"There aren't many people at the moment. You can find a place to wait first, or you can go for a walk first. From here down, it's only three or four miles to the end." Wu Nuxia said to him,
"While there's no one around now, I'm going to set up a stall and get rid of these things first. When there are more people, I'm afraid I'll run into someone I can recognize. I'll give you the money after I sell them."
"Then I'll go for a walk."
"Okay!" Wu Xia found an empty seat, took out the sword she picked up yesterday from her horse, and placed it on the spot.
There was a tall, thin man with his face covered next to him, and he made a pitiful voice: "This lady, it's not you who is usually here..."
"Shut up! Damn! Shit!" Wu Nuxia said every word, with a cold look in her eyes that made the man shut his mouth.
The Taoist smiled when he saw this. This was the heroine showing him the rules of this place. Lowering his head and looking at the girl next to him, the Taoist stepped forward. Behind him, Wu Nuxia's cry could be heard: "Precious sword, precious sword..."
"The best Taoquan sword...
"Tanxi Sword..." A man next to him, who was full of sour odor, blew the fire stick with a breath, and with the sparks lighting up a big flame, he lit the oil lamp. He held the oil lamp and faced the Taoist who walked in front of him. Their eyes crossed again, and when the Taoist walked by, he had already sat down cross-legged, and the oil lamp was placed in front of his stall.
Looking through the dim light, they are some precious vessels. With a strong aura of death, they were probably burial objects. The Taoist retracted his gaze and continued to move forward.
The screams of the heroine behind him were also far away. Along the way, I passed by countless people. In this ghost market, martial arts warriors only account for a small part of them, and there are more people of all kinds.
Very few people reveal their faces as clearly as the Taoist priest and the girl. Most people can only see a pair of eyes.
Some people murmured to themselves, talking about the inside story of the palace and the disputes in the court, all of which were things that outsiders did not dare to talk about easily.
The Taoist looked at them, and they looked at the Taoist. The Taoist does not care about them, and they do not care about the Taoist. It was still early and there were few vendors and customers, so I took advantage of the deserted scene to take a look at this crack in the ground.
The stone walls on both sides of the ground seam are natural, either rough or smooth, and the stone layers have deep or shallow textures, all of which look like natural cracks.
However, if there really is a powerful person who can tear the earth apart with great supernatural powers, the two sides of the cracked gap will probably look like this, so it is impossible to judge whether the rumors are true or false.
But the stone walls on both sides are so interesting. This seam in the ground is outside the city. It is deep and long. There are countless branches between the main seam. It is adjacent to the capital city. Except at noon, the sun cannot shine underneath. Naturally, it is a place for homeless people and beggars to break the law. It is a hiding place for wanted criminals and even monsters.
There are traces of them everywhere. Looking at the stone walls on both sides, there are all kinds of graffiti left wherever they can be carved.
There are both murals and texts. There are also irregular lines. Judging from the traces, some were left by hard objects such as stones, and some were carved by sharp objects such as swords and daggers.
The Taoist held a lantern and held it close to look at and think carefully. Some murals are very simple, just drawn with the simplest lines, and contain the purest and original emotions.
Some of the murals are very exquisite, engraved with various animals, plants, human beings, gods and Buddhas. It can be seen that the author has considerable attainments in sculpture and painting. I don't know how this kind of people ended up here.
Some are peaceful and peaceful, and some are twisted and wanton. Others are just random drawings. The engraved text is even more complicated.
Just talking about handwriting, from ugly to quite elegant, you can actually find it here. Looking at the content, there is a simple and peaceful narrative, including who, what year, month, and what happened to live here, and under what circumstances he wrote this line.
There are also curses, scolding parents, enemies, and stupid officials. Corresponding to this are all kinds of curse words, which are extremely filthy.
There are also questions, asking God, asking the court, and asking myself why I am here. If you pray sincerely, you want to get rid of the embarrassment, or you think that there is no cure for your sins, pray for God's forgiveness, and pray that your family will not be harmed.
There are even poems and articles, many of which are well written. Before the ghost market was formed, the people who lived here were either destitute and homeless, or they were trying to escape from something.
In the darkness, these two stone walls carried their thoughts, emotions and hopes. The Taoist sometimes raised the lantern, sometimes put it on the ground, and looked at them one by one, as if he could see them at that time.
Years and time are all stored in it. Looking at it, I felt quite emotional. Isn't this a kind of practice?
I think that after a few years, if this place is still there, it will become a landscape. I just don’t know if the mural text will still be there at that time, whether it can still be read clearly, and whether future generations will be able to know its age and get a glimpse of the people who lived here.
The little girl next to him didn't know what he was looking at. She just followed him for a while and then lost interest.
But she also has her own way of playing. From time to time, there will be something that arouses her interest in the scattered stalls on the roadside. She will walk over, squat down and look, and when the Taoist leaves, she will immediately catch up. .
As the time got later and later, the place became more and more lively. All kinds of people gather here. People were stationed in the grottoes dug out on both sides of the cracks in the ground, and those with wooden doors opened their doors one after another.
Either lighting lanterns, candles, or oil lamps, this crack in the ground suddenly became filled with many lights. These people also occupied most of the positions beside the stone wall. It would be much more difficult for the Taoist to get closer and take a closer look.
