incense shop owner

small river town.

The shuttle bus from Xiangyun City stopped at the passenger station in Xiaohe Town. Passengers got off the bus one after another. The last one to get off was an old man with white beard and hair.Look looks very old, but the body is very tough, walking slowly in the crowd, without attracting anyone's attention.

There are tricycles at the entrance of the station to attract customers. The old man avoids the enthusiastic tricycle master and walks alone in the bustling street of the town with his hands behind his back. Finally, he probably felt tired and stopped at the entrance of a convenience store. The shopkeeper asked for a chair and sat down to rest.

The population of Xiaohe Town is so large, and everyone is more or less familiar, but the shopkeeper has never seen the old man. When passing the old man water, he asked, "Old man, why haven't I seen you before? Are you here to visit relatives?"

While thanking, the old man took the water handed over by the store, took a sip, and replied, "Come and walk."

The shopkeeper wanted to say something, but suddenly met the old man's cloudy eyes, and his eyes began to become numb and lax.

Immediately afterwards, the hoarse voice of the old man seemed to have magical powers, and it sounded in the shopkeeper's ears, "Is there any outsider coming to Xiaohe Town these days?"

The shopkeeper shook his head blankly, and gave the most truthful answer, "No, most of the people who drive there are from the town."

Xiaohe Town is a very inconspicuous town, not a tourist town, and it has no special features. Except for visiting relatives, few people come to Xiaohe Town every year.The convenience store was built at the busiest entrance of Xiaohe Town. If a large number of outsiders really came to Xiaohe Town, the owner who sat in the convenience store all day to watch would know best.

The old man asked again, but the store gave the same answer. Then the old man stood up and walked away slowly with his hands behind his back.

It wasn't until the figure of the old man disappeared around the corner that the eyes of the convenience store owner recovered. He glanced at the street in a daze, unable to remember what happened just now.

"Strange, who was I talking to just now?"

The monk Zhang Er, the owner, was puzzled, and returned to the shop with a puzzled expression, still holding a water glass in his hand.

At noon the next day, the old man appeared again.

He was still walking slowly and unhurriedly on the streets of the town, looking around with his cloudy eyes, and only after making sure that there was nothing unusual, he walked towards the river bank of Xiaohe Town.

Ten minutes later, the old man disappeared, but there was a man in a cloak and a hood at the door of an abandoned house on the river bank.The wide brim of the hat covered the man's appearance, and his gender could not be seen.

He stretched out his hand and pushed open the dilapidated wooden door, walked inside with ease, and came to the room on the left first, and did not open the door to enter, but pushed lightly, and the door of this room opened a crack.

The room was very dark, only a few beams of gray light penetrated through the cracks, and the man in the cloak could vaguely see the scene inside through the gap in the door.

There was a big cage in the corner of the room, and there was a person locked in the cage. That person was lying on the ground, his hair was messy, and there were vaguely crawling bugs on his body.

The man in the cloak stared at the man for a while, as if he had made sure of something, then he looked back and walked towards the main room in the middle.

Before he reached the main room, he heard the sound of the door opening behind him, and the cloaked man turned his head to look, and saw a baby face with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Master!" Joker shouted in surprise, and then trotted towards the cloaked man, but stopped suddenly two meters away from the cloaked man, his round eyes full of scrutiny and suspicion.

The man in the cloak chuckled, his voice hoarse, "Are you doubting me?"

The joker smiled, "Be careful in everything, this is what you taught me, Master."

After all, no one knows whether there is a person or a ghost under the cloak.

The cloaked man flicked his fingers, something flew towards joker, joker reached out to catch it, and opened his palm to take a look.

It was a dark green Gu worm, its whole body was like emerald, exuding a unique aura.

The joker lightly tapped the Gu worm's head, and the emerald green on the worm's body immediately faded, becoming as transparent as glass. The joker held the transparent Gu worm in front of the cloaked man with both hands, his smile finally became more sincere and respectful, "Master."

It turned out that this was a means for the master and apprentice to determine their identities.

The cloaked man withdrew the Gu worm and nodded, even though the hood covered his face, he still couldn't hide the eagerness in his tone, "Where's your Gu worm? Let me see."

The joker's eyes were bright, and when he looked at the cloaked man, his eyes were full of admiration and admiration. He was like a child who urgently needed to be recognized, and couldn't wait to invite the cloaked man into the main room.

The light in the main room is not good, it is damp and dark, and the sound of "hissing" can be heard from time to time, making one's scalp numb.As far as the eye can see, there are all kinds of wriggling insects, which are very scary.

The joker and the cloaked man are not surprised by such a scene, and they are safely placed among the Gu insects. After the joker entered the main room, he took out a black bottle non-stop and handed it to the cloaked man, his voice full of expectation, "Master, this is the Mother Gu."

