Xianjun has a disaster

Yan Ke looked at Ji Xueting.

Ji Xueting also looked at Yan Ke.

Originally the busiest long street, at this moment it seems to have become extraordinarily silent, all the surrounding noises have faded away, only Yan Ke's irregular breathing, and the slightly choked "Brother Xue Ting" ".

The young man's empty eyes were like a bottomless dry well, yet there was a touch of pain and regret lying deep in his eyes.

"sorry."

He murmured to Ji Xueting, his shoulders trembled slightly, as if he had made a huge mistake.

"Yan Ke?"

Realizing that the figure that had been lingering in the distance behind him was actually Yan Ke, Ji Xueting looked a little relaxed, and Ling Cangjian slowly retracted the scabbard reluctantly.

"Why is it you? Didn't I tell you to stay in the city lord's mansion well?"

Lu Ren on the side also frowned, pulled Yan Ke to his eyes, and asked impatiently.

Yan Ke's breath froze, even though he was being questioned by Lu Ren, his eyes were only glued to Ji Xueting from the beginning to the end.

"I don't know, I just want to... want to follow you."

His voice became smaller and smaller, and finally turned into a thin and weak breath, matching with his expression of almost ashamed of doing something wrong, showing a kind of untimely despair.

Lu Ren glanced at Yan Ke, then at Ji Xueting, who had a delicate expression, and thought: When he first rescued Yan Ke from the mandrill cave, this young man was still a taciturn and well-behaved young man.I really don't know what was wrong in the middle, but looking at Yan Ke now, I always feel that his whole body is filled with a sense of pity and sadness like he has been tortured by an evil mother-in-law and lost his will.

"Follow us, isn't it very convenient?"

At this time, Ji Xueting finally answered Yan Ke's words. He looked at Yan Ke tenderly, but his tone sounded quite alienated: "We are going out this time to investigate the evils of demons. Your posture this morning I've also seen that if we really encounter something, Lu Xianyou and I may not be able to take care of you in a hurry, you'd better go back to the City Lord's Mansion quickly, and it's better not to follow."

"I know, but I still want to follow you. I am not afraid of danger, and I can assure you that I will not cause you any trouble."

Yan Ke was at a loss and tried to persuade Ji Xueting to bring her with her.

"It's not something you're afraid of. It's really dangerous to investigate demons. You'd better go back quickly—"

Just as Ji Xueting was about to speak again, someone from the crowd next to him suddenly raised his voice and shouted at a poorly dressed beggar by the side of the road: "You are too cruel, why did you lose your own dog."

Then all the passers-by opened their mouths to respond.

"Yeah, I've never seen such a person."

"How can you be so cruel?"

……

Ji Xueting and his group involuntarily looked towards the noisy place, only to see a big butcher-like man with his hips on his hips, dragging the beggar to prevent him from leaving, and a skinny mutt squatting between the two of them.

The dog was obviously well-bred, his eyes were very human, their eyes seemed to be shining like water, and he was looking up at the thin beggar and sobbing endlessly.

It turned out that the beggar had a miscellaneous-haired dog who was always with him, and the butcher liked it by chance. The butcher wanted to keep him, but the dog refused to leave the owner.

And that night, the beggar secretly brought the dog to the butcher's stall, and tied the dog's leash under the butcher's table. He wanted to sneak away, but the dog's wailing exposed his plan, which caused a dispute.

Ji Xueting saw that it was just a common dog abandonment accident among the people, so he quickly turned his eyes around, just wanting to persuade the boy in front of him to go back.

"... There are spells and guards in the City Lord's Mansion, which can ensure your safety and security. Why do you bother to follow us around at night?"

Before he finished speaking, the beggar who abandoned the dog next to him just said sadly: "I really can't keep it anymore, Brother Yang, didn't you always say that you like Xiaobai before? He is so smart and obedient, and he will grow up every day if he stays with you." Eat and have a nest to sleep every night, it’s better than following me, a beggar who lives without a fixed place.” After finishing speaking, he looked at the shaggy dog ​​beside his feet and said, “Little Bai, why are you doing this? Are you stupid? You follow Brother Yang, but you can eat meat every day, so why bother to live a hard life with me?"

Say it, the beggar wiped away his tears, turned around and tried to escape again.

But the dog jumped up and bit his cuff, whining continuously, and actually had tears streaming down its eyes.

"Woooooooo..."

The dog whimpered mournfully.

