Gui standing in front of him Then he left suddenly.He hurriedly said: "Hey! Hey, what are you doing, don't go!..."

Ji Guiran ignored his yelling, walked straight to the center, and looked at the giant snake.

Upon closer inspection, it is just a snake statue, and it looks very realistic because of the fine workmanship.The whole snake was entrenched in the center of the hall calmly. The snake scales on the surface of the snake body were extremely clear, and each piece seemed to have been carefully carved.

The more Mo Nan looked at it, the more weird he felt. Who knows if this vivid thing will really move in the next second.When he saw that Ji Guiran not only stepped forward, but also reached out to touch the snake statue, he broke into a cold sweat for him.

"Slow down, slow down!" The young man stood in front of Ji Guiran and shook his head, "Don't touch it!"

Ji Guiran withdrew his hand when he heard the words, and did not insist.

"So... what is this?" Mo Nan couldn't help but feel a lot of curiosity when he saw his violent reactions, and felt that the statue of the red snake in front of him was a bit more mysterious.

"It's not something..."

"Then what kind of snake is this?"

Seeing the ignorance of these two people, the young man sighed and replied, "It is the patron saint of our place."

Hearing the word god, Mo Nan was even more surprised. He had seen flowers, birds, and animals enshrined as gods, but this was the first time he had seen such a weird snake as a god.

He couldn't open his mouth to say this directly, thinking it might be caused by Anguo's customs, so he said: "What does it guard?"

"Guard everything."

"Oh..." What a good one.

Mo Nan stared at the brand-new futon on the ground for a while, wondering in his heart, if it was true as the boy said, this guardian snake god should be admired very much, and there would be many people who came to worship him, but why are there so few people around? It seems that there is some restricted area here.

The smell of incense is lingering in the house, and the thin smoke drifts indistinctly. Against the background of this atmosphere, the snake statue looks even more solemn and inviolable.

Mo Nan wanted to ask something, but was interrupted by a shout from outside the hall.

"Xiaoyan? Xiaoyan—where have you been?" A soft female voice said.

Hearing the voice, the young man hurriedly responded, "Ah, mother! I'm inside."

"What are you doing in the hall..." The figure of the woman appeared at the entrance of the hall, and when she saw clearly that there were three people in the hall, the question she asked stopped abruptly.

"Mother, these two people want to come in and have a look, so I let them come up." The boy replied truthfully.

"People from the village?"

"...I don't think so, I haven't seen it before."

After hearing this, the woman stepped into the hall in a hurry, ignoring Mo Nan and Ji Guiran who were on the side, she pulled the boy to her side in a panic, and softly reprimanded: "How can you casually bring outsiders into the Scarlet Snake?" In your lord's palace?"

"But...it's okay, they just came in to see..."

"That's not okay, it's not allowed to do this in the future, do you hear me?"

"...Okay." The young man replied sarcastically.

After scolding the young man with a straight face, the woman looked up at the two of them, smiled awkwardly and said, "I'm sorry, you two, children are not sensible."

"It's okay...what you just said..." Mo Nan wanted to say that he had actually heard it all.

Needless to say, the woman also understood that the embarrassment on her face became more obvious, and explained: "It's not that I'm targeting you, but I think the temperament of the two young masters doesn't seem like locals, and this place is coming from here. Outsiders are not allowed to come in, if there is nothing important to do, it is better to leave earlier, please forgive me, young master."

Speaking so politely, it seemed that it would be unreasonable to make trouble any more.Mo Nan himself didn't want to worry about it, he responded: "Well...it's nothing important, just curious, since it's not convenient for outsiders to come in, then we'll leave now."

"Thank you."

Before Mo Nan left, he silently sized up the woman. She was as thin as the boy, and the end of her long hair was tied with a light headband. On the shoulders, she was wearing an ordinary blue-colored white skirt, her facial features were fairly straight and delicate, and there was a hint of resoluteness in her brows and eyes.

From the conversation just now, she should be the boy's mother, but the more Mo Nan looked at her, the more he felt that she was not very similar to the boy, although their auras were indeed quite similar.

It's not good to stare at the girl for too long, Mo Nan withdrew his eyes from looking at her, nodded and smiled at her, then walked out, Ji Guiran followed silently when he saw this.

"Wait, young master." The woman stopped him suddenly.

Hearing this, Ji Guiran stopped, looked back at her, and asked, "Call me?"

The woman looked at him indifferently, and murmured after a while: "It's nothing, I just feel that the young master looks familiar."

"..."

Ji Guiran's mood was very complicated for a while, he had a psychological shadow on this statement, and his eyelids would twitch when he heard it.Could there be another Ji Tianze?

Mo Nan went out of the palace gate, and when he walked down the steps, he realized that Ji Guiran hadn't followed, and was about to go in again in doubt, when he saw Ji Guiran coming out with a serious face.

"What's wrong with you?" Mo Nan couldn't help asking when he saw that he had experienced bad news, and his face was worse than usual.

"It's nothing."

If he didn't say anything, Mo Nan wouldn't be able to guess, anyway, Ji Guiran didn't have a good face all day long, so he simply didn't care.He brought up another topic: "Then where do we go next?"

"do not know."

"Go to the village and have a look? Ask a few villagers, maybe there are some clues." He suggested.

"kindness."

The two left the temple where the snake statue was enshrined, and continued to walk towards Cang County.The rest of the county is nothing special, a school of green farmhouses, it seems that only the temple has its own style, which is incompatible with the surrounding scenery.

When passing a field path, a woman carrying a basket came towards him. Mo Nan thought that women of this age were the most sophisticated, so he stepped forward and stopped her.

"This... beautiful big sister," Mo Nan said with a playful smile, using his usual glib skills, "I wonder if you are free now?"

Just like a hooligan.Ji Guiran couldn't help but cast him a few glances behind his back.

But his flattering address really pleased the woman. Seeing Mo Nan's clever and well-behaved appearance, she responded: "Hey, I'm free, I'm free, this young man looks a little strange, he's not in the village." I see, what's the matter?"

"Hey, to tell you the truth, we just arrived here today, just came from the temple in the village, and now we don't understand the situation..."

"Temple?" The woman asked in surprise, "Have you gone to the temple dedicated to Sir Scarlet Snake?"

"There is a snake statue inside... what is that? What kind of snake? I heard it is the guardian beast of this place."

"Oh, you really came from other places, we dare not go to that place."

"how do I say this?"

"Well, it's a long story. The Scarlet Snake was our patron saint a long time ago. As long as I can remember, that temple has been built and has been guarded by people."

After finishing speaking, the woman sighed, as if she was helpless about something.