"I don't know. I really didn't feel any struggle, Xiao Xu didn't even scream." Zhang Yalin's white skin has turned into a pink skin, but the content of what he said was not messy.
"Even if he was taken away while he was asleep, the person who took him must approach him first. It's so close to the puppet line, even if Xiao Xu and I don't wake up immediately, the puppet line itself will be inexplicably close to him. Strangers cause harm…”
The more he spoke, the deeper his frown became. After a moment of pause, he shook his head and said, "But none of it. It's calm. That's what I think is the strangest thing."
"What happened to the noise just now?" Wen Shi raised his chin towards the messy man in his room.
Zhang Yalin turned back and saw the fallen wooden frame and washbasin, with an even more ugly expression, he hesitated to speak.
"You talk." Zhang Lan slapped him unceremoniously, "What are you stammering for?"
Zhang Yalin and Xie Wen glanced at each other when they heard the news, as if they didn't want to tell outsiders. It's a pity that God bullied him. When he hesitated, the door of another room was also slammed open.
Lao Mao dragged Xia Qiao with a weak face and came out: "What's wrong? I just figured it out, but this kid was caught in a nightmare and burst into tears at the two bedposts."
Wen Shi: "...What did you see again?"
Xia Qiao said with a bit of sadness: "You blow me away."
When smelling: "?"
He didn't know how he usually abused these two hundred and fifty, and it could cause such a big psychological shadow on the other party, and he was both intimidating and driving away.
It stands to reason that puppets rarely have demons...
Of course, it stands to reason that puppets will not have such rich emotions.
So Xiaqiao is really a wonderful work in the sea of art.
But at the same time, when I smelled it, an even weirder idea flashed... This strange thing was not made by him, right
When he was distracted, Zhang Lan said to Zhang Yalin, "It's all right now, everyone is gathered, you can talk."
Zhang Yalin was silent for a moment with a stern face, and finally spoke in a deep voice: "I woke up suddenly from a dream. When I woke up, not only was Xiao Xu gone, but my puppet line was still tied to the wooden shelf."
As soon as his conditioned reflex closed, it was a meal of ding bells and sugar palms.
Among the judges in the world, Zhang Yalin's ability is beyond doubt, otherwise he would not occupy that position on the famous tree. To be able to quietly take away a person under his nose, and at the same time untie his puppet line to another place, this is actually a very scary thing when you think about it.
Saying it under normal circumstances can make everyone present chills behind their backs...
As a result, not only did he not get cold behind his back when he smelled it, he also looked at him with a puzzled look and asked, "Can you tell whether there is a living thing or a dead thing on the other end of the puppet thread?"
"… "
Zhang Yalin didn't want to do it anymore.
He didn't nod or shake his head either, he just felt ashamed and lost his home.
However, the strength of the Shen family's eldest apprentice is not easy to underestimate, and according to the pedigree chart, he is almost on the same level as him. Such people are a little crazy, and they can understand a little bit when they talk to their hearts.
But Xie asked and Xie asked what the hell was going on with that clerk
What position do these two have to show the same eyes as Wen Shi
Zhang Yalin felt that he had seen a ghost under the attention of these people.
He suddenly remembered the hexagram that Xiao Hei told him before going out, saying that they were easily humiliated and frightened this time. He thought chasing the pig was the end...
Now it looks like it might just be the starting point.
"Forget it, the top priority is to get Xiao Xu back first. Otherwise, when I go out, how can I explain to Sister Bi Ling?" Zhang Lan turned around with a livid face, and was about to go downstairs.
"Why are you going?" Zhang Yalin asked.
"Find Lu Wenjuan and ask where Zhou Xu will be sent next, and I'll arrest him," Zhang Lan said.
Before she got to the stairs, she heard Xie Wen, the sick young man, open his mouth: "Did you chase the car like this before, asking all the way? That's not easy."
Zhang Lan slammed abruptly, and backed away with a livid face.
She was so anxious and stupid that she forgot the tracking talisman, which could be done with a flick.
But Xie Wen is also a bastard, and his tone is polite like a suggestion. If you listen carefully, it's all sarcasm. It's not easy for a sick young man to talk like this all day long and not be beaten until now.
Thinking so, Zhang Lan threw out a tracking talisman with his backhand.
