There is no need to look for Ren Qi and Hai Dongqing, nor need to be wary of the big red snake. The speed of Yin Xiu and the others was visibly faster. From the time they decided to set off that afternoon, by the evening of the next day, they had reached the bottom of Baiyun Peak and looked up at the mist-shrouded peak. "Wangshan is a dead horse. I thought we could go up the mountain today." Liu Banxian tore off a piece of bacon with his mouth and wiped his sweat. "It's not that simple." Yin Xiu also raised his head and took a sip of wine, "Even if someone uses magic skills such as armor and horse, I don't think it will be so fast. After all, this is in the mountains, and it is difficult to move without a machete." As he spoke, he glanced at the machete in his hand. The originally polished blade was now covered with plant juices, stained black and green, and stained with some weeds and moss. It looked terrible. Without the porter and Hai Dongqing to clear the way and guide the way, climbing the mountain would indeed be a difficult task for "landlubbers" like them who had never experienced long-distance hiking. But no matter what, they finally reached the foot of Baiyun Peak, and they just waited for dawn the next day to start climbing this majestic and magnificent peak.
boom! Yin Xiu opened his palm, and a bonfire was ignited by him, burning brightly. As he had imagined before, the true Yang Life Fire's use outside of fighting was to make fire. And it’s very practical. You don’t need a fire starter and don’t pay attention to the placement of the wood. Just point your palm towards that point and the flame will burn brightly. of white smoke. "Liu Banxian, this firewood is already wet, didn't you notice?" Yin Xiu squatted down, took out a piece of firewood that was burnt black but had no fire, but was still smoking, and threw it aside. "I just picked it up randomly on the ground." Liu Banxian smiled awkwardly and said, "Who would have thought that it rained here two days ago?" "No, it's not rain." Ma Xiaoyu suddenly picked up the piece of firewood, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, "It's blood. This piece of wood has been soaked in a lot of blood." "Blood?" Yin Xiu took the piece of wood and looked at it carefully. Under the light of the fire, there was indeed some unusual amber dirt on the piece of wood. "Where did you pick it up?" Yin Xiu looked at Liu Banxian. "It's just around." Liu Banxian also became a little nervous. "It's just around. I'm not that diligent. I can't go too far to collect firewood." After a pause, he pointed in a certain direction, "I mainly picked it up in that area." "is it?" Yin Xiu stood up, lifted a piece of firewood as thick as an arm from the bonfire, used it as a lighting tool, and walked in the direction Liu Banxian said. The machete in his other hand pushed aside the branches, leaves and vines. Ma Xiaoyu followed him, turned her wrist, handed out a dagger from her cuff, and held it in her hand. Seeing how cautious the two of them were, Liu Banxian had no choice but to hold the paper fan in his hand, reluctantly using it as a self-defense weapon. Although they didn't find anything or anything strange around them just now, the three of them still formed an inverted triangle to search inside very carefully.
Because in the past, various troubles have been encountered when the surroundings seemed safe. The three of them are very experienced in situations where things go well but unexpectedly happen. Just because it's okay now doesn't mean it will be okay later. With this vigilance, Yin Xiu used a knife to gently push aside the obstacles in front of him and walked to the approximate location Liu Banxian had mentioned before. This place is as messy as elsewhere, with overgrown grass, low shrubs and weeds, and parts of the towering trees squeezing and entangled with each other, competing for the little living space left. Yin Xiu held up the torch and swept around, then pushed down a patch of weeds. Still, no traces of fighting were found here, and no corpses or weapons were left behind. "It really doesn't look like there were any signs of a fight. Is it possible that a wild beast bled here? And then left?" "How big of a beast is that?" Yin Xiu held the torch close to the ground, gently poked open the thin layer of sand on the surface with her toes, and finally found the same turbid amber traces in the soil underneath. "That's right, this place has been cleaned up and covered up very well." Ma Xiaoyu stretched out her hand to pick up a ball of fine sand and rubbed it in her hands. Finally, there was only a black bullet left on her fingertips. "It's a big fight." Although she didn't see anything else, Yin Xiu smelled something unusual. As Ma Xiaoyu said, this place has been kept very clean. If only one or two people died, just leave their bodies here and there is nothing else to clean up. Although death is a rare and surprising thing no matter where it is. However, in the current Changbai Mountain, the teams summoned by various forces, the mysterious monsters, and the inexplicable changes have made the death of people a very common thing, and there is no need to cover it up at all. "I guess they didn't throw the body far away," Yin Xiu said. "Ah." Ma Xiaoyu looked at the large pile of marks on the ground. No matter what kind of iron man or master he was, he would be dead if he shed so much blood. If this is the blood of a lot of people, it only means that there are more corpses here. "What is the solution?" Yin Xiu looked at Liu Banxian. "You mean to determine the location of those bodies?" "That's right." Yin Xiu nodded. Although this deadly fight seemed to have nothing to do with Yin Xiu and the others, it happened at the feet of Bai Yunfeng, and at such a moment, everything was too coincidental. If you don't pay attention to this matter, just treat it as irrelevant, and start climbing hastily, there may be consequences if it is not dealt with in time. Liu Banxian thought about it and finally said: "It's not that there is no way."
