Qixuan

【Nanzhou Miaodu】

"High Priest, when will the island appear?" A middle-aged man asked anxiously.

The high priest raised the scepter, and the moonlight penetrated the fog and fell on it. The ancient scepter was shining brightly. He opened his cloudy eyes, "Quick, quick, the water will freeze soon."

The water surface froze quickly at the speed of the naked eye, forming only an ice passage for three people to pass through. The high priest knocked on the ice with his staff, "You can pass."

The people around cheered, rubbing their hands together and walking onto Iceland, a small island loomed on the water surface in the thick fog.

The high priest waited until everyone was on the ice road, then looked up at Yan Heng's hiding place, and he stretched out his hand to stroke his beard, "Why, why don't you ask me, an old man, to invite you in person?"

"Don't dare." Yan Heng came out from the dark, and he saluted the high priest slightly, "I'm disturbing senior."

The high priest frowned, took out a small iron box from his cloth pocket, pressed the lid hard, and it would bounce back automatically, the high priest looked at it for a while, shook his head and said: "No, You were supposed to be here at midnight, why did you come early? What did you do before you came?"

Yan Heng informed them one by one.

The high priest asked, "Where do you say you are staying?"

"Miss Mo's house."

The high priest angrily put the iron box back into his cloth pocket, and said sharply: "I advise you to leave Miaodu early tomorrow morning, otherwise no one will collect your body!" After finishing speaking, the high priest stepped onto the ice road and threatened Yan Heng not to allow it. follow up.

Yan Heng bent down to check the ice passage, and there was a rustling sound from behind, and he quickly hid in the dark.

A few vague figures suddenly appeared not far away. They moved slowly, and it took half an hour to walk to the ice road. When they got closer, they were just some aborigines here, but their joints were stiff, and their eyes were dull, as if they were sane. look.

They stopped and sniffed, and suddenly became mad, and rushed towards the ice road in a crowd.

Yan Heng flew towards the end of the ice road, the speed of those natives was much faster than he believed, when they saw the high priest and his group, they wished they could fly up, their mouths salivating continuously, as if they saw delicious food food.

The high priest held the scepter across his chest. These people seemed to be afraid of the scepter and only stayed half a foot away from them.

Yan Heng descended from the sky, raised his hand to make a tactic, the natives were stunned for a moment, and they all fainted to the ground.

The high priest quickly took out the iron box, weeping, "It's right, the time is right, I beg the Great Immortal to save us." After speaking, he put down his scepter and knelt down to Yan Heng.

The people who were hiding behind the high priest saw that the priest was like this, although they didn't understand why they did this, they followed suit one after another.

Yan Heng helped the high priest up, "Senior, you have to tell me when it happened so that I can help you."

The high priest looked at the sky that was gradually turning white in the east, and trembling slightly, he said, "Well, you will wait for me by the lake at midnight tomorrow. Remember, people in the daytime cannot be trusted, whether it is People with shadows, no shadows, or people with multiple shadows!" After speaking, the high priest took off a pair of silver bracelets and put them on Yan Heng's wrists, and led the people across the ice road in a hurry.

The eastern sky gradually brightened, the wind blew away some of the mist in the air, the ice channel melted and sank to the bottom of the water one after another, and the fainted natives on the ground disappeared one after another.

Yan Heng finally realized what was wrong. When he came, the people on the street didn't match the shadows. There were obviously fewer people than the shadows. In some places where there were few people, the ground was covered with darkness. It was definitely not the shadows of trees.

Yan Heng pinched the center of his brows, thinking in his heart what Ji Chen would do, he would definitely not sit idly by and be led by the nose, his active thinking would definitely find a breakthrough.

Before dawn, Yan Heng got up and went back to Mrs. Mo.

When Yan Heng was getting water to wash his face in the yard, Mrs. Mo came out of the room yawning. She smiled and said, "Hey, Mr. Xiao Lang got up so early, did you sleep comfortably last night? We are in this poor country Yes, not as good as yours."

Yan Heng laughed and said, "It's the same wherever you sleep, but the hot and sour soup made by Mrs. Mo is really delicious."

Mrs. Mo was overjoyed, "If Mr. Xiao likes it, I'll make it for you this morning, and I'll serve you dinner after appetizing." After finishing speaking, Mrs. Mo simply washed up, then turned and went to the kitchen.

Yan Heng's face sank, because there was more than one shadow under Mrs. Mo's feet, and he seemed to feel that this mystery had a little outline.

"Good morning, brother." Xiaohua smiled and patted Yan Heng's shoulder from behind.

Yan Heng smiled and said, "It's early for you too."

Xiao Hua had a feeling that her eyes were bright, she walked around Yan Heng a few times, and said with a smile: "Brother really looks good in this outfit, as expected, people are good-looking and can look good in anything, do you have any plans for my brother today? I can take you for a stroll down the street."

Yan Heng nodded, he lowered his eyes and took the opportunity to glance at Xiao Hua's feet, but there was no shadow.

After breakfast, Xiaohua led the way with a bamboo basket bouncing around, and took Yan Heng to the market, where not only can you buy things with silver taels, but you can also barter them.