The talisman flashed in the rain and fog, and was soon drowned in the night.
Wen Shi just turned his head to look at the place, when he heard Xie Wen whispering, "It's on the ground".
The direct landing of the tracker is a very bad result, often indicating that the tracked target does not exist. If the one being chased is a living creature, nine times out of ten, it is already dead. If you are chasing spiritual things, you will disappear into the world.
These three words are very sensitive things in the ears of judges who specialize in spells.
Zhang Lan vaguely heard this sentence, and exploded on the spot: "What's on the ground? Who said it's on the ground? I'm still staring at—"
She grabbed her phone, and what opened on the screen was not an app, but a picture with eight directions and densely packed small markers.
A small red dot is hidden in those dense words.
Halfway through her words, the little red dot flashed and slowly disappeared from the picture.
Zhang Lan's face changed instantly.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Yalin asked.
Zhang Lan stared at the place where the little red dot disappeared, blinked blankly and said, "It really hit the ground..."
Zhang Yalin said almost immediately, "Impossible."
Zhang Lan couldn't believe it either, and immediately threw out another tracking sign, then stared at the new red dot on the map without blinking.
However, after less than two seconds, the little red dot also disappeared.
She threw four or five tracers in succession, her eyes fixed on the phone screen, but she always got the same result. The little red dots disappear in less than 3 seconds each time... they all landed.
The Zhang family's sisters and brothers were confused and bloodless. On the contrary, Xie Wen pointed to her mobile phone and said, "Try another person."
Zhang Lan was stunned for a moment, remembering that according to Lu Wenjuan's words, Zhou Xu was taken to the mountain god by someone, so there should be a village chief next to him.
So she said nothing and threw another tracer. This time, the target was changed to the village elder Wu.
Unexpectedly, the little red dot on the screen still lasted for less than three seconds before disappearing again.
This time everyone was stunned: "This also landed?"
"Are you chasing people or spirits?" Wen Shi asked.
Zhang Lan: "...I just got anxious and a little confused, so I wouldn't make such a mentally retarded mistake. Of course, chasing the village chief is chasing the spirit. In the village where the graves are piled up, what kind of living person am I chasing."
As she said that, she threw the talisman paper out as if she didn't want money. After tracking down the village chief three times to no avail, he simply changed the target and chased the whole village including Lu Wenjuan.
As a result, all the talismans fell to the ground.
He couldn't hold back when he smelled it, and asked, "Is your talisman really okay?"
Zhang Lan: "Nonsense, of course not."
After two seconds, she hesitantly popped out a "bar".
At that moment, Aunt Zhang was a little suspicious of life.
In order to prove that her talisman paper was fine, she put out a few more patrol talismans. Since it is said that it is going up the mountain, this barren village is only that big. If you go through all of it, you can always find some clues.
But after a long time, the released patrol talismans were withdrawn one after another, and the result was very strange - there was no trace of Zhou Xu in the whole village.
What's even weirder is that not only him, but also the village chief and villagers have no traces.
"What's the situation? In a fake cage?" Zhang Lan was stunned.
Don't talk about her, even when I smell it, I can't figure out what to think.
The rain at this moment is much smaller than before, and the water that has accumulated for a long time flows along the side of the house.
After listening for a long time, it will give people a feeling of emptiness, as if only a few of them exist in the whole cage.
When I heard Xie Wen suddenly whispered, "It's okay."
He turned his head: "What's the matter?"
Xie Wen leaned on the corridor railing and glanced at a few fixed points, which seemed to be where Zhang Lan's tracing talisman papers had landed just now, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He was asked when he was heard, and then turned around and glanced at the other people: "Fortunately, there are quite a lot of people here."
He didn't react when he smelled it: "What's wrong with the crowd?"
"If someone breaks in alone—" Xie Wen scratched his slender index finger, "in such a situation, maybe a shiver will suspect that there is nothing else in this cage, and everything is his own imagination. I am the cage owner, I just didn't realize it before."
He suddenly understood what he meant when he heard it.
They have always helped people out of cages, and they don't know what it's like to be a cage owner. But think about it, the moment of epiphany is probably the most creepy and most painful and sad process in the world.
