Chapter 20: The Temple

After the wind and snow subsided, the two finally made their way toward Nanshan Temple.

"Smell, him." Dabao suddenly found a blood-stained piece of cloth among the gravel by the road and pointed at Guo Ming.

Guo Ming's eyes widened. He recognized the piece of cloth immediately—it belonged to his servant.

Seeing his expression, Chu Danqing knew the other's guess was confirmed.

When the servant was dragged away and struggled, his clothes must have been snagged on the sharp stones.

There were still some other traces nearby. Chu Danqing looked at Dabao and asked, "Can you track them?"

If they could follow the traces to find the Roaming Tiger, there would be no need to go to Nanshan Temple.

Dabao did not answer. He nimbly climbed up a tree to look out, came down about two minutes later, shook his head, and said, "No. Wind and snow, covered it."

Had it not been for the previous storm, the remaining faint traces might still have been trackable.

Now, naturally, everything was a sheet of white.

"Alas, such is fate and timing," Guo Ming sighed. His grievances and old hatreds with the Roaming Tiger were truly piling up.

"My condolences," Chu Danqing comforted. "Let's go to Nanshan Temple first. It's not far now."

Guo Ming could only nod and, with Dabao's support, climbed up the mountain.

The two arrived at the temple gates only to find them tightly shut, the surroundings deathly quiet.

Chu Danqing called out for nearly five minutes before finally hearing a monk respond.

"Nanshan Temple is closed for the winter and will not reopen until next spring. Benefactors, please turn back," came the monk's voice from behind the door.

With such heavy snow combined with the disaster, the temple naturally dared not open its doors.

Should they encounter starving refugees with eyes red from hunger, it could trigger immeasurable losses.

When people are driven to desperation by hunger, they are capable of anything.

"One of my companions accidentally fell and was injured on the way up. Monks are merciful by nature; I ask for your assistance," Chu Danqing was not lying, as Guo Ming genuinely needed medical attention.

"This... the temple has no medicines to spare. You'd best hurry down the mountain and seek a skilled physician in the city." The monk behind the door hesitated, still refusing to open up.

This made Guo Ming's face darken. He was already in a foul mood due to various reasons, and hearing these words only worsened it.

Normally, they relied on the offerings of the common people for incense and sustenance, but now, not only were they unwilling to lend a helping hand, they were even reluctant to open the temple gates.

"We are not villains, merely travelers out to enjoy the snow." With that, Chu Danqing pulled a silver ingot from his robe and tossed it over. "This is for the medicine."

He was not short on silver. Besides, as a retainer of the Lu family, he had been given a generous settlement allowance upon taking up his post.

As the silver landed, Chu Danqing heard the sound of the monk behind the door picking it up.

"Benefactor, wait a moment. I will go and consult the abbot." Having said that, the monk behind the door scurried off like a wisp of smoke.

"It takes silver just to open a temple door, hmph," Guo Ming complained with dissatisfaction.

Chu Danqing, however, was well-used to such sights; this was nothing. He had even seen high monks turn their temples into listed corporate groups.

As long as they were willing to get things done for money, that was already very good.

Before long, footsteps were heard again, and the temple gates were slowly pushed open.

A tall, thin monk wearing padded winter clothes shoved the heavy doors open with great effort.

"Benefactors, please enter," the monk said to the three of them after clearing a passageway just wide enough to pass through.

Once inside, the monk led them to the lodging quarters, examined Guo Ming's injury, and applied some ointment for him.

"It is getting late today. The two benefactors may rest here for the night, and it won't be too late to head down the mountain tomorrow when the weather clears." After packing away the medicine, the monk prepared to leave.

Chu Danqing spoke up first: "I noticed there are quite a few monks in the temple ordinarily. Why is it so deserted today?"

Startled by the question, the monk's eyes flickered for a moment before he replied, "Yangxian County was suddenly struck by disaster, and the temple can no longer feed so many people."

"That's why many were sent down the mountain, which is why it seems so desolate."

The excuse sounded plausible, but Chu Danqing did not believe it.

The monk's nervous demeanor while lying was simply too obvious.

However, he did not expose him immediately, instead wearing a convinced expression. "Times are hard indeed. Even Nanshan Temple, usually so thriving with incense, cannot withstand this calamity."

"Indeed," the monk echoed, then asked, "Would the two of you care for some vegetarian meals?"

"No need, we brought our own," Chu Danqing refused flatly.

He could perceive the greed swimming in the tall, thin monk's eyes; agreeing would undoubtedly mean having to pay again.

Having already given money once, Chu Danqing had no intention of doing so a second time.

Upon being refused, disappointment surfaced in the monk's eyes, and his attitude changed, becoming much colder.

With a perfunctory apology, he picked up his things and left.

"When I came here years ago, Nanshan Temple wasn't so mercenary and greedy," Guo Ming muttered, itching to curse, though he knew it was unwise to go too far on someone else's turf.

"Tell me, is it possible that the beast is hiding right here in Nanshan Temple?" Chu Danqing ignored Guo Ming's grievance and voiced his own suspicion instead.

Guo Ming was momentarily stunned by Chu Danqing's abrupt train of thought, unable to grasp the logic behind it.

"Unlikely, isn't it? If that beast were truly inside Nanshan Temple, how could any living person remain?" Guo Ming found it hard to believe. How could the Roaming Tiger pass up fresh meat right in front of its eyes?

As for the possibility of them being ghost thralls, that was plausible, yet something felt off.

"Why is it unlikely?" Chu Danqing said slowly. "Besides, there are indeed no living people left."

"Everyone you and I have seen are ghost thralls."

This was something Dabao had confirmed.

While the tall, thin monk was applying medicine to Guo Ming earlier, Dabao had quietly whispered to Chu Danqing that the monk smelled as foul as a corpse.

Chu Danqing suspected that ghost thralls were possessing and controlling corpses.

"This... have we walked right into the beast's lair?!" Guo Ming was startled into a cold sweat.

He knew Chu Danqing was a person of extraordinary skills, but two fists could never beat four hands.

God knows how many people the Roaming Tiger had devoured; the number of gathered ghost thralls must be well over thirty or fifty.

"Exactly. That's why we need to probe the beast's true strength," Chu Danqing narrowed his eyes. "The abbot the monk mentioned is undoubtedly the Roaming Tiger."

"Since it didn't strike immediately, perhaps it just finished eating your servant and isn't hungry for the moment, leaving you and me as emergency rations to be eaten when it gets hungry."

"We might as well use this golden opportunity to find a way to break the deadlock." Chu Danqing was not panicked in the least.

A large number of ghost thralls was nothing special; with their mere attributes, Chu Danqing wasn't afraid of being swarmed bare-handed.

On the contrary, a Roaming Tiger capable of controlling so many ghost thralls required taking a calculated risk to investigate thoroughly.

Guo Ming swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue—which were to leave immediately and fetch reinforcements from the yamen.

In his mind, they were already turtles in a jar; leaving was barely a possibility, let alone fetching reinforcements.

"How confident is Brother Chu?" Guo Ming asked hesitantly.

"Even if we cannot defeat this Roaming Tiger, getting you and me safely out of Nanshan Temple shouldn't be difficult," Chu Danqing retained at least that much confidence.

Dabao's sturdy build was not just for show.