My normal routine at school was less than three days away, and on Friday, the mustache called again.

He told me on the phone that he had already asked someone to identify the talisman paper and medicine bottles we had found in Xiao Jiuhe's residence a few days ago. The rune paper is made of paper puppets, and it is sold in several shroud shops and incense candle shops in the provincial capital.

I asked him, "Then we have to go and check one by one?" ”

The mustache said, "Forget it! Although it is said that this kind of rune paper is only bought by you, even if we find out which store it was sold from, it is impossible to trace it back to every customer who comes to buy the rune paper. Moreover, the store owner will not be willing to casually leak the customer's information to outsiders. ”

"That's right, what about the medicine bottle?" I asked.

"It took me a lot of work to find out some eyebrows, and I can't be 100% sure." The mustache's tone was a little helpless, "Xiao Jiuhe's medicine bottle should probably have been bought from the 'Ignorant Sect'. ”

"I don't know the pie?" I wondered, "What kind of sect is this?" ”

"Haven't you heard of it either?" The mustache suddenly asked me, "I don't know that the sect is also a Yin cultivation sect. Isn't there still a saying circulating in your Yin Cultivation circles: 'I don't know! Ignorance! If you have money, you know everything, and if you don't have money, you don't know anything'? ”

I smiled wryly, "It's the first time I've heard that. Don't forget, I've only been in the provincial capital for more than half a year, and I don't know a lot about many things. ”

The mustache said: "This is a small sect, it's not surprising that you haven't heard of it." Even if it is an old Yin cultivator in the provincial capital, he can only occasionally see their head 'ghost knowing' coming out to do something. ”

"What the hell? Hehe, what do you mean? "Again, I was amused by the strange name.

"I don't know much about that." The mustache said, "This ghost who doesn't know the sect knows that the main thing is to sell all kinds of home remedies and strange medicines, some for people to eat, some for ghosts, and of course some for Yin Xiu." At the same time, he also sells all kinds of contraband items from unknown sources and invisible to the light, and sells almost everything. In addition, his most profitable business should be the sale of all kinds of gossip, but no one knows where his source channel is? Of course, it is said that even you in the Yin Cultivation Realm are ashamed of what they do. Therefore, the whereabouts of the ghost are secretive, and he usually does not act on the surface, but only goes to the ghost market every three days to do business. ”

Oh! As soon as the mustache gave such a detailed introduction, I immediately thought of a person: the mysterious stall owner who specializes in selling gossip in the Xiling ghost market! When I used to run takeaway in the ghost market, I could see him every time, but I didn't know that he had such a famous background.

"Zhai Zisheng, do you have any way over there, or someone you know, who can take me directly into the ghost market of Xiling Cemetery?" The mustache suddenly asked me again.

I was a little impatient with this question, so I had to say, "Yes...... I know a few, but ...... I don't have enough face! ”

"Through your master's connections?" The mustache continued to ask.

I hesitated for a moment, but still made an excuse and denied: "If I call Master, it should be okay for him to go and greet the other person." But what am I going to tell my Master? If I take you in, he'll know about it. You also know my master's impression of you, huh...... Not so good. ”

The mustache was silent for a moment before he said, "Forget it, I'll still find a way through the channel here in our Daomen." Maybe it's a small amount of money at best! With that, he hung up.

The reason why I don't want to say that I know the people from Yuanbaomen is that I can't pull my face and go to them again, after all, the last time I fought with Fat Lu, it was still ugly. Since the mustache says that he also has a way to get the sign to enter the ghost market, let him come forward and get it!

However, the mustache didn't completely let me go. After a while, I was chatting with Han Jie on WeChat, discussing where to go on a date tomorrow Saturday, when the mustache called me again to harass me. He said that he had already asked where the entrance of the paper puppet gate was, and that he would go to them tomorrow to buy the sign of the Xiling Ghost Market, but he would have to buy it himself.

I understand what the mustache meant. In other words, I have to go with him to the paper golem door to get the sign during the day tomorrow, and then tomorrow happens to be the day when the ghost market opens, and I have to go to the ghost market with him to find the ghost in the evening. In this way, my date with Han Jie is bound to come to naught!

