Strange mountains and rivers

Starting from Wolong Ridge to Huluji is equivalent to crossing the entire Fuyang Road, one in the north and one in the south, more than 400 miles.

When Wu Tianen, Chen Huaisheng and his party arrived at Huluji, it was already the fifth day of February.

The person who came to pick them up was a steward from Huluji. His surname was Lai. He was in his forties and had a second level of Qi training.

Huluji is a collection of seven or eight villages, similar to Datuweizi, with a population of only 60,000 to 70,000.

To the south is Zhaigu Road, and to the west is Shuanggoupu, another market town under the jurisdiction of Bajiao Village. It is also composed of five or six villages, with about 40,000 to 50,000 people.

To the east is Dashanping within the sphere of influence of Baita City. It is also a town with 30,000 to 40,000 people and four or five villages.

The situation here is similar. Whether it is Baita City or Bajiao Village, they are all loosely combined.

For example, in addition to the 70,000 to 80,000 people in Bajiao Village, Bajiao Village also controls five or six large towns of different sizes, and each large town is also composed of seven, eight or even a dozen villages that are united by geography. .

This loose association is like a pyramid, with sects, aristocratic families, or casual cultivating families at the top.

Among them, generally speaking, the sect is the strongest, followed by the aristocratic family, while the casual cultivator family is the weakest and has the worst control. Basically, it relies entirely on the individual strength of the casual cultivator to maintain its existence.

Huluji is a market town attached to Bajiaozhai, but it is at the far end of the control of the Du family in Bajiaozhai and is somewhat marginalized.

If something happens normally, such as monsters appearing and attacking, or being harassed by other casual cultivators, Bajiao Village will also send people to deal with it.

But now that the Du family is unable to protect themselves, of course they cannot take care of this remote village, which is more than 200 miles away from the main village of Bajiao Village.

The seven villages in Huluji all have mixed surnames, and there is no special advantage of common surnames.

Because there is a Hulu Mountain and a Hulu River in the territory, these villages are basically formed along the foothills and river banks, so they are collectively called Huluji.

"Fellow Taoist masters, please come here. Our Huluji is actually a group of seven villages. The largest is Huludian. It is right here. There are more than ten miles along the mountain and river bank, including the mountain. There are about more than 30,000 people. Some of the other six villages are on the other side of the river, and the farthest one is on the other end of Calabash Mountain, twenty miles away from here..."

The man surnamed Lai began to introduce the situation of Huluji in a nonchalant manner. He was very enthusiastic, but a bit talkative.

But for Wu Tianen and Chen Huaisheng, this is a good thing. They can find out more things from his mouth.

"What do you mainly do for a living here?" Chen Huaisheng asked casually while looking at the terrain along the mountain and river bank.

"Country people naturally farm. There is good farmland along the river. In addition, there are also many people around the river branches who fish and raise fish to make a living. People in the mountains hunt, gather herbs, and mine..."

The man surnamed Lai has nothing to hide, "It's not like this everywhere. You can do whatever you can to make food. Huludian is considered a town with four streets. Most of the well-known people live here..."

"The Lai family can be considered a respectable member, right?" Chen Huaisheng asked with a smile.

Lai Shuichang, the man named Lai, didn't care and nodded: "Forget it, my great-grandfather passed away at the eighth level of Qi refining, but he passed away long ago. My uncle is at the fifth level of Qi refining, and there are two other clan members who are in the same situation as me. Pretty much, but that’s about it.”

"Who among you has the highest Gourd Spiritual Realm now? How many are there?" Wu Tianen asked directly.

"Xiao Lunyao of the Xiao family is at the fifth level of Qi refining. In fact, Hu Mengshan of the Hu family is at the sixth level of Qi refining, but he is too old. He is already one hundred and two years old and can't move. Not counting..." Lai Shuichang shook his head.

"Do the monster corpses attack both mortals and Taoist monks, or do they only attack a certain type?" Wu Tianen asked again.

"It's hard to say..." When the question got to the point, Lai Shuichang became more serious, "Since the end of last year, more than 30 people have died one after another, of which more than 20 are mortals and seven or eight are Taoist species. Unlike monks, the situation of death is different..."

"It's been two or three months?" Wu Tianen was surprised, "Then why now..."

Lai Shuichang smiled bitterly, "We have asked Bajiao Village for help before, but there has been no reply. At that time, we were just a few mortals and a Taoist, and we thought it was nothing. Later, more and more people died. I know a third-level Qi Refining It was only after the monk died that attention was paid to it, but at that time the Canglang in Bajiao Village was causing trouble... We went to the Ding family in Baita City to beg the Ding family, but the Ding family refused to take care of it..."

"Is there anyone from Fengyi Sect?" Chen Huaisheng pursed his lips.

It’s not anyone’s fault.

The Bajiao Village doesn't care, the Ding family doesn't care. Fengchi on Zhai Valley Road where Fengyi Sect's mountain gate is located is only three hundred miles away from here, which is more than a hundred miles closer than Wolong Ridge.

In a life-and-death situation, no one cares about geographical distinctions. Preserving one's life is important, so it is normal to ask for help from the Phoenix Wing Sect.

"Here he is, he arrived the day before yesterday. By the way, the Ding family in Baita City also sent someone here yesterday." Lai Shuichang's expression was a little strange, "I have been refusing to come before, but I don't know why people are here again now."

