When Li Shu'er and his entourage entered the inn, they saw that the inn was very spacious, and there were more than a dozen wooden tables and stools in the hall facing them, which seemed to be enough to accommodate dozens of people to eat at the same time, and there were seven or eight thick wooden pillars erected in the hall as supports. There is a wooden staircase on the west side of the hall that allows you to go up to the second floor, and it seems that the guest rooms are above.

The shopkeeper enthusiastically put Li Shu'er, Yang Yi, Wei Ergou and Taomu Demon in front of a table, and waited for Li Shu'er and them to sit down before shouting for the guys in the store to serve tea.

Soon, a sturdy man in his twenties walked out of the back kitchen with a copper kettle, and poured a bowl of tea for each of Uncle Li and others.

"A few don't blame, this guy was born mute, his parents died early, I pity his background, so I took him in my small shop to be a buddy, so that he doesn't live on the streets, he must see this little lady beautiful and dignified, so he will be so rude, I hope to forgive me." The shopkeeper saw Wei Ergou's discouragement and hurriedly explained.

"It's all child's nature, don't worry, by the way, dare to ask the store's name? Uncle Li smiled indifferently, picked up the teacup and was about to drink it, but put it down again, and asked very casually at the same time.

"Xiao Ke's surname is Cao, and he has a single word, hehe" Cao Tong replied with a smile on his face.

"Shopkeeper, we are greedy for the night road, passing by Guibao Land, there is a lot of trouble, sorry to be tight," Uncle Li looked at Cao Tong and said a few polite words, and then changed the conversation and asked: "Boss Cao, the old man took the liberty to ask, when did this long hair lay this Quwo?" ”

"Hey, it's this half a day's work," Cao Tong smiled bitterly, "Those long-haired are really cunning, I heard that they first sent a small force to lure the main force of the green battalion soldiers stationed in Quwo out to chase them, but the result was to chase farther and farther, I don't want the long-haired army to take the opportunity to seize the city, the remaining green battalion soldiers in the city are difficult to support alone, it is difficult to resist the powerful offensive of those tiger and wolf divisions, so they have to abandon the city and flee, even the county commander has fled with his family, those long-haired soldiers occupy Quwo without blood, hehe"

"By the way, I saw that every house in the city of Quwo County was closed, and all the shops were closed, why didn't you flee?" Uncle Li continued to ask.

"Don't hide it from you, I want to run, how can I have an elderly mother and a clumsy bed bed for many years in my family, I really can't bear the pain of the bumps in the carriage and horses, besides, I can't give up this ancestral business, I'm afraid it will be destroyed in the war, so I gritted my teeth and stayed, thinking that it would die, and the family would die together, hey." Cao Tong let out a long sigh, his face full of helplessness.

"It's hard for you," Uncle Li also sighed, "I'd rather be a balance dog, not a troubled world, to catch up with this troubled world connected by military disasters, everyone is struggling on the line of life and death, okay, we have driven dozens of miles, and our stomachs are hungry, can you ask the store to give you a full meal, and then it will be counted with the store money?" ”

"Of course, of course, although the store is not big, it also has a history of 100 years, although the food is not as good as the restaurant that goes in and out of the Hongru, but it also has its own signature dishes, I don't know what dishes I want to order, Xiao Ke can also tell the kitchen to prepare." Cao Tong looked at the faces of Li Shu'er, Yang Yi, Wei Ergou and Taomu Demon in turn, and asked with a smile.

"We're hungry and thirsty, so you can give each of us a bowl of hot knife-cut noodles with some chili condiments." Uncle Li said with a smile.

"Uncle, wait a minute, you're too picky, you're too picky, just a few bowls of knife-cut noodles and send us away, no, I want to eat meat, I still have to drink, what's the matter, and there is no sauce beef, cut two catties indiscriminately, and then a jar of Fenjiu, the sooner the better, hehe" Wei Ergou heard that Uncle Li only ordered knife-cut noodles, stopped drying, and began to ask for wine and meat.

"Hehe, you haven't eaten enough just now, and you want to knock me on the bamboo bar? Anyway, if you want to eat the wine and meat alone, if you have an upset stomach, you will blame me. Uncle Li looked at Wei Ergou with a smile and said with a smile, while his eyes swept over Cao Tong's face a few times, intentionally or unintentionally.

"Don't joke with the old man, the wine and meat in the small shop are all pickled and brewed by themselves, and they are very clean, just eat them with confidence, and they won't make this little brother feel uncomfortable, hehe" That Cao Tong was slightly stunned when he heard Uncle Li's words, and then said with a normal face, not showing displeasure at all because of Uncle Li's words.

"The store is too careful, the old man is just afraid that this guy will spoil his stomach by eating wine and meat, and delay tomorrow's journey, no matter what, if there is wine and meat, just come up, eat and drink enough, and sleep and rest, hehe" Uncle Li retracted his gaze and smiled boldly.

"Okay, Xiao Ke will go to Zhang Luo for dinner, and a few people will drink tea for a while." Cao Tong smiled diligently again and went to the back kitchen.

