The strange story of Huai'an Inn

"Have you heard that Mengku Guoshi passed away strangely, and the Daluo faction is in chaos now." During dinner, Fuzi suddenly said happily to everyone.

Jiulang worried, "Could something happen again...why is this year so uneventful?"

"You are so timid. The capital is so far away from us, even if something happens, it won't be our fault."

Chong Liu listened to their conversation while absently stuffing porridge into his mouth.

Zhu Helan told him before that Jiulang and Fuzi were also filthy, and they were suppressed by the sachets prepared by the shopkeeper.Fuzi is a beggar who wandered to Tianliang City. When he came, he was in a deformed state. His whole body was covered with dense abscesses of various sizes. If the flies come, it will also attract some weird poisonous insects.Even beggars don't want to approach him, and passers-by avoid him like a snake.He had collapsed at the foot of a collapsed thatched hut outside the city, waiting to die, but was saved by a shopkeeper passing by.

Fuzi later wiped away tears when talking about the past with Chongliu, saying that he was distracted at the time, couldn't remember his name and where he came from, and couldn't remember his past. He only knew that everyone hated him and thought he was dirty. I also feel that I am probably a pile of garbage, and I will soon rot to death.But suddenly someone fed his dry mouth to sleep, he opened his eyes, and saw a man as handsome as a celestial being in a mural looking at him with concern, and when he woke up, he gave him a faint smile Smile.At that moment, he almost thought that he had ascended to heaven.

Jiulang is a native of Tianliang. When he was three years old, he played in the back alley. When his mother went back to the house and put on a dress, she couldn't find him when she came out.My parents searched all over the city but couldn't find anyone, and they were going crazy.A month later, he reappeared in the back alley, still playing the old takraw ball, as if the disappearance of this month had never happened.His family asked him where he had been this month, but he couldn't tell.It's just that since then, the fruits and vegetables touched by him will soon rot and become moldy.The flowers and plants he touched could not survive three days.His parents even contracted horrible diseases one after another and died of rotting all over their bodies.

Neighbors say that Jiulang is filthy and will bring misfortune to those around him.His brother and sister-in-law hated and feared him, let him live alone in the woodshed, and never touched his things.When he was able to look for work outside in his teens, the dentist introduced him to a job.Coincidentally, it was accepted by the shopkeeper.

Xiao Shun was abandoned by his mother in the market when he was five or six years old.At that time, he was wearing a tiger head cap, and he stood quietly among the crowd, waiting for his mother to come back to pick him up.But it was getting later and later, there were fewer and fewer people in the market, and the vendors began to close their stalls.That's when a "beautiful big brother" in "beautiful shiny clothes" appeared in front of him and asked him why he wasn't home yet.

Needless to say, the pretty big brother that Xiao Shun was talking about was the shopkeeper.

Xiao Shun has been able to see filthy creatures invisible to ordinary people since he was a child, and can even communicate with them.Not long after he was taken into the inn by the shopkeeper, there was a "tall sister" friend beside him whom no one else could see.

As for the last person, it is Master Liao.Chong Liu bit his chopsticks, and quietly looked at the chef who was chewing carrots.

Master Liao has been with the shopkeeper for the longest time. As rumored, he was indeed an executioner.

Eating the government's food and salary, doing the business of killing people.Hundreds of necks were cut off by him, some of them committed heinous crimes, and some of them were framed and killed.

It is said that Master Liao's "sword skill" is the top among executioners.Once the knife was cut down, the victim didn't feel any pain at all. He didn't even know that his head had fallen from his body. Sometimes he could hear a short exclamation when his head fell to the ground, as if he didn't expect that he suddenly fell to the ground.

But after all, what is created is killing karma, and it is easy to gather resentment.Grudges are inherently chaotic and feverish.The hatred of those who have been wronged, or those who are unwilling to die, may not necessarily be accurately directed to the person who sentenced them to beheaded, and it is very likely to gather on the executor.

Tumors began to grow one after another on Master Liao's body.Those tumors grew bigger and bigger, and gradually appeared the characteristics of human faces, and the more they looked, the more they looked like the people he had beheaded.He also began to be haunted by chaotic and incomprehensible nightmares at night, and gradually developed hallucinations, unable to distinguish reality from dreams.Madness disintegrated him from the inside, no matter how much he burned incense and prayed to Buddha, and how many alchemists he sought, nothing worked.