There are also some strange bone products in the market, Xiaohua said that they are all animal bones.

Xiaohua led the way and asked passers-by if they wanted flowers. She stopped suddenly and looked at the red-painted stilted building in front of her. Her lips were white and she was wriggling quickly.

Yan Heng raised his eyes and saw that the feet of the two guards guarding the stilted building were covered with numb shadows, those shadows were constantly squirming, and from time to time they made screams that pierced the eardrums, but unfortunately no one could hear them.

However, these voices were heard by Yan Heng without saying a single word.

"It's so crowded!"

"It's so crowded, so crowded!"

"Let us out, let us out!"

"Go away, you bastard, squeeze me!"

Yan Heng frowned a little irritably, and he put up a barrier to block out these disturbing voices.

"Miss Xiaohua?" Yan Heng called out tentatively.

Xiaohua woke up like a dream, she looked at it for a while in a daze, and said strangely: "Why did I bring you here, let's go, this is the high priest's building, his eyes are very poisonous, you can recognize brother at a glance, right?" He hates foreigners, including those old people with long beards." After speaking, Xiaohua pulled Yan Heng and prepared to walk back.

Someone came out of the bamboo building and whispered something in the guard's ear.

The guard raised his voice: "Please stay!"

Xiaohua took Yan Heng and walked a few steps quickly, the guard immediately stopped in front of them, he pointed to Yan Heng and said: "Outsider, the High Priest invites you."

Xiao Hua tightened her grip on Yan Heng's sleeve a little bit, she didn't look scared at all, on the contrary, her complexion was pale, and she stared fiercely at the guard, as if someone was robbing her, she bared her teeth at the guard.

Yan Heng broke Xiao Hua's hand, and Xiao Hua immediately returned to her original appearance, she looked at Yan Heng puzzled.

Yan Heng said soothingly: "I'll go back as soon as I go, you go home first, I'll be back in a while."

Xiaohua nodded hesitantly, and walked on the way back when she stepped back and forth.

The high priest's room was lit with wormwood, and the surrounding windows were hung with thin bamboo curtains. The light could only squeeze in a little bit, Yan Heng lifted the curtains and walked in.

The high priest opened his eyes, and he sat behind the table, which was covered with a thick layer of woven blankets. The high priest raised his chin, motioned Yan Heng to sit on the opposite bamboo stool, and said, "Young man, You came."

Yan Heng nodded slightly calmly.

The high priest said: "It was once prophesied that two important people will come to Miaodu, one will bring catastrophic destruction to Miaodu, and the other will bring hope to Miaodu, which one do you think you are?"

Yan Heng shook his head and said, "I hope I am neither."

The high priest chuckled, and he stretched out his hand to open the curtain, allowing the sunlight to come in a little. Yan Heng took the opportunity to look down at the high priest's feet, and there was only one shadow.

"The person who brought destruction to Miaodu is dead. He brought the devil-like Sky Heart Grass. You should have seen it all. Some people have many shadows under their feet, while others have no shadows under their feet, and some people have shadows under their feet. There is only one shadow."

Seeing that Yan Heng was silent, the high priest continued: "There is no such thing as equality in the world. Why can Tianxin Grass heal people? Because it grows on the body of every seedling. Once the Tianxin Grass matures, the seedlings will die." Tens of thousands of people will die." The high priest paused, "Will you still take such Tianxin grass?"

Yan Heng laughed lightly, "How did senior know that I came here for the Sky Heart Grass?"

The high priest put down his hand, stared at Yan Heng and said, "Every outsider who comes here is here for the Sky Heart Grass, but none of them are the ones who bring hope to Miaodu."

Yan Heng asked back: "Since this is the case, if the Tianxin grass is not used after it matures, wouldn't the people in Miaodu die in vain?"

The high priest closed his eyes and made a gesture of worship, and said: "People in Miaodu love their hometown. No matter where they die, they will bring them back to Miaodu for burial. No matter whether the Tianxin grass lives or dies, it must be kept. In Miaodu."

"What about those who came to fetch the Sky Heart Grass before me?"

The high priest suddenly opened his eyes, "They are all dead, no one survived."

Yan Heng asked: "What happened to those people?"

The high priest closed his eyes and shook his head lightly, "They will keep the body of the first shadow they ate beside them as a puppet to find the next shadow that can be eaten for them, I kindly remind you , don’t be eaten by the owner of the little girl, otherwise there will be no one to collect your body here. Okay, I’ve finished what I need to say, you can go back.”

Yan Heng stood up and saluted, then opened the curtain and walked out.

There was still hot and sour soup for lunch, Yan Heng said he was unwell, so he took the lunch back to his room, he used chopsticks to look through the bowl of hot and sour soup, there was nothing special about it.

There is a layer of bright red chili oil and egg flowers floating on the white porcelain bowl, dotted with emerald green coriander leaves, tofu, shredded pork, and fresh bamboo shoots can be seen with a chopstick, and there are squid and sea cucumbers at the bottom of the bowl.

Always whets the appetite.

Yan Heng unconsciously reached out to take the bowl of hot and sour soup. When his fingers touched the rim of the bowl, it was as if he had touched a flame. He quickly retracted his fingers. There was something wrong with the hot and sour soup. Tang found a hidden place and dumped it.

