This scoundrel is a bit of a swordsman.

Inside the Silent Temple, all the strange phenomena disappeared, and peace returned. Xiao Xingchen reinforced his memory of the map in his mind once more before continuing his solitary journey. This was merely an interlude, but as he approached the main hall, he suddenly looked up into the depths of the temple and inexplicably felt as if someone was watching him.

Only then did he realize that the baby's hand he had encountered was gone. He shuddered and wondered if there really was a ghost.

He quickened his pace, trying to banish the thought from his mind; he couldn't think about it, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

"what?"

When he came to his senses again, he was suddenly startled. He remembered that the incense altar in the main hall was completely dark, but now, the incense on the altar was lit, and the flickering light made him feel a chill.

There are people here, that was his first thought, otherwise why would the incense be lit?

This made him even more cautious, constantly glancing around. Gradually, the scene inside the hall finally came into view.

On the incense altar, the enshrined statue was indeed a demon.

The demon statue resembled a raccoon dog, with a long tail and a mane-like bristle around its neck. A glint flashed in Xiao Xingchen's eyes as past memories resurfaced.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas states that there is a beast in Mount Huo that resembles a fox, with a white tail and mane, named Feifei. Keeping it can relieve worries.

How similar this was to the statue he was seeing now! Although he couldn't see it very clearly, he had a feeling that this demon statue was Feifei.

The appearance of mythical beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas didn't surprise him. He had begun to accept the absurd knowledge of this world. Even Pigsy and the Monkey King had their own incense offerings, so it wasn't surprising that Feifei, who relieved his sorrows, also had one.

Having seen so much, even the most outrageous things now couldn't stir his emotions. Seeing there was no danger, he slowly walked inside and arrived at Fei Fei's statue.

This statue was similar to the one outside the door; it was covered in cracks from the passage of time, and the fragmented statue seemed ready to shatter at any moment. But there was one thing that puzzled him.

The statue bled; the dried bloodstains in the crevices indicated that the statue had bled, which intrigued him and even led him to a ridiculous conjecture: could the statue be alive?

After gently stroking Feifei, he turned his gaze to the incense burner. The three incense sticks made him look solemn.

Burning incense, such a simple act, contains many stories. Why burn three sticks?

From a Buddhist perspective, these represent the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. From a Taoist perspective, the three sticks of incense represent Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. This is the origin of the saying, "First, pay homage to Heaven; second, pay homage to Earth; third, pay homage to Humanity."

Of course, many places also have their own folk customs regarding burning incense.

But for a college student, these are all superstitions. As a staunch materialist, these things never lingered in Xiao Xingchen's mind.

In his view, burning incense can be called a transaction; it's exchanging my incense offerings for the protection of the gods.

This is his economic perspective on burning incense: since I've prayed to you, a deal is struck, and you're responsible for fulfilling my wishes.

But regardless of the explanation, I've seen people worship gods, Buddhas, and people, but I've never seen anyone worship demons.

What's the purpose of worshipping demons? Is it to make wishes to them? But the demons have all been destroyed; what's the point of making wishes then?

After staring at the three incense sticks for a while, Xiao Xingchen shook his head vigorously. Now was not the time to dwell on these incense sticks; finding an exit was the priority.

After searching the entire hall, he found no other exit.

That's strange. There's no exit here except for the way we came in. How do we get to the temple behind it?

He stepped out of the main hall again, gazing into the distance. Above the first level, there were many more levels; he even saw that the second level had ten more steps than the first.

There must be a problem, but there must be a way out.

He quickly checked the time; he and Ruoxue had been missing for quite some time. It was probably already dawn outside. Once it was light, the matter at the ancestral temple would be discovered. He needed to find a way out quickly, or things might change.

However, figuring out how to get out proved difficult for him. After searching again, he finally focused his attention on Fei Fei's statue.

Because this was the only relatively well-preserved item on the entire first level of the temple, and what shocked him most was that when he first entered, he remembered the blood flowing from the cracks in the statue was dried blood, but in a short while, the blood seemed to have turned bright red.

Although the bright red blood wasn't very obvious, Xiao Xingchen felt that the statue was bleeding, a thought that startled him. He immediately climbed up.

It took him a great deal of effort to climb the statue, which was over five meters tall. Looking down from the top, he could see that the smoke from three burning incense sticks hadn't dissipated; instead, it was all coiled around the demon statue in a regular pattern.

Because of the angle, this phenomenon wasn't visible from the ground, but as he stood atop the demon statue's head, his suspicions about the three incense sticks resurfaced.

Burning incense has caused a problem, which made Xiao Xingchen roll up his sleeves, ready to take a closer look at what was going on. It was indeed quite peculiar; the smoke from the burning incense did not dissipate in the air, but instead seemed to purposefully drift into the gaps in the demon statue.

The feeling was as if the wisps of smoke were chains, three chains binding the entire demon statue, putting a shackle on it.

"It's a problem with the incense offerings," Xiao Xingchen concluded after observing the situation.

First, the incense spontaneously combusted. At the time, his attention was entirely focused on the map of mountains and rivers, but he remembered glancing at the incense burner after stepping onto the steps; it wasn't burning on the altar.

The burning occurred spontaneously during the period he remembered, and all the signs made him feel that there was a serious problem with the three incense sticks.

Xiao Xingchen didn't waste any words, jumped down directly, and then reached out and pulled out the three incense sticks.

He plucked it swiftly and decisively, without any hesitation. Since it was a matter of fragrance, he'd pluck it first and deal with the rest later. That was his straightforward thought.

But with his effortless pull, the ancestral temple on the ground trembled, and the red fishing net reappeared. This time, however, it was clearly different from before. If previously the net merely surfaced without causing any major damage, this time, the net seemed enraged; the red netting began to retract.

This is like tightening a fishing net when the opening is fixed in place.

As the fishing net tightened, the temple buildings, the earth, and the mountains all began to collapse. Wherever the red line passed, it was bound and sank downwards.

The ancestral temple, which had just calmed down, trembled again, and the Dragon-Patterned Army simultaneously flew into the sky. Sand and stones flew everywhere, and there were traces of red lines tearing across the ground.

"Dragon-Patterned Army, heed my command!"

"Form a grand array to protect the ancestral temple."

A loud roar rang out, and three old men emerged from the void. They were dressed in gray cloth robes and worn-out cloth shoes, looking as ordinary as common old men from the marketplace.

However, following the three's orders, the Dragon Pattern Army began to disperse and line up in various places in the void. Upon closer inspection, the positions of these Dragon Pattern Army soldiers were all at the intersections of the red lines of the fishing net.

"The incense has been extinguished, which means someone has trespassed into the hanging burial site. Fortunately, it was only three sticks of incense, which can still suppress the incense."

The three elders stepped forward and arrived directly above the ancestral temple. Each of them held an incense stick. As the incense sticks appeared, the sky suddenly changed. The once clear and breezy morning was suddenly covered with dark clouds, as if an immense force was gathering.

This phenomenon alarmed Yong'an Cheng once again, and several people rushed out of the gate, heading straight for the sky to gaze at the ancestral temple.