kvmb Chapter 477: Elong Mountain God
Chapter 477: Elong Mountain God
Li Changxiao only had three or four mouthfuls of pickled vegetable porridge. He placed three copper coins on the table, stretched himself, and left the hall.
Since entering the Dayu Kingdom, I have seen that the system of incense and gods is extremely complete, one can even use the word "severe" to describe it. There are gods in every city and spirits in every temple.
When he went to the street, Panjiu City was bustling with people, all heading somewhere. The god of Elong Mountain was one of the twelve mountain gods, with a high position and great power. Li Changxiao did not see Elong Mountain, but he saw the Elong Mountain Temple first.
Following the flow of people, he soon found the front of the temple and could see the shape of the temple through the crowd.
The temple is rectangular, with gold and blue as the main colors, and purple and red as the secondary colors. There is a stone tablet in front, which is a merit tablet, engraved with the name of the person who founded the temple.
If you look at the signature of the stele, you can see the name "Wang Changping", which is particularly conspicuous. It is inlaid with vermilion lacquer and looks brand new. I guess it must have been repainted every year to achieve such an effect.
It is not difficult to guess that the person who can enjoy such treatment and whose surname is "Wang" is the founding emperor of the Dayu Dynasty. It is rumored that Wang Changping was blessed by heaven, with the help of mountains and rivers, and he worked hard to govern the country. Within three years of founding the country, he had made a great success.
After the country was at peace, he personally wrote an edict to confer titles on the mountains and rivers.
The twelve mountain god temples and the four direction god temples were all built at that time.
During his reign, he conferred titles on minor gods, land gods, and various temples, and built them one by one. There were countless temples in the territory. The emperor once said that within the territory of the Dayu Dynasty, every blade of grass and every tree was a citizen, and the people were made of flesh and blood, with five orifices, eyes that could see, ears that could hear, and mouths that could speak. They could be governed or educated by laws and words.
But the grass and trees are heartless, eyeless, mouthless and earless, so they are left to the jurisdiction of the mountain and river spirits.
Therefore, it can be seen that the gods of mountains and rivers are another kind of court. The twelve mountain gods and the four gods have their own grades. But this "mountain and water court" is ultimately based on the mortal dynasty.
"Wang Changping?"
Li Changxiao muttered to himself.
The ceremony of inviting the gods in front of the temple was almost over. Among the crowd, there was a man who was walking on the steps of inviting the gods and chanting words of inviting the gods. Suddenly, he was startled.
His eyes were blank for a moment, and when he came back to his senses, he was a different person. Although he looked the same, he gave people a completely different feeling. This was definitely not a disguise.
The people bowed one after another. In front of the temple stood a large copper incense burner with a layer of incense ash inside.
"God comes in three minutes, don't wait for him!"
Everyone has a brilliant saying.
As he finished speaking, the crowd became restless. They had already prepared incense and burning candles, fearing that the mountain god, who only visited once a year, would not see their sincerity.
Most of the people who burn incense are children. They are not as tall as the copper censer, so they need to stand on tiptoe or even jump to barely insert the incense.
There is a story behind children burning incense. First, the children are unfamiliar with the mountain god, so they show their faces in front of him and pray for his protection.
If you are chosen by the mountain god, your whole family will have no worries about food and clothing, needless to say.
Secondly, the children are still young and the incense is pure.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the copper censer was filled with incense sticks and smoke rose up, as if the fairyland had descended to the mortal world.
The people also brought three whole pigs, cows and sheep. The mountain god might not eat them, but he would definitely give him enough.
According to legend, there was once a village that was ignorant and uncivilized. They thought the mountain temple was an eyesore and the incense money was too expensive.
So they demolished the temple and kicked down the statues.
Since then, the villagers have been plagued by bad luck. The mountain roads are difficult to travel on and they are attacked by wild beasts. Finally, heavy rains pour down, rocks and mud roll, and the village is swallowed up in an instant.
After hearing the news, His Majesty sent people to rescue. When they arrived at the scene, what they saw was a tragedy. There were more than 300 people in the village, and no one survived. Their bodies were buried underground forever.
Upon learning the reason, His Majesty selected a village chief, erected a monument for him, and conferred the title of "Nian Shanjun" on him, in order to appease the anger of the mountain god and the resentment of the villagers.
In front of the temple, there was a lot of commotion. Zhang Long and Zhao Hu walked out from the crowd and came forward from the left and right sides, escorting prisoners.
Seeing this, the mountain god walked towards the temple, and Zhao Hu and Zhang Long followed closely. In this situation, even if the unknown prisoner resisted, it would be useless and he was forced to follow him into the temple.
The two men knelt on one knee and reported their work in detail. Most of what they talked about were things they encountered along the way, big or small, light or heavy, without neglecting any detail.
There were bandits trying to stop them, there were giant tigers blocking the road, all kinds of scenes, it was spectacular, and it showed that the two men had worked hard, been conscientious, and were committed to their duties.
The mountain god of Elong Mountain nodded slightly. Although he was listening to the two people's reports, his eyes were always on the nameless prisoner, as if he was smiling and having amusement in his eyes.
Zhang Long and Zhao Hu were both arrogant and domineering, but they were very reserved in front of the mountain god, sometimes even stuttering and speaking unclearly.
The nameless prisoner's whole body was tense, he dared not move, and was unable to move.
Finally, the mountain god made his final judgment and said to the prisoner, "Your Majesty is wise. I will not wrongly accuse you of stripping you of your name. You must have committed a serious crime, and even beheading is not enough to atone for it. Please forgive your sins for this time. In the next life, whether you are a human or an animal, I hope you will not repeat the same mistakes."
"Fate has its own way. Why don't you seek out the suffering in this life? You could have enjoyed fame and glory, but you chose to do dirty things. Alas."
The words fell.
Even though we couldn't see the expression of the prisoner whose face was covered in mud, we could still feel that his face turned pale in an instant and his eyes seemed to be filled with endless sadness.
Even though her character was far superior to that of an ordinary person and she could endure all the hardships and sufferings along the way, and she had already known about the punishment, when she heard it from others, the sadness in her heart was indescribable.
It seemed as if all the blood had been drained out, and he was unsteady and on the verge of falling.
The rest of my life is filled with pain, and I won’t be able to be a human in the next life. Hearing this verdict, I feel so sad…
The Elong Mountain God turned around and said, "I'll return the two of you. Go 50 miles south of the city and you will enter the territory of Elong Mountain. Although I will protect you on the way, you still have to be careful. When you succeed, His Majesty will not treat you unfairly."
His voice gradually became fainter, like a voice echoing from the sky, until it finally disappeared completely.
Zhang Long and Zhao Hu bowed deeply and kowtowed three times, performing the solemn ceremony before they escorted the prisoner out of the temple.
The prisoner's limbs went limp, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to get up. Zhao Hu sneered, grabbed his shoulders with his big hands, lifted him up, took a few more steps, and fell to the ground again.
"What a crappy official, he's just like this." Seeing her embarrassed posture, Zhang Long and Zhao Hu mocked her and simply grabbed one of her shoulders and carried her away.
The iron claws dug into the iron and clasped the shoulders, causing pain. The people made way for the three men and allowed them to leave.
Inside the temple.
The statue of the god of Elong Mountain, with a gleam of light in its eyes, watched the three people leave.
······
The mountain god enters the city, and the story comes to an end.
The people gradually dispersed and everything returned to normal, but there was a man in white who followed the figures coming in and out, entered the temple, and looked up at the statue.