The servants fell one after another.
The rain was heavy, the wind was cold and sharp, and the sea water was surging wildly, smashing into the bridge again and again, crushing it to pieces.
Lu Yingjiu's eyes were hazy. He tried to focus but could only see a vague outline. He was fighting with his instincts, and his energy was exhausted. Every beat of his heart was filled with fatigue.
The time he could have summoned the gods was very short.
Because of his physical condition, the backlash of inviting the gods to him was huge. He turned into a demon, with different colored pupils, ghost horns, and gradually sharp nails. If he maintained this state for a while, he would either die of heart failure or turn into a demon.
—Although Lu Yingjiu also knows which one would be better.
Or maybe he had died before that, and there was no way of knowing the answer.
A long knife silently pierced through his abdomen.
The blood was all over the ground, and the bright red liquid rolled to the ground and was diluted by the rain.
He did not feel any pain. The effect of the ghost transformation was comparable to countless doses of adrenaline. He would not feel cold, would not feel pain, and would not flinch. In fact, as long as the knife was broken and thrown away, the wound would heal at a speed hundreds of times faster.
But this changes nothing.
He will still die here.
The black beast whimpered and tried to rub against him, but it had no strength to do so. It limped and stood unsteadily, with blood still spreading.
It is said that when a person is about to die, he will see a revolving lantern before his eyes.
All the big and small things that happened in life, all the trivial joys and sorrows, will all pass before your eyes.
Unexpectedly, Lu Yingjiu didn't expect the life before 26 years.
He arrived in a snowstorm.
That white snowstorm that never ended.
He pulled the young man in black clothes and walked in the snow, one step deep and one step shallow. Only the light in his hand was bright yellow.
"..." He shouted silently, "Respectfully..."
Consciousness fell into darkness.
…
1528.
Hualu Mountain.
When Qingtou arrived at the foot of the mountain, the villagers welcomed him into the village almost respectfully.
He was dressed simply, with a white shirt with strange dark patterns, which glowed faintly in the sunlight. His collar was buttoned neatly, and a dark red string hung around his neck, making his skin look as white as snow and as soft as jade.
The village chief’s surname is Chai, and people call him Old Man Chai.
At this point, he nodded and bowed, smiling until wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, and asked, "May I know what your name is—"
"My last name is Lu." The young man answered.
The sound is also extremely nice.
"Oh, it's Master Lu, Master Lu." Old Man Chai nodded, "Please come this way—"
Lu Yingjiu followed Old Man Chai to a secluded place in the village, where there was an empty bamboo house, which was where the previous exorcist lived and was now left to him.
The house was covered with dust. I guess the villagers came to clean it and only hurriedly changed the bedding.
He put down his heavy bag and made a decision.
The wind rose from the ground and swept through the house, carrying away all the dust in the corners and sweeping it out.
Old Man Chai was stunned and praised repeatedly: "Master is a master! His skills are really great!"
Lu Yingjiu glanced at him and said calmly, "Take me to see where the body is."
So, Old Man Chai took him to the south of the village.
There are a few dilapidated thatched houses in the south of the village, which are drafty on all sides and seem to have been uninhabited for a long time.
Before he got close, Lu Yingjiu smelled an extremely terrible stench.
It's the height of summer, and this is the smell of rotting meat... and it smells very rotten.
Old Man Chai retched and led him to a thatched house, covering his mouth and nose: "Master, if you want, if you want, I'll wait for you outside."
Lu Yingjiu nodded slightly, then walked into the house with a changed expression.
Countless flies were flying around, making a buzzing sound. In the corner was a corpse, with its chest ripped open, revealing dark red and green flesh.
The deceased was a strong man.
He glanced around the room.
The man died miserably, but the house was surprisingly clean—to be more precise, the things were very few, and the house was bare. The pot was half rotten, and the bowl was broken, but the pots, bowls, and pans were neatly arranged.
There are signs of struggle.
The man was muscular, with muscular arms and thighs. He was killed without any resistance.
Lu Yingjiu squatted down and carefully examined the wounds on the dead man's body.
It was stabbed by a knife... Yes, it was torn directly by sharp claws. In addition to the fatal wound, his torso and limbs also had horrible wounds and bruises.
According to Old Man Chai, the man had been dead for fifteen or sixty days. Even after such a long time, Lu Yingjiu could still feel the eerie aura coming from his wounds.
