Free Web NovelChapter 784: Chapter 588: The Faceless Bodhisattva
"Who did it?" Jiang Qingluan pressed on.
Hearing this, the man’s face turned bitter, "This humble one does not know, the first time I saw it, it was already like that."
Yang Xiao recalled the encounter in the dilapidated temple at night; indeed, the central idol had its entire face dug out, and he still remembered the dreadful sight.
The people of the manor wouldn’t dare to do such a thing; it must have been intentional by those who built the temple, that is to say, the major figure behind the scenes from Earl Mansion.
However, this was very abnormal. Since it’s a temple, something must be worshipped, but the people of the manor didn’t even know the name of the deity inside. How then could they attract incense offerings, especially since it was a faceless deity?
Yang Xiao knew this was no simple matter. This faceless idol surely couldn’t be just the Land God. After all, he had never heard of any Land God that was followed by eleven protectors. It seemed that visiting this so-called Land Temple was indispensable.
"What is your name?" Yang Xiao looked at the trembling man, realizing after so long, he still didn’t know the other’s name.
"This humble one is called Ji Gen," the man answered respectfully.
"Alright, Ji Gen, continue," Yang Xiao nodded.
"Before, this humble one mentioned four oddities, and now there’s just the last one, ’Once you enter the Marquis Mansion, it is like the sea; one does not come forth, nor does one take a step outside; dark palanquins in the dead of night move swiftly.’" Ji Gen lowered his voice mysteriously, "This refers to the major figures inside Earl Mansion. These people have lived reclusively for dozens of years. Even those of us from the same manor have never seen them. They rarely leave their mansion, and if they do, it is only at night. The stewards of Earl Mansion would hang lanterns in the streets ahead of time. People like us, seeing the lanterns at night, would shut our doors and not look out, not even through the cracks in our windows. To be discovered is to die, as it would be a great disrespect to the Earl."
Pausing for a moment, Ji Gen’s voice weakened slightly as he spoke with a guilty conscience, "However...there are always exceptions. Some people, unable to contain their curiosity, look out through the crevices of their windows at night and have caught sight of the Earl Mansion’s procession, with a covered palanquin carried by eight men. It’s unclear which major figure is sitting inside, but the palanquin moves very fast."
"Don’t misunderstand; it wasn’t me, humble one wouldn’t dare," Ji Gen nervously clarified.
The covered palanquin referred to one that was wrapped very tightly with dark cloth material, which was not easy to see through. This made Yang Xiao think of the Manor Master of Fushou Manor, the current steward of Earl Mansion, whom he had seen being carried in a covered palanquin.
The Manor Master wore a strange mask on his face, and not only him, but also his ancestors and all the clan relatives, all wore masks. These people moved mysteriously, like phantoms, giving him the impression they were followers of some Cult.
And this was likely related to the "Land Temple" that Earl Mansion was building on a large scale. Yang Xiao suspected that they worshipped the faceless "Land God" in the Land Temple.
The urgent task at hand was to find out who was being worshipped inside the Land Temple and to ascertain the true intentions of Earl Mansion.
What unsettled Yang Xiao was that the number of protectors in the Land Temple matched exactly with the number of filial guests they had; it was highly likely they were intended as sacrifices.
Taking the notebook from Fang Zhou’s hand, he turned to the page with the map, and Chang Chuchu drew a circle on the edge of the map, instructing Ji Gen, "There is a Land Temple nearby, point out the exact location for me, I need the shortest route."
Ji Gen obediently drew a route according to his memory but also reminded them that the place was remote, and it had been long since anyone had gone there. Moreover, there were rumors that the place was eerie and that there had been disappearances of outsiders nearby.
"Have you ever been to that Land Temple?" Jiang Qingluan suddenly asked.
Ji Gen was startled, just about to nod, as if suddenly remembering something, he shook his head vigorously, "I haven’t... I haven’t been there, that temple has been around for many years, according to my parents, it existed since my great-grandfather’s childhood."
Ji Gen seemed old, but his true age was probably just over thirty, and if the temple existed since Ji Gen’s great-grandfather’s childhood, it means the temple was at least nearly a hundred years old, which matched with the broken temple in Yang Xiao’s memory.
"Yeah, I heard from the elders that it’s the first Land Temple of the manor," Ji Gen recalled. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
"How many temples are there in total on the manor?" Yang Xiao asked.
"What, don’t you even know that?" Ji Gen also realized something was amiss at this moment, as these people from Earl Mansion seemed to know nothing about the manor’s affairs.
Yang Xiao gave a cold chuckle and signaled Fang Zhou with his eyes. Fang Zhou picked up the notebook, pretending to write with the brush, and as he wrote, he read out in a drawn-out voice, "Ji Gen says that the people of Earl Mansion are all uneducated fools."
