Volume 1 Chapter 4 - The Night Adventures of the Three Jokers in the Temple of Juyang. Part One

After history repeated itself, the situation spiraled out of control. Over the next hundred years, seventeen brides disappeared without a trace in the vicinity of Mount Yujun. Sometimes the lull would last longer than a dozen years, and sometimes two brides would disappear in just a month. A dark rumor spread around the area that there was an evil spirit of a newlywed on Mount Yujun, and if a girl was attracted to him, he would steal her during the procession to the groom's house, and the whole procession of escorts would be devoured without a trace.

At first, the rumor of the incidents on Mount Yujun did not reach Heaven, because even though seventeen brides were missing, the vast majority of girls arrived safely at the groom's house. In any case, attempts to find the girls were unsuccessful, and there was no way to protect them from kidnapping, so the only thing to do was to adapt somehow. It would seem that the number of families who would be willing to give their daughter in marriage in the vicinity of Mount Yujun had become much smaller, and the locals did not dare to organize noisy festivities. Except that the seventeenth bride happened to be the daughter of an official. Father immensely loved his precious child, and, having learned of the bad rumors, carefully selected as the escort of the procession of the bride forty of the best warriors of exceptional valor. And yet the daughter could not be saved.

This time, the evil spirit of the newlywed has stirred up a hornet's nest. Of course, even the highest ranks of the human world, to whom the unhappy father could appeal, could not do anything about the evil spirit. So the official gathered a few friends, the same officials, and organized a worship service, and also, at the behest of highly educated people, began to help the poor and feed the hungry, until the rumors spread throughout the world and reached the ears of several celestials, surprising the latter. If it wasn't for his efforts, the chances of the celestials hearing the voices of mere mortals was extremely slim.

Xie Lian concluded: "Overall, things are like this."

Since the faces of the youths didn't express the slightest bit of interest, the prince still didn't realize whether they were listening to him or not. If they missed everything, they would have to repeat it all over again. However, Nan Feng still looked up and frowned, "Did the disappeared brides have any common traits?"

Xie Lian replied, "The list of abducted brides includes both poor and rich, beautiful and ugly, first wives and concubines, in short, there is no pattern. It is absolutely impossible to guess for sure on what principle the evil spirit of the newlywed selects victims."

Nan Feng hummed, took a sip of tea, and seemed to be deep in thought. Fu Yao on the other hand did not even think of touching the tea that Xie Lian offered him, he only leisurely wiped his fingers with a white handkerchief, then frowned and said: "Your Highness Crown Prince, may I ask, why are you so certain that the culprit is the spirit of the newlywed? After all, you can't say for sure, no one has ever been able to see him, how can you judge what gender or age he is? Are you really only relying on your own assumptions?"

Xie Lian smiled and replied, "The scroll summarizes the information gathered by the spirits of literature from Linwen Palace, and the 'evil spirit of the newlywed' is just a nickname given by the people. Your reasoning, however, is quite reasonable."

They exchanged a few more guesses, and Xie Lian was happy to find that the two junior war spirits were reasoning clearly enough, and despite their unfriendly faces, they had no trouble understanding the matter, which made Xie Lian feel very satisfied. Outside the window, dusk was descending and the three travelers had to leave the teahouse. After putting on his bamboo hat and taking a couple steps, Xie Lian suddenly discovered that no one had followed him. Therefore, with a puzzled look in his eyes, he turned around and saw that the youths were staring at the prince with the same puzzlement. Nan Feng asked, "Where are you going?"

Xie Lian replied, "To find a place to stay for the night. Fu Yao, why are you rolling your eyes again?"

Nan Feng, still puzzled, asked again, "So why did you head towards the mountains?"

Xie Lian often had to eat and sleep wherever he had to, sometimes even spending the whole night right outside with some rags underneath him. And now, the prince usually intended to find a cave in the mountains so that he could make a fire. Only when Nan Feng called out to him did Xie Liang remember that both of his assistants were subordinates of the Gods of War, and if there was a temple of Nanyang or Xuanzhen nearby, the three could go there for the night, then there was no need to spend the night in the wasteland.