As he spoke, he took out a bamboo tube of rice from the cloth bag he carried with him and handed it to Ma Xiaoyu. "Miss Ma, please cook this tube of rice. Make sure it's raw, not fully cooked. Make three rice balls while it's still hot, and then..." He took out a small jar from his bag and opened the lid. The smell of stale pickled products wafted out. "Here are the pickles. You can knead the rice balls later and put them on top. Try to make the pickles and the rice balls fit together. Then you can bring them over and I will take care of the rest." Hearing such a strange request, everyone knew that Liu Banxian was not having a picnic suddenly, but was preparing props related to a certain method or ceremony. Ma Xiaoyu took the rice without saying a word and walked back to the fire to set up a pot for cooking. meal. Ma Xiaoyu went to cook, and Liu Banxian was not idle either. He took out a few sticks of incense from the cloth bag, lit them, bowed respectfully to all around, and inserted them on the ground. After wiping his hands, he slowly explained his method. "Do you know those Yi Zhuang Heshan Tang? During times of great disasters, they gave away rice porridge and medicine, and helped refugees. They were also busy on weekdays. Occasionally they would lend a few coffin boards to others on credit, and they would also take back some ownerless corpses. Sometimes they heard that a village was hit by a plague, or was robbed by bandits, or suffered from flash floods and rocks. Anyway, if the whole village was dead, they would go and help collect the bodies. Sometimes those lying corpses are fine. If you come back to bury them after a while, they will still be lying there, very well-behaved and motionless, so it is very convenient to put them away. But sometimes the surroundings are in chaos, either houses have collapsed, or half of the entire village has been submerged by mudslides. At this time, the corpses are missing, either covered up, washed away by the water, or simply given to wolves, wild The dog or something dragged it away, so it's hard to find. These corpses died in the wild. In fact, ashes return to dust, dust returns to dust. If they can't be found, they can't be found. It's no big deal. But if they die in a key place, such as a water source or in front of or behind a house, they must be recovered and properly disposed of, otherwise there will be another great epidemic and all lives will be devastated. It would be even worse if someone happens to be buried in a corpse raising ground and a zombie king is created in a few decades. Anyway, it’s best to find the corpses and so on and place them properly. So every time when a corpse cannot be found or is not sure whether it is missing, the leaders of Yizhuang will ask someone with magic power to perform a small spell or ritual to find the location of the corpse. . " "Is that why you told Xiaoyu to prepare those things?" Yin Xiu asked. "almost." Liu Banxian nodded, "However, this ritual is not effective at all times. It must be within [Three Seven] after the death of the person, while the deceased is still in the early stage of the bardo, and the consciousness is about to dissipate but has not yet dissipated." . If this time limit is exceeded, the ritual will fail. " "I really didn't expect you to hide such a skill." Yin Xiu couldn't help but admire Liu Banxian a little. Speaking of it, this move was closely related to Feng Shui Kanyu, but it didn't seem that the connection was that deep. "Uncle knows a lot of things, but he just couldn't use them before." Liu Banxian clicked open his fan, feeling proud. "Is this also something in the Liu family's Feng Shui?" Yin Xiuduo asked. "No." Liu Banxian was honest, but he scratched his face in embarrassment, "I heard it from an old man when I was staying in Yizhuang one year." "Can I stay in Yizhuang? I thought that place only accepts dead people." "Why not?"
