De Yizi ignored it, signaling Xie Yixiang to stay where he was, and he continued to move forward, slowly approaching the girl from the courtyard. The girl didn't move when she saw the visitor, let alone speak, and there was a pair of gray-white pupils in her eyes, like a blind little Taoist priest, and she couldn't figure out his depth for a while, and said with a smile in the little girl's voice: "Could it be that this little brother is not only blind, but also deaf? That's not fun at all!"

Who knew that Ichiko still ignored it, as if he didn't see the girl sitting in the courtyard at all, and continued to walk towards her. In the blink of an eye, the girl saw that Yizi was only a few feet away from her, and her face could not help but change slightly, so she had to get up from the ground, take two steps back, and ask, "What is the little brother going to do? Is it to bully a six-year-old girl like me?"

Unexpectedly, Yizi walked straight past the girl, without even glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and then walked through the entire courtyard and came to the outside of the main hall of the City God Temple, raised his eyes to look at the statue of the civil official enshrined in the shrine in the temple, and finally showed a sneer on his face, and said lightly: "Sure enough, it's you." ”

Hearing this, not only Xie Yixiang, who was present, but even the girl was inexplicable. After saying this, the little Taoist priest actually spoke to a clay statue, could it be that he was a madman? After saying this, he stared at the statue on the shrine for a long time, and then raised his voice again and said, "Sure enough, it's you!"

Xie Yixiang came to her senses at this time, knowing that this little Taoist priest had something to say, but he was like a storyteller in a restaurant teahouse, and he needed a partner to continue to speak, so he hurriedly asked: "Who is the statue enshrined in this temple?" ”

Xie Yixiang frowned slightly, and blurted out: "Zhang Xun?" De Yizi turned around and said slowly: "In the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the rebels captured the imperial capital Luoyang, calling themselves 'Dayan', forcing Xuanzong to abandon Beijing and flee. Changshi Zhang Xun swore not to surrender to the thief, led the Tang army to fight the enemy desperately, and successively fought in Yongqiu, Ningling and Suiyang, which shocked the world. After that, Yin Ziqi, the general of the Yan army, led an army of 180,000 people, trapped Zhang Xun and others in Suiyang, and besieged the city and cut off their grain and grass. The bark, paper, birds, and rats in Suiyang City had been eaten, so Zhang Xun killed his concubine with his own hands and forced the sergeants to eat to satisfy their hunger, and then the generals followed suit and killed their slaves as military food. When the commander's family ran out of food, the soldiers began to cook the old and weak women and children in the city, the whole Suiyang City originally had 40,000 people before the war, and after the Yan army broke the city and captured Zhang Xun, there were only 400 living people left in the city, which can be described as miserable and shocking. Afterwards, Su Zong quelled the rebellion, regained control of the Tang Dynasty artifact, and talked about Zhang Xun's actions, which was also evaluated by the words 'too much is greater than merit'. ”

Xie Yixiang had naturally heard of Zhang Xunqi's person, and when he heard this person suddenly mentioned him, he couldn't help but ask tentatively: "Zhang Xun in the Tang Dynasty insisted on guarding Suiyang and ordered the sergeants to eat human flesh; At first glance, there are indeed many similarities between them, and the deity enshrined in this City God Temple also happens to be Zhang Xun...... Could it be that the little Taoist chief means that this catastrophe in Ningyi City actually originated from the city god Zhang Xun who was enshrined here?"

But he didn't answer her question, but said in a deep voice: "The so-called city god is a good and evil person who observes the good and evil of the people, and he will not be spared. Due to the different customs and folk conditions in various places, the city gods in each place are also appointed by different people, and even elected by the local people themselves, most of them are loyal martyrs who died in the country, or sincere and righteous men in previous dynasties. As for why Ningyi City chose Zhang Xun of the Tang Dynasty, who was stationed in Suiyang two thousand miles away, as the city god here, hmph, looking at the appearance of this city god temple, there are one or two hundred years of history, but I am afraid that there is no way to verify. ”

After that, he answered Xie Yixiang's question and said slowly: "The current catastrophe in Ningyi City is naturally inseparable from Zhang Xun enshrined in the City God Temple, but it is not just a simple cause and effect relationship. In my Taoist view, the reason why one thing happens, there are actually inextricable reasons behind it, not just from the occurrence of another event, but the result of several or even thousands of things intertwined, also known as 'fate'. The city god temple here is dedicated to Zhang Xun, which is just a fate; the whole Ningyi city is located at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and it is a strategic place for soldiers to fight, which is another fate; the rebels of King Heng besieged the city and pursued the policy of 'soldiers do not kill a single person', which is also a fate; and the Taishou Fang Tieyi would rather die than surrender, vowing to follow the example of Zhang Xun in the past to defend Ningyi, this is even more ...... fate"

Speaking of this, Deichiko finally turned to the girl in the yard and said coldly, "...... Of course, there are monsters rampant in Ningyi City, which is also a fate. It's just that things have developed to the present, all kinds of opportunities are complicated, and it has long been impossible to distinguish what is cause and what is effect, if we use the vulgar theory of 'cause and effect' of Buddhism, there is no way to explain it at all; it cannot be said that the catastrophe in Ningyi City gave birth to the monsters, nor can it be said that the demons that caused the catastrophe in Ningyi City to give birth to this catastrophe, because the two are already one with each other, and there is no way to separate them. ”

When Xie Yixiang heard this, it was already difficult to keep up with Deyizi's train of thought, so she had to be silent. And the girl in the courtyard saw a swaggering step into the temple before, obviously coming at herself, she had already been on guard and guarding against the case, who knew that this little Taoist priest actually looked at her left and right, and talked endlessly about the past of Zhang Xun in the Tang Dynasty. The girl hurriedly gathered her thoughts, pondered, and asked in the voice of a little girl, "Monster, where is the monster?"

As soon as these words came out, the girl's tone changed suddenly, and she said coldly in another gloomy voice: "I am the god of Lu Wu, and I don't know the child, and I dare to talk nonsense here and disturb the deity?" Then she changed back to her previous voice, and said to De Yizi with a frightened face: "Who is talking just now......?" Could it be that there is a monster attached to my body, how can this be good? Dao Chief, since you already know that there is a monster that is causing trouble, why don't you hurry up and save me?"

Deichiko used his gray-white pupils to scan the girl in the courtyard up and down, and said slowly, "I am indeed here to subdue demons and eliminate demons. It's a pity that there is nothing evil in you. The girl scratched her head and asked, "No......?" How is this possible? Fang I obviously heard another voice talking, and it came from me, there must be a monster attached to my body......" Before she finished speaking, she immediately glared at her eyes again, and shouted to Yizi: "If you know each other, get out of the way, the deity will spare you from death!"

De Yizi shook his head slowly, and couldn't help but show a smile at the corner of his mouth, and said lightly: "There are indeed no possessed monsters on your body." for thou art thou shalt be wicked. ”