The Taoist boys ate very quickly. They drank the porridge in a few mouthfuls when it was served and went out to play with the steamed buns.

So when the carrier pigeon flew back, several tables in Jixiang Courtyard where they were eating were empty, except for Guan Luoyang and Qiudi.

After taking off the yellow talisman on the pigeon's leg, Qiu Di's face suddenly changed after seeing the line of words.

Qiushi is the eldest disciple of Taoist Master Jiuying.

When the two Taoist priests Jiuying and Jiuhe came to Jiaozhi from Wudang in Quanzhou to preside over the Fengzhao Zhenwu Temple, Qiu Shi was already with them.

Among the disciples of the Qiu Zi generation, Qiu Shi is the most outstanding in magic, meticulous, steady and reliable, and has long been the default successor of the Zhenwu Temple among the juniors.

Four days ago, the old lady of the Liu family in the Chengyin Mansion was entangled by an imp. She fell into a coma and was in a dream. Bruises like baby palms appeared on her neck and ankles. The Liu family came to invite her immediately, and Qiu Shi went there in person.

Thinking that the old lady of the Liu family was already over seventy years old, even the kid couldn't kill him easily. After Qiu Shi passed, he would definitely be able to capture him. At most, he would stay for two more days to recuperate the old man's health.

Taoist Priest Jiuhe, Qiu Di and others were all very confident about Qiushi, but they did not expect that today he would actually use the most dangerous "message on the back of a talisman" to ask for help from the temple.

"The talisman is the spiritual mechanism of heaven and earth. Asking for help on the back of the talisman paper means that it has failed and is trapped in a crisis of ambushes from all sides. It is like walking into the abyss on a moonless night, on the verge of being shattered into pieces at every turn."

Qiudi seemed calm on the surface and had time to explain to Guan Luoyang the meaning of this method of asking for help. However, when he stood up, he knocked over the stool he was sitting on.

"Master and uncle are not here. I don't have enough knowledge in the paper crane communication technique to directly track their auras. Brother Guan, please go to the foot of the mountain to buy a horse and go out to chase the master. I will go to senior brother Qiushi first.

"

Guan Luoyang put down his bowl and chopsticks, raised his toes, raised his stool, shook his head and said: "Your master has been walking for a long time. There must be more than one way from here to that place. There must be more than one way. I am not familiar with the place where I am. Where are you going?"

Go after him? Why don't I accompany you to help your senior brother?"

Qiu Di refused intentionally. There was no reason for him to let someone he had just met accompany him into danger, but he also knew that Guan Luoyang was stronger than him. If he went with him, he would have a greater chance of rescuing his senior brother.

"Senior brother..."

Qiudi murmured in a low voice, considered for a long time, then resolutely raised his fists and said, "Okay, then I'll have the audacity to ask Brother Guan to accompany me, but if it's an ethereal ghost, I'm afraid Brother Guan won't be able to deal with it with his fists and feet. Can you use the customary sword?"

"

Guan Luoyang said: "I am a swordsman, and I can probably use a sword."

"With a knife?" Qiu Di thought of something, turned around and left in a hurry, and soon returned to the courtyard with a long sheathed knife in his hand.

It has a green shark skin scabbard, an oval brass guard, hundreds of thin red ropes wrapped around the handle, a copper ring at the head, and the overall length of the knife is about four feet.

"This sword is said to be an ancient sword from the Tang Dynasty. When the master got it, the handle was completely rotten, but the blade seemed to have been refined by an expert. Once the magic wine was poured on it, all the rust disappeared, and it was filled with evil spirits.

To exorcise evil spirits from the house.”

"Master re-fitted the handle and scabbard for it, and hung it in the Hall of Suppression of Evil for ten years. In the past two years, every full moon night, just after midnight, you can hear the soft sound of the sword in the hall.

Howl."

Guan Luoyang took the knife and pulled out half of it.

The long knife is swallowed, the color is light gold, and the cold blade is connected.

The knife is three fingers wide and has a straight back. It should have been made of a silver-white 100-forged steel knife, but inside the blade, sparse emerald-colored cloud patterns are faintly visible.

Qiu Di said: "This sword may have killed many warlocks back then. Later, it was buried underground. The warlocks' resentful blood and the earth's energy were attracted to form this dark green cloud pattern. If you are used to using it and have this knife in your hand,

You can kill those ghosts as if they were alive."

Guan Luoyang returned the knife to its sheath, put his five fingers on each section of the handle, loosened and closed them slightly, and said with a smile: "Okay!"

Qiudi went to give some instructions to the Taoist boys, prepared several magical tools that he wanted to use, and then set off on the road with Guan Luoyang.

Guan Luoyang had little experience in riding horses, but with his current skills, he had already adapted to the situation before he got on the horse and ran a hundred meters, and galloped wildly.

They rushed for nearly an hour from dusk to the southernmost county under the rule of Chengyin Mansion.

There is naturally more than one family with the surname Liu in Chengyin Mansion, but Mrs. Liu and his family have something unique about them.

The eldest son of their family married the daughter of Magistrate Chengyin and was very famous in the county.

When Guan Luoyang and the others arrived at the Liu Mansion, they could still see several groups of government officials patrolling and guarding them.

As soon as the people of the Liu Mansion heard that someone else was coming to the Zhenwu Temple, they immediately went out to greet them.

Mr. Liu wears a jade hairpin, a satin round-necked dress, a neatly trimmed beard, and a slightly fat body, but not bloated. He has a somewhat capable temperament.

But today, he and his sons behind him all had two dark blue eyes and were slightly swollen. It was obvious that they had not slept well for many days.

