treacherous world

Looking down from the top of the mountain where Zhan Zhao and the others were standing, they could see a temple with a lot of incense on the opposite mountain across a canyon.

The temple has a black roof and red walls. At first glance, it really looks like the number one scholar in high school, wearing a red robe and a number one hat.No need to ask, this is the Zhuangyuan Temple!

And the smoke they saw in the forest just now was indeed the incense from the Zhuangyuan Temple, but the incense was really amazing.

Generally, when you light incense candles, you will not be able to see the smoke across a canyon.But there is a huge incense burner at the back of the Zhuangyuan Temple. Inside the burner are three huge incense sticks that are more than three feet thick and as thick as a person. It seems that they have been half burned.

What is even more spectacular is that a large group of literati and martial arts students all worshiped at the gate of the temple, and their demeanors were so pious that they couldn't do it. The scene was really weird.

"What are they praying for?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao with a frown.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Maybe it's the gods and Buddhas in the temple."

"Little Mantou." Pang Yu poked Bao Yan and asked him, "If I tell you that you can win the number one prize by praying like this, will you pray or not?"

"No!" Bao Yan said angrily, "Where do those literary students have any integrity? It's too shameful! How can such a person go to high school? It's just ridiculous."

"Don't be angry." Pang Yu patted him on the shoulder to calm him down, then looked back at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Why do those candidates seem to have taken the wrong medicine?"

Zhan Zhao tapped his chin lightly, "Indeed...strange is not enough to describe their current behavior."

"No wonder there is so much smoke." Bai Yutang stared at the three incense sticks in a daze.

"What are you thinking about?" Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand and pushed him, while grabbing his clothes to prevent him from falling off.

Bai Yutang asked, "This incense is so huge, no matter whether it is produced or transported, it is impossible not to alarm the people of Kaifeng Mansion?"

"That's true! Could it be that it was made on the spot?" Zhan Zhao looked around, "To make such a large incense stick, a lot of manpower must be used. Let's look around the Zhuangyuan Temple and follow the From the traces of the carriage, we should be able to find out where the incense was sent from."

Bai Yutang nodded, "But how do we get there?"

Zhan Zhao frowned when he heard this, and looked left and right... This side is separated from the Zhuangyuan Temple by a valley, so you can't fly over it lightly. Follow Bao Yan and Pang Yu.

After thinking for a while, everyone turned to look at the black ape.

"Hello." Bai Yutang looked at the black ape, stretched out his hand, and pointed to the Zhuangyuan Temple opposite.

The black ape seemed to understand what they meant, and led them back.

After turning around and turning around, everyone soon smelled a strange fragrance, which was a bit like sandalwood, but it felt much more fragrant than sandalwood. It seemed that there was some floral or herbal fragrance mixed in it.

The closer you get, the stronger the smell becomes.

Bao Yan suddenly stepped on the ground and almost fell out.

Fortunately, Zhan Zhao caught him behind him, and Pang Yu also wobbled and felt a little dizzy.

"Cat!" Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded to indicate that he also found something wrong with the fragrance, so he and Bai Yutang quickly retreated with Bao Yan and Pang Yu.They found a small stream and supported the two of them to sit down, then Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang washed their faces with the stream water first, and then lightly splashed the water on their faces.

Shocked by the cold water, Pang Yu and Bao Yan seemed to wake up.

Both of them felt a little disgusted, and there was a bitter taste in their mouths. They were puzzled, "What's going on?"

"Then there may be something wrong with the incense!" Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "It will be dangerous to approach rashly!"

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, then stretched out his hand and pulled out a white handkerchief from Bai Yutang's arms, covering his mouth and nose.

"What are you doing?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

Zhan Zhao said, "Take care of them first, I'll find a way to pick some incense and bring them home, let Gongsun test it, what exactly is it!"

"Be careful!" Bai Yutang knew that he would never be able to stop him, so he could only tell Zhan Zhao to go and come back quickly.

Zhan Zhao nodded naturally, and disappeared in a flash.

