After getting off work, Lao Wu and Qi Lu put a large stack of spell-related books in the trunk of the car and sent Ding Xiaolan home.

Ding Xiaolan's home is in a small remote village in the suburbs, an old house left by her uncle Chen Jixian's grandfather, where she has lived since she was five years old, after all, the housing prices in the city are too high, and she has no money to buy a new house.

Qi Lu sent Ding Xiaolan home, threw the book on her desk and went out to visit Hu Qingyun in the Sixth Hospital.

Before she walked out of Ding Xiaolan's house, she was heard shouting inside. Qi Lu was suddenly shocked, and hurriedly turned around and went back to check what was going on.

In the backyard, Qi Lu saw that Ding Xiaolan's tears were about to flow out, and asked strangely, "What, I made you angry?" ”

"No, look!"

Qi Lu turned his head to look and found that the chicken coop in the corner of the wall was in a mess, scattered with chicken feathers.

"The chicken was stolen?"

"yes." Ding Xiaolan said angrily: "I have worked hard to raise chickens for four or five months, and I am about to drink chicken soup, but I was stolen by this hateful thief. ”

"Alas, we are so busy every day, you still have the leisure to raise chickens, it would be good if you didn't starve to death!" Qi Lu habitually walked to the chicken coop to inspect the scene.

There were several vague animal tracks on the side of the chicken coop, Qi Lu hurriedly squatted down to carefully identify them, and recognized them as weasel footprints, and finally he found that the footprints had disappeared outside the iron gate behind the courtyard.

"The weasel stole it." Qi Lu said: "Don't raise chickens in the future, look at the iron crack in your back door, no matter how fat the weasel is, you can get in..."

At this time, Lao Wu pulled Qi Lu's sleeve.

"What's wrong?" Qi Lu looked in the direction of his finger, and his eyes fell back to the cage door.

"Is there anything strange?" Qi Lu showed a look of surprise in his eyes as soon as he finished asking, and he hurriedly walked to the chicken coop to take a look.

The coop door is tightly closed, and the wire lock is fastened to it. Qi Lu hesitated for a moment, tested the gap between the chicken coop with his hand, and found that he could only barely fit into his palm.

Qi Lu couldn't help but glance at Lao Wu, and a haze appeared on his face.

"Questions?" Ding Xiaolan sensed from their looks that something was wrong.

As soon as Qi Lu wanted to answer, he heard a scolding sound coming in from outside.

"Damn weasel, I'll have to skin it the next time I catch it."

Qi Lu's brows tightened when he heard this, and he walked out the door to see who was scolding the street. I saw an aunt in her fifties walking towards him with a dead chicken in her left hand and a rolling pin in her right hand.

"Aunt Zhao, what's wrong?" Ding Xiaolan saw that it was the neighbor next door, so she hurriedly stepped forward to inquire about the reason.

"Xiaoding, don't you know? Recently, the weasels in the mountains have been so rampant that they have been running around the village twice in three days to steal chickens to eat. This Aunt Zhao sighed and said, "No, I just went out to pack up my clothes to dry, and the weasel came to my house to steal chickens." Fortunately, I found it early, and if I hadn't chased it and had it been a stick, the chicken would have ruined it. ”

Qi Lu hurriedly asked, "Auntie, which weasel?" ”

"Ran. If you don't run, I'll kill it! ”

Qi Lu took the dead chicken from Aunt Zhao's hand and looked at it for a long time, when his hand touched the neck of the chicken, the pair of sword eyebrows couldn't help but lock tighter, he quickly returned the chicken to Aunt Zhao, and asked in detail about the weasel's journey of stealing the chicken and its escape route.

After Aunt Zhao left, Qi Lu said in a deep voice: "The chicken thief is not a weasel, but a monster. ”

"Hmm." Lao Wu nodded and said: "It can only steal chickens in its beastly form, and it is very afraid of people, which means that the cultivation time is not long, and it can't take off its shell and change its body." ”

"No, I've lived here for more than twenty years, and I've never heard of a youkai." Ding Xiaolan looked stunned, and goosebumps rose. She suddenly felt that after she and Qi Lu were together, they couldn't live without demons and monsters, and even this peaceful mountain village was now patronized by monsters.

