He let go of his hand involuntarily. Before the oil lamp almost fell to the ground, Wei Wuxian rescued it, calmly rubbed it on the burning fire talisman in his other hand, lit it, put it on the table, and said: " Were these done by you, the old man? Good craftsmanship."
Only then did everyone realize that the people standing in the room were not real people, but a large group of paper figures.
The heads, faces, and bodies of these paper figures are the same size as those of real people. They are made very delicately. There are men, women, and children. The men are all "yin warriors", who are made to be tall, strong and angry. The women are all beauties with good looks, either wearing double buns or buns. Even under the wide paper clothes, you can still see their graceful figures. The patterns on the paper clothes are even better than the real brocade robes. fine. Some of them are colored, with rich ink and bright reds and greens; some of them are not yet colored, and they are all white and gray. Each paper man has two large dabs of blush on his cheeks to imitate the color of a living person's face, but their eyeballs seem to have no time to light up. The eye sockets are completely white. The thicker the blush, the brighter the cheeks. The more gloomy and miserable it becomes.
There was also a table in the main room. There were several candles of different lengths on the table. Wei Wuxian lit one of them, and the yellow light illuminated most of the room. In addition to these paper figures, there are two large wreaths placed on the left and right sides of the main room, and paper gold ingots, ghost coins, and pagodas are piled up into a hill in the corner.
Jin Ling had already pulled the sword out of its sheath, but when he saw that it was just a shop selling funeral items, he breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed the sword. Even if a monk from the Xianmen family dies, they never engage in these messy and gloomy scenes among the people. They see less of them. After being frightened at first, they become curious again and get goosebumps. Instead, they feel that they are ordinary monsters than hunting at night. Even more exciting.
No matter how thick the fog is, it can't get into the house. After entering Yicheng, they can easily see each other's faces now, and they feel more at ease. Seeing that they were relaxed, Wei Wuxian asked the old lady, "Can I borrow the kitchen?"
The old lady didn't seem to like the light of the fire. She stared at the oil lamp almost viciously and said, "The kitchen is at the back. You can use it yourself." After that, she hid in another room like a plague. She closed the door so loudly that several people trembled. Jin Ling said: "There must be something weird about this old witch! You..." Wei Wuxian said: "Okay, stop talking. I need help, who will come with me?"
Lan SiZhui hurriedly said, "I'll do it."
Lan Jingyi still stood upright and said, "Then what should I do?"
Wei WuXian said, "Keep standing. If I don't let you move, don't move."
Lan SiZhui followed Wei Wuxian to the kitchen at the back. As soon as he entered, a foul smell of mold hit his face. Lan SiZhui had never smelled such a terrible smell in his life. He felt dizzy, but he refrained from rushing out. Jin Ling also followed, and as soon as he entered the door, he jumped out, fanning himself and saying, "What the hell does it smell like!!! If you don't want to detoxify, what are you doing here!"
Wei Wuxian said, "Hey? You came just in time. How did you know I was going to call you over? Let's help."
Jin Ling said: "I'm not here to help! Ugh! Did someone here kill someone and forget to bury it?!"
Wei WuXian said, "Miss Jin, are you coming? If you come, come in and help together. If you don't come, go back and sit down and ask someone else to come over."
Jin Ling was furious: "Who is Miss Jin? Be careful what you say!" He pinched his nose for a while, hesitated for a while, and finally hummed: "I want to see what the hell you are going to do. ." Then he angrily picked up his clothes and walked in. Unexpectedly, Wei Wuxian opened a box on the ground with a clang, and the stench came from inside. There was a pig leg and a chicken stuffed in the box. The red meat was full of green, and there were white little maggots curled up in the green.
Jin Ling was forced to retreat again. Wei Wuxian picked up the box and handed it to him, saying, "Throw it away. Just throw it wherever you want, just don't let us smell it."
Jin Ling felt sick and suspicious, so he threw it out as he was told, wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, and threw it away. When they returned to the kitchen, Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui fetched two buckets of water from the well in the backyard and were cleaning the kitchen. Jin Ling asked, "What are you doing?"
Lan SiZhui diligently wiped and said, "As you can see, wash the stove."
Jin Ling said: "What are you doing washing the stove? It's not like making food."
Wei WuXian said, "Who says it's not the case? We just want to make food. Come and sweep up Yangchen and remove all the cobwebs on it."
What he said was so justified and so natural that Jin Ling was inexplicably stuffed with a Yangchen Sweeper into his hand, and he started to do it in a daze. The more he swept, the more he felt something was wrong. Just as he was about to throw the broom at Wei Wuxian's head, Wei Wuxian opened another box and was so surprised that he ran out. Fortunately, this time there was no stench that hit his nostrils.
