After understanding the causes and consequences of Zhuge Yan and the businessman surnamed Huo, Tang Muzhi smiled. The warlock has high means, and the answer to things can be obtained directly as long as he enters the interior and asks, such as guessing the running water of a store, as long as he Zhuge himself is not impetuous, it is easy to calculate, but he is most likely not to do this.

Whether it is a Taoist person or these warlocks in the circle, many of them have high attainments in the calculation of numbers, but the more such masters, the more they will not explain a thing clearly, such as the hidden words of the Daomen, the numerology hexagram of the warlock, are all a kind of obscure expression, once they give a clear assertion to something, it often means that the matter has not been measured, but the conclusion obtained through scientific methods.

Boss Huo and Zhuge Yan talked for a long time, and Boss Huo has always looked like he was humbly seeking advice. After three rounds of drinking, he finally explained his intention.

"Mr. Zhuge , don't hide it, Huo heard some strange things two days ago, hey, I'm not afraid of your jokes, so I can't be relieved about this trip, I always feel that something is going to happen, and there is a sense of wind and rain."

Zhuge Yu almost lay on his back in the chair, and said slightly drunk: "What is the strange thing?" Boss Huo, but it didn't hurt. ”

Tang Muzhi just raised his glass and listened.

Boss Huo poured a sip of good wine, "Ha-"

He smashed his mouth, his dark, fat and oily face frowned, and he said in a voice full of doubts and fear: "I am from the north, and now everyone knows that the south is not peaceful, the battle is very strong, people are the death of one county after another, and it is said that the water downstream is dyed red." Therefore, the business of tea and salt can't be done, and the inventory in this place of tea is collected, and there will be no business to do next month. ”

After the war in the south, a large amount of tea, cloth and handmade products were hoarded, of course, taking advantage of this opportunity to raise prices, some foreign merchants who rushed here felt that the price was not cost-effective, and the profits were given to the locals, what did they earn?

So some merchants cooperated with each other to promise silver taels, recruited a group of dart masters in the local area, and walked a hundred miles to the southeast, although there was a war in that place, but as long as the trade route was secretly opened, the profit was enough for people to try to take some risks.

The group of dart masters and merchants deliberately chose a time when no one was in the market at night, if it was too much fanfare, it would inevitably cause the local farmers and merchants in Chahai to be angry, after all, if the southern trade road was opened, this would be the way to cut off people's wealth.

"And then?" Zhuge heard him say that he had no words here, and asked out loud.

Boss Huo sighed: "It has been a long time since those people left Chahai, but none of them have returned, and their whereabouts have not been heard from since. Later, their friends were worried that they would run into a fight, and they would all be buried in a foreign land, so they found a few people to go south to see if there was a war, but they did not expect to have a letter a few hours later. ”

"That group of businessmen and dart masters, a team of twenty-five people, actually all died on the way!" Boss Huo's face showed a sense of horror: "It is said that these people are dying in a very miserable state!" All of them are in different places, and their stomachs, intestines, hearts and livers have been dug up by ghosts. At that time, the first person to find their bodies was directly frightened to death, and no one dared to collect their bodies for them, and soon after returning to Chahai, they went crazy. Hey, that's miserable! ”

Zhuge Yan frowned slightly: "I heard about this matter, it seems that everyone thinks that it is a ghost, and even uses the spirit lamp." ”

Zhuge Yan gestured to the outside of the pavilion, Tang Muzhi immediately understood that the "spiritual lantern" he said in his mouth was actually the round lantern that can be seen everywhere on the street, now the sun is setting, the bright moon is in the sky, many people have lit this "spiritual lantern", the lantern emits a green fire under the white paper, and it looks like the whole street is like the scenery of the underworld, which is very weird. If it weren't for the recent influx of outsiders in Chahai, the locals would have done a booming business, and I am afraid that there would not be a single person on the street at this point.

Of course, Boss Huo is not afraid of ghosts, he asked Zhuge if there is any way to receive the goods from the south at a low price, and the meaning in his words is to pull Zhuge to pretend to be a ghost with him, deceive people and collect money, if you want to say that businessmen are profitable, it turns out that they are just pouring bitter water after talking so much.

Zhuge Yan was not afraid of his soft grinding and hard bubbles at all, and the three of them spent it in the tavern until midnight, during which Tang Muzhi listened to what Zhuge Yan took out of the mouth of this surnamed Huo, and found that this world was not any dynasty he was familiar with, but it seemed to be strange, full of all kinds of gods and ghosts.