"Then how do you explain why the door of the chicken coop in the house is locked, and the weasel can steal the chicken out without breaking the coop?" Qi Lu said again: "I checked the dead chicken of Aunt Zhao's house just now, and found that there were no bite marks on its neck at all, but all the bones in its neck were broken. This is what a beast can do, and it is clearly a monster that is doing it. ”

"yes, no wonder you touched the chicken, I thought you wanted to eat it." Ding Xiaolan suddenly realized.

"This must be a new youkai." Qi Lu looked at the surrounding mountains outside the village and whispered, "If he was a monster who lived in seclusion in this mountain forest and cultivated, I am afraid that your uncle would have discovered and destroyed him a long time ago." ”

"Forget it, I'd better go back to the company." Ding Xiaolan was scared, for fear that the monsters would come to harass him at night.

"What are you afraid of, I will remove this scourge for your village tonight." Qi Lu asked Ding Xiaolan and said, "How much money do you have now?" ”

"More than a thousand yuan" Ding Xiaolan's face suddenly sank, and she said a little angrily: "You won't help me catch demons and collect money, right?" ”

"Where do you think I'll be able to afford this little money?" Qi Lu said with a smile: "I used this money to buy all the chickens in the village." If they don't agree, you say it's borrowed and you'll give it back tomorrow. ”

Ding Xiaolan asked in surprise: "What do you want to do with these chickens?" ”

"Bait for the Monster Hunt." Seeing that there was still hesitation in Ding Xiaolan's eyes, Qi Lu explained to her with a smile: "This little monster just stole chickens and rice, and he will definitely come to steal it at night." I'll gather all the chickens in the village at your house, and then you can catch turtles in an urn. ”

Ding Xiaolan only understood Qi Lu's intention at this time, so she asked Lao Wu to go with her to buy the villagers' chickens. Qi Lu disagreed, but asked Lao Wu to go back to the company to bring all the magic weapons related to demon hunting.

"Just this kind of goblin still has to make a big move?" Lao Wu disagreed.

"Go ahead, if there's a big monster involved, it's not easy to do." Qi Lu is becoming more and more cautious now.

After Lao Wu drove back, Qi Lu and Ding Xiaolan bought chicken together, and when someone asked the reason, Qi Lu lied and said that his friend was going to hold a birthday banquet at home tomorrow and needed a lot of chicken to entertain guests.

The demon is a spiritual thing, and Qi Lu doesn't want to let it run away.

Things went relatively smoothly, and in less than an hour, the chickens in the whole village were bought out by them, and the number was not even enough for Ding Xiaolan's chicken coop, so Ding Xiaolan went to Aunt Zhao's house to borrow her chicken coop to hold the chickens.

Large and small roosters and hens were crowded in the narrow cage, calling non-stop, and Ding Xiaolan's house also became noisy, which made her a little uneasy.

At this time, Lao Wu also came, Qi Lu arranged the magic circle with him, preparing to catch the monster who stole the chicken at night, and Ding Xiaolan went to Zhang Luo for dinner.

In the blink of an eye, it was dark, and after eating, the three of them turned off the lights in the house, and they all lay down at the window and waited for the monster to come.

Until two or three o'clock in the morning, the monster had not appeared, Ding Xiaolan dozed off, Qi Lu was also impatient and wanted to smoke, but he was afraid that the fire of the cigarette butt would alarm the monster, so he had to endure the addiction to cigarettes, and his eyes were staring out of the window.

Suddenly, a strange cold wind blew in the courtyard, rolling up the fallen leaves and confetti on the ground, Qi Lu sniffed it, and smelled a faint demonic aura, and hurriedly woke up the two and said, "Attention, the monster is coming." ”

Ding Xiaolan's frightened body shrank back and hid behind Qi Lu. Lao Wu chuckled, took out the short knife, and prepared to turn out this little monster on the spot.

As soon as the wind passed, I saw a black shadow flashing outside the window, and a golden weasel appeared next to the chicken coop, its paws passed through the crack of the cage and touched the chickens in the cage one by one like human hands, looking at this frame as if it was selecting delicious chicken breeds.