I was on my way again, a little reluctant to go. The mustache said to me decisively: "It's very taboo for me to go to that kind of place alone as a Taoist cultivator, so it's better for you to accompany me." Well, I'll give you 500 'appearance fees', how about it? ”

I smiled wryly, and it would be even harder for me to make excuses. So, I reluctantly agreed to him. I finished hanging up the mustache's phone, and sighed for a while, I didn't expect that I would have to return to Xiling Ghost City so soon!

The paper puppet sect is also the Yin cultivation sect where Boss Su is located. In fact, if I call Boss Su, I should be able to get the brand through his connections, but the problem is that I don't want to go back to Xiling Ghost Market at all. I've only been away from there for less than two months, so what if I run into an acquaintance when I get back?

However, I still couldn't resist the mustache's request, and followed him to an old town in the east of the provincial capital to find a stronghold for the paper golem. It wasn't really easy to find, and the mustachioed SUV couldn't get in, so we had to park in the parking lot outside the block, and then the two of us walked into the side streets and alleys to find it.

I found that one of the major characteristics of the Yin Xiu circle in the provincial capital is that they like to open their halls and facades in this kind of old neighborhood or urban village. The same is true for the Caoya Lane Caishen Temple in Yuanbaomen and the home of Tang Laoguo, it seems that the Yin Cultivation Sect likes to be more down-to-earth. The hosta door and the Xuanqing door are completely different styles, and the Taoist temples and antique facades are all opened in the downtown area or tourist attractions, which makes it more dignified and magnificent. Of course, the formation of such a situation was also a helpless move for the Yin Cultivation Sect.

After these few partnerships, I have become very familiar with Mustache, and he gradually told me a lot about the hosta door. The mustache He Liping's current church membership belongs to the Taoist Maoshan Taoist Association hosta gate Guangnan Hall Nanhua Temple, and his current position in the door is deacon. The highest position in the Quang Nam Hall is the hall master, and below are the four elders, each in charge of a Taoist temple or scenic spot. Elder Lu, whom I had met before, was the abbot of Nanhua Temple, and his status in the hall was second only to the hall master.

Below the elders are the deacons, who belong to the middle level and have a certain amount of power, but they also have to do a lot of work in ordinary times. For example, in addition to taking care of the façade of the antique street, the mustache occasionally has to take on some tasks or temporary assignments. The reason why he went to Nanting for two years was because he was sent abroad for exercise.

Further down, there are ordinary Taoist disciples. Among them, there are subdivisions, there are not only Taoist disciples who have learned Maoshan Taoism, but also Zhike or Youfang Taoist priests who only chant scriptures and observe the observance, and there are always hundreds of formal disciples in the entire Guangnan Hall. His property included three Taoist temples, one scenic spot and five antique facades, and if you added the managers and hired workers who did not enter the house, there were thousands of people under the hall master who ate with him.

The Xuanqing Gate Changqing Palace, which formed a two-man hegemony situation with the hosta gate in the provincial capital, was not worse than Guangnan Hall in terms of industrial scale and the number of Taoists. Although the two families are reconciled on the surface, they are constantly working hard and have frequent disputes. However, in the struggle for the sake of return, these two Taoist sects are colluding to suppress the Yin Cultivation Sect, and they are not allowed to act in the name of Taoism, let alone open Taoist temples and wear Taoist clothes. As a last resort, the Yin Cultivation Sect in the provincial capital can only pretend to be some unpopular gods, witches, and spirit children, stationed in wild temples and small ancestral halls to take over business, and they cannot compete with the Taoist Sect at all.

What the mustache is looking for is such a small ancestral hall. The two of us walked around the alleys and asked people all the way before we finally found the place. It is a "Cao's ancestral ancestral hall", the small ancestral hall is quite lively, an old woman at the door is sitting and eating melon seeds, several other old men in the hall are playing chess, and on the other side is a table of square city, sitting around four middle-aged women, fierce battle is in full swing.

When I saw this, I smiled at the mustache and said, "What kind of ancestral shrine is this?" It's a middle-aged and elderly activity center! ”

The mustache was also smiling bitterly, but he said to me, "Don't jump to conclusions yet, you can look over there." ”

The mustache refers to the left wing of the ancestral hall, where a bunch of people are crowded, mostly women and the elderly. We took a closer look, and it was actually a place where a spirit boy appeared!

