The strange story of Huai'an Inn

Chong Liu followed the shopkeeper and climbed out of the carriage, facing the desolate dark sea again.The sea breeze is bitingly cold, and the moist water vapor penetrates into the bone marrow, as if to freeze the blood.

Chong Liu stepped on the deep snow and followed the shopkeeper towards the brightly lit courtyard.From a distance, one could hear strange howling, whether it was from a human or a beast.

"That's... Master Wu's voice?" Chong Liu's voice was trembling with the cold.

Zhu Helan nodded, "His condition deteriorated very quickly, faster than I expected."

If it weren't for the seriousness of the situation, I'm afraid the shopkeeper wouldn't come out when the inn is invaded by unknown filth.

Along the way, Zhu Helan had already told Chong Liu what Wu Feng had told him.About three days after the duo last met with the blacksmith.The day before, there was a weird storm that was rare in winter, and there were many dead fish washed ashore on the beach the next morning.When Master Wu woke up in the morning, his throat was itchy, several times worse than before. He coughed violently into the spittoon until something sprayed out of his throat.

It was a lump of iron stained with blood.

However this is just the beginning.Once Blacksmith Wu vomited, he couldn't stop, coughing as if his lungs were going to be crushed.Iron pieces fell out one after another, some were stuck with food residue, and some... were stuck with something that looked like pieces of meat or mucous membranes.

The whole family was scared to death, and Wu Feng immediately rushed to the nearest town to find a doctor.However, the doctor was helpless against the blacksmith who was rolling his eyes and talking nonsense.

In the process of diagnosis and treatment, the blacksmith suddenly stared wide-eyed, and a pair of hands that had been forging irons erupted with astonishing strength. He grabbed the doctor by the collar, uttered a series of nonsense that no one could understand, and then sprayed it from his throat. A lot of thick, viscous liquid with metallic luster came out, all sprayed on the doctor's face.The doctor let out a terrible howl, and the place where the spray was sprayed on his face began to hiss and smoke as if he had been scalded.

The whole family frantically tried to wipe off the metallic mucus on the doctor's face, but after wiping it off, they found that the liquid had solidified into a hard piece of iron, which was connected to the flesh on the doctor's face, and the skin would be peeled off with a single pull. Ripped off in general.The doctor fainted from the pain, and finally had to ask his second son Wu Cheng to drive the donkey cart back to the city for treatment.

Since then, no doctor has dared to come to his home for treatment within a few miles.

By the fifth day, the blacksmith began attacking anyone who approached him.The youngest son was the first to suffer, and he is still lying unconscious in the house, with half of his body covered by solidified black iron.

As soon as Zhu Helan and Guan Zhongliu entered the house, they saw the blacksmith's daughter-in-law sitting outside and weeping silently.And the door leading to the inner room was fastened with wooden strips, as if afraid that the people inside would rush out.

Seeing Zhu Helan, the daughter-in-law of the Wu family almost jumped up and begged the shopkeeper for help, while Wu Feng and Wu Cheng tried to persuade her from left to right, finally calming her down.

Chong Liu moved closer to the door, put his ears closer and listened.

There was a weird vomiting sound coming from the door, plus some random hiccups...it sounded a little strange and creepy.

Zhu Helan asked his two sons to remove the wooden strip on the door, but Wu Feng warned, "If it is removed...he might rush out...he is so powerful now!"

Zhu Helan said confidently, "It doesn't matter, just open the door."

Chong Liu shrank behind the shopkeeper, tightly hugging the wooden box the shopkeeper asked him to carry.Zhu Helan said softly to him, "If you are afraid, just wait outside?"

"Where am I afraid? I am afraid that when I open the door, I will be sprayed with molten iron and disfigured..."

The shopkeeper clicked his lips in dissatisfaction: "Then you won't worry about my disfigurement if you hide behind me?"

"Boss, you are an old fritter...I mean you are old, you must have a way to guard against it." Chong Liu said, smiling shyly and gave the shopkeeper a thumbs up.

As soon as the door was opened, a strong rusty smell gushed out like waves.

Chong Liu squinted his eyes, and could see countless scarlet gossamer floating in the air, attached to furniture and people's clothes like hair.And the room was almost filled with that kind of red gossamer, which seemed to be full of hairs, vibrating with a strange atmosphere.

Zhu Helan made a general observation, then stepped into the room without hesitation.Some of the red color fell on his body, and it was suddenly sucked into his skin and disappeared quietly.

Chong Liu suddenly felt that the shopkeeper was like a huge magnet, sucking all those red gossamers...

How much filth is in the shopkeeper's body?Usually can't see a point?

What kind of trials did you go through when you were young to have this ability?

At first glance, he couldn't see where Master Wu was, until Zhu Helan raised his head, his eyes fixed on a certain place on the beam.Chong Liu also raised his head and let out a low cry in amazement.

Where the beams meet the walls, a large cone-shaped thing with metallic luster hangs upside down, like a huge cocoon.The seemingly hard metal thing was still undulating and wriggling slightly, as if it was glued to the fluidity.

And at the top of the hive, a human head hangs down.Master Wu's hair was long and drooping, but on his face, there were traces of iron flowing from the eyes, nose and corners of his mouth, forming a thick layer of iron shell, covering most of his face.

And the only left eye and half-open mouth he can move are not idle at the moment.Creepy and strange noises kept coming out of that half of the mouth, and it was hard to tell whether it was talking or just making meaningless syllables.And the black eyeball of that eye moved extremely fast, as if it was about to jump out of the eye socket at any moment.

