Although the warriors were excited after fighting the monsters tonight, they still had to face reality. The enthusiastic atmosphere of defeating the monsters quickly cooled down, and the city was shrouded in a sad atmosphere.
No matter how glorious the outcome of the battle, no matter how significant this night's fight was to mortals, a lot of demons did pour in tonight. The number of victims among the city's common people was still unknown at this moment. All they knew was that after the city announced that the demons had been completely expelled or killed, cries of grief were heard one after another in the city.
Yan Fei, Lu Chengfeng and Zuo Wuji did not choose to rest afterwards, but cleaned up the corpses of the demons together with the warriors, officers and soldiers in the city and some brave civilians.
A flatbed oxcart was already in place next to the corpse of a burly black bear monster. Zuo Wuji and Lu Chengfeng were on the left and right, each holding a large bamboo pole with ropes tied to the monster's corpse from the bottom.
"One, two, up!"
"Hey yo!"
The thick hemp rope was stretched taut by the force of the falling monster's corpse, and the two bamboo poles bent at a considerable angle. Then, with the joint efforts of Lu Chengfeng and Zuo Wuji, the monster's corpse gently left the ground, and then they lifted the bear monster's corpse, which weighed at least a thousand pounds, onto the ox cart.
"boom… "
The whole ox cart shook, and the old driver stared blankly at the grinning mouth of the bear monster's corpse. The longest sharp tooth was longer than his forearm.
"Oh, this monster is so scary..."
Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, the old man drove the ox cart away slowly. All these corpses would be taken to Temple Street, where the God of Land and the gods of the underworld would cast spells and ask people to exorcise the evil spirits. Then doctors from the pharmacy would come to "get medicine", and some things like leather would be used if they could be used and would not be wasted. If the God of Land said something was unknown, they would never be used and would be taken outside the city and burned.
There are twenty or thirty other places in the city where people are carrying out this kind of work of transporting demon corpses. The blood on the ground will be washed away with lime powder, causing many places to appear smoky.
After working for a while, Yan Fei, Lu Chengfeng and Zuo Wuji finally gathered together again. The best inn in the city specially vacated three rooms for them, so they no longer had to go back to the dilapidated temple outside the city.
"Alas, in this battle alone, countless civilians in the city were killed or injured."
Yan Fei sighed, while Lu Chengfeng took a sip of wine from the wine flask given to him by some unknown warrior. Zuo Wuji also frowned and looked at the street. Some residential walls had collapsed, and someone had just died inside. The family members were either kneeling or sitting beside the corpse crying.
In addition to those who were crying at home, there were also people standing at the intersection crying their hearts out.
"Boss, boss, remember to come back, you have to come back... wuwuwu... don't get lost, don't get lost..."
"Dad..." "Mom, you've been crying for half the night, please stop crying..."
"Aunt Li, I'm so sorry..."
That group of people were still crying, not because anyone was going on a long journey, but because the head of this family had been killed by a monster and even his body was gone, so he could only cry out at the intersection.
Zuo Wuji passed this intersection with his two masters. What he saw and heard made him hold his stick tightly. When he saw the three warriors, the crying of those families suddenly became much quieter, and their eyes fell on the three warriors.
The three warriors walked steadily and their bodies were covered in blood. One could tell at a glance that they were the ones who had killed the monster before. The families looked at the three with complicated eyes. None of them cried loudly, nor did they salute them. They just watched them go away.
This atmosphere made Zuo Wuji feel a little depressed. After walking away from the intersection, he couldn't help but look at Yan Fei and Lu Chengfeng.
"Master, Fourth Master, why are they looking at us like that?"
Zuo Wuji didn't expect everyone to thank them, but the look just now made him feel a little uncomfortable.
"Maybe they are wondering why we couldn't stop the demons and why we couldn't do something before the demons entered the city."
Yan Fei said this, and Lu Chengfeng also shook his head and sighed.
"Wuji, there are enough people coming to thank you. You can't expect those who have had accidents at home to come forward and compliment you. Human life is so fragile."
Zuo Wuji frowned slightly and looked back at the intersection. The crying sound was faintly heard again. He clenched his fists and his joints made a creaking sound.
"Wuji!"
Yan Fei suddenly said in a deep voice, and Zuo Wuji responded subconsciously.
"exist!"
"Practice martial arts well and carry forward the martial arts."
"Wuji knows!"
Lu Chengfeng on the side handed the wine jug to Zuo Wuji, watched him take a sip, and then smiled.
"Let's go, go to the inn and have a good sleep, then get up and practice tomorrow morning."
On a tall building in the city, a night patrolman from the underworld stood on the roof and watched Yan Fei and the other two walk towards the inn. These three warriors were worthy of the word "powerful" even in the eyes of ghosts and gods. Any ghosts and gods in the city who passed by would subconsciously take a second look at them.
Then the night patrol's sight turned to the temple, where corpses of demons were being transported one after another. In fact, beyond the naked eye of mortals, the ghosts and gods in the underworld were using soul-catching ropes to hook out the souls of some demons whose souls were still attached to the corpses, and then escorting them to the underworld.
After watching for a while, the night patrol finally jumped a few times on the roof and landed on the city wall to patrol. He was the only one patrolling alone tonight, as his colleagues were already scared out of their wits.
