[Comprehensive] Traveling through Liaozhai with a hundred ghosts

The rabbit that I saw during the day has now turned into a human form, but there are still a pair of rabbit ears on its head, and it is now in front of the road that Xu Hang and the others are going to walk.

Xu Hang could see that the monster called Tuwan was very scared now, but he still forced himself to stand calmly in front of them.

Tumaru said tremblingly, "Master Youkai! I have something...I want to ask you for help!"

Generally speaking, Xu Hang would not make things difficult for this kind of harmless little monster. Since the other party asks for it, he is naturally willing to understand the situation.

"What's the matter?" Xu Hang's tone was as usual without any emotion.

Tuwan quickly told the story in detail.

It turned out that he and a few little monsters found a jiaotu in the mountains a few days ago.

Jiaotu is a clam-type monster that originally lived in deep water. It cannot move on land. It is a long distance from the sea in Yuezhong, so they all wonder why there is Jiaotu here.

And because it has been out of the water for too long, the condition of Jiaotu is already very bad.

The little monsters finally fetched water to wake up Jiaotu, and after questioning, she found out that she was abandoned here by humans.

Jiaotu, who had been living in the deep sea, longed for the prosperity of the human world, and wanted to travel in the human world, but her fishtail could not walk on the ground.Until one day she saw a merchant ship at sea, because she wanted to go ashore too much, so Jiaotu told a merchant on board her real name, and asked the other party to take her ashore for a tour at the price of being willing to accept the other party's driving.

At the beginning, the businessman did keep his promise and let her follow the caravan from Iga to Owari and then to Mino, but when he came to Etchu, the businessman suddenly left her in the mountains and never returned. .

Jiaotu still doesn't understand why the human abandoned her.

Hearing this, Xu Hang frowned and asked, "Where is the Jiaotu you mentioned?"

Seeing that he might help, Tuwan immediately perked up his ears energetically, and hurriedly led the way for them.

Seeing that Xu Hang was really going, Yasha had already begun to feel helpless.

Soon, they saw a huge clam led by Tuwan.

Such a big clam appeared in the mountain, obviously out of tune with the surrounding trees, besides there were little monsters like Yingcao and Shantong who poured water on Jiaotu from time to time.

Jiaotu was very frustrated that she was abandoned by humans. When Xu Hang came, she heard her ask the monster next to her: "Is it because I am too troublesome that I was abandoned?"

"No, don't think too much." Yingcao, who always likes to take care of others, comforted her.

Xu Hang already knew the reason, and suddenly came up with an idea, but he still asked first: "Do you want me to help send Jiaotu back to the sea?"

Sensing the aura of a big monster emanating from Xu Hang's body, the little monsters present were all very nervous.

Jiaotu hid in the shell, weakly said: "But I forgot the way home."

Yasha said impatiently, "Tsk, why is it so troublesome?"

According to the rumors, Yasha has always been a kind of ferocious monster, so when the little monsters saw his reaction, they immediately became more nervous.

Xu Hang thought for a while and said, "If you still want to continue walking in the human world, I can take it with you. If you want to go back to the sea, I will try to help you."

Jiaotu poked his head out of the shell and said sincerely: "I still want to continue traveling in the human world. If I don't dislike my weakness, I am willing to be your servant at your command."

Xu Hang nodded: "I understand."

Then Xu Hang told her: "You can't become a complete human, and it's difficult to take you on the road, but you can make a contract with me. When I need you, it can let you go to where I am in an instant, and return as you want. Then cancel the echo."

Jiaotu said almost without thinking, "I am willing to work for you!"

Then he told Xu Hang his real name.

Xu Hang then proposed to leave a portrait for Jiaotu, he said: "This is part of the contract."

When he opened the scroll, the only Yaksha portrait on it was particularly eye-catching, and the little monsters beside him were amazed when they saw the painting that could record the appearance of things so realistically.

After Xu Hang finished painting the portrait of Jiao Tu, he found that the little monsters beside him were all staring at the picture eagerly.

Finally, Shan Tong said: "My lord, can I ask you to draw a portrait of me too? It doesn't matter if you need me to hand over my name. I just saw that you painted so beautifully, my lord. If I can also leave such a portrait Just a portrait."

