Recently, a rumor has spread in Pingye County, saying that there are monsters on the nearby mountain road.
This monster looks like a human, but it has long arms and legs, is more than ten feet tall, and is covered in long hair that is difficult to damage with swords. It can tear tigers and leopards apart, and chase galloping horses with force.
The long-haired monster is cruel by nature and likes to prey on passers-by. Once caught by it, if it is unlucky and it is hungry, it will catch its legs on the spot, raise them above its head, and slowly tear them apart bit by bit from the lower part of the body.
When it opens, the long-haired monster will open its mouth and swallow the leaked blood and internal organs; if it encounters a time when it is not hungry, it will be strung up by it and taken back to its lair for food storage.
What's the way to string it together, you ask?
Hey, have you ever seen how fishermen on the riverside collect live fish? Pass straw bundles or twigs through the gills of the fish and tie a knot. No matter how noisy the fish is, they have to be submissive, carry it home and put it back into the water.
Keep it fresh.
I don’t know who was so blessed that he not only saw this diorama of monsters eating people, but also escaped and ascended to heaven, and told the story vividly.
In any case, this matter has spread, and no one in the country knows about it. The mountain road itself is just a remote road, and the only people passing by on weekdays are woodcutters, hunters, and salt dealers. Once this rumor came out, there was no one.
People are willing to leave.
But Fu Jiulang didn't believe in this evil. As a well-known ranger near Pingye, every friend on the ground didn't know that he was stubborn and courageous.
The sword is hard to hurt? Have you ever asked about the highly practiced sword on your waist?
………………
"Quack."
A few crows circled around their heads a few times and landed on the branch opposite. A few pairs of black rice-like eyes stared at him. Fu Jiulang knew that they were waiting for him to die and become infested with maggots.
Kou Le.
"Go away, I'm not dead yet!"
He wanted to yell something like this, but a stick as thick as his wrist passed through his cheeks, jammed his teeth, blocked his speech, and placed it on a tree branch, hanging him in mid-air.
The initial severe pain has passed, and now there is only the stimulation of the foreign body and pain, and saliva mixed with blood is dripping down his beard. Flies landed on the wound on his cheek and buzzed, but his bound hands could only hold on tightly.
He held onto the slippery stick body, for fear that his own weight would tear open the wound or even tear off his jaw.
As for the hundred-refined sword that he was proud of—here, it was broken into several pieces under the roots of the tree.
At this time, there was a sudden buzzing sound.
Fu Jiulang couldn't turn his head away, so out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bush parted like weeds, and out came a hairy giant with an animal skin around his waist, holding a skinny old man struggling in his hands.
The giant roared several times and waved away the crows beside Fu Jiulang, like a butcher chasing away flies on the chopping board.
Then, he took off the wooden stick from the branch of the tree, pinched the old man's chin with his fingers, squeezed his teeth open, took the sharp end of the wooden stick and dug it into his cheek, and then skewered the living man like a fish.
.
The old man rolled his eyes in pain. The wooden stick blocked his mouth and tongue, and he could only squeeze out a few gossamer-like moans from his throat.
"You deserve it. If it weren't for you, an old man, would I be in this situation?"
Fu Jiulang felt happy and hateful at the same time. He struggled and kicked the old man a few times. The old man was shaking in pain and couldn't care about him.
……………………
This hairy giant was tall and long-legged, and his steps were long and fast. Fu Jiulang was carried on a wooden stick, and he felt that the scenery in front of him was flying by. Before he could recover, he was taken into a cave with a wound on his cheek.
After being pulled, the man and the pole were hung on the stone wall. The hairy giant also left the cave entrance and did not know what he was doing.
Only then did he have time to look around.
There was nothing special about this cave, except that there was a large rusty cauldron in the corner. There were many bones piled up next to the cauldron, including those of orcs. Fu Jiulang felt cold in his heart.
"Could it be that my good man, Fu Jiulang, died in the belly of a monster?"
