Listening to the rustling sound getting closer, Lu Yingjiu, still buried in Jing Xian's arms, suddenly felt deeply depraved - Jing Xian could change the style of painting astray at any time, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring it back.
Just as he was about to pry Jing Xian's hand open, he heard Jing Xian say nonchalantly: "Why don't you wait for me to take action? It's not a big deal."
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Lu Yingjiu sighed and said, "Jingxian, are you really not afraid of retribution? When I first let you go, I clearly told you that priests cannot interfere too much in the mortal world."
The so-called laws of nature are empty and beautiful, but they are everywhere.
If you violate it, you will be punished sooner or later.
He had originally wanted to drive Jing Xian back to the ghost world, if not for... if Jing Xian's identity was not so special, he would not allow a ghost to stay by his side.
Essentially speaking, Jing Xian is being willful and self-indulgent.
Lu Yingjiu still felt vaguely uneasy.
"I'm not afraid of those."
Lu Yingjiu frowned: "Hello..."
Jing Xian smiled at him, stretched out his hand and gently stroked his temples, "Maybe I was afraid before, but since I met you, I am no longer afraid."
Lu Yingjiu was stunned, and then his ears felt a little hot.
He coughed and said, "Anyway, don't do anything, otherwise..."
"What else?" Jing Xian raised his eyebrows and looked at him.
Lu Yingjiu thought about it, but couldn't think of any way to threaten him, so he told the truth: "Otherwise I will be angry."
Jing Xian: “…”
The threat of these words to him was far beyond Lu Yingjiu's imagination. He honestly let go of his hand and promised: "Okay, okay, I will never attack you unless you say anything."
Lu Yingjiu finally broke free from his arms.
In just a few seconds, the sound was almost in front of them, and it sounded like it was definitely no more than 70 or 80 meters away. He held the talisman paper and looked out from the house—
It was still pitch black at the end of the passage, and I couldn't see anything clearly.
The ground was shaking, and dirt was falling from above. The weak passage looked dangerous and might collapse at any time. Lu Yingjiu thought that he should not exorcise ghosts here, and it would be better to return to the ground.
So he whispered to Jing Xian, "Let's go the way we came first."
He bent down, picked up the black-haired ball, and stuffed it into Jingxian's hand, and warned him, "Just hold it well and don't do anything strange."
Jing Xian nodded honestly.
Maotuanzi: "Ah!" Then he started to whistle and stick out his tongue again.
The two of them formed a group and went in the direction of travel.
It was just that the thing seemed to have sensed the movement, and its movements instantly sped up! It was almost running towards them!
The spider silk above his head kept shaking, and the little spiders were crawling quickly, not knowing whether they were fleeing or reveling. Lu Yingjiu threw a piece of talisman paper, and the paper flew straight to the end of the passage, and the firelight illuminated two furry spider legs.
The spider's legs were as thick as an adult man's arm, and its fur was shiny black. When the firelight shone upwards, it turned out to be a human face!
To be precise, it was Feng Mao's face!
Lu Yingjiu finally saw the monster's appearance clearly.
It turned out to be a giant spider with Feng Mao's face... Or rather, it was Feng Mao!
The ground was shaking more and more, like a terrible earthquake. Countless mud mixed with spider silk fell overhead, and was burned clean by the flames. The old passage was really about to collapse.
Lu Yingjiu pulled Jing Xian and whispered, "Let's talk about it outside!" After that, he raised his hand and a sea of fire exploded in front of Feng Mao.
Feng Mao seemed to feel no pain at all and just broke through the wall of fire. It was completely enraged by the fire, and its eight legs crossed, and its speed increased a lot. It rushed left and right, breaking the mud wall into pieces, and pounced on them like a predator, carrying a large ball of mud and spider webs.
Lu Yingjiu threw talisman papers on himself and Jing Xian.
As soon as the talisman was pasted, their feet suddenly felt a lot lighter. They were as light as a swallow and moved very fast. No matter how hard Feng Mao chased after them, he could not catch up with their pace.
In less than two minutes, the entrance to the basement appeared in front of them. They could vaguely see the weeds outside and hear the sound of boiling rain.
