After leaving the Chenghuang Temple, Li Xiuyuan looked at the sky. It was already late at night, and it was estimated that it would be dawn in a few hours.
He walked through the streets in the moonlight and headed towards the Li Mansion in the city.
Wherever he passed, there was a gloomy wind following him, surrounding him on the left and right, lingering, and carrying a vague smell of paper dust.
If an experienced old man passes by here, he will definitely know that this sinister wind is actually a group of ghosts passing by.
These ghosts following him are naturally Tieshan and other nineteen bodyguards that Li Xiuyuan brought back from the underworld.
Li Xiuyuan had already given instructions before, telling Tieshan and the others not to get too close to avoid being affected. Especially when he took off his jade belt to sleep, he had to stay far away.
Don't be accidentally hurt by your own breath.
So I followed him all the way, but at a certain distance.
"Bang! Bang!"
When he passed by a street near his house, he saw the door of a house open. A simple and honest middle-aged man was frowning, holding a bright waist knife and sharpening it carefully on the whetstone.
Once, once very hard, the sound is crisp and loud, which can be heard especially clearly at night.
Li Xiuyuan took a look and saw that the waist knife had been sharpened and bright, and no longer needed to be sharpened.
eccentric?
He couldn't help but asked curiously, "Friend, your knife has been sharpened enough, why are you still sharpening it?"
"Ah~!"
The honest man was immediately startled by Li Xiuyuan's voice, and the sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang. He seemed not to have expected that there were pedestrians passing by his door so late.
"No, it's nothing. I just have nothing to do to sharpen the knife. I'm afraid it will rust."
He spoke in a stammering tone and looked very nervous.
"This knife has been sharpened until it shines, but there is no trace of rust." Li Xiuyuan said.
The honest man said hurriedly: "It's just that I couldn't sleep at night and didn't have anything to do."
"So that's it, then I won't bother you sharpening your knife."
Li Xiuyuan shook his head and ignored this man's weird actions.
But when he almost passed by, he looked back and saw that the honest man had already put away his whetstone and waist knife, and hurriedly got up and went back to the house.
"Young Master, this man is sharpening his knife in the middle of the night, and he is sneaky and afraid of trouble. He must have good intentions." A whispering voice sounded next to his ear, but it was the ghost of a dead guard who spoke.
"You are ghosts and you still say that others are sneaky, and they are just sharpening their knives. It's okay even if they are a little suspicious, and others don't necessarily want to do bad things."
Li Xiuyuan said: "Besides, even if this person really sharpens his knife to kill people, then others haven't killed him yet, so don't be so nervous."
"Yes, young master." A dark wind blew nearby.
"Okay, go back, I have a gift for you."
After returning to his house, Li Xiuyuan took out some incense he had prepared earlier.
These incense were his gifts. He originally planned to give these incense to the City God as a gift when he left the City God's Temple. After all, he was asking the City God for help, so he couldn't do it without some expression.
But now it seems that this is no longer necessary.
This City God had his own little thoughts, so there was no need for Li Xiuyuan to be so kind and give him gifts. He was considered to have a good temper because he didn't tear down his City God's temple in anger.
"You are all ghosts now. You have to enjoy the incense on weekdays. From ghosts to ghosts, and then to Yin soldiers, lest you encounter monsters and ghosts in the future that you cannot deal with."
He took a fire stick and lit all the incense, then planted them all on the ground.
Smoke rises gradually, carrying the rich smell of incense.
These incense are different from other incense. They are stained with Li Xiuyuan's blood. The burned incense contains special effects and can increase the behavior of ghosts and monsters.
Originally this great gift was enjoyed by the City God, but the City God no longer had this blessing.
Although Tieshan, Li Zhong and the others are fierce ghosts, Taisheng is more fierce than other ghosts, but at most they are about the same as ghosts, and there is still a big gap between them and those Yin soldiers.
Although ghosts of this level can deal with ordinary people, they cannot deal with truly virtuous people.
Only when you become a Yin soldier or a ghost general can you be considered to have attained Taoism and can take the path of becoming a god through incense.
In this world, there are city gods, land gods, and river gods, but there are also countless little hairy gods.
Just like the bald Taoist before, if all goes well with his accumulation of incense, Qingfeng Temple will become a temple in the future, and he will be able to use incense to become a god and become a minor god of Qingfeng Temple.
Although Taoist Bald did not succeed, this shows that his path of cultivation is worth trying by many ghosts.
If nothing else, let’s just say that the thousand-year-old tree spirit in Lanruo Temple has not yet achieved enlightenment by absorbing incense.
If a tree is worshiped and enshrined for a long time, it can become a spirit, let alone Tieshan and the others.
Li Xiuyuan believed that as long as he built a temple for Tieshan and the others, the incense would continue to be popular in the future, and the people in Guobei County would worship more, and he would become a ghost and god in the future, and he would not be inferior to the city god of Guobei City.
As the incense spread, Tieshan and the other nineteen fierce ghosts couldn't help but absorb it.
