"Dad, if we leave like this, what will happen to the land at home?"
A woman wearing old floral clothes, carrying a sleeping baby on her back, said with a sad look on her face.
"What time has it been? You still care about the land. If you don't leave, your life will be gone!"
Next to him was a middle-aged man in a short shirt, carrying a big baggage and a broken hatchet in his hand, with a sad look on his brows.
Occasionally, when I look back at the countryside thousands of meters away behind me, shrouded in the early morning sunshine, my eyes show reluctance and nostalgia, but they soon become decisive again.
"Two laymen have invited me, may I ask if the front is Tanhua Village?"
"Oh, my God!"
Seeing Xu Junming's sudden appearance, after being frightened for days, the already nervous woman screamed, her eyes rolled, her legs went weak, and she fell backwards.
The bamboo shadow flashed, and a bamboo stick as green as jade passed through the woman's armpit like lightning and supported her falling body.
"You...you, are you a human or a ghost?"
The man was bolder after all. Although he was frightened and kept retreating, he did not faint in the end.
Xu Junming smiled slightly and nodded.
"This layman, the sky is bright now and the true fire of the sun is covering the earth. The evil spirits dare not come out at this time."
The man agreed upon hearing this. Looking at Xu Junming's rosy face, his bright eyes, and the shadow behind his back, he was obviously not a ghost.
Thinking of this, I felt a lot more at ease.
"Then you are...?"
"The Taoist exorcist from Maoshan sent two lay people back home for burial!"
"The corpse hunter?"
"Exactly!"
After Xu Junming nodded, he raised his finger and flicked a ray of magic power into the woman's acupuncture point. After a moment, he heard a "嘤咛" sound, and the woman who fainted from fright opened her eyes.
Seeing that she was carrying a child on her back, Xu Junming was afraid of another accident, so he used his hand as a pen to draw a "purifying heart charm".
Taoist true talismans naturally have infinite magical uses.
The couple who bathed in the 'Heart Purifying Talisman', and the child behind them who had just woken up, all the negative emotions such as fear, shock, and panic disappeared, and their expressions became calm.
"Both laymen, do you feel better?"
"Thank you, Taoist priest!"
The man didn't know much, so he awkwardly saluted Xu Junming.
After a faint smile.
"Can you answer Pindao now, this is 'Tanhua Village in Changliu Town'?"
"Exactly!"
"Are there two families, Zhu Youfu and Zhu Erlang, in this village?"
"Zhu Youfu is my third uncle. He lives at the east end of the village. As for Zhu Erlang...?"
The man's face showed a thoughtful look.
The woman shook his arm, a little nervously on her face.
"Master, have you forgotten that the tofu seller Zhu Shitou, isn't his father named Zhu Erlang?"
"Yes, yes, I remembered it. When my father was still alive, he told me that Zhu Shitou's father and he were uncles and brothers. They were the second eldest children in the family, and their name was Erlang...!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Junming saw a hint of fear on his face.
Even with the mind-purifying talisman he had drawn before, the two of them still looked worried. Obviously, something had probably happened to Zhu Erlang's family.
I wanted to ask clearly, but judging from their expressions, I decided not to ask.
"Thank you both!"
He reached out and waved, and under the thick poplar tree in the distance, two shadows covered with gray linen clothes were tied to a white rope and slowly flew over.
The man looked at the two lifeless figures and knew they were corpses.
Grasping the rope that bound the corpse, Xu Junming raised his foot and was seventy meters away in an instant.
"Tao...chang...!"
The man looked at the figure that was quickly disappearing with a shocked face, and forgot to say the words in his mouth.
"Let's go back!"
After calming down, the man gritted his teeth and turned around.
"Go back? My boss, you are confused. We finally escaped."
"What do women know? Although the Taoist leader just now is young, he seems to be a very capable person. He can probably solve the problems in our village."
The woman also recalled the Taoist's miraculous ability to make a hundred steps in an instant.
After all, it was still hard to leave my homeland. After struggling for a moment, I nodded.
…
July and August are the seasons when all things grow and prosper in the southern land. However, when Xu Junming came to the village, he found that the leaves of the rice in the village were yellow, not growing vigorously, and looked sickly.
He didn't know much about farming, so he thought it was just a matter of poor planting, so he didn't pay much attention.
However, when entering the village, it was obvious that the Yin Qi here was stronger than outside.
Looking at the village under the gauze trees.
"It's been a smooth trip all the way. Is there going to be a problem on this last trip?"
Shaking his head, Xu Junming walked along the road into the village.
Compared with the villages and towns he passed before, this Tanhua Village was not that small, but the atmosphere in this village was strangely cold.
Although it was broad daylight, he had not seen anyone else except the couple he saw before.
This is unusual in rural areas where people need to work in the fields every day.
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, there was a stone tablet half a man tall standing next to it. The stone tablet had serious signs of wear and tear, and it had obviously been left here for a long time.
The top of the stele is embossed with a golden lion, with exquisite pictures and text, obviously made by an expert.
The lotus petal inscriptions on the base are also of extraordinary skill.
In the middle of the stone tablet, there are three characters of "Tanhua Village" in regular script. Although the color has faded, the temperament of the face and bones has not diminished at all.
Xu Junming took a brief look and was about to step into the village. From the corner of the alley in the distance, a short and thin old man wearing a patched old jacket came out, carrying a hoe.
Seeing Xu Junming in Taoist attire and two corpses in gray linen clothes behind him, the old man's goatee curled up and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
"The Taoist priest is a corpse exorcist?"
The old man asked tentatively.
He was older and well-informed, and he had seen the corpse exorcist once or twice.
"Exactly!...Does the old layman know where Zhu Youfu and Zhu Erlang are?"
"I know. The Taoist priest walked along this road and passed four intersections. The first house on the right side of the road with the stone on the door is Zhu Youfu's house. As for Zhu Erlang...?"
There was a hint of fear from the heart on the old man's face!
"Taoist Master, you should go find it yourself...!"
After saying that, before Xu Junming could speak, the old man shouldered the hoe, turned around and ran away, disappearing in the alley in the blink of an eye.
Looking at the place where he disappeared, Xu Junming didn't catch up.
Thinking about the scruples of the couple earlier, and then looking at the fear of the old man, Zhu Erlang's family is probably the reason why Tanhua Village is so lifeless.
According to what the old man said, Xu Junming stepped forward. This road, paved with stones of different sizes and about five meters wide, was obviously the main road in the village.
There are winding alleys connecting it on both sides. There are more and less households in each alley, but there are basically more than eight households.
Calculating this, there are at least two to three hundred households in this village.