Pang Yu pinched his nose, "Wow... I said those nerds are crazy, so there is ecstasy in the incense!"

Bai Yutang stood aside and looked into the distance, very worried about Zhan Zhao.

But fortunately, Zhan Zhao is smart enough and quick to move... He came back after a while, wrapped a handful of incense ash and incense in a cloth bag.

"The incense is even scarier when viewed up close!" Zhan Zhao said to himself, "If the incense is so high, if it spreads out of the mountain, it may make everyone nearby get sick."

At this time, it was almost dark.

"The incense will probably be burnt out in the evening." Bai Yutang felt very tired carrying the monkey, and handed him to Pang Yu.

Pang Yu picked it up, but the monkey didn't run away. It hung around his neck and continued to take a nap, just like a child who was tired from playing.

"Little four must like it very much." Zhan Zhao couldn't help but patted the monkey's head, "I don't know who brought such a small monkey here to do bad things."

Pang Yu picked out his ears, "Oh, don't mention it these days, people's hearts are not old, look at the autumn exam and come up with so many tricks."

The four of them simply waited in the forest, and when it was dark and the incense was burned out, the scholars and martial arts students who worshiped the Zhuangyuan Temple all went back, and only approached the Zhuangyuan Temple again.

The temple doesn't look that big from a close look, it's very new... probably not long after it was built.

"What kind of pattern is this?" Pang Yu was very curious, staring at the black patterns on the corner of the wall.

"It's a dragon pattern." Bao Yan leaned over and squatted down, "But it's very different from the dragons we usually see."

"This is the family crest of Tianlong Mountain Villa!" Bai Yutang took a look and told the two people, "non-royal family members cannot use dragon patterns, so all sects with dragons as their symbols will make some changes to dragons. For example, remove a pair of corners, or Remove the four claws and so on. The dragon head in Tianlong Villa has only one horn on top, and there are no beards on both sides."

"No wonder you're so weird!" Pang Yu wanted to run towards the temple, but Bao Yan caught him, and nodded to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang who walked into the temple.

Pang Yu felt that it was safer to keep up with the two of them, so he and Bao Yan followed.

The furnishings in the Zhuangyuan Temple are simple, and there are no statues, Buddhas, Arhats, or Bodhisattvas.There is only an empty lotus platform, and a few tributes in front of the table.

"What are those people worshiping? Can't they just worship the lotus platform?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, and turned away in Zhuangyuan Temple with Bai Yutang.

"It seems to have been repaired just now..." Bai Yutang looked up at the beams and felt that they were very new.

"Wow!"

Before Bai Yutang finished speaking, he heard Pang Yu yell, and Bao Yan beside him also yelled.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked in the direction they were looking at, and saw a window that was also half-hidden.

"What's wrong?" Bai Yutang asked the two of them.

"There seemed to be someone there just now..." Pang Yu gestured and said, "Big gray face, isn't it?" He asked Bao Yan as he spoke.

"Yeah, you still have a pair of dead fish eyes staring at us, sneaky!" Bao Yan also nodded with certainty.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, thinking it was impossible!If someone came in, the surrounding area was so quiet, they wouldn't be able to find it?What kind of master should that be!

The two signaled Bao Yan and Pang Yu to keep quiet, and carefully listened to the sounds of love around them. Suddenly... there was a trace of breath, and Bai Yutang raised his hand, and a black jade locust stone flew out.

With a "click", the stone hit something, and a big snake with a thick bowl mouth fell down.

"Uh..." Bao Yan and Pang Yu took a closer look and understood what was going on.

It turned out that the snake had slid past the window just now. The snake was all gray and had eye-shaped patterns on its body, so they mistook it for a human face in the dark.

Zhan Zhao stared at the snake for a while before asking Bai Yutang, "This is..."

"It's a dragon and snake." Bai Yutang nodded to Zhan Zhao, "It's extremely poisonous."

