Luo Sinan took Ji Jingyang to the training ground, and at this time, there was already a column of troops wearing the official uniform of the Tianlong Guard waiting here.

Luo Sinan said to Ji Jingyang: "I'll let them each play their own housekeeping skills, you can see whose martial arts are more similar to that lizard monster." ”

Ji Jingyang frowned and said, "If you don't fight, I'm afraid I won't recognize it." Otherwise, let me go into battle and fight them one by one! ”

Luo Sinan said: "I'll help you get a trick, are you still in a hurry to do it yourself?" Doesn't the wound on your shoulder hurt? ”

Ji Jingyang said: "It's a small thing, it's just a skin injury. ”

Luo Sinan could only sigh: "Okay! I gesture, you watch! ”

Ji Jingyang wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Luo Sinan. He suppressed Ji Jingyang's words and said: "Xuanjing Hall is just made up by Tianlongwei, I am your top boss, whatever I say is what it is, don't bargain!" ”

Luo Sinan's martial arts are much higher than others, and at this time, he tried the moves of Tianlongwei and other masters one by one. Ji Jingyang frowned on the side, and when he knocked the last Kongtong faction master to the ground, he turned back to look at Ji Jingyang.

Ji Jingyang still shook his head.

Luo Sinan said: "This is strange, the Central Plains martial arts, the martial arts of the famous major sects, I have tried them all for you, and you don't fancy one?" ”

Ji Jingyang said helplessly: "What does this have to do with whether you like it or not?" That monster's martial arts are very strange, although it doesn't seem to have any serious moves, but none of them are extremely reasonable, and it can catch the opponent's flaws and hit it with one hit. Thinking about it carefully, it seems that it is indeed a little different from the Central Plains martial arts. The stance action is not very good-looking, as long as it can hit the opponent's vital point in the shortest possible time, so that it has no power to resist. And sometimes the moves aren't glamorous. ”

Luo Sinan said: "Even if you mean to say that this thing may not be the Central Plains martial arts?" ”

Ji Jingyang spoke cautiously, he was not sure about this matter, yes, and he did not respond to Luo Sinan's question.

However, after thinking about it, he said: "Xiao Zhang Tianshi once mentioned that he had seen this kind of lizard-handed strange man, and it was during the Baiyue Great Sacrifice that this kind of monster was locked in a cage and burned alive by the fire. ”

Luo Sinan frowned and said, "Baiyue? ”

"Hmm. It is said that it is the Yao people's wish to return the king's wish. ”

Luo Sinan said: "This is easy to do. I asked people to go to the criminal department to see if there were any prisoners from Baiyue, catch three or five, and come over to accompany me to try the recruitment. ”

Ji Jingyang stayed in Tianlongwei for a day and didn't return home, and when it was time for dinner, Tianlongwei sent someone over to say hello, saying that he might not be able to come back tonight, and asked Lord Ji and his wife not to worry.

At dinner, Mrs. Ji said to her husband: "How can anyone do such a thing, I stayed up all night last night, and I won't be allowed to go home tonight." ”

Ji Rufeng sighed: "Isn't it all like this for the imperial court? Besides, with Anan taking care of you, you don't have to worry. ”

Ji Cunyan said: "That's right, Brother Luo's martial arts are so powerful!" The third brother and Lord Jian of Qin Tianjian couldn't deal with the monster together, and Brother Luo knocked it down in the blink of an eye, and he couldn't move anymore. After saying that, she turned her head sideways to look at the bright moon outside the window.

Mrs. Ji said to Ji Cunyan: "Yan'er, what about eating, why do you always look around?" Isn't it all your own order? ”

Ji Cunyan said: "I have to go out to handle the case at night." ”

Mrs. Ji frowned and said, "On a big night, what are you doing at a girl's house?" Isn't there a case of mandrill snatching babies? It's a big night, and it's not peaceful outside. ”

Ji Cunyan put down his chopsticks and said, "The baby-snatching mandrill was kicked in the head by Brother Luo!" It's safe outside. Besides, I made an appointment with Zhang Tianshi, and I didn't go alone. ”

Ji Rufeng asked, "Where are you going to investigate the case?" Do you have to go at night? ”

Ji Cunyan said with a smile: "This is a secret, you can't tell it to others." Neither can my father and mother, nor can my third brother. ”

When she had finished speaking, she stood up and said, "Then I'll go out!" ”

Mrs. Ji looked at Ji Rufeng and said, "She went out like this, don't worry?" ”

Ji Rufeng said with a smile: "When your daughter is working outside, most of the nights are dark and windy. Now that there is a Heavenly Master of the Zhang family with him, there will be no problem in thinking about it. Don't worry, madam, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, how can there be so many ghosts? ”

The place where Ji Cunyan and Zhang Ji met was in Shili Pavilion on the outskirts of Beijing. At this time, the moon is in the middle of the sky, and tonight is a good day.

