Phew—

Xia Zhicicada pulled the reins in his hand, and the horse slowed down his running hooves, and trotted to a deserted temple with a snort.

"Let's stay here tonight."

As he spoke, he rolled down from his horse first, and walked forward with the reins in his hand.

"Isn't it, in a place like this?"

Nan Er also dismounted, but he frowned and looked at the empty temple in front of him, which had been abandoned for I don't know how many years, and he only complained in his heart.

"Why don't we take advantage of the fact that it's still dark, let's go a little longer, at least find a town to live in front. The place is ghostly and uncomfortable. ”

The deserted temple in front of is not small, the original towering mountain gate is already very dilapidated, there are several holes of different sizes on the gate, and you can see the weeds in the yard that are half a person high along the holes.

The yellow grass, which had completely dried up, rustled in the wind.

"There is no Zhendian in front, I have inquired with the shopkeeper before, and it will take three days for us to see Zhendian on this part of the road. If you don't rest here today, you'll have to sleep in the wilderness. ”

Xia Zhicicada didn't give Nan Er a chance to refuse, he said as he tied the reins to the thigh-thick dead tree next to him.

He stroked the mane of the horse, which snorted in displeasure, his front hooves squirming in the dust on the ground.

"But there's a real problem here, and I always feel like ...... Not very comfortable. ”

Nan Erjiu walked the rivers and lakes, sleeping alone in the wilderness I don't know how many times, sometimes resting in the mountains and forests, I met tigers or hungry wolves.

It stands to reason that his courage is not small, especially after experiencing many demons and monsters with Xia Zhiciao, the general scene can't scare him.

But today is different.

This seemingly deserted temple always faintly exuded a feeling of disgust that he couldn't speak, and that feeling was so subtle that he couldn't describe it in words.

"What, you're scared?"

Xia Zhician took out the water bladder from his sleeve robe and let the horses who had run all the way drink, which calmed down the horses who had been a little restless.

These two horses were not bought by them, but were secretly given by Zhang Yueban, the post post, when they left Jiangcheng, and they were the special military horses of Jiangcheng Post Station. They are all carefully bred mixed horses, and their endurance is much higher than that of ordinary horses.

"How could I be scared of ......"

Although Nan Er said that he was not afraid, he still subconsciously held the long knife on his waist and looked around with an uneasy face.

"I'm afraid there are ghosts here."

"Ghosts? Then you say, if there are ghosts. Am I afraid of him, or is he afraid of me? ”

Xia Zhician shook his head with a smile and patted the horse's back. When his horse had quieted down, he lowered his head and began to nibble on the weeds on the ground.

What does he do? The five-colored spirit officer, that is specifically for subduing demons and subduing demons. If there are ghosts, guess whether people are scared or ghosts are afraid.

"That's right, but we can't ......"

Nan Er is not worried about demons and monsters, since he beat him and followed Xia Zhiciao, he has never seen a monster that the latter can't clean up.

But in fact, he didn't know enough, the old man on the river could have killed Xia Zhicicada, and then the dragon corpse in the backyard of the deserted house killed the latter as simple as killing a chicken, and finally there was the ghost king who did evil in Jiangcheng and possessed the catfish spirit.

Of course, the appearance of the first two was more or less related to the Spirit Official Patriarch Yan Chixia, so they didn't hurt Xia Zhicicada, but helped him. The old man let him successfully touch the edge of the entry, and the dragon corpse gave the dragon blood and the immortal sword qi, which gave him the ability to kill the catfish essence later.

But these things, Nan Ertong doesn't know.

All the monsters he could see were all cleaned up by Xia Zhicicada without exception.

"Okay, when did you become a coward?"

Xia Zhicicada had already taken the lead in stepping forward, and then with just a slight force, he pushed open the already dilapidated temple gate.

"I ...... But today is the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve. Let's celebrate the New Year in this ruined temple? ”

Nan Er and Xia Zhicicada left Jiangcheng and rushed for another month, the season has entered winter, but fortunately there is not much snow, today is the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, that is, the last day of the year.

The two of them actually want to spend the New Year in a deserted temple in a deserted mountain, which is really unacceptable.

"Yes, what's wrong with the Chinese New Year's Eve?"

Xia Zhician pushed the mountain gate open, looked at Nan Er, who was still slowly swallowing the horse with a reluctant expression, and he pointed to the mountains and forests outside:

"If you go and hunt a few pheasants and hares, the New Year can't be too shabby."

"Okay."

Nan Er bolted the horse, he was different from Xia Zhicia who was empty-handed, untied the baggage from the back of the saddle, and then threw it to Xia Zhicicada.

He himself reflexively went into the mountains and forests, taking advantage of the fact that it was still dark, to hunt a few wild animals to satisfy his hunger.

"Come back before dark, don't let the bear be licked blindly......"

Xia Zhician said jokingly.

"Fuck off! If there really is a blind bear, I will treat you to steamed bear paws. ”

As the voice faded away, Nanji's figure had disappeared into the dense forest.

