July 15, Halloween. The day when the gates of the underworld are opened once a year.

Legend has it that this day is the peak of yin energy in the middle of the year, and after the sun sets, the yin energy between heaven and earth is enough to support all the ghosts in the underworld to come to the yang world. So on this day, the ghosts who have been put on vacation will run out to receive gifts, dark coins or fruits.

On this day, the relatives of the yang world will also pay the ghosts for the second half of the year by burning sacrifices (the first half of the Qingming Festival), and the squires of the prefecture and county will pay for a grand celebration for the ghosts.

On the other hand, Buddhists with these special abilities are also the busiest days around July 15, because in addition to being responsible for maintaining law and order, their busiest job is to assist the ghosts of the prefecture to capture the escaped ghosts. This is still true in modern Japan, where the grand summer festival held every year on the 15th day of the eighth month of the solar calendar is the Chinese Obon Festival. It is also the day when a hundred ghosts walk at night in Japanese mythology.

Whether these are true or not, but from the moment the sun rose on July 15, Wang Zheng's small reconnaissance instruments, which were scattered throughout China, had already spotted clouds of water vapor that had begun to gather abnormally in the sky.

Early this morning, the little monk Shifang Yan Chixia pulled up from the broken temple and hurriedly explored the demon forest.

I saved one more person last night, and the task of digging up the columbarium today naturally increased from one to two. But neither of them cared, but was happy. The little monk wanted to save one more person, and Yan Chixia wanted to "finally have a beautiful female ghost is mine"!

has Xiao Zhuo's guidance, plus Yan Chixia's spell to lead the way. Although the thousand-year-old dryad was hiding in secrecy, it took the two of them a while to find it!

"Ha, this old monster can really hide, he actually moved his true body to the valley, no wonder with his more than a thousand years of age, he is not conspicuous at all on the periphery of the demon forest." Yan Chixia touched the sweat on her head, looked up at the big sun, and complained: "Today's sun is so big that the evil sect is dying of heat!" ”

The little monk didn't say anything to him at all, and as soon as he saw the thousand-year-old tree, he ran to dig the ashes.

Its practical word "digging" is not quite accurate. "Picking" should be appropriate. Because I don't know why. These columbarium jars are not buried in the ground, but are neatly placed in rows under the shade of trees, and piles of fragments are gathered, like self-selected supermarket goods.

A gust of wind blew. The sand is raised. The scene is eerie.

However, the little monk of the Ten Directions did not pay attention to those. With his head down, he fiddled with the urn altars one by one, and muttered, "It could be this...... This one is like, huh. Set it aside...... It could also be this ...... This one also looks like ...... This, uh, Xiao Zhuo must not be so fat......"

When Yan Chixia turned around, there were more than a dozen large and small ash jars behind the little monk, and he was holding a larger one in his hand, and he was about to add it to the Taoist team.

Yan Chixia cried and laughed: "Hey, you get so much, do you want to get an ox cart to pull it away?" ”

The little monk glared and said, "Don't talk cool over there, why don't you hurry up and come over to help!" ”

Yan Chixia shook her head and said: "This old monster is a thousand-year-old tree demon, there are not 10,000 people who eat it, but also 8,000, plus the lonely souls and wild ghosts brought from the messy local monsters, there are at least more than 10,000 altars of ashes around this thousand years, you are looking for it like this, don't say tonight, whether you can find Xiao Zhuo before the Chinese New Year is not a certainty!" ”

The little monk was stunned for a moment, and said stupidly: "There are so many? ”

Yan Chixia was speechless about his nature, pointed to the thousand-year-old tree and said, "Look at the back of the tree yourself!" ”

The little monk stood up and stretched out his head to look, and was dumbfounded.

This thousand-year-old tree was already the thickness of several people hugging each other, and coupled with the unusually prosperous canopy above his head, the shadow under the tree alone was hundreds of square meters. It is logically impossible to take care of so many ashes, but its canopy is connected to the canopy of the big tree behind, and hundreds of rattans connect a small forest behind it, and in the shadows for several miles, a columbarium like a mountain and a sea of ashes appears.

"I don't know what to do, if I don't have it, do you want to mobilize the people of Guobei County to help you move the ashes? Get out of the way! Look at me! Yan Chixia took two steps forward and pushed away the little monk, reached out and took out the law scroll from her arms, glanced at it slightly, raised her hand and threw the law scroll into the air, and shouted: "The divine soldier is as urgent as the law, lead the way!" ”

The Dharma scroll fluttered and danced in the wind, dangling on the pile chosen by the little monk for a while, and then abandoned it without hesitation, went around behind the tree against the direction of the wind, and finally covered it on a palm-sized ash jar.

Yan Chixia snorted inside her nose, rolled her hand up at the corner of her eyes and said, "Go and see if it's the altar?" ”

"Oh!" The little monk didn't dare to reply, so he hurriedly answered and hurriedly ran over. When you open it, you will be greeted by a familiar comb.

"It's really Xiao Zhuo!" The little monk was overjoyed and shouted, "Found it!" And he put the jar of ashes into his bosom.

"So that's all left for Xiaolan!" Yan Chixia smiled, came over and picked up the law scroll as if it were a law, and found a small ash jar from the sea of ashes again, and he didn't look at it and put it in his arms directly.

After the little monk found Xiao Zhuo, the first target, he immediately remembered another thing. "Yan Chixia, my master!"

"I haven't forgotten!" Yan Chixia picked up a branch from the ground, covered it with her hand, and said a few words in her mouth, and after opening her hand again, there was already a fire burning. He jumped up, flew up the branches, and while moving into the huge canopy in a small area, he said: "You wait below, I'll look for it, if there is nature, it's the best, if not, let's burn this bird tree!" ”

"Be careful!"

"Got it, got it!" Yan Chixia replied impatiently and disappeared into the eyes of the little monk.

The little monk waited under the tree, touching the urn in his arms from time to time, and saying some self-talk that began with "Xiao Zhuo". Then he looked up at the top of the canopy, expecting to see Yan Chixia with his master appearing.

After a long while, Yan Chixia's voice came from overhead, "Hey, I really found your master on it!" ”

The little monk hurriedly undressed and rolled it into hemp rope, shouting, "Help me bring Master down!" ”

Yan Chixia grabbed the old monk's collar, and the two of them jumped at the same time, jumping directly from the canopy. (To be continued......)