At the same time, a large pool of mud fell from the sky and landed beside Lu Yingjiu with a thud. Water began to seep madly above his head, and countless mud pieces fell down. The spiders kept fleeing, but were swept up and buried by the mud and water.
It's going to collapse!
In a flash, Jing Xian held Mao Tuanzi in one hand and Lu Yingjiu in the other.
Lu Yingjiu just felt like she was flying.
My body felt lighter, and then the rain and dampness hit me in the face.
There were gusts of cold wind all around. Jing Xian led them and easily jumped a distance of nearly two meters and landed steadily on the ground.
The wind outside was still strong, mixed with raindrops as big as soybeans. Jing Xian took a few more steps forward, just avoiding the collapse of the ground and reaching a safe area. Lu Yingjiu looked back and saw that the ground was sinking in large chunks, even the door of the basement had sunk a lot, and the entire passage was completely gone.
But if he listened carefully, he could still hear movement beneath the soil.
It sounds like the sound of digging soil and stirring muddy water.
Feng Mao must still be alive and is trying to find a way out.
But now is not the time to fight with him.
Lu Yingjiu grabbed Jing Xian's arm and said, "Let's go back to the hotel!"
The two hurried back to the car, all wet.
Jing Xian started the SUV, which roared and tore through the strong wind, rushing all the way to the hotel. Lu Yingjiu called Ye Feng and briefly explained the situation, and finally concluded: "You gather all the outsiders together immediately! We will go out from the mountain worship route!"
Although Ye Feng was horrified, he reacted very quickly and immediately started to greet people with Xiao Li. Fortunately, most of the anchors lived in the hotel, and the red clothes knew most of them, so they knew the exact number of people left in the village: 7.
Jing Xian stepped on the accelerator almost to the bottom.
Lu Yingjiu looked out the window and saw quite a few small spiders on the road.
The closer we got to the center of the village, the more spiders there were on the road, and they grew bigger and bigger, almost like a swarm of spiders pouring down from the mountains.
and…
Along the way, Lu Yingjiu didn't see even a single villager.
I don't know how many spiders I crushed along the way, but when I got near the hotel, there was almost no place to stand on the ground.
As soon as one batch of spiders died, another batch quickly appeared. There was no end to them. The front door and walls of the hotel were covered with them. There were all kinds of them, a large black mass mixed with colorful species. No one wanted to know what it felt like to be covered with them.
Lu Yingjiu was about to get off the car when Jing Xian suddenly stopped her.
Jing Xian looked at him and said, "There is something I need to tell you. The power of the Spider Mother is not supposed to be that strong. Her power comes from the wishes people make."
"What do you mean?" Lu Yingjiu asked.
"That is to say, in addition to allowing her followers to achieve immortality in the form of spiders, she can also fulfill people's wishes." Jing Xian said, "She can become so powerful that she can even infect the mountains blessed by the snake. She must have fulfilled the wishes of someone or some people. And that wish must have been very big."
“… I understand.” Lu Yingjiu nodded slightly.
He opened the car door and threw out dozens of talismans!
The talisman paper began to burn, cutting through the rain curtain like a flying swallow, flexibly shuttling through the raindrops and falling in different directions.
The ground was full of water, but when they landed, they still burst into flames, instantly burning all the spiders. The air was filled with the smell of burnt protein, which even rain could not disperse.
Suddenly there was a cry: "Help!!"
Lu Yingjiu looked up and saw two anchors, a man and a woman, surrounded by spiders at the main entrance of the hotel.
The man held a burning talisman paper in his hand, which should have been given to him by Ye Feng. However, the talisman paper was accidentally wet by the rain, and the flames were slowly extinguishing. The spiders around him, like a tide, immediately sensed the opportunity and kept spinning and crawling around the two of them, ready to pounce on them.
Lu Yingjiu picked up Mao Tuanzi from the car—
Then he threw it towards the main entrance of the hotel like a shot put!
Maotuanzi: “Ouch?”
It landed at the door in a round shape and bounced a few times.
The two men could not see the existence of the hairy ball, they only felt the spider's movements suddenly stop.
Even when the fire was out, they didn't dare to get close, as if they were afraid of something.
The furry ball rolled several times, figured out the situation, shook its head, and happily tried to grab the nearest spider.
—This action was stopped in time by Lu Yingjiu.
