The strange story of Huai'an Inn

When Yuan Chu asked this question, it was obvious that he was very conflicted and tormented.Alchemists have always advocated respecting their masters, and it is disrespectful to suspect that disobedience to their masters is disrespectful, and they can't even think about it.

But what he saw with his own eyes, coupled with the suspicion he already had, really couldn't turn a blind eye.

Zhu Helan was silent for a while, and said slowly, "I have never seen the strength of your master's spell. It can completely seal the foul air and compress it infinitely, just like the principle of making explosives. It can be stuffed into a very small place. There are so many things that can ignite at any time, and in the end, just a little trigger may cause an explosion."

Seeing Yuanchu's face full of entanglement and pain, Chongliu couldn't bear it, so he persuaded, "Don't think too much, maybe your master doesn't know this will happen?"

Yuanchu tried his best to put away the uneasiness and bone-wracking guilt in his chest, and said with force, "What should we do now? Are these townspeople really hopeless? After all...it's all my fault."

Originally, with the lofty ideal of helping the world and saving the people, he followed the earnest teachings of the master, but instead he created such a heavy karma and harmed so many innocent lives.Chongliu couldn't imagine how much he would feel if he was in Yuanchu's position.

Zhu Helan said, "It's not difficult for us to escape, but there are so many rainbows, we can't ignore them. These townspeople are probably dead long ago. I know you can't bear it, but if you can drive away these rainbows, you can rest in peace."

Yuanchu's lips trembled a little, but he still restrained his emotions very much and nodded vigorously.

The shopkeeper's hands were doing something behind him, and Chong Liu heard a sound similar to that of a mouse gnawing on wood.The next moment, the shopkeeper's hands were free, and his dexterous fingers quickly untied the ankles, and then came to help Chong Liu untie the rope.

Chong Liu noticed that there seemed to be something growing out of the shopkeeper's fingertips. When he untied the rope on his feet, that thing cut the knot at once, but a rustling sound made Zhu Helan stop for a while, He raised his head alertly.

Something squirmed in the shadows of that mysteriously shifting filthy color.

Zhu Helan sped up his movements, untied Chongliu and went to undo Yuanchu's shackles.And Chong Liu squinted his eyes uneasily, looking at the constantly shaking shadow.

There was the sound of wet things rubbing against each other, and the sound of dragging on the ground...

something is crawling over...

"Boss... look..."

Zhu Helan raised his head and looked in the direction Chong Liu pointed with his finger.

creak... creak... creak...

A distorted, weird sound that seemed to be strangled sounded in the silent cellar, and the face of the black figure gradually became clear in the halo of the ubiquitous rainbow.

It seemed that four or five people were forcibly glued together, their flesh melted and fused like wax, and it was impossible to tell whose torso was and whose hands and feet were there.Some of the four or five heads were only half left, and some were deformed and swollen beyond recognition.

They were covered in grotesque mushrooms of insane colors, some of which had just opened to emit a cloud of iridescent smoke.

Chong Liu, who had already gotten used to these weird human figures, looked at them, and exclaimed with a bit of admiration, "The unity of all people and gods that Li Zheng said is really 'unity' in the literal sense!"

Zhu Helan glared at him angrily, reached out to stop Yuanchu who wanted to use Taoism to attack the approaching deformed "human" bodies, and said, "They have the strongest ability in the dark. If you stimulate them, Taoism will attack them." It can’t be suppressed anymore, maybe it will invade your mind and swallow you together.”

"Then what should we do? This whole town has been controlled by Hong. There is no way to negotiate with them?"

But he didn't expect Zhu Helan to look at him inscrutablely.

Yuanchu couldn't believe it, "Didn't you say they have no consciousness?!"

"What I'm talking about is whether there is consciousness or not. No one can be sure. However, what I call negotiation is not through language. Rainbows don't like to stay on the ground in the first place, and they only land when they are breeding. Once they have finished breeding and are fully mature, will leave by itself."

Chong Liu patted the shopkeeper on the shoulder, and pointed to the group of fungus monsters that kept approaching them, "Boss... If you want to do something, you'd better hurry, it's getting closer..."

"Liu'er, I need your help."

When I weighed Liuyi, I thought I heard it wrong, "Me?"

Zhu Helan nodded, "Your perception ability is very strong. If there is anything close to consciousness in Hong, you may be able to perceive it."

"Then... then what happens after I perceive it?"

"Afterwards, you have to listen to my voice. Do as I instruct you." Zhu Helan said, picking up Chong Liu's hand, putting it in the palm of his hand and looking at it carefully.

The skin of that hand seemed to have started to turn blue, and the strange protrusions that had been seen before appeared again under the nails.

"Your filth has begun to recover, and it should be possible." Zhu Helan raised his head and said to Yuanchu, "Please use not too strong Dao Qi to protect us. When those things approach us, just push them away and don't come down." Killer, don't provoke Rainbow."

Yuanchu still didn't understand what Chongliu could do in a single waiter, but seeing Zhu Helan's steady gaze, he nodded.

Zhu Helan turned behind Chong Liu, getting so close, as if he could feel the beating of his heart coming from his chest.

Chong Liu suddenly became nervous, even more nervous than when he was dragged to the cellar.

"Relax, don't be afraid." Zhu Helan's voice blew in his ears, as if with a hint of temptation, "I won't hurt you, trust me."

"I...I will try my best..." Chong Liu stood stiffly and asked, "What should I do?"

