Xianmen does not ask about the mundane

The attendant Xiao Tao got the order, and then stepped forward to lead the two of them out of the room, calling Xiao Er to ask for two upper rooms.Qi Zuo shied away and said that it would be too expensive to ask for a room, and besides, the younger brother was still young, so he didn't feel at ease living alone, so Xiao Tao had to agree, and sent the two of them into the room for a better settlement, and then sent him the Four Treasures of the Study.

After Qi Zuo wrote down the prescription, he asked Xiao Tao to wait for Master Qiao to take it before he fell asleep at night, and then let him leave.Seeing Xiao Tao close the door and go out, Zhu Lingyu finally couldn't help her doubts, and immediately sat next to Qi Zuo.

"Senior brother, when did you have the secret recipe to dispel the cold, why didn't I know?"

Looking at his curious expression, Qi Zuo smiled helplessly, and said, "Of course I don't have any secret recipe, it's just an ordinary prescription for nourishing qi and nourishing blood. Master Qiao's illness is actually not wind-cold, but essence qi." Losses caused by being affected by resentment must be suppressed with spiritual energy to make up for it."

Zhu Lingyu asked strangely: "Then why didn't senior brother just say that?"

Qi Zuo said: "I was worried that if I told Uncle Qiao directly, because of his temperament, if he knew that he would be unwilling to feed him blood, I wanted to mix blood into the soup and drink it for him."

Zhu Lingyu suddenly realized: "It turns out that it is like this. It seems that Uncle Qiao was sucked by the evil spirits on Fomu Mountain, causing his body to become weak, and the influence of resentment will cause him to be ill for a long time."

Qi Zuo said: "Well, but the possibility of being targeted on the way to and from Fomu Mountain is not ruled out. Do you remember that Mr. Qiao's letter mentioned the destruction of a century-old elm tree on Fomu Mountain?"

Zhu Lingyu nodded and said: "Remember, Master suspected that if the elm tree had already given birth to tree spirits, such a sudden change might be caused by evil spirits, so he let us come."

Qi Zuo said: "If the tree-cutting person really went after the tree spirit, I think it is very likely that the person who sucked Master Qiao's spirit is the same person, so we can focus on Mount Fomu. It saved a lot of trouble. But if a foreign trader is eyeing this good piece of wood, it will be hard to say. Now we have too little information about Fomu Mountain, and it is difficult to sort out other clues for the time being. We can only Go and find out more about the situation first, and then make a plan.”

Zhu Lingyu nodded, so the two of them went out together to the lobby downstairs and ordered a pot of tea for digestion.It was past meal time, and there were not many guests left in the lobby, so Qi Zuo took the opportunity to chat with Xiao Er, asking about the two century-old elm trees in Fomu Mountain.

The waiter was also idle, seeing that the shopkeeper was not here at the moment, he simply chatted with him, and said vividly: "You two don't know, that elm tree is hundreds of years old. , is a famous sacred tree here, and we go up to the mountain to worship it every year and festival. Unexpectedly, such a sacred tree that everyone has enshrined for many years, the trunk is so thick that two people can hug it, was The man was chopped down in the middle of the night, and even the roots were cut off. I heard that when someone went up the mountain the next morning, they saw that the tree stump was completely dug out. Such a century-old sacred tree It’s just so ruined, we feel distressed.”

Qi Yu knew about this early in the morning, and in order to confirm whether his guess was correct, he made an angry look on purpose and said, "That man wants to take wood, which tree can't do it, why did he choose such a meaningful century-old sacred tree?" ?”

The waiter seemed really annoyed when he heard that, he patted the corner of the table very patiently, but still made a lot of noise, and said angrily: "Hey, it's fine if it's for selling money, but the problem is that the tree trunk fell on the ground." On the ground, there is nothing missing, do you think it is annoying or not?"

Qi Zuo and Zhu Lingyu looked at each other, confirming that their guess was correct, that the other party was indeed after the tree spirit.

Qi Zuo asked again: "What about the other elm tree, I heard that it also withered suddenly."

Xiao Er said: "Yes, the guy who cut the tree with thousands of knives has not been found yet, and the other tree died overnight a few days ago, and the fallen leaves were scattered all over the place. Everyone said This is the anger of the sacred tree. The spirit left the tree and refused to bless us. And you don’t know, I heard that a few days ago someone went up the mountain and saw a female ghost! As long as someone approaches the elm tree, a female ghost will appear on the top of the tree. The ghost is coming to bite you with its bloody mouth open! No one dares to approach you these days, saying that they are discussing to invite Taoist priests."

