Chapter 108: Enshrouded in Thick Mist

"No need," Li Zhe shook his head. "I don't think you're in the mood to tell stories right now."

Pan Yueqing raised her eyes to meet Li Zhe's deep gaze. She held up her increasingly swollen palm. Since the other party really didn't seem to want to take up the conversation, she didn't know what else to say. Li Zhe's slender fingers gently touched Pan Yueqing's palm. He took out a silver needle from his waist and said with a calm expression, "Don't move."

Although Li Zhe was not old, his medical skills were very excellent. Just the way he held the needle was much more stable than that of an ordinary doctor. Pan Yueqing held her breath, bit her lower lip slightly, and watched as Li Zhe slowly picked out the barb from the flesh. Then he took a jar of white ointment from Xiaoshi Tou's hand and applied it bit by bit to Pan Yueqing's hand.

This young man with a cold exterior and a warm heart was still the same as ever.

The cool ointment covered the skin. At first, there was a little bit of a stinging sensation, but gradually the stinging disappeared without a trace. Li Zhe sat cross-legged on the ground, picked up the scroll of books he had been reading before, and without looking up, he said, "Well, tell me, what are you doing here?"

Xiaoshi Tou brought a bowl of greenish juice and held it in front of Pan Yueqing. "This was prepared by the Young Master himself. It's very effective against miasma."

Pan Yueqing didn't suspect anything. She picked up the chipped bowl and was about to drink it down. Li Zhe said casually, "Too many people have died. Suoyue City was originally built along the valley, and the dampness and the smell of corpses can't disperse. This city is a dead city." After saying that, he sneered ironically, raised his eyes, and looked at Pan Yueqing provocatively. "But you people in the government have long wanted to give up on it, right?"

Pan Yueqing drank it all in one gulp and wiped the corner of her mouth with her narrow sleeve. "We will never give up on any subject of the Northern Qi."

Li Zhe let out a soft laugh and didn't comment.

Pan Yueqing didn't want to argue with Li Zhe either. She knew that Li Zhe didn't have the slightest trust in people from the government, and without any achievements, every word she said didn't carry much weight.

"I need to let my people in," Pan Yueqing said to Li Zhe. "We still have important matters to attend to."

"Go ahead," Li Zhe stood up and took his scroll of books to the farthest corner of the side room. His expression was calm, without even a trace of emotion.

Summoned by Xiaoshi Tou, Su Ruoqing led the soldiers and Luo Shui in. The side room was very shabby. Except for the table that Li Zhe had tidied up and a couch beside it, there was nothing else. Su Ruoqing frowned. He asked Li Zhe in a businesslike manner, "Where are the monks here?"

"Who knows?" Li Zhe's gaze remained on the page of the book in his hand.

"Who else is there in this Fengxiang Temple?" Su Ruoqing frowned, and his hand unconsciously rested on the long sword at his waist.

"There's a night watchman in the Main Hall in front," Xiaoshi Tou stood beside Li Zhe and said slowly. "The masters are all hiding in the back and basically don't come out." "A night watchman?" Su Ruoqing slightly relaxed his hand. "Where is he?"

"Can't you find him yourselves?" Li Zhe raised his eyes, looking a bit impatient. His words carried a sense of arrogance, as if he was declaring his unwillingness to cooperate.

Pan Yueqing tugged at Su Ruoqing's arm, who was about to lose his temper, and shook her head slightly. She gave an order to Luo Shui beside her, "Luo Shui, you lead the people to search everywhere. Touch every floor tile. There might be a hidden room here."

"We're going to the Main Hall to take a look," Pan Yueqing didn't wait for Su Ruoqing to react and headed towards the tallest building in the center of Fengxiang Temple.

In the courtyard, an old man with a hunched back was sitting under the corridor. When he saw Pan Yueqing and the other coming, he didn't seem to want to get up. He just sat there calmly, occasionally taking a sniff of the snuff in his hand.

"Who are you?" Su Ruoqing could tell that this old man was not ordinary at a glance. He stepped forward and bowed politely.

"I'm the night watchman here," the old man's withered hands held the snuff bottle in his palm, and his tone was flat.

"I'm looking for Master Baoshan of Fengxiang Temple," Su Ruoqing said in a steady voice and added, "Commander Qian sent me."

The old man half-closed his eyes, looking tired. "Looking for the masters? They're all ill and are over there in the back," he said and raised his hand to point at the tall building called the Main Hall.

Pan Yueqing slightly turned her head and felt something was strange. But she couldn't tell exactly what was wrong. She bowed to the old man with Su Ruoqing and then turned to leave. Since no one had cleaned it, the Buddhist hall was covered with a lot of dust. The statues of the Eighteen Arhats beside them looked a bit ferocious in the faint light.

Su Ruoqing picked up a candlestick that had fallen to the ground, lit it, and held it in front of him. The empty sound of footsteps in this huge Buddhist hall seemed a bit ethereal. The only sound left was their breathing, which made him even more nervous. Pan Yueqing followed behind him step by step and walked up to the Buddha statue. Since she really disliked the faint light of the candle, she bent down and was about to pick up the golden candlestick that had fallen to the ground beside the offering table. When her fingertips touched the candlestick and felt a bit cold, Pan Yueqing instinctively glanced at the position under the red cloth of the offering table.

She wished she hadn't looked. When she saw what was there, she covered her mouth in fright and fell to the ground.

"What's wrong?" Su Ruoqing frowned and turned to look at Pan Yueqing, who was covering her mouth in horror. He bent down and lifted the cloth under the offering table. It was pitch black inside, and there was only a pair of eyes that were rolled up to the extreme, showing only the whites. In the darkness, it heralded terror.

Su Ruoqing took a sharp intake of breath and instinctively drew out the long sword at his waist and stabbed towards the bottom. This stab might have just hit the abdomen. Since it was too dark to see clearly, all he knew was that there was a loud bang, and the internal organs splattered all over half of Su Ruoqing's body. Even pieces of flesh flew onto his face. Su Ruoqing froze in place. Ignoring the stench all over his body, he looked as if he had lost his soul and was in great discomfort.

Pan Yueqing's hands were trembling. Gathering her courage, she held the candlestick and moved closer to that position. It was a corpse wearing a monk's robe. Its hands and feet were curled up, and it was hidden here in a posture as if it had been avoiding something during its lifetime. Pan Yueqing retched twice, turned her head away, let go of the cloth in her hand, and raised her hand to rub her forehead. "Third Cousin, are you okay?"

"I'm okay..." Su Ruoqing came to his senses. He no longer had the mood to dislike the smell on his body. But a terrifying thought flashed through his mind. "A Yue, what do you think he was avoiding? He didn't even dare to come out even when he was dying?"

These words woke Pan Yueqing up like a splash of cold water. She stood there in a daze. She suddenly understood what was strange! Generally, the night watchman in a temple was a Buddhist disciple, and how could a Buddhist disciple speak about the Main Hall in such an indifferent tone?!

She instinctively said to Su Ruoqing, "Run!"

The eight-panel door behind them suddenly creaked and was closed. A long voice sounded as if the person was standing right behind her and speaking. It was the old man who had been sniffing snuff. In the flickering candlelight, his face looked extremely ferocious. "You're smarter than the last one!"