Dragon Seal

The next morning, Gongliang got up early.

The bed was clean, but it was really small, and it was almost full of sleep if Wei Zhao lay on it. If Gong Liang really wanted to squeeze through, he had to sleep in his arms.The Taoist declined the ranger's repeated invitations, found a clean place, and meditated on the ground for one night.

The monks who established the foundation have already fasted, and the effect of samadhi is better than sleep.It's just that for some reason this night, Gong Liangzhi has been having difficulty meditating.From time to time, he woke up from the samadhi, as if being pulled up from a deep sleep.Wei Zhao, who was in the same room, was already sound asleep. The pitch-black outside sounded extremely noisy at first, but when he calmed down, he felt that it was too quiet.It was so quiet that I couldn't even hear the cicadas chirping.

Gong Liangzhi opened the door when the sun was rising, and began to walk around the village.In the morning light, Wangjia Village is unexpectedly bright. The ground is paved with stone slabs and the fences are neatly repaired. It doesn't look like a small village in a barren mountain.A few figures could be seen in the distance, and they had already gotten up early in the morning to do farm work.Before Gong Liang could see clearly, someone hurried over and grabbed his sleeve.

"Why did the Daoist get up so early!" Sanlang panted, "Grandfather just woke up."

"It's not a problem, Pindao is used to getting up early." Gong Liangzhi said, "Walking around is good for your legs."

"We have a small family here, and there is nothing good here." Sanlang smiled apologetically, "There is a pond outside the village, which is quite beautiful. After the Taoist priest finishes talking with Grandpa, I will show the Taoist priest to see it!"

The boy tugged at Gong Liangzhi's sleeve, but Gong Liangzhi didn't let him go.The Taoist priest walked slowly, looking around while walking back on the road.There are small houses neatly lined up beside the road, with dusty tiles and khaki brick walls. Although they are not very beautiful, it can be seen that they have been tidied up well.On some walls, traces of repeated repairs can be seen, like an ant nest that has been maintained all the time, without a single crack.

"How many people are there in Wang's Village?" Gong Liangzhi chatted.

"More than 300." Saburo replied, and quickly changed his words, "More than 400? I don't remember. We rarely live here with outsiders. Everyone in the village knows everyone well, so there is no need to remember how many people there are."

Gong Liangzhi nodded and looked away from the room.Probably it was too early, the village was deserted, and no one was met on the road.There was a woman staring at Gong Liangzhi through the window in the room, her eyes darting over him.Gong Liangzhi smiled at her, she had a stiff face, only her eyeballs were still moving.

The village head, Wang Degui, looks older in the daytime than at night. He has a long beard that looks like three strands of mice, and he has to twirl a few times when he says a few words.

"To tell you the truth, the Wangjia Village has taken root in this Laoshan Mountain for more than [-] years before the Feiyun Mountain Spirit Mine was born." To escape the war, I took my clansman and moved the village to the west of Dazhou. The mountains and rivers are good, the ancestors passed by this place, and immediately chose to settle here. At first, everything was fine. Although it is inconvenient to open up wasteland, it is better than exorbitant taxes. , The war continues, but then..."

The old man sighed and his face sank.

"Women in the village began to give birth to white babies, and the babies born had white hair, white eyebrows, but red eyes. These babies couldn't speak at the age of three or four, and they were tall and big, but they were either crazy or foolish. Then the middle-aged people also began to change, their heads turned gray one day, and their souls disappeared the next day, and they couldn’t even recognize people. These lunatics and fools did evil everywhere, and they died after being tied up for a long time. The people they touched, I will turn gray every few days..."

"This must be caused by mountain spirits and wild monsters." Gong Liangzhi frowned.

"That's not right! A village with hundreds of people will get sick and die in the blink of an eye. If it continues, Wang's Village will soon die." The old village chief paused, a little excited blood appeared on his face, but his voice was cold. It was as low as a whisper, "Fortunately, at this time, the ancestors met the fairy's legacy..."

When Wei Zhao woke up, it was already high in the sun.

He yawned and looked around lazily. There was no trace of Gong Liangzhi in the room.He tidied up and walked out on his own.As the sun approached the middle of the sky, the number of people in the village increased.As soon as Wei Zhao went out, more than a dozen pairs of eyes looked over.

The guest room is located in the center of Wangjia Village, with houses in front, back, left, and right.There are all kinds of villagers standing in the open door, men, women, young and old. Their eyes look like they were carved out of a mold, and so do the paths they glanced at.They looked at Wei Zhao's arms, his legs, his back, and his chest, as if picking a strong cow.

They didn't move or speak. I don't know if Wei Zhao's appearance interrupted the conversation, or they didn't speak.This scene was a bit frightening, but Wei Zhao didn't seem to notice it, showing a bright smile.

"Hi, you too." He waved at them comfortably, and walked out swaying.

Some people followed up, blatantly following. When Wei Zhao left, they also left, and when Wei Zhao stopped, they also stopped. They didn't bother to use anything to cover up.Wei Zhao seemed to be covered with a big hood of silence, wherever he went, there was silence.

Only the children are still talking.

