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August 8th.

Chen hour.

The morning fog has lifted, but every household has lit incense candles early, and the smoke is so thick that Qian Tang is still in the mist.

Pedestrians on the street walked in a hurry, passing each other suddenly, like ghosts floating back and forth in the deserted streets.

The shops on the roadside were only half open, and there was also very little business. Occasionally, customers would exchange money and goods with just a few words, but they would never talk much and never stop.

You can only hear some of it in the brief whispers on the street corners.

"Dongwazi's double-acting double repertoire, Dagou, was taken down."

"Du Qiaosheng, the singer of Baiweilou's mulian opera, is gone."

"Miss Quezhi and Lady Yulian from Chunfang River were kidnapped together last night."

"What a sin!"

"Hush! Be careful what you say!"

.x63.

Then he looked around carefully, shut up and left quickly.

In the midst of the rush, there was an old man singing and begging beside the bridge.

"In the Qian Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Lang Ding and a man named Wuchang. He found a treasure mirror that was unparalleled in the world.

In the morning, longevity is worth a thousand pieces of gold, and in the evening, I fall into the cave of Jiuyoutang..."

Xi Qin is low-pitched and his singing voice is old.

Pedestrians passing by looked at him with disgust, as if the old man was some kind of poisonous insect or beast, and kept away from him. There were a few good-hearted people who hurried away after leaving some coins, and did not dare to stop and listen to the music.

The reason is that this song is about a scholar named Ding Wuchang who accidentally obtained a precious mirror, but was coveted by the ghost king. He was forcibly taken away from the Cave City with a birthday sticker. After a strange and terrifying process,

He got acquainted with a maid of the Ghost King. The beauty was impressed by his talent and helped him retrieve the precious mirror and returned to the human world hand in hand.

Like many legends about monsters and monsters circulating on the market, the tales of talented men and beauties, fox wives and ghost concubines are full of poor daydreams. The only difference is that this short song does not have a second half and does not tell the final outcome of Ding Wuchang.

.

Ding~

Li Changan threw a few coins into the broken bowl: "Do you know how to talk about the second half?"

The old man raised his yellow eyes, pointed to his ears, and waved his hand.

Perhaps thinking that the Taoist priest was the last appreciative listener today, the old man put away the broken bowl, bowed and staggered away.

As he left, he sang another short song.

It tells the story of Xu Tianshi subduing the dragon. It says that Xu Tianshi made a bet with the demon dragon and decided the fate of Qian Tang based on the good and evil in the world. If there are more good things, the demon dragon will feel bound; if there are more evils, the demon dragon will devour all living beings in Qian Tang. The bet

Xu Tianshi deceived him, and the time to measure good and evil was not that day, but a certain day thousands of years later.

Like many stories about gods and monsters, it praises the "changes" of human beings and despises the "weirdness" of monsters. Fortunately, this short song has an ending - "Ask whether people today are familiar with good and evil?"

Maybe each song is more unlucky than the last, making people hate it and even heaven.

The wind rolled out of the alley carrying paper dust all over the sky, pushing the old man's steps to stagger, and finally tore his sparse hair bun. Finally, he finally gave up, cheering and jumping off the stone bridge first, adding a new layer to the river.

Dirty black.

"Daozhang Li?"

Xiao Shide's tearful eyes were full of worry.

"It's okay." Li Changan rubbed her round head. "I'm here."

Xianyi Temple is already in front of you.

…………

The current situation of Xian Yi'an is very bad.

The mountain gate collapsed into ruins, the four heavenly kings fell down among the rubble, and their heads disappeared without a trace. The remaining Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Arhats, and Jialan all had their eyes destroyed, leaving pairs of empty eyes to stare into the world.

Several pilgrims who came up the mountain after hearing the news turned pale and left in panic. The surviving nuns were wandering in the temple in despair, as if they were all wandering corpses.

No one paid attention to Li Changan, no one cared about anyone.

Until you get to the Main Hall.

Only then did a nun hear the news and hurried out.

"Shide, where have you gone?!"

He held the little nun tightly in his arms.

"If you have three cards and two shorts, I should..."

Already choked with tears and unable to speak.

Tears washed away her makeup, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes revealed her true age, which was concealed by makeup and powder. She was about thirty years old. This age is not too young for a nun, and it is even older for a party.

Most of the nuns in Xianyi'an are this kind of nuns - they are unable to make a living due to various reasons after being a good nun, so they can only change their appearance and return to their old profession.