Zhang Ji was waiting for Ji Cunyan in the pavilion early. He sat on a stone bench with a black baggage in front of him.

"I'm coming!" Ji Cunyan said to Zhang Ji, "What's in this?" Do you want to wear a night walk? You said earlier, I have a lot of night clothes, but I rarely have the opportunity to wear them. ”

Zhang Ji frowned and said, "What kind of night clothes are you wearing?" We don't go to rob houses. ”

"So where are we going?"

Zhang Ji shrugged his shoulders and said to Ji Cunyan: "Do you want to go shopping?" ”

"Of course girls love to go shopping! But at night, it's not the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, and there is a curfew everywhere, where can I go? ”

"Don't talk about where to go, you put this thing on." Zhang Ji said, opening the black baggage, and what was placed inside was a mask. This mask doesn't look beautiful at all, it's blue-faced and fanged, and if you look at it more, you'll have nightmares at night.

Ji Cunyan looked at the mask, and then said to Zhang Ji: "I don't want to wear this on my face." ”

Zhang Ji said: "If you don't wear it, I won't take you to the ghost market." ”

"Huh? What? Turns out we're going to the ghost market tonight? ”

"That weird guy with lizardhands is probably from Baiyue. The Yao people of Baiyue have always been wary of the people of the Central Plains, and it is difficult for Tianlongwei and you to inquire about their whereabouts and secrets. Usually, these strange people of different races, if they want to make a living in the capital, most of them will haunt the ghost market. ”

"So you want to go to the ghost market and ask for clues about the lizard monster?! That's a good idea! But I don't want to wear such an ugly mask. ”

Zhang Ji glanced at her and said, "You are full of anger." If you don't press it down and cover it up, you will step into the ghost market with your front feet, and your back feet will be eaten alive by the evil ghosts and monsters inside. Not to mention that your whole family is an official family, and your hands are full of drugs and the smell of blood, if you go in like this, you will not be able to completely come out. ”

Ji Cunyan hesitated and said to Zhang Ji: "Then can you pretend to be a more beautiful ghost?" Youkai are OK too! ”

Zhang Ji said: "Alas......"

Ji Cunyan was forced by Zhang Ji to put on a hat covered with black gauze to completely cover her face.

He looked Ji Cunyan up and down a few times and said, "This is not much better than wearing a mask." ”

"At least I didn't put that on my face." Ji Cunyan sat down and said to Zhang Ji: "The first time I went out of the capital when I was a child, I followed my third brother to Jiangxi to handle a ghost-faced case. [Note 1]

Zhang Ji asked: "The god is a sacrificial thing used to fight ghosts and drive away evil spirits. What is Ghostface? ”

Ji Cunyan lifted the black veil on the edge of the hat, revealed his face, and said to Zhang Ji: "There is a wizard in charge of the sacrifice, one of the eight uncles of the Wuban, and he wears a Zhong Kui mask. These eight uncles danced the sacrifice for three days during the Lantern Festival, and when it was time to end the Yuanwu, his mask could not be taken off. The mask grows together with the human face, and the hard separation can only tear off the skin of the face together, and the skin will open the flesh. After speaking, Ji Cunyan also rubbed his face with both hands, as if he wanted to drive away the pain in his mind.

"Isn't that a curse? The glutinous rice can be soaked in water for seven days. "Zhang Ji is very sophisticated and authentic.

"Hmm...... This is how the third brother separates people from the face. But. After Ji Cunyan paused for a moment, he said with a very bad face: "However, when we took the mask off that person's face, we found out...... The man's face changed to the mask he was wearing. It's exactly the same as the mask, with eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, as if you put the mask on again. Think about Zhong Kui, fierce and ugly. At that time, the man's wife was scared to tears. ”

Zhang Ji tilted his head and thought for a while: "It's been too long, the spell is imprinted into the flesh, there is no way." ”

Ji Cunyan said: "That was my nightmare. Since then, I haven't dared to wear any masks. You see your mask is still so ugly. ”

Zhang Ji sighed again and said, "With me here, what are you afraid of?" Even if your face is glued to the mask, I will change your face and make sure that you are as beautiful as a fairy, hundreds of times more beautiful than you are now. ”

Ji Cun said: "Bah, bah! Roll on! ”

Zhang Ji laughed for a while, then took out a blank talisman, held it with his left hand, dipped the brush in cinnabar with his right hand, and wrote a spell on the talisman paper.

"What is this?" Ji Cunyan stared at Zhang Ji and wrote the talisman.