A child of about 10 years old sits on a futon at the offering table and receives worship, with a wall full of pennants behind him. The words of thanks on the pennant are mostly "respond to requests", "have great powers" and "send a golden boy to a child" and so on. In front of the spirit child, there were offerings such as fruits, buns, and tea, and the other plate was full of red envelopes, which should have been offered by those believers.

The face of the spirit boy is immature, it looks like he is no more than ten years old, he is wearing a wide gold silk red robe, and a red scarf is also tied on his forehead, which is the most common appearance of the folk spirit child, which is particularly vulgar and mysterious. The voice of the spirit child is usually still a normal child's voice, but when the spirit appears, it becomes an old-fashioned tone, and occasionally he will say some crepe Chinese, and the group of believers kneeling below will be sincerely frightened, and they will keep kowtowing.

I stood by the door and listened for a while, and found that this spirit boy was really "supernatural"! Believers come to ask for anything, you can ask for spirits, you can also make wishes for fortune-telling, and you can also ask for blessings. Even, as long as the red envelope is enough, the spirit child can also personally move to the door to help people eliminate disasters and solve problems, and drive away evil spirits in the town. It's just omnipotent!

The mustache snickered secretly and asked me in a low voice, "Do you see that the cat is tired of this?" ”

"Well, I really didn't see it!" I knew that this spirit boy must be a fake, but I still couldn't see the details and key points, so I shook my head with a wry smile.

The mustache gave me another hint: "Look at the back of his hand." ”

I'll look at it as I say. The spirit child's hand was indeed a little strange, but I couldn't tell what the fault was.

The mustache no longer sells off, and the mystery is revealed. "The backs of people's hands and foreheads on their faces are the most prone to wrinkles and the most likely to look old. That's why he tied a red scarf on his forehead to cover it, but the back of his hand is not observed by ordinary people so carelessly. If you look at the wrinkles on the back of his hand, it doesn't look like a child's hand at all. This spirit boy is actually a dwarfism patient, I estimate that he is thirty years old, but his face is still the same as when he was ten years old. Moreover, he has been specially trained since he was a child, and his thinking, knowledge, and eloquence are better than those of ordinary adults, and it is not more than enough to pretend to be a child to speak! ”

I see! It dawned on me that what kind of spirit child this place was, in fact, it was a magic stick that fooled people!

The mustache added, "It seems that the paper puppet can make a lot of money on his own." When he goes out to exorcise evil spirits, he should also come forward to perform, but it should be someone else who actually goes to hunt ghosts. ”

"So he's not a Yin cultivator?" I asked in surprise. I thought that such a powerful character must have a high status in the paper puppet gate, but it turned out to be just a puppet.

"Absolutely not!" The mustache smiled contemptuously and pulled me away, "Let's go, there's nothing to see, let's look elsewhere." ”

The right wing room in the ancestral hall of the Cao family is an ordinary small room, with a bed cabinet and some daily necessities, which should be the place where the ancestral hall keeper lives. The ancestral hall also has a back door, and there seems to be a hole in the back. We went around to the back and saw that it was a small workshop with five or six people sitting in it, specializing in making all kinds of paper products for white things.

The mustache casually found a middle-aged woman sitting by the door and asked, "Excuse me, who is Aunt Cao?" ”

"She's not here. Her room was in the right wing of the front. The woman didn't raise her head, and continued to fold the ingots in her hand, and even Boss Su would be ashamed of her hand speed.

"There's no one in the right wing, we just got it from the front."

"No, she usually doesn't leave the ancestral hall."

"Will she be in the left wing?"

"No, she doesn't usually go there."

"Is she playing mahjong?"

"She doesn't know how to play mahjong!"

When the mustache saw that the woman was reluctant to get up and take us to find her, and was about to get angry, the other woman added, "If she doesn't sit in the room, then she sits outside the doorway." Aunt Cao doesn't like to talk to people, so she likes to sit alone, and you can see it when you look for it. ”

In desperation, the mustache and I fell back and looked around the ancestral hall. Hey, looking at it, the only one who is eligible is the old woman who gnaws melon seeds at the door!