The mother Gu that joker is talking about is a cicada-shaped Gu worm the size of a black little finger. It is quietly dormant in the black porcelain vase, its lower abdomen is constantly shaking, and countless eggs are discharged from the genitals.

The eggs are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye.But the mother Gu can lay a lot of eggs at one time, and they gather into a bright red lump, covering two-thirds of the height of the bottle.These glowing red eggs seemed to be still wriggling gently.

"Once these eggs enter the human body, they will hatch on their own and become child Gu, and then directly parasitize in the human soul. Once summoned by the mother Gu, the child Gu can bring the human soul and body to the mother Gu." The joker introduced the Gu to the cloaked man with a very excited tone, "The most important thing is that the mother Gu does not need to enter the host's body."

The man in the cloak looked at the little Gu worm in the bottle, his gaze under the hood was deep, he could actually feel the extremely cold breath from the mother Gu, as if it could penetrate directly into the bone marrow of a person.If this pair of mother and child Gu is really as good as joker said, then it will be of great help to the implementation of their plans in the future.

The eyes of the cloaked man surged.

Seeing that the master was silent, the joker said eagerly: "Master, in order to test the power of the child Gu, I planted the child Gu on some people in advance, so that the mother Gu can summon the child Gu back."

After the words fell, I saw the joker's hand lightly touching the mother Gu's wings, and the next second, the cicada-like wings vibrated regularly, and a sound that human ears could not capture came out, spreading along the air.

"I haven't detected the summoning range of the Mother Gu yet, but it is no problem to cover the entire Xiangyun City." joker said.

At the same time, there was some slight noise from the door of the main room, joker's eyes lit up, "Master, they are back!"

The joker immediately looked towards the courtyard.

There are no cicadas in winter, but at this moment, there are a few cicadas flying to the abandoned houses on the river bank.Humans can only see these cicadas with their naked eyes, but in the eyes of the celestial master who has opened his eyes, these cicadas are not just as simple as cicadas.

There was a figure hooked on them, and the figure followed the cicadas into the houses with dull eyes.The afternoon sun gilded them, making them look unreal and fragile.

These figures are the living souls hooked back by Zi Gu!Every living soul is very complete, and has not been harmed by the sudden separation.

The cloaked man naturally saw these living souls, and with a wave of his hand, the living souls flocked towards the cloaked man as if they were attracted by something.In an instant, these living souls turned into pale yellow flames, dancing on the palms of the cloaked man.

Then, the cloaked man rubbed the pale yellow flame into his body, transforming the purest soul power in the living soul into his own power.

The cloaked man did not move for a long time.

The joker saw that the slightly bent back of the man in the cloak seemed to have become straighter all of a sudden, and the aura on his body was also thicker.Just like an old man suddenly returning to his youth, presumably it is the energy of the cloaked man returning to his youth.

After a long time, the cloaked man let out a long sigh with a joyful and excited voice, "Zhiyang, you did a great job! You made a great contribution this time!"

He tightly held the black bottle in his hand, his eyes flickered under the hood, and the ambition in his eyes was almost overflowing.

"It's an apprentice's honor to be able to help Master!" joker said excitedly.

The cloaked man patted joker on the shoulder as an encouragement.

The joker took advantage of the situation and said, "Master, can I see what you look like?"

There was curiosity in his tone, but more trepidation and almost morbid respect.He just wanted to see what the master who had taught him for so many years looked like, and also wanted to prove that he was an important existence that could be trusted in the eyes of the master.

Seeing that the man in the cloak didn't respond, the light on the baby's face immediately dimmed, and he said in frustration, "So Master still doesn't trust me?"

The man in the cloak stared at the joker heavily, seeing all the emotions of the joker in his eyes, sighed lightly, and still did not take off the hood after all, "Master believes in you, but now is not the time."

joker opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but finally said nothing, "I see." He just clenched his hands hanging by his sides into fists, trying to restrain the surging emotions in his chest.

The man in the cloak didn't comfort the joker, he patted the joker on the shoulder again, and walked away.

Walking to the door, he turned around and glanced at joker.When he turned around again, a light snort of disdain was scattered in the warm afternoon wind.

It's just a human gu, so what's the point of trust?

After the cloaked man left the house for a while, a gust of wind blew by, and the tall weeds in the courtyard of the house swayed in the wind.The cage in the house was still there, but the people inside had disappeared, as if they had never appeared before.

In the main room, the forbearing "joker" let go of his clenched hands, his body stretched out, and he grew nearly [-] centimeters taller. Face.

It was Gu Jinnian.

Everything that happened just now was in Gu Jinnian's domain, and the joker was directly transformed by Gu Jinnian. All his communications with the cloaked man were based on the correctness given by the domain's perception of the cloaked man's emotions. feedback.

Because of the role of the domain, the man in the cloak unconsciously ignored some details, so he didn't realize that the joker was no longer the original joker.

The author has something to say: Gu Jinnian: The acting skills are not enough, so the strength comes to make up.