Wu Tianen and Chen Huaisheng exchanged glances, which was a bit interesting. People from the Ding family are also here. It seems that there is quite a lot in this drama.

"Alright, Manager Lai, please take us there. We need to check the situation first. The Fengyi Sect and the Ding family are all members of the same clan. I heard you introduce this monster corpse, and it looks like it's not easy. Let's all work together to get rid of it as soon as possible. If you drop him, you can maintain the peace of the place and protect the safety of the people." Wu Tianen waved his hand, "Let's go and see what kind of evildoer he is."

As soon as they arrived at the Calabash Store, Wu Tianen and Chen Huaisheng went directly to Yizhuang with Sandang Ling and Min Qingyu.

According to Lai Shuichang, except for the corpses of the deceased who had been buried in the early stage, most of the corpses later did not dare to be buried because they had already realized that they were killed by monsters. Instead, they were placed in Yizhuang, and some conventional evil-suppressing restrictions were used around them. suppress.

More than twenty corpses were placed in the hut of Yizhuang, wrapped in linen, and a three-star lampstand was placed in the middle. The dim light flickered and flickered, making it look quite penetrating.

"Here are the seven monks and Taoists, and over there are the mortals..." Lai Shuichang led a few people into the Yizhuang Thatched Cottage and pointed to the body lying on the wooden board wrapped in linen and holding peach charms.

Wu Tianen nodded, "Huaisheng, take a look first."

Chen Huaisheng was not polite and opened a corpse wrapped in linen. It was a Taoist priest.

It was already like a skeleton, covered in skin and bones, but due to the weather and the use of special magic, the body did not decay.

A wooden bar was used to lift the lower jaw of the corpse, and there was an obvious wound on the neck and throat. It seemed that the body had been sucked to death, but no obvious blood stains could be seen.

"Have these corpses been examined?" Chen Huaisheng asked while looking at them.

"Everything has been tested. Mortals basically die by having their five internal organs eviscerated, while Taoist cultivators and monks eat their internal organs and suck blood and marrow..." Lai Shuichang introduced while saying: "Yesterday, Ri Feng People from Yizong and the Ding family also came to see it, and they all agreed with the inspection situation."

Five internal organs? Essence, blood and spiritual marrow?

Chen Huaisheng was thinking and observing.

Sure enough, this corpse had small holes in the kneecaps, elbow bone, and Tianling Cap.

The kneecaps and elbow bones are the strongest parts of the human body's spiritual marrow, while the Tianling Cap is closely related to the brain marrow. Monsters that devour the marrow and essence will usually choose these three places to start, otherwise it will be difficult to obtain the essence.

After Chen Huaisheng realized that Lu Zhaolin might be devoured by demons, he began to read books about demons and ghosts in the Sutra Pavilion. Xiong Zhuang also mentioned that he had seen a ghost cultivator in Yefenggou, which also aroused some of Chen Huaisheng's concerns. Interest, after the resentful spirit (Ou Wan'er) entered his body, he spent more time on it.

Although demons, ghosts and ghosts may sound like they all belong to the same category, there are many types inside and are quite complex.

However, because many spiritual cultivators disdain to mention these kinds of evil objects, what they encounter in the entire cultivation system is not considered mainstream. It is far from being compared with monsters and spiritual cultivators, and it cannot even be compared with strange cultivators. Zhao territory is even more heretical, so there are not many specialized writings in this area, and they are all scattered and unsystematic.

In comparison, there may be more such books in Nanchu and Wuyue.

This has also resulted in the fact that there are not many books on this subject in the Chonghua School's Scripture Collection Pavilion. Chen Huaisheng has basically read them all, and can only say that he has a general understanding.

The five internal organs are the essence of the human body, but they are entities. If the five internal organs are swallowed, it can basically exclude imaginary evils such as ghosts and spirits. It is more likely to be substantial evils such as demons and zombies.

As for sucking the essence, blood and spiritual marrow, this is a bit complicated.

The throat is the place where the essence and blood are the most powerful and powerful, so monsters generally like to attack humans by targeting the throat. This is normal, but the sucking of spiritual marrow is not something ordinary monsters can do.

In particular, the spiritual marrow of this kind of Qi-refining monk must be sucked in while he is alive and loses his ability to resist and resist.

Moreover, one look at this situation shows that the monster has intelligence. In other words, either the monster corpse itself has intelligence, or the ghost cultivator controls the monster corpse.

After seeing the two corpses, Chen Huaisheng went to see a few more mortal corpses and introduced the situation to Wu Tianen.

In fact, Wu Tianen is not very familiar with this situation. It can even be said that the entire Chonghua sect may not know much about the evil corpses. However, as a spiritual practitioner, he has some common sense, but when it comes to specialization, Not really.

Chen Huaisheng's introduction gave Wu Tianen a rough idea.

"That is to say, this may not be caused by one demon ghost, um, demon corpse, but maybe even two or three?" Wu Tianen frowned, "The fifth level of Qi Refining has been sucked by the spiritual marrow and blood essence. Is this monster at a very high level?"

"It won't be low. In addition, there are some details here. The disciples haven't understood it yet, so they may have to ask the people from Huluji." Chen Huaisheng hesitated, "If possible, can I discuss it with Fengyi Sect?" It would be best to communicate with people from the Ding family."