Boss Huo didn't have the patience after all, and he didn't dare to offend this half-immortal, so he sighed and left.

It was already dark at night, Zhuge Yan yawned, wondering why he could still feel sleepy in the illusion, he didn't want to sleep, and proposed to go to the outside of the market to take a walk in the direction of the south to see if there were really ghosts and monsters.

Tang Muzhi agreed, so the two of them took advantage of the moonlight and the faint green light of the "Spiritual Lamp" to go out of the market and go south according to the story told by Boss Huo.

This is a plain area, the full moon is high in the night sky, and you can still see the rut marks that walk in this direction, which is very shallow, but it can still be easily tracked with the help of the alchemist. Tang Muzhi and Zhuge Yan followed the rut to Tianming, and at the end of the plain where they could see the green mountains of the southern country, they heard the sound of wild beasts chewing not far away, and also smelled the smell of blood and carrion.

It was a rare source of water, surrounded by sparse trees and shrubs that obscured the view, and was a rutted route. Tang Muzhi took the lead in stepping forward to push aside the low bushes, only to see that on the banks of the turbid rivers and the pebbles, there were more than 30 corpses on display, and there were four or five people who did not look like people, and monsters that did not look like monkeys were lying on the corpses and biting and gnawing.

This monster resembles a human dwarf, no more than one meter five in length, hunched over, the ridge is bulging like a big centipede crawling on its back, its whole body is covered with black hair, only the buttocks are blood-red, as if it has just come out of the sea of blood and dyed it, but the tail is invisible. This monster has slender arms and sharp nails, which can easily tear open the flesh and tendons of the corpse, and when it moves, it seems to be covered with a thick layer of black soil, spreading and scattering, like a miasma to the surrounding body.

At last a monster spotted them, and turned its head, it was a large, long horse face, with white cheekbones on both sides growing on the outside of the skin, already stained with dark red blood from cannibalism, its crimson nose bones were long, and its cheeks were covered with thin red or green lines, its teeth were long and sharp, and its face was like a ghostly face; At this time, he was still holding a severed arm with not much rotten meat in his hand.

Zhuge Yan frowned when he saw this scene, although he was an alchemist, he had encountered a lot of gods and ghosts when he entered the world and walked the rivers and lakes, but these things were often related to the elven immortal family or people who practiced evil arts, if you want to say that there are really monsters, he has never seen them.

"Mandrills?"

"Horse monkeys?"

Tang Muzhi and Zhuge Yan glanced at each other, both of them are the same animal, that is, the big horse monkey, because the bright color of the face looks like a grimace mask, and it was also called a mandrill in ancient times. But these monsters are still a little different from mandrills-

"Hey! Giggle! ”

The mandrill that first saw Tang Muzhi actually smiled very humanely, and then a puff of black smoke rose from its body, its crest pillar was like a pillar rising up, the arm muscles began to plump, and the ghost-like face, the bright distorted color bar writhed, and finally a "Tang Muzhi" with a penetrating smile straightened up and stood up.

And the remaining four mandrills also changed into human appearances, with a wicked smile on their faces, and said, "Stunned? Hurry up and wash your neck so that your monkey grandpa can enjoy it! After speaking, they grinned together and bit in the direction of Tang Muzhi and Zhuge Yan.

"Hehe, this illusion is really interesting, like running to another world." Zhuge Yan came to Tang Muzhi's side, "Old Tang, are you coming or am I coming?" ”

Tang Muzhi shrugged his shoulders and flew out with his backhand the two mandrills that were biting at him.

"Hey, I'm pretty strong." Zhuge is amazing.

Unexpectedly, these mandrills flinched and didn't dare to come forward, and the one who turned into "Tang Muzhi" scolded urgently, beckoning a few of the same kind to leave: "Brothers, let's withdraw!" ”

"Ou You, still a monkey bandit."

A trickle-like true qi gushed out from Tang Muzhi's palm, and in an instant, it wrapped five mandrills in turn like a snake, as if there was a strong sticky force on it, no matter how these monsters screamed and tossed, they couldn't escape from Tang Muzhi's palm.

"What?!"

