The bow deck was brightly lit, and a group of sailors did not know where to pull out a lot of bits and pieces, and under the command of the shipowner, they actually erected a six-sided wooden platform, with seven-star yellow flags, white porcelain bowls, yellow rune paper, mahogany swords, gossip mirrors, and a stack of square planks on the side.

"What is this for?"

"Isn't this a ghost hunt?"

After receiving the notice from the ship's family, they all gathered on the deck, and no one had done a few rituals at home, and they all began to speculate when they saw these extremely familiar things.

"Open the altar!"

The boatman actually came out wearing a plain robe, and he didn't know where he thought it was a monk.

The crowd gathered under the altar automatically moved out of the way, and the boatman walked to the altar, respectfully lit a stick of sandalwood, and shouted in a long voice.

As he spoke, the Xuan Daoist priest came out of the cabin, the black smoke of torches shining on his almost wrinkled face.

Po Xuan walked up to the center of the altar step by step, and stepped on the bottom plate marked with the gossip pattern under his feet.

"Old man, what kind of ceremony did you call out all of us at night?"

Ma Dufang stood in front of the crowd, and he had deliberately asked someone to inquire before, but he vaguely knew that the Taoist priest was going to do a demon extermination ceremony.

"Master Ma Shi, do you know why those people who have disappeared from this ship in the past few days?"

Po Xuan stood on the altar with his hands behind his back, letting the cold wind blow on the river, but his seemingly thin body remained unmoved.

"First Ding Sheng, then Jiang Yuanwai, eight people disappeared in a row but there was no clue, if someone wanted to make money and kill him, it can only be said that he has the means to the sky, but the real person wants to do something to eliminate the demon, it won't be to say that their disappearance is related to some demon. ”

Ma Dufang rarely misses the case, but on this almost isolated merchant ship, he failed to find out the truth of the murder.

"Exactly. ”

Po Xuan nodded, then turned around and picked up the prepared cinnabar pen and began to draw on the yellow rune paper.

"True person, I have always been a disbeliever in the words of ghosts and gods, and it is naturally your right to hold a festival and pray for blessings as a Daomen mage, but there is no need to call out the whole boat to blow the wind and freeze outside. ”

Ma Dufang was wearing a thick coat, and his father was old and frail and wore several thick layers, but he still felt that it was cold outside.

"Ma Gongzi is right, the eight missing people are indeed not the victims of the evil that Poor Dao wants to kill today. ”

"And what's going on with them?"

"Is there really someone on this ship who wants to kill for money?"

Halfway through the words, the crowd below began to talk again.

"They were not harmed by demons, but they died for them. ”

"May I ask what the real person said about this?"

Ma Guanyu couldn't hold back at the moment, and finally opened his mouth.

"Master Dao, I searched the whole ship, but I didn't find the fat old man who was with Mu Sanqian. ”

The sailor next to him passed the word, and the boatman went over and whispered in front of Po Xuan.

The fat old man's cultivation is not shallow, and it is normal for ordinary people like them who have no strength to find a figure.

Po Xuan nodded to indicate that he knew.

Youmu Sanqian followed in hand, and he was not afraid that the fat old man would dare to mess around.

"Because the final destination of this boat is not Jinling, or Danyang Lake. The people on this ship are just sacrifices prepared for this demon extermination. ”

Now that everything is ready, it can be said that everything is only a foot in the door, whether it is an official who is going to Jinling, a wealthy businessman doing business, or a porter who runs errands and works as a coolie, there will be no difference after tonight.

"It's all sacrifices?

Immediately, someone began to question loudly, and the old Taoist priest Po Xuan was full of strangeness, and the people standing on the deck couldn't help but feel a little creepy in their hearts.

"It means that you guys are on the wrong ship with a bad fate. Poor Dao had already bought this boat in Xunyang, and the purpose was to go to Danyang Lake to get rid of the demon, but the demon would not show up easily, so naturally he would need a living person as a sacrifice, and if you got on the boat, would it become a ready-made sacrifice?"

The cinnabar pen in his hand walked the dragon and snake, and a few words of thick yellow rune paper were all engraved with charms.

"My poor fellow was actually killed by your demon!"

A few porters suddenly learned the truth of the matter, and while scolding Po Xuan, they were about to rush to the altar.

The sailors, who had been prepared long ago, hurled over and stopped in front of them, and with a few muffled clicks of their broadswords, the porters were all slashed and slashed to death on the deck.

Ahh

Without warning, someone died in front of him, and most of the people in the crowd were ordinary people, and they were immediately a little frightened, and the remaining dozen or so people were about to flee in a panic, but those flashing sailors who did not blink were already blocked around, and they were all forced back to the altar.

The ladies of the Jiang family were even more frightened, and fell to the ground limply, and soon the stench spread.

Po Xuan frowned and waved his hand.

The sailors with knives immediately picked up the slain porter and threw them into the river along with the frightened women.

A lonely boat popped a few times, and a black shadow slowly gathered under the water behind the ship, and the black shadow grew bigger and bigger, following the ship like a merchant ship dragging a huge tail.

The corpse fell into the river, and the water surface seemed to be gradually boiling, and with a bang, a huge head was faintly seen flashing by the light in the dark night, and the eyes the size of a bowl alone made many people faint with fright on the spot.

The thing that suddenly emerged from the water ate up the body that had been thrown off the ship, and it seemed that it was not satisfied, and it circled the merchant ship three times underwater before it was submerged again.

"Really—what a monster!"

Ma Dufang, who saw these with his own eyes, no longer had his previous calm look, if it weren't for his father Ma Guanyu supporting him in the back, I am afraid that he would have collapsed on the deck all of a sudden.

"Official, no matter what you send later, you must protect the young master's safety!"

Ma Guanyu was also very frightened in his heart, but when people are older, they can always see something, but Ma Dufang's son is really difficult for him to let go.

The old butler helped the young master steady and nodded heavily.

"Demon Dao!"

Ma Guanyu didn't know what Po Xuan's intention was, but looking at the posture, he wanted to use the people on the boat as bait.

"If you want to use us as bait, come on, but please let go of the young men and women on this boat, there is a saying that goodness is like flow, and a few lives of the Taoist chief are also accumulating merit. ”

"Master Ma misunderstood, Poor Dao is not a devil who kills people without blinking, and when he wakes up the two underwater big Jiao Poor Dao, he will naturally stop. ”

Po Xuan's wrinkled face couldn't see any expression, and after he finished speaking, he pinched a trick and evoked the yellow rune paper, which flew out in a line like a living thing, and the wooden planks next to the altar also flew out after him, and then disappeared into the dark night.

"Please Chongyangzi!"

Po Xuan was relieved after doing this, and then spoke like thunder and rain.

"It's coming out, are you ready?"

Mu Sanqian in the water prison was still standing on the surface of the water, and Yangshan Zhe was riding on Mu Guiyun's shoulder, and the two of them were clinging to the inner wall like arhats.

"Hurry up, Lao Tzu's shoulders are going to be trampled on!"

Mu Guiyun gritted his teeth and tried to hold back a sentence.