The thick door was tightly locked in the shadow under the eaves, leaving only two tiger-shaped copper pavilions glowing with a faint cold light in the darkness.
Time has passed early.
I don't know when or where the night fog appeared, sealing off the inside and outside of the long street. The bright moonlight cast down from the sky could only blend with the fog and night colors into chaos, and nothing could be seen clearly.
Only the purple wisteria in full bloom on the wall at the end of the alley gave off a faint purple color in the dim fog.
"Is this the place?"
Li Changan looked around, a little confused.
Although the scream was short, it was sad enough. There were many people around, and it should have caused some alarm and even panic. But when the two of them heard the sound, everyone in the house seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
.
Li Changan looked at his companions, at least temporarily.
But Yu Mei ignored his question and instead said, "Cover for me."
Say it.
The figure gradually faded in the mist and disappeared.
Li Changan: "..."
Okay, there is no need to discuss. But how to cover it up? The Taoist thought for a moment.
"Bang, bang."
Just go forward and break down the door.
"Who is it?"
Unexpectedly, there was an immediate response from the door.
Li Changan straightened his voice, imitating the tone of the bandits and gangsters he had killed during the journey, and shouted angrily while banging on the door.
"The Yamen is handling the case, please open the door quickly."
There was a pause in the words inside the door. After a while, the door opened a crack, and an old man leaned out half of his body. He shined the lantern in his hand in front of the door. In an instant, his eyes widened.
Where is the official status? He is clearly an evil person with a sharp knife hanging from his waist!
Cang Tou quickly retracted and hurriedly tried to close the door, but Li Changan took a step forward and blocked the door, then bumped into him and forced his way in.
Cang Tou was hit and staggered. He was shocked and frightened.
"you you……"
"What are you?"
The Taoist priest raised his eyes and looked arrogant.
"The family name of Sa is Xuanxiao. After receiving the bonus from the county master, he was ordered to patrol the city at night to guard against evil spirits."
With that said, he forced himself in front of Cang Tou, and taking advantage of his height, he spat condescendingly.
"Just now, someone in your house was howling in the night. What happened? Is it a demon causing trouble?!"
The old man seemed taken aback and quickly complained.
"Master Dao is joking, how can there be evil spirits? My master just woke up from a nightmare."
"Nightmare?" The Taoist priest shook his head with the acting skills he learned from local videos. "Are you saying that Sajia's trip was in vain today? He deserves to come back empty-handed?"
He hummed twice, with "want" written on one side and "money" written on the other side of his nostrils.
He pulled the Cangtou away from him and made a lot of noise.
"Where is the master's house? Call him out quickly to see me."
By this time, the old man had calmed down. His face was buried in the shadows and he could not see clearly. Only two eyes flickered around the Taoist priest.
"Okay." He said, "I will take you to see my master right now."
…………
Cang Tou led Li Changan around a screen wall, and came face to face with a small courtyard.
The fog in the courtyard seemed to be thicker, and the rockeries, tree plantings, and even the wing rooms on both sides of the courtyard walls seemed blurry and shadowy.
Only the lantern gave off some dim light, outlining the shadows of the two people in the fog, covering the accumulated mud under their feet.
For some unknown reason, the courtyard was filled with thick mud and turned into a mud pond.
Although the Taoist priests always pay attention to their steps and try to find good ground to step on, they inevitably get muddy.
"Straight-ass mother! And you said your family has been worshiped by evil spirits?!"
He complained loudly.
"The weather has been so refreshing in the past two days, without any rain. For no reason, your house is soaked in mud?"
Cang Tou paused and explained slowly:
"The water tank was overturned today and the drainage in the yard was blocked, so a lot of muddy water accumulated."
"Since you know that the drainage is blocked, why don't you clear it quickly? I see that your owner is quite wealthy, how come the family tradition is so lazy?"
The "rude" Taoist refused to give up, but the old man only agreed, leading him step by step deep into the dark and foggy courtyard.
And where the two people walked, the dim light had just left, and the dark fog had gathered again.
There seemed to be something lurking in the mud.
Ripples appeared in the thick and turbid muddy water, and then the ripples broke apart and turned into rows of tiny and dense barbs.
Immediately.
Submerge yourself in the mud and return to peace.
…………
The yard is not big, and even though it is muddy and difficult to walk, it can be passed in about ten steps of picking and choosing.
Arrive in front of the main hall door.
"Taoist Master, please."
Cang Tou turned aside to give up his position and stood frozen in the shadow of the corridor.
