Xia Qi really couldn't imagine himself being carried up the mountain by two zongzi, so he decisively rejected the three corpse porters and sedan chair requests.
The three corpses pretended to persuade him again, but Xia Qi quickly changed the subject and said, "Now that you have become like this, can you still follow me up the mountain?"
It was still daytime, and if three corpses followed him back in broad daylight, would the deputy village chief be frightened? Would the people of Tianxing Mountain think they had encountered an evil spirit
As far as Xia Qi knew, although priests were in charge of divination, sacrifice, weddings and funerals, in minority areas, priests were equivalent to Taoist priests...
"Oh, Master Wuzhu is right." The cleverest corpse clapped his hands and said very quickly, "Our magic power is too weak right now. It will be safer to go up the mountain when our magic power becomes stronger at night. Master Wuzhu is really thoughtful."
Listening to the three corpses' chattering, Xia Qi always felt something was odd. His starting point was obviously not to scare people, so how did he become concerned about their lack of magic power
Another corpse added: "I just hope the priest doesn't go to bed early tonight..."
Hearing this, Xia Qi was stunned. The priest was actually in cahoots with them
Originally, he thought that the priest's job was to exorcise evil spirits, but why did he feel that the old priest was the initiator of making zongzi
Xia Qi stood there thinking, but the three corpses had already reached a unanimous conclusion, which was to no longer carry Xia Qi up the mountain.
"Master Wuzhu, we can't send you off any longer." The corpses bowed to Xia Qi and said with great regret.
Xia Qi wished they would stop sending him off. He waved his hand and said, "It's okay. I'll leave first. Hide yourselves and don't let the soldiers find you."
Although the leader of the soldiers did not know the correct way to destroy the corpse, judging from the situation at the time, the leader should know what the corpse was. Xia Qi was worried that the court had other tricks up its sleeve, so he reminded the three corpses to be careful of their own safety.
"As you command, thank you, Master Wuzhu."
The three corpses raised their hands and said goodbye to Xia Qi. Then they waved mechanically and watched Xia Qi leave carrying his eldest brother.
After Xia Qi carried his elder brother for a long distance, he suddenly came to his senses.
"What are these three corpses doing on Tianxing Mountain? Aren't they afraid of being chased off the mountain as monsters?"
As they had walked some distance, Xia Qi turned around and found that the three bodies had disappeared.
They seemed to have followed his advice and hid themselves well.
Xia Qi had no choice but to move forward.
The route he was taking now was the direction the deputy village chief had fled in.
Xia Qi asked his elder brother a few more questions in a low voice, and finding that his elder brother had not gained weight, he walked forward with peace of mind.
After walking for a while, Xia Qi suddenly heard someone calling him, and then a person suddenly jumped out from the bushes nearby.
When Xia Qi saw the familiar figure, he couldn't help but turn his head away and continued walking forward without looking around.
"Xia Qi, why did you run out? There is still danger nearby, come and hide here for a while..." Cha Gong hurriedly ran to his side, chasing him and talking incessantly.
Xia Qili ignored Cha Gong. He thought to himself, it is true that bad people have the longest lives. Cha Gong has not had any bad luck yet and is still hanging around in front of him all day long.
"Xia Qi, wait for me!"
Seeing that he could not persuade him, Cha Gong turned back, carrying his own body and running after Xia Qi.
The two walked one after the other, and after a while, Xia Qi met the deputy village chief.
The deputy leader did not expect that Xia Qi could escape unscathed. He excitedly hugged Xia Qi twice, praised him a few words, and then began to accuse the imperial court of having sinister intentions and ambushing them here.
Listening to the deputy village chief's endless chatter, Xia Qi couldn't help but press his temple and interrupted: "Deputy village chief, do we need to find the others?"
"I almost forgot!" Upon hearing this, the deputy village chief slapped his forehead and said nervously, "We have to find them before dark."
Dark
Xia Qi felt a little cold on his back. He glanced sideways at his big brother who was resting his head on his neck and felt a little uneasy.
The three corpses just mentioned that their magic power would be enhanced at night. Could it be that the corpses on the players' backs would also be resurrected and rise up at night
"There is no time to lose. How do we find them? Let's split up and look for them!" Xia Qi was so anxious that his palms were sweating. He quickly urged the deputy village chief to go find people.
He has been pestered by this big brother all the way. If the big brother goes crazy at night, Xia Qi feels that he might strain his lumbar muscles on the spot.
"Aqi, don't worry. You don't need to set out to look for them. I have my own way to call them back." The deputy village chief patted Xia Qi on the shoulder, and then he took out a small copper bell that looked shabby from his waist.
This bell looks greasy, as if it has been used by many people. There are some red marks on the edge of the bell, which look like bloodstains from a long history.
The deputy village chief raised his hand and rang the small bell.
"Ding ding ding..."
The sound of the bell is so faint that it is almost inaudible if you don't listen carefully.
The deputy village chief was shaking the bell and looking around. Xia Qi followed his gaze and observed the surroundings in confusion. After a while, a player appeared on the nearby road.
Xia Qi recognized this person as Xiao Ou's window-climbing target, a player named Zhang Yun. Unexpectedly, after not seeing him for a long time, Zhang Yun became dusty and had a few bloodstains on his cheeks. His clothes on his chest were also torn, and several red marks could be seen on his skin.
"Damn it, why did I work so hard to hide from those soldiers? Why is this corpse biting me?!" Zhang Yun rushed towards the deputy village chief quickly. When he got nearby, he threw the corpse to the ground fiercely and angrily accused the deputy village chief of sending the corpse.
