The dishes were placed in a full circle around the table. Lu Ping carefully divided the dishes into different portions, and then rushed Qi Mei, who was drooling, to the side to protect him. He took out his own incense burner and placed it in the center of the table, lit three sticks of incense, and opened the altar to worship.
About five minutes later, the dishes on the table began to change. A portion of the meat on each plate began to dry up, turn black, and develop mold spots. It looked like it had been dried for decades. After the three sticks of incense were burned, Qi Mei opened the window and let the smell of incense spread out. Everyone looked at the dishes on the table carefully.
"The parts that have changed are the directions. It's a pity that we can't pinpoint their positions accurately, we can only roughly judge them." Lu Ping glanced at the table, "If the ghost's strength is low, I think there should be more precise guidance. Now It can be seen that they are indeed serious ghosts with good manners."
"But this direction...why is the middle one of this pig's eye rotten?" Teng Xuan had already quickly looked at all the dishes on the table.
"centre position?"
The other three people were instantly alert, but this restaurant was not as good as Ms. Du's house before, and there were too many choices to find a location around for surveillance.
Lu Ning quickly touched the doors, windows and surrounding tables and chairs, but there was no response. Lu Ping and Qi Mei also used Zhao Yao to carefully check their surroundings, but found nothing.
"Are we being watched all the time?" Qi Mei shouted in panic, "What if that Bai Shen is a ghost that we can't deal with? Senior brother! It's better to contact Mr. Jin and the others quickly, we can't stay in this place anymore!"
"Why are you panicking! The ghosts that represent eyes don't really have eyes. They are all ghosts under Bai Li, and they must use Yin Qi threads and other means to observe us——"
"That's not necessarily the case."
The door was suddenly opened, and a waiter came in carrying dishes. But this waiter's face was covered in large and small black squares, and it was impossible to see what her face looked like.
"evildoer!"
"Don't shout so loudly, Taoist priest, there are other guests dining outside." The waiter gently closed the door, his voice was smiling, "This place is a public place, it's better not to engage in hunting down monsters." A set is better.”
"Looking in six directions." Lu Ning knocked on the table lightly, "Is this you?"
"This can only be regarded as a nickname. Don't think about arresting me like you did that kid just now... The Taoist priest can see it, right? If we fight, you will definitely pay a very heavy price."
"How dare you act openly in this crowded place in broad daylight... That's not right!" Lu Ping's eyes suddenly widened in the middle of his words, "You are not an ordinary ghost!"
"Ah, I thought you would have noticed when I came in."
Lu Ning frowned and looked at the waiter. Except for her face, her body was completely human. If it weren't for the resurrection of the dead...
"Seize the body?" she asked.
"No, Miss Li, this is a ghost who has cultivated the Dharmakaya, but... this shouldn't be the case. Even if they are entitled to worship, it will take at least two hundred years for the ghosts to cultivate the Dharmakaya. Bai Li has only existed for a few decades. …”
"Taoist Priest, if you encounter this kind of problem, just think about it in reverse." The waiter pulled up a chair and sat down, placing the dishes on the table with a very leisurely attitude.
"So, Bai Li has been around for a long time before he had this name?" Lu Ning couldn't feel how scary this ghost was at all, and he didn't even feel much fear in the human form.
"Smart girls, you should also know some past rumors about this place, so...hasn't anyone thought about where the old rich man learned about Bai Li's process?"
"It's been passed down for a long time." Lu Ping's face darkened.
"People's greed and concealment instinct will make them give these behaviors some suitable names, and this is exactly in line with our wishes. Generally speaking, it is a mutually beneficial and win-win situation... It's just us and the person who held the white ceremony. It's just between humans." The waiter smiled and said, "Don't be so unhappy, this is how ghosts deal with humans all the time... We still abide by the rules."
"Abiding by the rules at the expense of innocent lives? Don't think that I can't do anything to you if you cultivate the Dharmakaya. Even if the ten servants of Bai Shen are all evil ghosts like you, I..."
