.

The two followed a maid into the back hall, only to see a sandalwood table of eight immortals placed in a spacious and elegant dining room in the back hall, which was already full of local specialties. There were several elders of the Ghost Cave Clan and a white-haired woman standing in the hall, and when they saw the two coming in, they hurriedly greeted them together, bowed to Fanxiang and the others, and after Fanxiang and the others sat on the upper seat, they entered the table one by one in order.

Su Xinyan ate a small amount of food, and after a few bites, he stopped eating. Fan Xiang sat next to Su Xinyan, and saw that he and a woman next to him whispered to herself from time to time, sometimes covering her mouth and laughing secretly. The woman was full of white hair, her face was dark and swollen, and the skin below her neck was as white as jade, although she was a little tired, her eyes were like stars, and her age looked like she was only in her twenties, so she was very surprised, so she quietly asked Su Xinyan: "Who is this next to you, the age seems to be the same as us, but how is it full of white hair,...... I'm very close to you. ”

"Hehe, this is my cousin Changxi, well, let me introduce it to you. Su Xinyan smiled slightly, said softly, stood up, and said: "Let me introduce first, this is my cousin, named Chang Xi, who has great skills, Brother Fanxiang, you also know each other." ”

"Hello Fan Xiang hero!" Chang Xi stood up and smiled at Fan Xiang.

"Hello. Fanxiang stood up and returned the salute.

Su Xinyan introduced the elders at the table one by one, and everyone was not restrained during the banquet, and the atmosphere became lively.

After a while, Su Xinyan said to Chang Xi: "I'm tired for a day, and I don't have much appetite, why don't we go take a bath, okay?"

"Well, I'm also deeply tired, take a shower, and people will feel better. ”

"Well, there are several sets of Hanfu in my room, if you like to wear them, I'll give you two, okay?" Su Xinyan whispered to Chang Xi.

"But I can't wear Hanfu tonight, tonight is the war spirit sacrifice. ...... Actually, I also like that kind of clothes, and sometimes I like to wear them when I go out to play, and when I walk in the clouds, I am as elegant and beautiful as a fairy in the sky, hehe. ”

"Let's go. Su Xinyan and Chang Xi stood up, turned back to Fanxiang and said softly: "...... Brother Fanxiang, you can eat well here, after eating, the guard will take you to the bathroom, we have a bathroom for male guests here. ”

Fan Xiang nodded, and said to Su Xinyan and Chang Xi: "Go ahead." ”

Chang Xi nodded to Fanxiang, smiled slightly, left the table, and walked out of the dining room with Su Xinyan's hand.

The elders who accompanied the meal stood up one after another and watched the second daughter walk out of the living room.

After a while, the two of them finished bathing separately, and each dressed up in the bathroom dressing room.

Su Xinyan has already walked out of the changing room. After bathing and dressing, it is already a new look, picturesque, slim, delicate and cute. looked at himself in the mirror, pouted, made a grimace, cocked his orchid fingers, covered his mouth and chuckled, looking like a little daughter.

Chang Xi walked out of the changing room slowly, combed a three-handful of hair, pulled his hair into horns, stood upright on the top of his head, looked like a cockscomb in front of his head and behind his head, left a braid at the back of his head, covered with a black cloth two inches, and white copper rings on his earlobes. The trousers are blue, the mouth is large and the waist is narrow, the feet are long and covered, the collar and cuffs are embroidered with seven-color moire satin, the trousers are wide and long, the waist is tied with magnolia cloth belt, and the feet wear embroidered shoes. After taking a bath and changing clothes, Chang Xi's face is completely different from before, his eyebrows are fresh and beautiful, his face is beautiful, and he is definitely a beautiful embryo.

She watched Su Xinyan pull her hair into a pill at will, suddenly looked at Xiao Yan in the mirror in a daze, and said softly: "Sister, how are you more beautiful than before!"

"Sister Chang, you are also a very beautiful girl. Su Xinyan looked at Chang Xi, who was dressed in beautiful green clothes, smiled slightly, saw her playing with a pair of white wigs in her hands, and said: "Sister Chang, can you listen to me, don't continue to wear it, what's good about wearing it?" After a pause, he turned around, put his hands on the back of Chang Xi's neck, and said, "Well, Sister Chang, I think you should continue to be beautiful like this, and stop pretending to be unbeautiful." ...... Okay, okay?" Su Xinyan pouted, looking like a naughty and squeamish little sister.

"But, but I,...... I am going to go to the underworld as a female official, I heard that the eldest princess of the underworld, Meng Po Meng Gurong, was born with a peerless ugly face, and she dislikes beautiful people the most, I am afraid that she will hate me when the time comes, so I have to dress myself up as not beautiful since I was a child, so I will prepare for entering the underworld for the female official of the Meng family, which is the responsibility of my family for generations. Besides, there are all kinds of ghosts there, colored ghosts, evil ghosts, fierce ghosts, etc., so in order to avoid unnecessary entanglement and trouble, this costume is the best. ”

"Oh, that's right. But I still think that Sister Chang should always be beautiful like this, a girl, beautiful, how good. ”

"Well, yes, it's always been beautiful, how good!" Chang Xi sighed a little melancholy, looked at Su Xinyan, smiled slightly, and said softly: "Okay, let's not talk about this." ”

"Well, okay. ”

The two girls have grown up together since childhood, and they have similar interests and get along well.