Sure enough, just as the villagers thought, it was a ghost causing trouble.
He pinched a piece of talisman paper.
The back half of the talisman paper burned and slowly turned in the air, pursuing the trace of the Yin energy.
But it was like a blind fly in the house, just spinning in circles.
—The ghost was very cautious and knew how to hide his tracks after killing someone.
Lu Yingjiu looked around the room again and went out.
Old Man Chai hid far away, and when he saw him coming out, he hurriedly asked, "How is it?!"
Lu Yingjiu shook his head gently: "It is indeed a fierce ghost, but it took a few days to track it down."
"Ah!" Old Man Chai's face turned pale. "Then, what should we do?" He trembled, his whole voice was shaking. "What if it comes to kill people again? Should we put some talismans on it? Will firecrackers work?"
"I'll give you some talisman paper." Lu Yingjiu said.
He then asked, "Did this deceased person have any enemies in his daily life?"
Old Man Chai slapped his thigh and said, "Hey, I was just about to mention this to you! His name is Duan Kang, and he is a well-known villain in the village. He usually does no evil, is idle, and even flirts with other people's young girls. He has been beaten many times."
"Oh?" Lu Yingjiu raised an eyebrow with interest, "Can you tell me more details?"
Although he knew why the master asked this, Old Man Chai was scared to death and dumped everything out in one go.
He said: "Duan Kang offended almost everyone in the village, and he has little money, so he can only live in these shabby houses - I gave him this because of his father's kindness. He was so poor before that he went out of the village to rob travelers of their silver, but he was beaten half to death. I paid him the money."
After saying this, he sighed deeply.
Lu Yingjiu seemed to be thinking about something, and then asked, "Has he done anything else? For example, digging up other people's ancestral graves, or taking the remains of the dead, or committing murder for money?"
Old Man Chai was stunned: "You, you are guessing that he was killed by a vengeful ghost?"
"It's just an idea." Lu Yingjiu said.
Old Man Chai frowned.
After a while, he said: "Speaking of this, it really is true..."
He cleared his throat and said, "Of course, there is no definite information about this matter. To put it simply, there lived an old woman named Liu in the west of our village. When she was young, her family was a merchant and saved a little money. Later, her family fell into poverty, so she moved here alone."
"Although she didn't have much money, she had a lot of gold and silver jewelry, such as bracelets and hairpins. As she was old and her eyesight was blurry, she usually left her things outside. Everyone in the village knew about her heirlooms."
"Later..."
Old Man Chai paused, a hint of hesitation on his face, but he continued, "Later, General Duan Kang went to her house, and some people heard them arguing."
"The old lady lived alone, kept to herself, and had no one to take care of her. On that night, someone heard her arguing with someone. The next day, she was dead with a kitchen knife stuck in her chest. Her house was open, and all her silver and jewelry were gone."
"This is clearly murder for money."
"Everyone in the village suspects Duan Kang, but there is no evidence, so we can only make up stories. I only wanted to tell you something because you mentioned this matter today."
Lu Yingjiu asked, "How did Mr. Liu die?"
"July 22nd." replied Old Man Chai.
In other words, seven days ago.
The time is not long.
Lu Yingjiu returned to the thatched hut, took out some paper, and folded it into the shape of a little man.
The little paper man obeyed his order and landed lightly on the ground, looking left and right, searching everywhere.
Finally, they lifted up an upside-down pot in the corner.
A brown-black sack was at the bottom.
Lu Yingjiu picked it up; it was heavy, and when he opened it, it was full of gorgeous jewelry.
He carried the bag out and placed it in front of Old Man Chai: "He was the one who murdered me."
Old Man Chai was so shocked that he stared straight ahead, then muttered, "No wonder, no wonder..."
After a while, he asked, "So the evil spirit who avenged him was Liu Laoshi?"
"It's hard to say." Lu Yingjiu said, "Generally speaking, when an old man dies, he will have a lot of resentment. It's hard for a fierce ghost - even if it's a transformed ghost, it's just some small ghost. It's impossible to let a strong man die without resistance."
"So what you mean is..." Old Man Chai asked cautiously.
"I'll stay here for one night and then we'll talk about it." Lu Yingjiu replied.
So he burned Duan Kangxi's body and returned to the bamboo house.
At night, candles are lit and the flames flicker.
He took out a thick file from his bag, spread it on the table, and read it by candlelight.