They soon found an unremarkable and dilapidated Earth Spirit Temple in an unremarkable alley nearby, with a broken incense stand on its altar. From the looks of it, the temple looked long abandoned. A small round stone god that represented the spirit of the land was once worshipped here.

Xie Lian called out to the spirit several times. The spirit, who had become accustomed to visitors over the years, suddenly heard the call and opened his eyes, and was startled by the sight of three strangers, two of whom emitted a halo of blinding divine radiance, so that even their faces could not be seen.

of divine radiance, so that even their faces could not be seen. With a tremor in his voice, the spirit muttered: "What do you wish to order your humble servant to do, oh great Immortal Celestials?"

Xie Lian nodded in greeting to the spirit and replied, "Nothing in particular. Answer us only one question: are there no temples nearby where General Nanyang or General Xuanzheng are worshipped?"

The earth spirit, fearing to appear disrespectful, began to calculate on his fingers, saying: "Well, well, well... only five li1 away from here a temple has been built in which General Nanyang is worshipped... worshipped... General Nanyang."

1 A measure of length equal to 0.5 kilometers.

Folding his hands in a gesture of gratitude, palms facing each other, Xie Lian uttered: "Much obliged." And the earth spirit, dazzled by the bright divine radiance emanating from the two companions of the prince, fled in a hurry. Xie Lian took out a couple of coins and placed them on the altar, then he saw the incense scattered nearby that had not yet been burned to completion, picked it up and lit it in honor of the spirit. While the prince was doing all this, Fu Yao rolled his eyes so often that Xie Lian wondered if he was tired.

In fact, five li away from the earth spirit dwelling, they saw a thriving temple by the roadside. Despite its small size, the temple had plenty of things to offer, there was no shortage of visitors, and the atmosphere inside was extremely lively. Hiding their true identities, they entered the temple and actually saw that in the main hall, the worshippers were worshipping the statue of War God Nanyang, with a bow in his hands and shining armor.

Throwing a glance at the statue, Xie Lian only thought, "Yup..."

In the small village temple, the deity statue was sculpted and painted rather primitively, the overall picture was indeed quite different from Feng Xin's actual appearance in Xie Lian's memory.

However, for the celestials themselves, the stark difference between the temple statue and the true appearance had already become a common occurrence. And not only would his own mother not recognize him in such an image, sometimes the celestial himself could not see himself in the statue. However, almost no craftsman had ever met a celestial in person, so all the images were either prettier than the original or uglier, and one could only recognize which deity they depicted by the canonical pose, weapon, outfit, and headdress.

As a rule, if the temple of the deity was located in a densely populated and rich city, the statue in it corresponded to the expectations of the celestial. Well, the poorer the area, the worse the tastes of masters, and the more horrible are the statues of deities, without tears can not look. In modern times, only the statues of General Xuanzhen were mostly made quite close to the original. Why? The whole point is that if the rest of the celestials at the sight of their ugly statues turned a blind eye to it, then Xuanzhen in a similar situation stealthily smashed the statues to make them again, or sneaked into the dreams of masters and expressed his displeasure with all sorts of hints. Many such cases and made the followers of Xuanzhen realized - the statues of their divine patron must certainly look beautiful!

Xuanzhen's subordinates were all as demanding and picky in their tastes as the general himself. Once in the palace of Nanyang, Fu Yao for two hours incessantly criticized his divine statue from head to toe, everything was not so: and the pose is crooked, and paints pretentious, and the master was caught with crooked hands and too strange taste. Seeing how Nan Feng's temples gradually inflate blue veins, Xie Liang decided to quickly divert the conversation in another direction and just in time to notice the girl who entered the temple and devoutly knelt down to offer prayers. The prince said softly: "Speaking of which, I didn't expect the incense fire in Perfect Lord Nanyang's temple to burn so brightly in the north, for his residence is in the southeast."

