The temple was not far away, only about ten meters away. I rushed to the front in a few seconds. In front of me were two doors that were only 30 cm wide at most, tightly closed and locked with a fish-head copper lock. I don't know how many years it has not been opened. The fish-head copper lock looked like the one used before liberation.
The door of this temple was quite strange. The two doors together were only 60 cm wide, which could only allow one person to pass through. If you were slightly fat, you would probably have to turn sideways to enter.
Not a land temple?
This thought came to my mind.
The land temple was used for villagers to worship, absorb people, and tens of thousands of people came and went at will, so the doors were built very grandly and very spacious. Even the land temples in the mountain villages are like this now. Such a small narrow door in front of me is really unheard of!
At this time, the screams of those ghosts came from behind me, all over the mountains and plains, covering the sky and the earth...
I looked back and saw shadows in the dark fog as far as I could see. I didn't know how many things were chasing us, and they were about to catch up.
It's too late!
I didn't dare to hesitate any longer. I took a step back and swung the Baipi knife to chop the door lock. With a "clang", the fish head copper lock was cut off and fell to the ground. Then I pushed the wooden door open, and a strong musty smell came to my nose.
I widened my eyes in disbelief. There was no dark fog in this temple... It was like this was some great holy place. The dark fog couldn't get in at all!
This time it's good!
I was delighted. As long as I could avoid being blinded by the evil spirit, I would not be the only one leading a group of blind people to fight. As long as Zhang Zhenlin, the little Taoist priest, could recover his vision, perhaps we could still escape!
At that moment, I took the lead in jumping into this unknown temple. It was empty inside, and there was nothing to see. However, Zhang Zhenlin and his team recovered their sight as I expected, and we untied the ropes around our waists!
The screams of ghosts outside were overwhelming, and the zombies that had been chasing us finally caught up. A large group of them blocked the entrance of the temple. Some of them had died not long ago, and their bodies were rotten badly. Some of them had died for some years and had become mummies. They were wearing clothes soaked in corpse oil, including Tang suits, Hanfu, long gowns, and Zhongshan suits. In short, they were wearing clothes from all eras. Obviously, the corpses of the Baiyangyu villagers from generation to generation had all crawled out of the hanging coffins and were blocking the entrance of the temple, staring at us.
But for some reason, these things blocked the temple gate and never came in, as if there was something in the temple that was frightening them.
Looking at those things that were in the evil mist, my scalp began to numb.
"Get your weapons, get ready to kill them!"
Zhang Zhenlin couldn't see the situation in the mist, he lifted his Taoist robe, and then took off a shiny soft sword from his waist. I guess this should be his weapon. I was always curious why Zhang Zhenlin's Taoist weapon was hidden at his waist.
Then Zhang Zhenlin stood in front of the door without saying anything, holding the soft sword, with his back straight, with the bearing and momentum of a heavenly master, with the posture of one man blocking the pass and ten thousand men unable to pass. Standing at the door, he shouted: "Get out of here, monster!"
Because he was almost close to the fog, he was very close to a walking corpse in the fog. This was a dried corpse of an old lady wearing women's clothes from the Qing Dynasty, with flower-pot shoes on her feet. Her skin was pitch black, almost directly wrapped around the bones, and the eyes in her eye sockets had long been rotten, which was quite ferocious and hideous.
Zhang Zhenlin was almost face to face with the old lady, but because of the Yin Sha, they couldn't see each other face to face, and kept shouting.
I wanted to remind him, but I didn't know what Zhang Zhenlin was thinking. It would have been fine if he just stood at the door, but he also made a lot of body movements, shaking his head and leaning forward. In this way, his face was close to the fog, and he bumped into the old lady directly, and kissed her mouth to mouth. Zhang Zhenlin wanted to retreat, but it was too late. The old lady opened her mouth and a black and purple tongue stretched out, licking Zhang Zhenlin's face with a "swish"!
"Fuck!"
Zhang Zhenlin quickly stepped back and wiped his face twice with his sleeves: "What the hell licked me!"
I smiled bitterly, pointed to the door and said: "Those ghosts are at the door, you stuck your face out, so you got licked."
Zhang Zhenlin also has a bad temper. He was disgusted when he heard me say that. He roared and threw the soft sword in his hand forward.
It's not to mention that although this guy is funny, he is absolutely good at using the soft sword, and his Taoist skills should not be underestimated. He swung the soft sword and immediately rushed out like a spirit snake. The Taoist spirit was surging, and he cut off the head of the old lady who had just licked his face with one sword!
The screams of ghosts outside stopped abruptly. After killing the old lady, the zombies outside seemed to be afraid and retreated like a tide.
Zhang Zhenlin wanted to swing his hand and chop, but I pulled him back. I said to him: "It's useless, save some energy, there are too many ghosts, you can't kill them all even if you die of exhaustion!"
