The ancestral house of the Lu family is located in the suburbs of Qingzhou Mansion, covering an area of more than 50 acres, divided into three roads, middle, east and west, each road is a five-entry courtyard, with more than 200 large and small rooms.

According to the description in the book, Gu Xu knew that this was once the most magnificent place in the entire Jiaodong Province.

Five steps on the first floor, ten steps on the first floor; The corridor waist is back, and the eaves teeth are high pecked.

There are countless maids and servants, and there is an endless stream of guests.

It can be described as "the Immortal Mansion of Jinmen Yuhu, the concubine's house of Guidian Lan Palace".

But now, this magnificent mansion has become a desolation.

The vermilion gates had faded, and the metal knockers were rusty.

The gray sand and grass, the dead trees of the white forest, the hollow windows, and the decaying walls add to the gloomy and dull atmosphere of the place.

Gu Xu and Chu Fengge stepped out of the carriage and walked towards the gate of the Lu Mansion one after the other.

I saw that above its gate, there was a dilapidated plaque hanging crookedly, with four strong and powerful characters written on it.

Gu Xu knew that these four big characters were written by the first emperor himself decades ago - at that time, the Lu family was full of royal dependents, and prosperity was like flowers and brocade, and fire sprayed oil.

Who would have thought that decades later, this huge family would collapse like a mansion and be submerged in history?

Gu Xu was silent for a few seconds, put the "stand-in bracelet" given to him by Luo Sishou on his wrist, tightly held the "Ghost Killing Talisman" and "Breaking Void Bead" in his hand, and then said to Chu Fengge beside him: "Master Chu, let's go in!" ”

Chu Fengge took a deep breath.

Although the expression on Chu Fengge's face was very calm, Gu Xu noticed that the cold hairs on his neck stood up at some point.

"Lord Chu, are you afraid?" Gu Xu asked with concern.

"You're scared!" Chu Fengge snorted coldly.

With that, he put his hands behind his back and walked through the gate with his head held high into the Lu family's murderous mansion.

Gu Xu smiled, followed his pace, and walked in.

…………

Entering the Lu Mansion, the two of them first saw a tall shadow wall, which blocked their vision.

There is a colorful mural on this shadow wall - if Gu Xu is not mistaken, it should be a picture of a group of dignitaries drinking and having fun in the garden.

Gu Xu had read in feng shui books that the evil spirit of ghosts usually went straight - and building a shadow wall inside the courtyard gate could block foreign ghosts to a certain extent.

"It's a pity that the ghost this time should be in the interior of the mansion, and this shadow wall is of no use." Gu Xu thought silently.

Then the two of them bypassed the shadow wall and entered the Hanging Flower Gate.

On both sides is the hand-copying verandah, and in the middle is the hall.

Through the hall, it is a hall that communicates the front and rear courtyards and is for people to walk through.

In the center of it is a dusty screen that has fallen to the ground, which has been tattered by the erosion of time.

And on the pillar that passes through the hall, there is a short couplet-

Shanglian: bamboo rain pine wind Wuyue;

Lower face: the sound of tea smoke and piano rhyme.

"It really deserves to be a well-known Wenqing family all over the country!" Seeing this couplet, Gu Xu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "This couplet is really literary!" ”

But at the same time, his mood became more and more solemn.

If you want to describe the feeling that this dilapidated mansion gives Gu Xu in two words, it is "too quiet" and "too ordinary".

They walked through both compounds, but they didn't see any ghosts, nor did they see any figures or corpses of the missing monks of the Exorcist Division.

Not to mention any clues related to the curse of "Shocking Pens" or "Frost Erosion".

All you can see are gray walls, dead tree branches, collapsed screens, broken porcelain, and shaggy moss under the eaves.

And the sound of their breathing and footsteps is the only sound in this courtyard.

"Lord Chu, the last time you came here, did you find any clues?" Gu Xu asked Chu Fengge while carefully observing his surroundings.

Chu Fengge did not answer.

His eyes stared straight ahead, his lips trembled slightly, and his handsome face was bloodless.

Gu Xu had never seen Chu Fengge look so out of shape.

"The last time Lord Chu came to this murderous mansion, what kind of terrifying things did he see?" Gu Xu secretly speculated in his heart, "Can you leave such a deep psychological shadow on him?" ”

He frowned slightly, grabbed the rune paper in his coat pocket with his right hand, and prepared to walk towards the hall to find clues to the "Frost Melt" spell.

However, it was at this time that a mutation occurred.

In the empty courtyard, the sad and mournful sound of the cave flute suddenly sounded.

His voice whined, like resentment, like admiration, like crying.

There seems to be a magical power that can make people recall sad pasts, and they can't help but burst into tears.

Gu Xu suddenly recalled a description in the information in his mind: "...... In addition to poetry, Lu Shiyao, the daughter of the Lu family, is also proficient in music and rhythm, especially good at blowing the hole flute, and once used a song "Burial Snow" at the banquet to make the guests tears ripple and their clothes wet ......"

"Could it be that the one who is doing things in this mansion is really Lu Shiyao's soul?" Gu Xu guessed silently.

And with the sound of the flute, a frightening change took place in the house.

The sun's rays faded in an instant.

The vision of the two of them darkened.

The surrounding walls, windows, columns, eaves, etc., all rotted and fell to the ground like mud, and like pieces of paper that had been rudely torn apart, they quickly decayed and decayed.

Later, these objects were transformed into ice icicles, and the ground was covered with snow and scattered with frozen bones.

Gu Xu felt a strong chill rush into his bone marrow.

According to common sense, as a cultivator, he could use True Yuan to resist the extreme cold—even in the coldest winter, he didn't feel the slightest chill.

But now, the cold air in the Lu family's murderous mansion made him shiver, his ears hurt, his lips were blue, and his fingers became extremely stiff, almost unconscious.

"Gu ...... Gu Xu, look at the pair in front of you...... Couplet! Chu Fengge stretched out his finger and pointed ahead, his voice trembling because of the cold, "It's ...... It's changed! ”

Gu Xu immediately looked in the direction he was pointing.

I saw that the poetic "bamboo rain, pine wind, Wuyue, tea, smoke, piano rhyme, and book sound" just now had long disappeared without a trace.

In its place, a scribbled couplet written in blood-red handwriting—

Shanglian: The bitter sea is boundless, and the shore is turned back;

Downlink: There is no way to take the blame for hell.

"No Door to Hell......

Seeing this word, Gu Xu immediately turned his head.

Then he realized that the door behind him was long gone.

…………

Exegesis:

(1) "Five steps on the first floor, ten steps on the first floor; The corridor waist is back, and the eaves teeth are high pecked. - Tang Du Mu "A Fang Gong Fu"

(2) "The bitter sea is boundless, and there is no way to take the blame for hell." - "Cause and Effect Illustrated Book: Hell in Disguise"