"National Master!"
The lights flickered, and Yang Jian led his guards over. Lu Liangsheng stopped him with a look, "Your Majesty, please go back to the building for now. The situation outside is unclear, so don't come out yet."
There were faint shouts and noises coming from outside. The emperor tilted his head to look into the distance and clenched the hilt of his sword. "I am not a weak person. How can I hide? Master, just do what you want. I will stand here. I will not leave until Master retreats!"
The old man stood under the eaves, leaning on his sword. When he finished speaking, there was a rustling sound in the grass under the stone railing connecting to the woods. A figure screamed and rushed into the area illuminated by the lantern under the eaves. His face was distorted and hideous, and he pounced on the nearest scholar with his fangs bared.
"National Master, be careful!"
Over there, a group of guards shouted subconsciously, the lights flickered, and at the moment when light and darkness intertwined, Lu Liangsheng slightly turned his head and looked at the figure rushing towards him. His robe fluttered, and a strange beast with a wolf head and a snake body shot out like lightning.
puff!
It went straight through the ferocious head and poked out from the back of the head. The hair, scalp, and parietal bone were all lifted up in an instant. The wolf head raised its long snout through the head and looked at the clear moon, making a hissing sound like an insect!
The corpse with a hole in the head fell to the ground. Sun Yingxian hurriedly took out a talisman and turned the corpse over swiftly. He touched the bloody face with the talisman paper, and the yellow talisman with the word "imperial" written on it suddenly burst into flames.
The fire spread and the ashes flew away. The Taoist looked at the scholar beside him, a rare serious look on his face, and nodded.
"Old Lu, it is indeed a zombie."
On the side, Yan Chixia, She Long and Li Sui'an, after hearing the confirmation, their expressions were no longer as relaxed as before. The zombies were not very powerful, but once they formed a force and came in overwhelming numbers, they would be able to give them a hard time. They grabbed their weapons and ran towards the mountain gate.
"First, block the stone steps leading up to the mountain gate!"
"I want to see how powerful that corpse demon is—"
"Old Toad, let's go down together!"
The Toad Taoist, who had just walked out of the stone steps under the eaves with his webbed feet, was stunned when he heard the last sentence. Before he could react, he was grabbed by the Taoist who came running over and squeezed him in his palms, squeezing his bean-sized eyes so hard that they bulged out. Then he hurriedly called Zhu Ganglie, Yan Chixia, Shelong and Li Suian to go to the mountain gate below to arrange the formation.
The night wind blew across a strand of black hair hanging on the forehead. Lu Liangsheng stood at the highest point of the stone steps with his hands behind his back, looking outside in silence, like a god overlooking the lights of thousands of homes in the distance.
"Corpse demons, zombies, I always feel like something is wrong..."
Amid the soft murmurs, in the distance, the city was in chaos, with roaring and running figures spreading out like a flood bursting through a dam. On the long street, broken lanterns caught fire and the fire burned along the wooden pillars under the eaves.
In a moment, the raging fire lit up the night sky red.
Along the official roads, the gates of each mansion opened. Doormen and guards poured out and stood at the doorways, looking at the burning red night in the distance. The servants who had come to inquire about the news returned in a hurry, their faces pale.
"Everyone go in, don't come out! There are zombies!!"
The servant yelled around, pushed aside the guards and the gatekeepers who had not yet recovered, and rushed into the front yard. Min Changwen walked back and forth in the hall with his sleeves clasped behind his back. Hearing footsteps, the servant hurriedly trotted over from the corridor, panting and supporting his knees, and said:
"Master, something terrible has happened... There are zombies in the city..."
"Nonsense!" Min Changwen brushed his wide sleeves and shouted, "Don't talk nonsense at the foot of the imperial city. Someone must be taking advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos. Have you seen the army go to quell the rebellion?"
The servant shook his head, his face still pale: "Master, you really have to believe me, I saw it clearly, those people are crazy, they bite everyone they see, and those who are bitten get up and bite others, there is a lot of blood on the ground..."
The old man walked back and forth a few more times, sent the servants to rest, thought for a while, and hurried back to the backyard, asking his wife to help him put on his official uniform and take the sword hanging on the wall. His wife walked him out of the yard and said, "Master, don't try to show off. You are not young anymore. If there is a real rebellion, you won't be able to kill many people."
"Well, go back and rest."
Min Changwen understood his wife's concerns and said this, but as a minister, how could he not do his duty? He turned and stepped into the carriage. The coachman bowed to the old lady, shook the reins, and drove towards the road to the imperial city.