"Close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you to."

"Oh..." Chong Liu closed his eyes, and the iridescent colors continued to linger in the darkness behind his eyelids.

Suddenly, several thin things pierced his scalp.

It didn't hurt very much, but the sudden intrusion still made him cry out, and he wanted to open his eyes reflexively.But Zhu Helan's deep spring-like voice comforted him, "Don't move."

Chong Liu tried his best to control his urge to struggle, and let the thin intrusion spread on his scalp.At the same time, he began to feel something around his body.

Not the arms...because there are too many pieces...

He heard Yuanchu gasp, and became more curious.But this curiosity just arose, and I heard the shopkeeper say again, "Don't think about it, I can feel your current thoughts."

Chong Liu froze again, "What... what do you mean!"

"Don't worry, I can only feel the general feeling. If you secretly speak ill of me, I won't know what you said." There was a bit of teasing in the shopkeeper's 'voice'.

Chong Liu realized that the shopkeeper's words were not spoken in his ears, or even words, but ideas that appeared directly in his mind.

The shopkeeper can speak directly in his head? !

And what he said himself didn't seem to really come out, but just thought about it in his mind.

Is he crazy?

Is this what he imagined or is it really happening? This is an unprecedented intimacy, even the consciousness is closely connected, but it doesn't make him feel repulsed.Even... a little comfortable.

Some, like the feeling of being wrapped in that deep sea.

The rotten stench brought by the rainbow in the air was gradually replaced by the rotten sweet smell of peonies mixed with blood and blooming that he had smelled on the shortcut before.

"Now, I'm going to take you and extend it. It will feel a little strange, don't be afraid, I'm always here."

The presence of the shopkeeper in his mind was unexpectedly gentle, cautious and cautious, which could be described as cherished, wrapping Chong Liu's consciousness in his own consciousness.

The shopkeeper and the locust tree... so they both know how to do this?Did the pagoda tree teach the shopkeeper, or did the shopkeeper teach the pagoda tree?

"Why, miss Xiaohuai?" The shopkeeper said with a smile.

"Didn't you say that you can't know exactly what I'm thinking?!"

"I don't know, I just guess based on my feelings."

As soon as this thought passed, Chong Liu suddenly felt something open.

It's as if... the skull suddenly didn't exist, and it was like a thing that was originally curled up suddenly spread out.

It's a wonderful feeling, although there is no vision, it seems to be able to 'see'.That kind of color full of confrontation between death and life, primitive and powerful life lingers around him like a surging ocean.

It or them, one or a group, is indistinguishable.Its consciousness is completely different from that of humans and livestock. It flows like a cloud, sometimes gathering and sometimes scattered.

There is no difference between good and evil, it just wants to eat and reproduce.This is the most basic and understandable instinct.

Chong Liu was amazed to perceive them flowing around him, feeling them trying to invade his consciousness.But there is another thing protecting him, making these colors inaccessible.

Is it the owner?

"It's me, I'm here." Zhu Helan's consciousness appeared in his mind, "What can you see?"

"Rainbows are everywhere."

"Where is the rainbow? Is it our world?"

After saying this, Chong Liu realized that this place... doesn't seem to be like Tailong Town.

This is a place much farther away than Tailong Town, in the depths of the stars, in a place that no one can imagine.

How did he get here?So far... so empty...

This is... a long, long time ago... so long that the human world has not yet formed, and so long that the universe is still very hot...

"Liu'er, what do they want?"

"I want to... go back to a star far, far away..."

"What's stopping them? Why are they here?"

Chong Liu was a little confused.He felt he was surging with the chaotic madness of the colors, as if he were becoming them.

hunger... breed...

Change... turn everything into a comfortable place...

They want to make everything look like "home".

Emptiness, death, decay... They are born from nothing, so they pull everything into nothing.

"There was a door, and there was a crack in the door. They got in through the crack. It was just a little bit at first, but then they started multiplying, more and more..."

Zhu Helan's voice continued to ask, "What kind of door and where is it?"

"...don't return it."

There was a moment of silence.Chong Liu began to feel uneasy.

"Liu'er, how hungry are they? How much more do they need to eat before they can mature?"

"Already full...but wanting more...they can't leave...stuck, so just keep devouring."

"Trapped by what?"

"The one who called them here."

There was another silence.

"Liu'er, can you see the person who called them here?"

Chongliu tried his best to search, but Hong's perception of human beings is completely different from human's usual perception of themselves.To them, people are just lumps of moving meat.

They all looked alike, and he couldn't tell the difference.

"He...is in the north, very north. Not beyond the ridge."

Chongliu suddenly realized that beyond Buhuanling, isn't that where Tianguren is?

Is it really the innocent who is just around the corner again?

Could it be... what happened 50 years ago is really going to happen again?

The shopkeeper seemed to sigh lightly, and said to Chongliu, "Liu'er, the next thing to do will be more difficult. How do you feel?"

Chong Liu stretched his light "body", but he didn't feel scared, but felt...very familiar and very comfortable.It's like returning to the state that I haven't seen for a long time, "I'm fine. I will listen to you as to what to do."

"We have to drive them to a place where there are no people, the far sea or the desert is fine. I need you to confuse them, guide them, and go as far as possible."

"Confused them? How to confuse them?"

"Show them where you want them to go. Now your consciousness resonates with them, and what you put into their memory, they'll go looking for it."