"My master is in the room."
It was quiet all around, and the night wind poured into the courtyard, disturbing the mist and sending chills to the back of my neck.
The Taoist priest glanced at the old man who was hunched over, and then looked at the locked door in front of him. There was no movement inside, only the dim light coming from the window paper.
"good."
He smiled and then pushed the door open and entered.
However.
At the moment when the Taoist priest crossed the threshold and turned his back to Cangtou.
The humble expression on the old man's face suddenly froze, as if he had transformed from a living person into an exquisite clay doll in the blink of an eye. His hanging arms seemed to melt the mud under his feet, then squirmed, solidifying into a rough but sharp cone.
shape, and then silently stabbed the Taoist priest's seemingly defenseless back of the heart.
Also at this time.
The mist in the sky suddenly surged, and then, a red dress fell on Cang Tou's shoulders, followed by a sharp sword light.
The movement of the old man or monster stopped abruptly, and the awl that had been transformed into his arm turned a dark brown color, which soon spread to the whole body. Finally, with a slight crackling sound, the whole person collapsed into a pile of mud. .
It turned out that Yu Mei appeared quietly and accomplished the feat with one blow.
Li Changan took in everything before and after, but his face became more solemn.
"Be careful..."
Before he finished speaking, a dense "whispering" sound suddenly sounded in the yard... or rather in the mud.
Immediately afterwards, the mud in the entire courtyard began to boil, but what came out were not bubbles, but sharp mud thorns.
Then, the mud suddenly rose up, like a huge wave on the sea, like waves and even like a wall, closing, smashing, and squeezing it down!
The Taoist priest was horrified, and was about to retreat into the house for a while, but saw Yu Mei still staying in the same place, turning a blind eye to the smashed mud wall around him, and only took out a strange magic weapon.
A foot-long knife with a red rope wrapped around the handle, and a large iron ring connected to the tail. There are many small rings strung on the large ring, which makes a "ding-dong" sound when it is waved.
Li Changan recognized this thing. It was called a bell knife or a talking knife, or a ringing knife. It was a magical weapon unique to certain dharma lines that merged with the local witchcraft in the Lingnan area, such as the Meishan Sect and the Lushan Sect.
Skip the gossip.
In the courtyard.
But when he saw the huge waves covering the top, Yu Mei suddenly inserted the bell knife in his hand into the mud at his feet.
"break!"
An edict.
All of a sudden.
Countless fine thunder fires burst out from under the knife!
These thunder fires are very weird, extremely violent as they move and jump, but their deep color gives people a contradictory feeling of viscosity and softness. However, they are weird, but their power is also very overbearing. Wherever they pass, they are in the mud. The water vapor and even some more mysterious things evaporated. In the blink of an eye, the black mud turned into yellow dry soil.
The lightning comes as quickly as it goes.
By the time Yu Mei Shiran put away the bell knife, the turbulent mud waves that were about to smash the two of them into pieces had turned into dry soil filled with cracks.
Then, with just a tap from Yu Mei, the cracks connected with each other and expanded. In an instant, the whole thing collapsed, causing dust to fly everywhere.
She stepped lightly, avoiding the mud and dust. Her red skirt floated and landed next to Li Changan. She chuckled under the ferocious mask.
"Pretending to be pretty similar."
"I've just seen a lot."
The Taoist priest also sheathed his sword, looked around, and couldn't help but admire it.
"Good spell."
"Of course..." Her cold tone revealed uncontrollable pride, "This is the Guishui Divine Thunder!"
"Oh, divine thunder."
Li Changan turned his face and grinned at an angle that his eyebrows couldn't see. At the same time, he pretended not to see the stagnant breath and unnatural movements of the other party after showing off his strength, and just asked.
"how?"
Yu Mei replied:
"In a house with two entrances, there are at least ten people in a household including servants, but I slept in the front hall and in the back, and checked both the left and right rooms, and there was no trace of anyone."
The Taoist priest nodded thoughtfully, sniffed, and turned his eyes...
"Keep the change, please."
Li Changan picked up the lantern that Cang Tou had dropped and shined it towards the corner of the courtyard.
The time of ugliness is coming to an end.
The dark mist has long since receded, leaving only a thin remnant lingering on the ground like threads.
As the lantern shines, the pale moonlight casts its light in time, reflecting out of the messy mud scattered in the corner, a slender, delicate, scarlet but pale hand pokes out of the mist, like a bead of sand blooming on the underworld.