Liu Banxian scratched his back with a fan, "You're staying overnight or something. Do you want someone to entertain you with a full banquet? It's just a matter of finding a place to lie down. Yizhuang, the most lacking thing is a place to lie down. The worst is to follow Those good brothers should squeeze in and make room for them." When Yin Xiu heard this, she quietly moved a step to the side and separated herself from Liu Banxian. Liu Banxian felt something strange, and when he was about to ask Yin Xiu questions, Ma Xiaoyu came up with the three rice balls that had just come out of the pot but were half cooked with a piece of cloth. "Just leave it here. Thank you very much, Miss Ma." After Ma Xiaoyu put the rice balls on the ground and arranged them in a row, Liu Banxian counted twelve incense sticks from the cloth bag, lit them together, and then put four sticks of incense on each rice ball. "All right." After the arrangement was complete, Liu Banxian took out a porcelain bowl from the pocket that seemed to contain everything in the world, and placed it on the ground, along with a pair of red chopsticks. "Don't speak any more from now on. Don't speak until I say you can speak, so as not to let out your yang energy." Ma Xiaoyu and Yin Xiu nodded. They naturally understood the reasons for the existence of these weird rules and rituals in Xuanmen, and knew that each of them was actually of great importance, so Liu Banxian told them not to talk, and the two of them naturally kept their eyes closed. mouth. After getting ready for work last night and cleaning his hands again, Liu Banxian waved his hand and signaled Ma Xiaoyu and Yin Xiu to squat down and be silent from now on. After the three of them squatted on the ground, Liu Banxian turned the porcelain bowl upside down on the ground, drew a line on the bottom of the bowl with a red pen, picked up the chopsticks and tapped the bottom of the bowl slowly, while muttering something in his mouth. "Come and eat, come and eat, come and eat..." Yin Xiu watched him chanting in detail. At first, she thought it was some kind of magic spell, but now it seemed that it was similar to what the grandma who was helping people beat up villains at Tilan Bridge, and she couldn't help but feel speechless. Ma Xiaoyu was also a little surprised on the side. She didn't expect Liu Banxian's technique to be so "down to earth". Just as the two of them were looking at each other and winking, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew. Ma Xiaoyu's eyes flashed, obviously seeing something unusual. Yin Xiu also squinted his eyes to see, and saw that at some point, there were some vague shadows in the air, which were obviously wandering ghosts nearby. Although there are always ghosts who appear in dreams and appear in some form, in fact the ghosts here are just white or gray shadows. Not to mention their faces, even their body shapes cannot be clearly seen. Liu Banxian wore sunglasses. Even though there were several ghosts staying beside him, sniffing the incense, he turned a blind eye and continued to beat with a steady rhythm. As more and more souls gathered around him, the twelve incense sticks swayed in front of him, and then the smoke concentrated and floated in a certain direction. At this time, Liu Banxian finally picked up the torch he had put aside, stood up and motioned for Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu to follow him. Then the three of them headed towards where the smoke drifted away. After walking for a while, the smoke stopped at a tall weed and lingered there. Liu Banxian was overjoyed and was about to move forward, but Yin Xiu grabbed his shoulder and signaled him not to move. When Liu Banxian was confused, Ma Xiaoyu on the side had already picked up a stone and gently threw it down. The stone did not make the sound of falling to the ground as quickly as expected, but a dull sound came after a while. It turned out that the haystack in front of them was not on the same plane as them, but grew out of a cave or deep valley somewhere. If Liu Banxian had walked forward in a hurry just now, he might have fallen into the valley by now.
When Liu Banxian made gestures and asked Yin Xiu if he wanted to look at it, a blood butterfly had already flown from Yin Xiu's finger and burrowed into the grass. After a while, the butterfly followed a certain trajectory and prompts and brought out a necklace from the grass. Yin Xiu took the necklace and found that it was the claw of a pangolin. (End of chapter)