"It's netted! The net is gone! ”

Zhuge Yan looked at the Qi ball that was sticking to the mandrill like spider silk, thought about it, and asked with some curiosity: "Sticky, sticky, connected, follow...... Old Tang, you can't be a Tai Chi Yin hand, right? ”

Tang Muzhi didn't answer him, but asked, "What to do with these monsters?" ”

Zhuge Yan looked at the mandrill that changed into his own appearance and pressed his head: "I saw that they understood a lot of things. Do you remember that the person surnamed Huo said that the people who went to find those merchant dart masters were all crazy when they came back? It seems that these monsters pretended to be and didn't run away. You see, there are obviously more corpses on the ground than there are caravanserais, and there is an interval between the times of death. ”

Tang Muzhi rolled his eyes: "Don't play tricks with me, I asked you what to do with it, aren't you just telling me that these monsters are useless?" You just say I'm going to kill it. ”

"Don't don't, don't ...... Two masters, there is something to discuss! ”

When the monster mandrills heard Tang Muzhi's words, they all turned back to their original ugly appearance and begged for mercy. Zhuge Yan touched his chin and said with a wry smile: "Although it's an illusion, it's not good to go on a killing spree, and we haven't asked clearly, what are those mandrills who pretend to be adults to sneak into Chahai do, and how many are there in total?" ”

Tang Muzhi struggled to raise his left arm and pulled, and the five monster mandrills were instantly pulled to his feet, and the one with a quick reaction felt that the strength of Tai Chi was gone, and wanted to run, but as a result, a shot shot from Tang Muzhi's palm Qi poison gun exploded his head in an instant.

"Shhhh

The mandrill trembled, and no one dared to move. Tang Muzhi also focused, and single-handedly picked up the mandrill that pretended to be him before.

"Say, how many accomplices do you have, huh...... How many of the same kind of people have gone to the market disguised as adults? ”

Shanxiao's voice trembled and said, "Uncle, don't kill us, I'll recruit them all." ”

It turns out that these mandrills are all monsters born and raised in the southern land, and they are born to see ghosts and ghosts, imitating various animals. They open their minds early, feed on people on weekdays, live in groups, and some people infiltrate the human world for a long time.

The southern country is full of war, in order to avoid being discovered by the army, they are lurking on the southern border, a few days ago when resting here, a group of businessmen who want to do business with a few empty donkey carts rushed to the road and happened to be bumped into by them, of course, there is no reason to let go.

Not two days after the death of those people, someone else came to find them, and now the leader of the mandrill determined the goal of Chahai, so he killed the people who came, and entered the market in their form, preparing to kill them at night.

And the rest of these are said to be too young to follow, for fear of being besieged and killed by humans.

And the mandrill's ability to transform into a mandrill can only last for three days, and now it is the last day, which means that those mandrills that have hidden in Chahai have already started!

Zhuge Yan's face moved slightly, and his eyes shot out a sky-high light to look at the direction of the market, the sky was not yet clear, and he saw the smoke billowing in the market and the flames soaring into the sky.

"Alas, what a coincidence...... Zhuge Yan frowned and said, "Let's go back." ”

Tang Muzhi didn't say much, he slapped the remaining four monsters to death, Zhuge Yan asked him to take a step first, and then he stretched out his hand, a blue writhing flame rose from his fingertips, and he stepped on the Qimen Middle Palace, his lips opened slightly:

"Xunzi Erlang Bufeng."

The fire took advantage of the wind, and the samadhi true fire followed the storm blowing under Zhuge Bao's feet, completely enveloping this sparse grove, and nothing was ignited by this menacing flame.

However, in the eyes of the warlock, those remnant souls that wandered in the woods for a long time and could not be freed dissipated in just one moment.

……

The lively bazaar, which was bustling with people yesterday, has now turned into purgatory on earth. The candles had been extinguished, the pure white lanterns were stained with blood, and the streets were littered with corpses, broken door panels, iron pots that were upside down on the ground, human heads with eyes open, and dilapidated grass huts were being swallowed up by the flames.

Mourning is everywhere, and it is a mess. Tang Muyi glanced over and saw about thirty or forty mandrills, which were very different from the thin and small appearance he had seen in the bushes before, and now they had revealed their original appearance, one of them was more than one meter six in length, with a hideous face, each carrying a long knife, a plate axe and other sharp weapons against the panicked crowd.

The mandrills' plan to sneak attack succeeded, and half of the strong men in the Chahai Bazaar were unknowingly beheaded in their dreams, and among the remaining living people, excluding the old and weak women and children, the remaining manpower was no longer enough to compete with the mandrills.

One of the most eye-catching is the leader of the mandrill, which is a giant ape with closed eyes, and the other mandrills around him are different, this leader has a white head with long beards, snow teeth and golden claws, five feet tall, the white hair on the head is stretched like a male lion, and a string of human heads tied with iron ropes are tied around the waist, and there is a crystal fishy liquid flowing out of its eyes, nose and mouth, holding a black blood-stained knife, and begins to slowly contact the crowd.