Temples and monasteries in honor of the celestials, built by ordinary mortals, actually imitated the palaces of the celestials in the heavenly halls, and the divine statue in the temple reflected the true image of the celestial himself. The fire of incense lit by the faithful worshippers of temples and monasteries became the main source of the deities' magical power. Due to geographical location, historical development, local customs and many other reasons, in different areas, the inhabitants usually worshipped different gods. Within their own domain, the magical power of each deity reached unprecedented strength, which was the so-called territorial advantage. And only the power of Lord Shenwu did not depend on the area, because followers, temples and monasteries in every part of the world, he had enough in abundance. Such bright lights of incense in honor of Nanyang, even outside his domain was considered a phenomenon of undoubtedly good, and Nan Feng should be filled with pride for his general, but judging by his face, it was just the opposite. Fu Yao, on the other hand, said with a smile: "Not bad, very bad. A supreme display of the nation's love."

Xie Lian spoke up, "However, there is one detail I would like to clarify, but I don't know..."

Nan Feng immediately interrupted him, "If you don't know whether or not to ask, then don't say anything."

Xie Lian thought, "Not really. I meant to say 'I don't know if anyone can clarify it for me'."

Still, the prince had a hunch that his curiosity wouldn't lead to anything good, so he decided to once again turn the conversation in a different direction. However, to his surprise, Fu Yao smoothly said, "I can guess what you wanted to know about. Surely you're wondering why there are so many women among those who come to the temple to worship Nanyang?"

It was this detail that interested Xie Lian so much.

Among the followers of the War Gods, men had always outnumbered women, and only His Highness Crown Prince Xianle eight hundred years ago was an unparalleled exception. However, the reason for this was very simple and could be summed up in two words: outer beauty.

It was clear as day that neither universal respect nor extraordinary divine powers would produce such a result, and it was only because the Crown Prince's statues and temples were attractive. Almost every temple and monastery in his honor was built by imperial architects, and for the manufacture of divine images invited the most skillful masters of the highest level from different parts of the country to create their masterpieces exactly in accordance with the true appearance of the prince. In addition, the famous phrase "The body is in suffering, but the soul will remain in bliss2" uttered by the prince on the Yinyan Bridge was the reason for decorating his statues with flowers, and his monasteries were often transformed into flowering gardens. For the same reason in those days the prince had another nickname, namely, "the God of War in a crown of flowers". The congregation liked to look at his beautiful statues and walk among the sea of flowers, which is why they liked to come to the Crown Prince's temples, and at the same time they could worship and light incense.

2 "Bliss" is literally translated here as "peach spring."

The other Gods of War were surrounded by such a heavy murderous atmosphere, and the faces of their statues were a picture of such a harsh, fierce and cruel that the parishioners, glancing at them, more willingly went to offer prayers to Guan Yin3 or someone like her. The Nanyang statue in this temple was difficult to label as "murderous ferocious", but it was even more difficult to call it divinely beautiful. And yet the women who came to offer prayers to him were hardly inferior to men. In addition, Nan Feng's apparent refusal to give an explanation seemed more than strange. Just at this second, the girl Xie Liang had noticed earlier finished praying, rose from her knees to take the incense, and turned around again.

3 Guan Yin is the goddess of mercy, child giver, childbirth attendant, and patroness of the female half of the house.

It was her movement that caused Xie Lian to shove both youths to the side. Neither of them would be able to calmly bear such a thing, so both spirits involuntarily turned in the same direction as the prince, after which they instantly changed their faces.

Fu Yao couldn't help but remark, "What an ugly girl!"

Xie Lian choked and corrected him, "Fu Yao, you shouldn't talk about girls like that."

However, to be honest, Fu Yao had not lied. The girl's face looked so flat that it was as if someone had flattened it with a palm strike. Her features were unremarkable, and the description "eyes to the side, nose to one side" suited her appearance perfectly.

But Xie Lianyu did not notice whether the girl was beautiful or not. His attention was drawn to a much more important detail - there was a huge hole in the back of her skirt, and once he noticed it, he couldn't pretend it wasn't there.

Fu Yao raised his eyebrows in surprise, but then immediately put on a mask of indifference. The veins on Nan Feng's temples that were swollen at the same moment disappeared without a trace.

The poor man's face changed so rapidly that Xie Lian hurriedly reassured him, "You just don't worry. Don't worry."

Meanwhile, the girl with incense in her hands knelt down again and began to bow, saying: "I ask for General Nanyang's blessing, your faithful follower Xiaoying entreaties for the swift capture of the evil spirit of the newlywed so that no more sinless souls will be harmed by his fault..."