Lao Wu whispered: "It's really a fucking monster, you don't have to climb over the wall, you can sneak in with the help of the wind." ”

The chickens in the cage didn't know if they were asleep, or if they were afraid of this monster that had cultivated to become a spirit, so they didn't snort and let him touch it without any resistance.

Finally the weasel picked out a fat hen and took it out. Qi Lu was surprised to find that the chicken coop seemed to be non-existent, and the hen's body was completely taken out by the monster through the narrow cage slit. I saw that she held down the hen with one of her hind paws, and then stretched out her front paw to enter the cage to select other chickens.

Qi Lu snickered, waved his right hand lightly, and a few spirit runes quietly appeared between his fingers. He walked slowly towards the door, then slammed it open, and landed behind the youkai with a small leap.

The weasel spirit heard movement behind him, and quickly stared back at a pair of mouse eyes, and when he saw that his act of stealing chickens was discovered, he hurriedly threw down the hen in his hand, threw up his legs and fled. But he had only run a few steps before he stopped, and went in circles on the spot.

"Run, why don't you run?" Qi Lu crossed his hands and laughed at the embarrassed weasel spirit.

"What's going on?" Ding Xiaolan, who then walked out of the door, was also full of doubts when she saw the weasel spirit's strange behavior.

Qi Lu smiled and lit a cigarette, and then said to Lao Wu, "Lend me your wine." ”

Lao Wu handed the baby wine jug to Qi Lu, who took it and unscrewed the lid, sprinkled the wine inside to the weasel spirit, and then threw the cigarette butt on the ground.

Suddenly, there was a "poof" sound, a raging fire ignited on the ground, and a magic circle appeared in front of Ding Xiaolan.

"Demon Binding Array!" Ding Xiaolan exclaimed, she had only used this kind of magic circle once before her uncle.

"Hehe, there is progress, and I haven't studied in vain for more than half a year." Qi Lu praised her, and then said in a deep voice to the weasel spirit who had stopped moving and was lying on the spot: "Evil animal, don't you beg for mercy in front of this mage?" ”

The words were so fierce, in fact, Qi Lu was not sure in his heart whether this monster who was not high in Taoism would be able to speak human language.

Not only did this weasel not be afraid, but instead stood up like a human and said, "Strange, why can't I notice the magic circle you set up in front of the chicken coop?" ”

"I mixed a lot of alum into the runic water of the drawing array, and it naturally did not show any traces after drying." Qi Lu thought to himself that it would be easy for you to talk about people, wait a minute, I have a way for you to confess.

"What treacherous!" The monster actually scolded Qi Lu.

"Hehe, you little demon doesn't know the height of the sky, you dare to scold me, are you really not afraid of death?" Qi Lu is ready to teach him a little lesson, so that the monster will not underestimate himself.

At this moment, the earth suddenly moved, and the ground cracked, and the rune array that bound the youkai was also split in half by the crack in the ground. As soon as the magic circle cracked, the flames were extinguished, and its effect disappeared, and I saw that the weasel spirit twisted its body, and it turned into a white light and rushed outward.

How could Qi Lu give him a chance to escape, he immediately raised his hand, and a spirit rune struck towards the white light, and suddenly heard a scream, and the speed of the white light moved faster.

Qi Lu was about to chase after him, but was stopped by Lao Wu.

I only heard Lao Wu smile and say: "Don't worry, he has been injured, we can find his lair by following the bloodstains." ”

Qi Lu looked down, and sure enough, a few drops of green demon blood were sprinkled on the ground, so he sneered and tracked down the monster along the bloodstains.

The three of them walked briskly for about ten minutes along the dripping bloodstains before they came to the foot of the mountain, and the bloodstains disappeared in front of a deep cave.

Ding Xiaolan said: "This is an air-raid shelter dug before the liberation, which has long been abandoned, and I used to hide and seek in it with my village friends when I was a child. ”

"Are there any other exits to this cave?"

"Nope." Ding Xiaolan said: "Just this one exit." ”

"It seems that he is really a passing monster, and he is looking for a place to rest temporarily. Beauty, you are sentry outside, and Lao Wu and I will go in to arrest him. ”