Becoming a fox fairy from Liaozhai

Chapter 831 Old Clothes

The fire in the heart is so hot that it burns the body.

The Pure Yang True Fire can destroy evil and bad luck, while the Heart Moon Fox Fire can refine the spirit and the heart. When the two are used together, they can often achieve miraculous results.

The entire tomb suddenly began to shake. The evil spirit used magic to move the earth and rocks, and had already shaken the foundation of the tomb.

Zhao Siqi held the child in front of him and called out, "Come back! Come back!"

Some of the energy that escaped from the evil spirit and had not yet been digested swirled into the child's body, making his almost iron-blue face turn a little red.

But this back and forth is bound to cause great damage to one's vitality.

There was no time to worry about the child. Zhao Siqi called out to everyone and the man and the dog fled in panic. They crawled out of the stone cave in a panic and squeezed into the cold and gloomy corridor. They heard the loud noise of collapse behind them and smoke and dust poured into the narrow passage, choking people and making them cough.

Coming out of the cold corridor, the wind and snow hit me head on, and the cold air penetrated into my mouth and nose, almost suffocating me.

A man and a dog crawled out of the archway where the old pine tree grew. Before they took two steps, they heard a loud rumbling sound behind them. Looking back, they saw the rocks collapsing. Through the old pine tree, they could see the sunken ground like a mud pond that had just been turned over. A stale, fishy smell was coming out from under the soil.

No matter it was once a Feng Shui treasure land where the clan god was buried, or a devil's cave where evil spirits lurk, it is now buried in dust in this cave.

Zhao Siqi prayed silently: "May you rest in peace on the road to the underworld."

The prayer was repeated in his mind before he began to shiver violently. The cold wind rushed in through his torn clothes, making it feel like he was exposing his breasts.

Zhao Siqi broke off a few pine needles to fix the clothes that had been torn by the evil spirit, and then carried the child back into the wind and snow.

The lights were on in the distance, and before Zhao Siqi returned the child, he could hear suppressed crying.

Zhao Siqi stood outside the door. The two women were crying. The old man on the bed was breathing more out than in. Even though Zhao Siqi helped him stop the bleeding, the old man was still dying.

In a daze, the old man pointed to the door. The two women looked back, feeling both surprised and sad.

Zhao Siqi took the child over and said, "Old man, the child has been rescued and is safe and sound."

The old man struggled to open his eyes, revealing a happy expression. He looked at the child beside him and said, "Good! Good—"

Before he finished speaking, his movements slowly froze, his eyelids closed in relief, and only the joy that had not faded away remained on his face.

"Old man!"

"father!"

The two women rushed forward and held the old man's hands, but the old man was gone.

The two women were grieving, and Zhao Siqi was overwhelmed with emotion. He could only comfort them, "Please accept my condolences. The deceased is gone. You should take care of the children first."

As soon as the old man left, the old woman had to be strong. She covered her face and sobbed a few times, then she barely suppressed the grief in her heart, put down her hands that were covering her face, and kowtowed to Zhao Siqi with tears on her face: "Thank you, Taoist priest, for saving me."

Zhao Siqi quickly helped her up and said, "I am so embarrassed."

The old woman picked up the child, looked at the child's face which was a little blue from the cold, patted the woman who was still crying, and said, "Mother, stop crying. Take the child to the bed and cover him up. Don't let him get cold."

The old woman wiped her tears and rummaged through her drawers to find a few strings of copper coins to reward Zhao Siqi.

Zhao Siqi didn't dare to accept it, and just pointed at the clothes that were pinned with pine needles and said, "No need for the copper coins, but I'd like to trouble you, grandma, to mend my clothes for me."

The old woman said with tears in her eyes, "It should be."

The old woman found a set of winter clothes for Zhao Siqi to change into, saying, "This is my son's clothes. He was conscripted into the army by the county lord and died on the way to suppress bandits. No one wore them anymore. I hope the Taoist priest will not mind."

Zhao Siqi came here wearing a patchwork of clothes. After changing into new clothes, the old woman looked at him and started to cry again.

She turned her face to wipe it, took Zhao Siqi's clothes, and said, "My eyesight is not very good, so I asked my wife to mend it for the Taoist priest."

The young woman put the child to bed and slept with him, using her body temperature to keep him warm. She raised her head and said, "I'll be right there."

Zhao Siqi didn't say anything, but helped the old man to prepare his remains. The old woman came up to help, her eyes red, she choked up several times, and said: "You left cruelly, leaving us orphans and widows, what should we do?"

The old man said nothing and looked peaceful.

Zhao Siqi recited the Taishan King's precious edict of "great compassion, great vows, great saint, great mercy" and prayed for the old man.

The young Taoist priest wore her son's clothes and performed a ritual for her husband. The low voice echoed in the room. The old woman watched silently, occasionally wiping her tears, and her mood slowly calmed down.

By dawn, Zhao Siqi's clothes had been mended. The claws had torn them so badly that the young woman used the old man's old clothes as a patch to mend Zhao Siqi's clothes.

The snow stopped at midnight, leaving a thick layer of snow on the ground.

Zhao Siqi helped the two women bury the old man. When he left, he quietly put the small change he had hidden on him into the child's arms. Then he took the Five Red Dog and walked towards the county town, step by step.

The five red dogs barked twice.

Zhao Siqi said, "Let's go to the city and see. The clan god in the tomb deserved to die. But if it is true as he said, that after the incense was lost, he had no guide to the underworld and became a monster that steals essence, then the local city god will have a big problem."

Passing through this nearly deserted village, the only people left were the old, weak, sick and disabled, with no young and strong people. After asking around, I learned that the village was plagued by bandits and was forced to serve in the government and the military.

After one or two incidents, there was no young and strong man left in the village.

If Wuning is compared to a country of supreme virtue, then outside of Wuning, the people can only barely survive, and outside of Dongyang, there will be real chaos.

There is chaos in every place, man-made disasters mixed with natural calamities, throwing ordinary people into fire and water, and they have exhausted all their energy just to stay alive.

Even though Zhao Siqi had many indescribable emotions, he was just a small Taoist priest who was still avoiding being hunted down. He could only do what he could to seek peace of mind.

After this snowfall, the weather was sunny for many days.

As the weather gets warmer, the New Year feels a lot more relaxing.

Zhao Siqi was still traveling through mountains and rivers, but Wu Ning, whom he had been thinking about all the time, was already filled with joy and happiness.

The Master and Fox have both had their day off. Those who have homes have gone home, and those who have no home have made Fox Court their home.

As usual, Gong Mengbi invited his friends to hold a banquet at Wuhuan Peak to celebrate the New Year's Day.

Fatty Kang and Xiangjun brought little Yier back from Jinhua City to prepare a banquet. The three birds Wenxiu, Feixing and Jinyi delivered messages, congratulating everyone on the new year and wishing them good luck.

I seem to have had sleep problems since I caught a cold at the end of last year. At first, I couldn't sleep because of the cough. After returning to work after the Chinese New Year, I often couldn't sleep at night and felt groggy every day. I went to the hospital recently and slowly adjusted myself with exercise. I am gradually getting better. I will slowly resume the update. Sorry. I hope everyone sleeps well and poops smoothly.