"Kid, don't be angry, this is all to transfer you here..." The deputy village chief quickly explained to Zhang Yun that it was not the corpse's fault.
Xia Qi stood aside and listened, then he realized that it was the function of the deputy village chief's bell.
The copper bell that the deputy village chief is shaking in his hand is called the "Soul-Catching Bell", which has the effect of controlling corpses, such as reviving corpses and gathering corpses. The reason why he shakes the Soul-Catching Bell is to let the corpses guide the players over.
"They can't speak, and they can't scratch me! Look at my face, it's all disfigured!" Zhang Yun was still complaining. Fortunately, he was not far from the deputy village chief. If he was farther away, the corpse on his back would probably have skinned him.
The deputy village chief was quite helpless. He comforted Zhang Yun and said that he was not a priest and his ability to control the soul-catching bell was not good enough. It was a normal side effect that the corpses sometimes behaved excessively.
"Ding ding ding..."
The deputy village chief shook his head for a while, but this time, they were not so lucky. After waiting for nearly half an hour, no one appeared nearby.
"What's going on? Could it be that all the boys were captured by the imperial court?" The deputy village chief said in disbelief, and couldn't help but worry in his heart.
So far, only three of them have returned and brought back three corpses, which is less than half of the number collected. Thinking about it this way, their loss is too great, which is totally unacceptable to the deputy village chief.
Looking at the worried deputy village chief, Xia Qi took the initiative to ask: "Deputy village chief, is there any other way?"
"My magic power is not enough. If someone with stronger magic power uses the Soul-Catching Bell, its effective range will become larger..." The deputy village chief looked at Xia Qi with a frown, muttered for a while, and suddenly his eyes lit up. He looked at Xia Qi excitedly and stuffed the Soul-Catching Bell into his hand, "Ah Qi, why don't you try it?"
"Should I try? Will it work?" Xia Qi took the soul-catching bell nervously, feeling that it was a little hot.
"It will be useful. Although you have not yet undergone the ceremony to become a real witch, your natural witch power is stronger than mine." The deputy village chief patted his shoulder again and said seriously.
Xia Qi looked up at the sky. It was now about three o'clock in the afternoon. If they delayed any further, they might not be able to get back to the mountain before dark.
Xia Qi looked down at his elder brother who had his head resting on his neck, and thought, what would happen if he shook the bell to get rid of this elder brother
"Okay, I'll try." Xia Qi gritted his teeth, picked up the bell and started shaking it.
“Ding ding ding.”
After the bell fell into his hand and rang, the crisp sound became noticeably louder. After a while, a player appeared on the path in the distance. Compared to Zhang Yun who had just arrived, this player was obviously in a worse condition. The bloodstains on his face were like half of a spider web, his upper body was also tattered, and the skin on his body was scratched by the corpses so badly that it was unbearable to look at.
"Brother Corpse, what's wrong with you? How have I offended you? Why are you holding me like a fishing net?"
As soon as the player arrived nearby, he burst into tears out of grievance.
While shaking the bell, Xia Qi couldn't help but lower his head so as not to look at the miserable appearance of the player.
He felt deeply guilty, but he had no choice. In order to gather this group of players here, he had to continue shaking the Soul-Catching Bell.
“Ding ding ding.”
Half an hour later, two more players arrived. These two players were in an even worse condition than the previous one. All the hair on their heads was pulled out.
It was not until the bungee jumper finally appeared in front of everyone that Xia Qi finally stopped his deadly ringing.
"Let's go quickly..."
Xia Qi quietly stuffed the bell into the deputy village chief's hand, then walked forward carrying the corpse. He really couldn't bear to see the miserable plight of other players.
Everyone followed the deputy village chief and walked quickly for about an hour, crossing many mountains and ridges and small streams. Xia Qi stood on a gentle slope and finally saw the whole picture of Tianxing Mountain.
Before he could be happy for too long, the deputy village chief suddenly pointed to a ravine below and said nervously: "Oh no! The imperial court has dug trenches on the road we must pass!"
Hearing such bad news, Xia Qi felt his heart sink, but he still asked firmly: "Is there any other shortcut?"
The deputy village chief shook his head and said with regret: "This trench looks very long, and there are people guarding both sides. We have to take a detour."
"How long will the detour take?" Xia Qi continued to ask without giving up.
The deputy village chief sighed and said, "I'm afraid we have to go back at night."
Xia Qi: “…”
Not knowing whether it was God who was torturing him on purpose, Xia Qi felt that it got dark very quickly today. It was not even six o'clock in the evening, but the whole sky began to darken.
At the last moment when the sun's rays disappeared, they finally bypassed the trenches dug by the court and came to the alternative path leading up Tianxing Mountain.
The path was very rugged, and players often had to climb up by grabbing rocks or tree trunks with their hands. Other players were worried that the bodies would fall off their backs, so they tied the bodies to their backs with ropes.
Xia Qi also pretended to be serious and tied his elder brother loosely behind his back with a cloth strip.
As the night deepened, when they were climbing uphill above a small ravine, Xia Qi accidentally lost his grip on a tree trunk and slipped down.
Before he slid to the bottom, suddenly, Xia Qi's waist was firmly grasped by a hand, and the man's other broad hand pressed his right hand firmly against the wall. Then, he passed the five fingers of his right hand through his fingers and held his ten fingers.
The person who was originally hanging on his neck seemed to raise his head. Xia Qi felt a warm breath sprayed on his ear. The man's low and hoarse but bewitching voice sounded: "Ah Qi, are you tired? Let me hold you."
Xia Qi: “…”