"Don't be so impatient. Of course I know that Taoist priests in the world can practice much faster than us. That's why I have to come out to meet you." The waiter spread his hands, "This year's white ceremony has already begun, the first one tomorrow is The sacrifice will be selected, and you can't stop it. So in order to avoid being selected, is it better to leave as soon as possible?"
"What did you say?" Lu Ning raised an eyebrow, "Bai Li has already started?"
"I'm afraid your arrival has aggravated the chief priest's panic, so this morning the white ceremony has been officially carried out. Of course, if you want to stop it, just smash all ten coffins. I am kind-hearted, right? If you really If it can be done, we would be very happy to see this kind of trick."
"Monsters, you are always the ones we have to deal with. As for those who help others do evil, we have our own laws to control them, so there is no need to provoke them!" Lu Ping shouted, "If we are only here to talk about this matter, then there is no need to say more!"
"I know I can't persuade you stubborn Taoist priests. Little girl over there, have you thought clearly? You will die."
"We will stop Bai Li, I have this confidence." Lu Ning was still very calm, "Are your activities just to find Bai Li's target? Or is it usually like this?"
"Hahaha, you are really interesting. You are not afraid at all? Well...Bai Li's goal has nothing to do with us. Before the ceremony is completed, we can at most provide some conveniences to the executor. We are not I don’t care if this ritual can be completed, but this year seems to give us enough fun.”
"There is another question." Lu Ning nodded and said, "Now Bai Li exists in more than just this place. In other words... this is a long-standing thing, even older than the name. Who spread it out? Of?"
"Little girl, I was born after that, I don't know." The waiter shook his finger, "But Bai Li from other places has nothing to do with us here. We only care about Zaoyuanzhuang, so we don't care about the outside world. I don’t know either, do you understand?”
"I know, you will see a good show." Lu Ning smiled.
The waiter seemed to leave happily. After she left, Lu Ping and Qi Mei sat down, with cold sweat on their foreheads.
"It's... it really scared me to death... I thought I was going to die... Ha..." Qi Mei pulled at his collar with a look of fear on his face, "This is the first time I've seen a ghost who has cultivated Dharmakaya, my God..."
"Miss Li, don't trust me gullibly."
"I know that the credibility of what the ghost said is not very high, but we can't tell which of her words are true and which are false. But it seems that such a ghost will no longer kill easily? Is it different from other ghost stories? Ghosts are different.”
"Now that I have cultivated the Dharmakaya, there must be a way to evade heaven's secrets. This kind of ghost will not cause too many evils on its own, but it will probably cause a lot of disasters indirectly. If I had risked my life just now, I would probably be able to keep her, but here Diners are not exempt from unreasonable disasters." Lu Ping shook his head, "Such ghosts are rare. Miss Li, don't think that many conscious ghosts can be so easy to talk to."
This guy who talks nonsense is not really easy to talk to.
Everyone didn't stay long, didn't even eat, and quickly checked out and left. Before driving away, Lu Ning called Chen Hang, explained to him her past in this industry, and told him that she was the next one. Chen Hang said that after knowing about it, he also talked about his situation in the old garden.
Although it is said that the old garden was the place where the White Ceremony was once held, those traces have long disappeared after so many years. Even the jujube garden and manor owned by the old rich man have disappeared during several groundbreakings. They have been replaced by the old garden. A small town formed by mountains and jujube trees all over the mountains and plains.
This brought many obstacles to the investigation. Finally, I heard some relevant information from an old man at a handicraft merchant. The old man was one of the few people who knew Bai Li fairly well. When he was a child, he heard his family tell stories about the old rich man, and his own memory was still clear enough to tell the story again.
The old rich man was just an ordinary rich man who was neither stingy nor generous. After he got the real jujube garden, he planned to use the jujube garden here to make money. At that time, the money he paid to those he hired was an ordinary salary. It was not harsh enough to make people complain, but it also did not make people think that he was a kind-hearted man.
