Among the mountain roads, there were both business travelers and knights-errants. Some people saw a Taoist riding the wind among the forest tops on the top of the mountain, with white shadows following behind him. Others saw a Taoist riding a donkey running on the mountain road, and there was also a fox trotting in front of him.
Holding on, as if leading the way.
The donkey looked dull and tired, and the Taoist seemed to be rushing to an unknown destination far away for something urgent.
Lin Jue's speed was almost as fast as the last time he left Shucun and was chased by the bear demon.
The time and distance are much longer.
It was just after noon when he set out, and he rested under a tree in the mountains until late at night. He also bumped into a few ghosts in the middle of the night.
At this time, when the moon was full, several ghosts, who looked like scholars, came out together to admire the moon, as if they were alive in spring, reciting poems and writing poems, and accidentally saw the Taoist priest under the tree.
He couldn't tell whether it was a Taoist priest bumping into a ghost or a ghost bumping into a Taoist priest. In short, Lin Jue was not scared when he saw ghosts. On the contrary, these ghosts suddenly encountered living people in the wilderness and wore Taoist robes, which frightened him greatly.
When he wanted to run away in a hurry, he was stopped by the fox again.
"Don't embarrass them." Lin Jue said to Fuyao. Thinking of asking these ghosts, he said to them again:
"Everyone, I'm sorry, please don't be afraid. I am a cultivator of the Lingfa Sect. I will neither hurt people nor ghosts for no reason. This time I am going to Zhongzhou to have important matters with you.
Meeting each other at this time and place is considered fateful. I think you all like to travel at night, so I would like to ask some of you for advice."
The ghosts were a little scared at first, but when they saw his gentle expression and the demon fox blocking the way walked away, they looked at each other and then saluted:
"What do you want to ask, Zhenmao?"
"I heard that during this period, there were plague ghosts coming from Biluo County in the back to Zhongzhou. Did they pass through here? Have you seen them?"
"Epidemic ghost? But there is going to be an epidemic?"
"Have you ever seen it?"
"Never seen it."
"Have you ever seen a strange ghost from other places pass by?"
"I've never seen it before."
"The real person thinks highly of us." Another ghost said, "Zhongzhou is separated from the south by mountain gods and water gods. There are gods guarding each major checkpoint, and there are wandering gods patrolling day and night. If there are really plague ghosts passing through, they must be hiding their whereabouts. How can we
Can you see it?"
"It makes sense..."
Lin Jue thought about it carefully and it made sense.
I recall some of the stories I have heard about ghosts and monsters. In the stories, evil spirits want to sneak into or out of the city. Without other skills, it is often not that easy. They often even hide in dung buckets. Trying to get through the passes and
The same goes for avoiding the eyes and ears of wandering gods.
In this case, if an outside plague ghost enters Zhongzhou and spreads the plague, it may not be that easy.
Thinking back to what the Yan family's grandson said, the two plague ghosts indeed meant to hide their whereabouts.
Even if the epidemic ghost thing is true, it should be too late.
"Thank you all."
He saw a few scholar ghosts walking away hesitantly. As they walked, they kept looking back at him, whispering and wondering what they were discussing. After walking a little further, they continued to admire the moon and recite poems, and Lin Jue also fell asleep.
Wake up early in the morning and continue on your way.
I don’t know how many cities and stations I passed through, and how many passes I passed in between. It was not until the dusk of the second day that I finally arrived at Cuiwei County, one of the three places of Qingchuan, Cuiwei and Liuyun.
Lin Jue looked up and saw that the city gate was ancient and majestic, and the city wall was full of traces of time, knives and axes, stones and fire, which gave it the aura of an ancient city in the Central Plains.
There are two big characters "Cui Wei" on the top.
Below, people were coming in and out, there were many cars, horses, cattle and mules, and there was no sign of any damage.
There were four more soldiers wearing linen clothes and simple iron armor on the outside, with long swords and spears on their waists, guarding the city gate. In the dim light of dusk, there seemed to be vague figures wearing official robes, and they looked at them carefully.
The fox following him disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lin Jue then walked over.
"For what reason!"
The city gate guard stopped him.