At the same moment, Na Yanke was still immersed in his own thoughts. Following the dog's whining, he begged Ji Xueting in an extremely humble and pitiful manner: "Brother Xueting, I have no other ideas. I just want to act together with you. I can't bear to be left alone in a place where I can't see you, waiting for you to come back... I, I..."

Ji Xueting forcibly ignored the dog's barking, and said dryly, "Young Master Yan, you really don't need to follow me..."

He was talking here, and the passers-by watching over there were also condemning: "What is the picture of this dog? It's a piece of meat and a nest. Isn't the picture just staying by its master's side every day?"

"That's right, that dog is actually only happy when he is with his master. It's too cruel for you to forcibly leave him behind."

Ji Xueting said again: "It's only an hour or two, I'll be back soon."

Passer-by: "...Don't think that a dog is a beast, so you can fool it casually. You said that you will come to pick it up when you save more money and have a job? Isn't this just fooling it? What kind of job is there even a dog around? I can't bear it."

Ji Xueting: "..."

Dog: "Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo—"

Yan Ke: "Brother Xueting..."

……

Ji Xueting took a deep breath, rubbed his temples, and finally surrendered.

"Forget it, follow if you want."

As he spoke, he leaned down and stuffed a few paper beast and talisman papers into Yan Ke's palm.

"Take it well." Ji Xueting threw a fairy formula on Yan Ke to protect him, and suddenly noticed the gaze that Yan Ke was looking at him infatuatedly.

"...Even if I meet other people, I will also send the paper talisman to prevent them from encountering any accidents. This is not to favor you."

Ji Xueting hastily added, in order to avoid suspicion, his tone can also be a bit colder.

He just said that, and Yan Ke looked at him, but slowly smiled.

"I know."

Yan Ke said sweetly.

For a moment, his eyes and brows were filled with an almost crazy sweetness and satisfaction, but at this time Ji Xueting had already turned around, and the only one who saw this strangeness was Lu Ren.

Most of his life, the former No. [-] immortal official in the heaven realm, who only dealt with paperwork and examinations, caught a twist in this young man that made his scalp tingle, and he shuddered involuntarily, but again Going to take a closer look at Yan Ke, there is only a docile and cute character in that person, not weird at all.

Lu Ren was still waiting for a closer look, but Ji Xueting had already walked a few steps away, seeing that the two men hadn't caught up, he quickly turned to call him.

"Lu Xianyou, what's wrong?"

"nothing."

Lu Ren was startled, then wiped his face, suppressed the unease in his heart, and led Yan Ke to follow Ji Xueting's footsteps.

The three of them have to protect each other from getting separated, and they need to be more cautious when walking.

Fortunately, at the end of the long street, the dramas on the stage are no longer related to Xuejun Lianhua, but mostly old Qingzhou rumors and old stories. The crowd of onlookers is much smaller, and Ji Xueting and the three of them are much more relaxed when they start their journey. .

It's just that when they were about to go up the steps to the mountain temple, Ji Xueting suddenly stopped and stood in front of a small and crude stage to watch.

The stage...it's barely even a stage, it's just a bamboo frame one person tall, with red paper pasted around it, and the "stage" in the middle is only more than two feet wide.Of course, the ones who can sing on such a laughing stage cannot be living people, but a few rough and ridiculous puppets: hickory shells are used as heads, sharpened bamboo sticks are used as skeletons, and flowered paper is used as clothes.The little puppet's face was ugly, the hickory shell was full of pits and holes, and it was not even polished smooth. The purple red mouth was almost crooked below the ears, and the white painted face was full of holes. Only the eyes were surprisingly vivid, as if they were alive. Generally, it turns straight.

However, this simple and ridiculous puppet show performed something rather strange, and it was a legend about this Mount Ying——

It is said that under Mount Ying, there is a particularly terrifying and arrogant sky demon being suppressed. After being suppressed, the devil's energy still leaks out, causing people in a radius of tens of miles around Mount Ying to live in poverty, and evildoers run rampant.

However, the aura of Yingshan is thin here, even if the people pleaded with the heavens and Buddhas to solve the disaster of the demon, no one answered.

In desperation, a wandering Taoist priest passed by by chance to show the people of Qingzhou a way.

It turned out that the demon energy of the sky demon could actually be offset by the auspicious energy of spirit beasts, and among them, a spirit beast named "Rainbow Xing" was the most suitable.This kind of spirit beast is a natural god of mountains and fields. It wears five colors of light, has white hair, and looks like a deer. It can travel thousands of miles a day, and travel clouds and rainbows.