"What is a dragon and snake?" Pang Yu and Bao Yan naturally didn't know anything about Jianghu affairs, so they began to type seriously.

"The Heavenly Dragon Snake is a strange snake bred by Tianlong Villa. This kind of snake is extremely intelligent and highly poisonous... But the Heavenly Dragon Snake has always been locked up in the villa. How could it crawl outside?

"You...do you smell a burnt smell?" Pang Yu suddenly pinched his nose, "It looks like something is burnt?"

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao frowned—the smell is weird, it's the strange smell that comes from burnt meat.

Among the four, Zhan Zhao had the sharpest nose. Following the smell, he left the back door of the Zhuangyuan Temple, and saw a bonfire burning on the hillside from a distance, and there were people beside the bonfire.

The four quickly hid behind the bushes and watched.

There was a large pot on the bonfire, and the two people beside them covered their mouths and noses with square scarves, and kept stirring the contents of the pot with two large spoons. The smell came from the pot.

Bao Yan pinched his nose and looked at Pang Yu, as if asking - what smell?

Pang Yu grimaces—how about boiling lard?

Zhan Zhao touched Bai Yutang lightly, and pointed to the side of the campfire.

Bai Yutang looked over, took a breath, and saw several human heads piled up beside the campfire.

Bao Yan opened his mouth, but thanks to Zhan Zhao covering it, he didn't cry out. Pang Yu covered his mouth and opened his eyes to look around——Mother!Daring is not to boil lard, but to boil human oil!

"stinky."

One of the men in a kerchief threw the spoon away and said to the other, "Stay here for a while, I'll go to the woods to make it easier."

"Hurry up and come back!" The man replied with his veil covered, "It's so windy and frightening."

"They're all that lunatic scholar. If they want to cook for someone else, the master will really take care of him."

"Is he a friend of the young master?"

"Oh, don't you realize, that gentleman usually looks like a dead man! Every time I see him, I dare not look him in the eye."

"Then he really cured Madam's illness?"

"Hey, guess what he boiled human oil for?"

"You care so much, we are servants, so we can do our job well."

"Hehe, as long as he doesn't do anything outrageous." The guy cursed and went into the woods for convenience.The other stayed behind, muttering to himself as he boiled, "What a disgrace? Who knows where so many corpses came from... Sigh."

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, then waved to Bao Yan, beckoning him—bring it!

Bao Yan was dumbfounded, and tilted his head in confusion—what to take?

Zhan Zhao made a gesture - purse.

Bao Yan remembered that the fourth son had given him a purse a few days ago, saying that it contained tea bags wrapped in almond powder and pearl powder, to calm his mind.If he lost his mind during the exam, he would make a drink.

Bao Yan took out a powder bag and gave it to Zhan Zhao.

Bai Yutang watched from the side, thinking that Zhan Zhao didn't touch it directly, so he was inexplicably happy.

Zhan Zhao opened the powder packet and poured it into his hands, rubbed it together, pulled Bai Yutang over, and wiped it on his face.

Bai Yutang secretly sighed in his heart—he just got started with himself, and he didn't know whether to be happy or helpless.After rubbing for a while, Zhan Zhao admired his "masterpiece". He thought it was pretty good, and thought about it again, "The lips are white too!"

Bai Yutang frowned in confusion, "Cat, what do you want to do?"

"You pretend to be a ghost and scare them, and see what you can ask." Zhan Zhao said, stretched out his finger to lick it, and then stretched it out to paint Bai Yutang's lips. Seeing that the white powder was wiped off, Satisfied and nodded.

Bai Yutang stared dumbfounded at the silly cat's subconscious movements, while Bao Yan's face turned red, and Pang Yu held his chin and said to himself—is Zhan Zhao quite straightforward, the real person doesn't show his face!Can Bai Yutang handle him?

"Go." Zhan Zhao patted Bai Yutang, "Remember to scare him enough to say it, don't scare him to death!"

Bai Yutang looked up at the sky, he wasn't sure about this, but the cat had a good idea, so he breathed a sigh of relief and used his lightness kung fu to "float" out.

