After bidding farewell to Zhang Long and Bai Xuan, Wu Jie took the new medicine box back to his small building and brought some useful things with him.
He had never caught monsters before and was not sure what kind of trouble he might encounter, so he went to the library and asked San Yunzi to borrow a popular science book written by a senior who was good at catching monsters.
"The Illustrated Book of Monsters of the Tang Dynasty" is the name of this book.
Although the Tang Dynasty that once ruled the entire south has long since disappeared in the long river of time, those long-lived monsters still exist in the world like monuments everywhere, and some are still very active - for example, Qingyang Temple is said to have a The elder monster, he made his way around the world before the Tang Dynasty was established.
The cultivation of monsters is much more difficult than that of humans, and their progress is appallingly slow. However, the longevity of monsters is also much stronger than that of humans. Even if they are ephemeral, once they become monsters, they will immediately awaken their ancient bloodline and possess Shouyuan makes the human monks envious, jealous and hateful. As for those monsters who are originally longevity species, it is even possible to live tens of thousands of years!
And what about the human race? Even if they practice life-extending techniques such as the Qingmu Immortality Technique, if they cannot ascend, they will only live for about two thousand years.
So even though many years have passed, this monster illustrated book still has considerable reference value, and can even be used directly as a guide for catching monsters.
"Monsters are strange creatures. If you don't understand their true form, mortals can only be afraid and monks will be very distressed. But if you can understand the abilities of monsters and take corresponding countermeasures, you can try to avoid dangerous situations. , In this case, even if you can’t become an expert in catching monsters and subduing them, at least you won’t have to live in fear.”
The senior with the Taoist name "Bai Tian" said this on the title page.
Looking at this paragraph, Wu Jie was very moved.
However, the following annotation written by a latecomer kind of ruins the atmosphere. The unnamed senior said, "Just negotiate with monsters and other things forcefully. Force is also indispensable when necessary. As for knowledge, understand the other party." The attack method is enough, and the rest can be overcome with hard work and fighting spirit! Well, that’s it!”
Wu Jie had no intention of criticizing the different views of these two seniors. For him now, the first thing he needed to do was to learn.
Considering that there might be a battle while catching the monster, and that he might not have time to evacuate the residents near the battlefield, he went to the lecture hall and applied to Yi Yunzi, who was in charge of the lecture hall, hoping to dispatch an outsider. Disciples assist.
The so-called outer disciples are those who, although they failed to climb to the top of the mountain in time during the initial selection process, persisted in climbing until the end and refused to give up.
They have never given up their dream of seeking immortality, and the immortal sect will not give up on them.
Therefore, the Immortal Sect provides them with stable living conditions, teaches them basic cultivation methods, and also gives them the status of disciples.
As long as they can cultivate to the realm of Taoism through these basic methods, they can also become entry-level disciples and enjoy the same treatment.
According to past experience, these outer sect disciples will gradually succeed in cultivation in the next ten years or so. Then Yiyunzi will step down, and when the next group of outer sect disciples arrive, there will naturally be the next lecturer. Responsible.
This is how Qingyang Temple cultivates these disciples who lack qualifications but have perseverance from generation to generation. They are like a careful gardener, carefully taking care of the saplings with innate deficiencies so that they can grow up, even if they cannot eventually grow into adults.
The tree should at least be as tall as possible.
When Wu Jie came to visit, the morning lecture had just ended. After he explained his intention, Yi Yunzi did not directly assign anyone, but asked the outer disciples to sign up on their own.
Go out and help catch monsters?
The six outer disciples looked at me and I looked at you, all a little hesitant.
This month of practice has indeed greatly improved their physiques, but compared to Wu Jie, an authentic immortal, the gap is still very big. Catching monsters is a bit dangerous no matter how you look at it, and it will delay the time of practice...
After a while, a boy of medium build stood up.
"We can't let those monsters harm the people! I'll go with senior brother!"
"His name is Hai Dongjian, and he is the fourth in the family, so people who are close to him call him Hai Si." Yi Yunzi introduced, "He is a person with a strong sense of justice, but his personality is a bit...simple and he likes to think wildly."
Then Wu Jie understood that this was the legendary second grader!
On the way out of the mountain, Hai Dongjian introduced himself eloquently, adding many adjectives that he considered very meaningful and important. He himself spoke happily, but Wu Jie felt that if he managed to put these words together now,
Record the words and play them to him decades later...
Well, someone will be killed, someone will definitely be killed! At that time, Hai Si will definitely hack Wu Jie to death with a knife, or hack him to death himself.
When they came to the foot of the mountain, they happened to meet Jiang An. Jiang An was surrounded by a biting and cold atmosphere, making it difficult for people to approach him.
"I have been tempering my Gang Qi recently, and I haven't been able to completely contain it yet." Jiang An explained with a smile, and asked them what they were doing.
"Going out to catch monsters?" Jiang An nodded slightly, then looked Wu Jie up and down, and asked, "You just go out to catch monsters like this?"
"I have prepared all my things: weapons, magic weapons, robes, talismans, storage boxes... Is there anything missing?" Wu Jie was a little confused.