With four pieces of talisman paper burning beside him, he quickly broke through the waves of spiders and came to the door. He picked up Mao Tuanzi again and said to the two men, "Follow me!"
The four entered the hotel lobby.
Like Feng Mao's underground passage, there were many spider silks hanging from the glass lamps in the hall, connecting to the marble pillars, the front desk, and the floor.
Lu Yingjiu burned them, listened to the voices, and found Ye Feng and his group at the back door of the hotel.
There were circles of burning talismans around the back door, forcing the spiders to stay away. Ye Feng and Xiao Li had gathered the others together, while Red Clothes and A Long were holding the friend bitten by the spider.
When Ye Feng saw Lu Yingjiu and the two anchors coming over, he breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay! I was just about to go out to look for them! I'm glad they're okay! It's really too chaotic here."
The elevator was tangled in spider webs and could not be used. Even the stairs were blocked by spider webs. Although the hotel was not big, he and Xiao Li were still exhausted and out of breath after running up and down several times. Their faces were covered with rain and sweat.
Lu Yingjiu quickly scanned the crowd.
Everyone's face was filled with fear, confusion and helplessness.
He asked, “Is everyone here?”
The man in red immediately replied, "Yes! There are seven of us!"
The wind was whimpering, and Lu Yingjiu had to raise his voice: "Let's go now!"
Including him and Jing Xian, a total of 9 people returned to the main entrance of the hotel.
The off-road vehicle driven by the man in red came in handy. They split into two groups, and the two off-road vehicles drove through the layers of spider sea and headed straight for the mountains in the south.
After getting on the bus, everyone was frightened, but they felt much safer after all.
One of the girls was young, looking to be in her early 20s.
There was a red and swollen spot on the back of her hand, probably because she was bitten just now. She said in a tearful voice: "Just now, I was eating downstairs, and then the waiter suddenly started vomiting, vomiting a lot of blood! And a lot of internal organs! Then he turned into a spider in front of my eyes. Everyone in front of me turned into a spider!"
Another woman next to her held her hand, comforted her, and said, "It will be fine once you leave the village, it will be fine once you leave the village!"
"But we can't get out, wuwuwuwu—" the girl suddenly burst into tears, "There's a mudslide! You just said you wanted to go up the mountain, there will be more spiders on the mountain!"
The woman was much calmer than her and quickly continued to comfort her.
Lu Yingjiu looked ahead and said, "No, there won't be more spiders on the mountain."
He pointed forward and said, "There's not even a spider there."
Everyone was stunned and stretched their necks to look outside. Even the girls looked outside through their tear-blurred eyes.
After seeing it clearly, they were delighted.
The SUV was almost at the foot of the mountain in the south. Of course, the closer we got to the bottom of the mountain, the fewer spiders there were. The spiders on other hills were going crazy, but only this hill, which had been protected by the Li Snake, had no spiders at all.
However, no one dares to bet on how long it can last.
In fact, Lu Yingjiu was also surprised: the Li Snake actually had such a powerful impact on the Spider Mother that it could almost be regarded as a ghost that was in conflict with her.
He remembered Jingxian's words again: To become so powerful, she must have fulfilled the wish of someone or some people.
… That must be a big wish. Lu Yingjiu thought silently, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world, and the person who made the wish must have paid a lot.
When we reached the foot of the mountain, the car stopped.
The only way left is walking.
This may be the hard part.
They got out of the car.
The wind tore the leaves apart, making a rustling noise. Ye Feng came over and said to Lu Yingjiu in a hoarse voice: "Let's follow yesterday's route and go to Hongqi Peak!"
Without further ado, everyone was planning to go up the mountain when Lu Yingjiu suddenly turned back.
In the distance in the heavy rain, Ah Mei was standing alone, her clothes were soaked by the rain and stuck to her body.
She didn't turn into a spider.
Someone recognized her and screamed, “She’s from the village!!”
Panic spread immediately, and everyone rushed to climb up the mountain, but was stopped by Ye Feng again: "Slow down! Slow down! If you get separated, no one can save you! Hey, I'm talking to you, don't run!"
Having said that, Ye Feng also felt uneasy.
After stopping everyone, he walked to Lu Yingjiu and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong with her?"