Zhang Ji didn't say anything, only asked Ji Cunyan: "Do you want to be black and white?" ”

"I don't want a tongue that's so long."

"Then the bull's head and horse noodles."

"Isn't that uglier? Can you be Chang'e? ”

"You want to be beautiful, Chang'e is not in my hands." After Zhang Ji finished speaking, the incantation had been written. He raised his hand and slapped the freshly written talisman on Ji Cunyan's forehead.

"Why, I'm not a zombie." Ji Cun said angrily, but he didn't dodge.

"White impermanence! That's it! Zhang Ji said, and took off the talisman again. Miraculously, the mantra written in cinnabar on top of such a talisman could not be seen.

Zhang Ji used the fire of the candlestick on the table to burn the blank talisman with the naked eye, and said to Ji Cunyan: "I gave you the simplest trick, although it is easy to use, but it is not very powerful, and after six hours, the spell will naturally fail." ”

Ji Cunyan nodded and said, "Then if we go to the ghost market now, will those ghosts and ghosts think that I am impermanent?" ”

Zhang Ji said: "Anyway, I know that you are the petty official of the sesame mung bean in the underworld, so I won't, and I don't dare to embarrass you." ”

"What about you?"

Zhang Ji put on the mask on the table, shook his head at Ji Cunyan and said, "I'm a mandrill." ”

At the time of the second watch, it is the most lively time in the ghost market.

The ghost market on the outskirts of Beijing is located deep in a bamboo forest in the west of the city, and this bamboo forest is also called "ghost forest". Because of the remoteness of this place, strange legends have continued for decades. Some say they have met ghosts here. It is said that when you do business with people here, you come home only to find that the silver ticket in your hand has become paper money or that your family is ruined. More than a dozen cases of disappearances have been recorded. Even the official road that once passed here was rebuilt by the government bypass. Nowadays, the ghost forest is even more inaccessible.

Walk through the bamboo forest, and then turn into a slippery and dark path into the mountain, walk only a few miles, drill into a cave that is one person high, two people wide, after a few zhang, the road ahead suddenly opens up, the sound of people is boiling, it is the location of the ghost market.

In fact, every town has a legend of "ghost market", and most of the ghost markets once existed. Humans, ghosts, gods and demons coexist in the world, and there must always be some channels to communicate with each other. Ghost markets are one such channel.

Zhang Ji took Ji Cunyan through the strange shops and stalls, the roads here were dirty and difficult to walk, and the smell was not good.

Ji Cunyan avoided a hawker who was coming at her. The vendor was holding a large wooden stick that looked like a gourd selling rock sugar, and it was filled with suspicious meat skewers, which were rotten and smelly, and some of them were dripping with a dark red suspicious liquid.

Ji Cunyan just wanted to take a closer look at what this guy was selling, so Zhang Ji grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his side and said, "Don't look blind, be careful that people think you want to buy it." ”

Ji Cunyan asked Zhang Jidao: "Is that the internal organs of animals?" ”

Zhang Ji said: "How do I know? I haven't bought it to eat it. It's not a serious thing anyway. Follow me so don't get lost. Remember what I told you? ”

"Remember! Don't talk to any strangers, because they don't speak human words at all, but 'ghost words'. I'm revealing my mouth as soon as I open my mouth. Don't show your face, as soon as the veil is lifted, your spell will be broken. Don't buy things, those are evil things. What else? ”

"Don't leave my sight. Otherwise, I won't be able to save you if you are swallowed by a ghost. Zhang Ji added.

Ji Cunyan pursed her lips and looked down at Zhang Ji's right hand holding her left wrist, then she shook her left hand and said, "You are holding me, how can I leave your sight?" ”

Zhang Ji looked down, only to find that he was still holding Ji Cunyan's hand, he was a little embarrassed and quickly let go of his hand and said, "Anyway, you stay close to me, don't run blind." ”

"Got it!" Ji Cunyan said with a smile, looking quite happy.

[1] Since Shangzhou, except for the Yuan and Qing dynasties, all kings of all dynasties have regularly held memorials to expel plague ghosts. The Nu sacrifice is a kind of sacrificial activity to ward off evil spirits. In Nanfeng, Jiangxi, this kind of sacrificial activity to drive away evil spirits is still retained. The eight dancers of the Nu class are called the eight uncles of the Nu class. They wore the masks of the famous ghost-fighting gods and carried out exorcism activities, and these faces had Zhong Kui, Thunder God, Erlang God, etc., all of which were carved into a vicious appearance. It seems to be more vicious than ghosts, so as to expel ghosts. - "Chinese Heritage: The Legend of Demons and Ghosts"