Hearing the word "strange thing", Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly. The Toad Taoist lying on his shoulder also narrowed his eyes and spoke in a way that only his disciple could hear.
"Liangsheng, ask him what happened."
In fact, Lu Liangsheng would have asked the question even without his master's reminder. He made a spell in his sleeves and flicked his wide sleeves to isolate the surrounding sounds between the two of them. He invited Li Shimin to go into the city together. The latter nodded and gestured to the several cavalrymen waiting behind him, asking them to return to the palace first to report to His Majesty.
Over there, the cavalrymen bowed, cracked their whips, and shouted, "Gee!" They rode their horses past this side and headed towards the city gate.
Tap tap
The sound of hoofbeats faded away. Lu Liangsheng, who was walking behind, made a gesture of invitation to Li Shimin, inviting him to walk side by side, and slowly walked into the city out of sight of the soldiers at the city gate.
"You can tell me the strange things you mentioned now."
Next to him, the young man with a knife on his waist hummed, recalled the strange things that happened today, and told them everything.
"Reporting to the Imperial Master, this morning, I ordered Your Majesty to go to the foot of the East Foot Mountain to supervise the burial of the body. I arrived there at five o'clock in the morning, but unexpectedly, the guards there said that the body had disappeared..."
The content of the words that were spoken slowly appeared in front of Lu Liangsheng.
"drive!"
"Open the gates!"
At five o'clock in the morning, when it was still dark, a team of fast horses left the city gate and headed north along the official road. They crossed the river and reached the foot of the eastern slope where a battle had taken place before. The loud sound of horse hooves echoed clearly in the open wilderness. In the distance, more than a hundred torches could be seen. The soldiers and officers in charge of the guard were walking back and forth anxiously, urging the soldiers to go everywhere, as if looking for something.
Hearing the sound of horse hooves coming towards this side, he hurried forward to greet him. As soon as Li Shimin got off the horse, the captain knelt down with a sad face and reported the situation.
It is said that the bodies that have not been buried yet have disappeared, and even those that have been buried have disappeared after a check just now. The filling soil has been broken into many holes, as if some corpses have crawled out of the soil. The soldiers in charge of burying the bodies are terrified and do not want to stay here any longer, thinking that a ghost has appeared.
Some things have to be seen with one's own eyes to be believed. Li Shimin asked the captain to lead the way and took the soldiers to check. Looking at the filled pits, there were many holes opening outwards, just as the captain said.
"Bring here the soldier on duty tonight! I have something to ask him."
Soon, more than a dozen soldiers were brought over. They stood there trembling, looking at the pits with pale faces, as if they had seen a ghost. They trembled and dared not speak.
After several inquiries, Li Shimin learned from them that late at night, they heard a rustling sound. They followed the sound and found that it came from the burial pit. They thought that snakes and rats had crawled in to eat the corpse. In less than two breaths, the soil turned over and a muddy head popped out, looking at them with empty eyes. Then, it broke through the soil and slid slowly on the ground. More and more people came behind it. Several people stood there stiff with fear, not daring to move.
After the rustling noise faded away from their feet, a few people finally reacted and ran away, shouting at the top of their lungs, attracting the attention of the other soldiers who were resting. They rushed out of the camp, thinking that it was thieves causing trouble or attacking the camp. As a result, when they heard what these people had told their stories, no one believed it at first, but they could not resist and went over to take a look. What they saw was a ground full of corpses, slithering on the ground like snakes and disappearing into the distant night.
They hurried to other places to check, and without exception, all the pits and the bodies that had not yet been buried were gone.
After listening to the story, Li Shimin stood there with his mouth slightly open. He jumped on his horse and ran to check the battlefield farther away. The foot of the eastern slope of the mountain, which was stained with blood and stones, and the forests, were covered with blood and knife marks left by the battle, but there was not even a corpse. When he left, he went down to the foot of the mountain. The mud beside his steps suddenly turned over, and he saw a piece of meat covered with mud squirming and moving little by little from under his feet.
Coming to his senses, he hurriedly drew the sword from his waist and thrust it into the mass of flesh and blood. It instantly became motionless, turning into a pool of blood. At the same time, a wisp of red smoke floated up and disappeared into the air.
Realizing that the situation was not good, he immediately mounted his horse and ordered his cavalry to return to Chang'an quickly, and then he encountered the scene of Lu Liangsheng.
…
After finishing his words, Lu Liangsheng fell silent. This was the first time he had heard of such a strange thing, let alone seen it. But one thing was certain, the wisp of red smoke that Li Shimin mentioned was undoubtedly the breath of an evil star.
"Shimin, go back and report to His Majesty first. Don't hide anything. Just tell His Majesty what you saw. Also, tell His Majesty that I already know."
"yes!"
Seeing that there was no other instruction, Li Shimin did not stay any longer. He pulled his war horse, mounted it, bowed and said goodbye.
Here, Lu Liangsheng disappeared as soon as everyone left, and slowly walked through the noisy long street. The Toad Taoist on his shoulder sat up, hugged his flippers thoughtfully, and rubbed his flat chin.
"It seems that the demon star is making a big move this time. You said before that it absorbs human life. Maybe it wants to use this flesh and blood to rebuild its body... But, I haven't seen it have a body. It just looks like a ball."
“Potentially reshaping…”
Lu Liangsheng looked at the passers-by and fell silent.
"But no matter what, it will come. This ability may be the backup plan left by the gods in the sky as Nezha said. Since they can't mess up this world, they let the demon star mess up, which will always benefit them."
With his cheeks puffed up, he quickened his pace and returned to the Hibiscus Pond. He nodded and greeted the old dragon that popped its head out of the lake, then walked up to the Conferred God Platform step by step and took the command flag on the altar, which was used to summon souls when the Gods were Conferred Gods.
He brushed away the ink with his wide sleeves, erasing the imperial edict. He then took the incense ash from the burner, mixed it with magic power on his fingertips to turn it into ink, and wrote a new imperial edict on it.
—Yin Shen Seven Killing Formation!
Originally, this formation was called the Five Ghosts and Seven Killings Formation, which relied on people's heroic spirits to become gods and serve as the eyes of the formation. Together with the Water Prison Return Flow and the Mountain Prison Five Swords, it could form the three main formation veins in the world. There is a saying in the art of war: the momentum of pincer attack!
Just as Lu Liangsheng was busy, a thin figure flashed across the street far away outside the Hibiscus Pond, approached this side, hid in the corner, secretly glanced at the old man with his head buried on the high platform, pursed his lips, and a complicated look flashed in his eyes.
However, what the figure did not notice was that beneath the shimmering lake surface, a pair of lantern-sized eyes were glowing fluorescent yellow, staring closely.
After a moment, the water was stirred silently, and a long figure swam in a winding manner on the bottom of the water, creating puddles of water. The long body burrowed into the reeds, and the rippling water waves made the reeds sway slightly.