That night, at midnight in the early hours of the morning, the elder and four assistants in charge of the presiding over the war spirit ceremony stood in the open space of the square in front of the main hall, and the harlequin village owner led the elders in the village to stand under the white marble pillar in front of the main hall, and gave the sea bowls filled with rice wine to the hosts of the war spirit ceremony one by one. The elder and the four assistants who presided over the ceremony drank all the wine in the bowl, and then the five officiants began to place incense, wax, paper, candles, jars filled with rice wine, and offerings in the center of the square in five directions: east, south, west, north, and center.

After everything was ready, a sudden sound of cymbals sounded, and the five hosts held incense and crutches in their hands, wore black cloth scarves, wore strange-shaped masks on their faces, and wore red cloaks, and they played sticks in the center of the square in the five directions of east, south, west, north, and center, hitting the five directions, and kept chanting in their mouths, such as "this spirit stick hits the east gate, opens the east gate and waits for the soldiers" and other languages to ward off evil spirits. The people in the square raised their hands one after another in the ritual of beating the five directions, in the shape of flames, and with the words of the five initiators, they rose and fell, making the sound of drinking.

The spirit ceremony lasted for about half an hour, and the five spirit lifters completed the ritual of beating the five parties in the cave, and then floated out of the cave, except for the soldiers on duty, the rest of the villagers then followed the five spirit lifters out of the hole.

Everyone stepped on the green clouds, drifted down on the slope of the river as a battlefield during the day, on the slope, the dense willow forest was faintly in the deep night, swaying shadows, near the foot of the mountain is also flourishing with verdant peach branches and bamboos, the white bird and the red eagle bird are hidden in the bamboo forest in the night, occasionally three or five will fly out of the forest from time to time, quickly sweep over the heads of everyone, babbling and screaming. The ciche flowers, with black flowers blooming on the ground, stretch out their leaves like leaves of weeds, and extend to the shore of the water, swaggering in the cold night breeze.

The turquoise blue water of the water, at this time is as green as lacquer, meandering and flowing in the river valley, turning a thousand times, colliding with the concave and convex mountain rocks, the water splashes like mist, the murmuring sound is like lingering whispers, lingering and sympathetic, feminine and sensual, the slope of the river slope all the way to the east gradually turns narrow and long, stretching for dozens of miles, lonely and cool and thin, the cliffs on both sides of the bank are steep and vicissitudes. One of them is far away a huge cliff inscribed "ghost cave secret realm, the deceased is like this" eight wild grass characters, between the cliffs placed a lot of boat-shaped hanging coffins, in the cold night, high hanging on the cliff, solemn, solemn.

On the slope of the river, surrounded by willow forests and bamboo branches, the grass is green, and thousands of boat-shaped coffins have been placed along the cliff wall, inside which are the dead souls of the soldiers and civilians of the Ghost Cave Clan.

The elders who presided over the ceremony arranged the scene, first selected an open space in the center of the slope, hung a yellow banner with a brush to write large characters around it, and placed the prayer platform in order, and placed the gossip map, scripture, hair, pen, paper, inkstone, incense, wax, candle and other spare items on the platform, and the scriptures were divided into multiple volumes; at the same time, the musical instruments and props such as horns, suona, drums, masks, costumes, helmets, etc., were placed on both sides of the platform. A large, flat open space was set aside in the center in front of the platform to serve as a stage for formal performances and performances, followed by an auditorium.

At this time, a full moon hung on the canopy in the sky, glowing with a silvery white cold light.

Five huge bonfires were lit in the center of the venue, the breeze came slowly, the fire swayed with the wind, burning, and the faces of thousands of soldiers and civilians of the ghost cave tribe sitting on the slope of the river were reflected in the bronze color of the vicissitudes of time, and everyone was solemn and solemn.

Fan Xiang sat in the audience, looking around, but didn't see Su Xinyan, and said in her heart that this little girl should be with Chang Xi, she is the master here, so naturally there will be no danger.

The ceremonial ceremony is very exquisite, the elders who preside over the ceremony begin to cut into the theme, perform the work, divided into four processes, the first process is an assistant holding a pheasant with five-colored feathers, around the field, and then stand in the center of the field, throw the pheasant into the air, when the pheasant flapps its wings and takes off, the elders and assistants who preside over it begin to play drums, blow suona, chant scriptures, after the completion of the sermon, an assistant sings a long tune to help the fun, and then kills pigs by the river at the scene to feast on the warriors who donate their lives, in order to show respect and sincerity.

The second process is that the presiding elders and assistants put on costumes, helmets, masks, and each hold leather drums, horns, exorcist wands, suona and other instruments, and play the musical instruments in their hands on the spiritual field.

After the lotus dance of the hosts, it is the third process, the spontaneous performance of the tribesmen.

The first trumpets sounded, and the cymbals and cowhide drums sounded at the same time. Several people of the Ghost Cave tribe rushed in, stood in the center of the field, and began to perform, the performance forms were various, there were men dressed as women, combined into a man on their backs, congratulating peace and happiness; burning pills and practicing medicine, meaning no disaster and no difficulty; drunk and lying on the street, meaning to check and drink; gambling money, meaning not to gamble, not to fight, to abide by the law; planting seedlings and cutting grain and buying cattle to plow the fields, meaning to indicate a bumper harvest of grain in the coming year; the second trumpet sounded, gongs, drums, suona, cheers danced together. The third horn sounds, the actors who pretend to be demons and gods and the people of the ghost cave who are disguised as men and women are holding epiphytic talismans in their hands to dance in the crowd of onlookers, and at the same time the pig's feet are made to the audience to show good luck, rich in rice, oil and salt, and pull the onlookers into it to dance together, no matter what the dance posture is, everyone dances wildly, and it generally takes half an hour to calm down.

After the spontaneous performance, it was the finale - dancing the ghost cave battle dance.