The corpse was intact, the ghost was a carrion eater; it knew how to erase its own traces, the ghost was very cautious; Duan Kang had a few scars on his body, but the fatal wound on his chest was clean and neat, which means that the ghost has a strong power to kill the living, but deliberately keeps people hanging, tortures people, and finally kills them directly when it gets tired of playing...
He picked up the pen and wrote a few lines of words carefully.
Evil ghost.
It's a typical evil ghost, probably very difficult to deal with.
The wolf-hair brush hovered in the air, and he slightly frowned.
Until a drop of ink falls and spreads on the paper.
He wrote again: "Kill him."
The handwriting was sharp, like a cold judgment.
“Hoohoo—”
A strong mountain wind blew past, making the trees rustle and instantly blew out the candlelight.
The room was pitch black, with only a pool of pure white moonlight falling on his white clothes.
Lu Yingjiu sat silently in the darkness, looking towards the pitch-black forest.
Mid-July, ghosts come out.
Hundreds of ghosts are rampant, and he wants to pull out the evil ghost at that moment.
He stayed in the village like this for several days.
The villagers dared not neglect him, and the next day they killed a chicken, added some wild mushrooms, and stewed a pot of fragrant golden chicken soup and sent it to him.
After Lu Ying drank a little, he asked Old Man Chai to take it back and distribute it to the villagers. He then said, "You don't need to deal with these things in the future. Since I am here, I will definitely do my best."
He saw that the village was poor.
Old Man Chai responded and took the chicken soup back to share with everyone.
Afterwards, while waiting for the Ghost Festival, Lu Yingjiu helped the villagers: for example, he pasted amulets on windows and doors, or used paper figurines to help families find lucky things.
All of a sudden, the villagers praised him highly.
Besides, he is handsome, with beautiful features and a daughter, so people are still asking whether he has a wife or concubine.
Lu Yingjiu always smiled faintly and did not comment.
After this happened a few times, everyone thought he had no interest in marriage and stopped bothering him.
After all, he is a master, so it is normal for him to be ethereal and otherworldly. His concerns about the mundane world may be different from those of ordinary people.
I don't know if it was the effect of the amulet given on the road to welcome the wine, or if the ghost had left long ago, but the village was peaceful until the 15th of July.
July 15th, Ziyi.
Lu Yingjiu planned to sleep all night, so he sat by the window and read a file.
The flames kept jumping in the wind.
After a certain breath, it goes out.
A cold wind came down from the mountain, lifting the sleeves of the wine-drinking people on the road.
His expression changed, he threw away the talisman paper, relit an oil lamp, and walked slowly and hurriedly up the mountain.
The back hill was full of vines and weeds, making it difficult to walk, but he walked around the vines with light steps, and the weeds swayed wherever he passed.
More nimble than a flying swallow, more silent than a spirit deer. The bright moon was setting, and the shadows of her eyelashes fell on her face like a small fan, which also made his white clothes look slim, and the dark lines on his eyes flickered like the tide.
With every breath he took, his magic was flowing.
It's very pleasing to the eyes.
—The village invited him from afar because they had heard of his great name.
A few days ago, three incompetent exorcists came here. They found no clues, but they were scared and left after a few days.
Only Lu Yingjiu...
Just by looking at him, without any words, everyone knew that he should not be underestimated.
He just walked in the mountains where the evil energy was rolling.
The ghost hand stretched out from the dense vegetation and grabbed his ankle, but when it touched the light of the oil lamp, it made a "sizzling" sound and was directly burned into a ball of black mist and dissipated in the air.
He didn't know how long he had been walking. When the bright moon was directly above him, he turned around.
A faint but perceptible yin energy passed by his back.
It was so faint that it almost melted in the night wind.
But what if I meet you on the road and you are welcoming me with wine
Lu Yingjiu followed that person past.
Passing through densely packed trees, tangled long grass and thorns, and bypassing a piercing stream, the yin energy became increasingly dense.
Just as he guessed, by the time of the Ghost Festival, even the most cautious ghosts would reveal their tracks.
A smile was evident on his face, and his slender fingers lightly pinched the talisman paper.
It is very dangerous to be a ghost who has killed people.
As planned before, he wanted to kill it.
The yin energy becomes more and more intense.
He walked past an old tree and its shadow fell on his legs.
The road greets the wine and looks up.
I saw a bull-headed evil ghost three men tall with red eyes, holding an axe high and smashing it at a young man!
