Bang~~
The sound of night watchmen's clappers rang out in the distant street. In the thin mist, several lanterns swayed over. The voices of four people who were talking suddenly stopped. Among them, a short and fat scholar with five finger marks on his cheeks illuminated a figure standing at the entrance of the alley with the lantern he was holding.
Before he got close, he moved closer to the other three and lowered his voice.
"… Brothers, there seems to be someone over there."
The lantern in his hand was shaking, and the edge of the light flickered and illuminated a pair of ragged trousers. The gray and skinny upper body had no visible belly, and the gray head was slightly drooping, so that the face could not be seen.
Faintly sensing the light, the figure moved slightly, the corners of his mouth curved backwards, and wisps of black air rose from his exposed fangs and gums.
"Four blood foods... just right... hehe..."
He stared at the four people who were gradually approaching, slowly raised his arms, leaned forward slightly, opened his mouth with fangs and saliva, and saw four scholars holding lanterns, gesticulating and muttering.
“Don’t look at anything indecent, don’t listen to anything indecent!” “… The old man is so pitiful.”
"What do you know? What if they come out to enjoy the cool air? Why are you meddling in other people's business?"
"Look at what my brother said, let's learn from it!"
"We've encountered this so many times, we have to learn to be smarter... Ugh, it stinks, did anyone fart?"
Without even looking at the figure at the alley entrance, he turned and walked straight past the man, heading towards the long street without looking around.
Chen Fu kept his hands raised, opened his mouth and bared his teeth: "..."
His white eyes with red spots stared at the four people who were walking away quickly. His stiff fingers made a crisp "click" sound. Just as he was about to catch up with them, his footsteps suddenly stopped. The sound of wheelbarrows clanging could be heard from the street on the other side.
A carriage pulled by several horses was speeding towards this side. The driver was dressed as a soldier, holding the reins with one hand and waving a whip with the other.
"drive-"
"People in front, get out of the way, quick!"
The sound of a cart shaft was coming down the blue brick street, followed by more than a hundred cavalrymen. The four scholars who had walked far ahead looked back and quickly made way. The short and fat scholar among them could not help but speak.
"Looking at the length and width of the carriage, it should be the royal family, at least a king..."
The slight sound drifted away with the wind. The figure standing at the entrance of the alley raised his head. His eyes glowed red under his loose hair as he looked at the team passing by.
... King, the King of Sui... Yang Jian's son
hehe…
As he walked towards the receding team, in the carriage in the long team, Yang Jian looked at his son who was resting his head on his knees, lifted the curtain and asked, "How far is it?"
"Your Majesty, there are still four streets after Zhaoguofang." A knight's voice replied from outside.
The old man lowered the curtain, put his hand on his son's forehead, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down. The Imperial Master had said before that Yang Guang should be sent to Wanshou Temple as soon as he regained consciousness, but he woke up once and fell asleep again with no signs of improvement. So he simply sent him to the Imperial Master overnight. He was worried about having others escort him, so he had to go there in person.
Outside the swaying curtains of the carriage, the shops on both sides of the street had already closed, and the lanterns hanging dimly swayed unsteadily. As Yang Jian was thinking, a voice from the cavalry following behind the carriage suddenly shouted: "What is that?!"
The knight behind him turned around, and a dark shadow approached him instantly. A pair of dry fingernails were sharp and enlarged in his sight—
Blood, screams, and horse neighs instantly spread among the cavalry.
Inside the carriage, Yang Jian's heart skipped a beat when he heard the noise. He put his son's head on the wooden pillow and shouted through the curtain to the soldiers driving the carriage outside, "Don't stop, go directly to Wanshou Temple!"
"drive!!"
The soldiers who heard the order cracked their whips hard, stood up, shook the reins and shouted. The cavalry behind them were covered in blood, and they reacted at this moment, drawing the weapons at their waists to chop at the black shadow that rushed into their eyes.
“It’s a person!”
"Kill him—"
At the moment when the fierce shouts rang out, someone turned his horse's head, someone shouted and swung the blade in his hand to chop off the figure flying past. There was the sound of metal clashing, and there was a sound of sparks flying. The whole person fell off the horse's back due to the recoil. However, the figure passing by ignored the cavalry, knocked one person away and flew to the street, smashing the doors and windows of the shops, and at that moment, it spread its arms and flew towards the carriage like a bat in the dark night, and hung behind the carriage.
Hearing the noise, Yang Jian took the sword hanging on the wall, pulled it out with a clang, gripped the hilt tightly, and stabbed towards the wooden wall almost instinctively.
Bang!
A withered hand broke through the wall of the compartment, and amid flying wood chips, it grabbed the sword tip. The dry and hard fingertips grabbed the sword and dragged it outwards. Yang Jian's palm was strangled and it hurt. His hand loosened and the sword flew out. He looked down at his palm and it was covered in blood.