"Ghost?" Qi Zuo and Zhu Lingyuan expressed doubts at the same time.

"Isn't that right, that female ghost..."

The waiter was talking vigorously, when a woman in a white cloak sitting at the table next to him suddenly called out for another jug ​​of wine, so he had no choice but to give up, smiled at the two of them and walked aside to say hello.

Zhu Lingyu looked at Xiao Er who was still angrily talking about the cutting of the sacred tree just now, and immediately entertained the strange guest with a smile on his face, and whispered: "Brother, do you believe what Xiao Er said?" Words? I think these market people are used to making up nonsense on weekdays, seeing people talk about people and ghosts talking nonsense, that female ghost may be someone who is blind and mistaken and making up nonsense."

Qi Zuo thought for a while and said: "Maybe, but if there really is the female ghost he mentioned, it doesn't sound like he is with the tree feller, but it seems to be guarding the elm tree, maybe he can know something about it." What. In short, we can basically confirm our conjecture now, let's go to Fomu Mountain immediately to find out without further delay."

Zhu Lingyu nodded: "Listen to brother."

The two greeted Qiao Sheng before they left. Qiao Sheng heard that he wanted to take them there in person, but his body couldn't bear it anymore, so he had to make a second choice and invite a local old horse to be their guide. The three set off for Fomu Mountain.

Fomu Mountain is not too far from the Yuepeng Inn where they stayed. The three of them drove from the inn just after noon, and arrived at the foot of Fomu Mountain in about an hour and two sticks of incense. They abandoned the car and began to hike up the mountain.

Lao Ma has lived in Wuzhou City for more than [-] years, and he is familiar with everything here. While leading the way, he turns around to explain the customs and customs and the statue of the Buddha Mother to the two of them from time to time. I can safely walk to the statue of the Buddha mother based on my feeling and memory.

Although Lao Ma hasn't studied for a few years and doesn't know many words, but relying on his love for Wuzhou City and Fomu Mountain, his narration is vivid and interesting.The two arrived in front of the legendary Buddha mother statue in the voice of the old horse with a slight accent.

I saw that the stone statue was about ten feet high, and it was a statue of a six-armed Buddha mother sitting cross-legged in meditation.The mother of the Buddha made a dharma seal with one hand on her chest, and a wish seal with the other hand, and the other four arms also spread out each dharma seal by her side.From a distance, the facial features are also very clear, and even a faint smile can be seen on the corner of the Buddha's mother's mouth. It is really hard to imagine that this Buddha's mother is naturally formed rather than artificially carved. For a while, both of them stared blankly. squinted.But when you get closer and look at it again, you will find that the details you saw before are actually just the beauty produced by the distance.

While admiring the natural Buddha statue, the two of them did not forget their real purpose of coming this time. Seeing an elm tree covered with red cloth strips at the foot of the Buddha statue from a distance, they quickened their pace.

The old horse had heard rumors of a female ghost haunting the elm tree early in the morning. He wanted to stop at a distance from the elm tree, but he didn't expect these two stunned young men to rush forward so recklessly. .

He quickly grabbed the two of them and warned them not to get close, but Qi Zuo and the others were here to deal with this matter, how could they stop there, and persuaded him not to worry, he had his own sense of proportion.But anyway, the old horse refused to let go, saying that if something happened to the two of them, he would not be able to explain to his old club. In the end, Qi Zong simply took out a piece of talisman and hung it in front of the old horse out of thin air, saying that he was a Taoist priest. Only then did he let go, but he himself didn't dare to get closer, so he had to stay where he was and wait for them to come back.

The two escaped from the shackles of the old horse and ran under the tree impatiently, and saw that the elm tree was indeed almost dead, with only a few sparse leaves left on the branches, but the veins were covered with red cloth used to pray for blessings. , it looks even more bleak.It's just that they didn't see another elm tree in the legend, and they didn't know how the locals handled the remains of the sacred tree in their mouths.

Before the two came, they thought that they might be able to find some traces of magic from the remains of the elm tree, but they didn't want the elm tree to disappear completely. Find clues.Unexpectedly, just as Qi Zuo was about to reach out his hand to the tree trunk to check it out, he suddenly heard an immature female voice angrily shouting: "Don't touch it!"

Qi Zuo and Zhu Lingyu were taken aback, followed the sound and looked up, and saw a little girl appearing at some point on a branch covered with red cloth strips, sitting on it and staring at the two with unfriendly expressions. people.