Seeing that Cao Tong's figure disappeared into a door leading to the kitchen behind the stairs, Uncle Li glanced at Yang Yi, Wei Ergou and the Taomu Demon, and said in a low voice: "In this shop, there are strangeness, you have to be careful, don't be afraid of the Tao and not know it." ”

Before Yang Yi and Wei Ergou could speak, the peach wood demon preemptively spoke: "Old man, that shopkeeper's eyes are very powerful, and he is terrified when he sees me, and he is inexplicably panicked in his heart, but I don't know why. ”

Li Shu'er bowed his head slightly and didn't speak, then looked at Yang Yi and Wei Ergou and asked, "Do you smell anything?" ”

Yang Yi and Wei Ergou sniffled, feeling that there was a faint smell in the air that seemed to be a greasy smell of cooking soup, and there was a slight smell.

"It smells like roasted oil, and it smells a little disgusting." Yang Yi replied truthfully.

"Eh, there's a lot of weirdness in this store, you just look at my eyes and act for a while, don't say much, remember?" Uncle Li'er stared at Wei Ergou sternly, and emphasized in an accentuated tone.

Seeing that Uncle Li'er's expression didn't look like he was playing tricks, Wei Ergou was also a little nervous, and nodded hurriedly to show that he understood.

After a while, the sturdy man came out with a wooden table, on which were placed four large bowls, and inside were steaming knife-cut noodles, and coriander was sprinkled on them, and the smell was fragrant.

In the back, the shopkeeper Cao Tong was holding a large plate of beef and a bottle of liquor, and he was still greeting in his mouth: "Let a few people wait for a long time, slacken, slack......"

"Good food is not afraid of being late, the store has good craftsmanship," Uncle Li sniffed the knife-cut noodles and exclaimed, "What, we are indeed a little tired along the way, so let's bother your guy bring these drinks and rice to our room, and rest directly after eating, okay?" ”

"Okay, okay, Erniu, don't bring these drinks and food to the upper room on the west side yet." That Cao Tong listened to Uncle Li's request and ordered the guy named Erniu to serve the food directly to the second floor.

Following Cao Tong and Er Niu, who led the way in front, Li Shu'er and they went up to the second floor, walked to the west plug, Cao Tong pushed open the partition door of the two guest rooms next to each other engraved with a four-oblique spherical rhombic pattern, and the furniture inside was nothing more than a carved wooden bed and a table and a few wooden chairs, which was nothing unusual.

Cao Tong instructed Erniu to put the food on the table in a room, and after a few words, he left with Erniu, and closed the door from the outside.

Uncle Li glanced at him, Yang Yi tiptoed to the door, leaned on the door and listened for a while, and after making sure that Cao Tong and Er Niu had really gone downstairs, he gave Uncle Li a thumbs up to signal that it was safe.

Uncle Li waved his hand and gathered Yang Yi, Wei Ergou and Taomu Demon to the dining table, and the voice at the bottom of the cliff said: "As soon as I entered the hall of this inn just now, I noticed that something was wrong......

"You found out that something was wrong and let us in, I think you are wrong enough, I'll go!" Before Uncle Li finished speaking, Wei Ergou became excited, looked at Uncle Li and asked rhetorically.

"Shut up and listen to Uncle Li." The peach wood demon glared at Wei Ergou, and he immediately shut up and silenced.

"Brine tofu, one thing down one thing, hehe" Uncle Li looked at Wei Ergou, who was very aggrieved, and smiled, and then said: "Have you found those wooden pillars in the hall, no more, no less, there are exactly seven, that is not standing casually, if you guess correctly, the seven wooden pillars should be made of Shen Yin wood, and the direction they occupy is the position of Tianfu, Taiyin, Greedy Wolf, Giant Gate, Tianxiang, Tianliang, and the Seven Stars of the Broken Army in the 108 stars of Ziwei Doushu, do you know what this is called, this is called the Seven Evil Soul Locking Array, which is specially designed to restrain ghosts, To prevent ghosts from regurgitating, it is a very vicious cult formation, according to legend, it should originate from Lingnan witchcraft, I don't want to see it here today, it seems that this shopkeeper Cao Tong is really not an ordinary person, hum"

"Could it be that he is also a member of the Daomen?" Yang Yi asked.

"That's not necessarily, although the Quanzhen, Maoshan and other branches in the Daomen are also familiar with the formation, none of them will use this method of damaging yin, virtue and yang longevity, then Cao Tong must have learned this vicious formation somewhere, but he is here to be the party." Uncle Li thought about it for a while and categorically rejected Yang Yi's guess.

"Then what was his motive for setting up this Seven Evil Soul Locking Array?" Wei Ergou glanced at the peach wood demon's face and asked cautiously.

"The main function of the Seven Evil Soul Locking Array is twofold, one is to suppress some ghosts with the power of the formation, and seal the ghosts in a specific area where they cannot escape, nor can they be reincarnated, and they are mostly used to avenge the revenge; The second is to deliberately detain some ghosts in a certain place, and then drive these ghosts to do certain things for the spell-casting monks, which is commonly known as raising ghosts, according to me, this Cao Tong painted the appearance of the inn all black, so as not to let the sun shine in, and chose the inn in such a damp place, the possibility of raising ghosts is relatively large. ”