Chong Liu was dumbfounded, and cursed in a low voice for a while, "The alchemist who gave him the charm is really nothing! If I see him next time... I will scold him every time I see him..."

Zhu Helan said, "I'm afraid he doesn't know that the spell will have such consequences. The filth has been suppressed for too long, like a few cockroaches sealed in a warehouse full of food. When it is opened again, the number has already become There are tens of thousands. That's why I always advocate that things like filth should be sparse rather than blocked."

He sighed. In fact, many alchemists can understand this truth after a little thought, but they just like to pretend to be confused by pretending to understand, but it is just to expand their influence and calm down their position, so as to attract believers and pilgrims That's all.

After all, dealing with demons and heretics is such a big hat, one buckle one.

"Liu'er, open the box." Zhu Helan said.

Chong Liu tore off the charm stuck on the wooden box in his hand, and opened it.In the middle of the silk inside, there is a small jadeite taotie.That clear luster looks extremely cute.

This is what Zhu Helan took out from the secret room, saying that it likes to eat, and eats everything except silk, whether it is living or dead, as long as it comes into contact with it, it will be "eat".

Jade carving was brought into the Central Plains by people from the Western Regions, and it caused a lot of disasters.If the thing eaten by the jadeite glutton is smaller, it will not leave any traces. If it is larger, you will see small holes with neat edges appearing on the thing, gradually more and more holes, until the last point None left.If people are eaten, they often wake up overnight to find that their eyes are missing, or there is a hole in their stomach, and the internal organs can be seen wriggling, but there is no blood.

Its "eating" is like a strange process of turning something from being into nothing, although nothing is really nothing.Those that were eaten were likely transported to some random place, or even another world.

But it just doesn't work on silk.As for why this is so, no one can say clearly.

The shopkeeper squeezed the jadeite glutinous rice through the silk.

But at this moment, Master Wu suddenly let out a terrifying roar, and some burr-like things began to appear on the iron that wrapped him heavily, like countless iron needles that protruded and disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, something erupted from the flowing "iron" and rushed towards Zhu Helan and Guan Chongliu.

Zhu Helan suddenly pushed Chongliu away, waved his long sleeves, and was engulfed in the lump of rust together with the emerald taotie in his hand.The metal-colored thing pressed down suddenly, and Chong Liu heard a sound like a broken bone, and he was so frightened that his hair stood on end.

"Master! Your hand!"

Zhu Helan frowned slightly, but did not show much pain.He glanced at Chong Liu, shook his head to signal him not to act rashly, and then opened his mouth to speak a long series of...an ancient language that Chong Liu could not understand.

Thinking about it now, could it be some kind of language left over from the prehistoric era?

As soon as he finished speaking, the weird liquid metal immediately "vomited" Zhu Helan's hand out, but the jadeite gluttony in the palm of the shopkeeper had disappeared.

Zhu Helan's sleeves had become tattered as if they had been scorched, but his arms seemed intact.He dragged Chong Liu out of the room and closed the door.

Wu Feng and Wu Cheng followed Wu around to ask how the situation was.

Zhu Helan said, "We will stay here overnight and check the situation tomorrow. But it shouldn't be a big problem."

When the three of them heard this, they were all very grateful.He also begged him to take care of his youngest son.Zhu Helan reassured everyone, telling them that as long as the excess filth was absorbed by Jade Taotie and the blacksmith woke up and regained control, the filth on the youngest son's body should not be a problem.After some persuasion, the two sons helped their mother to rest in the next room.

Only Zhu Helan and Guan Chongliu were left outside the main house.

Zhu Helan looked at her sleeve distressedly, touched the burnt place, "Hey... I have worn this dress five times, and the satin is pretty good..."

Chong Liu just stared at the shopkeeper's arm, and felt relieved after looking around and seeing no scars, "Thank God if you still have your hand, you still have time to worry about clothes?"

"Liu'er." The shopkeeper suddenly stared at him seriously, "In your heart, is your boss and I such a weak person that I can't even deal with this filth?

Chong Liu was tongue-tied and pointed at the door that was nailed up again, "You call this 'this' filth?"

"Tsk, compared to what we faced three months ago, it's like the difference between a chick and a bull. You have seen the world, don't always be surprised."

Chong Liuxin thought that if he cared a little bit about his boss, why would he be taught a lesson instead?Do older people like reasoning so much?

Of course he didn't dare to say that.He could only roll his eyes quietly while taking a sip of the tea from the wine gourd.

"Liu'er, are you rolling my eyes?"

Can this be seen? !

"How dare I!"

Zhu Helan supported the table with both hands, leaned forward slightly, looked down at Xiao Paotang who was frightened, and raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "I don't think you are afraid. How many bad words?"

"How can that be?! The amount of salary you give is something that can't be found in the entire Tianliang City!" Chongliu boasted vigorously, "Not to mention that you are as handsome as Yushulin, and as handsome as Panan, both civil and military!"

The shopkeeper was amused by his desire to survive, so he slowly sat back to his original position, folded his hands and said softly, "If I catch you rolling my eyes again in the future, you will be punished."

be punished……

Chong Liu knew that what he should have thought of was deducting wages and sweeping the latrine... But the long-drawn-out statement made by the shopkeeper is really easy to make people think wrong.