Monument of Life and Death

  Chapter 656 The Disappearing Tombstone

  Luo Jiutian raised his head and followed Dao Master’s line of sight.

  He saw a pair of eyes first.

  In an instant, a chill rose from under his feet.

  A huge clay statue stood directly under the remnant roof. The statue nodded slightly, as if looking down at them, holding something in his hand.

  It was the eyes of the gods that made him shudder.

   Those eyes seem to be watching them.

   is like a carnivore looking at its prey.

  The metal shell on the idol's body has almost peeled off, and the appearance is full of cracks, and the ears and chin are all broken and cracked, making the smile on its face more and more ferocious.

   "What **** is this?" Luo Jiutian asked, frowning.

  Dao Chang pushed aside the wooden board in front of the two, shook his head, "Have you never seen it?"

   "I haven't heard that it grows like this..." Luo Jiutian suddenly realized that it is not good to say such things in the temple, "No, I don't know... What is it holding in his hands?"

   "In my impression, it should be a baby," said the Taoist chief, "so at the time we all thought it was Guanyin."

  " Guanyin is not long like sending children," Luo Jiutian said with a slight disgust, "and it doesn't look like a baby..."

  The two stood on tiptoes and looked into the arms of the idol.

  The leader was stunned for a moment.

  "This..."

   "This is obviously just a stone," Luo Jiutian looked at Dao Master, "How do you think it is a baby?"

  The two hands of the idol are placed in front of him, holding a base that cannot be seen clearly. On the base, there is a blue-white stone tablet lying flat.

The Taoist leader looked at the debris scattered on the ground, "Last time we came, we only saw the swaddling on the base, and we regarded the stuff in the swaddling as a boy. Look, now the swaddling has fallen off, and it looks like a god. The thing I’m holding has always been this stone monument."

  Luo Jiutian jumped onto the calf of the idol sitting cross-legged in two steps, "Do you remember what this base was like before?"

   "I really didn't pay much attention to this at the time," the Taoist leader was a little upset, "It seems...it seems to be in the shape of a petal."

   "Is it possible that it is a lotus flower?" Luo Jiutian leaned forward and looked at the stone tablet after standing firm on the statue.

   "It's possible, I'm not sure."

   "It should be the lotus flower," Luo Jiutian's voice was suddenly filled with determination, and he waved at the Taoist chief on the ground, "Quick, Taoist, there are words on it."

  Luo Jiutian pulled the Taoist leader onto the idol, and the two read together.

  "The Tomb of the Eternal Prophet."

  Five large and straight characters are clearly engraved on the stone tablet.

  Dao Master and Luo Jiutian looked at each other, "This is the tombstone of the prophet."

   "So what the villagers really worship is not the gods, but the tombstones of the prophets," Luo Jiutian pointed to the head of the gods, "I'll just say, how can Guanyin grow like this? It's almost the same as saying that he is a guardian Lohan."

Daochang nodded heavily. He raised his hand and scanned the dusty surface of the stele, "There are still small prints underneath."

   There are two lines of small characters below the large characters. The small characters have a shallower mark, which seems to be scratched randomly. It is difficult to distinguish them if you look at them carefully.

  The moonlight coming in from the roof was not strong enough, and the Taoist chief had to sacrifice a long-light talisman. The soft yellow light like fireflies hit the tombstone, and the two lines of scribbled writing gradually appeared.

   "Don't forget each other."

  The first line contains four simple words.

  The second line is also four words.

  The Taoist chanted silently.

   "Wife, Ren, stay here."

  The two raised their heads and looked at each other in shock.

   "He has a wife?!" Luo Jiutian almost choked himself to death, "Is this mentioned in the book?"

   "Not in the first two books, maybe in the third, which is the content that was torn out."

   "Lian..." Luo Jiutian was stunned, "His wife is called Lian... Chief Dao, you say, shouldn't you..."

  Yes.

  Everything points to a truth.

  The Prophet’s wife is Fire Lotus.

  Finally connected the clues.

  Luo Jiutian excited a lot, "At least now, we know the identity of the fire lotus."

  Dao Chang also nodded.

  Yes, they have a breakthrough.

   Then there are more mysteries.

   "Are there any other clues here?"

  The two searched carefully on the idol, and found nothing else.

   "It's already fine, it seems that this is one of the secrets of Lianshui Village," the Taoist leader jumped off the stone statue, "Nine days, let's go to the crematorium to see."

   "Hmm, do we want to bring this tombstone?"

   "...Can this be taken away?"

   "I'll try...ah, it doesn't seem to work." Luo Jiutian tried to lift the tombstone, but the attempt failed. "Well, it's okay, it won't run anyway."

  Luo Jiutian also jumped down, and the two of them patted the dust off their bodies, raised the long-light talisman, and finally looked up at the god.

  These eyes.

  It knows everything about Lianshui Village.

   "Let's go, the door is behind the idol."

   "Okay."

  Luo Jiutian nodded, looked away, followed Daochang's footsteps, and walked to the back of the idol.

  The warm yellow light trembling, gradually dimmed in the shattered ancestral hall.

   squeak-bang!

  The light disappeared completely.

  The ancestral hall is quiet again.

  Only the statue of the **** is still standing on the spot, looking down at the lotus on the hand and the tombstone on the lotus.

  How many years, how many things, just like the dust caused by the two people just now, it rises and falls.

  Falls, then rises again.

  New dust was raised.

  窸窸窣窣……

  The idol looked down, but the visitor did not look at it.

  In the darkness, a pale and thin hand came out.

  The hand rested on the tombstone.

   Those eyes fell on the inscription.

  ***

  Xiaolan hugged the tombstone, shrank into the ancestral hall, and looked around warily.

  No one, right?

  The movement just now...is it really caused by this cat?

   Xiaolan glanced at the tabby cat basking in the moonlight on the window frame of the ancestral hall, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

  She looked left and right, confirmed safety, and walked around behind the tombstone.

  The old man’s tombstone was hidden in the ancestral hall by the villagers.

Xiaolan stood by the incense platform behind the ancestral hall. The blue-white tombstone was erected on the stage. Fresh fruits and vegetables were enshrined in front of the stage. Xiaolan stole a grape, but she did not blame herself because of that. The tabby cats on the window frames eat more than her.

  The area of ​​the ancestral hall is very small, and there is a mess of debris everywhere. It seems that it is also used as a warehouse on weekdays and is related to the function of the ancestral hall itself. Only this low incense stand is the only one.

   Xiaolan turned his head, behind the incense burner, there was the back door of the ancestral hall. The simple one-sided door was hidden and the crematorium was outside.

  She moved.

   "Meow..."

   "Hush!" Xiaolan gestured at the tabby cat who tilted his head to look at her, "Quiet! Don't make a noise!"

  Of course, the tabby cat could not understand her gestures, but it still closed its mouth.

   Xiaolan exhaled, squatted to the front of the tombstone, and looked at the inscription.

  The body of the stele is brand new, the inscription is also newly carved, and the flaked stone fragments still remain on the stele.

  "The Tomb of the Eternal Prophet."

  On the tombstone, there are only these five words.

  Nothing else.

  (End of this chapter)