Holy Bone

Fifty miles away from the capital, there is an unnamed mountain.

Zhang Gao is a hardworking charcoal seller. His livelihood is to burn charcoal and sell it to big families in the capital. Winter is coming soon, and those big families are starting to hoard a large amount of charcoal for the winter, so the price of charcoal also changes day by day. .

Today Zhang Gao got up early again and went into the mountains to cut firewood for burning charcoal.

However, as the charcoal market soared, more people went into the mountains to cut firewood, and the trees were gradually cut down, leaving only sparse shrubs with crooked necks.

Charcoal is also divided into different colors. The charcoal that smells pungent and cannot be burned can not be sold for a few dollars, and most of them are kept by the family for the winter.

Those high-quality charcoals that are soft, dark in color, and less irritating can be sold at high prices.

The highest quality is smokeless charcoal, which is the best.

In order to burn charcoal with better quality and sell it to those real wealthy nobles who spend a lot of money, Zhang Gao decided to stay away from the crowd today and go deep into the jungle to find good wood.

His family has sold carbon for generations and knows how to find good raw materials.

The weather in autumn was changeable, and a sudden gust of wind made him unable to stand still. He even fell down the hillside with the firewood he had just cut, and then fell unconscious.

When he woke up from a coma, he found many scratches on his body and pain all over his body. Fortunately, the firewood he cut today was still there, and thanks to the dry firewood on his back as a buffer, there were only some scratches on his body, which was fine. .

It's just that the joy of regaining what was lost quickly disappeared from his face.

Zhang Gao found that he didn't know how deep the rolling hillside was. When he looked up, he could only see dense bushes, like a dark cloud cover. The surrounding environment was gloomy, and dense forests were overgrown with weeds. This was the depths of the wilderness and wild forest where there were no people.

The biggest taboo in the mountains is getting lost.

Sweat dripped from Zhang Gao's forehead, which brought a painful pain to the wound, but he no longer cared about these flesh wounds. As a mountain dweller who lived on the mountain all the year round, he knew very well the danger of spending the night alone in the wilderness.

Although he was flustered, Zhang Gao was mature and calm. He felled a tree with a hatchet, distinguished the north-south direction by the narrowness and width of the annual rings, and then walked out of the mountain.

It’s just that a person’s driving speed in the wilderness forest is very slow, while he has to be distracted to pay attention to the snakes, ants and wild beasts in the mountains, while constantly wielding a hatchet to open the way, which consumes a lot of energy and physical strength for a person. Before long, Zhang Gao Tired and out of breath.

But the strong sense of crisis made him dare not stop to rest.

The environment in the mountains is already darker than the outside world, so it gets dark earlier in the mountains than outside. At this time, the vision in the mountains has become very poor, and the sounds of wild animals are gradually increasing. Zhang Gao is very clear that there is not much time left for him, and the sky is coming soon. blacken.

He no longer hopes that he can walk out of the mountains today, but only hopes to find a cave for him to spend the night, and then find a way to get out of the mountains tomorrow.

Just when the sky was getting darker and Zhang Gao was getting more and more anxious, suddenly, a faint light of fire was caught in the corner of his eyes.

When he regained his senses and looked again, the faint fire was gone.

Could it be my illusion... Zhang Gao gritted his teeth, put down the dry firewood, and climbed up a big tree skillfully. Taking advantage of the advantage of the terrain to observe, he immediately beamed with joy. There was indeed a family in the distant forest.

He was like a man who fell into the water suddenly grasping at straws, ignoring why there are people in the deep mountains, and only thinking about finding a place to spend the night before it completely darkened.

In the deep mountains and old forests, there are thorns and old vines everywhere. Zhang Gao doesn't remember how many somersaults he fell, and finally came to the place where the fire was seen before it was completely dark.