Although there is no hot and sour soup for dinner, there is more stewed beef brisket, boiled tangerine honey, and diced meat with a strange color like pink. Awake.

Both Mrs. Mo and Xiaohua ate very deliciously, and the sound of chewing crispy bones could be heard from time to time.

There seemed to be more shadows under Miss Mo's feet.

Now think about it, just keep the body of the first shadow eaten by your side, then where will the bodies left by the shadows eaten later be placed?burnt?Or into the kitchen?

Miaodu is not a big place and there are not so many places to bury people, or there are bones all over the ground, or some people come out to burn "debris" at night, so the fog at night is quite thick, but there is no smell of firewood, so this is still a problem fan.

Yan Heng said that he was not acclimatized, so he pushed back dinner, and it was fine if he didn't eat for a long time, but Ji Chen always ate three meals a day on time, so he followed suit, and he just got used to eating.

At night, Yan Heng was lying on the bed and dozed off, the wind and fog had thinned a lot tonight, it was not as quiet as last night, when staying in the room, he could hear the bamboo being blown to pieces.

A small wooden bird suddenly landed on the window sill, Yan Heng got up and took it over, glanced down inadvertently, but was terrified.

Xiao Hua lay down under the window, her body pressed against the wall, and her eyes were fixed on the window.

Yan Heng ignored her, took the little wooden bird and put down the bamboo curtain.

The little flower outside the window squirmed slowly, until she could see Yan Heng through the slits of the bamboo curtain, then she stopped moving.

Open the little wooden bird's stomach, and a roll of paper will fall out, which was written to him by Ji Chen.

"When will you come back? I miss you so much, and this trace is only a little bit bigger than Dongzhou. By the way, don't be deceived by people who don't know the place, trust yourself As long as you arrive, it doesn’t matter if he sees everything.”

Yan Heng smiled lightly, and rubbed the paper a little. He could imagine Ji Chen rolling back and forth laughing when he wrote this letter. Figured it out, and then he laughed all day in the study at this note.

Yan Heng put the note back into the little wooden bird, put the little wooden bird away, and lay back on the bed.

As soon as the midnight arrived, Yan Heng appeared by the lake on time.

Seeing Yan Heng appearing, the high priest tapped the ground with his scepter, "Oh, I thought you were tricked by that fake priest to keep you from coming, he must have lifted the bamboo curtain for you to see his shadow Right, you didn't see him hiding under the tablecloth, thousands of shadows."

The high priest dragged Yan Heng to the ice road, and said as he walked, "I'm telling you, don't believe what that faker said, he is the one who brought destruction to Miaodu, and he put the Tianxin grass in Miaodu. , is to bully the people of Miaodu, he is now transformed into my appearance, just to wait for those who eat the most shadows to be cast on the Tianxin grass, so that it can mature."

Yan Heng asked: "What about you?"

The high priest replied: "I waited for him to fall asleep, and ran out quietly. Every night, I took those who could wake up and hid on the small island with skyheart grass. Those people without shadows would come out every night to catch those People with only one shadow or those of us who can run out of the shadows go back to their masters, and go back and forth, accumulating one by one, you come and you come, I will take you to get the Sky Heart Grass, and if you take it, go quickly, I absolutely You can't let that person succeed."

The high priest dragged Yan Heng across the ice road, walked through the small island, Moyo found the Tianxin grass in the middle, it grew on a small patch of soil, the leaves were stretched out, a red There is dew on the small flower buds.

The high priest pushed Yan Heng and urged: "Go and get it."

Yan Heng raised his foot and walked towards the Sky Heart Grass, and when he was about to touch the leaves of the Sky Heart Grass, he paused for a moment, and said: "Actually, people in Miaodu live by devouring shadows, right? True or false, you want to take the Tianxin grass, and those who came to take the Tianxin grass are indeed dead, their flesh and blood have watered the Tianxin grass. The Tianxin grass does not grow on the Miaodu people at all, but grows on those There must be tens of thousands of skeletons on the ground beneath my feet from the person who came to fetch the Sky Heart Grass."

The high priest asked with a gloomy face, "How did you think of it?"

"Guess." Yan Heng smiled slightly, Ji Chen's letter to him played a trick, after he opened it, there was written in it that people in Miaodu mainly suck shadows, be careful, come back safely, etc.

The high priest sneered and said, "Then you're pretty good at guessing."

Yan Heng said: "I'm the only one short of the Heavenly Heart Grass this time, so it will bloom, right? Are you [-]% sure that you can pass its illusion test?!"

The high priest said confidently: "Of course, you can rest assured."

Yan Heng nodded, stretched out his hand to hold the leaves of Tianxin Grass, and a powerful dizziness hit him.

Tianxin Grass can not only cure human flesh and bones, it can also give the picker a powerful illusion, allowing them to see the desire and fear in their hearts, so that they cannot start picking.

The author has something to say:

Order hot and sour soup or stewed beef brisket with tomato for supper tonight, I'm hungry.

Orange honey = tomato = foreign persimmon = tomato.