It was a pity that he was young and helpless, and had not yet started a family and started a career. He felt sad for a while, and it became even more dazzling when he looked at another "salted fish" being carried on the same pole.
"It's all thanks to this old man..."
He struggled and wanted to kick a few more times, but when he rolled his eyes, his pupils suddenly dilated.
At this time, the sun was setting in the west outside the cave, and there was heavy rain. The fine raindrops formed a curtain at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a person opened the rain curtain and stepped into the cave.
The person who came was wearing a raincoat, a bamboo hat on his head, and a tasselless long sword hanging from his waist.
As soon as he came in, he took off his hat, but he was a Taoist with short hair.
The man patted the rainwater on his bamboo hat and put it aside. Then he looked up and saw the two people hanging on the stone wall. He smiled casually:
"The two friends have different interests."
What a fuss!
Fu Jiulang rolled his eyes while hanging on the stone wall, but he couldn't hide his excitement. No, even the skin on his cheeks seemed to be a little brighter red.
There is no perfect way for everyone!
He made some whining sounds in his throat, reminding the Taoist to put him down quickly.
Suddenly, the light dims.
A huge thing blocked the entrance of the cave.
"It's over."
Fu Jiulang was heartbroken.
……………………
After escaping from the foggy valley, the Taoist priest and the bearded man decided to visit Pingye City.
At that time, the rescued woman claimed to be a Pingye person and knew that there was a shortcut leading directly to Pingye. However, there were rumors that evil spirits had been brewing on that path recently, and the road was not peaceful, so the woman was quite hesitant in her words.
But neither the Taoist priest nor the bearded man paid much attention to the strange tales of the countryside. Is there a monster on the road? Wouldn't it be a good way to hide his whereabouts? But I never thought that it would rain at dusk and there was still a long way to go from Pingye County.
Having no choice but to walk on the mountain road in the rainy night, it was too dangerous. Fortunately, the woman mentioned that there was a thatched hut left by a hunter nearby. The Taoist priest asked a few people to rest for a while and went to explore the road by himself.
I didn't see him in the house, but I broke into the hairy man's cave.
Long before the surprise in Fu Jiulang's eyes turned into panic, the Taoist priest had noticed the strange movement behind him.
He suddenly lowered his body, and a strong wind swept over the floating coir raincoat, causing the accumulated water in the coir raincoat to splash out and hit the stone wall, turning into scattered crystals.
The Taoist priest turned his wrist on the ground and turned around nimbly. What he saw was a long-haired weirdo, whose huge body almost blocked the entrance of the cave.
As his mind raced, the long sword was already unsheathed and struck the hairy weirdo.
However, when the sword came down, it seemed as if it had struck a fine piece of chain armor. The sharp blade only cut off a few strands of hair, leaving a shallow wound.
The hairy giant roared, raised his fists as big as stone grinding, and smashed down his pocket.
"Boom!"
Flying rocks were flying and dust was rising.
However, the Taoist had already retreated, and in mid-air, Shi Shiran used his sword to brush away a few flying stones.
This hairy man obviously had some rudimentary intelligence. He missed a single blow, his face was full of shame and anger, and he immediately chased after him using his hands and feet.
The Taoist priest did not advance but retreated, holding a sword to meet him. He suddenly took off his coir raincoat, but a handful was still on the hairy man's face.
When the long-haired man pulled off his raincoat from his face in anger, he saw that there was no trace of the Taoist priest anywhere in sight. Just as he was about to turn his head to look for it, he suddenly felt a huge pain in the crook of his leg. He was caught off guard and fell to his knees.
However, the Taoist priest took the opportunity to get behind it, used his long sword as a chisel, and struck him hard in the hollow of his leg, suddenly causing him to fall into disgrace.
He got up angrily and wanted to give the cunning Taoist priest a good look, but when he raised his head...
The bright sword tip magnified infinitely in his eyes.
