The roads in the mountains are tortuous, often separated by only a valley, and they can hear each other's shouts clearly, but it takes a whole day to really meet each other.

The mountain village that Pang Xie saw, although it didn't look far, was frightening to walk far, and it took nearly two hours until the twilight was getting deeper and the jade rabbit was rising in the east, and he walked to the front of the village.

The village was located on the mountainside, built on the mountainside, winding and twisting, with only a stone road more than three feet wide that could barely be used as a road in and out of the village, and there were only sixty or seventy houses in the village, and the houses were built on the flat places on both sides of the road, and they were not next to each other.

Fortunately, the village is still electrified, and there is a little light in the doors and windows of every house, otherwise, I am afraid that it will be regarded as a ghost village.

There are very few people in the village, and the place is remote, so naturally there are no restaurants, hotels and other shops, but fortunately, there is a tavern open at the east end of the village, so the four of them have a place to stay.

It was a very small tavern, and of the three rooms, only one room in the middle was open, with a wine banner hanging in front of the house, and in the middle of the room was a table of eight immortals, beside which were four worn-out benches, and around it were seven or eight wine jars, all of which were fired in the countryside, and the coarsest porcelain jars were not so much a tavern as a place for the people of the village to entertain themselves and drink.

In front of the tavern sat an old man, about seventy or eighty years old, with white hair, wrinkles, wearing a black cotton jacket, with a plate of fried peanuts and a bowl of soju in front of him, drinking alone.

"Old man, hard work. Li Dayong stepped forward to talk.

"Hard, hard. The old man nodded at Li Dayong, and his spirit was not bad.

"What do you call you?"

"The old man's surname is Qiu, just call me Lao Qiu. ”

"Old Qiu, a few of us just came from outside the mountain, and we haven't found a place to eat yet, I see that we sell wine, I don't know if we sell food?" asked Li Dayong.

"Eat, the old man's wine is still good, but the rice is not good, only green vegetables and noodles, you can't eat it." Lao Qiu said.

"Some can be eaten, we don't pick. ”

"Okay, then you sit down first, and I'll make you some. ”

Lao Qiu got up and went into the house, found a rag, wiped two tables at random, looked up and asked, "Then do you want to drink?"

"The stronger the better!" Zhao Huxing interjected.

"Okay!" Lao Qiu was overjoyed when he heard this, and placed a jar of soju on the table, plus four porcelain bowls.

"This..."Li Dayong frowned slightly.

Since ancient times, there are many bandits between the mountains and wilderness, barren mountains and mountains, killed and buried on the spot, it is a headless unjust case, the three people in this place are all newcomers, they are not familiar with the place, if they are drunk, in case they encounter something, they are afraid that the consequences will be unimaginable.

"It's humid in the mountains, and it's good to drink more, I haven't been drunk in years. Zhao Huxing understood what Li Dayong was thinking.

"It's fine. Li Dayong nodded and said.

Zhao Huxing was already very hungry and thirsty, and seeing that Li Dayong did not object, he immediately poured a bowl of soju, drank it all with his neck up, and screamed a few times in a row, praising this as a good wine.

Lao Qiu was on the side, listening to Zhao Huxing's praise, and his face was full of joy.

Zhao Huxing drank a bowl and persuaded several other people to drink, Li Dayong couldn't help but persuade Zhao Huxing hard, and also drank a big bowl, Pang Xie and Tian Qi had nothing to do, and one drank a big bowl.

After Lao Qiu finished setting the wine, he went to the kitchen next door to cook, don't look at his old look, he is really quick to move, less than twenty minutes, four bowls of steaming noodles, a plate of wild vegetables picked in the mountains, a plate of fried peanuts and rice will be served on the table.

The four of them walked for a day, except for eating some compressed biscuits on the road, they had never eaten properly, they were already hungry, and when they saw hot noodles, where could they still bear it, and in the blink of an eye, they swept away the food on the table.

After being full of wine and food, the four of them settled down and talked with Lao Qiu Pan.

"Old Qiu, have any outsiders come to our village recently?" it was Zhao Huxing who spoke.

"Come to think of it, by the way, there are two outsiders living in the west of the village, a man and a woman. Lao Qiu pinched a peanut and said while eating.

"Oh, when did you come?" Zhao Huxing continued to ask.

"It's been almost a week. Lao Qiu said.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Huxing asked casually.

"I don't know what they do, but I saw them running into the mountains all day long, carrying a shelf on their backs, and one on the top of the mountain was a day. ”

"Are you painting?" Tian Qi interjected.

"Yes, yes! It seems that I just painted that oil painting here!" Lao Qiu nodded again and again.

"Hmm. Zhao Huxing nodded, looked back at the other three, and said, "If these people really paint on the mountain every day, maybe they will meet the people from the outdoor club, let's go back and ask them to see if we can get some news from them." ”

"Hmm. Several people nodded together.

"Mr. Qiu, is there anyone else besides them?" Li Dayong then asked.

"Others?" Lao Qiu thought for a while and said: "This place is remote, and no one comes all year round, even if someone is passing by, have a meal at my place, the old man really doesn't know who it is." ”

"Is there a girl named Lin Gui?" Tian Qi suddenly interjected, he remembered clearly that the girl who called for help outside the wall that night called for help called Lin Gui, with the idea of trying it out, asked Lao Qiu if he knew this person.

"What are you talking about!" Lao Qiu's voice suddenly mentioned, and he unconsciously shouted out the local dialect of the mountain village.