The puppets of the "villagers" on the stage suddenly jumped up when they heard the Taoist's words, and jumped on the Taoist's puppet, yelling and cursing, saying that the Taoist was deliberately teasing them.

Since the rainbow spirit beast can travel thousands of miles a day, how could it be captured by weak and incompetent mortals?

The Taoist puppet was beaten to the ground on the stage, so funny.After a lot of laughing and cursing, he told the mountain people that Hongxing has a weakness - if a child is tied to a boulder during the moonlight, and he is allowed to cry, Hongxing will fall when he hears the child crying. landed on its own.At this time, let the child coax Hongxing to take off his deerskin and turn into a human form to appease them. As a kind-hearted spirit beast, Hongxing will obey obediently.

If it hides its deerskin at this time, it can only turn into a human form, trapped in place, and can no longer escape.

【"This method is very good! This method is very good! The people of Qingzhou are saved!"】

【"Sir, you are brilliant! You are brilliant!"】

……

The ugly and simple puppets on the stage danced wildly and laughed.

Strange to say, this puppet stage is so crude, it doesn't even have a lantern, and only a few candles are used to barely illuminate it, but the person who hides behind the stage and controls it is very skilled in ventriloquism.

Those mountain people's movements were extremely stiff, but their mouths shouted joyfully but they were as lively as they were alive, so they could only hear...

The people who listened were terrified, and their backs felt cold.

Originally, Lu Ren casually approached Ji Xueting just because Ji Xueting was staying in front of the stage, but when he came back to his senses, he realized that he was actually engrossed and put all his energy into such a simple and ridiculous puppet show.

At this time, seeing those mountain people planning to go up the mountain to trap the spirit beast Hong Xing, I felt uncomfortable all over my body.

After recovering, he naturally noticed something strange about the stage.

Before he could move, Ji Xueting had already raised his sword and walked towards the puppet manipulator behind the stage silently.

However, as soon as he patted the man's shoulder, he felt a weight in his arms before he could move.

The man had already fallen down first.

But after Ji Xueting looked down and saw the man's face, his movements froze for a moment.

"Friend Ji Xian?"

Lu Ren hurried forward, and after seeing the man, he also stayed there for a while just like Ji Xueting.

"This, this is..."

A grinning face, a very stiff smile, painted lips and blush, and eyes with only one slit.

The man's head was nothing more than a wooden ball with a mask on.

And the body... is just an extremely rough puppet.

It was like an enlarged version of the ugly puppet that was jumping endlessly on the stage before. This puppet was just something made of bamboo and paper—even the many paper figurines in the coffin shop were more delicate than it.

But just now, Lu Ren clearly heard the voices of those puppets coming from its body.

"What exactly is going on?"

Although he tried to stay calm, Lu Ren's voice still trembled a little when he spoke.

"It should be that someone wants to reveal something to us."

After the initial surprise, Ji Xueting quickly returned to normal. After comforting his colleagues, Ji Xueting looked at Yan Ke intentionally or unintentionally: "Young Master Yan, you shouldn't be scared, right?"

Compared with Lu Ren, who was pale in color, Yan Ke looked extraordinarily calm.

Hearing Ji Xueting's question, he lowered his eyes, walked forward slowly, and...

Then he grabbed the silent paper puppet and threw it aside: "Brother Xue Ting, that thing is dirty, be careful not to stain your clothes."

Yan Ke said in a low voice.

"Ah, really...thank you."

Yan Ke didn't notice it without mentioning it, but Ji Xueting discovered at this time that the oil paint on the paper puppet's face was still freshly painted. It wasn't for Yan Ke's reminder that there would really be a lot of stains on it.

Ji Xueting ignored the puppets who had fallen apart, and took Lu Ren and Yan Ke back on the road.

I saw that as the night deepened, the crowds here did not decrease at all, and the streets and alleys became more and more noisy and lively.As for the fact that the simple puppet stage at the end of the street suddenly lost its controller, those people didn't seem to notice it either.

This should have been a good thing, but after the accident just now, now that Lu Ren is in the crowd, he can no longer find the peace of mind he had before.

"Ji Xianguan, you said that before that rampant god looked like he was wrapped in black silk..."

Ji Xueting dragged Yan Ke so that he would not get separated from her in the bustling crowd.

Then, he replied calmly.

"...like a deer."

The author has something to say: Li Zhu: ... Tianqu's widow face, yue!

Lu Ren: ...why does Mr. Yan look more and more like a child bride? ? ? ?