"My lord, go first, and Wei Duan will guard the door behind. We will not let the villains rush out of the door and chase them out. Wow, oh, oh, oh..."
With plain words mixed with weird drama, on a simple stage, a puppet with a yellowish complexion and a mighty figure was pulled by silk threads and came to life. He grabbed two puppets dressed as soldiers and guarded the city gate in the background, performing the majesty of a fierce general.
There are heroic and tragic stories.
"Brother, the story is great, but I don't understand it very well!"
"Ha ha!"
"Can you come back tomorrow?"
"No, I'm just going down the river to enjoy the scenery and tell the stories in this puppet so that others can listen."
After the simple stage was dismantled and loaded onto the truck, Chen Yuan smiled and said goodbye to the people in this town. Those who didn't know him probably thought Chen Yuan was just an ordinary juggler.
It was past noon, so I packed up some things on the stage, had lunch with my master, and then continued on my way south. According to Chen Yuan, the land of Xiazhou should be where northern Shaanxi would be in later generations, but it was not that desolate.
There are mountain ridges and hills one after another, with lush forests and only occasional brown mud soil exposed on some slopes.
Because the mountains are too dense, there are very few people inhabiting the area for dozens of miles. As soon as you leave this town, you have the illusion of stepping into the wild mountains.
"The toad is still following me."
The crazy old man put down a wooden sculpture in his hand and glanced at the forest outside the car. The rustling movement stopped immediately. When the bullock cart went away, a toad man about a foot tall stood up in the grass, standing on his head.
He looked at a circle of branches for a moment, then spread out his flippers and continued to follow.
"Zhenjun, that Purple Star, do you have anything else you want to ask of Zhenjun?" In the car, the little white snake poked its head and used its demon power to speak. It was also a demon, so it would be better to meet someone of the same kind who could talk.
I want to say a few nice words to him.
"If it doesn't open its mouth, don't bother with it. Even if it does open its mouth, I may not always respond to your request."
There is a relationship between cause and effect. Where there is a cause, there will be an effect. Chen Yuan has not yet become familiar with the toad. It is almost June and the climate in the north is dry and hot. After walking along the road to the south for a while, he asked the old cow to stop.
Stopped in front of an abandoned house.
Judging from the appearance of the house, it was once a roadside tea shop. It had been abandoned for a long time and had not been repaired. Half of the roof had collapsed. I thought that the previous owner might have died, or the road was deserted and few people came and went, so he moved to another place to make a living without much business.
.
There were still remnants of burning bonfires inside, and there were probably business travelers who had passed by and stayed here in the middle of the night. Chen Yuan didn't mind the dilapidation, so he put a low stool on the eaves, invited the master to sit down, and poured a bowl of wine from the town inn.
Herbal tea quenches Master's thirst.
The crazy old man was in high spirits. He drained the tea in one gulp and went into the room to look around. Chen Yuan took off the reins of the old cow and said, "You go and play too. Remember to be back in half an hour."
After patting the horns of the old cow, he took the Yuelong Sword and danced it through, and with the annoying chirping of cicadas in the woods, he started reading "Miscellaneous Mysteries of Huangchuan".
He remembered that there was a spell recorded in the book called Shadow Stepping Gu, which seemed to be near Xiazhou.
The pages of the book turned quickly, then stopped and looked at the content above.
"In the land of summer, there are many strange images. Over the years, ghosts are born. The cracks in the porcelain tiles can give birth to shadow ghosts. They often suck human figures and cause harm. They can be refined into weapons and can turn into nine shadows to be driven by the person holding the weapon."
Can transform into nine shadows... Tsk, isn't that similar to the Chengyun Sect's clone talisman?
In the past half month, he had seen the so-called magic talismans in Chengyun Sect, such as the magic walking talisman, the clone talisman and other very magical talismans, which were the same as the Tianshi Mansion's invisibility, wall-penetration, god-obscuring, and speed-walking talismans.
Give more.
'This Shadow Stepping Gu is of great use. Since you are here, you might as well collect it in a book and learn it whenever you want without fear of forgetting it.'