Hearing this, Ji Gen froze, and in the next second, he shivered, nearly crying out in fear, "My Lord, My Lord, I didn’t say that, you...you mustn’t wrongly accuse an innocent!"
"Fang Zhou meticulously wrote, ’Ji Gen says he really likes that bewitching poem and has to sing it every night before sleep. Without singing it, he can’t sleep well.’"
This time, Ji Gen completely succumbed. Overcome with fear, he knelt on the ground, begging repeatedly for forgiveness from Yang Xiao and the others.
Yang Xiao took the book from Fang Zhou and slowly tore off the page that Fang Zhou had scribbled on. As he tore it, he raised his voice in criticism, "How could you write this way? Don’t you know that if this book fell into Steward Wu’s hands, the lives of Ji Gen’s entire family would be over? How could you be so heartless?"
After speaking, Yang Xiao turned his head and swept a glance at Ji Gen, who was trembling on the ground, and criticized, "And you, you’ve got some nerve questioning someone from Bo Mansion?"
"It’s all my fault, I won’t dare to do it again!" Ji Gen kowtowed fervently, "Please forgive me this once, honorable sirs."
"We would like to show understanding, and we won’t mention today’s matter, but if you can’t control your own mouth, then these things..." Yang Xiao held the torn paper in his hand, the threat was very clear.
"I understand, I understand, I will certainly keep my mouth shut, thank you for your gracious forgiveness!" Ji Gen was very compliant.
With a beating like this, now Yang Xiao believed that Ji Gen wouldn’t recklessly talk about today’s events. He knew the stakes.
"How many temples are there on the estate?" Fang Zhou asked impatiently, scribbling absentmindedly on a blank page of the notebook.
"To answer the sir, 8, no wait, now... now there are 9," Ji Gen suddenly corrected himself, the change very abrupt.
"How many exactly?" Fang Zhou frowned.
"9, the ninth is newly built, I... I didn’t react in time," Ji Gen’s voice was ingratiating.
"When was the new temple built?" Yang Xiao pressed, with a serious demeanor of someone performing a routine interrogation.
"About... about a month ago, a sir from the manor went door to door collecting incense money for the temple construction. I also paid," Ji Gen explained, "My reverence for Earl Mansion is like the endless flow of a river; I contributed three silver taels."
Indeed, oppressive governance is fiercer than a tiger; Ji Gen, along with his wife, resorted to this shady business, barely collecting a mere two coins of silver at a time, but for this temple construction, they had to pay three silver taels of incense money, which was extremely unscrupulous.
Even more importantly, the timing of the new temple’s construction—it had started just a month before their arrival. Wasn’t this too coincidental?
Suddenly, a bold speculation surfaced in Yang Xiao’s mind, but before he could speak, someone else took the initiative, "When were those other temples built?" Jiang Qingluan asked, with a rare hint of solemnity in her calm face.
"Let me think..." Ji Gen frowned as he tried to remember. After a moment, he smacked his forehead, "I remember now, the previous temple was built before I got married, when my father was still alive. I was an apprentice in the cloth store at the end of the street. It has been, at the very least, over a dozen years."
"How many years exactly?"
"It must be... must be 16, no no, it must be 17 years ago," Ji Gen struggled to recall.
"Must be?" Jiang Qingluan clearly wasn’t satisfied with the ambiguous answer.
"No, it’s definitely 17 years ago, I remember very clearly. Back then I had just started as an apprentice in the cloth store at the end of the street. One day, after I mistakenly cut a piece of cloth, the shopkeeper chased me, wanting to thrash me with a feather duster. I was cornered in the backyard, fortunately... fortunately someone from Earl Mansion came to collect the incense money for temple construction, and that saved me from a beating."
"Right, the sir who came also brought a red lantern. It was me who climbed up a ladder that night and hung it outside the store door, right under the post at the street corner," Ji Gen said with certainty.
"Brought a red lantern?"
"Yeah, the kind with a ’longevity’ character on it, so we too could share in the good fortune of the ancestors," Ji Gen said in a sycophantic whisper, "You must know, whenever a temple is built, soon after, the Ancestor in Earl Mansion is celebrated. Thus, there are rumors that the Land God is a protector deity invited for the Ancestor. But everyone only thinks this privately, no one dares to say it out loud. After all, the presiding figures in Earl Mansion never mentioned such things, and if we lowly folk blurt it out and upset the Mansion’s fortune, we couldn’t bear the sin."
That idea that flashed in Yang Xiao’s mind finally connected. As expected, the newly-constructed faceless Land God Temple was related to the ancestors of Bo Mansion. Moreover, Yang Xiao clearly remembered that Nalan Shuo had once mentioned to him that the last time the Ghost Script appeared in Fushou Manor was 17 years ago.
That same incident had resulted in the loss of two of his predecessors from the Patrol Defense Office.