Jiang An sighed and pointed at his left eye.
"If you walk around the world with such an eye open, you will only end up being regarded as a monster!"
Wu Jie suddenly realized that he now had a magical eye of fire.
"What's going on with these eyes?" Jiang An asked, "Is it okay?"
"When I entered Taoism, I had too much real fire accumulated in my body. I felt it was a pity to lose it. But as I thought, they all gathered together. I don't know why they all gathered in my eyes." Wu Jie said helplessly, "I
I’m surprised too!”
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's very common for us cultivators to have abnormal looks. I've even seen a guy whose body was half made of water." Jiang'an comforted him casually, and then took out a piece of black crystal, "
Let me make you a crystal eyepatch. Although it looks a bit strange, it must cover the flaming eyes."
Wu Jie thought for a while, drew a schematic diagram of wide-brimmed sunglasses on the ground, and asked if he could make them look like this.
"Of course you can, but why do you have to cover both eyes?"
"Because it looks better."
A few minutes later, both Wu Jie and Hai Si put on perhaps the earliest sunglasses in the world and left the fairy mountain.
"This thing is really good! Even if you look at the sun while wearing it, you won't feel the glare!" Haisi said happily, walking under the bright sunshine in June, "Eldest brother is indeed a senior brother, the things he designed are really useful!"
Wu Jie nodded and secretly wondered whether he should ask a tailor to make two sets of black suits, two white shirts, and two pairs of white gloves when he got to the county town.
In this way, when they are waiting to catch the monster, they look like special policemen from the European and American blockbuster "Men in Black"!
Anyway, no one in the world knows the origin of this kind of costume, and there is no need to worry about being laughed at, let alone being photographed when walking on the street.
As he walked, he thought, and suddenly he became alert - how could he remember such a bad thing? Could it be that he was infected by this guy Haisi?
Looking at Hai Si, who was still cheerful and smug, he vaguely felt that maybe the chuunibyou disease was really contagious...
That evening, they came to Wu'an County and rented a carriage to Xin'an.
On the carriage, Wu Jie pretended that he just remembered it accidentally and casually asked the coachman if he had any special news recently.
"As for the special news, there are two recently." The coachman said, "The first is that about a month ago, someone saw an immortal crossing the river on the edge of the Dachi River. His posture was elegant and unrestrained. He was indeed an immortal.
!”
Wu Jie recalled it and felt that the way he was so anxious and running so fast could not be compared to being elegant and unrestrained.
"Another thing is that there seems to be a monster in Xin'an County."
"Huh? A monster?" Wu Jie pretended to be very interested and asked, "What kind of monster? Aren't you afraid?"
"The specific monsters are not yet certain, but they may be cats or something... They stole a lot of money from somewhere, bought all the fish caught by the fishermen, and then seemed to pile them up in an empty building.
Inside the house - now there is a strong fishy smell floating everywhere in Xin'an County, it's really unbearable!"
"Eh? Are they harmless?" Haisi's eyes widened in surprise, but luckily he couldn't tell even though he was wearing sunglasses.
"How come it's not harmful to anyone! The whole city smells like fish! And they don't eat fish offal, so they pile it up in the yard. It smells...really! Sir, you'll know it when you smell that smell.
Are they harming anyone?"
The driver looked very angry, but Wu Jie secretly smiled.
Since he is not a man-eating monster and he knows how to buy fish with money, then there must be some discussion.
He believes that there are no monsters in the world who do not want to become immortals. As long as the other person knows that he can go to the immortal mountain to practice, he will happily give up causing trouble in the world!
They traveled all night and stayed overnight, and they had to avoid the period when the sun was strongest at noon, so they didn't walk very fast. But even so, after a few days, they arrived at Xin'an County.
Xin'an County was the first county built towards the border of Kyushu after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, hence the name "Xin'an".
According to legend, in order to establish this county, soldiers of the Tang Dynasty fought a fierce battle with wild beasts, resulting in numerous casualties of both humans and beasts. Coupled with the hot climate here, the smell of rotting corpses lingered in the air for several months.
.
Wu Jie had never experienced what happened back then, so he didn't know what it was like at that time, but he felt that, at least in terms of smell, he could somewhat imagine the situation at that time.
Just as the coachman said, the entire Xin'an County is shrouded in a rotten stench that is so nauseating that it makes people even vomit out their overnight meal!
In fact, Haisi was already vomiting.
Last night they ate some snakes they caught on the roadside, and the roasted snake meat still tasted quite fragrant. But now that they smelled the fishy smell mixed with the greasy smell, they immediately felt that the snake meat was supposed to have been digested long ago.
It was rolling in the stomach again, as if the snake was still alive and swimming in the intestines and stomach.
Wu Jie did not express his feelings because he was worried that if he did, Haisi might make his guts vomit out.
After receiving the reward, the coachman hurriedly drove the carriage away, unwilling to stay for even a second. It took Wu Jie and Haisi almost half an hour to catch their breath, and reluctantly headed towards the county seat.
Walk inside.
Their target was the source of this deadly stench, an empty house located next to the city wall.