Chen Yuan was flipping through the pages of the book and thinking about it when he heard the sound of horse hooves and wheels faintly in his ears. He thought it was just a business trip passing by, so he did not raise his head. The sound of cars and horses passing by from far and near stopped in the middle of the road.
"This little brother, is he in trouble?"
Chen Yuan raised his face when he heard the words. It was a carriage belonging to a wealthy family. It was pulled by two horses and had a driver on it. There were six guards around it. The curtain of the carriage was open. There was a rather elegant middle-aged man.
When I looked over, I saw him sitting on the eaves. A strange carriage stopped, but I didn't see the livestock pulling the carriage. I probably thought that I met robbers and ransacked the livestock, so I asked him the question just now.
This man was quite enthusiastic. Chen Yuan smiled and cupped his hands and replied: "Brother, I haven't encountered any difficulties, so I'm just taking a rest here."
"I see, I'm sorry to bother you." The man smiled and put down the curtain, but he took out a few grains of silver from his sleeves and handed them to the driver outside, "Take them and give them to the young man."
"Yes, sir."
The driver left, and there was a woman beside the man. She poked her husband's thigh with her finger and said, "Everyone said that they are not in trouble. If you give them money, wouldn't it be an insult?"
"What do you, a woman, know?" The man stroked his beard and chuckled: "From what I can tell, something must be in trouble. Otherwise, why are the livestock missing? He is just forcing a smile under the eaves to save face. We happened to be passing by.
, and I have the ability, so I can be one or two of the gang."
"It's all you can do." The woman rolled her eyes at her husband, but she still had a smile on her lips. What she liked most was that her husband was so generous and righteous. If it weren't for this temperament, it would be difficult for him to have the family business he has today.
After a while, the coachman came back. The man opened the curtain and handed over to Chen Yuan, who was holding broken silver under the eaves and was stunned: "Little brother, don't be discouraged!"
hehe!
This person...
Chen Yuan looked at the silver coins in his hand, stood up and walked out of the eaves, and returned a salute to the man in the car. However, at this time, he found that there were black clouds hovering above the man's head. This was not a good sign. Unfortunately, he was not familiar with the man and did not know where he had gone.
Just one thing to mention.
"Brother, if something strange happens to you recently, don't hesitate. You should leave and run south along this road."
"Okay, farewell!"
The man smiled and put down the curtain, shook his head and said: "This young man is really stubborn, and he returned his words to me. What's wrong with going to a wedding banquet?"
"I don't want to listen to you." The woman smiled, patted her husband, and called the driver to drive away.
Here, Chen Yuan watched the carriage go away without paying much attention to it. Bad things happened from time to time in the world, and he couldn't possibly manage them all. After flipping through the book for a while, he determined the route of Shadow-Stepping Gu.
, he called Lao Niu back and started again, continuing southward along the road at his feet, following the directions recorded in the book, and slowly identifying them.
The sun was setting in the west and the sky was getting darker, so we stopped temporarily at an old temple in front of us. The temple was an abandoned temple. It is said that abandoned temples should not be entered in the wilderness. But as soon as Chen Yuan came in, the negative energy in the temple suddenly dispersed.
Several lonely ghosts inside were so frightened that they fled in panic and flew elsewhere.
Soon, the bonfire was lit, and the little white snake transformed into a huge figure and climbed along the wall to the beams. The old cow crawled under the altar, put his head on the collapsed statue, used it as a pillow, closed his eyes and dozed off.
Chen Yuan looked at the firelight, leaned against the master who was picking his head, and turned over the book with relish.
The small pot was placed on the fire, and the warm air gradually rose.
…
In the night, a few miles away to the north, the carriage that Chen Yuan had seen drove into a forest. The couple got out of the carriage and looked at the mansion in front. There were red lanterns hanging high and guests coming from time to time.
Hand the name card to the receptionist at the hospital to greet you at the door.
"This is it. I didn't expect to live in such a remote place."
"Stop mumbling, let's go in!"
The husband took his wife and walked to the courtyard gate with only two nurses, handed over the name card, and then followed the subsequent guests into the courtyard. After a while, the courtyard door slowly closed with an old murmur.
The woman seemed to hear the movement and looked back, feeling that something was wrong with her.