It took a lot of time to paint. Seeing that Xu Hang was about to agree, Yasha immediately said, "Hey! If the monsters on the road ask you to paint and you agree, don't expect to go to Ping An Jing in a year or so!"

Xu Hang paused when he heard that, Shan Tong and the other little monsters thought he was going to refuse, and were about to feel disappointed.

"Then, I will only draw each type of youkai once."

Hearing what Xu Hang said, Yasha had no objections.

So next, Xu Hang not only drew a portrait for Shantong, but Yingcao, Gulonghuo and other little demons all signed up one after another, and Xu Hang did not refuse.

After drawing portraits for a group of little monsters, Xu Hang consulted Jiaotu and decided to move her to a nearby river.

It didn't take long for them to find a river with a suitable depth and put Jiaotu down there.

Xu Hang promised: "When we reach the human town, we will call you over."

Jiaotu was very happy when he heard the words, and so were the little monsters whose portraits were drawn by Xu Hang. Although they gave their real names, monsters always worship the strong, and there is nothing wrong with being a subordinate of a big monster.

After Xu Hang left, although he didn't keep the scrolls, but in the process of drawing the portraits of the monsters, some drafts and sketches were left to the little monsters because he didn't need to keep them.

Although it is not a finished draft, the drawing is not bad, and it is still very rare for the monsters, so they keep it well.Then, when playing with other monsters in the mountains on weekdays, out of the mentality of sharing or showing off, I naturally talked about the big monster painting a portrait for myself, and occasionally showed the draft.

When Xu Hang and Yasha were active in this forest before, the monsters in the forest naturally knew about it, but the little monsters basically avoided the two of them out of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Although the big monster walks with a vicious monster like Yasha, but his personality is still quite good?

Looking at the sketches produced by the monsters such as Shantong Yingcao, I heard that the finished drawings drawn by the big monster are more beautiful, almost beautiful, and thinking that they can be recorded by the brush of the big monster, those little monsters are all for this. envious.

The speed of information transmission among monsters is very fast. Not long after, a big monster who is good at painting came from overseas. It spread in the monster world.

At this time, the tea stand on the side of Kaga Road.

Some businessmen and travelers are resting here and drinking water. These people from different places will inevitably communicate with each other and talk about gossip and strange things from various places to pass the time.

"Speaking of which, a few days ago when I was passing through Yuezhong, I encountered a lucky thing."

In the teahouse, an older merchant was talking to a merchant from Noto next to him.

"What makes you look so happy?"

The Noto merchant asked.

At the same time, a young man who looked like a scholar sat down on the bench next to them calmly, carrying a bookcase on his back.

There were a lot of people coming and going in the teahouse, so they didn't care about such a scholar and continued to discuss the original topic.

"When passing through Yuezhong, a few merchants and I bought dry goods in a fishing village, and then a fisherman in the village said that there was a nobleman who was in trouble, and hoped that we would take him to Ping'an capital, and we agreed."

"Did that nobleman promise to give you a huge bonus?"

"That's not true. We are entering the mountains and going to spend the night in the village where we used to stay. Who knew that village was actually destroyed by monsters!"

"Hey! This is terrible!"

"That's right, but there's no way around it. The surrounding area is in the wilderness. Although the village is in ruins, at least some houses haven't collapsed, so we have to spend the night there."

"Hey... It's really hard to live these days, but what about later? You won't meet monsters, right?"

"You guessed it right. In the middle of the night, there was a sudden strong wind. A one-foot-tall ghost with horns and dark blue skin came to the destroyed village. It probably smelled of living people. It rummaged around in the ruins. After we were woken up, we all thought: It’s over, it’s over! We’re about to become food for monsters…”

At this time, not only the businessman in Noto in front of him was attracted by the content to listen attentively, but even some people beside him raised their ears and waited for the next one.

"Just when the ghost was less than two feet away from the house where we were hiding, suddenly, a white light shot out from the room where we were hiding, and then I heard the ghost outside screaming, and the eyebrows were in the middle of the mouth. Penetrated, fell down dead!"

