The monk sitting across from him at the same table raised his eyes.
His eyes were as calm as water, but his hand held the cold crescent shovel in his arms.
Everyone felt their hearts pounding, their eyes tightly focused on the monk, and all the noise outside the tea shed seemed to gradually disappear.
The sound of rain stopped, the sound of wind, insects, and birds coming from the mountains gradually disappeared, and even the sound of the "Snake Creek" surging by the tea shed became smaller and smaller.
Getting quieter and quieter.
"Don't do it yet!"
Suddenly.
A sharp cry.
It actually came from an old shopkeeper whose face was full of kindness and wealth. What he looked at when he spoke was not a monk or a Taoist, but the country guys at the gate behind the Taoist.
Everyone's eyes suddenly turned around, and they saw that the men were holding axes, shovels, and sledgehammers tightly in their hands... Even though they were craftsmen, they could still be used to kill people!
Did they turn out to be bandits who blocked the road?
Frightened looks came one after another, but the men did not "take action" as the shopkeeper said. Instead, they all looked confused. Some of them reacted quickly. One guy was so excited that he dropped the man in his hand and waved his hands repeatedly:
"No, we are not..."
Halfway through the conversation.
The monk's body suddenly stood up.
The crescent shovel made of fine iron is held high in the hand.
The cold light emitted from the blade made the whole room feel cold, and everyone was so horrified that they all took a big breath of cold air, which turned into exclamations that were still brewing in their stomachs.
The crescent shovel has already struck down violently like wind and thunder.
Where the ax blade passed, a body was broken at the waist.
However, something weird happened.
This should have been a brutal scene, but there was no blood spraying.
The corpse fell to the ground like two paper balls, and then quickly shriveled up. The shape of the skin could be vaguely seen, and it was exactly what the old store owner looked like.
Under the tea tent, everyone was about to burst out with exclamations, but this strange scene made the exclamations stuck in their throats, and they could neither swallow nor spit out.
When you are stunned and confused.
A stream of yellow gas suddenly burst out of the shriveled skin and shot out of the window.
But at some point, the Taoist had already blocked the window, stretched out his hand to block it, and immediately caught the yellow air in his hand.
Take a closer look.
"Huang Qi" turned out to be a man as short as a child, with a strange appearance, wearing baggy trousers and a short shirt, with thick gray-yellow hair on his hands and feet, and even his hair was yellow.
The Taoist pinched the back of his neck and he couldn't help but struggle.
The Taoist simply grabbed his head and feet with both hands, folded it in the middle, and then folded it with a crunch.
Gather it in your hands and rub it vigorously, finally shape it into a ball as big as the bottom of a bowl, press it into the wine jar, and then "snap" it and seal it with a yellow talisman.
…
The situation took turns again and again, which was dizzying.
No one could turn their heads, and the exclamation in their throats had already escaped.
Suddenly there was a burst of coughing in the room.
This is the beginning.
The wine jar shook.
Or the voice of the store owner.
"Master Dao, have mercy on me! Master Dao, please have mercy on me! The kid is innocent, but he has never done anything harmful to nature!"
"innocent?"
The Taoist returned to his seat and sat down, shaking the half-full wine jar with a clanking sound.
"Are you using rotten leaves as tea and yellow mud soup as wine to fool innocent pedestrians? Or are you taking advantage of people's ignorance and unresolved obsessions to fool innocent people?"
"Master Tao! It's unfair!"
The yellow-haired ghost was stunned and cried out a little aggrieved to himself.
"I am a ghost. Aren't these rotten leaves the tea for our lonely souls, and the yellow mud soup the wine for the wild ghosts?"
"Besides, these little brats, I just see them as helpless and pitiful, and I want to use their land to earn some hard-earned money, and then share the profits so that everyone can have money and less hardship on the road to the underworld."
"Master Dao Mingjian, I am a good ghost!"
"What a ghost? You can tell the City God about it!"
Here one person and one ghost are quarreling, but the people over there who have come to their senses are getting weirder and weirder.
The Taoist priest is the one who catches ghosts, the shopkeeper is the ghost, and the new ghost in the shopkeeper's words is... After looking at each other for a while, the old shopkeeper came out to take the lead.