Bai Yutang floated behind the oil boiler.

Looking into the pot, I felt even more disgusted - I saw that there were still people in the pot, and a thick layer of oil floated on the pot.Seeing that the pot is greasy, it must have been used for a long time.

"Aren't you coming back yet?" The man looked into the woods in the distance, talking to himself.

Zhan Zhao picked up a stone and lightly shot it at the head at his feet.

With a sound of "fear", the head rolled aside.

The servant jumped up in shock, feeling strange...how could such a good-looking person move his head?Didn't put it away just now?

He was wondering when the second head rolled out again.

This time, he was scared out of his wits.Stepping aside, in a blink of an eye, I saw a white figure with a white face floating behind me...

"Mom!" The man screamed, his voice was hoarse.

Bai Yutang wondered why he was so timid.

The man scrambled and ran to the distance, but his feet couldn't control him. After running a few steps, he saw a white shadow in front of him. The ghost in white could fly and landed in front of him.

"Ah!" The servant screamed and knelt down and bowed, and said in a confused manner, "Sister Ghost, please forgive me, sister Ghost, please forgive me!"

Bai Yutang's white face turned black, and Zhan Zhao smiled sullenly... Bai Yutang's face was painted white, his mouth was not purple but red, and he was dressed in white.The boy probably didn't see clearly, so he thought it was a female ghost.By the way, are ghosts in white generally female?

Bai Yutang stared at him for a while, then looked back at Zhan Zhao, as if asking——what?

Zhan Zhao is not very good at it either, so he winks at Pang Yu.

Pang Yu had a lot of ideas, and immediately said in a high-pitched voice, "What a bold thief, you dare to kill people here, I will take you back to the underworld, and let you also taste the taste of this frying pan!"

Bai Yutang couldn't help laughing, and said in his heart that Pang Yu was good at this!

"It's none of my business!" The servant kowtowed like garlic, "My young master ordered it, and it was the crazy scholar who asked for human oil to be used as medicine! These corpses were given to me by them, not by me, sister Forgive me!"

Bai Yutang turned around and gave Pang Yu a supercilious look, don't talk like a woman!

Pang Yu thought it was fun, and became even more excited, "Who is your young master? Who is that crazy scholar? Tell me!"

"I... the young master of my family is Shen Bo'e, the young master of Tianlong Villa. I don't know what that crazy scholar's name is. Everyone calls him Mr. He has excellent medical skills, but he is a ghost."

"What are they refining human oil for?" Pang Yu asked again.

"This, it seems to be alchemy or medicine, I don't know..."

"I don't know?" Pang Yu curled his lips.

Bai Yutang was quite cooperative, raising his hand and flicking his sleeves.The boy only felt that someone slapped him on the face, but he didn't see the hand at all, he was even more horrified, thinking that he must have encountered a ghost.He kowtowed again and again, and explained, "It seems, it seems to be used to make pills and incense."

"What fragrance?" Pang Yu asked.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang remembered at the same time, the strange medicinal fragrance burning in front of the Zhuangyuan Temple, which made people lose their minds and become confused... Could it be that human oil was used in the incense?

"I don't know very well, but every time I boil the oil, I have to send it to the gentleman's medicine shed." The servant stammered, "I have seen a lot of oil in his medicine shed. Incense, so I guess, it is used to make incense."

"Where is his medicine house?"

"It's in the flower bushes on the other side behind Tianlong Villa." The servant whispered, "It's blocked by the flowers, so ordinary people can't see it, and they can't get in. You must go through Tianlong Villa."

"Is this Zhuangyuan Temple built by Tianlong Villa?" Pang Yu asked according to Zhan Zhao's prompt.

"That's right... the old man built it, because he can earn a lot of money." The guy begged as he said, "Sister Gui, please forgive me, I just listen to others and do things for others."

At this time, there was a sound in the grass, which showed that the guy who had just gone to make things easier came back.Bai Yutang dodged and hid beside Zhan Zhao and the others.