…
At this moment, Ji Yuan, who was far away in the Nichen Temple in Nanhuangzhou, also felt something. He seemed to see the star Wu Qu in a half-awake state. He opened his eyes, opened the door of the monk's room, walked to the corridor and looked at the night sky. Unfortunately, there was a layer of light cloud here tonight, and he could not see any stars.
But Ji Yuan did not cast any spell to disperse the clouds. He just looked at the sky for a while and then walked back into the house, as if he had already gained enlightenment in his heart. When he lay back in the house, he was already contemplating the artistic conception of the mountains and rivers.
In the artistic conception, the law of fate and the celestial phenomena are independent of the world. Looking at the bright and hazy stars in the sky, you can feel the real or virtual chess pieces. But no matter whether they are real or virtual, it is very obvious where the most dazzling stars are at this moment.
Ji Yuan in the artistic conception took a step forward and arrived at the highest mountain in the world. His Dharma body was comparable to the towering mountains, and on the top of the mountain there was a magnificent alchemy furnace, and inside the furnace eye was the burning Samadhi True Fire.
The Dharmakāya extended his hand towards the alchemy furnace, wiped it casually and then pointed it towards the sky. The next moment, endless white gas overflowed from the eye of the alchemy furnace and turned into pieces of smoke and clouds that entwined around the Dharmakāya's arm. After flying for a few weeks, with a pointing of the Dharmakāya, the smoke and clouds immediately floated towards the sky and merged into the stars in the sky.
The elixir energy from Ji Yuan's elixir furnace would occasionally leak out and be absorbed by the many "stars". It was rare for such a large amount of elixir energy to be drawn out as this time.
When these Dan Qi reached the position of the stars, they quickly merged into these stars. However, a few of them absorbed a portion of the Dan Qi and could no longer accept more. The remaining Dan Qi was all absorbed by the brightest star in the center. This situation was beyond Ji Yuan's expectations but also reasonable.
At the same time, on the distant Yunshan Mountain in Dazhen Bingzhou, inside the new Star Hall of Yunshan Temple, two star flags were emitting light. In fact, this light had appeared several hours ago, and Taoist Qingsong had been guarding under the two star flags for most of the night.
Ji Yuan had specifically reminded people to pay attention to all changes in the Star Flag, so Taoist Qingsong did not dare to be negligent in the slightest. He stayed under the Star Flag for most of the night, and occasionally made some calculations with his hands.
Until this moment, the top of the Star Hall seemed to be shrouded in a hazy light. Taoist Qingsong was originally in a half-asleep and half-awake state of calculation, but suddenly woke up at this moment. He looked up at the top of the hall, then got up directly from the cushion, jumped out of the hall, then looked up at the sky, calculating with his hands all the time.
At a certain moment, Taoist Qingsong stopped what he was doing, locked his eyes on a certain spot in the sky, and an enlightenment arose in his mind. He walked slowly back to the hall without saying a word, and looked up at the Star Banner again.
Faintly, it seemed as if a light flashed from a certain star on one of the banners.
'Wu Qu?'
While thinking, Taoist Qingsong also looked at the two portraits hanging on the side wall of the Star Hall. One was of Qin Zizhou, the wandering god of the Taoist world, and the other was Ji Yuan, a great master of the Taoist world. One of the two portraits had a kind smile, and the other was quiet and thoughtful.
Seeing the indifferent expressions on the two portraits, Taoist Qingsong calmed down. He bowed respectfully to the two portraits and then walked to the bottom of the Star Banner.
There was a small tripod there. Taoist Qingsong took out a stick of incense from a small table on the side and lit it with two fingers. After inserting the incense into the incense burner, Taoist Qingsong sat back on the cushion under the star flag, closed his eyes and began to meditate.
The sandalwood incense column on Xianglu Mountain went straight up and reached a position parallel to the star flags, but it did not continue to rise. Instead, it twisted and turned, all circling around one of the flags and converging at the position of Beidou Wu Qu.
At a certain moment, the sandalwood in the incense burner burned out, and Taoist Qingsong opened his eyes at this moment, looked up at the star flag above the head, the Wu Qu was dimly lit, and the Wen Qu was also shining not far away.
Qingsong looked at Xingfan who had just lowered his head when he suddenly felt something. He stood up abruptly and looked towards the door, then bowed towards the sidewalk in front of the door.
"Mr. Qin!"
It turned out that Qin Zizhou had been standing at the door without knowing when, his eyes fixed on the Star Banner. He waved at Taoist Qingsong after hearing his greeting.
"No need to be polite, Taoist Qingsong, as the saying goes, one should be good at both civil and military affairs. This is the combination of civil and military affairs... Do you think Mr. Ji knows about this?"
"Uh, I don't know."
"In my opinion, he should know."
After saying this, Qin Zizhou turned around and walked away. In just a few steps, his figure disappeared like mist.
"Mr. Qin is becoming more and more like a god..."
Taoist Qingsong's level of cultivation has gradually improved, but he is no longer as relaxed as before when facing Qin Zizhou. Not only him, but Qingyuan is the same. Perhaps because of this, Qin Zizhou appears less often.
... ...
PS: Thanks to book friend Xiao Lantian for the reward.