"Lin Jue, a poor Taoist from Yishan, Huizhou, this is my ultimatum." Lin Jue took out the ultimatum and presented it to him.
"Come here..."
The officers and soldiers guarding the city wanted to ask him what he was doing here, but they saw that the certificate was a piece of paper, which was different from ordinary paper certificates, so they stopped talking and didn't ask him what he was doing. They just stretched out their hands and said:
"It turns out he is a mage, please come in."
"Thank you."
Lin Jue took back the ultimatum and said thank you.
Then, under the gaze of the four guards, the Taoist did not go in immediately. Instead, he turned his head and stared at the empty space. After thinking for a moment, he said as if he was speaking to someone:
"Can I meet the priest guarding the city?"
"Um?"
All four officers and soldiers looked at him in confusion.
It was indeed deserted there, no one even passed by, but there was a small temple two feet wide and two feet high beside the city wall. Inside, there were two clay statues that were so pinched that they could hardly be seen clearly.
There are also some broken incense candles and some paper ashes left after burning.
Suddenly, paper dust was blown up by the wind.
This man did not enter the city, but walked over.
In Lin Jue's eyes, two figures of priests had appeared there, one fat and one thin, wearing red robes, looking at him with frowns.
As soon as they saw Lin Jue coming over, they started to criticize:
"Where do you come from as a Taoist? Don't you know how to ask the gods to light incense, perform rituals, and then wait for the gods' permission? Why are you so ignorant of etiquette!"
"I am from Yishan, Huizhou. I am a Taoist from the Lingfa Sect." Lin Jue was afraid of causing unnecessary panic and did not want to be heard by others, so he deliberately lowered his voice and said, "I have something important to report to the priest."
"Huizhou Yishan? A Taoist from the Lingfa Sect? Can a Taoist from the Lingfa Sect be able to call the gods out to meet them at will? With some Taoism and knowledge of magic, can they become lawless?"
The fat priest's brows suddenly frowned even more tightly:
"Besides, you are a Taoist from the Lingfa Sect. If you don't hide in the mountains and practice hard, what's the point of looking for the gods? And you are a Taoist from Huizhou, why are you here in Zhongzhou?"
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with him. Let's listen to him first." The thin priest said.
"The thing is like this..."
Although Lin Jue frowned, he did not argue with them. Instead, he explained the incident between the Yan family's grandson and the plague ghost in detail, and then added:
"What I'm saying is definitely not a lie, but we don't know whether it is true or not. We just think it's a very important matter and we don't dare to neglect it, so I will go ahead and come over to check it out and inform the gods here."
"Where did the plague come from in the city?"
"No?"
"Interesting! Do you believe what these people say? If you are not lying, then he is lying. If he is not lying, then he is just thinking and deceiving himself!" The fat priest said coldly, "Recently, I have not been lying at all.
There is no plague, and there is no plague sent from the sky. If there is a plague sent from the sky, and a plague god comes here, we will get the news."
"There is indeed no plague in the city! What's more, with us guarding here, how can any plague ghosts or evil spirits get through it?" Thin Priest also said.
"It's fine if it doesn't happen. It would be better if this thing is false. But please pay more attention to the two priests. It's best to inform the city god in the city, and then he will report it, and inform the city gods in other counties."
"You are such a Taoist priest. If you don't practice your spiritual skills well, you are just worrying about the world." The fat priest said, "Even if there is a plague, the God of Plague in the sky will be responsible for containing it."
"If you want to enter the city, enter the city quickly. The city gate will be closed immediately! You are not a simple fox, are you? I see that you are a Taoist and have come all the way. There is no other evil or stinky smell on you, so I won't embarrass you. You
Don’t cause any trouble to us! Rest for one night and leave tomorrow! If you don’t rest, leave now!”
The thin priest said to him:
"You need to know, don't say that you are a Taoist from the Lingfa Sect. Even if you are a Taoist from the Fulu Sect, you are a mage who has taught you the urn, offered incense and performed rituals. The urn taught by the Huizhou mage is not of the same sect as ours.
If you disturb the gods when there is no business, you will also be punished!"
"..."
Lin Jue raised his hand and said:
"Farewell!"