The girl was praying so earnestly and diligently that she did not notice the huge hole on her skirt, nor the three strangers at the foot of the statue she was bowing to. Xie Lian, genuinely concerned about the girl's fate, uttered: "What should we do? After all, you can't let her walk down the street like that! She'll attract all the stares before she reaches home."

And if only looks, for the girl's skirt had evidently been deliberately cut with something sharp, so the fear that the poor girl would be the subject of noisy ridicule and interjections was not unfounded. Disgrace in such a case could not be avoided!

Fu Yao said in an indifferent tone: "Don't even look at me. She wasn't praying to my General Xuanzheng, so it's none of my business and I didn't see anything."

Nan Feng, on the other hand, turned green, then turned pale and waved his hands as if he was unable to speak. It seemed as if he had just been a fearless hero, but suddenly he became a hopeless mute fool. Xie Liang had no choice but to take up the task himself; he threw off the monk's upper garment from his shoulders to the floor, which was immediately picked up by a gust of wind and carried towards the girl. Only after the obscene cut on her skirt was covered did all three of them breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the gust of wind was so unexpected that the girl jumped up in fright, looked around and, finding a strange garment on herself, froze in bewilderment, then took it off and put it on a pedestal nearby, without noticing anything unusual. After placing the incense on the altar of the deity, she started to walk away; but if she was to leave the temple like this, she had better not show her face to people from now on. Xie Liang's two companions froze like useless statues, so the prince sighed doomfully. Nan Feng and Fu Yao only had time to notice that Xie Lian's place had become empty, and he had already jumped down from the pedestal, showing his visible appearance.

As the dim lights of the temple lamps swayed in the breeze from Xie Lian's leap, the girl named Xiaoying only had time to feel her eyes watering, and the next moment, a half-naked man emerged from the shadows. As soon as he reached out his hand towards the girl, she almost lost her mind from fright.

Just as one would expect, a shrill shriek sounded out. Before Xie Lian could even open his mouth, the girl nimbly swung and shouted with all her might: "Harassment!"

A clap sounded and Xie Lian received a resounding slap.

The sound was so loud and distinct that the faces of the two youths sitting on the pedestal of the divine statue simultaneously elongated.

Xie Lian did not anger the girl over the slap, he only insistently shoved his clothes into her and quickly whispered something. At the same instant, the girl fearfully touched her skirt from behind, her face turning crimson and her eyes filling with tears. Whether it was out of resentment or shame and indignation, the girl clutched onto Xie Lian's robes, covered her face with her hands, and flew out of the temple, leaving behind the lone silhouette of the prince. After she left, a chilly wind rushed into the temple, and the prince shivered from the cold.

Rubbing his injured face, on which a bright red palm mark had already spread, Xie Lian turned around to the two jokers and said: "There you go. It's alright." Barely had he stopped talking when Nan Feng, pointing at him, asked: "You... did you hurt yourself?"

Xie Lian lowered his head and oohed in embarrassment.

The prince threw off his outer garments, revealing a perfect body the color of beautiful white jade, except that his chest was tightly bandaged with layers of snow-white cloth, and his neck and wrists were also covered with tightly wrapped bandages, with countless thin scratches visible from underneath the edges of the bandages - a sight truly not for the faint of heart.

Thinking that the dislocated neck must have already healed, Xie Lian began to remove the bandages round and round. Fu Yao, looking into his eyes, asked: "Who was that?"

Xie Lian didn't understand, "What?"

Fu Yao then clarified, "The opponent you fought with."

Xie Lian: "Fought? Nothing like that."

Nan Feng: "But the wounds on your body..."

Xie Lian nonchalantly replied, "I was the one who fell myself."

"..."

In reality, three days ago, the prince had injured himself when he toppled to the ground during his failed descent into the mortal world. Even if he had to fight someone, it was unlikely that he would have been injured as badly.

Fu Yao mumbled something to himself, but Xie Lian couldn't hear what it was, and he didn't ask, because his words probably didn't even remotely resemble admiration for the prince's strong will. A moment after he removed the blindfold, Nan Feng and Fu Yao's gazes locked on Xie Lian's exposed neck.

There was a black hoop on the snow-white skin.