When she cried, her son also cried, and the sound of crying was contagious. After a while, the sound of crying echoed everywhere in the sutra hall, bell tower, lotus pond, dormitory...

The pilgrims who fled down the mountain looked back in panic, perhaps thinking that the temple was full of eyeless gods and Buddhas mourning together.

Xiao Shide was tired from crying and fell asleep in the nun's arms.

The nun hugged her and came over to see her.

"Yesterday, the host led us to organize the night banquet as usual. But at dusk, a messenger suddenly knocked on the door and said that a certain real person from the Thirteenth Family had summoned Master Wuchen to question. The host knew the importance and broke up the banquet immediately.

Let the lights in the nunnery be turned off and the sound be silent. But as expected, as soon as Master Wuchen left, an evil spirit came to the door and said, 'The musician that Pure Monk likes must be the best musician in Qiantang, and he will be enough to add color to the Dharma King's birthday banquet.' Come to think of it,

, Cave City has long been targeting us."

The pure monk is Wu Chen. He has a nickname among the elegant guests of Qian Tang's brothel, called "the most talented and wise heavenly guest, the dust-free and pure monk" and the more famous "the most romantic person in Qian Tang".

"The Cave City is not targeting you alone." Li Changan told what he saw along the way after entering the city. "Last night, the Cave City captured many actors and actresses. The number is so large that it is said to be the first time in a hundred years. It is not easy to detain too many in the Cave City.

The living people will be released after tonight."

Even Li Changan himself didn't believe the dry consolation, let alone the nun.

"You can't come back."

She gently picked it up.

"A few years ago, a poor... slave once had a courtyard by the Chunfang River. As he grew older, he trained a daughter, named Lianyi. When people saw it, who wouldn't praise her for her extraordinary talent and beauty? But that's right.

At the Ghost King's Banquet that year, he was kidnapped by the messenger and disappeared from the world. As a slave, he had no livelihood, so he had to join this Xianyi Temple. A few years ago, a wealthy guest who returned from the Ghost King's Banquet mentioned that he had seen ripples during the banquet.

It’s already a ghostly skill in Cave City.”

Her expression was as calm as the Eyeless Guanyin in the main hall.

"The Cave City can't accommodate the living, so how can it not tolerate the dead?"

Li Changan was silent for a while.

"I heard that the Thirteen Families and the Ghost King have an agreement that the Sixty-Four Temples and the Cave City will not interfere with each other..."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Li Changan realized that he had made a mistake, shook his head and changed the question:

"Where's Wuchen?"

"I asked someone to send a message to Master Wuchen early in the morning." The nun replied, "There is no reply yet."

"How can a pure monk prevent a woman like us from dirtying her socks?"

But a nun next to him interrupted with a sneer, and the nun immediately scolded him.

"Stop talking nonsense!"

She explained to the Taoist priest:

"Master Wuchen has always believed that the Ghost King is the leader of all evils in Qiantang, and that Cave City is the most filthy place in the world. Master is also used to being noble and self-respecting."

Li Changan understood what the nun meant, and also understood her calmness. When everyone around her and all justice could no longer rely on her, all that was left was endurance. After all, whether as a technician, a bustard, or a nun, she

They all live by enduring. After all, there are millions of people and ghosts in Qiantang, who is not enduring it silently?

Li Changan didn't like to endure it, so he asked about various matters regarding the Ghost King's Banquet.

The nun spent most of her life in Huanchang, and got to know many powerful people, rich merchants, eminent monks and travelers.

The Ghost King's Banquet is held every year, with nothing new and no secrets in its contents. However, the Cave City itself is hidden deep in the intricate ditches and tunnels underground in Qiantang. It cannot be reached without guidance.

After some questioning, Li Changan learned quite a lot, but he was missing the most crucial point.

He was deep in thought, said goodbye and left, but was stopped by the nun.

"Shide went outside the city to look for the Taoist Priest this morning. He and Huangwei kept mentioning that you were a chivalrous and righteous man with profound skills. But maybe the Taoist Priest didn't know? There were forty-nine envoys under the Ghost King, and they were all murderers.

The big ghost is as big as hemp, and he also has countless minions. In recent years, many mages have fled the war and moved to Qiantang. In order to make a name for themselves, they have done evil in Cave City, but within a year or two, there has been no news about them all."
To be continued...