"Sir."

The swordsman changed back to the original set of gray cloth linen clothes, led his black horse, and walked on the official road, the road under his feet led almost straight ahead, the morning fog has not yet dissipated, and there is no end in sight, but he has always been like the wind, and now he is rarely calm, leading the horse and walking slowly.

The Taoist and the swordsman, as well as a three-flowered cat, one red and one black, are the scenery of this early morning.

"When Shu was buying quilt bags in the city, he asked the shopkeeper and heard that the county in front of him was called Lanmo County, and there were demons and ghosts who were making trouble, and it was very fierce." The swordsman said, "When the shopkeeper heard that we were going north, he urged us to bypass Lanmo County and take another road. ”

"Lanmo County ......"

"Yes."

"Do you know what kind of demon it is?"

"I heard it's a rat demon."

As soon as the words fell, the three-flowered cat next to him turned his head and stared straight at the swordsman.

Song You also noticed the gaze of the three-flowered cat, smiled and said, "Then let's go and meet this rat demon." ”

"Let's go see this rat demon~"

The land of a county is not very large, no matter how leisurely Song You and his party are, in one day, they have also walked from Zhijiang County to the jurisdiction of Lanmo County.

In the middle of the afternoon, I saw the boundary marker.

Slowly it came to dusk again.

The road was still very straight, the hillside was gentle, and the shadows of several figures, along with the dead trees beside the road, were stretched by the sunset on the left.

There's finally someone in front of you.

"Bang ......"

It was a rickety old man, pulling a cart that seemed to be about to fall apart, and walked slowly along the official road.

If it weren't for Song You and his party, he would be the only one walking alone on the road when the sun was setting.

The road was bumpy, and the cart swayed and made a noise. The cart was carrying several empty buckets, and when they got closer, they could still see the undried water left in the buckets, which should have been pulled back to pour the water.

The melon scoop that had been used for watering was also resting in the bucket, and as the cart swayed, it collided with a clanging sound.

Song You and the swordsman hurriedly led the horse to the side of the road, both of them looked at the old man pulling the cart, and the three-flowered cat also stretched its neck, staring at the old man without blinking.

"Husband."

Song You stopped him with words.

"Huh?"

The old man stopped, turned his head, and looked at him with cloudy eyes.

Seeing that Song You was wearing a Taoist robe and smiling, he looked at the swordsman beside him again, and the swordsman avoided it slightly sideways, showing kindness, the old man withdrew his gaze and looked at Song You again, and then asked:

"What's the matter?"

"I wonder how far Lanmo County is away?"

"Where did you come from? Where are you going? ”

"In the next line, from Changjing, we have to go north, to the border." Song You replied honestly.

"Going into town?"

"Yes."

"There are still dozens of miles, and I can't walk ...... today."

The old man's voice was thick, dragging a long tail note.

"Dozens of miles."

"Hey! Dozens of miles! ”

"Is there a convenient place to stay nearby?"

"You can't just mess around!" The old man looked at them again and reminded, "If you sleep on the side of the road on the mountain at night, beware of being eaten by monsters......"

"Will you be eaten by youkai if you sleep in the wilderness?" Song You asked, "Could it be that there are so many monsters here?" ”

"Who's ...... sure?"

"I see."

It doesn't seem to be necessarily eaten.

"Follow this road and go forward, don't turn around, twenty miles away, there is a temple, you can live in the temple."

"I don't know what kind of temple it is?"

"For Lei Gong and Liu Xian."

"Lei Gong, ......"

Song You pursed his lips before he asked again, "But which immortal is this Liu Immortal?" ”

"Liu Xian is amazing!"

"How so?"

"You'll know when you go, the sun is going down, I don't dare you say it, if you want to go, you have to hurry up, you have to ride a horse and run over."

"Then thank you, uncle."

“……”

The old man waved his hand, pulled the cart and left.

The setting sun also stretched his shadow long.

Song You watched him walk away, then he withdrew his gaze, looked at the surrounding land again, and continued to move forward.

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, not slow.

"It's been too dry this year." The swordsman walked beside him, walking side by side with him, "The terrain of Hezhou is gentle, although the land is not fertile, but it is also a good land, and it used to be one of my granaries in Dayan, but I heard that it rarely rained in Hezhou last year, and this year is better, but it is not as good as in previous years." ”

"The people have suffered."

"If it doesn't rain, who can do it?"

"yes."

"Hezhou is quite good, I heard that in Danzhou in the northwest, there are some places where there is no rain all year round, and not a single inch of grass grows."

"Danzhou ......"

Song You sighed and shook his head secretly.

As the sun set closer to the top of the mountain on the left, the sky quickly darkened, the world turned from golden yellow to golden red, and several shadows were pulled almost from the road between the two mountains to the foot of the mountain on the right.

Twenty miles of road, the road is flat, if you run on horseback, you may be able to reach it in less than a quarter of an hour, but the speed of the group is about the same as that of the day, and the sun slowly sinks to the left of the mountain, and the light of this heaven and earth also quickly converges from left to right, and in the blink of an eye, there is only light left, and they have only walked a few miles.

