The new market city is surrounded by the sea on three sides, east and west, and Leizhou ferry port in the north.

Although the two places are on the first line, and merchants are constantly coming and going, the small town has deviated from the northbound road for a while, and there are no outsiders to disturb it except for a few scattered passing merchants who stop here on weekdays. Everything that should be added has been prepared, and these days are not the days of the market, and the town has returned to its usual desertion.

In the middle of spring, humid rain fills the sky over this small city. Just when people were busy planting seeds and planting seedlings, they found that there were suddenly many strangers in the small town.

Among this group of people, there are graceful young women, dusty Taoist chiefs, enlightened monks, young village girls, and honest dart masters...... It was as if they had come to the city one after the other, and as if they had come to the city at the same time overnight. They neither visit relatives nor do business, but wander around during the day and disappear at night.

The residents couldn't tell how many of them there were, let alone the purpose of their visit, and the rumor that made them shudder even when they thought about it not long ago, they couldn't help but feel a little inexplicable panic in their hearts, and they closed their doors as soon as night, hoping that they would leave as soon as possible.

Mo Dao is the most special of these strangers.

He has a jade crown and tied hair, a green silk shirt, delicate and upright eyebrows, frowning as if he is not confused, a wide face and a weak crown, his appearance can be described as peculiar, but his bearing is extraordinary, and he seems to be a person who has entered the Tao.

It had been more than ten days since he arrived in the city, and he remained the same every day.

Unlike the others, he didn't go at night, but stayed in the inn. During the day, he wrapped the eight-immortal table by the window on the second floor, ordered a pot of turbid wine, stared out the window, and looked at it all day.

There are more and more legends about him in the city. Some people say that he is waiting for someone, some people say that he is looking for the heavenly book buried in the city before the legendary Nanwushan people ascended, and some people say that he can see the boudoir of his childhood sweetheart from the window on the second floor - although the woman no longer lives here, he still comes back here and looks at the empty attic every day.

As a result, the shopkeeper sometimes couldn't help but be curious, and secretly looked out the window from where he was sitting.

He was disappointed: there was nothing special about the view outside the window. Across the narrow bluestone road, there was a row of ordinary attics with blue bricks smeared white with inferior lime, like lead dust on the faces of inferior prostitutes. A row of black tiles was pressed down along the eaves, and the edges of the tiles were outlined as a rain line that stretched to the bluestone slab in front of the threshold.

Last night, it rained heavily, and the weather still looks a little cold this evening, with a continuous rain line drifting from time to time. The air is filled with the scent of flora and fauna**. There were also a few casual customers in the inn, drinking and making loud noises.

A very thin sob, suddenly came from the corner of the house. In the midst of the sound of punching orders, the sobbing sound was extremely inconspicuous, as if it were just a cat meow.

However, Mo Dao's empty eyes revealed a sharp light like an eagle falcon, and he was firmly staring at the counter in front of him.

Pine wood is abundant here, and the furniture of ordinary people in the town is made of two wooden piers and a thick board, but the counter in front of me is different, it is completely made of a surprisingly large stone mortar upside down, which looks bulky and ancient, and the countertop is padded with thick wooden planks, two-thirds of which have turned black.

At the counter, a little girl of twelve or thirteen years old sat on the cold stone mortar, a tattered straw hat pulled very low, revealing a few strands of withered yellow hair.

She sobbed quietly, it wasn't too cold, but she was wrapped tightly around her body in a linen robe worn by a man, and she trembled slightly.

Mo Dao's face changed, he stood up and slowly walked towards the girl.

The girl was still sobbing, as if she didn't even notice that Mo Dao was already standing in front of her.

Mo Dao's face was very gloomy: "What's your name and where are you from?" The little girl raised her head slightly, and buried it again, muttering in her mouth, but she couldn't hear what she was saying.

Mo Dao sneered: "Give you one or two, tell me what you have seen and heard." The little girl curled up and shook her head.

Mo Dao's pale face suddenly revealed a hideous color, the cyan long sleeves shrank suddenly, and a pair of big hands had already grabbed the little girl's thin shoulders. He lifted it lightly, and the little girl snorted and was lifted high by him.

Her straw hat fell to the ground, revealing a pale, frightened face, with large, but unrelenting eyes, very beautiful outlines, and a chalky skin—the color of death, and long-term hunger, and it seemed that she was not far from death.

Mo Dao didn't have any mercy, he grabbed the little girl's thin shoulders and shook it vigorously. The girl screamed and almost fainted.

Maybe I waited too long and started to get impatient. Mo Dao laughed at himself, threw the girl aside, took out a few copper coins through his sleeve, sprinkled them on the girl, and was about to walk away.