The three people moved quickly, and soon the kitchen had a completely new look. It was finally a bit popular and no longer looked like a haunted house that had been abandoned for many years. There are chopped firewood in the corner. Pile them into the bottom of the stove, light them with fire symbols, set a cleaned large pot on top, and let it boil a pot of boiling water. Wei Wuxian poured out a pile of glutinous rice from the second box, cleaned it, and put it into the pot.
Jin Ling said: "Cooking porridge?"
Wei Wuxian: "Yeah."
Jin Ling threw the rag. Wei Wuxian said, "Look at you, you get angry after working for a while. Look at Si Zhui, working the hardest and not saying anything. What's wrong with porridge?"
Jin Ling said: "What's so good about porridge? Clear soup is devoid of water! No... I'm angry because the porridge is not good?!"
Wei WuXian said, "It's not for you to eat anyway."
Jin Ling became even more angry: "What did you say? I've worked for so long and you still don't have my share?!"
Lan SiZhui asked, "Master Mo, is it true that porridge can detoxify corpses?"
Wei WuXian smiled and said, "Yes, but the thing that can detoxify corpses is not porridge, but glutinous rice. A traditional method. Usually, you apply glutinous rice to the wounds caused by scratches and bites. In case you encounter this kind of situation in the future, You can try it. Although it will be very painful, it will definitely work and the effect will be immediate. However, they were not scratched or bitten, but inhaled the corpse poison powder, so they can only cook a bowl of glutinous rice porridge and drink it."
Lan SiZhui suddenly said: "No wonder you have to enter a house, and a house with people. Only places where people live can have a kitchen, and there can be glutinous rice in the kitchen."
Jin Ling said: "Who knows how long this rice has been stored for before it can still be eaten? Besides, no one has used this kitchen for at least a year. It is full of ashes and the meat is smelly. Doesn't that old woman not have to eat this year? It's impossible for her. How do you survive if you know how to inediate yourself?"
Wei WuXian said, "Either this room has never been occupied, and she is not the owner of the shop at all. Or, she doesn't need to eat."
Lan SiZhui whispered: "If you don't need to eat, you are dead. But this old man is clearly breathing."
Wei Wuxian stirred the pot of porridge with a spatula and various bottles and jars, and said, "That's right. You haven't finished talking yet, why did you come to Yicheng together? It's impossible for you to do this What a coincidence, you just met us again, right?"
The expressions of the two young men immediately became solemn. Jin Ling said: "Me, the people from the Lan family, and a few from other families are all chasing something. I came from Qinghe." Lan SiZhui said, "We came from Langxie Coming after me."
Wei WuXian said, "What is it?"
Lan SiZhui shook his head and said, "I don't know. It has never shown up. We don't know what it is, or who it is... or what organization it is."
It turned out that a few days ago, Jin Ling deceived his uncle into letting Wei Wuxian go. He was always worried that Jiang Cheng would really break his legs this time, so he decided to sneak away and disappear for ten and a half days, waiting for Jiang Cheng to get over his anger. Appeared in front of him again, handed Zidian to Jiang Cheng's close subordinates, and ran away. He arrived at a small town just outside Qinghe, looking for the next night hunting spot, and rested in a large inn. That night, he was reciting spells in the room. Suddenly, the fairy lying at his feet rushed out of the door. cried. It was already late at night, Jin Ling was drinking to stop the spirit dog, but then he heard a knock on the door.
Although the fairy stopped screaming, she was very agitated. Her claws were clawing at the ground and her throat was snoring. Jin Ling felt wary and asked who it was. When there was no answer, he ignored it. However, half an hour later, the knock on the door rang again.
Jin Ling led the fairy out of the window, went around in a circle, and came up from downstairs, intending to attack from behind and catch him by surprise to see who was causing trouble in the middle of the night. Unexpectedly, I jumped in and waited quietly for a while, but still didn't see anyone in front of my room door.
He kept a careful eye and asked the fairy to guard the door, ready to attack anyone who came at any time. He didn't rest all night, but nothing happened that night. I just kept hearing a strange sound, like water dripping.
Early the next morning, there was a scream outside the door. Jin Ling kicked the door open and stepped into a pool of blood. Something fell from above the door. Jin Ling ducked back to avoid being hit.
A black cat!
Someone at some point nailed the body of a dead cat above his door. The strange dripping sound he heard in the middle of the night was the cat's blood dripping.
Jin Ling said: "It was the same after changing to several inns. I took the initiative to pursue it. When I heard that the body of a dead cat appeared somewhere for no reason, I went over to take a look and I must find out who was causing trouble."
Wei Wuxian turned to Lan Sizhui: "Are you guys too?"
