At three o'clock in the morning, the ghost still couldn't be dispersed, so Ruan Hunxiong stepped forward and asked to see if there was anything it couldn't let go of.
After asking, it was no big deal. It was just that it died in an unknown way and was worried about its wife and children. This was the most common ghost among the ghosts dealt with by the walkers, and Ruan Hunxiong didn't take it to heart at the time.
After dawn, he set out for Yinhun's home. This person died at noon. According to the three-day morgue rule, he should not have been buried yet. He just had to sneak in and take a look at the body to find out the cause of death.
He arrived at Yinghun's house, made sure no one was inside, climbed over the wall, and found the deceased's body wrapped in white cloth.
What kind of strange custom is this? After he opened the layers of shrouds, he was shocked——
The body surface of the deceased has completely turned green, with large and small pustules all over the body, and pus is flowing out!
"Is it an epidemic?" Hearing this, Zhou Shi couldn't help shouting.
Ruan Hunxiong glanced at him, and he immediately fell silent, regretting that he had interrupted him rudely.
"I thought so too, so I rushed out of the house immediately for fear of getting sick. When I went back and told the ghost what happened, he showed no sign of relief, but I never saw it again.<
/p>
"We occasionally encounter this situation. After some ghosts know the cause of their death, they become resentful, which in turn aggravates their own cause and effect and turns into a resentful spirit or a ghost. I thought it had changed, so I notified the surrounding horses.
Customers paid attention and reported to the government through channels at the same time, saying that an unknown disease was discovered.
"Five days later, another ghost died of a similar disease!
"This aroused my suspicion. The two ghosts are one in the south and one in the north. If it is caused by infection, then the disease should have spread, but there are no other patients in the surrounding villages; if they are infected from the same source,
These two people have not been out of the village recently and have no intersection at all.
"So I suspect that someone poisoned... But the buyer last time was really wealthy, with two hundred taels of silver in his mouth. It seems that he really values his grandson's 100-day banquet."
At this point, Ruan Hunxiong suddenly talked about an unrelated topic. Zhou Zhen was wondering when he heard the sound of people going up the stairs outside the door, and Agui opened the curtain and came in with wine and food.
"Here - golden meat, braised kidneys, stir-fried beans, stewed mushrooms - shopkeeper, guest, eat slowly and drink slowly."
After Agui left, Zhou Shi sighed in his heart: What a keen insight, he is worthy of being an old horse.
Ruan Hunxiong immediately returned to his indifferent expression. He rambled on for a while, and only after confirming that Agui came downstairs did he continue the topic.
"But I was just suspicious at the time. It wasn't until four days ago that I was sure that someone was behind it."
He poured himself wine, took a few sips with the food, praised him repeatedly, and then continued:
"At that time, another ghost asked me to investigate the cause of death. When I arrived at the place, I found that the body was also covered in pustules and had a horrible shape. When I was about to come out, I suddenly noticed someone wandering around, so I hid. After a while, a man came to the body.
,What are you playing with on the corpse...
"I acted impulsively and grabbed the man, but during the struggle I hit him in the road and let him run away."
Ruan Hunxiong said, rolling up the sleeve of his right arm.
Zhou Shi was shocked. The arm was dark purple from the forearm to the shoulder, and there were several ferocious knife edges on it.
"Senior Ruan, you..."
"Fortunately, I reacted quickly, used a knife to release the poisonous blood, and used a special method to deal with it, so I saved my life."
Ruan Hunxiong pushed down his sleeves and said:
"It's a pity that the beast got away. Later, I received news from Mr. Mo, saying that he had discovered a blood ginseng tree from southern Xinjiang."
After Ruan Hunxiong finished speaking, he picked up his chopsticks and began to drink and eat food, completely ignoring whether Zhou Shi understood.
So Senior Ruan combined the discovery of blood ginseng with his own experience, and then concluded that the poison masters have spread around Jiangdu...
Zhou Shi himself added an ending to Ruan Hunxiong’s story in his mind.
Ruan Hunxiong ate and drank enough, wiped his mouth, took out an iron box from the cloth pocket at his feet and placed it on the table.
"This is what the poison master left at the scene when I was fighting with him that day. Be careful and don't touch it."
Zhou Shi carefully opened the iron box and found a mushroom lying inside.
This mushroom is long and slender, with a gradient from red to blue from the cap to the root.
"This thing... is a 'returning umbrella'!"
"Do you know him?" Ruan Hunxiong raised his head and looked at Zhou Shi. He originally thought that this guy was a fool, but he didn't expect that he was quite knowledgeable.
Zhou Shi saw it in the Mountain Sutra given to him by Wang Zhuang, a mountaineer and treasure keeper. The book said: "The whole body is long and slender, with a withered shape, the color changes from red to indigo, and there is a strange light in the dark."<
/p>
"Yes, this is a mushroom that grows on corpses! But..."
"But what?"
"This is too big..."
It is said in the Mountain Sutra that the largest Yin-returning umbrella is no more than an inch long, but the Yin-returning umbrella in the iron box is a full foot long!
"This Huanyin Umbrella is often found on corpses buried in a humid environment. It grows by absorbing nutrients from the corpse. Therefore, it is naturally rich in Yin Qi and lacks vitality. It cannot grow very big. Such a big Huanyin Umbrella... I am afraid some secret method has been used.
Planting."
Ruan Hunxiong nodded, but did not say anything after that, seeming to be deep in thought.
"Senior Ruan, I have a guess. Could it be that the poisonous umbrella is the reason why the poison master harms people?"
"You mean, he used the people he poisoned to death as nourishment for his penis... That's interesting."
Zhou Shi nodded and added: "Whether it's 'him' or 'them' remains to be verified."
Ruan Hunxiong closed the iron box, stuffed it back into his pocket, and put the pocket on his shoulder.
"Anyway, you have to be careful at all times. The poison master almost fell into my hands before. He should have recognized that the method I used belongs to the Yin Gate. If he or they want to make any big move, they will definitely regard the people in the Yin Gate as a thorn in their side.
”
"Understood."
"Will you and President Mo live here in the future?"
"If everything goes well."
"Okay, I will come here to see you from now on. Say goodbye."
Ruan Hunxiong left, leaving Zhou Shi to meditate alone in the private room.
After a while, he called Agui to come up and clear the dishes.
"Agui, I have to go back to the countryside tomorrow. I won't be back until the evening of the day after tomorrow. Please take care of the business in the store and don't be as slack as before."
"Okay."
"Also, the two young masters have not been found yet?"
"Since you are here today, I haven't looked for you. However, it is common for the young master's family not to come back for ten or eight days. I'm afraid they will ask for money again when they come back."
Alas, the future of Fengde Building is worrying.
Zhou Shi shook his head and decided to go back to his room to practice and wait for the guests to take their seats in the evening.