The girl's eyes suddenly widened in horror, stared at him, and said, "Devil for your life...... Dead man...... Save me, save me!" Mo Dao's face changed. He knew that at this time, any abnormalities in the small town might be related to his purpose here!

He said coldly, "What kind of ghost is asking for your life, where is the dead man?" The little girl covered her face, but just repeated those few words, and did not answer. Mo Dao was about to make a color, and a middle-aged fat man in silk next to him walked out: "This guest officer, calm your anger and anger...... but the innkeeper who heard the sound.

Mo Dao saw that the little girl was crazy and stupid, and he couldn't ask anything, so he gave her up and said to the boss: "Who is she?" The boss said with a smile: "This girl is not a local, she came to the inn with her father half a month ago, saying that she was a famine in her hometown, and she came to the city to join her relatives.

Unexpectedly, she witnessed the camel who was guarding Yizhuang, and was killed by a terrible ghost at night, and her father was overfrightened and died, leaving her crying in the city all day long, saying that she was going to sell herself to bury her father. Her head and face are quite clean, and the little one originally wanted to buy her as a concubine, but unfortunately this girl also seemed to be overly frightened, and became a little crazy, who dared to buy her now?

Mo Dao waved his hand and said, "Slow." He squatted down and gently stroked the little girl's head: "Tell me, what do you see?" The little girl raised her head tremblingly, and said with a cry and a smile: "Camel...... Crazy ...... Blood ......" Mo Daoyi frowned: "The camel was killed by a madman?" The little girl nodded and shook her head again.

Mo Dao sighed and took out twenty taels of silver: "Go and bury your father." After the incident, I rushed to Gaozhou City, where there is a blacksmith shop, the boss is called Gao Hongbin, you will report me Mo Dao's name, he will naturally have arrangements. The little girl looked at the silver in disbelief, and for a long time, at last snatched it up, and stumbled out the door.

Mo Dao secretly stuffed a few ingots of silver into the innkeeper's hand and sounded. The boss accepted people's money, so he naturally knew everything, and told the crazy man carefully before and after. Then Mo Dao settled the bill and left the inn on his own.

The sun is slanting in the west, and the towering ancient trees in the woods look extremely gloomy, and the huge roots of the trees are tangled and hovering, like a sealed monster, which will be resurrected at any time, and choose people to devour. Mo Dao didn't know how long he had been walking through the forest, and finally saw the miserable body of the madman lying in the mud.

He sighed, picked up the body and left. Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder, and Mo Dao saw that it was a passing monk. The monk seemed to be very old, and his face was full of ravines, and he didn't know whether it was wrinkles or scars, but his expression was very kind and detached, like a person who had attained the Tao.

The old monk said: "Ani Buddha, the Taoist chief came one step earlier than the poor monk. ”

"Borrow your Buddha's words: Buddha is destined to be a person. It's just the depth of fate, how can it be sooner or later?" Mo Dao stretched out a hand and gently flicked a dead leaf that fell on the old monk's sackcloth robe, and a strong wind immediately set off for no reason, and the monk's robe was fluttering chaotically, "snapping", and the withered yellow leaf on his shoulder, in the flick of Mo Dao's fingers, was like a swift arrow, nailed into the trunk of the tree beside him, and entered the wood for three points.

It's a deliberate trick.

The old monk still didn't move, but his face showed a bitter color, and his fat and short body seemed to sink a little more in an instant, as if his luck was strong against the strong wind, and his face was already red.

As soon as the wind was hidden, the old monk let out a sigh and asked, "Where does the Taoist chief want to take the bitter master?"

"Naturally, it crosses into the right path. ”

"What is the right way?"

"It's my way. ”

"My Buddha is merciful and travels the world, why don't you let the poor monk cross the suffering lord into reincarnation?"

"Could it be that the monks think that Buddhism is the right way, so they have the qualifications of the world for a time?"

The old monk was silent and thoughtful, not knowing whether he was pranayama in secret, or if he was already speechless.

Mo Dao smiled and said: "Han Fei once said that the Taoist, the beginning of all things, is the era of right and wrong. If we want to trace back to the beginning of the Tao, there is an example - there is no Buddha without demons in the world. In the past, when the Buddha preached under the Bodhi tree, the heavenly demons were resentful and sent demon soldiers and witches to threaten and tempt. The devil should be the source, and the Buddha also entered the Tao because of the guidance of the devil, what is the sect, what is the division, it is self-evident. ”

In the end, Mo Dao turned around and left, didn't take a few steps, suddenly paused, didn't look back, looked up to the sky and smiled: "My name is Mo Dao, if I want to enter the Demon Dao, I am the ancestor of Ru Buddhism, haha......"

The old monk looked bitter, standing with his hands in his hands, as if he was in a state of flux. The two fists clenched behind him finally stretched out, but wet sweat appeared in his palms.