Traditional statues of gods, with kind eyebrows and kind eyes, make people feel at ease at least at first glance. Those that are ugly or have fierce eyebrows are generally used as door gods.
Because the essence of religion is to make people believe, it is necessary to create a sense of affinity. Many of the religions Lu Tian knew started by helping the poor and making friends with wealthy businessmen, appearing harmless to humans and animals. After that, they completely penetrated
The ruling class just started to do things crazily.
But those certainly don't include what you see before you.
This statue is wearing an ancient-style long dress, but the patterns on the dress have a perverse sense of post-modern art. The statue is tall, about three meters, and is carved from stone. Some places are rough, and some places are too delicate and lifelike.
.
The most surprising thing is the head of the statue.
The reason why I say head instead of face is because this is not a human head at all.
The head was bald and filled with a disgusting greasy feeling. Below it were four pairs of narrow eyes, which reminded Lu Tiao of those four-eyed guys in Twilight City. There was a long elephant on this face.
It's an ordinary nose, but there are fine fangs at the nostrils.
From the nose down are numerous tentacles. Those tentacles have no suckers, just one bare tentacle. This is the most delicate part of the entire statue, as if it is not artificially carved, but a real monster suddenly petrified and frozen.
..
Its ears are membranes made of tentacles, and under its nose is a mouth with two sharp fangs. Compared to its body, its entire head embodies a strange and creepy feeling.
It is not that Lu Jian has not come into contact with non-human gods. For example, in places like Egypt, there is a dog-headed statue of Anubis. In a country that grew up drinking water from the Ganges, there is also a god with an elephant head.
.
Lu Jian has read some simple research papers, which are mostly studies on human alienation. As we all know, in many myths, there have been gods or monsters with human bodies and animal heads, but there are very few with human heads and animal bodies, otherwise they would not have existed.
An urban legend like a dog with a human face appears.
I don’t know why, but humans are much more accepting of monsters with human body limbs, at least much higher than the limbs of animals with human faces.
As for the one currently located in the Taoist temple, Lu Jian didn't know what kind of immortal it was.
The body part of this statue looks extremely rough compared to its head, which makes people wonder, maybe it was originally a monster that was turned into stone and stayed here, and later generations carved its body into a human appearance to deceive themselves.
"The Lord of the Mountains, the call between the mountains. In some religions, he also has a name called Fang Geng. He is the god of mountains and the ruler of the mountains. All the mountains in this world are his sanctuary."
From the side, a clear and hearty voice came.
Lu Tan turned his head and saw Tang Que, who was dressed to fit his figure and had a graceful figure.
"Ms. Tang, do you have any research on this thing?"
Lu Jian asked.
He looked at the altar in front of him. It seemed that no one had taken care of it for many years. There were only some animal skeletons left, maybe chickens, maybe rabbits, but they were eaten so finely that the original owner could not be identified.
"To be precise, it's my father."
Tang Que smiled.
"What you heard on the hiking trail is actually somewhat true. I did learn about the existence of Jiuliu from the things my father left behind. Among those legacies, there are also stories that my father traveled around the country.
Folk customs and rumors that I learned about when I was young.”
"Does your father still travel around the country?"
Lu Tan was curious. Tang Que's father should also be a forensic doctor. In this era, there should be no such thing as a business trip. Could it be that his father did not work and went to various countryside to investigate folk customs?
"Yes, my family has some wealth. After my father participated in the Xuanjun Controversy in his early years, he has been yearning for this. He spent a few years visiting places with various mysterious legends, trying to find the source of the Nine Streams."
Tang Que approached the statue and raised his head to take a closer look.
"In this world, mystery is never far away."
"really."
Lu Jian nodded slightly.
"My father once went to an inn. He said that at night, when he was lying on the bed, he could feel something scratching the bed board under the bed. He looked down and saw a person with a black and blue face under the bed.
people were staring back at him."
Tang Que suddenly started telling ghost stories.
"Then what?"
Lu Tan was curious.
"Then my father punched through the bed board and found that there was nothing under the bed. He paid the other party a fortune for it."
Tang Que said in a deep voice.
"..."
Lu Tan didn't know whether he should laugh or not.
"My family learned the skills of a corpse stitcher. Sewing corpses is a folk custom. Those prisoners who were beheaded always sewed their heads and bodies together. Headless corpses are prone to changes. Over time, handling corpses has become my family's custom.
Tradition."
Tang Que changed the subject.
"When dealing with corpses, you will definitely encounter a lot of corpse transformations and weird things. If you don't have a few skills, the ship will capsize sooner or later."
"Is this why you learn Henglian?"
Lu Tan asked subconsciously.
It is said that the Tang family's horizontal training can punch through the door panel with one punch. From Tang Que's joke just now, his father can also knock down the bed with one punch. Lu Tian guessed that Tang Que looked slender and small, so he might be able to hit it with one punch.
Three Qin Tiantians died.
"Don't worry, I know how to control my strength and won't pinch it off."
The corner of Tang Que's mouth curled up. She was in her thirties, which was a good age. When she saw Lu Tan, a handsome young man with a face that reached the limit of human beings, she would naturally make fun of him.
Pinch off?
Pinch off what?
How to pinch off?
Lu Tan was just an innocent child and couldn't understand what Tang Que was talking about.
"What's the origin of this Fang Geng?"
He decided to get down to business, after all, he wasn't here to have fun.
"He comes from the outer world and is the creator of all the mountains in this world. Legend has it that he sleeps under a certain mountain peak, and every breath he takes is an earthquake. If Fang Geng wakes up, the world will change, and mankind will fall into doomsday
, only by constantly offering sacrifices can we keep it sleeping peacefully."
Tang Que explained.
"It's quite powerful. Then I guess He may be sleeping over there in the Himalayas, at least in Sichuan or Siberia."
Lu Tan chuckled lightly.
Of course, this kind of legend may be true, but the person named Fang Geng is probably a sealed evil god. If you offer sacrifices to him, you will only get contaminated knowledge.
He took two steps forward and observed the statue carefully.
At this time, Lu Jian saw a corpse on the damp, moldy straw behind the statue!
The corpse seemed to have been dead for a long time. It was in ragged clothes and even the maggots had withered on the rotting flesh.
What is even more surprising is the death state of the corpse.