"Hello." The man came back and saw his companion kneeling on the ground, "What are you doing? Was it you who shouted just now? It was so loud!"

"Ah?" The guy looked up and couldn't see Bai Yutang anymore, he just felt frightened and shook his head, "No...it's okay."

Bai Yutang wiped the ashes off his face and asked Zhan Zhao, "What should I do?"

"Catch it to Kaifeng Mansion!" Bao Yan suggested, "Let Dad have a trial first, and then go to Tianlong Villa to catch personal stolen goods and get it!"

Zhan Zhao gently waved his hand, "Not yet, there is not enough evidence!"

"I have gained a lot tonight, why don't we go back and discuss it first?" Bai Yutang suggested, "Let Mr. Bao make the decision."

"Yeah!" Zhan Zhao also nodded, "As long as Mr. Gongsun can find the poison from the incense, it will be enough to catch people!"

The four of them finished their discussions, quietly left the Zhuangyuan Temple, and returned along the same route.

It was not easy to walk the mountain road at night, Bao Yan and Pang Yu walked staggeringly.

The black ape was also fast asleep, snoring softly on Pang Yu's back like a child.When they came, they sprinkled some phosphorous powder given by Gongsun on the ground along the way, and they could still see it in the moonlight at night... Walking back along the faint light, they were not afraid of getting lost.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked separately, one behind the other, protecting Pang Yu and Bao Yan in the middle.

After Bai Yutang broke, looking at Zhan Zhao's back in front of him, he subconsciously reached out and touched his lips. This cat... I really don't know whether to call him dumbfounded or unexpected.

When the four of them returned to Kaifeng Mansion, it was already midnight.Master Bao was still awake, studying today's case with Gongsun and the others in the study, while waiting for Bai Yutang and the others to come back.

Zhan Zhao entered Bao Zheng's study, and quickly told what he had just seen at the Zhuangyuan Temple, and put the incense ash and incense in front of Gongsun.

"You said...they boil human oil to make incense?" Gongsun frowned, and took a closer look at the incense.

"It sounds disgusting." Zhao Pu asked Gongsun, "Is there any special effect of using human oil?"

"Actually not, but if it has been stored for a long time and boiled corpses with corpse poison, it will be different." Gongsun fiddled with the incense carefully, looked up and told everyone, "It seems that there are more and more candidates in the city recently. All the troubles are thanks to this incense and the pen and amulet with the poison of the other side."

"Oh?" Bao Zheng frowned, "What kind of incense is this?"

"Although the material of this kind of incense is the same as that of ordinary incense, it contains the bulb toxin of Bianhua flower, which can make people hallucinate. In addition, there is also something called gorgon leaf grass." Gongsun explained to everyone, "Gorgon leaf grass It has a very miraculous effect, for example, some medicines can relieve pain, but Gorgon leaf can aggravate pain."

"There is still this medicine?" Zhan Zhao also found it novel.

"The biggest function of Chia leaf grass is to exaggerate people's perception and emotions several times. This can explain the reason why those scholars fought so hard. For example, in the case of Chen Shusheng this morning, in the past, if he lost the pair, at most It’s just to be stingy, and once poisoned by the Gorgon leaf grass, it will be angry and even return to the level of rage and blood feud! No wonder you stab people with knives.”

Everyone suddenly realized that it was so!

"The use of human oil to make incense is to make the spices contain the toxin of corpse poison... Corpse poison is contagious. Once it is poisoned, the poisonous gas will float on the surface of the body, and everyone who comes into contact with it may be infected. Infected!" Gongsun shook his head, "If we continue to let it go, I'm afraid that within a few days, ordinary people in Kaifeng City will become irritable, and there will be frequent cases of violent fights that hurt their lives. At that time, the whole city will probably have red eyes!"

"How unreasonable!" Bao Zheng was furious, and asked Gongsun, "Is there a way to save you, sir?"

