Winter night, dry mountain.
Heavy snow had fallen all day, covering the mountain road completely. A skinny old man struggled to push forward, breaking the smooth snow into pieces.
Thinking about the job, the ear cutter felt a little regretful. He was a bit famous after all, but he had to go out in the cold weather just to kill an unknown thief. He didn't get to pluck the hair of the thief, but his cold legs got worse.
The little thief didn't look like an expert, but he had amazing physical strength and managed to escape three hundred miles. Once he was caught, he would peel off his face, not to mention his ears.
There is always a way out, the wind and snow suddenly subsided, and a man appeared in front of us. He was dressed like a hunter, with a slightly bent back, a backpack filled with mountain products and furs, and a few fat pheasants hanging from his waist.
The earmite took a few steps forward, trying to see more clearly.
The hunter was not very old, and had half of his face wrapped in a rough cloth. His long hair was hastily combed and tangled up in clumps by the snow. His ears were red from the cold, and it was obvious that he had no internal strength.
The ear cutter felt relieved and hid behind the hunter.
"Little brother, is there a shop ahead?" he asked while continuing to look around with his eyes.
The little hunter has nice ears.
"There's an inn at the bottom of the cliff over there." The young hunter was suddenly addressed, and he remained calm and answered indifferently. "This is the only one on the mountain."
The ear cutter showed joy on his face, but his old face became more ferocious.
It was difficult to go down the mountain at night, and the snow was heavy. If he stayed out overnight, the thief would surely become frozen meat, so he just went to the inn and waited for him. The petty thief was a petty thief, and he dug his own hole and jumped into it, saving him a lot of trouble.
It’s better to celebrate in advance - the little hunter’s ears are so beautiful, they are really worth cutting off.
The ear cutter grabbed the hunter's shoulder, ready to pull him over and crush his throat. But before he could exert force, the scenery in front of him suddenly changed. He glanced down, and instead of seeing his chest, he saw his back.
The ear-cutter's eyes widened as his body with a broken neck fell into the snow.
Half an hour later.
"You're here, little bastard." The innkeeper's wife wiped her hands and greeted him gruffly. "I'm waiting to be put into the pot."
The young hunter Yin Ci agreed with a smile and took off the pheasant from his waist.
He put the chicken in the pot. After the boss lady took the order, she slapped a few strings of money on the table: "Same old, the extra money is hard work. It's freezing cold, and I'm counting on this bowl of soup."
The proprietress’s surname is Li, and the villagers don’t care about that and just call her Aunt Li.
Aunt Li lost her husband early in life, and she runs this old inn with her two children. Now her daughter is married, her son works in town, and she is the only one left in the inn. Fortunately, Kushan is very poor, and even bandits are not seen. Aunt Li is strong and sturdy, and her voice can be heard two miles away. Over the years, she has not encountered any trouble.
Yin Ci had tasted the food in the inn once before, and he quickly understood the runaway children—Auntie Li’s cooking skills were extremely poor, and the food looked okay, but the taste was weird, so bad that if you fed it to a dog, the dog would gag.
The only reason this store can stay open is because of the customers' desire to survive when they are starving to death.
Yin Ci naturally didn't want to eat this kind of food. He intended to give Aunt Li some advice, but she was willing to spend money and buy him a few dishes. So every time after delivering mountain products, Yin Ci would stay one more night and eat two hot meals before leaving.
The wind and snow were howling, and the sky was as dark as the bottom of a pot. Not to mention ordinary people, even the old mountain dwellers didn't want to go out. Aunt Li lit a single lamp in the front hall, and was too lazy to even make the cheapest cakes. She heated up the leftover porridge from breakfast and prepared food for the guests.
On the other side, the fat chicken is simmered in a clay pot with some wild delicacies. The aroma is so delicious that it makes your feet soften. When the time comes, the lid is opened, and golden chicken fat lies on the soup, with soft and crispy chicken floating in the water. Paired with freshly boiled noodles, a bite in the cold weather is worth it.
Just as the first bowl of noodles was served, a squeaky sound came from the front hall.