He respectfully crossed his hands as a salute, and asked Ai Ai carefully:
"I didn't expect that this store was actually transformed by a demon. The Taoist priest and the master were able to take action to subdue it. I'm really grateful. However, the demon's words also made us confused. Can the Taoist priest help me?
Waiting for clarification?"
The Taoist priest pondered for a moment after hearing the words, then looked at the monk and saw that he was reciting sutras with his eyes closed again.
So I smoothed the corners of the talisman paper, completely blocking the noise of the yellow-haired ghost.
Then he looked around at the people in the field, especially the country men who were still stranded in front of the door.
"You are unwilling to leave, why don't you sit down first and listen to Pindao tell a story."
…………
"Half a month ago, something strange happened in Hezhou.
It is said that a group of wealthy people went to Tieping Mountain to visit immortals. As a result, someone suddenly fell ill halfway through the road, and their companions had to send him back to the city for treatment. Unexpectedly, just as he arrived at the city gate, the patient suddenly vomited and recovered without any medicine.
A doctor in the city checked and found out that the sudden illness was caused by him accidentally eating a poisonous fruit, and the vomiting and self-healing were caused by the herbs that induced vomiting.
However, the rich people swear that the patient did not eat anything after being poisoned. At most, he drank a bowl of tea at a roadside teahouse because he was thirsty.
In order to verify that what they said was true, several people returned to their hometown, but they could not see the tea shed. What was there was just a large mound of earth left by the collapse of the mountain on the roadside, just like a huge tomb.
When this strange story was widely circulated in the city, people were surprised to find that there was more than one similar strange thing during this period.
Some people had constant abdominal pain after passing Shexing and vomited up a few balls of rotten leaves; some people took out the good wine they bought on the road, but it turned into yellow mud soup; some people rested in a tea shed, but the guests at the same table inadvertently showed horror.
The Prime Minister was so frightened that he abandoned the salute and ran away with his property in a panic... All of this was just because ghosts and gods were involved, and the people involved were afraid of attracting revenge, so they did not make any big announcement.
Shexing is an important business and travel route. Since the local government knew about it, they had to pay attention to it. After several inspections, they found that all the strange things pointed to a tea shed, and this tea shed happened to be opened by a villager in Hezhou. What's more, it happened to be a tea shed.
Someone saw the owner of the shop in the countryside recently.
At first, the government thought that the shop owner had colluded with the thieves to defraud the money. They immediately arrested the shop owner and took him back to the Yamen. After several tortures, they got a completely different confession.
It turned out that a month ago, heavy rain soaked the hillside, and the collapsed soil buried the tea shed. The shopkeeper was urinating in the toilet outside the tea shed. He was lucky enough to escape death, but he was crushed under the soil and fainted.
I was in a daze and didn't know how much time had passed, but the store owner heard someone calling his name. It turned out that a family member came to look for him because of something, and they arrived in time to dig him out.
After the store owner was rescued, he thought that there were still customers in the tea shed who had not had time to escape, so he wanted to try to save people, but...
At that time, it was sunset, the yin and yang were transitioning, the heavy rain was falling, and the sky and the earth were dim.
The tea shed that was originally buried suddenly appeared in front of the shop. Through the window, you can still see the guests who were supposed to be buried in the soil talking and laughing in the tea shed. In front of the tea shed, an old man who looked exactly like the shop owner was smiling.
He waved to them.
The family was so frightened that they ran away. Fearing that ghosts and gods would come to claim their lives, they hid in their hometown and lived in seclusion until a month later before they dared to go out. As a result, they were arrested by the Yamen as soon as they showed up.
The county magistrate asked the mage in the city about this matter.
The Master said: The new death of ghosts is like the new life of human beings. Before the first seven days, they are all ignorant and confused. Some cannot remember where their homes are, some do not know their last names, and some even do not know where they are.
Farewell to the eternal world and become a dead person...
The strange things happening in the teahouse are probably caused by some kind of goblin ghost taking advantage of the ignorance and resentment of the new ghosts to form a group of ghosts, which come out to cause trouble every time it rains."
After speaking in one breath, the Taoist took a sip of rice wine from the water bag, and then slowly spit out a stream of white mist.