Lan SiZhui nodded and said, "That's right. A few days ago, a few of us were hunting at night in Langxie. One night during dinner, a cat head that had not yet been skinned was suddenly fished out of the soup... I didn't know it was aimed at us. But when we changed to an inn to rest that day, we found a dead cat in the bedding in the room. This continued for several days. We chased him to Yueyang, met Mr. Jin, and found that we were investigating the same thing, so we acted together. . I just tracked down this area today. I asked an hunter in the village in front of a stone monument and was pointed to the road to Yicheng."
Wei WuXian thought to himself, "A hunter?"
The juniors must have passed by the village at the entrance of the stone monument later than he and Lan Wangji. However, they did not see any hunters at that time, only a few shy farm girls feeding chickens were looking after the house, saying that the men in the family were out transporting goods. , it will take a long time to come back.
The more Wei Wuxian thought about it, the more solemn his expression became.
Listening to the narration, the other party did nothing except kill the cat and dump the body. Although it sounded and looked terrible, they were not actually harmed. Instead, these things aroused their curiosity and desire to inquire more.
Also, the place where these juniors met was Yueyang. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji happened to be heading south from Yueyang to Shudong. It looked as if someone was deliberately guiding these ignorant children and the people here. It's like two people getting together.
Leading a bunch of ignorant juniors to a dangerous and unknown location to face the murderous stumps of a corpse - isn't this exactly the same routine as what happened in Mojiazhuang?
And this is not the most complicated thing. What Wei Wuxian is more afraid of right now is... the Yin Tiger Talisman, which might be in Yicheng right now.
Although Wei Wuxian himself didn't want to accept this possibility, it was the most reasonable explanation. After all, there is even someone who can restore half of the Yin Tiger Talisman. Although it is said to have been cleaned up, who knows whose hands the Yin Tiger Talisman he restored fell into?
At this moment, Lan SiZhui squatted on the ground, fanning the firewood, and raised his face and said, "Senior Mo, the glutinous rice porridge seems to be cooked?"
Wei Wuxian came back to his senses, stopped stirring the spatula, took the bowl Lan SiZhui had just washed, took a spoonful of it, tasted it, and said, "Okay. Take it out, one bowl for each of the poisoned ones, and feed them eat."
However, after taking it out and taking only one bite, Lan Jingyi sprayed: "What is this, poison?!"
Wei WuXian said, "What kind of poison? This is the antidote! Glutinous rice porridge."
Lan Jingyi said: "Regardless of why glutinous rice is the antidote, I have never eaten such spicy glutinous rice porridge!"
The others who had entered the mouth nodded one after another, all with tears in their eyes. Wei Wuxian touched his chin. He grew up in Yunmeng, and Yunmeng people are very fond of spicy food. Wei Wuxian's taste is a top priority. Whenever he tries, it must be so spicy that Jiang Cheng can't stand it and will throw his bowl and scold him for being unpalatable. But he could never help but add spoonful after spoonful of ingredients to the pot, and he seemed to have lost control just now. Out of curiosity, Lan SiZhui took the bowl and took a sip. His face turned red and he pursed his lips to hold back the spray. His eyes turned red and he thought to himself, "This taste... is so scary that it feels a bit familiar..."
Wei WuXian said, "It's a medicine that's three parts poisonous. The spicy part makes you sweat, so it heals faster."
The young men all expressed their disbelief with "oohs", but they still finished the porridge with a grimace. For a moment, everyone's face was red and their heads were sweating profusely. They were all suffering and felt worse than death. Wei Wuxian couldn't help but said, "As for that? Hanguang-Jun is also from Gusu, and he can also eat spicy food. Why are you like this?"
Lan SiZhui covered his mouth and said, "No, senior, Hanguang-Jun's taste is very bland. He never eats spicy food..."
Wei Wuxian was startled and said, "Really?"
But he remembered that in his previous life, after he betrayed the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he and Lan Wangji had met once in Yiling. Although Wei Wuxian was criticized a lot at that time, he was not to the point where everyone wanted to beat him up, so he shamelessly decided to have dinner with Lan Wangji to reminisce about the past. Lan Wangji always ordered spicy dishes with a plate full of Sichuan peppercorns, so he always thought that Lan Wangji tasted similar to him.
Thinking about it now, he didn't even remember whether Lan Wangg had used the chopsticks on those dishes. However, even before the meal, he said that he would forget about the treat after finishing the meal. Lan Wangji paid the bill. Naturally, he would not remember such details.
"...Senior, Senior Mo!"
"Huh?" Wei Wuxian finally came back to his senses. Lan SiZhui whispered: "The old lady's door... opened."
A gust of wind blew from nowhere, blowing the door of the small room open a crack, sometimes opening and sometimes closing. The room was dark, and a rickety shadow could be seen vaguely sitting at the table. Wei Wuxian motioned for them not to move and walked into the room.