Fortunately, the cage owner was awakened. The moment he woke up, at least there was a judge who saw him off.
A few other people were stunned by Xie Wen's words, and they didn't dare to think about it, so they changed the subject one after another.
Zhang Lan took out another stack of talisman papers, intending to grab Zhang Yalin and turn the village upside down, at least to find out where everyone went.
He didn't leave the corridor when he smelled it.
He noticed where Xie Wen's eyes fell before, and after thinking about it, he vaguely touched a thread—
When Zhang Lan threw the tracking talisman out before, the few talisman papers that tracked Zhou Xu disappeared in almost the same direction, as if they were all at the same point.
But in his impression, Zhang Lan threw it casually, not just in that direction.
So that placement was a coincidence? wind direction? Or is there another reason
In order to verify this, Wen Shi also took a piece of yellow watch paper. He was not good at drawing talismans, so he folded a paper bird, similar to the one that helped him track the traces of the spirit phase before, but this time it was Zhou Xu.
The paper bird released the corridor, flapped its wings and made a bend, and as expected, it went in the direction where the talisman paper disappeared before, and a flash of fire flashed two seconds later.
He broke the second one and chased the village elder Wu instead.
As expected, the paper bird still landed in the same position after flying out.
Xie Wen leaned against the railing and watched him origami the whole time, as if it was a very ornamental thing. In fact, it's just a few finger movements.
When smelling, the third paper bird was chasing Lu Wenjuan. This time the paper bird changed direction and landed on another point.
Just as he frowned, he heard Xie Wen say, "Don't frown in a hurry, the talisman that chased her before also fell there."
"So it still overlaps?" Wen Shi asked.
Xie Wen nodded and said, "Yes."
Wen Shi tried a part, and found that although the targets to be tracked were very different, there were only seven or eight places where paper charms and paper birds landed. It's just that they can't tell the difference from their point of view. It's best to borrow the picture from Aunt Zhang's mobile phone.
Zhang Lan generously contributed the map, and also contributed some talisman paper, so they quickly marked the points.
The angle of looking down is very intuitive, and when I smelled it, my finger swiped between several points, and it suddenly showed something strange.
"Simulation." Zhang Lan twisted his neck and looked left and right, "But I only know a little about the formation, so I can't tell what it is."
Several people present, Wen Shi and Zhang Yalin learned puppet arts, and Zhang Lan repaired spells. To be proficient in formations... then there is only one person left.
Wen Shichao glanced at Xie Wen, and was about to speak, but heard another voice say seriously: "This is a kind of door in the formation."
He turned his head and saw the bodyguard who often followed Zhang Lan.
"Xiao Hei!" Zhang Lan greeted the other party, "Come on, touch the spirit of Buning in your body and say something human."
Zhang Yalin was obsessed with puppet arts, and let those puppets learn other things instead of him. Xiao Hei was pinched out of the spirit of Bu Ning, and he really touched the spirituality of his ancestors. In addition to the often irritating hexagram, he also knew the formation method.
Xiao Hei pointed to the bedroom door and said, "Just like it, open a hole to link different places, or let some things come and go freely. What kind of doors are called in the array."
This is very clear when I smell it, after all, Wuxiangmen's name is also taken this way. And the reason why it is called Wuxiang is because he doesn't know where he comes from every time. After all, there is nothing in the door, only darkness that never sees light.
Xiao Hei lived up to expectations and circled them.
Since it is called a door, it can link to different places, and it is the result of the tracking symbol. Nine times out of ten, Zhou Xu disappeared from there.
So the rain had just stopped, and the sky had not yet dawned. When they heard it, they looked at their eyes and came to a barren field in the village.
The location of the field is a bit coincidental. It is very close to the back door of Lu Wenjuan's house and the kitchen, only separated by a long field ridge. It rained all night, and water accumulated in the fields, like a mottled mirror, illuminating the gray sky.
When they heard it, they stood by the ridge and waited for the rabbit.
After waiting for less than half an hour, the mirror-like stagnant water suddenly formed a circle of ripples without wind, and slowly swayed away.
Everyone stared at it without blinking, and after a few seconds, a long piece of hair slowly drifted out there, then the second piece, the third piece...
Then, many pale arms stretched out from the wet mud.
Those arms were in an extremely twisted posture, supporting the ground like a spider.
