But reality was far more cruel than they imagined. This time, they walked an even shorter distance, only about a quarter of the initial distance. Then, that strange Buddhist hall reappeared before them, and the chanting and incense smoke inside were even clearer.

Now, Jiang Cheng and the others understood that they were being squeezed between the Buddhist hall and the Merit Hall, and the distance was constantly shortening.

If they chose neither, the final result would be the Buddhist hall and the Merit Hall pressing down on them simultaneously, which would only lead to a more tragic outcome.

However, it was impossible to make Jiang Cheng give in so easily. Jiang Cheng patted Fatty's arm and pulled him close to one of the high walls. "Make a ladder and help me get up there to take a look."

Fatty looked at the two rows of trees by the wall, blinking in confusion. "No need for so much trouble, climbing the trees is much easier."

Jiang Cheng didn't plan to explain much to him, just perfunctorily said, "I don't trust these trees."

At first, Fatty didn't understand, but after thinking about it for a few seconds, he suddenly became terrified. He looked at the nearby trees with a different expression, as if they weren't trees, but corpses disguised as trees.

Without further ado, Fatty squatted down, patted his broad shoulder, and signaled Jiang Cheng to step on him.

In this life-or-death moment, Jiang Cheng didn't stand on ceremony. But even with Fatty standing straight, they still weren't tall enough, lacking at least a meter.

"Miss Ye, step on us to get up there," Jiang Cheng urged quickly.

Ye Qiutang looked at Fatty. Before she could speak, Jiang Cheng above her said, "Don't worry, he's fine."

Ye Qiutang was quite agile. She wasn't the type of girl who had been pampered. She put her hands on Jiang Cheng's shoulders, jumped up, and used her knees to push against Jiang Cheng's shoulders. The remaining height was just enough for her to peek over the wall.

"Hiss—"

Hearing Ye Qiutang's strange gasp, Jiang Cheng had a rough idea in his mind. "What did you see?"

"Walls, one next to another, densely packed walls," Ye Qiutang's tone became strange, which showed how shocked she was.

Fatty, who was being crushed at the bottom, couldn't understand. "Miss Ye, what walls are you talking about? Please explain clearly."

"We are surrounded by walls, one next to another, endless, with no end in sight." After calming down slightly, Ye Qiutang explained, "There are no temples or Taoist temples outside, only walls, layers upon layers of walls."

After hearing Ye Qiutang's description, Jiang Cheng had a rough picture in his mind. This was also similar to what he had initially thought. Since the other party had set up this trap, they would naturally block their escape route.

After the two of them came down one after another, Jiang Cheng allowed Ye Qiutang and Fatty to rest for a few minutes. Then, while remaining vigilant, the three of them moved towards the newly appeared Buddhist hall.

As they got closer, the full appearance of the Buddhist hall slowly unfolded before them. Jiang Cheng could confirm that he had never seen such a Buddhist hall in the Abstinence Temple.

The Buddhist hall couldn't be considered grand, and even revealed a hint of strangeness. Moreover, the three of them didn't feel any respect for the Buddha when they were under the Buddhist hall. On the contrary, they felt a cold and chilling sensation.

"The style of this Buddhist hall is so strange. This doesn't seem like a Buddhist hall," Ye Qiutang said first.

Jiang Cheng didn't have much research on architectural styles. He looked at Ye Qiutang, "If it's not a Buddhist hall, what do you think it looks like?"

"It looks more like a yeshen miao (temple to irregular gods). I heard that some evil yeshen (irregular gods) cannot be openly worshiped, otherwise they would be exterminated by the government. So the locals would first build a temple, and then build a yeshen miao (temple to irregular gods) inside the temple," Ye Qiutang explained.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng frowned. "This argument doesn't hold water. First of all, this kind of thing can't be hidden. Sooner or later, it will spread and attract soldiers."

"Also, building a yeshen miao (temple to irregular gods) in Buddhism is also a great disrespect to the yeshen (irregular gods). Is it feeding the yeshen (irregular gods) with the incense of Buddhism, or is it letting the Buddha consume its own incense?"

Faced with Jiang Cheng's questions, Ye Qiutang just shook her head. "I don't know about that. I only heard my father's subordinates mention it once. He once led troops to break through a large village in southern Xinjiang. The village was divided into several settlements. These uncivilized people were very evil. Not to mention their bloody and strange attire, they also sacrificed to evil spirits. The most terrifying thing was that we opened a secret passage under a village. You can't imagine it. Inside... inside were all mud figures, not the kind you think of made of mud, but real mud people, people wrapped in mud. Some of these people were even still alive, but their bellies were very big, and there were things wriggling inside. My father's subordinates had never seen this before, so he ordered these people to be temporarily guarded."

"But who would have thought that something would happen that night? He didn't say the specifics, but I later found out that many soldiers died that time, and the higher-ups specially allocated a lot of compensation. In the end, they found several experts to work together to settle the matter, and the cave was also dug and the entrance was permanently sealed."

Jiang Cheng noticed that Ye Qiutang's eyes had changed slightly, then lowered her voice. "Later, I heard that the village was extremely evil. They honored women and captured many of our soldiers, specially to have children for them. Their evil art was to make men have children, and that child..."

Hearing Ye Qiutang's words, Jiang Cheng and Fatty were instantly stunned. They immediately thought of the world mentioned by Yao Shunyu and Li Bai.

"What else do you know about that village? Quick, this is very important!"

Jiang Cheng grabbed her wrist, and Ye Qiutang was startled. "That's all I know, what... what are you doing, let go!"

Now Jiang Cheng could be sure that the village Ye Qiutang mentioned was the world of Li Bai and Yao Shunyu. However, judging from the time, Ye Qiutang's information was not entirely accurate. At least that village was not completely wiped out. Some remnants slipped away, which led to the Blackwater Village in the deep mountains, that hell on earth.

"Hmm?"

The chanting nearby became more intense, and as Jiang Cheng turned his head, he actually saw a line of lights in the distance. That was... that was the Merit Hall!

The Merit Hall was coming for them.

Immediately, the three of them no longer hesitated and walked into the gate of the Buddhist hall together. The gate was pushed open, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a huge screen.

The screen was clean and the material was very thin, just like a piece of paper.

The sound of chanting Buddhist scriptures came from behind the paper screen.

Fatty bravely poked a hole in the screen, and through the hole, he saw the scene behind. Six monks were kneeling in front of a wall with their backs to them, knocking on wooden fish and chanting scriptures.

Looking at the backs of the six people, Fatty felt more and more familiar, but they didn't match the monks in his impression of the temple.

Until he caught a glimpse of another monk walking out of the shadows on the side.

In the next second, Fatty's breathing stopped, and his pupils suddenly shrank. "Mr. Song... Mr. Song!"