In terms of Nan Er's skills, it doesn't matter if he encounters a bear, just don't meet him......

Xia Zhicicada stared at the gray mountains and forests.

In this forest, there may be something more powerful than a blind bear. I hope Nan Er won't be unlucky to meet, but take a step back, even if he is unlucky to meet, he can always run if he can't beat it.

"Meow~"

The black cat drilled out a furry head from the sleeve robe on his left hand, and then was about to crawl out, but Xia Zhicicada held his head down.

"Even if you don't come out, I can feel it."

Xia Zhician raised his head and looked at the dilapidated mountain gate, and the scenery he saw in his eyes was different from Nan Er.

Above the ruined temple, a spiral of black gas went straight to the sky, like a black heavenly river, flowing down from above the clouds.

"The black air is surging, I can see it ten miles away."

He had just told a lie, that if they had stopped now, and had continued on their journey, they would have been able to reach a small village in the middle of the night, and would not have to stay in this ruined temple.

But he still stopped, and he didn't need the black cat to come out to warn, just with his soul perception ability in the current entry realm, he already felt the strangeness of this place.

"Meow~"

The black cat was still struggling, she barked a few times, and found that Xia Zhicicada didn't plan to respond, so she was a little angry and stretched out her paws to scratch him.

Xia Zhicia had no choice but to take a biscuit and stuff it into the black cat's mouth. The previous ghost bone biscuits had been eaten by the black cat, and now he had collected them again.

The black cat who took the small biscuit was a little happier, ignoring Xia Zhicicada's burrowing back into her sleeve robe, as if the purpose of her coming out was to ask for biscuits.

The man stepped in, his feet crunching on the dead grass in the yard.

The courtyard is not small, looking at the pattern should be a large hall in the middle, there are smaller side halls on both sides, and then there should be a courtyard at the back, and there is an apse at the back.

This scale is not an ordinary temple, and I don't know why it was built in this mountain forest, so that the incense was cut off and became this dilapidated appearance.

Xia Zhicicada first walked through the dry grass and came to the main hall.

When I opened the gate, I saw a statue of a god standing on a high platform, one foot as if he was still stepping on something, and his right hand was raised as if he was holding something. It looks very powerful, but because of the disrepair has faded to its original appearance, only a vague body remains, making it difficult to distinguish which god and Buddha it is.

Xia Zhician looked at it and speculated that it should be a temple of the Heavenly King, because most of the Buddhas and Taoists worshiped by both Buddhism and Taoism are sitting cross-legged, and there are few such powerful and domineering shapes.

This kind of majestic image was first born from the military generals and marshals who guarded the border passes, because the people thanked them for their merits, so a temple was built to worship their gods.

"Lots of interruptions."

Xia Zhicicada saluted the statue of the god on the table, which had completely revealed the mud fetus, and then stepped forward to briefly clean the table where the idol was enshrined, took out three pillars of incense from the sleeve robe and lit it, and respectfully inserted it into the incense burner in front of him.

Then he exited the main hall and closed the door.

It can be seen that although the place is a little remote this time, the temple used to be very full of incense, and even if it is dilapidated now, most of the things are in good condition.

Xia Zhician pushed open the side hall on the left hand side and looked inside.

Compared with the main hall, the side hall is much more dilapidated, and there should have been enshrined gods in it, but now it has disappeared, leaving only half of the platform, which is also overgrown with weeds.

"Here it is."

Xia Zhician found a fairly smooth place, put down the luggage entrusted to him by Nan Er, and cleaned up the weeds at his feet again.

He found a few pieces of dead wood and weeds and built a random fire, surrounded by a few stones and clods of earth.

Ha!

Point forward with one hand and finger into a sword.

The scene that was supposed to explode a flame did not appear at all, Xia Zhician tried again, and then smiled bitterly and could only give up.

He resigned himself to finding the flint and fire sickle from Nan Er's luggage, hitting it a few times, and finally ignited the withered grass with the sparks that were rubbed out, and then the flames started little by little.

The firelight made the entire side hall light up a lot, and at this time, the sun outside was already setting in the west, and it was about to hide in the embrace of the mountain.

Xia Zhi Cicada broke a few dead branches to keep the fire burning.

Then I heard a clack.

It was as if something crisp was coming out of the collision with each other, and the sound was particularly obvious in the empty and quiet side hall.

Da-da-da, da-da-da.

The dead branches burned in the fire, occasionally popping open, but they were too faint to compare to the sound.

Xia Zhicicada didn't seem to hear it, and took half of the dead branch to stir the wood in the fire, not to let the flames be too strong, otherwise the sparks that burst out were likely to ignite the dead grass in the corner of the side hall.

The sound of a da-da-da was more urgent, and it was getting closer.

Da-da-da, da-da-da.

The sound had already come to the fire, and it was close at hand.

Xia Zhicicada rolled his eyes angrily, and folded the half of the dead branch in his hand hard, making a crisp snapping sound.

"Don't bother, get out of here!"