Start as a Temple Spirit

Chapter 351: The Ghostly Stone City

However, beneath the ruins, the tenacity of life is still quietly blooming.

With a slight movement, the broken tiles were slowly lifted up, and a hand covered in dust and blood stretched out from it.

Next, a head covered in dust and blood appeared, lifting the rubble, and then the body.

A figure crawled out of the ruins with difficulty. His clothes were tattered, his face was covered with dust and blood, and his eyes were empty.

There was one, then two, and soon after, several more figures crawled out from the ruins. They were ordinary residents.

Some of them were holding injured children tightly in their arms, and some were holding kitchen knives tightly in their hands.

They either sat or stood, looking at the ruins before them, tears silently falling, tears of unconscious sadness and despair.

The children's cries echoed in the ruins, and their eyes were filled with confusion and fear.

The adults heard the cries and were barely brought back to their senses. They suppressed the pain in their hearts and tried to comfort these young hearts, telling them not to be afraid, that their elders were there for them.

However, when they turned around, the tears in their eyes could no longer be held back and fell one after another.

Above the ruins, the cries of the survivors intertwined to form a tragic elegy.

This sad scene reminds me of two lines from the poem "Spring Thoughts" by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu:

The country has broken mountains and rivers, and the city has deep grass and trees.

Tears are splashed when feeling, and I hate goodbye and startle.

Sometimes life is really... forget it, I won’t say more.

"Ah" a sigh sounded from the white clouds, and a figure stepped on a whisk, it was Taoist Xuanzhen.

He was passing by the area and sensed the overwhelming sadness, so he came to take a look. As expected, it was another city or county with its population destroyed.

"Huh" Taoist Master Xuanzhen exclaimed in surprise, because he felt something unusual in this ruined county town. There was no irreconcilable resentment, no strong ghost aura, and no pungent smell of blood.

This made him want to investigate because it was too abnormal.

A stone city full of the traces of time stands alone among the mountains.

It is backed by a towering rocky mountain range, hence the name Stone City.

The mountains rise tall into the clouds, as if they are the backbone of the earth, supporting the sky.

The mountains are shrouded in clouds and mist, like a curtain of fairyland, casting a mysterious veil over the city.

In front of the stone city is a vast expanse of water. The lake is tranquil and deep, reflecting the outline of the stone city.

Originally the source of life, it now appears twisted and strange because of the faint ghostly aura on the lake.

The Stone City is built of an uncarved black rock, and each stone carries the mark of time and ancient secrets.

The city wall is tall and solid, and its surface is covered with thick moss and spreading vines, indicating its long age and historical accumulation.

The city gate was closed. It was a huge bronze gate with years leaving mottled rust on it. The reliefs on the door told stories of forgotten history.

The entire stone city is surrounded by a vague ghostly aura that makes people feel inexplicably depressed and uneasy.

The ghostly aura was as erratic as light smoke, lingering in the air, as if searching for something.

When night falls, the ghostly aura becomes stronger, and one can even hear low whispers and intermittent wails in the distance, which makes one feel cold.

In the dim and gloomy stone city, there were figures performing some kind of ritual. They were so densely packed that there were at least two or three hundred thousand of them.

They are soldiers and civilians living in the stone city.

Their eyes have lost their former sharpness and vitality, becoming empty and lifeless.

There was no spark of hope in their eyes, only confusion and numbness.

In the shadow of this city made of stone, people's souls seem to be drained by some invisible force, leaving only mechanized bodies.

In the center of the stone city, stands a solemn temple. It is unique and exudes a terrifying ghostly aura.

On the roof of the temple, wisps of black smoke rose slowly like the breath of ghosts and merged into the gloomy sky.

The smoke seemed to have its own consciousness, constantly changing its shape, sometimes condensing into terrifying faces, and sometimes dispersing into countless tiny particles, filling the sky over the entire city.

The soldiers and civilians faced the temple, bent their bodies, knelt on their knees, and put their hands together in a gesture of worship.

Their movements were stiff and consistent, like puppets controlled by some mysterious force.

Every bow and every kowtow was an expression of reverence and obedience to the indescribable thing in the temple.

They were mumbling something, but their voices were so faint that they were almost blown away by the wind. Only the wind could hear the unclear prayers.

This situation made everything in Shicheng seem extremely weird and unreal.

The soldiers and civilians' worship was no longer out of piety, but more like a forced ritual, a helpless surrender to the evil spirit rising from the temple.

The situation is very strange and contradictory.

The entire stone city was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, and every corner revealed an ominous omen.

As time went by, the atmosphere in the stone city became more weird and terrifying.

The ghostly aura in the air was no longer just an invisible sense of oppression; it began to take concrete actions.

Strands of black ghostly energy gathered from all directions like living things.

They circled in the air and then slowly descended, targeting the soldiers and civilians who were bowing in worship.

The soldiers and civilians still maintained their worship posture, but their expressions began to twist and their brows knitted, as if they were in great pain.

The ghostly energy seemed to have consciousness, and it penetrated into their brows, where strange runes began to appear.

These runes flickered with a dim light, as if they were the marks of some ancient curse.

As the ghost energy poured in, the bodies of the soldiers and civilians began to tremble violently, and the outlines of runes could be vaguely seen under their skin.

The runes not only appeared between their brows, but also spread throughout their bodies like living tattoos, waving their tentacles as the ghostly energy increased.

Suddenly, roars broke out from the throats of the soldiers and civilians. They were sounds mixed with pain and anger, echoing throughout the stone city.

These roars are like the roars of wild beasts, shocking and chilling.

The eyes of the soldiers and civilians began to turn blood red, and their bodies seemed to be transformed by some force and no longer belonged to human beings.

As a result, Shicheng became a place full of terror and despair.

The military and civilians are no longer free beings, but have become carriers of that evil force.

Their worship is no longer a voluntary act, but rather they are like manipulated puppets, forced to accept the erosion of ghost energy and the imprint of runes.