Master Liao wrote a letter of divorce and left all his wealth to his wife and daughter after a mad attack and almost killed his wife as an evil spirit. The money, as well as his knife that killed countless people, disappeared into the vast night.He originally wanted to die alone in the wilderness, but found that there was no rice or water for several days, but he showed no sign of weakness.On the contrary, those face-like tumors on his body were getting bigger and bigger, gradually making his body so bloated that it was difficult to move.

The faces began to speak, making strange noises and gibberish that he could not understand at all.Strangely, he found himself able to...infect the land around him.

The place that was originally soil, after being touched by him, would stick to his body and gradually become a part of his deformed body.

Master Liao gradually forgot that he was a human being, and turned into a "thousand-faced ghost" circulating in nearby villages and towns.Gradually, alchemists came to try to kill him, but none of them were the opponent of "Thousand-faced Ghost".Those dao qi will not harm him when it reaches him, but will be absorbed by him.

Until Zhu Helan appeared.Unlike other alchemists, he didn't want to kill this so-called "thousand-faced ghost".Instead, he saw a rare potential in Master Liao.

A super-powerful filth that can defile the dao qi it comes into contact with.

This kind of ability is something that many people who secretly believe in the unclean god long for but cannot obtain.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Helan did not persecute or enslave Master Liao, on the contrary, he managed to suppress the distortion in Master Liao.Even after years of "treatment", he regained his mind bit by bit and restored his original appearance.

These people have been with the shopkeeper for so long, there is no reason to betray them?

Who is it?

Chong Liu was full of thoughts, Zhu Yi called him three times but he didn't respond.It was Zhu Helan who pushed him with his elbow to bring him back to his senses.

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"Master Liao said that the Lantern Festival is coming soon, and asked us what stuffing we want to eat!" Zhu Yi looked at Chong Liu hesitantly, "Brother Liu, why have you been out of your mind these two days?"

"It's not just these two days, Brother Six has been like this since he came back..."

"Shopkeeper, are you tired of our sixth brother!"

Zhu Helan coughed heavily, "Eat your food, don't guess!"

"cut……"

"eccentric……"

"Protect the short..."

Zhu Helan rolled his eyes, but he knew what Chong Liu was thinking in his heart.

Chong Liu hadn't told him about his dreams in detail until yesterday...

Zhu Helan's heart was filled with anger.

Where did the brat come from, who dared to attack Liu'er under his nose?

When the priest of the mother goddess of all things is vegetarian?

But it is a fact that the crow invaded Chong Liu's spirit.This move successfully buried the seeds of doubt in their hearts. Even if Liu'er didn't say anything, did he still have some doubts about himself?

............................................................

Xiao Shun was on duty tonight, and when Chong Liu was helping to wash the dishes, Zhu Helan whispered in his ear, "Water the pagoda tree tonight, and wait for me in the secret room."

tonight?

So fast?

Chong Liu nodded and accelerated the speed of washing dishes.But as soon as Zhu Helan left, Xiao Shun came over hesitantly, as if hesitating to speak.

"Brother Six, the tall sister asked me to tell you..."

Chong Liu raised his head and looked at Xiao Shun curiously.Xiaoshun's tall sister usually doesn't talk to anyone other than him, but today she has a message for him?

"what did she say?"

Xiao Shun showed an unspeakable pained expression.

"Tsk, what did she ask you to say?"

"That's what she said, don't be angry..." Xiao Shunyue said, the voice became softer, "She said you will kill everyone, so you should go quickly..."

Chong Liu stared at him blankly.

I didn't expect to say such a thing...

Xiao Shun ran back to the backyard with a guilty expression on his face.Chongliu stayed in a daze for a while, then hurriedly washed the remaining bowls and entered the secret room.Zhu Helan had already changed into that gorgeous red dress, with a flower crown on her head and red strings around her wrists, apparently for some kind of ceremony.

As soon as Chong Liu walked in, Zhu Helan threw him another Wu Zhu costume.

"Isn't it enough to feed it blood? Why do you have to change clothes so grandly?" Chong Liu caught the clothes with a dazed expression.

"This time watering, we don't need to feed blood." Zhu Helan squatted down, and drew a mysterious symbol with a pen stained with blood-like ink between the snake-like root system of the locust tree, "I'm afraid I won't need it for a long time. Feed the blood again."