"Empress Sanhua." The Taoist turned back to look at the little girl. Sanhua Empress squatted in front of a stall again, looking very small.
What's interesting is that even a girl who is obviously only a few years old can clearly see innocence and curiosity on her face. These vendors never chase her away. At most, they just stare at her, wondering what she is thinking.
Only this time it's different. The vendor in front of Sanhua Empress was a particularly short man. The stall only had a piece of cloth and displayed some trinkets stolen from the tomb.
Sanhua Empress did not stare at the stall, but at the stall owner. The stall owner trembled under her gaze and did not dare to look at her.
"Miss Sanhua." The Taoist walked over and called again. The little girl looked up at him, then stood up and followed him back, looking back three times at a time.
"Another rat."
"I told you not to keep staring at people like this."
"Ms. Sanhua is just taking a look."
"But Sanhua Empress is a cat goddess with unparalleled power. Now she has learned to read, which adds to her divine power. Rats are naturally timid and are naturally afraid of cats. Sanhua Empress will scare people."
"Are you so good at reading?"
"Of course." The Taoist whispered,
"Look at this world, aren't the most powerful people who can read?"
"That's right!" Rats are clever by nature, there are many of them, and there are many who have attained enlightenment, so it is not unusual to meet them.
But there are more monsters here. After taking a few steps, he saw a tall figure approaching with a horse, covering his face with a cloth.
"How was your shopping?"
"Quite interesting."
"Are you still shopping?"
"nature."
"Then let's go."
"The sales of Heroine are going quite smoothly?"
"Sold cheaply." Wu Nuxia said, taking out a few pieces of broken silver from her arms, roughly worth ten taels, and called out "Sanhua Niangniang". The girl turned around and saw the woman handing over the money, and immediately reached out her hand. Go and hold it.
"Hehe..." The woman couldn't help but grin. The Taoist said nothing. The craftsmanship of a high-quality sword is very complicated. Not counting other added value, a high-quality sword will cost at least several thousand dollars.
If it is what Wu Nuxia calls out, the one produced by Taoquan Tanxi will be more expensive. Many times the most valuable possessions of a martial artist are the weapons in their hands.
However, the weapons in the hands of those Jianghu people should have more or less traces of use. They are not brand new. In addition, there are some problems and they are in a hurry to take action. Naturally, they have to make a lot of discounts.
This time I went shopping again, and there were a lot of people. There are both humans and demons. What’s funny is that most of the people coming and going don’t want to show their true colors. Many of them are wearing cloaks and hoods, and the only face exposed is also covered with a hideous ghost mask, so that they can pretend to be themselves. They look ferocious, but the real ghosts try their best to pretend to be human.
Interesting, interesting... The Taoist was carrying a lantern, without covering his face. He was carrying a half-person-long box slung behind him, and he was leading an extremely beautiful girl. When he walked on the road, he would attract the attention of many people.
"There are basically only a few types of things sold here. One is illegal gains, either from robbery, robbery, or corruption. The other is things that are not allowed to be sold in the city or are difficult to sell, such as every death penalty. The human blood that flows out after the criminal is beheaded, such as books banned by this dynasty, such as news from the dynasty." Wu Nuxia continued to explain to him as she walked,
"There are also things related to monsters and ghosts. Of course, no matter what kind of things they are, there are some real ones and some fake ones. You have to be good at identifying them." The Taoist listened carefully and looked carefully.
I just walked all the way down and didn't buy much. It was just a curiosity. It's the same as buying it.
I bought two taels of herbal medicine from a medicine seller. The medicine seller said this was the King of Human Grass because the grass has five leaves and the five leaves are gathered into a circle. The pattern on the circle is like a human face.
No grass will grow where it grows, and it will not wither for many days if you pick it. Based on this, the medicine seller said that this herb was obtained by absorbing the essence of the sun and moon from all the surrounding heaven and earth's spiritual power, and using it to make elixirs and decoctions, it can make the body strong, keep the appearance young, and be immune to all evils.
In fact, he didn't know it himself. I just saw that this medicine was magical, so I picked it up and wanted to sell it to someone who knew the product.
When Song You asked him, he made up something. In fact, the name of this grass is ghost-faced grass. It only grows in places where a large number of ghosts are haunted. There is no soil for it to grow in the normal world.
It is said that there once was a peerless ghost king in the north who turned everyone in the city into ghosts. At that time, under the influence of ghost energy and yin energy, the grass and trees withered for dozens of miles around, and all the grass grew there.
Changjing is so peaceful, where did the ghost-faced grass come from? Song You originally just wanted to satisfy his curiosity and ask for the location, but the medicine seller was not willing to reveal it easily.
In the end, the heroine used coercion and inducement, and the Taoist explained the whole story, and he agreed to tell the Taoist if he bought it.
In the end, the Taoist bought it, and he only gave a general direction. It is Yeshan in Fengzhou, nearly a thousand miles south of Changjing.
Fengzhou produces ginseng. He went to collect ginseng before and saw this plant by chance. This actually surprised the Taoist.
If it were nearly a thousand miles to the north, it would be acceptable, because although it had not yet reached the border, it was already considered the north. I heard that after the war in the north, ten houses were empty, bandits were rampant, and monsters often appeared.
The south tends to be peaceful and prosperous. I wonder what the secret is...