"Yes, Gorgon Leaf Grass is relatively easy to heal. As long as everyone who has been to the Zhuangyuan Temple comes to Kaifeng Mansion to take a bowl of medicine, they will be cured."

"Okay!" Bao Zheng recruited Ouyang Shaozheng to help, led a large army, surrounded the Zhuangyuan Temple overnight, and asked Zhan Zhao to lead people, broke into Tianlong Villa from the back mountain, and found the medicine hut.

That night, everyone found a large number of incense candles from Tianlong Villa, as well as hundreds of pens and amulets containing Bi'an toxin in the medicine house, and they were caught and seized.

But the legendary mad scholar was not in Tianlong Villa. Zhan Zhao and the others turned Tianlong Villa upside down, but they still couldn't find him.In addition, Shen Longxing and his son also said that they were poisoned by Bi An's poison, and they were not the mastermind but the victims under the orders of the scholar, so there was nothing wrong with them.

Bao Zheng knew that the father and son were avoiding crimes, but in order to avoid more candidates being killed, he had no choice but to level the Yaolu and Zhuangyuan Temple first.

For a while, there was a long queue in front of the gate of Kaifeng Mansion, all candidates who came to receive medicine to detoxify, and to understand the 50 taels of silver paid by returning to the Zhuangyuan Temple.

However, after that, the fight between candidates never happened again, and Kaifeng, which was originally tense, returned to calm.

Bao Zheng ordered Huaying Graphics to arrest the scholar.The portrait drawn based on the descriptions of all the people who have seen the mad scholar in Tianlong Villa is exactly the same as the ghost champion Cen Lei back then.

And Shen Longxing confessed that the scholar's name was Cen Lei, which was the same as what Dong Xu asked from his fourth aunt.

Everyone was puzzled—didn't the scholar Cen Lei die a long time ago? !How come out to make trouble?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were also a little entangled. They had clearly seen Cen Lei's body before...how could they come out to harm someone again?Could it be that there are really ghosts in this world?

While everyone was puzzled and continued to investigate the case, the day of the autumn test finally arrived.

Early in the morning, a group of people from Kaifeng Prefecture sent Bao Yan into the examination room. Bao Yan was also a little nervous. The fourth son hugged the little monkey to cheer him up, "Little Mantou, you are nervous!"

"Hmm..." Bao Yan nodded hesitantly, feeling that his head was empty, and those books he had memorized before did not know where to go, and he thought that he should not fail the exam, or he would embarrass his father.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought it was funny, wondering if they were so nervous during Master Bao's exams.

When Bao Yan handed in the name card and entered the examination room, Pang Yu jumped up and shouted from behind, "Oh, little mantou, if you feel bad after the test, remember not to write your name! Otherwise, Master Bao's famous name will be ruined in your hand. "

After finishing a sentence, the people watching the excitement around him burst into laughter.

Bao Yan was so angry that he wanted to hit him with his shoes, and turned angrily into the examination room, but he didn't seem as nervous as before.

"Hey, I'll go to Taibaiju to reserve a table, and I'll go there for dinner after I get the table ready." Pang Yule Diandian ran away with his equally happy little four to order food.

Bao Fu was worried and had to wait at the entrance of the examination room.

Everyone else left as soon as they had something to do.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were considering whether to sit nearby and wait for Bao Yan to come out, or continue to wander around.

I heard someone "tsk tut" behind me.

"Father?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang turned their heads and saw Qi Siren standing not far away, lightly tossing three copper coins in his hands.

"Old Immortal, can you figure out if my young master will be able to go to high school?" Xiao Baofu hurried over to ask the old man to tell his fortune.

The old man nodded happily, "Okay."

As soon as the copper plate was thrown, a hexagram image fell out, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang leaned over to have a look.

"Oh!" The old man stroked his beard, "It's amazing, the champion is Bao Yan..."

"Really!" Xiao Bao Fu jumped up happily and clapped his hands, but the old man continued, "If he survives."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback, and asked Qi Siren in unison, "What do you mean?!"