Chong Liu immediately understood what he meant, "You want to use the earth energy of Zilu Mountain?"

Zhu Helan nodded and said, "Do you still remember, I told you that the seeds of the pagoda tree were found in Gushe Mountain, in a piece of source soup left by the Goddess of All Things. The ancestors and ancestors of the Qingming Sect Before attracting all directions to seal Yuantang and suppress the filth, the pagoda tree had been raised in Yuantang. The sacrificed blood was just icing on the cake, allowing it to grow up little by little while keeping alive. But later, the ground The air is cut off, there is no main nutrient supply, and the growth of the locust tree gradually stagnates just by making sacrifices."

"But now Daoist Qiyao has returned the earth's energy to you..." The words that Mr. Suzaku and Mr. Xuanwu had told him came to Chongliu's mind.

Once the pagoda trees reoccupy Zilu Mountain, the pagoda trees will accelerate their growth.It is very likely that it will not take long to completely transform, and then cause the imbalance of Taoism.

"Helan, Baixiaomen told me that you were the owner of Gushe Mountain before the Qingming sect turned it into Zilu Mountain. The most dense thing on this mountain was not Dao Qi, but filth."

Zhu Helan's movement of drawing the talisman stopped, and he raised his head to look at Chong Liu, "Did they also tell you that I plan to use the trust of Daoist Qi Yao in me to reoccupy Zilu Mountain, let the locust tree grow into an adult, and then create Dao filth? Out of balance, join forces with Tiangu Dawu to open the door and let the god of evil come?"

Chong Liu scratched his head, "That's about it."

"Then do you believe it?"

"Of course I don't believe it!"

Zhu Helan looked at him with a half-smile and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I'm just a little bit worried!" Chong Liu argued, "But if I don't believe you, I won't tell you everything!"

"I don't blame you." Zhu Helan shook his head and smiled, "However, it is not so easy to transform Xiaohuai. It is not enough to have enough nutrients, otherwise there will be only four out of ten seeds. germination."

"Then what else is needed?"

"I do not know."

"……do not know?"

"There is no book that specifically explains how to raise the young mother god of all things. The ten of us all came here by groping." Zhu Helan sighed, "If I really knew, how could there be no one for more than 2000 years? Metamorphosis?"

Chong Liu didn't know whether he should breathe a sigh of relief, or feel relieved for the shopkeeper and Xiao Huai.

"So we absorb the earth's energy, just to increase Xiaohuai's combat effectiveness?"

Zhu Helan nodded, "I am also planning ahead. The current root system of the locust tree only spreads all over Tianliang City, but if we can let it take root deeper and farther, we can control the flow of more foul air, and even disturb the witches of the mulberry tree. technique, he will no longer be able to enter your dreams at will."

Chong Liu rubbed his chin, thinking that this is really a good idea.That eccentric young witch really made Chong Liuda feel uncomfortable in his heart.

After changing his clothes and coming out, he saw that Zhu Helan had already made all the preparations.The body of the tree was also covered with runes, and the normally dancing branches all over the sky were unexpectedly quiet at this time, as if it was also secretly looking forward to and preparing a big meal.

"Liu'er, come." Zhu Helan stretched out a hand to him.

Chong Liu held the shopkeeper's hand, guided by him, and put his palm on the tree.The surging pulse was transmitted to the palm through the sticky fleshy bark, as if it came from the whole world.

"For a while, connect your spirit to it, just like you and I did in the underground palace last time. The spirit of the two of us will become its guide, helping its root system to expand farther and deeper underground." Zhu Helan Turning to look at him, with an extremely serious expression, "You don't have to think about or do anything, just stay behind while I guide it to grow, and let me know immediately if you notice anything abnormal. "

Chong Liu nervously licked his dry lips, "Is there any risk?"

"I don't know if Sangya will take the opportunity to do something. There is always a way to deal with it." Zhu Helan took a deep breath, as if even he himself was a little nervous.

"This is the first time I've done this ceremony with another person. I'm afraid there will be some...afterimages of deep consciousness during the process. You don't have to care about it, just ignore it." Zhu Helan said softly, almost...reporting embarrassment?

The shopkeeper is actually shy? !

Chong Liu blinked, does this ceremony have any special meaning?For example... something like their mother god priest getting married and worshiping heaven and earth?

What is he thinking...

Chong Liu cleared his throat and said seriously, "I'm ready, come on."