Ask Sword

The two brothers Yu Yong and Yu Yuan are puppet masters. Although Yu Yuan is dead now and the puppets brought by the two have been lost, but Yu Yong alone is enough to kill all these villagers who exist in the form of "humans" during the day .

In order to prevent him from murdering to vent his anger, Ji Xingwang had no choice but to promise him that he would not let the murderer of Yu Yuan go, and took him to Zhuo Wenbai's house.

but.

"The two guests are back?"

In Qishui Village, Zhuo Wenbai stood outside the door, looking at Li Ang and Guan Anyan who appeared in front of him with a normal expression, and said with a smile: "I saw no one in the room in the morning, so I thought you two left first. It happened that some porridge was cooked at home. , do you two want to eat together?"

"Need not."

Li Ang paused for a moment, then glanced at Zhuo Wenbai's wife who came out of the room with porridge - both of them were still alive, and they didn't seem to have any memory of what happened last night.

or pretend no memory

Li Ang took a deep look at Zhuo Wenbai, and asked peacefully: "It's like this. We left this morning to find a friend who came to Qishui Village a while before us. His surname is Chu, he is in his twenties, and he is a scholar. .I don’t know if you have any impression?”

"Scholar?"

Zhuo Wenbai frowned and recalled, then shook his head and said, "Sorry, I don't have any impression. Qishui Village is a small village, and outsiders can basically find it if they stay for a long time. Maybe that Mr. Chu Lang has already left here?"

"Did you leave, or was someone secretly imprisoned?"

Yu Yong said solemnly: "In this village, there are not many places where people can hide."

Zhuo Wenbai sensed his hostility, his smile was slightly restrained, and he frowned and said, "What are you talking about, the people of Qishui Village are honest and responsible, and they would not do such a thing."

"That's not necessarily the case."

Before Yu Yong finished speaking,

Those villagers in the village who were carrying hoes and were about to go to the farmland seemed to have sensed the sound here, and turned their heads together, staring at Li Ang and his party expressionlessly.

The skin on the face slowly tore open a gap or two.

"I'm sorry, he's just looking for people, and talking nonsense in a moment of impatience."

Seeing this, Li Ang interrupted the conversation between the two, and said to Zhuo Wenbo: "If our companion is not in Qishui Village, but wandering outside, where might he go?"

Zhuo Wenbai thought for a while and said: "Qishuiao is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and there are wolves and other wild animals in the mountains, so it will be dangerous at night.

If not in Qishui Village, maybe go to the Qishui Temple on the west side of the village?

There is food, firewood, and you can settle down temporarily. "

"Is that so, thank you."

The surrounding villagers were still staring at this side. Seeing this, Li Ang immediately ended the conversation and turned away with the other three people, while Zhuo Wenbai turned back to the house, had breakfast with his wife calmly, and casually talked about tomorrow morning. The Qishui Village celebration, and going to the ancestral hall to pick up my daughter later.

After walking out of the village and away from the group of dull villagers, Yu Yong immediately lowered his voice and said, "The skin on the faces of those villagers is cracked, is this going to turn into evil spirits in the daytime?"

"possible."

Li Ang nodded and said, "Fortunately, I didn't do anything to the villagers before, otherwise it would be difficult to get away."

"In the whole village, it seems that only Zhuo Wenbai's family is special. Could it be that their husband and wife are the center of the mutation? And they can come back from the dead."

Ji Xingwang groaned for a while, then turned to Guan Anyan and said, "Anyan, can you see anything?"

"."

Guan Anyan heard the words, thought about it for a moment, and said softly: "There is indeed no trace of Senior Brother Chu in the village, he should have never been here."

"Not here? How is it possible?"

Yu Yong said: "Qishui'ao is so big. He has been missing for a month and a half. Could it be that he has been staying on the mountain? When he disappeared, he didn't bring much food and water with him, did he?"

"Haoman is a monk in the hiding place. Although he can't compete with the evil spirits in the village, there is no problem in writing Zhang Ningshui Talisman. It's not that there is no possibility of finding a place to hide."

Ji Xingwang said: "Let's go to that temple first to look for it, maybe there is a clue."

The four of them quickly found the Qishui Temple on another hillside. The whole temple was small and exquisite, and in the middle was a statue of a young man with a black fish on his feet and a compassionate expression on his face.

Below the statue, there are offerings of melons and fruits, as well as incense and candles for sacrificial offerings.

Obviously, the so-called celebration was about to be held, but this Qishui Temple was unguarded, and there was no sign of the melons and fruit offerings being stolen.

"Strange, how does this idol feel familiar."

Yu Yong stood in front of the statue and muttered to himself. He went up to the stone altar to inspect it, and found that the statue was made of wood and painted on the surface.

Li Ang asked casually, "Where are you familiar?"

".expression?"

Yu Yong said uncertainly: "It's the same as the statue of Empress Qihuai I saw in the Qihuai Temple. It looks compassionate."

Ji Xingwang shook his head and said, "Aren't all temple statues like this?"

"Here is the ledger!"

Guan Anyan found an account book in the corner, which recorded the incense money given by some pilgrims from other places. Up to the second year of Ning Yi, the incense was still strong, and it was mainly concentrated at the end of July.

"At the end of July, it should be now."

Ji Xingwang said in a deep voice: "The time when there are the most pilgrims from other places should be the time when Qishui Village holds celebrations and sells black fish.

From the records of previous years, the peak of pilgrims was on July 30th, which should be the day of the celebration.

And the last time recorded in the account book that pilgrims gave incense money was at the beginning of the afternoon on July 29th of the second year of Ning Yi.

If Qishui Village disappeared in the second year of Ningyi, then we are now exactly the day before Qishui Village disappeared in history.

And, most importantly, "

He took a deep breath, and said in a low voice: "On the 29th day of the second year of Ning Yi, at the beginning of the afternoon, it was almost the time when we entered the mutation, in Qishui Village.

It is equivalent to when we entered the mutation, there were still pilgrims in this Qishui temple offering incense normally.

So, what about them? Why can't I see them? Could it be that they left Qishui Village collectively at the same time we entered the mutation?

Or did they disappear without a trace? Or is Qishui Village only bound the local villagers here? "

There were too many questions that could not be answered, so Li Ang thought for a while and asked Ji Xingwang, "Cultivator Ji, I wonder if Chu Haoman told you about his recent research through letters before he disappeared?"

"have."

Ji Xingwang nodded, "Haoman's research on epigraphy is very broad, but he is currently studying the ancient legends of Jiuyou."

"Jiuyou?"

Li Ang raised his eyebrows in surprise. This word has multiple meanings. In a broad sense, it refers to the deepest and deepest part of the ground, and in a narrow sense, it refers to a place of pure yin and no yang.

In some classics, it is also described as the underworld where ghosts go,

Or the end of the world's rivers and oceans - in this definition, the underground river where Chang'an Ghost City is located is also a part of Jiuyou.

"Yes. In his letter to me, he said that considerable research results have been obtained, and many real events that occurred in history can be connected with the legend of Jiuyou. The investigation near Bingzhou is also part of the research. .”

Ji Xingwang said: "But he also said that there is no evidence to confirm his conclusion at this stage, and it is still speculation, and more empirical evidence is needed, so he did not disclose the specific content to me."

"Is that so?"

Li Ang stood at the gate of the temple, squinted his eyes and thought for a moment, then suddenly thought of something, and said, "Do you think there are too many tombs on the mountain over there?"