The Taoist priest jumped lightly and avoided the hairy man's dying punch. He circled around the giant's fallen body a few times to confirm that it was really dead. Then he stepped forward, lifted the hairy man's head, and held the remaining body in his hand.
The hilt of the sword outside the eye socket.
"Pfft."
A mixture of red and white slurry spurted out, bringing out a broken eyeball.
The Taoist priest wiped the blood off the sword on the hairy man's hair.
The scene in front of them was a complete twist for the two people hanging on the sticks. They screamed and struggled, trying to get the Taoist priest to let them down quickly, but the Taoist man made a silencing gesture to them and pulled the hairy man away.
He dragged his body aside and clung to the entrance of the cave like a gecko.
Fu Jiulang didn't know why, but not long after, a few sheep broke into the rain curtain, followed by a hairy giant. This hairy man was shorter than the previous one, but he still had to hang his waist when entering the cave.
Now, Fu Jiulang still didn't know the Taoist priest's plan. His eyes widened, and he saw the Taoist robe swelled up, and the Taoist man fell silently like a big bat.
The tip of the sword reflected cold light and was aimed at the hairy man's exposed neck.
After previously inspecting the body of the hairy man, Li Changan discovered that although the hairy man's hair was tough and difficult to damage, his skin and flesh were ordinary. This condescending sword immediately penetrated the body.
"Click."
It was the tip of the sword that pierced the neck bone.
The hairy man screamed and reached out to catch it, but the Taoist priest grabbed a strand of long hair on top of it and jumped off its shoulder warily.
Then, just like swinging on a swing, the Taoist priest circled around its neck, and the sword blade in his hand also walked around the neck. However, seeing the blood spurting out from the neck, the huge head of this hairy man was actually beaten by Li Changan.
"Spin" down.
The Taoist priest jumped lightly from the headless corpse's shoulder, then stepped forward to cut open the wooden stick, rescued the two unlucky guys, and took a look at the cave. This cave should be tidied up from time to time, and it is not as stinky as the caves of ordinary beasts and monsters.
It was dirty and messy, with a bed made of dead grass branches in the innermost part, and two large crude stone bowls placed on a flat stone next to the old tripod.
It can be seen that this hairy giant not only looks like a human, but also has living habits that are quite similar to humans. If it hadn't been for feeding on humans, Li Changan would not have taken their lives.
However, the cave left behind was quite good, suitable for shelter from the rain and spending the night. So the Taoist priest gave the two people a few polite instructions, retrieved his coir raincoat, put on his bamboo hat, and stepped out into the evening mountain rain again.
……………………
"It's right here."
The later it gets, the heavier the rain will be.
Finally, just before sunset, Li Changan led Bearded Man and the mother and son back to the cave. Outside the cave, the heavy rain was already hanging upside down like the sky.
"Huh." The Taoist breathed a sigh of relief, took off his rain gear and put it aside to dry. "I almost didn't come back."
"Two friends, don't mind a few more people..."
He said hello loudly and took a few steps inside, but was stunned.
It's not that something unexpected happened, but the two people were rolling around in a ball. Fortunately, they were tortured by the hairy man. They didn't have any strength, and neither of them could do anything to the other. They were just covered in mud, which looked quite funny.
.
The Taoist priest couldn't laugh or cry and separated the two people.
"Two friends, why is this?"
"The Taoist priest doesn't know, if it weren't for this old man..."
The young man was impatient, and he opened his mouth and spoke a lot without caring about the air leaking from his cheeks. The old man was slow-tongued and couldn't say a word for a while, so he simply took out some scraps of grass from his arms to feed the sheep. But this
After listening to the conversation, Li Changan probably understood the grudges between the two.
This young man is a descendant of a wealthy family nearby. His family name is Fu Jiulang, so he is called Fu Jiulang. And this old man is a sheep trader who was passing by. The two of them had nothing to do with each other, but they met on the same road, and it happened that Fu Jiulang fell in love with the old man.
of sheep.