When Xia Qiao saw the familiar movement, she panicked and said, "Aunt Hui!"
It was exactly the same as Hui Gu who came out after the rain, except that when the front one pulled out his face from the wet mud, what everyone saw... was Lu Wenjuan.
When I heard it, I suddenly remembered what Lu Wenjuan said before.
Not long after she came here, she encountered a torrential rain. In the rain, countless Huigu crawled out, catching people everywhere in the village. As long as the villagers were caught, they would eat them.
It was later rumored that some Hui Gu had the faces of villagers.
…
What if the entire village had been sucked out long ago
This thought popped into my head when I smelled it.
As if to confirm, there were countless faces growing in the field one after another, and each face was somewhat familiar, all of which were villagers I had seen in Damu before.
They used all fours and limbs to crawl on the ground for a few steps, then stood up twisting their muscles and bones, adjusted themselves to the appearance of normal people with the sound of "kaka" bones, and walked to the village one after another.
As a result, just after walking a few steps, he saw the person behind the ridge.
Watch them as they smell.
They also watched Wen Shi.
Maybe they just crawled out of the ground, and they had a strange smell on them, not bad, and a little familiar, close to the resentment they had eaten before.
Although the normal sense of taste has recovered a little, but at first smelling such a smell, I feel a little hungry when I smell it. So he licked his lower lip, and his Adam's apple slid along.
Aunts: "..."
They may never have imagined that someone could even look hungry when they looked at them, and they were stunned for a while.
After a few seconds, they run away, turning around and jumping into the fields.
Brother Zhang Lan and Zhang Yalin were stunned by this inexplicable turning point and completely forgot to react. On the contrary, when he smelled it, he threw out a puppet thread with his backhand, and the long white cotton thread slapped the wind like a whip, tying those things up in a circle.
Those things struggled frantically, with astonishing strength, twisting and going to drill to a certain point in Tanaka. Because it was forcibly slowed down, that point formed a vortex, as if someone had torn a hole underwater.
That should be the way to the other side, it's just not very stable.
So when I smelled it, my other hand also tugged.
In an instant, the situation suddenly rose.
A giant long shadow whizzed past everyone's heads, wrapped in a strong gang wind, and hit the vortex with the sound of the metal friction of the chains.
With a bang, the entrance was finally revealed. It's just so dark that you can't see the end at a glance.
Zhang Lan finally reacted, and photographed a row of four talismans, with golden light nails around the entrance, securing the place. Zhang Yalin's hands were full of puppet threads, and he walked in first with Xiao Hei.
The entrance was thick with dark fog, and they disappeared in the blink of an eye, and even the sound disappeared.
To be on the safe side, Wen Shi tied a puppet line to Xia Qiao and let the other party and Lao Mao walk in front. He wanted to be the queen himself, but was nudged by Xie Wen and said, "Go ahead."
In fact, in the memories that he has remembered, he seems to have always followed this person, from childhood to adulthood, from raising his head to just raising his eyes, I don't know how many roads he has traveled.
When I was a child, it became a habit to treat the tail as a habit, and when I got older, I had some indescribable selfishness. Because as long as the other party doesn't look back, he can look at it for a long time without turning his eyes away arrogantly and indifferently.
…
He hesitated for a while when he heard it, but Yiyan walked towards the entrance first. When he was about to go in, he subconsciously pulled a puppet thread and wanted to tie Xie Wen, just like in a cage.
With his hand already stretched out, he suddenly reacted, which was actually a bit superfluous.
"What?" Xie Wen was stunned for a moment, and his eyes fell on his hand.
At that moment, I felt a little embarrassed when I smelled it. He turned his eyes away, frowned slightly and said, "It's okay, I'll go first."
Xie Wen moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something more. But he had turned and walked into the darkness.
The moment he was enveloped in pitch black, he lowered his hand when he smelled it. The puppet thread wrapped around the five fingers did not have time to retract, and fell in different lengths, swept by the invisible wind, and empty.
He curled his stiff fingers and was about to tighten the thread when he felt a hand reach out from behind and hold him.
The hand was thin and clean, with well-proportioned knuckles and long fingers, which felt a little cool to the touch.
He knew what it was like with his eyes closed.