While he was telling the story, the rain outside the tea shed was getting heavier, and the moisture seeped into the house. The temperature inside seemed to have dropped by ten to twenty degrees, and the thin autumn clothes seemed unable to withstand the severe cold.
He looked around again.
Ignore the monk who is still chanting sutras to himself.
The country men at the same table began to laugh loudly again; the scholars faced the rain from the window, shaking their heads and expressing poetry; the younger salesmen were muttering to themselves; the children laughed and played under the loving eyes of their parents.
Everything seemed to be back to how it was at the beginning, except for the old salesman in front of the Taoist.
His figure became more and more stooped, his face seemed to have been stripped of a layer of color and turned gray, and his two eyes kept swinging in their sockets:
"Shexing is a long and narrow road with many teahouses and taverns. I don't know which family's travelers suffered such a misfortune."
"Easy to say."
The Taoist put down the water bag and looked straight at the past.
"It rained heavily that day, and there were very few customers passing by. The police officers made repeated checks and found out the identities of the victims."
The cold wind opened the door curtain, and the air was filled with unusual coldness.
The Taoist was unmoved.
"First, a group of stonemasons from Hezhou went to Xuanzhou to build a bridge after being introduced by fellow villagers."
The chatting and laughter of the men at the same table stopped suddenly. They suddenly lowered their eyes and lowered their hands, sitting opposite each other like puppets.
"Then there is a group of scholars from out of town. They want to go to Yuhang to watch the tide on August 18th."
The poetry at the window subsided, and only a few figures dripping with mud stood silently facing the window.
"Then there are the family members who escaped from the disaster. Poor people managed to escape from famine and bandits, but they died on the eve of their new life."
The children no longer played and laughed, only the empty eyes of the family of four looked over.
"Finally, there are two salesmen who are going to Yuhang to do business."
"They are all ordinary people. Life, death, misfortunes, and blessings are nothing unusual."
"Nothing surprising?"
The old salesman muttered something to himself and repeated it.
His expression was very strange at the moment, like laughing, crying, confused, or frightened.
"Don't say it's a joke, Taoist Master. These people you are talking about are just like... Huh?"
As he spoke, the corners of his eyes felt cold for no apparent reason. When he touched them with his fingers, his tears were mixed with coarseness. When he lowered his head and looked closely, it turned out that it was all mud and sand.
He looked at the Taoist with a sad expression and wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he vomited out lumps of mud.
And also at this time.
The heavy rain fell suddenly outside.
The room was dark as night.
He could faintly hear an inexplicable strange sound in the gloomy atmosphere, and the Taoist still remembered it vividly. It was the strange sound of disintegrating earth and rocks before a landslide.
well.
The Taoist shook his head and sighed, holding down his sword.
At this time.
"Amitabha."
The monk opposite suddenly stood up.
He clasped his palms together, and the sound of his slaps echoed inside and outside the teahouse like a bell.
His face showed an angry look.
"You haven't woken up yet?!"
Then he continued to recite sutras, but instead of silently reciting them, he chanted them loudly... No! In fact, in the ears of Taoists, monks never recite sutras silently, and the sound of sutras always reaches their ears.
It’s not that the Buddha sings silently, it’s that the “audience” in the audience doesn’t want to listen.
But now the monk's chanting is clear and the sound is clear to the ears.
"The Buddha told Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva: Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva has great causes and conditions in Jambudvipa. If he talks about benefiting all sentient beings from seeing and hearing, he will not be able to finish it in hundreds of thousands of eons. Therefore, Avalokitesvara, you use your spiritual power to spread this sutra, so that
All living beings in the Saha world will enjoy eternal peace and happiness for hundreds of thousands of kalpas..."
There are no flowers falling randomly, and no golden lotus sprouting from the ground.
on the contrary.
The monk's speech still has a bit of local accent.
However, under such an unsurprising chant, the violent storm outside the house gradually subsided, and the gloomy faces of the ghosts inside the house gradually became peaceful.
They slowly disappeared, and white light slowly escaped, and the light connected into one, filling the entire tea shed.
Finally, like thin ice under the warm winter sun, it slowly melts, then breaks and annihilates.
The world reappeared before our eyes.
The mountains and forests are still the same, the river is still the same, only the tea shed where the two of them were sitting is gone, replaced by a large mound of earth like a tomb.
