The rain clouds gathered again, the wind and rain returned, and my ears were filled with the noisy sound of rain again.
Zhang Yi looked in a daze and carried the body of Sanniangzi to where he went.
The other three people have already entered the granary.
The granary is just a cover, and a huge hole is dug into the ground inside. This is the main body of the demon nest.
It was pitch black inside.
The three people held torches and tilted all the way down.
soon.
The Taoist priest suddenly smelled a stale evil stench.
"what?"
Yu Mei suddenly made a sound.
But at the edge of the fire, there was an outline with teeth and claws, ready to pounce.
The Taoist priest raised his sword, raised his eyebrows and threw it, a cold light in the air swirled and disappeared, and the silhouette fell to the ground.
Three people gathered around.
Discovering that it was a thing with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of a praying mantis, Li Changan noticed that it looked weird. It fell to the ground, like a deflated doll, a little tight, a little flat?
So I picked it up with the tip of my sword and turned it over. I saw a long gap in its back. The flesh, blood, organs, and bones inside were empty except for a layer of dry and thick skin.
Feng Chong checked it out.
"It should be the remains left behind after being completely replaced by parasitic monsters."
"It seems that this is really the lair of monsters. The batch we caught in Jin Mansion should have completed their transformation here."
Li Changan nodded and raised the fire forward.
Wherever the fire shines, monsters stand in great numbers, densely packed and blocking the road ahead.
…
The three of them walked through the remains of one demon after another.
Li Changan looked at the ferocious appearances that appeared and disappeared under the firelight.
He suddenly became distracted.
He remembered that dozens of chapters ago, he was chasing a spider spirit, and broke into the monster's lair in the same way, which was also filled with many hollowed-out skins of flesh and blood.
At that time, the spider spirit hid in the skin and took the opportunity to make a sneak attack.
At this time, are there monsters hiding among them, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on people?
The putrid stench smelled at the tip of my nose got worse in an instant.
Li Changan was shocked.
"Watch out!"
He raised his hand and grabbed Feng Chong's collar and pulled hard. In the next moment, a sharp claw penetrated the tip of Feng Chong's nose and passed quickly.
It was a monster that looked like an ape. It had been pretending to be a skin and mingled with the group of survivors. It even spared the eyebrows in front of it. It waited until Feng Chong, who was not good at martial arts, approached and suddenly showed its claws.
This monster is indeed cunning. If it misses a hit, it will crawl back into the pile of waste again.
Unfortunately, a red shadow flew over, and a bright sword light burst out.
While screaming "Zhi Zhi", the ape demon was knocked to the ground by Yu Mei's sword.
It kept struggling under the sword, and as it moved, pieces of fur on its body fell off, revealing milky white muscles and some rancid meat and organs.
Yu Mei struck out with another sword, piercing the center of his eyebrows.
Pressing down the frightened Feng Chong, he pinched his nose and stepped forward.
"The white part is the insect body, and the rotten part should be the flesh and blood of the host. It seems to be a deformed child that failed to transform. It may have been left to guard this place."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden light in the cave, and a heat wave hit him behind him.
He hurriedly turned his head to look.
It turned out that when he was attacked just now, Feng Chong panicked for a moment and threw the torch in his hand into the pile of debris.
I didn't expect those skin bags to be so dry and flammable.
In a blink of an eye.
It was ignited and turned into several blazing torches.
If this continues, if it becomes a prairie fire, the three of them will be suffocated to death if they are not cooked.
Fortunately, the remains here were not as dense as when they first discovered them. The three of them quickly separated the unlit ones and piled the burning ones together, creating a bonfire.
A lot of work is done.
The three of them were surprised to find that little fragments of light appeared behind them.
Look back.
The broken lights are like stars in the sky, forming a bright galaxy.
Unknowingly, we had reached the end of the cave, and beyond was a stone wall several feet high.
A huge butterfly was quietly clinging to the stone wall. It was silent and speechless, and did not react to the arrival of the three people. It only had its wings spread out, occupying the entire stone wall.
The "Milky Way" that Li Changan saw was the fluorescence reflected from the scales on its wings.
Quiet and beautiful.
It should appear in a dream full of flowers, not in this deep, smelly cave.
Li Changan had to admit that at that moment, he was captured by God.
This is not the reaction a frequent visitor should have.
He laughed at himself, but found that there was someone worse than him.
Taoist Feng had already stepped forward and looked at it carefully by the light of the fire.
"The down is fluffy like tassels, the wings are tough and silky, and the scales are like gold and silver ground and mixed..."
His expression changed from confusion to surprise to excitement, and even his whole body was attached to the wings of the big butterfly.
Fortunately, the big butterfly seemed to be a dead thing and ignored him, letting him touch it randomly while muttering:
"That's right, that's right! This is..."
"Hundred Fantasy Butterflies."
But it was Yu Mei who made a sudden sound and gave the answer.
Li Changan: "..."
Forgive him for his ignorance, as a wild Taoist priest who has never been taught, he has never heard of this monster.
Feng Chong couldn't understand his ignorance and said anxiously:
"The strange butterfly of Hainan, this is the strange butterfly of the South China Sea!"
Li Daoshi became even more confused: "Is it a hundred fantasy butterflies or a South China Sea monster butterfly?"
"The Hundred Fantasy Butterflies are the South China Sea Monster Butterflies, and the South China Sea Monster Butterflies are the Hundred Fantasy Butterflies."
After Feng Chong danced and finished speaking, he saw that Li Changan still had a polite yet embarrassed smile.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"Brother Dao, please forgive me, I'm impatient."
He apologized politely and spoke slowly for Li Changan.
