Yanshuang Town, known as the important town of Saibei, is located between two tributaries of the Linxue River, with the majestic snow-capped mountains in the northeast and a vast grassland in the rest.

There are many felt tents of the Ulan tribe and other nomadic peoples scattered here.

The purpose of Bai Yuege's trip was to inspect this place for the emperor.

I don't know why the emperors of the Eastern Empire attached great importance to this place in the past dynasties, and they had to supervise it once a year and guard it with heavy troops.

It's just that when Bai Yuege came this year, there were a lot fewer soldiers in the town.

Perhaps because of the increasing number of ronin raids in the Oriental archipelago in recent years, many northern troops have been transferred to garrison the Great Wall of the Sea.

"I will report it to the court. Bai Yuege said to Zuo Qingyun that they were about to part ways at the south gate of Yanshuang Town, "Indeed, the imperial court takes the threat of the ronin too seriously and ignores the Ulan tribes closest to the Jingshi, if the Ulan people rebel, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

Zuo Qingyun clenched his fists, "There is Lord Lao Bai, and I also want to thank you for the dead county king." ”

He was indeed very grateful to the overseer in his heart, but he still couldn't say anything about the rebellion of the county king.

There is a market at the south gate, where many vendors sell ornaments and silk weaving, as well as many strange foreigners.

A man from the "Land of Sand" in the Western Regions wearing a white scarf led a camel and traveled thousands of miles to buy silk tea.

His servant, who was dark-skinned and carried a balang huqin on his back, played and sang to himself by his master's stall, attracting passers-by, and his eyes were still looking from time to time.

But among these foreigners, what caught Bai Yuege's attention even more was a group of acrobatic troupes performing on the street, all of whom were wearing a strange mask like a cow ghost, snake god, and wearing the nomadic cotton robes of the Ulan people.

They babbled and screamed, and a long string of bright red flames erupted from the mouth of a bronze-masked man. Another person in a purple mask who resembles a goddess dances with a bell.

The people around clapped their hands and cheered, and the sound of the copper plate falling to the ground clanged.

Small, red-masked gnomes with smiling faces on them burrowed under their crotches, grinning and picking up copper plates, causing people to laugh.

"What, Lord Bai?" Bai Yuege stopped, Zuo Qingyun noticed that there was something wrong with his expression, and he was intently observing the Ulan people who were performing acrobatics.

Zuo Qingyun continued: "They are performing Ulan acrobatics, you may not have seen them in Guannei, we are common in this town, even the people in Guannei can perform, everyone likes it." ”

Bai Yuege said "um", but her eyes were still staring at the Hu Ren troupe.

Among them was a fair-skinned woman who wore a fur hat, her black hair was tied into several braids like weeping willows, her long hair drooped down like a cascade at the back of her head, and her face was covered by a white fox mask that covered half of her face.

Bai Yuege focused on an object that looked like a dagger unintentionally exposed under her robe.

It resembled animal bones, but it was so sharp that he discovered it while she was dancing, even though the woman had deliberately hidden it.

Why would a person from a troupe carry such a weapon? Bai Yuege frowned.

"What the hell are you looking at?" Zuo Qingyun couldn't help but ask again.

"I'm interested in this play. The white fox woman also seemed to notice that Bai Yuege was looking at her, and the corners of her mouth slightly hooked an arc, "You go first, go home or go back to Wulan County to assist in Jingluo." ”

"Uh......?"

Zuo Qingyun wondered in his heart, but when he saw his attentive appearance, he still didn't plan to bother, so he just said "meet again" and left the city.

"It's not easy. Bai Yuege sat down at a nearby restaurant, asked for a pot of wine, and waited quietly for the end of the performances of this batch of troupes.

These people's performances look simple, but in fact they require very strong and solid basic skills.

For example, the dwarf was so fast and unusually fast as it passed between the people, and it never touched a person or anything, and wherever it went, there was not a single penny left on the ground. And if the fire-breathing man were not powerful, he would not have been able to breathe the flames into a pillar of fire......

These are not like ordinary people can do it at all, a small town, there are so many masters hidden, it is really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

#

Until the evening, when the sun was setting, the sky was already a little twilight, and the pedestrians of the South Gate Market gradually dispersed.

The talent of the troupe thanked everyone in the local dialect with an Uhlan accent, and prepared to pack up and leave.

It's time to act, too.

"Hey, this guest officer, we're ready to close, that ......"

Without waiting for the fat wine shop owner to finish speaking, Bai Yuege directly put a tael of silver on the table and left the table, "No need to look for it." ”

The people of those troupes were really strange, they left together at first, and then scattered in several uninhabited alleys, Bai Yuege hid behind the wall, he temporarily identified the white fox woman with a weapon, and quietly followed.

The road is getting darker and darker, the houses on both sides are now almost pitch black from sporadic lights, and the barking of dogs that could still be heard is fading.

Bai Yuege wasn't sure if it was safe to follow like this, but he still had some confidence in his skills.

Unexpectedly, just as the white fox girl flashed a corner, she suddenly disappeared inexplicably.

Bai Yuege saw that behind the corner was an old house, a mansion and an old temple with only broken walls standing silently in the twilight, and there was no human figure.

Both unexpected and reasonable, he said to himself.

Thinking of this, Bai Yuege walked out unhurriedly, he took a deep breath, and stood under the broken wall, the moonlight hidden in the clouds.

"I'm waiting for you. Bai Yuege said.

Behind the house, in the alleyway, on the roof, in the old temple, four people came out one after another, they wore masks, silent like evil spirits in the cemetery, including the woman in the white fox mask.

"It seems that there are people who are interested in our play. The woman sneered, her voice low and wild, "I guess you must know our play!"

"I want to hear about it. Bai Yuege's gaze quickly swept over these people.

The woman and the other "evil ghosts" slowly approached Bai Yuege, "Actually, in the Ulan grassland, our kind of drama is called a ghost drama. ”

She gently brought her slender hand to her waist, "It's for the dead who are about to be buried, and we people are called 'ghost theater troupes'." ”

Bai Yuege noticed that the rest of the ghosts also made strange moves, the dwarf was prostrate on the ground, the man in the bronze mask took out a bottle of soju, and the old woman raised a string of bells.

What exactly do they want to do?

"Under normal circumstances, our ghost dramas will have characters such as ghost girls, ghost children, ghost men and ghost women, and their task is to send the deceased on their last journey......"

The woman smiled, her fingers clenching the bone-shaped dagger at her waist, "So, we showed it to those southerners just to help them die in advance." ”

There was a strange "hissing" sound in the darkness, which made the scalp tingle for a while, and the woman or ghost girl raised her chin and pulled the bone knife out of her waist suddenly!

It was connected with a long string of white bones, and while the ghost girl ripped off the bone chain, the layered hem bloomed like a blooming peony into a long skirt.

"And you will be the first of them to participate in the ghost show. ”