bookcurios Chapter 1163 Dogs are Spirits, Leopards are Evil
Chapter 1163 Dogs are Spirits, Leopards are Evil
The man and the dog soon arrived at the well.
The puppy stopped, nudged the heavy bluestone slab with its nose, then raised its head and looked at Su Xiaoya with pleading and eager eyes.
"You want me to open it?" Su Xiaoya squatted down and asked softly.
The puppy nodded vigorously, its little tail wagging anxiously behind it, its paws scratching incessantly at the edge of the stone slab.
Su Xiaoya examined the bluestone slab.
The stone slab was about half a foot thick, and the runes carved on it were more complex than those on the iron chain. Every stroke exuded a desolate and ancient aura, and black energy faintly flowed between the runes.
She took a deep breath and gently touched the surface of the stone slab with her finger. Her fingertips immediately felt a bone-chilling cold, as if she were touching not stone, but ice that had never melted for thousands of years, which made her fingertips numb.
"What's down there?" she couldn't help but ask.
The puppy couldn't answer, but scratched at the stone slab with its paws even more urgently, making a "crackling" sound. The pads of its paws were worn raw and bleeding, but it seemed completely unaware.
Su Xiaoya's heart skipped a beat. She looked into the puppy's determined eyes, then at the black leopard glaring at her from afar, and at the dilapidated Mahavira Hall, and finally made up her mind.
She took a deep breath, covered her hands with dense lightning, let out a low shout, and slammed them against the bluestone slab.
The stone slab weighed over a thousand pounds and initially remained completely still.
But as lightning power was continuously poured into Su Xiaoya's body, the runes on the stone slab began to flicker. The emerald green light intertwined with the lightning, emitting a "sizzling" sound, as if they had come to life.
The moment the stone slab was pushed, the entire ancient temple suddenly shook violently!
"Boom..."
The earth cracked, the bluestone slabs shattered, and jagged fissures spread from the edge of the dry well to the base of the main hall.
The walls collapsed with a deafening roar, and rubble rained down. The palace doors were flung open, and a thick black mist surged out, as if something enormous was awakening inside, emitting a muffled roar.
The black panther let out a terrified shriek, no longer caring about Su Xiaoya and the puppy. It turned into a black shadow and fled into the depths of the Great Buddha Hall, disappearing into the thick black fog.
The bluestone slab was finally pushed aside completely, revealing a bottomless dry well.
The wellhead was pitch black, and a strong, cold aura mixed with an indescribable stench of decay gushed out, making Su Xiaoya almost vomit.
Before she could react, she saw the little white dog leap into the dry well without hesitation.
"Wait!" Su Xiaoya exclaimed, reaching out to grab it, but only grasped a cold iron chain, feeling the heavy force of the chain falling down on her fingertips.
She hesitated for a moment, then, listening to the increasingly violent tremors behind her and the increasingly clear roars from inside the main hall, she gritted her teeth and jumped into the well.
The well was exceptionally deep and dark, with only a sliver of light shining through the wellhead.
As Su Xiaoya fell, she continuously released lightning. The pale blue current supported her body and slowed her descent.
The wind whistled in her ears, and she could vaguely hear the faint whimpering of a puppy below, which made her increasingly anxious.
It took Su Xiaoya more than ten breaths to finally reach the bottom of the well.
Surprisingly, the bottom of the well was not the narrow space one might have imagined, but rather a spacious underground cave.
The cave walls are inlaid with countless strange minerals that emit a faint blue light, the soft glow barely illuminating the entire cave.
Su Xiaoya steadied herself and looked around. In the center of the cave stood a stone platform, with some tattered fragments of monk's robes scattered around it.
The little white dog was dragging a heavy iron chain, limping towards the stone platform, leaving a trail of blood with each step.
Su Xiaoya hurriedly followed, and when she reached the stone platform and saw the scene on it, she froze on the spot. An indescribable shock and sorrow swept over her.
On a wide, flat stone platform, lay a skeleton dressed in an old, worn-out monk's robe.
The skeleton's bones had turned a pale yellow color from the passage of time, but surprisingly, its overall structure was intact, without any breaks or missing parts.