Qiudi was eager to find out the news about his senior brother, so he skipped the polite greetings and asked a few questions at the door. The result was that the situation was worse than he had expected.

According to Mr. Liu, their family has an old house by the river, which was built more than 30 years ago. Ten years ago, the water level increased and the walls were flooded, making it uninhabitable. So the family moved out, but Mr. Liu

Grandpa was still attached to the old house and would often go there for walks.

Mrs. Liu came back from there a while ago and fell asleep. From time to time, small green and red palm prints appeared on her body. She screamed in pain and was dripping with cold sweat.

They sent someone to invite Qiu Shi, and sure enough they said that there was an imp at work, and that they had to disperse the imp before they could subdue the yin energy in Old Master Liu's body.

But after Qiu Shi visited the old house, he said that there was more than one ghost entrenched there and it was a bit troublesome, so he used paper cranes to fly letters and asked several junior brothers who were working nearby to see if any of them could help.

This morning, Qiu Mu and Qiu Hua came together again.

After Qiu Shi reunited with the two of them, he was confident and went to the old house at noon. However, not long after they entered, there was no sound.

The servant sent by Mr. Liu waited until night and still did not see the three Taoist priests coming out and did not dare to go in, so he ran back to report the news.

When Master Liu and the others were worried, Guan Luoyang and Qiudi came.

Something is wrong.

Guan Luoyang and Qiu Di looked at each other and realized that there was something very fishy in the whole matter.

An old house that has had no problems for decades suddenly has ghosts causing trouble. It may be because after the earthquake, all the qi are disordered and evil spirits occur frequently.

But a haunted house that couldn't even kill Old Madam Liu was a little weird for a Taoist priest like Qiu Shi, who was skilled in magic, to find it difficult.

Qiu Shi did not directly ask for help from the Zhenwu Temple, but instead summoned the junior brothers around him. Based on his stable character, he should have at least investigated the haunted house thoroughly and figured out how certain he was before he did it.

If you behave like this, don't bother your teacher.

But after he took his two junior brothers with him, he encountered unknown dangers again, and even reached the point where he had to use the most urgent means to seek help.

'No matter how you look at it, it looks like a trap set up specifically to target the people of the Zhenwu Temple. If this is the case, Taoist Master Jiuying and the others happen to be away today, are they also part of this trap?'

Guan Luoyang thought of this and said, "Qiudi, do you have any big enemies?"

Qiu Di said: "Although Zhenwu fights demons with corpses, ghosts and demons as enemies to protect the peace of the common people, over the years, I'm afraid we can't even count the number of evil sorcerers who have made enemies with us."

Guan Luoyang said: "But you can trap three of your senior brothers at once, and even look like you want to lure more people into the bait. There shouldn't be many enemies who can do this, right?"

The anxiety and worry between Qiu Di's brows were about to overflow. He frowned and thought for a moment, then said: "Of those evil warlocks in my impression, none of them can defeat my three senior brothers with one person's power."

You can't escape even if you run away, but if some people join hands, it will be hard to say."

Guan Luoyang lowered his eyelids and shook his head slightly.

Asking is like asking in vain.

The instructor can also provide the characteristics of the experts in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When it comes to Qiudi, the enemies are like blind boxes.

The only option is to take the most brutal approach.

Guan Luoyang raised his eyes and asked Master Liu: "Can you get gunpowder?"

………………

The night is dark and the moonlight is dim.

Along the river, hundreds of tall and tall willow trees line up in a row, stretching along the bank.

The wall enclosed a grand old house that spanned hundreds of steps, standing on the shore. The paint on the door was mottled and the tiles were damp.

The turbid water flow two or three inches high soaked the base of the wall, and a lot of moss grew on the wall bricks. The water waves washed away the roots of the flowers and plants in the yard, and some rotten leaves undulated with the waves.

Wow!!!!

The wind outside was getting louder, and the river was running faster. It surged in from the backyard, and several broken corpses were floated by the current.

In the corner of the backyard, the muddiest part of the land, Qiu Shi held a lantern with a pale face and a sword in his right hand, letting the tip of the sword hang limply in the muddy water.

Autumn twilight and autumn flowers sit back to back on the ground, within the range illuminated by lanterns.

"Senior Brother." Qiu Hua, who was missing one of his right arms, said in a hoarse voice, like sawdust rubbing against oil paper, "Senior Brother Qiu Mu, his breath has become weak again."

Qiu Shi's eyes trembled and he looked sideways.

Qiu Mu's scars ranged from the lower abdomen to the neck, and her clothes were torn. There were more than a dozen yellow talismans attached to the wounds, which could only close the skin and minimize the bleeding rate, but could not completely stop the bleeding.

But the cut of flesh and blood was not the most serious injury. What was really scary was that there was a smell coming from his lower body - his intestines had been broken.

Qiuhua's lips turned black and he spoke again: "Senior Brother, we can't hold on any longer. You can save some lights. Maybe you can rush out by yourself."

"Shut up, stay calm, and don't think wildly."

Qiu Shi took a deep breath and blew it towards the lantern in his left hand.

This breath seemed to ignore the obstruction of the lantern and directly blew the candles inside. The lights swayed, crackled softly, and the lights became brighter.

He raised the lantern higher, almost pressing it on Qiu Mu's head, maintaining the life cycle of his last breath.

"All twenty-six of my paper cranes were shot down, but the homing pigeon protected by the paper talisman flew out. Before sunset, the pigeon will fly back to the Zhenwu Temple. Master, uncle and the others are almost there."
To be continued...