…
"What is the name of the master?"
"Little Monk Fa Yan."
"The poor Taoist's common surname is Li, and his Taoist name is Xuanxiao."
Under the mound, Li Changan raised the ghost jar and shook it at the monk.
"This old ghost's silver reward is half of yours. I want to go back and get the money. Can I go with you?"
The monk named Fa Yan shook his head slightly.
"The young monk doesn't know about the bonus, and he doesn't come here for the reward. If the Taoist priest is willing, if we meet on the road one day and are willing to give some fast food, the young monk will be grateful."
"A monk seeks alms from a Taoist priest? How strange it is."
Li Changan shook his head and laughed.
"It's up to you."
It's not like collecting New Year's money during the Chinese New Year, so there's no point in pushing me.
Now that things have happened, the Taoist priest must return to Hezhou in the north of the mountain before dark, and exchange the old turtle in the jar and the human head on the donkey's back for a reward of silver.
Before leaving.
But he saw the monk wielding a crescent shovel against the mound of soil.
The Taoist priest was curious: "What are you doing?"
"The young monk wants to bury the bones of several donors."
Li Changan blinked, looked at the monk, and then at the big mound.
It took me a long time to figure out the meaning of Fa Yan's words.
"You mean you want to dig the body out of the soil and then bury it in another place?"
"Exactly."
"..."
Li Changan was speechless and led the donkey away.
…………
By the time Li Changan returned here, it was already the next day.
But Fa Yan was still digging the earth.
Li Changan noticed that he had dug up most of the mound, and he could see the remains of buildings buried in the soil. There were also a few unnamed graves on the roadside. However, Fa Yan, on the other hand, almost turned himself into a mud monkey.
When the Taoist priest asked, he learned that he had never stopped for a moment from yesterday's separation to today's reunion.
"I see that you are also an accomplished practitioner. Why don't you use some magical powers?"
"Supernatural powers are only for protecting the road. Just like walking with your feet, why use your hands?"
Li Changan strongly disagreed.
As a lazy person, he has always been able to do whatever is convenient for him.
But at the same time, as a lazy person, he is too lazy to comment on other people's ideas.
So, he just stroked the donkey's big head and let it graze on the roadside. He saw a pile of muddy tools next to the monk, which must be the relics of those country men. He went up to pick up a shovel and went with
Fa Yan groaned and dug up the soil together.
After about an hour or two, the two worked together to dig out the bodies of the victims and bury them again.
The Taoist priest knew that the monk had not touched a grain of rice since yesterday, so he took out the dry food and water bag from his luggage and handed them to him. This time, the monk did not refuse and said "thank you", took the things, unscrewed the water bag, and smiled.
Then handed the water bag back.
The Taoist priest suddenly remembered that his water bag was filled with wine.
It's not that he is greedy for drinking and gets drunk, it's just that when he is away from home, the water tends to go rancid.
The monk picked up half a pottery bowl, went straight to the river, skimmed off the dregs on the water, and scooped up half a bowl of clean water. He was about to mix it with raw steamed buns when he suddenly looked up at the sky again.
Then he drank a few bowls of river water silently and returned the steamed buns to the Taoist priest.
Li Changan was a little surprised.
There’s no meat filling in the steamed buns either?
Fa Yan didn't answer, but smiled and pointed at the sky, where the sun had already passed the center.
have to.
It is a Buddhist precept not to eat after noon.
…………
Fa Yan's destination was Yuhang, and Li Changan followed the guidance of the yellow book and headed southeast.
We are walking in the same direction.
But to be honest, the two of them didn't get along.
Although Fa Yan looks unrestrained on the outside, that's just because he treats his body as a skin to escape the world and doesn't care about it. However, he doesn't dare to slack off at all in practicing the precepts.
As for Li Changan... the rules and regulations? What are they?
Fortunately, neither of them is competitive in nature, and they walked together without disturbing each other.
today.
Go east along Snake Creek.
Suddenly I saw a large group of people in front of me, playing gongs and drums and it was very lively.
Catch the villagers and ask them.
It is said that the rich man here has some kind intentions for some reason and wants to build a new bridge in the village. At the moment, he is inviting a wizard to pay homage to the Dragon King.