Those withered, skeletal hands were crossed over his chest, as if guarding some secret with utmost piety and solemnity.
As your gaze slides down your arm to your palm, you can see a beautiful jade about the size of an egg, shimmering with purple lightning. This jade is crystal clear and radiant, and its surroundings are filled with intense lightning energy. It is undoubtedly the rare treasure "Thunder Heart Jade" that Su Xiaoya has searched for with great difficulty!
However, compared to the coveted treasure before her, what truly captivated Su Xiaoya's interest and held her completely in her grasp was the ancient book placed beside the skeleton, its pages yellowed and brittle, the edges worn beyond recognition.
Although the ancient book looks quite tattered, the four large, elegant characters written in vermilion ink on the cover are still clearly visible: "The Record of the Temple's Spiritual Essence".
Just then, the cute little white dog that had been following Su Xiaoya walked lightly to the stone platform and slowly stopped in its tracks.
Then it gently lay down on the ground, pressing its furry little head close to the skeleton's feet, and occasionally letting out low, suppressed whimpers.
These mournful cries contained endless sorrow and loneliness, like a loyal hunting dog silently telling its long-departed master about the long wait that has lasted for hundreds of thousands of years...
Su Xiaoya was shocked as if struck by lightning, and stood there dumbfounded. Her heart suddenly felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, and the pain was so intense that she felt like she was suffocating.
She approached the stone platform step by step as if walking on thin ice, cautiously reaching out her hand and trembling as she opened the book "The Record of the Temple's Spirits".
The paper of ancient books is like a candle flickering in the wind, so fragile that it can be easily broken. With the slightest force, it will wither away like a fallen flower.
The text above resembled ancient incantations, difficult to understand.
But who is Su Xiaoya?
However, it has system cheats.
Therefore, for her, any text is just one point away from being "exchanged".
It has to be said, the existence of System One One One is incredibly powerful—omnipotent and all-encompassing…
call!
Su Xiaoya couldn't help but give the system a thumbs up one by one.
However, as she read on, her face grew increasingly dark.
"In the third year of the Tang Dynasty's Wude era, evil spirits ravaged the world like a plague, leaving barren land and causing widespread suffering."
“I am Huiming, the abbot of an ancient temple. Seeing the suffering of the common people like ants, I could not bear it. So I offered myself as a sacrifice and used the power of heavenly thunder to seal the evil spirits under the Great Buddha Hall.”
“Evil spirits are treacherous and cunning, adept at bewitching people’s hearts. Ordinary seals cannot imprison them for a thousand years. I know that after my death, the seal will eventually be torn apart like thin paper. Therefore, I have found a pure white spirit dog. This dog is pure in nature, like an angel descended to earth, untainted by worldly dust. It can be a guardian beast of the temple.”
"Bind it with a demon-suppressing chain, the end of the chain linked to the incense burner in the temple. Use the spirit of the incense in the burner to suppress evil, and the pure goodness of the spirit dog to guard the temple. As long as the chain is there, the jade is there; if the chain breaks, evil will be released. Remember this well."
Su Xiaoya's hands began to tremble violently, whether from gratitude or anger, it was hard to tell...
In short, I have mixed feelings.
She took a deep breath, then another, before carefully turning the pages of the ancient book until the very last page.
On this last page, there was only one line written in blood, the handwriting like a twisted venomous snake, a horrifying sight—"Remember: the white dog is the spirit, the leopard is the evil. If the spirit escapes, the evil will surely appear in the world. The common people are in grave danger."
"White dogs are spirits, leopards are evil..."
Su Xiaoya murmured to herself, repeating the words unconsciously. Then, as if she had thought of something, she suddenly looked up at the little white dog at her feet.
The little white dog was looking at her with its big, watery eyes, which held no cunning or hostility, only the loneliness of a hundred thousand years of waiting.
Even so, its eyes still shone like the brightest stars in the night sky, shining brightly and remaining exceptionally pure.
Furthermore, the endless yearning for freedom burns like a raging fire, never ceasing;
And a sliver of hope—almost a desperate yearning for liberation—like the first light before dawn, appearing and disappearing.