Lu Yingjiu shook her head gently and wiped the rain off her chin with the back of her hand.
Ame walked towards them.
She walked quite fast, but her steps were stiff, with her head hung, as if she was enduring tremendous pain and was relying solely on her willpower to hold on.
50 meters, 30 meters, 20 meters...
Amei approached step by step.
Finally, when there were only 10 meters left, another person screamed, "Don't come near me! Don't come near me!" After that, he pulled out a fruit knife and held it tightly in his hand, as if he would fight to the death if she dared to come over.
Ah Mei suddenly stopped.
She raised her face, her face as pale as death: "Take me with you."
Lu Yingjiu asked: "Why didn't you turn into a spider?"
Ah Mei's body shook, and she continued, "I'm different from them. I, I haven't been completely transformed..."
The man holding the fruit knife was even more terrified: "You, you won't let her go with us?! You are crazy!!"
He flicked the tip of his knife and pointed it behind Lu Yingjiu.
At this moment, a strange force pulled the knife out of his hand!
The fruit knife flew out at an angle, circled several times in the air, and then stuck in the tree trunk.
The man was stunned, and when he turned his head, his eyes met Jing Xian's.
Jing Xian looked at him silently, his eyes dark.
The man's scalp went numb in an instant, and the fear in his heart was greater than when he faced the spiders all over the mountain just now. His legs went weak and he knelt on the mud, not daring to move.
Lu Yingjiu looked at Amei silently.
The woman's braids were wet by the rain, becoming even brighter. There was almost a pleading look in her eyes: "Take me with you. I don't want to be a monster all my life. I don't want to be a lunatic all my life! I want to leave here!"
Lu Yingjiu continued to remain silent.
The sound of wind and rain was getting louder and louder, and everyone was waiting for his decision.
After a few seconds, or maybe a few minutes, he let out a long sigh and said, "Come with us, but there is one prerequisite: you have to stay by my side the whole time."
Amei's eyes lit up and she nodded repeatedly.
Everyone was in an uproar.
But with the example of the man with the knife, no one dared to object to Lu Yingjiu - Jing Xian stayed firmly beside him, like some kind of wild beast defending its territory, and would not tolerate any intrusion or provocation from others.
So, they didn't dare to say a word more, and could only stay as far away from Amei as possible and start climbing the mountain.
On typhoon days, even without spiders, mountain roads are difficult and dangerous to walk on.
Lu Yingjiu and the others had nearly fallen several times when they were going down the mountain. Now they were exhausted and panicked, and they kept falling down. Every time, there was a very solid "thump" sound, which was painful to hear, and their legs would definitely be covered with bruises in a while.
The girl in the car was wearing thin clothes and shivering in the rain. Someone next to her handed her a coat. She trembled her lips, whispered a thank you, put on the coat and rubbed her hands vigorously.
Ah Mei's condition was already very bad, but with amazing perseverance, she endured the pain and discomfort and did not fall behind.
After climbing for nearly half an hour, I looked back at the village and could only vaguely see a black mass.
A large number of spiders wanted to approach the foot of the mountain, but they didn't dare to, so they could only jump and roll in the same place.
One person said happily: "They really can't get up at all!"
"It's hard to say." Lu Yingjiu said, "We must prepare for the worst."
With his many years of experience in exorcising ghosts, ghosts of the Spider Mother's level are not so easy to deal with.
Anyway, they are safe for the time being.
After another two hours of climbing up the mountain, stepping over countless broken branches and falling countless times, a small hexagonal pavilion finally appeared on the top of the mountain.
There were shallow lines on the pillars, and a flaming snake coiled up and spit out signals on the top of the pavilion.
They found the pavilion for paying homage to the dead.
After entering the pavilion, Ye Feng used talisman paper to make a fire in the middle of the pavilion.
Although the wind blew raindrops in, with the fire, everyone sat together, stretched out their hands to warm themselves, and felt the heat, and suddenly they felt alive. The few shivering people gradually relaxed, and their faces and fingertips were flushed with red.
The village was already far away from them.
Only then did their faces look truly good.
Ye Feng also sat down to rest.
He reached into his backpack and found half a bottle of mineral water. It looked like it had been put into the bag two days ago. The bottle was wrinkled and flattened, looking quite ugly.
