Pawn Crossing the River

After Lu Yu came out of the rouge shop, he walked leisurely to Qingbai Guanxing outside the city. He had to stagger the time with his senior sister to avoid being caught by her senior sister.

But when he returned to Qingbai Temple, he was surprised.

Master Bai Yongguan unexpectedly came back and was sitting in the hall.

Lu Yu felt uneasy and came forward to pay homage respectfully.

Bai Yongguan's face was expressionless, and he could not tell whether he was happy or angry. He just asked his disciple Bai Yue, who was standing next to him, to light a candle in the hall.

Lu Yu was wondering, what kind of candles should be lit in broad daylight?

But strangely enough, not long after Bai Yue lit the candle, the sky outside suddenly turned gloomy, and it seemed that heavy snow would fall soon.

In this way, the light of the candle is just right.

Lu Yu was shocked, what kind of magical power is this? A prophet?

At this moment, senior sister Bai Yue asked softly: "Junior brother, have you brought back the rouge I wanted?"

"Bring it back." Lu Yu quickly took out the rouge he bought and sent it to his senior sister.

Bai Yue took Rouge and said thank you.

Lu Yu looked around, feeling a little uneasy, and asked, "Where is my wife?"

Bai Yongguan said: "Your wife is feeling unwell and is resting."

Lu Yu's heart suddenly sank. Just an hour ago, he and his wife were in the same room. He knew best how her health was. But just an hour later, she became unwell. Who would believe it?

At the same time, Qi Xuansu had already left Yishan City and walked along the mountain road to Qingbai Temple.

As soon as Qi Xuansu set foot on the mountain road, he felt something was wrong. Compared with the city, the sky was more cloudy. In addition to the chill, the wind was also mixed with snow particles. It was a sign that it would snow soon.

Looking up at the Qingbai Temple at the end of the mountain road, it is brightly lit and very eye-catching.

Although Qi Xuansu didn't know what the sudden snowstorm meant, he also understood that something was wrong. It might be that the ancient immortal believers were getting ready to take action, or it might be that the weather here was so unpredictable.

For now, he can only continue to Qingbai Temple, hoping that the Taoist priests in the temple can give him an answer.

…

In an underground hall.

In front of the statue of a six-armed woman, a man wearing a black cloak stood with his arms crossed, his face hidden in the shadow of the hood, and only a chin with a short beard could be seen.

In today's world, whether you have a beard or not depends on your age.

Generally speaking, people do not grow beards before the age of thirty, and it is fashionable to be beardless. This can be seen from the fact that most of the handsome men in the storybooks are white-faced and beardless.

After the age of thirty, you can grow a beard, because you are already a father at this time, and generally you will have a short beard.

After the age of fifty, it is necessary to grow a beard, otherwise it will lose dignity and not look like an elder. Generally, long beards are preferred.

Therefore, it is nothing if a young man does not have a beard, it is even a fashion, but if an old man does not have a beard, it is extremely rare.

To put it bluntly, a man's beard is just like a woman's bun style. It always changes with age. Young people think it is beautiful to have no beard, while old people think it is beautiful to have a beard.

In this case, this person should be a middle-aged man, between thirty and fifty years old.

The statue is three feet high, and a circle around its feet is filled with burning candles. There are hundreds of candles at least, making the statue seem to be standing on a rosette made entirely of candlelight.

In front of the statue is an altar, which is filled with human heads. Some have turned into skeletons over the years, without any skin or flesh, and some have just been chopped off, with their eyes still open, their eyes empty, and their expressions of horror.

A monk was kneeling in front of the altar, with his back to the middle-aged man, his hands clasped together, and his eyes closed as he chanted sutras.

The middle-aged man looked up at the statue and said, "It seems that the progress is going quite smoothly."

"There is an obstacle." The monk did not get up or look back.

"Obstruction?" The middle-aged man in a cloak looked away and spoke in a low voice.

The monk said: "We can use the power of countless living souls to break the restrictions of the human world in a short period of time, but the rules of heaven are above, and even immortals cannot defy them, so we need a suitable container to hide from the sky and avoid the sea." The suppression of heaven. This is like the past dynasty. There are loopholes in the law that can be exploited. The prerequisite is that there must be a scholar. "

According to the laws of the former Wei Dynasty, scholars could travel with swords and no need for guidance, and they did not need to pay lijin to pass Liguan.

When some merchants passed the customs, in order to save money, they paid scholars to come and go through the customs. From Jinling Mansion to the Imperial City, the shortest waterway is 3,500 miles, and they have to pass 12 currency customs and pay about 350 Wen. On average, it costs one penny per mile, and hiring a scholar only costs about one hundred pence.

However, this dynasty has abolished this method, so monks have to deliberately emphasize the mistakes of the previous dynasty.

"A container, no problem." The middle-aged man said indifferently, "I have a few devout believers who are very willing to sacrifice their lives for the 'divine descent'."

"I'm afraid they won't be of any use." The monk looked up at the statue of the six-armed woman. "This 'divine descent' is far better than before. The divine power descended is not at the same level as the divine power descended before. Therefore, the required container must be very strong. , either a heavenly being, or a person with a special physique and a tough mind.”