The Noto merchant gasped.

"When we came back to our senses, we suddenly recalled that the white light just now seemed to be shot from one of us, but in the end we couldn't figure out what was going on. When we were about to set off again the next day, the one before that The nobleman who asked us to take him to Heianjing suddenly said that he can go alone and not follow our team. How can this be possible, this mountain is so dangerous! But the nobleman turned around and left, and then the figure disappeared in the blink of an eye No, there is only a piece of talisman left where it was originally standing."

"It seems that you have met the blessings of the gods!"

The Noto merchant sighed.

"That's right. Later we picked up that talisman paper in surprise and fear. It's miraculous to say the least. Since we took that talisman paper, we have never encountered any monsters even if we were traveling at night. Maybe the nobleman before It must be the god in the mountain, now that I think about it carefully, it seems that he has never revealed his name to us."

The young man with the bookcase on his back showed a thoughtful expression. Not long after hearing the story, he got up and left from the tea stand.

……

Two days later, Xu Hang and Yasha came to the Kaga area.

When they were still walking on the mountain road, they saw a young man carrying a bookcase walking towards them not far away.

Xu Hang just glanced at it from a distance, and recognized that it was a bookman through his clothes.

Sure enough, the other party stopped in front of them after approaching them, looked at Xu Hang with a smile, and said hello: "Hello, my lord, I am the scholar."

Xu Hang nodded to him and said, "Hello."

The scholar then looked at Yasha, and smiled, "I didn't expect to see Yasha again. I heard that you are a kind of solitary monster."

Yasha said a little irritably: "Tch! It's not because the big monster has already opened his mouth to make a request, so he can't refuse it."

The bookman noticed that Xu Hang's expression didn't change, and didn't care about Yasha's slightly rude words. It seems that the rumors about this big monster's kindness and generosity are true.

A few days ago, Shuweng heard from other monsters that recently there was a big monster from overseas with superb drawing skills, and now he is collecting and drawing portraits of every kind of monster.

Shuweng intuitively felt that this was a big monster with a story.And he happened to be a monster who loves to inquire about other people's stories.

Therefore, Shuweng planned to contact Xu Hang.When I heard from other youkai that this big youkai is now in the area from Echuchu to Kaga, I set out to come here.

It seemed that he was lucky. Not long after he came to Kaga, he heard a strange story at a roadside tea stand. The bookman had an intuition that the strange encounter that the merchant talked about was related to the big monster who came from overseas recently.

The whereabouts of the big monster were relatively easy to inquire about. It didn't take long for him to successfully meet the rumored big monster on this mountain road.

Xu Hang asked, "Why did you come to see me?"

The bookman came back to his senses, looked secretly, and said: "I heard about your reputation recently, and because I'm curious about you, I want to come and witness your demeanor with my own eyes."

I have to say that this appearance and demeanor is really impressive. If those Ji Jun in Ping'an Jing saw it, I'm afraid it will arouse a lot of admiration and jealousy.

Xu Hang nodded to express his understanding.

Then Shuweng asked: "There is a deserted temple in front, if you are not in a hurry, why don't we sit there, what do you think?"

After Xu Hang entered the dream, he originally had the mentality of traveling in mountains and rivers, wanting to see what would happen, so he quickly agreed.

Not long after, they came to the temple Shuweng said.

The temple is dilapidated, but the floor inside is fairly clean. In addition to the dusty Buddha statue, there is only a table in front of the Buddha that was used to place offerings, and a rusty lampstand was placed on the table.

The bookman waved his sleeves, and after cleaning up all the dust on the ground with some monster tricks, he took out a cloth from the bookcase and spread it on the ground.

Yasha had already sat down directly, and the corners of his mouth twitched when he saw this, he said straightly: "You are such a sophisticated monster!"

The scholar touched his nose, and Xu Hang calmly sat down cross-legged.

After everyone sat down, the scholar said respectfully: "I heard that you are a big demon from overseas. You must have a lot of knowledge and know a lot of anecdotes from overseas, so I came here to inquire about it. After all, my hobbies are only So much."

Xu Hang asked him, "Then what kind of story do you want to hear?"