"This monster is called the Baihuanhuan Butterfly. It only appears in the mirages of the South China Sea. It was born in illusions and thrives in illusions. It is also called the South China Sea Monster Butterfly."
"On the border of the South China Sea, ships occasionally dock. There is no one on board, the goods are all in the warehouse, and there are no signs of fighting. The natives say that they were recruited by the Dragon King of the South China Sea. Or there are people who seek Taoism in the South China Sea.
Those who are lucky enough to be appreciated by the immortals in the fairyland, enjoy themselves in the fairyland until they are old and dying, and want to bury their hometown when they die. When they return to their hometown, they find that their parents are still alive and their wives have not changed their youth. Most of them encounter mirages parasitized by butterfly monsters on the sea.
, caused by his illusion."
"This demon is rare, and its whereabouts are mysterious and unpredictable. Few people in the world know about it. Even in my sect, no one has seen the real thing for thousands of years. There are only a few lines of records in the files. It was the ancestor who learned from Bai Ze (the mythical beast)
, understand the appearance of all things in the world) and be able to get along with it."
As he told the story, Feng Chong became more and more excited. He stared at the big moth like a poor game party staring at a 3080ti.
"Brother Taoist, Lord Yu, after seeing it, I finally understand the identity of that doctor!"
"He is Baihuandie."
Feng Chong's eyes flashed.
Regardless of the past ten days, he just stayed on the mountain, unlike Li Changan who patrolled the city night after night to guard against demons. However, facing the doctor's helplessness and the lack of progress in treating the demon epidemic, it left him mentally and physically exhausted.
Now, being able to reveal the true identity of the doctor is like clearing the clouds and seeing the sun, and it is inevitable that he will talk endlessly for a while.
"This evildoer split himself in two, hid his true body here, and turned his soul into a phantom body to walk outside. No wonder it can pick off its heart, eyes, skin and bones, but it can act as if nothing has happened. It turns out that there is only one body on the mountain.
No matter how much you torture the illusory body, it is just a matter of piercing the blade into the running water, which will not cause any real harm to it."
"In other words." Li Changan interrupted, "You have to kill this butterfly to kill the doctor?"
"No."
Feng Chong shook his head.
"The Hundred Fantasy Butterfly is different from ordinary creatures. It is an illusory thing. The body is the soul, and the soul is the body. No matter whether you destroy the illusory body on the mountain or the real body in front of you, you can't really kill it. You can only destroy it.
Only by uniting his body and soul can he be completely destroyed."
"Hmm~"
Li Changan pondered for a while and then asked a very disappointing question.
"Can killing Baihuan Butterfly cure a person who has become a demon?"
The excitement on Feng Chong's face suddenly froze, he hesitated a few times, and then put on a wry smile.
"It must be of some use."
All right.
Just can't.
However, the demon nest was wiped out tonight. As for the demon epidemic in Xiaoshui, for example, if a seriously ill person has the lesions removed, although he cannot completely restore his health, it can at least prevent the condition from worsening.
He looked around and saw that there were no more monsters, so he was going to call the two of them to get the big butterfly off the wall together, so that they could finish the work quickly and go back to the store to change into dry clothes.
At this moment.
Yu Mei, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke again.
"strangeness."
Is that weird? Li Changan was about to ask.
Feng Chong twitched his eyebrows and said the same: "It's indeed strange."
So what’s so strange about it?
Fortunately, Feng Chong took the initiative to explain:
"The Hundred Fantasy Butterflies are monsters that live in mirages. They shouldn't appear in the real world?"
Li Changan was puzzled.
"The monsters can appear in the busy city, why can't the Hundred Fantasy Butterflies?"
"The two are not the same." Feng Chong explained, "Although demons are born in the miasma of mountains and forests, they are worldly creatures after all. They can survive after being separated from their habitat for a short period of time. But the Baihuan Butterfly is different. It is an illusory thing.
Born in an illusion, it can only exist in an illusion. In other words, it itself is part of the mirage, unless..."
He made a little joke.
"Xiaoshui City is a mirage..."
Feng Chong's words seemed to open some valve. Li Changan felt that an idea that he had ignored was about to emerge in his mind, but at this time, Feng Chong suddenly stopped speaking.
The Taoist priest raised his head in confusion.
"Fellow Daoist Feng?"
He found that Feng Chong's hands were raised in the air without moving, his mouth was slightly open, and his whole body was still in a speaking posture. It seemed that time had stopped on him at that moment.
Li Changan turned to Yu Mei.
"Master Yu?"
The same is true for Yu Mei.
Like a sculpture, there is no response.
Li Changan's nerves suddenly became tense, even a little creepy.
Not only because of Yu Mei and Feng Chong, but also because he found that the surroundings suddenly became quiet. The sound of rain outside, the sound of hot wind, and the sound of flames were all cut off in an instant.
He turned and looked back.
Saw the solidified flame.
…
It was as if someone had pressed the pause button.
Except for Li Changan himself, everything else in the world has solidified, including the churning flames.
And when the flames calmed down, they looked like streaks of red mist, no longer fierce, but with a softer feel.
Li Changan stabbed him with his hands.
hiss.
Still hot.
That's good.
The Taoist priest smiled and returned to Yu Mei and Feng Chong.
He was not polite and first searched Feng Chong's body for all the talismans and magical weapons that could be used.
Going to Yu Mei again, he first helped her remove the obstructive mask on her face, smoothed her eyebrows, and rounded her slightly closed phoenix eyes. Sure enough, she was the grown-up Amei.
He nodded with satisfaction.
Treating everyone equally, he also collected the bits and pieces of Yu Mei's body into his pocket.
Then he swung his full pockets, held his long sword, and walked alone outside the cave of deathly silence.