"Taoist Master, please comment. I have never owed anything to him. The price I offered is 10% higher than the market price. Hey, this old man actually doesn't want to sell it!"
"Someone has ordered this sheep." The old man muttered.
"I'm a stubborn person. If he didn't sell me, I would buy it, so I paid twice the price..."
Twice? Li Changan looked at the old man’s sheep and saw that they were quite fat. However, they just walked away stupidly when they heard the shouts. They stayed motionless when they didn’t listen. He didn’t hear a single cry from the beginning to now. Could it be that something happened to him?
plague?
"Unexpectedly, this old man still refused to sell me, so I fell in love with him, so..."
As a result, the old man was so troubled by him that he got into this trail, hoping to scare Fu Jiulang away with the legend of the long man, but he didn't expect that Fu Jiulang was also a stubborn donkey, and he ran in regardless. As a result, the two
The man and the sheep were knocked into the hands of the elder.
"Old man, let me ask you something..." Fu Jiulang laughed at the Taoist priest a few times, then turned his head and put his hands on his hips and asked, "Sell me one for three times the price."
The old man rolled his eyes and ignored him.
"Hey! You..."
Fu Jiulang suddenly changed his color, and Li Changan quickly held him down.
"The sheep belong to someone else. If my husband won't sell them, how can you still rob them?"
In line with the principle that it is better to dissolve enemies than to make enemies, the Taoist priest turned to the old man again and said:
"Old man, for the sake of three times the money, just sell him one of your sheep, so that this stubborn boy won't be entangled in you."
Unexpectedly, the old man said angrily:
"This young man is allowed to be stubborn, but the old man is not allowed to be stubborn. He wants to buy it, but I won't sell it!"
After saying that, the old man put his felt hat on his eyelids, folded his hands and turned sideways, ignoring anyone.
The Taoist smiled, these two people were really stubborn and had their own strong points. After a few words of instruction not to do anything, they were left to fight on their own.
……………………
The next day, the sky was bright.
The heavy rain last night stopped at the fourth watch. When I woke up in the morning and looked far into the distance, I saw the bright forest and the clear blue sky.
The Taoist priest moved his joints and found that the old man and his sheep were gone.
"It's not bright yet today, and the old man drove the sheep away secretly." Fu Jiulang came over and made a report.
Maybe he felt uncomfortable being entangled by this young man.
Last night, due to Li Changan's instructions, the two of them did not take action again. They just kept talking for most of the night. They never thought that this old man would leave without saying goodbye.
The Taoist priest only smiled and shook his head. He didn't care about the old man's rudeness, and he wasn't afraid of leaking the news. After all, he would probably be exposed when he entered the city this time. The bearded man's initial plan was to go back quickly, and after obtaining the golden needle, he would take advantage of the White Lotus Sect.
Before I got the news, I immediately left the city and continued walking through the mountains and forests.
Therefore, the Taoist priest just joked:
"You can't buy this sheep after all."
"Not always."
Fu Jiulang smiled and pulled out a sheep from behind a big stone.
"Did you steal that old man's sheep?" the Taoist priest frowned.
"No, no, no." Fu Jiulang shook his head quickly, "Am I such a mean person?"
"The sheep hid on its own. The old man felt guilty and was in a hurry and didn't take care of it."
Hiding by yourself? This sheep is stupid...
Huh?
Li Changan was shocked to find that although the sheep still didn't bark, it was not as dumb as yesterday. Instead, its eyes were full of agility...
wrong!
The Taoist priest frowned. The sky was gloomy yesterday and he didn't look carefully at it. Now, when he looked at it, why were the pupils of this sheep round?
Just when I was wondering, the sheep suddenly behaved strangely.
It knelt down with its hind legs bent, its front hooves raised flat on the side of its head, and the front half of its body raised and lowered again and again.
This sheep...is actually kneeling down to worship?