A figure staggered into the door, and only when he came into the light did the two of them see the visitor's face clearly - the man was dressed like a quack doctor, with a chinless Nuo mask on his face, his clothes were crooked and covered in mud, and only one of his boots was left, the other one was missing.
At this moment he was panting heavily, with heat coming out of his body. He had no idea how many miles he had walked in the snow.
Through the holes in the mask, the man looked pitifully at the two people - mainly at the bowl in Aunt Li's hand - and then fell to the ground without a sound.
Aunt Li: "… Is he dead? God have mercy on him, please don't let him die in my shop. Little bastard, please help me check."
Yin Ci put down the spoon regretfully: "Okay, get a basin of warm water."
When the water came, Yin Ci unceremoniously lifted the mask and wiped the dirt off the man's face. After checking his complexion, he casually took his pulse and said, "He is exhausted, didn't eat or drink enough, and fainted from hunger."
But Aunt Li didn't answer. She stared at the man's face and almost stepped into the basin.
There was nothing wrong with this uninvited guest's handsomeness.
He looked less than 30 years old, and his appearance was not feminine at all, but extremely gorgeous, so that his facial features had a bit of a weirdness. Even though Yin Ci was used to seeing beautiful women, he was still shocked for a moment. Aunt Li was shocked - in this remote and poor place, she had never seen many handsome young men. This man's appearance was really too much, and her admiration turned into horror.
"Fox Fairy Grandpa!" Aunt Li's voice became much higher.
Before Yin Ci could interrupt, she gritted her teeth, scooped up a bowl of leftover porridge, and motioned for Yin Ci to feed it to the man.
"Just consider it an offering, just consider it an offering." Aunt Li rubbed her palms and muttered softly.
Having lived for more than 300 years, Yin Ci had only seen "fox spirits" that could transform into humans in storybooks. Seeing that Aunt Li was getting nervous, he was too lazy to explain. He took the bowl of porridge that even dogs wouldn't eat, scooped a spoonful of it with a heartless heart, and poked it towards the man's mouth - he had eaten it before, so it wouldn't kill him anyway.
Unfortunately, the "fox fairy grandfather" was quite knowledgeable. The man gushed weakly twice, tilted his head, and clenched his teeth tightly.
Seeing that the worshiper was being despised, Aunt Li immediately got angry and said, "Forget it, just drag this fox out and don't let it die in the house."
As one of the unruly people raised in the poor mountains and bad waters, Aunt Li obviously has limited respect for the immortals.
Yin Ci pointed out the point tactfully: "... I saw his wallet. He should be able to pay for a few nights' stay."
Although Aunt Li was hard-hearted, she also wanted to save money for her children and would not commit murder or robbery. When she heard that there was profit to be made, her anger instantly dissipated: "Oh, Grandpa Fox Fairy must feel uncomfortable with his clothes getting wet like this. My son has some old clothes in the inner room, you can wipe his body and change him."
Yin Ci naturally agreed with a smile.
While Aunt Li went back to the house to get clothes, he skinned the man like a white fish and wrapped him up with dry animal skin. After a few moves, he had a clear view of the man's belongings.
A quack doctor's signboard, with the four big characters "Medicine cures all diseases" written in vigorous and powerful style, and the string of small characters "Dali Pills" and "Bieda Paste" slightly faded below. The medicine box was a bit worn out, Yin Ci sniffed the bottles one by one, and found that they were all ordinary medicines, without a single bottle of poison. The bell and the medicine pounding pot were placed together, and they were badly worn, obviously having been used for a long time.
In addition, there was only a purse, which contained five strings of money and a few taels of silver. Not to mention weapons, Yin Ci did not even find a dagger for self-defense, only a knife for cutting medicine with a bent blade.
strangeness.
The man was running around in the snowy night, and his clothes were covered with thin ice, but his skin did not show any frostbite. He was definitely a martial artist. Yin Ci also recognized the ear-cutting craftsman he had killed before - Chen Qu, the ear-cutting craftsman, was one of the most powerful assassins of the Chi Gou Sect, specializing in killing the enemies of the sect.