The heavens and the earth darkened, and the stars above their heads came out one by one.

But the three-flowered cat likes the darkness, and also likes this endless wilderness full of mice, and at some point she takes on a human form, carrying her pony lantern, and follows the Taoist.

This lantern is the only light on earth.

Song You vaguely heard her chirping at the bar, and seemed to be eating snacks while walking, but he didn't look back.

However, the swordsman was curious, looked back at her, and the generous little girl asked him to eat bacon together, and the swordsman was happy in his heart, thinking that this was the performance of Sanhua Niangniang accepting himself, and was about to agree, but he thought that Mr. had not eaten it at this time, not to mention that the bacon was raw, so he refused politely.

"Next time, definitely."

"Okay, good ......"

The little girl nodded back again and again, and then asked, "Why have we been walking for so long, and we haven't seen the monster yet?" ”

"Aren't there youkai everywhere?"

"There are rats everywhere."

"yes."

"Just ordinary meat rats."

"Sanhua Niangniang has a pair of discerning eyes."

"That's right."

The little girl held a lantern in her right hand to light the dry dirt road, and in her left hand the meat, and after a while, she asked:

"Why haven't the monsters come yet?"

"Sanhua Niangniang is powerful, how dare the monster come easily?" Song You said truthfully.

"yes......"

The little girl stopped making a sound and concentrated on eating the rat chips.

After eating the rat chips, he walked to the front with the lantern in his hand, holding the lantern high with both sticks, saying that it was to illuminate them, but I am afraid that it was more out of a child's psychology of "wanting to show off his toys" and "wanting his toys to come in handy", which is also quite interesting.

However, it did come in handy.

At this time, only the afterglow is left on the horizon, showing a dreamlike gradient color, and some extravagant scenes in Yizhou seem to be the norm here.

With the light of the sky, the stars and the moon overhead, and the pony lantern that can illuminate a small piece of warmth, plus the road is almost straight, although it is already dark, but after getting used to it, it is easy to hurry.

Sometimes the group walked on the mountain, becoming part of the silhouette of the sky, sometimes walking in the mountain, lighting the only light on the dark earth, and sometimes going over the mountain, from beginning to end.

Drifting away, nothing happened along the way.

At most, there is some movement in the grass or fields by the roadside, which will attract the little girl to stop and turn her head to stare still. It wasn't until the Taoist behind her stepped forward and pushed her that she took a step, and quickly walked to the front with two legs upside down, and continued to take her own street lamp seriously. But after a while, she forgot her seriousness again, and was once again attracted by the movement in the field, and stopped to stare until the Taoist behind her pushed her in a different way, and she continued to move forward.

And so on, I don't know how many times along the way.

The rats in the field should rejoice, tonight's Sanhua Niangniang is a mobile street lamp, if not, tonight's harvest is afraid that she will have to take a quilt bag to pack.

"There's a temple ahead!"

The little girl holding the pony lantern turned her head.

The candlelight borrowed from Huoyang Zhenjun took on a warm yellow color through the pony lantern, illuminating her delicate little face with a focused expression.

"Where?"

"There!"

The little girl stretched out her hand and pointed ahead.

It's somewhere in the dark.

The eyes of a man are indeed no match for a cat.

The group walked for a while, and then they saw the temple.

"There's someone inside!"

The little girl came back to them and said.

"Sanhua Niangniang is really amazing."

"Sanhua Niangniang has become a cat."

"Okay."

The little girl staggered back into her beloved pony lantern and took out a red rope from her bosom, on which there was a small wooden pendant, and she took it in her hand, and when she fell to the ground, it was already a three-flowered cat, and the three-flowered cat had a red rope tied around its neck, and a small wooden sign with her name written on it.

Only then did the two of them approach the temple.

The temple has a door, and it is hidden.

Song You pulled back the lantern and raised it to look at it.

The temple is nameless, but there is a door link.

It was written:

Good people come here with a clear heart;

Evil is more than my own courage.

Song You held the lantern and looked to the side again, and a thin tail could be seen quickly disappearing in the grass.

"Squeak......

The swordsman pushed the door open and entered.

The first thing to usher in was a burst of incense, there was some smoke in it, a row of gods in front of it, and there were people sitting in the corner, several people from the rivers and lakes, all with weapons, and like a returning dart master, lighting a fire.

Seeing Song You, especially the swordsman behind him, coming in, several people were a little vigilant, some opened their eyes, some straightened up slightly, and some touched their weapons.

Song You first looked at the statues of the gods on the altar.

“……”

It's still an old acquaintance.

I saw that the statue sitting in the middle was tall and burly, with a righteous face, angry eyes, but wearing a soap coat, it was the current famous Zhou Leigong. There is also a statue of Lei Gong beside him, and almost in the center with him is a slender female statue dressed in colorful divine clothes, and next to it are two common protector gods in the north, as well as the statues of local shrine gods.

Unlike Lei Qingguan, several gods here, even the most marginal land god statues, all have divine light, and they are all absorbing incense.

The idol has a spirit, and it is immaculate.

(End of chapter)