The young man's head was covered in blood, and he leaned against the roots of a tree, seemingly completely able to bounce back.
It happened so quickly that the talisman paper burst into light in Lu Yingjiu's hand!
The flames rushed towards the bull-headed evil ghost.
The flames first wrapped around the axe, and the metal was instantly burned red. Then they spiraled up, circling around the evil ghost's arms and chasing it away.
A foul smell of burnt flesh wafted through the air, and the bull-headed evil ghost let out a scream!
It swung the axe, trying to cut Lu Yingjiu in half.
The sharp weapon mixed with the wind will fall on your head.
Lu Yingjiu's expression changed.
He didn't even move, but just looked at the evil spirit quietly.
The bull-headed evil ghost saw his own distorted face in his calm eyes.
—Flames were also seen erupting from its eyes.
Before they knew it, fire had penetrated its body, and waves of heat rolled in, exploding and tearing it into pieces.
The axe fell to the ground with a clang.
The mountain breeze blew away the burnt smell, and everything returned to calm.
Lu Ying's wine was dusty and he walked slowly towards the young man.
The young man didn't raise his head, but stood up shakily, and actually limped into his arms.
Hug him tightly.
My hands are still shaking.
Lu Yingjiu reached out and carefully wiped the blood off his face.
I can't see his face from the front, but just looking at his side you can tell he's a very handsome young man.
His eyebrows are as sharp as a knife, full of heroic spirit.
His lips were tightly pursed, and his jawline was clear and powerful. He had the immaturity of a teenager, but also the unique charm of a mature man. When he grows up, he will definitely be the type of guy that girls will fall in love with.
But he is very light.
So light that it seems weightless.
Although he was not much shorter than Lu Yingjiu, Lu Yingjiu was able to pick him up easily.
The young man kept his head buried in his arms.
Lu Yingjiu led him a few steps forward and went around a forest.
After that, everything became clear.
It was a clearing in the woods, with a stream flowing through it, the water clear enough to the bottom.
However, at this time, the stream water had turned red and the smell of blood was everywhere.
The mountains of corpses of ghosts and monsters piled up, reflecting the moonlight, like purgatory.
The ghosts and monsters died with their eyes closed, some with their hearts ripped out or their heads shot out. The various ways of death were very horrific, and none of the wounds revealed the cruelty, brutality and viciousness of the attackers.
The young man still buried his head, trembling slightly, as if he dared not look directly at this scene.
Lu Yingjiu looked at the mountain of corpses in silence.
After a long while, he said to the young man: "Your acting is not bad, but I know this is all your fault."
Eat less.
He trembled again, his whole body tensed for a moment, and then slowly relaxed.
Lu Yingjiu said: "You are the evil ghost."
The young man said nothing.
Lu Yingjiu sighed softly.
The young man pounced towards him, but he saw through her identity and was on guard.
but…
He had clearly come with murderous intent and should have attacked the young master long ago. But now, the young master was still curled up in his arms, with an attitude of trust, which made him hesitate.
—Whether judging from Duan Kang’s incident or the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in front of them, the young man was extremely terrifying.
Behind this beautiful appearance lies a monster with murderous intent.
Lu Yingjiu had seen many ghosts who were good at disguising themselves.
It is said that it is difficult to change a person's nature, and it is impossible for such a fierce ghost to be educated and changed. He believed that the young man could change his mind in just a few seconds, suddenly become kind, and restrain his murderous intentions.
The weakness and dependence of young people are all illusions.
This was to paralyze him and launch an attack in disguise when he was not paying attention. If he really let his guard down, he would definitely be mocked by ghosts after his death.
As the saying goes, ambition is hard to curb and evil nature cannot be changed.
What's more, the ghost world is the final destination of ghosts.
While thinking, Lu Yingjiu made up his mind and prepared to take out the talisman paper.
He looked down at the young man.
But he didn't expect that the young man just raised his head and looked at him.
A pair of pitch-black eyes were like an abyss. They should have been icy cold, but now there seemed to be an undercurrent surging.
Lu Yingjiu thought he was determined to kill her and was about to attack her violently.
However, the young man stared at Lu Yingjiu for a few moments, then suddenly lowered his head and buried his head deeply in his arms again.
Even so, he still held Lu Yingjiu tightly and was about to let go.
The ears turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It was still red as blood! It looked like she was both shy and very happy!
Road to welcome wine:
Road welcomes wine:
Was it a disguise?!