Ancient vines cover the sky, old crows cry coldly, and the old temple in the barren mountain is isolated. What kind of family is this? This is an old temple in the deep mountains. The walls of the old temple are covered with vines. There is no way to tell whether this is a Buddhist temple, an earth temple, or a temple dedicated to other gods...

As the old saying goes, one person does not enter the temple, two people do not look at the well, and three people do not hug the tree. Zhang Gao swallowed dryly, and found himself unable to saliva because of thirst...

The wide gaps in the old and loosely closed wooden doors couldn't resist the bright lights in the temple. This ray of light was like a delicacy in the world, constantly tempting Zhang Gao to open the door to see what would be inside.

Facing hunger and cold and the sky was completely dark, Zhang Gao didn't hesitate for too long, he gritted his teeth and climbed up the steps, then carefully lay down behind the gap in the wide door and looked inside.

The temple is not big, and you can go directly to the main hall along the crack of the door, and the lights and candles come from the main hall.

The main hall was open, and the candlelight was beating. I don't know if it was a problem with the angle. Zhang Gao still couldn't see what gods were enshrined in this temple.

The more you can't see clearly, the more people driven by curiosity want to see clearly, even Zhang Gao himself didn't notice that his body weight was shifting to the temple gate, when the temple gate was suddenly pushed open, Zhang Gao Gao lost his center of gravity and rolled into the temple with a bang.

Zhang Gao yelled in pain, and looked behind in panic and panic. Just now he felt as if he was pushed hard from behind, but when he turned around, there was nothing, and there was darkness outside the temple gate.

"Is there...is there anyone..."

"I... I am... Zhang Gao from Zhangjia Village at the foot of the mountain. Because... I fell down the hillside because of a mistake... I want... I want to borrow... borrow... stay in... the temple for one night..."

After Zhang Gao got up nervously, he stumbled to speak.

However, the temple was empty and silent, only the candles were flickering and flickering, as if reflecting Zhang Gao's ups and downs at the moment.

"Is there... someone..."

"Is there anyone..."

"I...I want to spend the night..."

No one in the main hall responded.

Zhang Gao looked back at the completely dark forest behind him. He really didn't have the courage to stay alone in the dark forest surrounded by tigers and leopards, and finally bit the bullet and approached the main hall carefully.

The yard was even more desolate than he had imagined. It was full of fallen leaves and weeds. A few moss and old tree roots from nowhere broke the bricks and stones. The ground was raised, and Zhang Gao almost tripped over.

When Zhang Gao stumbled to the outside of the main hall, he shouted several times nervously, but still no one answered.

"If... if it's inconvenient to host... I'll just stay in the courtyard for one... one night... I won't enter the hall to disturb the quietness of the temple..." Zhang Gaowei was timid, and in the end he still didn't have the courage to step into the main hall.

Zhang Gao, who was tired and cold, entered this mountain temple for some reason, his eyelids seemed to be filled with lead, and he couldn't open them no matter what, and he felt very sleepy.

Even Zhang Gao didn't know why he fell asleep. He had a nightmare, dreaming that there were countless pairs of eyes staring at him in the temple behind him...

Just dreaming of eyes, Zhang Gao woke up instantly!

Zhang Gao stretched out his hand to touch his back, the clothes on his back were wet, he broke out in a cold sweat in the deep autumn cold, and suddenly lost sleepiness.

Just at this moment, outside the old temple in the deep mountain, there was a strange sound of dead branches being trampled, Zhang Gao jumped up in fright, his hair stood up all over his body, and his eyes revealed panic and fear.

The candlelight outside the temple gate was blocked, and some people stood still outside the temple gate.

creak-

As the temple door was pushed open from the outside, the thin-cheeked bone shrinker walked into the temple. He seemed to have known that Zhang Gao would appear in the temple. He was not surprised when he saw Zhang Gao, and said: "You who have never been late, Why are you late today, did you encounter any accidents on the way? The real owner of this temple."

Zhang Gao had a bewildered expression on his face.