Zhang Zhenlin gave up and retreated back in dismay. I quickly closed the door and turned around to observe the temple.
The temple was very empty, about 200 square meters in size, but there was no shrine. There was only a pile of stones in the middle. Wang Xiaoxiao was studying something around the pile of stones.
This time I was puzzled. If there is no shrine in the temple, can it still be called a temple? Even if it is a land temple in the countryside, there should be a land god inside, right? !
This temple is weird!
Apart from anything else, the fact that the zombies outside dare not come in is enough to prove that this temple has a secret!
I was muttering to myself, but Wang Xiaoxiao suddenly knelt down in front of the pile of stones, with his hands flat on the ground, his forehead pressed against the ground for a long time without moving, his posture was like worshiping Buddha, and he kept muttering: "Great God of Earth, thank you for saving me and my companions, I hope you can always protect us!"
"Xiaoxiao, what are you doing?"
Duan Teng couldn't help but say: "What God of Earth, those things outside dare not come in, is it related to this thing?"
Wang Xiaoxiao ignored him, and kept muttering to the pile of stones for a long time before finally straightening up, and then said to us: "Come and worship the God of Earth, it is him who is protecting us, we need to be grateful, it is because of him that this temple is safe, probably this is the only safe place in the whole Baiyangyu now!"
God of Earth?
I frowned, but seeing Wang Xiaoxiao's seriousness, I could only go over and worship the pile of stones like Wang Xiaoxiao, and then asked her: "Can you tell me what's going on?"
"This is the God of Situ, the deity of the Miao people!"
Wang Xiaoxiao said to me: "Before I was transferred to Shanxi, I was in charge of the public security of the Miao village in the south, so I know their cultural customs better!"
According to what Wang Xiaoxiao said to me, I finally figured out the origin of the pile of stones in front of us!
The religious beliefs of the Miao people in southern Xinjiang are different from those of other ethnic groups. They don't worship a specific god. What they worship is nature and the most primitive totem. Simply put, the Miao people admire some giant or strange natural objects. They often think that those things are a manifestation of spirituality, so they worship them and offer wine and meat. Among them, the more typical natural objects that can be worshiped by the Miao people are strange rocks, caves, big trees, mountains and forests. In addition, the Miao people believe that some natural phenomena or natural objects have divine or ghostly nature. The Miao language often does not distinguish between ghosts and gods, or uses both words. To put it bluntly, the Miao people believe that ghosts are gods, and gods are ghosts!
As for the God of Earth in front of us, it is a kind of ghost totem worshipped by the Miao people!
This kind of ghost totem is called the Land Ghost, also called the Land Bodhisattva, Land Milk, Family God, Sacrifice Bridge, Well, etc. The statue is made of several stones. The Miao people believe that stones have spirituality and can carry the spirit of the Land Ghost, so these stones are worshipped for generations. They believe that the Land Ghost is the God of Earth, who controls the power of the earth. If you worship it, you can ensure that the village has good weather and abundant grain.
It's just that this kind of land ghost is only worshipped by the Miao people, and it is popular in Miaojiang. People in the mainland are almost completely unaware of this ancient nature worship.
Wang Xiaoxiao also said that looking at the totem of the Land Ghost Temple in front of us, it should be the Land Milk worshipped by the branch of the Miao people, the Qing Miao.
It turns out that the Miao people have many branches. Although each branch worships the Earth Goddess, their totems are different in details!
The totems worshipped by the White Miao and Red Miao are made of 36 stones, the totems worshipped by the Black Miao are made of 33 stones, and the totems worshipped by the Short Skirt Miao and Long Skirt Miao are made of 32 stones.
The totem we are looking at is made of 29 huge stones. Wang Xiaoxiao said that this kind of Earth Goddess totem is very rare in the entire Miao ethnic group. Among the more than 100 branches of the Miao ethnic group, only one branch worships this totem, and this branch is - Qing Miao!
The Qing Miao, also known as the Long-horned Miao, is a branch of the Miao people active in Liupanshui, Guizhou. There are only about 4,000 people, and they still live a primitive tribal life. They are probably one of the most mysterious ethnic groups in our country. They still preserve and continue an ancient unique Miao cultural tradition with long-horned headdresses as a symbol. The uniqueness lies in the fact that women wear a large wooden comb on their heads that looks like long horns. The two horns are higher than the sides of the head, and the horns are wrapped with 2-4 kilograms of hair. That's why people call them the Long-horned Miao people!
How could this ancient totem temple worshipped by the Long-horned Miao people appear in Baiyangyu?
I was puzzled.
But then I thought about it, combined with the hanging coffin burials in the valley, a bold guess gradually came to my mind...