Shu Weng said, "Of course it's up to you."

Xu Hang thought for a while, and it happened that he came from Liaozhai, so he might as well tell the other party the story of Liaozhai.

Xu Hang decided to talk about the most famous "Nie Xiaoqian" in Liao Zhai, but what he said was not his own personal experience, nor the one that was adapted and beautified in the film and television drama, but the original version in Liaozhai.

That is, after Yan Chixia killed the locust tree spirit, Nie Xiaoqian took the initiative to follow Ning Caichen home and expressed her willingness to become his concubine in order to repay Ning Caichen for keeping her promise to bury her well.

Ning Caichen originally had a wife in his family, but she was bedridden with illness all year round, unable to take care of her husband and in-laws.After Nie Xiaoqian came to take care of the housework for her, Mother Ning was very satisfied with her.

Later, when Ning Caichen's wife died of illness, Ning's mother deliberately asked Ning Caichen to marry Nie Xiaoqian as the sequel.

After getting along for more than a year, Nie Xiaoqian gradually became no different from a living person after gaining popularity.So Ning Caichen married Nie Xiaoqian. A few years later, Xiaoqian gave birth to a boy for him. Ning Caichen was admitted to Jinshi and took a concubine. The concubine gave birth to a son for him. The family was harmonious and beautiful.

Xu Hang is not a person full of emotions, so when he tells a story, it is like reading a script according to the script, and his voice is flat and there is no ups and downs.

It didn't take long before he finished the story and shut up.

When Yacha heard that Nie Xiaoqian went home with Ning Caichen, he realized that there might be a love story between humans and ghosts, so he lost interest in this story.

But Shuweng's expression was a bit tangled, logically speaking, it was indeed a happy ending, but after thinking about it, there was a sense of awkwardness, and he seemed uncomfortable.

After pondering for a while, the bookman said: "I thought that ghosts and human beings have different paths. After Ning Sheng took a concubine, the ghost girl would see that his life was happy, and then leave at ease. Although Ning Sheng felt melancholy, he had no choice but to accept it. Think of it as a realistic story.”

After a brief exclamation, the scholar turned his attention to the old black mountain demon and the locust tree spirit in the story, and he couldn't help asking Xu Hang about overseas monsters.

Xu Hang then told him about some ghosts in "Shan Hai Jing".

The dissemination of knowledge in this era is far less convenient than in modern times, and the cost of acquiring knowledge is much higher than in modern times.

After all, Xu Hang came from the era of information explosion in the future. He can tell a lot about many things. Later, he scanned all the books in the Qing Palace in Laoshan. , It's like discovering a treasure house, and I'm happy to see the hunter.

Then I kept asking and listening like this, and before I knew it, it was getting dark outside.

The light in the room was dark, and Shuweng Fang noticed it, and said embarrassedly: "Oh, it seems that I have delayed you for a long time."

"It's okay." Xu Hang said, "It's also very pleasant to chat with you."

The scholar likes to walk around and inquire about all kinds of rumors and anecdotes. From his mouth, Xu Hang also quickly learned a lot of Japanese cultural customs and the forces of monsters here.

For example, in Shikoku and Kyushu, it is popular to raise dog gods, and some evil mages use dog gods to cast curses on others.

At the same time, the Shikoku area is also the territory of the dog clan, and it is said that it is now under the command of the dog general.

Because the sky was getting dark, Xu Hang saw that there was still lamp oil left on the lampstand in the temple, so he lit it by the way.

Perhaps because the lamp oil has been stored for too long, the color of the ignited flame is a bit weird, mostly blue, reflecting a faint blue light.

Not long after he lit the lampstand, people's footsteps came from outside, and there were probably three or four people.

Xu Hang looked at Yasha subconsciously. Among them, Yasha was the only one who could be seen as a monster at a glance. Both he and Shuweng were similar to ordinary people.

Yasha let out a "tsk" and changed his body impatiently.

With the ghost horns retracted, the appearance of the weapon became more restrained, and the appearance became more serious.

It's just that he himself gives people the feeling of madness, even if he is restrained, he still feels fierce and difficult to deal with, but combined with the weapon in his hand, he looks like a guard.