"This old man is just trying to fool me." The old woman scolded with a smile, wiped her eyes quietly, let the maid help her go back to the mansion, and called the housekeeper over.
"Go check on the young lady and don't let her run around."
When the steward of the mansion received the order and ran quickly to the side courtyard room, the back door of the mansion creaked open. Min Yuerou, who had changed into men's clothes, and her maid Tu Ling bent their bodies, leaned out of the door to look around, and quietly slipped out. Holding the hem of her robe, she ran quickly to the street and took a deep breath.
The little maidservant looked at the red night sky in the northwest, and followed behind with her heart in turmoil.
"Miss, what's going on outside? There's such a big fire. Could something bad have happened there? When we were in the backyard, I saw the master put on his official robes and went out."
"Something big must have happened, otherwise, I wouldn't have the chance to come out. My mother has been locking me up at home recently. Wow!" Min Yuerou raised her pretty face and took a deep breath, smelling the smell of fireworks.
“Even if it smells like burning, it smells like freedom.”
He threw the long sword in his hand, held it in his palm with a bang, and raised his pointed chin: "Let's go and break into Wanshou Temple at night!"
The night wind blew across the long street, and the lanterns hung on the shops on both sides swayed. The master and the servant could faintly feel their feet shaking slightly. The sounds of dogs barking, couples quarreling, and babies crying were hardly audible around them, but the sounds of their own breathing were particularly clear.
"Miss, will you encounter a ghost..."
There was still a word "了" that she didn't say out loud. Tu Ling seemed to see something in her peripheral vision and turned her head subconsciously. On a long street facing her, four lanterns were shaking violently and coming towards her in a thin white mist. She was so scared that she stopped talking in a hurry and let out a scream of "Ah--" that echoed throughout the street.
Min Yuerou finally made her way through the outside world alone. With a "clang", she drew out her sword and protected the little maid behind her like a handsome young man. She looked vigilantly at the four lanterns running towards her. The next moment, four figures with their tongues sticking out and breathing heavily appeared in the mist behind the lanterns. They ran very fast, holding a lantern in one hand and covering their heads with the other hand. In a blink of an eye, they passed the woman with the sword drawn across her chest.
"Sir, take your maid with you and leave!"
The short and fat scholar who was running at the end of the group passed by and yelled at the two of them. He kept running and quickly caught up with the three people in front and disappeared at the end of the long street in a flash.
"These four people... look so familiar."
Min Yuerou tilted her head and murmured when the little maid Tu Ling behind her suddenly patted her arm anxiously, pointing at the long street where the four scholars had just run, her tone panicked.
"Miss, hurry... run!"
The woman turned her head and followed the direction pointed by Rabbit Bell. On the long street where white mist was curling and swirling along the ground, figures of people rushed out. In the light of street lanterns on both sides, they illuminated faces with bared teeth and hideous looks, who were roaring and screaming as they ran towards this side.
"Walk!"
Min Yuerou's pupils shrank. She threw away the scabbard, held the hilt with one hand, grabbed the maid with the other, turned around and ran in the direction where the four scholars were running.
After more than a hundred steps, the four people who had left earlier could be seen lying on the street like dead dogs, panting with their tongues hanging out. When they saw the two girls running over and the dense crowd of figures behind them with rumbling footsteps, they stood up with sad faces, and continued to run forward with lanterns in their hands.
As we turned the corner ahead and approached Quchifang, we could already hear chaos and noise. Teams of cavalrymen holding torches were rushing down the street. The huge impact force crashed into a group of dozens of zombies. The overturned corpses were instantly sucked into the galloping horses' hooves and turned into sticky blood and flesh. Some soldiers were pounced on by the zombies or pulled off their horses to be eaten.
The burning arrows flew across the night sky from the horses' backs. Amid the shrill screams, the four scholars waved their arms and shouted, "There are more here! Hurry to Wanshou Temple!"
He turned around to look back, and called out to the two girls who had followed him, and they ran towards the Hibiscus Pond together. Once there, they walked on the lakeside path paved with green rocks. The four scholars looked at each other, threw away the lanterns in their hands, put their hands to their mouths like trumpets, and shouted at the top of their lungs.
"Protect the emperor!"
"Protect His Majesty. Soldiers outside, don't hesitate to fight, come and defend Wanshou Temple!"
"Your Majesty is here, please protect him."
Sometimes people become smart. These four people really admire themselves. When the cavalry charging in Quchifang heard the sound, they gradually gathered their ranks and headed towards the four men and two women.