"Amo!"
Yang Jian ignored the pain, bent down and pulled his son's feet towards the curtain on the driver's side, creating some distance. The oil lamp in the carriage flickered, shining through the hole in the rear wall of the carriage, revealing a bloodless face of an old man with white eyes and a bun dancing outside the speeding carriage.
"This... this is not a living person..."
The emperor, who had emerged from the sword war, was very familiar with corpses. The face that poked its head out of the hole was definitely not that of a living person.
"Pah!!"
The hole at the end of the compartment was pulled wide open, and half of the wooden board was pulled off and thrown onto the street, shattering into pieces. The skinny figure with disheveled hair had half of his body squeezed in. Due to the violent shaking, the oil lamp on the low table fell over, and the flames went out instantly.
In the pitch black, Yang Jian leaned against the curtain of the carriage, tilted his head and shouted to the soldier driving the carriage, "Stop the carriage!"
However, at this moment, there was a loud sound of breaking through the air, and it flew from the front, brushing past the side of the head of the soldier who shouted "whoosh", penetrating the curtain of the carriage, and piercing the rear of the carriage at a distance of the nose of the old man sitting at the back, and hitting the chest of the figure who got into the carriage.
At this moment, the corpse flew out of the carriage and a sound was heard in the night sky.
"Li Sui'an from Qixia Mountain came to rescue you—"
It seemed as if something heavy fell from the roof of the car. A figure in green clothes and long trousers appeared, with his back to the night wind. With a wave of his hand, a green sword that fell into the car pierced the roof and flew into Li Sui'an's hand.
The young man looked at the corpse demon rolling on the ground, getting farther and farther away, and did not chase it. He just shouted to the palace guards who were riding horses behind him: "Don't fight with the monster, protect His Majesty, and follow me to the Wanshou Temple to hide! !"
More than a hundred cavalrymen on the street behind originally wanted to fight with the monsters on the ground, but after hearing these words, they pulled the reins, squeezed the horses' bellies, and hurriedly caught up with the carriage that was getting farther and farther away. They covered the surroundings tightly, and some cavalrymen pulled out a special arrow from the quiver and shot it into the night sky.
Whoosh~~
The sound of whistling arrows spread across the night sky.
…
On the cold long street, the figure rolling on the ground got up and looked down at his chest that was injured by magic power and the tip of the sword. His ribs were visible through the torn flesh. However, after a moment, a red light flashed across the scar and the torn flesh grew back.
"The more people there are... the worse it is for me... the corpse poison will spread... and the corpses will be summoned..."
His white eyes turned to the side of the street. The four scholars who were supposed to be there had disappeared without a trace. Corpse odor was coming out of his mouth and nose. He turned around and jumped onto a nearby house, then broke through the roof and drilled down. After a moment, shrill screams rang out.
Passing through the deep and dark alley, four figures were running wildly with lanterns in hand.
"I told you long ago, why do you have to come out so late at night? You must have seen a ghost again!"
"Bullshit, is that a ghost?! That's a demon—"
"It is quite reasonable for scholars like me to see a demon... Did you hear it just now? It seems that it was His Majesty in the carriage?!"
Wang Feng, who was running in the front, suddenly stopped and stretched out his arm to stop the other three.
"Wait... Let's go protect the emperor!"
"Brother, that's a demon... it'll kill you if you see it."
One person said, and the other two nodded in agreement: "The soldiers can't beat them, and the four of us are powerless. I'm afraid we'll be killed if we go up. His Majesty may not even remember us. It's not worth it!"
Wang Feng reached out and tapped each of them on the forehead: "We have read the books of sages, and we know the heaven, earth, the emperor, our parents and our teachers. How can we do this? Even if we say a few words of support from afar, it is our duty as a subject!"
"Brother, your words have enlightened me. I admire you!"
"What are you talking about? Let's go! Let's go to the Hibiscus Pond."
The four of them gathered together and whispered something, then picked up their lanterns, turned the street corner in front, and walked two more streets to reach the Hibiscus Pond.
The moonlight reflected on the lake, creating ripples. In the Taoist temple in the distance, lights were still on.
The old donkey came out of the woods, wagging its tail and tilting its head curiously, looking at the brightly lit attic. On the two tables put together inside, Lu Liangsheng cast a spell to set up a magic circle, and on both sides of the bottom of the formation, Yan Chixia and Sun Yingxian each cast a spell.
The Toad Taoist dragged the purple gold gourd down from upstairs, climbed onto the table, leaned on his bulging waist, blew away the dust on the gourd, and snorted coldly.
"What a stupid way to fight poison with poison. It would be great if you had this old man's gourd. You can absorb the corpse qi and refine a poison pill."