Then he turned around and left with a cold face.
The fox also seemed to notice that he was a little angry, bared his teeth at the two priests, and then trotted to catch up with him.
The four officers and soldiers at the door looked at each other. In their eyes, they could only see the Taoist standing in front of the small temple under the city wall. He seemed to have said something to the empty place of the small temple. They could not hear clearly, but they could see that he was standing in front of the small temple under the city wall.
There seemed to be wind swirling in front of the small temple, causing paper ashes to rise and swirl, which was obviously unusual.
When he saw the Taoist coming, he naturally did not dare to stop him. Even those who usually believed in these things could not help but raise their hands to salute him.
Lin Jue naturally returned the gift and immediately entered the city.
Everything is going on as usual in the city, it's quite lively.
It seems that the epidemic ghost thing is true or false.
But Lin Jue was still a little confused——
Those two priests didn't have much knowledge. If they fought, they would probably be inferior to Taihou Liu, but they were so rude and arrogant.
What's more puzzling when you think about it is not this.
Rather, gods are supposed to focus on virtue.
Although the gods are official ghosts, the most important thing is virtue. Positions such as City God should be filled by local virtuous and famous people after their death, either by imperial decree or by the spontaneous support of the people. In short, the most important thing is
All should be virtuous and respected by others.
Although this class of priests is not as high-ranking as the City God, generally speaking, people who have held such positions during their lifetime, or at least have held similar positions, who are suitable for this position and who are conscientious and responsible should be selected to serve.
These two priests are so arrogant.
Seeing that the street was as usual and he was new here, Lin Jue didn't say anything. He just walked on the street, looking left and right.
Until it gets completely dark.
"It seems that there is really no plague here. But we should also go to other counties to check and inform the gods there." Lin Jue walked in the alley and said to the side, "But it's a bit late today, we
How about finding a hotel to stay for the night first?"
"Hey..."
The fox looked at the road intently and responded casually. His four legs were slender and elegant, and he walked forward quickly.
It just so happened that there was a hotel right in front.
Lin Jue asked for a small room.
The room was not big, with only a bed, a small table and two benches. Because it was late, Lin Jue was a Taoist, and the innkeeper's charge was cheap.
After entering the room, Lin Jue immediately took out the paper donkey and looked at it distressedly.
"This journey has been tough for you."
Uncle Second Master's paper donkey was made of solid materials. After all this fiddling with it, Lin felt like he was about to fall apart and his butt hurt terribly. However, the paper donkey was fine. On the contrary, the remnant soul of the donkey inside was tired, weak, and faintly disabled.
The meaning of "the soul is separated" is that if we go like this for two more days, it will definitely be dispersed.
At this time, you have to use the method of cultivating bean soldiers and warm them up for a few days.
But before that, Lin Jue took out the wood carving.
"Are you ready?"
"exist……"
A weak voice came from the wooden sculpture, almost inaudible.
The fox felt curious and came over to see what was wrong with it.
After two breaths, a thin wisp of white smoke came out from the wooden sculpture, as if it had no strength. It took a long time to gather into a ball in the air and turn into a big-headed child ghost.
"I've seen a real person..."
"How about one step?"
"Little one...well..."
"..."
How could Lin Jue not see its weakness, but he couldn't say anything at this time. He just touched his arms and took out two portions of twenty taels of silver:
"I'm sorry for you. Master passed away some time ago, and then we went down the mountain again. We were short of money and couldn't get together the meals for you. These were given to me by my senior brother. After gathering them together, due to the reason of the journey,
There was no suitable opportunity, and I thought I didn’t want to be known by others, so I didn’t invite you out.”
"This... is best..."
The silver-eating ghost replied dully, his eyes were straight, staring at the silver in his hand, and he had no time to think about it.
There was a fragrant aroma coming from it.
"Gudong!"
Shi Yin Gui swallowed hard, completely unable to hold back his appetite and impulse, but he was really frightened by hunger, so he said to Lin Jue: "This... there are twenty taels here! Why not divide it into two months?"
"
"..."
Lin Jue felt really guilty.
I had to make up my mind to try not to let it starve in the future.
Chapter completed!