Although it has been a while, he can only make do with it now. He took it out and asked for the wine: "I only have a little water left in my bottle, do you want..."
The conversation paused.
Lu Yingjiu held a small black thermos cup in both hands and looked at him: "Hmm?"
Hot steam wafted out of the thermos cup, and Ye Feng could faintly smell the scent of wolfberry and chrysanthemum.
In this environment, a cup of hot tea is priceless.
… Why does he have tea to drink?
And it looks steaming hot!!
Ye Feng widened his eyes, almost in disbelief.
Lu Yingjiu glanced at the wrinkled mineral water bottle in his hand, then looked at the thermos cup in her hand that Jing Xian had just handed over, and suddenly realized something, so she handed the thermos cup forward: "Do you want it?"
Ye Feng: "No, no, no."
He glanced at Jing Xian next to him - Jing Xian's expression was very kind and smiling, but Ye Feng inexplicably felt that if he dared to answer, he would be finished, completely fucking finished.
Lu Yingjiu asked in confusion: "Really not?"
"No, no, no." Ye Feng shook his head like a rattle. "I just drink mineral water, it's good. I like drinking mineral water. I have liked it since I was a child. It's a little sweet and tastes great! I like Nongfu Spring the best!"
Lu Yingjiu: "… Why did you also put in product placement?"
However, seeing Ye Feng's attitude, Jing Xian knew what was going on when he turned around.
He immediately glared at Jing Xian, elbowed him, and whispered, "Why are you so jealous all day long?"
Jing Xian was not angry and just laughed a few times.
Lu Yingjiu poured Ye Feng some hot tea despite Ye Feng's fearless gaze.
After resting for more than ten minutes, everyone felt much better.
Ye Feng drank what he called "decapitation tea" and felt warm all over, finally recovering.
He finally had time to speak: "Speaking of that spider..."
Lu Yingjiu turned his head to look over.
Ye Feng said: "My second grandfather's ghost-exorcism skills are really amazing. He has been honest all his life and has devoted a lot of effort to the sanatorium. He is already old, and he can stay up all night for several days just to find out a little information; he can also go to the mountains and hunt ghosts for more than half a month just to ensure the safety of the sanatorium."
“It can be said that without him, the nursing home would have closed down long ago.”
"Although he has a bit of a strange temper, many people in the family still admire him very much."
Lu Yingjiu nodded: "I've heard you say this several times."
Ye Feng sighed and continued, "Even though everyone had left at that time, he still insisted on coming back several times to find out the truth. After all, it is not easy to run a sanatorium of that size. In that era, only a sanatorium could help those who had encountered ghosts."
"He has been in the village for so many years, but he didn't find any problems in the village... Or maybe he is too familiar with the villagers and didn't suspect anything." He couldn't help but sigh, "I didn't expect that he would overlook this point."
"Until his death, he was still obsessed with what happened in the village."
"I think the reason why he left his relics is that he hoped that I would come back here one day."
Just as Lu Yingjiu was about to answer, she heard Ah Mei suddenly call out, "Ye Feng."
Ye Feng was stunned.
Ah Mei stared at him intently: "Ye Feng, your name is Ye Feng, right? I know you."
Ye Feng: "How did you..."
Ah Mei coughed a few times: "To be precise, I knew you when you were a child, and your second grandfather Ye Deyong." She stared at Ye Feng with a serious expression, and said word by word, "You said he is incorruptible and only cares about the sanatorium? That's bullshit!"
Ye Feng was stunned, then he got angry: "What the hell do you mean?! How can you slander me! What do you know?!"
"I know! I know everything." Ah Mei's emotions also became excited, and she stared with her almond-shaped eyes, "I heard the conversation between your grandfather and Feng Mao with my own ears! Your grandfather is obviously the culprit who planned everything!"
Everyone was stunned.
Ah Mei's face turned pale, and she coughed violently a few times, then she said loudly: "The villagers believe in the Spider Mother, but we are just ordinary people! For decades or hundreds of years, we never knew how to summon her! It was your grandfather who told Feng Mao how to summon her!"
"What do you mean by being honest and upright? It's all bullshit! It's all fake! It's because of that exorcist that he came that everyone turned into monsters!"