The oil lamp and candlelight in the main room came in. The old lady lowered her head, as if she didn't notice anyone coming in. There was a piece of cloth on her knees, stretched with a bandage, as if she was doing female prostitutes. Her hands were pressed together stiffly, trying to thread a thread into a needle.
Wei Wuxian also sat at the table and said, "Old man, why don't you light a lamp while you thread a needle? I'll do it."
He took the needle and thread, threaded it through in one go, and gave it back to the old lady. Then he walked out of the house as if nothing had happened, closed the door, and said, "Don't even go in."
Jin Ling said: "When you went in just now, did you see clearly whether the old witch is dead or alive?"
Wei WuXian said, "Don't call me an old witch. It's rude. This old lady is a living corpse."
The teenagers looked at each other, Lan SiZhui asked: "What is a living corpse?"
Wei WuXian said: "From head to toe, it has the characteristics of a corpse, but the person is still alive. This is called a living corpse."
Jin Ling was shocked: "You said she is still alive?!"
Wei Wuxian said, "Did you look inside just now?"
"Looked at it."
"What did you see? What was she doing?"
"Thread the needle."
"Have you put it on yet?"
"...without."
"Yes, it can't be penetrated. A dead person's muscles are stiff and unable to perform complex movements such as threading needles and threads. The spots on her face are not age spots, but corpse spots. And she doesn't need to eat, but she can breathe, so she is alive."
Lan SiZhui said: "But, this old man is very old. Many old ladies have bad eyesight and cannot insert a needle by themselves."
Wei WuXian said, "So I helped her put it on. But did you notice another thing? She hasn't blinked once since she opened the door and walked in until now."
The teenagers blinked repeatedly, and Wei Wuxian said: "A living person blinks to prevent his eyes from becoming sore, but it is not necessary for a dead person. And when I took the needle and thread, did anyone notice how she looked at me?" "
Jin Ling said: "She didn't move her eyes...she moved her head!"
Wei WuXian said, "That's it. Most people will move their eyes to some extent when looking in another direction, but dead people don't, because they can't do such a detailed movement as turning their eyes, they can only turn their heads and necks."
Lan Jingyi said blankly: "Should we take notes?"
Wei WuXian said, "Good habit. But when I'm hunting at night, I don't have time for you to look through your notes and keep them in mind."
Jin Ling gritted his teeth and said: "Walking corpses are evil enough, why are there such things as living corpses!"
Wei WuXian said: "It is difficult for living corpses to form naturally. They are usually made by people, and this one is it."
"It's done?! Why do it?!"
Wei Wuxian said: "The dead have many shortcomings: stiff muscles, slow movements, etc. But the dead also have many advantages: they are not afraid of pain, cannot think, and are easily manipulated. Some people think that it can improve its shortcomings and create Create a perfect corpse puppet. This is how living corpses come to be."
Although the young men did not blurt out the words, their faces were already written with a line of big characters: "This person must be Wei! Wu! Xian!"
Wei Wuxian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and thought to himself, "I've never made anything like this before!"
Although it does sound a lot like his style!
He said: "Ahem. Well, it was Wei Wuxian who started it first, but he succeeded in refining Wen Ning, also known as the Ghost General. In fact, I have always wanted to ask who gave this nickname? It's so stupid. Besides, There are some people who want to imitate but are unable to imitate, so they take the wrong path and make ideas from living people, creating things like living corpses." He concluded: "It is a failed imitation."
Hearing Wei Wuxian's name, Jin Ling's expression turned cold and he snorted, "Wei Ying himself is inherently evil."
Wei WuXian said, "Well, those who make living corpses are the most evil of evil ways."
Lan SiZhui said, "Senior Mo, what should we do now?"
Wei WuXian said: "Some living corpses may not know that they are dead. I think this old lady is more confused about the situation, so we just don't disturb her for the time being."
At this moment, a crisp sound of bamboo poles hitting the ground suddenly sounded.
The sound came from close to a window. The window was sealed with black wooden boards. The faces of all the disciples of the aristocratic families in the hall turned pale. After they entered the city, they were constantly pestered and harassed by this voice, and their expressions changed after hearing it. Wei Wuxian gestured to be silent, and they held their breath as they watched Wei Wuxian stand by the window and look out through a very thin wooden crack in the door panel.
As soon as Wei Wuxian got close to the wooden crack, he saw a sliver of white. He thought it was because the white fog outside the house was too thick to see clearly. Unexpectedly, suddenly, this piece of white quickly receded.
He saw a pair of ferocious white eyes staring fiercely at the crack in the door. The white color he saw just now was not the mist, but the eyes without pupils.