"Lin Gui..."Tian Qi said cautiously, not understanding why Lao Qiu was so shocked.

Lao Qiu's face was blue and white for a while, and his eyes looked out blankly, as if he had lost his mind.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Zhao Huxing saw that his face was wrong, and reached out and pushed him on the shoulder.

Lao Qiu was pushed by Zhao Huxing, gradually came back to his senses, turned his head to face Tian Qi, and asked, "Lin... Cassia... What is this man up to, you ask?"

Tian Qi didn't hide it, he made up a set of nonsense at the moment, only saying that he was a student of a certain school, two days ago, two students in the school disappeared with a girl, and they came to find him, of course, the identities of Li Dayong and Zhao Huxing are naturally teachers.

"Lin Gui... I'm afraid those two people won't be able to get it back. After listening to Tian Qi's words, Lao Qiu was silent for a long time, and then drank a big bowl of wine before he opened his mouth and said.

As soon as the words came out, the four of them were shocked.

"How do you say it?" Zhao Huxing asked in a deep voice, and when it came to the end, he was not in a hurry.

"This Lin Gui is not... Person. Lao Qiu said word by word.

A gust of mountain wind blew, the door creaked, and Li Dayong, Zhao Huxing, Tian Qi and others couldn't help but tremble, as if an evil ghost had entered the door.

Only Pang Xie's eyes lit up, for hundreds of years, the vitality of heaven and earth had declined, and cultivators could not practice in the world, and demons and demons were naturally no exception. Especially ghosts, without the vitality of heaven and earth, it is difficult to even gather forms, let alone make trouble.

At least, he hadn't even seen a ghost since he stepped out of Jinshan Lake this time, and eight hundred years ago, as a cultivator, he could often see ghosts even if ordinary people could see ghosts.

The room was quiet for a long time, and Zhao Huxing finally broke the silence and said, "Old Qiu, please tell me about this Lin Gui, although a few of us don't believe in ghosts and gods, it doesn't hurt to know a little more." ”

Lao Qiu sighed, poured a large bowl of wine, drank it with his neck tilted, and then told a story.

This village is called Sanjia Village, it was the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were three large families surnamed Lin, Zhou and Qian, in order to avoid the war, moved here to build the village, everything was fine when they first came here, the fields were good, the water source was good, all were good, the most important thing is that no one came here to fight.

Unexpectedly, half a year later, they discovered a secret, it turned out that there was a valley ten miles away from this village, called Black Dragon Valley, there was a giant python in the valley, every year and a half, they would go out of the valley to find people to eat, so no one dared to live in this place.

It was too late for the three families to regret it, because after they moved here, they built many houses, exhausted most of their wealth, and then moved elsewhere, only to starve to death.

As a last resort, they had to send people around to find a mage who knew how to do it, wanting to subdue demons and catch monsters, but unfortunately they found a few people in a row to no avail, not only could they not subdue demons, but they were caught and eaten by giant pythons.

Just when the patriarchs of the three major families were desperate, a wandering Langzhong came from outside the village, heard about it, and found the three patriarchs, claiming that there was a way to solve it, as long as he tattooed a hundred taels of silver, the three patriarchs were also sick and rushed to the doctor, so they agreed to this Langzhong.

This Lang Zhong is different from others, one does not do it, and the other does not fight the sword, he entered the Black Dragon Valley with his bare hands early in the morning, and did not come back until it was dark, and after he came back, he found the three patriarchs and said such a thing.

It turns out that this Lang Zhong can speak snake language, can communicate with the python, he entered the valley on this day is to negotiate with the python, and finally negotiated a result, as long as the people of Sanjia Village are willing to repair a temple for the python, the incense is continuous on weekdays, and it will not come to the village to eat people once every ten years.

Isn't it easy to build a temple? The three patriarchs naturally agreed, but this Lang Zhong had a difficult face and said something more important, it turned out that every sacrifice must be sacrificed with the blood of a living person, and it is to use a young woman.

The three patriarchs were dumbfounded, and after discussing for a long time, they finally agreed to the request of the python spirit, and built a black dragon temple five miles outside the village, which was sacrificed once every ten years.

"What does this have to do with Lin Gui?" Tian Qi couldn't help but ask.

"The last memorial was more than 70 years ago, and the woman who was honored was called... Lin Gui. Lao Qiu said.

"Hehe... Mr. Qiu, this story is indeed good, but it is too absurd, you don't really believe this, do you?" Tian Qigan said with a smile.

Lao Qiu did not answer directly, but picked up the bowl, drank a big bowl of wine, and said with the strength of the wine: "Back then, that Lang Zhong did not leave after promoting this matter, but stayed here to settle down, and every memorial was presided over by him, and later after his death, his son continued to preside, and the children and grandchildren passed it down until sixty or seventy years ago, when the Chinese Kingdom was officially established, and the memorial was abolished." ”

"I've only heard of the fact that there are often toasts in the Nanzhao area who sacrifice ghosts and gods with living people, but I didn't expect that we also have a memorial in the mountains of Yongzhou, which is really unbelievable. Zhao Huxing frowned and said.

"The ghosts and gods are true or false, hundreds of years ago, no one knows what the situation was when this rule was first set, Mr. Qiu's words are just legends, as for this, Lin Gui and Bi Lin Gui just happen to have the same name. Li Dayong got up and said.

"It may be possible for the two to have the same name, but this thing is by no means a legend, the surname of Lang Zhong back then was my ancestor, and the memorial service of Lin Gui seventy years ago was the ancestral father!"