Ghosts are born to enjoy incense.
One offering of incense can keep ghosts from being hungry for a year.
But if more incense is offered, the ghost can strengthen itself by absorbing the incense and embark on the path of cultivation.
"Young Master, these incense are so powerful. I feel like my whole body is full of power." A guard was originally strong, but now after absorbing the incense, his size has grown rapidly. He is like a little giant, moving his hands and feet.
All are full of power.
Moreover, the body is much more solid than before, and there is no such ethereal feeling.
"This is a normal phenomenon. When you get incense, you will gradually transform from ordinary ghosts." Li Xiuyuan said.
In just a short while, he could smell the scent of incense emanating from these guards.
No worse than those ghosts.
In other words, from now on, these nineteen fierce ghosts are just ghosts. They have certain moral deeds, but they have not been canonized yet.
However, the so-called canonization is just a title and is irrelevant to them.
"Get used to the ghost body for a while, and after you have absorbed the incense, go back to the county, have a dream, and tell your family about it, so that your family can alleviate some of the pain in their hearts." Li Xiuyuan said.
"Thank you for reminding me, young master. I almost forgot about it." The ghosts nodded.
Li Xiuyuan yawned and said, "I'm a little tired, so I'll go back to sleep first. Don't get too close to my room, so as not to be affected."
"Young and others understand, I will ask them to pay attention." Tieshan nodded.
"That's good." Li Xiuyuan nodded and went back to the house to rest.
Just when he went back to rest, he was in the Chenghuang Temple.
As a puff of smoke blew out from the underworld, the city god of Guo Beicheng immediately appeared in the temple with a loud smile.
"After all, this red-haired ghost king fell into my scheme. Now that I'm back in Guo Beicheng, even the king of the underworld doesn't dare to chase him here. This thing is safe."
The City God looked at the things in his hands and couldn't help but feel very happy.
It was a book, a black book, with three words clearly visible on it: Book of Life and Death.
"This is a treasure that can really judge life and death, and the things in this book of my City God are just a record of life and death. They seem to be the same, but they are completely different. They cannot be compared with the book of life and death."
The City God flipped through the book of life and death in his hand. Although it looked like only a few thin pages, it could not be finished no matter how many times he flipped through it. It seemed endless.
But as his eyes moved, he saw various words appearing on the white paper. They were the birth dates, times of death, longevity, etc. of each mortal.
"There are nine books of life and death in the underworld, which govern the birth, old age, sickness and death of the people in the land of Jiuzhou, but my book corresponds to this place. With this book of life and death, I, the city god, can be regarded as a real city god." The city god of Guobei City laughed.
Then he flipped through it for a while, until all the names of the people in this state appeared, and then he put it away.
"Sure enough, the name of the human saint Li Xiuyuan is not in this book of life and death. His birth, old age, illness and death can only be determined by God, not even this book of life and death." The city god shook his head. Originally, he wanted to see Li Xiuyuan's lifespan.
Although ghosts and gods cannot predict his lifespan, if his name appears in the book of life and death, he can check it through the book of life and death.
"By the way, did Li Xiuyuan say anything after he came back just now?"
Suddenly, he remembered something and asked the Yin soldiers stationed at the gate.
"Sir, no." Yin Bing shook his head.
"I didn't say a word." Cheng Huang asked again.
"Yes, sir, Mr. Li didn't say a word."
Cheng Huang nodded, but he understood in his heart that this was the time he was used by him and he was very angry. However, he had helped him several times before, so now it was even.
"However, the anger of the saint on earth must be calmed down, lest he destroy my temple on impulse."
After thinking about this, the city god said again: "Go and send the Tang Dynasty Western Region wine collected by Shi Tan to Mr. Li."
"Yes, Lord City God."
A captain of the Yin soldiers responded and immediately took his subordinates to move the wine.
"Don't drink secretly on the road. This is wine given to Mr. Li. If you take a sip secretly, this city god will kill you." The city god glared again and said coldly.
He has been a city god for many years, so how could he not know the tricks of these underworld soldiers and ghosts?
Those Yin soldiers were frightened and nodded repeatedly, saying they didn't dare.
The City God then nodded and waved them away, sitting down alone to study the book of life and death in his hand.
He tried to change the life span of an inconspicuous lonely old man in the city, shortening his life by one year to see if the book of life and death was really so powerful.
This change,
In an old house in the city, a lonely old man was sleeping on the couch. He was breathing evenly before, but in the blink of an eye, his head tilted and he lost his breath.
"died."
As soon as the old man died, the City God immediately felt it.
He immediately became even more delighted, but then he frowned slightly and felt that his moral integrity had been weakened.
"You can't change the book of life and death randomly. This is just changing a person's life span for one year, which will cause the city god to lose his moral character. If the number of people changed is more and the changes are heavier, I am afraid that I will not be able to withstand such a big cause and effect.
." The City God's expression became more solemn.
Although this treasure is good, it must be used with great caution, otherwise it will be a disaster rather than a blessing.