This kind of unremarkableness is actually quite rare. After all, the old man has experienced many things in the future. After thinking about it, he will feel strange - this old rich man is so ordinary that it even makes people feel that he does not have the greed that a businessman should have. , he steadily engaged in planting and developed various industries in the mountains and forests. Such people were also very rare at that time, but the people in Zaoyuanzhuang did not have the ability to notice at that time.
Then, a year of severe drought ushered in. The harvest dropped sharply, but local taxes increased instead of decreasing. The people around Zaoyuanzhuang, who had been able to live a decent life, immediately fell into a difficult situation. After the last batch of taxes were sent away, After the tax collector, a few township chiefs, land security guards and others who couldn't stand it anymore called some people who still had some weight at the time to have a meeting. Although the old rich man didn't interfere much in the affairs of the village, he was rich after all, so he was called on.
The topic of the meeting was nothing more than how to survive the winter this year, and what if next year's harvest is still so bad. When everyone was at a loss, the old rich man asked a question.
"If ten people die, it will ensure that the weather will be smooth and the harvests will be good for the next few decades, is that okay?"
This issue that will cause countless people to argue now came to a conclusion in ten minutes back then.
Anyway, if the famine continues, more than ten people will die. Instead of everyone dying, ten people are nothing. Even those wealthy households who had no worries about food and clothing quickly agreed to this method, even though they knew that death was random.
So the old rich man presided over it, and all the local respectable people appealed, and the ceremony of Zaoyuanzhuang was successfully carried out. After that, the weather here turned out to be smooth, and there was no famine again. Even in the worst years outside, Zaoyuanzhuang had a bumper harvest.
After that, the old rich man did not take the opportunity to improve his status in Zaoyuanzhuang. Nothing changed except that people changed the name of Zaoyuanzhuang. Until many years later, the old rich man was already very old. He once again came out to tell the people of Zaoyuanzhuang that the use of the land had come to an end, so they should disperse early to avoid disaster. Two days later, a fire broke out in the main house of the old rich man's house. When people in the village went to put out the fire, they could only save some ruins. People found a lot of property in other houses in the manor, and the old man The rich man's family has disappeared.
"Doesn't it sound like a very magical story?" Chen Hang said after finishing telling, "Sister Song guessed that this old rich man knew a lot of Taoism, including heresy. Anyway, such a person cannot die easily or even disappear. There is probably some back-up. Worldly money does not appeal to him much, so he is probably doing something else under the guise of this."
"Have you seen the old site?"
"Everything is gone. The new generation does not know the skills of the old rich man. No one took care of the old village. In the first year, all the expensive items were moved away. Later, some large and bulky furniture was also taken away. It was cut down and demolished, and the last pair of empty shell houses that were in disrepair were simply pushed back and rebuilt. Now the only part of the manor that still exists there is the Zaoyuan wall, a section of about fifty meters."
"That's all that's left..."
"Sister Song is trying to dig out some clues from there, but she also said that it is very difficult. We are right next to the wall now...it's not as thrilling as you. By the way, does that ghost look scary?"
"Except for having no face, she is just like a normal person. Except for those of us who are aware of her existence, I am afraid that ordinary people outside will not be able to find her problem."
"how come?"
"Even if a person is different in the eyes of different people, as long as those people don't communicate in detail about the appearance they see, then the perception will still be common." Lu Ning sighed, "This is not the point, the point is that Bai Li has already started Yes, didn’t you notice?”
"I know, but what can we do? Give up and do nothing? Running away in the face of battle is not my style. The best I can do is send Shilan away."
"In the story, we won't die so early, but in reality... I can't guarantee it. Unless we can really see through Bai Li's arrangement and destroy it in a targeted manner - ghosts are not the most important thing this time. People fight.”
"In the worst case scenario, we can get clues even if one person dies. With such a big flaw, that person can't hide it." Chen Hang said with confidence.