"You have a unique physique and a tough mind." The middle-aged man muttered, "These are also the conditions required by Taoist spiritual officials. Most of these people have gone to Taoist sects, and they are very rare. But I will try my best to find them."

A gentleman and a scholar appeared behind the middle-aged man in a cloak.

The middle-aged man asked casually: "How is the saint's injury?"

The gentleman replied: "It is not optimistic. Although her life was saved, the four strings of God-given beads that were closely related to her life were completely destroyed, and the arrow wound caused her to suffer heavy injuries and she will not be able to take action in a short period of time."

The middle-aged man was silent for a moment and said: "One person is missing, and there are still six people left. I hope these two Taoist masters are just passing by."

The gentleman asked: "What if not?"

The middle-aged man did not answer directly, but asked: "Where have they gone now?"

The gentleman said: "The two have just separated. One stayed in the city and seemed to be planning to go to Baihusuo, while the other went out of the city to Qingbai Temple."

The middle-aged man ordered: "Inform the Taoist priests and officials not to act rashly yet, and focus on surveillance."

"Okay." The gentleman responded, turned around and walked out.

…

Zhang Yuelu came to Baihusuo alone. After showing his identity, he met Luo Xiao, the local Qingluan Guard of Baihu.

Although Qingluan Guard is not within the Taoist sect's system, according to convention, Zhang Yuelu is equal to Qianhu, so Luo Xiao's attitude is still quite respectful.

Zhang Yuelu did not go around in circles, took out the head, roughly told the history of the ancient temple, and explained his purpose of coming, and wanted to take a look at the corpse.

After Luo Xiao heard this, he suddenly said: "Master Zhang thinks this matter is related to the ancient immortal."

Zhang Yuelu is always unkind in front of outsiders: "It's not that I feel it, but it's certain. Don't Luo Baihu think so?"

"What the Master said is absolutely true. Only followers of the Ancient Immortal would act like this." Luo Xiao nodded in agreement, because he did think so.

Under the leadership of Luo Xiao, Zhang Yuelu came to the morgue of Baihusuo.

It is exactly the same as what Zhang Yuelu saw through "Zi Wei Dou Shu". There are many corpses in the morgue, most of them covered with white cloth, and there are also some huge iron boxes, three stacked on top of each other to count as one group, and ten groups against the wall. Arranged side by side, they are used to park corpses that cannot be buried temporarily.

The headless corpse was located in the deepest part of the morgue. Luo Xiao led Zhang Yuelu to the corpse and hesitated for a moment: "The corpse may not be very elegant. I hope the mage is prepared."

"It doesn't matter." Zhang Yuelu said, "Whether it is Tiangang Hall or Qingluan Guard, they have to deal with dead people, so they are not so delicate."

Luo Xiao said nothing more and directly lifted the white cloth covering the body. However, considering that Zhang Yuelu was a woman, he only exposed the upper body of the body, while the lower body was still covered with white cloth.

A headless corpse that had been disembowelled.

Zhang Yuelu looked at the corpse expressionlessly, his eyes lingering on the shattered heart for a moment, and suddenly asked: "Why is there no rancid smell? Even in winter, there is no smell at all."

"It's the effect of formalin. This is a new thing introduced from the Western Continent. After being heavily diluted, it can be used to preserve corpses, but if the concentration is higher, it is even more lethal than green vitriol oil." Luo Xiao Explained, "In the past, we used salt or mercury for antisepsis, but these two methods are expensive and not as practical as formalin."

The so-called "green vitriol oil" is the waste liquid produced by Taoist priests from alchemy. It has a strong corrosive effect and is called sulfuric acid in the Western Continent.

Zhang Yuelu nodded: "There are indeed many new things in the Western Continent."

Luo Xiao opened the baggage brought by Zhang Yuelu and spliced ​​the charred head and corpse together.

Zhang Yuelu looked at the corpse and said: "Break the heart and chop off the head. This is the secret society's method of reviving the soul."

Luo Xiao asked: "How do you say this?"

Zhang Yuelu said: "The master of the body is the heart, what comes from the heart is the mind, the body of the mind is the soul, and the place of the mind is the soul. To crush the heart is to force the 'mind' into the head, and then cut off the head. , using a secret method, we can trap the living soul in the head, but we save the need for a special device to hold the living soul. We thought it was a murder for money, so we didn’t think much about it, and we didn’t check the head. By the time it was too late, a fire burned the head into this state, and the living soul inside naturally dissipated. "

In terms of living souls and ancient immortals, Qingluan Guard is indeed not as good as Tiangang Hall. Luo Xiao did not expect that the problem that had troubled him for a long time would be easily solved by someone from the Taoist sect. He couldn't help but say: "In this way, this group of monsters are all Is it a big plan?"

Zhang Yuelu asked: "Do you have any specific information about the deceased? It would be best to include the birth date and birth date."

At this moment, a voice interface said: "Of course."

Zhang Yuelu turned around and saw an old man wearing Qingluan Guards clothes slowly walking in.

Luo Xiao introduced: "Master Zhang, this is He Nian, the examiner of our Baihu Office. He is in charge of all the documents in the office, and he is also responsible for this case."

He Nian saluted Zhang Yuelu: "I have seen Master Zhang. This corpse was dissected by the old man."