Turning around a dirt wall, the voice of a child came from afar.They clapped their hands in groups of three and five, and the combination of crisp applause and shrill childish voices pierced the silence of the mountain village.The sound was mixed together, and it was a headache in the distance, but when you got closer, you could hear a few nursery rhymes with strange accents——

Bai Zibai, Laoshan Lao, puts autumn ointment in the Wang Family Ancestral Hall

Peel off the skin, chop off the feet, and roast the red piece on the fire

Bai Zibai...

Some children stopped when they saw Wei Zhao, and the group of children fell silent like birds hearing the sound of the wind.

Wei Zhao had also been through many ravines before, and met many mortal village boys. Most of those children were shriveled, black and thin like monkeys.The children in front of them were completely different. They looked white and clean, and one or two even showed a bit of overfed richness.It's a pity that the white and tender faces don't have the liveliness of children, their eyes are cold and wild, blinding the children's faces, they look like some carnivorous animals.

Suddenly, a child pointed at Wei Zhao's hand and screamed.

Children of this age are always screaming, screaming when they are afraid, screaming when they are angry, and screaming when they are happy.This scream was full of joy, as if a switch had been turned on, all the children's faces burst into joy at the same time.Screams came and went, as if the whistle had been blown desperately, they rushed towards Wei Zhao amidst the ear-piercing noise, their small hands hooked into claws.

The adults who followed Wei Zhao just looked at it like this, and some people laughed, as if they thought it was very interesting.The children rushed without warning, moving extremely fast, and Wei Zhao was blocked by a high earth wall behind him, so there was no place to retreat.Anyone, even a strong adult, would inevitably suffer from this sudden attack.

Wei Zhao took half a step back, kicked his legs, and climbed up the earth wall like an ape.The fastest kid had already rushed to the bottom of the dirt wall and reached out to reach Wei Zhao, but Wei Zhao grabbed his arm and dragged him up the wall together.

The children stopped and looked up at the wall in a daze.

Wei Zhao stood on top of a wall more than two meters high. He was a tall man, with his arms stretched more than two meters.The boy who ran the fastest was lifted to a height of more than four meters, his arm was pinched by Wei Zhao, and he was dangling in mid-air.

"Is it fun?" Wei Zhao said.

The child let out the roar of a trapped animal in his throat, kicked his feet desperately, and licked Wei Zhao's eyes with the other hand.Wei Zhao didn't even look at him, but just swung the hand holding his arm downwards, and only heard a "click", the child's shoulder twisted and was completely dislocated.

"Isn't it fun?" Wei Zhao grinned, holding the child's hand firmly as a rock.

The ferocious and ruthless expression slowly receded from the boy's face, gradually showing horror, which suited his age.The boy let out a howl of fear and pain, and was shaken by Wei Zhao a few times, and he suppressed the cry abruptly.The children under the wall glared at Wei Zhao resentfully, and the adults who had just stood by were angrily about to run over. Wei Zhao stretched out his finger and pointed at them, then shook the child in his hand, as if to throw him out.

The adults stopped there.

"Little brother, what are you doing here?" Someone shouted, "The dolls are just kidding, don't be as knowledgeable as them!"

"That's right, that's right." Wei Zhao laughed, "I had a good time with them!"

As he said that, he loosened his right hand, and the child was thrown in an arc in mid-air, and was caught by his left hand again.There was a burst of exclamation from the ground, and the boy let out a scream, and his crotch was wet in a blink of an eye.

What the villagers below were talking about, Wei Zhao didn't bother to listen.He looked at his free right hand, a strange pattern appeared on the back of his hand at some point, it was the one that appeared and disappeared after touching the stone tablet yesterday.

"Meow!"

A black cat ran across the house behind the earthen wall and barked at Wei Zhao.Its fur was bald, and its tail was wrapped in tattered cloth strips, which were so dirty that they could not see the color.Wei Zhao looked up at it, and smiled happily again.

"I had a lot of fun with you today," he patted the boy's head affectionately, "I'll go meet the other guys first, and we'll play another day."

After all, he let go.

The boy fell on top of the children looking up at the bottom, and there was a hail of ghosts and wolves.When the adults were furious, Wei Zhao had followed the black cat through more than ten houses.The black cat seemed to be startled by Wei Zhao who was rushing towards it, stepped on the tiles and flew away, Wei Zhao bit his tail and went, and the force that landed on the house was not much heavier than that of a cat.

One person and one cat walked more than half a circle on the top of the village, and ran outside a remote and dilapidated hut.The black cat had disappeared, and Wei Zhao jumped off the roof. In front of him was an extremely dilapidated house, with a few wooden boards bound as the door.

Wei Zhao pushed the door open, and the wooden boards creaked, as if they would fall if they tried harder.The house had no windows. It was more of a wooden shed than a house, and it stinks like a pigsty.Wei Zhao took two steps in the dark, almost kicking a basin on the ground.

There were a few rustling sounds in the darkness, and a living creature curled up with a short iron chain.Wei Zhao narrowed his eyes, and in the dim light penetrating through the cracks in the wood, he could see a child as pale as snow from head to toe bound by one end of the chain.

With a creak, the door closed.