The two of you went up the mountain in the snowstorm, so you must not be here to relax.
In recent months, a ghost tomb with treasures has appeared in the world, causing a stir in the martial arts world. After all, the Chigou Sect is the number one evil sect. At present, it is busy with the ghost tomb and will not make trouble with an unknown quack doctor.
Even if an elder had a male lover, he would not use an ear mutilator's knife to kill a chicken.
While Yin Ci was deep in thought, the man took a breath and slowly opened his eyes. He had a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes with upturned corners and clear amber pupils, which really looked a bit like a fox. But his eyes were blank, and the weird aura suddenly faded a bit.
Yin Ci was still puzzled, so he had to pretend to be a good person. He brought chicken noodle soup and handed over a spoon full of hot soup: "Sir, you have caught a cold, drink some hot soup."
Probably because he was very hungry, after taking a sip of the soup, the man's eyes suddenly became clear, and then he stabbed at the bowl of noodles with burning eyes. Yin Ci fed him the soup and noodles, and saw that his face turned ruddy.
Aunt Li came closer with clothes in her arms. She was dazzled by her beauty again and accidentally knocked over the lamp. Yin Ci blocked the lamp oil with his hand and took a breath in a pretentious manner: "The clothes are here. Can you wear them yourself?"
The man nodded and looked at the back of Yin Ci's hand that was burned.
Yin Ci pointed at Aunt Li and said, "I'll go and rest first. This is the boss lady. You can talk about the meal and room fee slowly."
The snow outside blocked the mountain, and the other party couldn't get away for a while. I was just a "hunter who had never seen the world", and if I rushed to talk to him at this moment, it would be suspicious.
Aunt Li was familiar with his habits. The bathtub in the guest room was ready, and the water was still steaming. Yin Ci took off his clothes and stepped into the hot water. The next moment, the rough and dark "skin" drifted away, revealing the cold white underneath.
Ghost leather clothing, one of the rare treasures Yin Ci found in the ancient tomb. It is as thin as a cicada's wing, woven from the silk of ghost silkworms in the Western Regions, and repeatedly soaked in secret medicine, so it fits the skin of a living person very well. As long as it is handled properly, not only the facial features, but also the skin color, spots and moles of the body can be faked, and even the hair is exactly the same as that of a real person.
Disguise usually only changes the head, neck, hands and feet, but the ghost leather jacket is divided into three pieces, with the ends at the waist and legs, which can cover most of the body. Unless Yin Ci deliberately ran naked, there is no possibility of being exposed.
After carefully peeling off the ghost skin on his face, Yin Ci breathed a sigh of relief. He picked up the medicine bottle, mixed the liquid medicine and paint, and then hung the ghost skin coat on the edge of the bucket, and used a gui pen to draw the "wounds" where the lamp oil splashed.
When it came into contact with the liquid medicine, the ghost leather jacket swelled up obediently, and several fake blisters bulged out. Yin Ci hummed with satisfaction, and then pulled over the head and face part and began to trim the facial features on the ghost leather.
The air was filled with steam and the firelight was dim. Just looking at his movements, he looked very much like the legendary evil ghost with painted skin.
…but the effect of this painted skin is exactly the opposite.
The fake face on the ghost skin was neither beautiful nor ugly, and had no characteristics. Nine out of ten people would not remember it if they took a glance at it in the crowd. But if Aunt Li saw Yin Ci taking off the ghost skin, she would probably shout "Grandpa Fox Fairy" again.
The one outside was handsome and passionate, while the one in the bathtub was more "soft and gentle like jade", and it was hard to tell who was better. Unfortunately, this one's eyebrows were full of evil spirits, and the fine jade was twisted into a jade cicada in the mouth of a dead body, which was chilling.
Yin Ci's body was soaking in hot water, but his mind was extremely cold.
We have to find out the background of that quack doctor. If he is related to the ghost tomb, he can still be spared. If not, we can only let him die in the withered mountain - being involved with the Red Hook Sect too early will only cause unnecessary trouble.
The plan has just taken its first step, so it’s better not to go wrong.