Early next morning.
This group of escorts got up very early. According to the rules of escorts, they would not wash their faces until they got home, so they didn't wash up. They got up, ate something, said hello and were ready to leave.
"You two, I'll take my leave soon!" Jiang Erfu didn't seem to know the behavior of the young man in his team last night. He stood up and said goodbye to Song You, and reminded them by the way, "You two had better stay in the frontier city tonight. Stay here, and don’t mess with mice if you encounter them on the road. If you don’t want to live in Lanmo, start your journey early this morning. With less rest in between, you can walk to Linxun in one day with a horse.”
"Thank you for reminding me." Song You returned the greeting, "It seems that some of you came here from Lin?"
"yes."
Jiang Erfu paused as he spoke: "Sir, if you go north, you will definitely have to pass through Lin Xun. We, Lin Xun, want to be more peaceful. As long as we don't go to Chongbie Mountain and just pass by, there will be no danger."
"Chongbie Mountain."
Song You murmured to himself.
It seems that the north is really not peaceful.
"Thank you."
After a night of conversation, there was no friendship at all. Jiang Erfu just reminded him casually, and then turned around and left.
Song You and his party were not in a hurry.
The swordsman had already gone out to collect firewood, built a small fire in the temple, and set up a small pot to boil hot water.
After the water boiled, he broke the dry biscuits into small pieces, threw them in and cooked them into a paste. He added some spring vegetables and the dried meat he brought with him. It looked messy but smelled fragrant.
"Miss Sanhua, do you want to eat?"
Song You turned to look at the calico cat.
"Miss Sanhua was full last night." The Sanhua cat said in a soft voice while licking its paws, "This is such a good place."
"Miss Sanhua, please be careful. I heard from the escort chief last night that the rats here are very vengeful. If you kill a rat or eat a rat, the rats will come and attack you."
"?"
The calico cat stopped licking its paws: "Will the mouse come back on its own?"
"I heard it is."
"This is such a nice place."
"Maybe."
"Do we still have enough salt?"
"Running out."
"it's a pity……"
The calico cat continued to lick its paws.
The swordsman next to him was confused and didn't understand what the relationship between mice and salt was, but he never talked much, so he didn't say much. He only filled a bowl of paste and handed it to Song You.
After breakfast, continue on the road.
Walking from here to Lanmo County, for dozens of miles, there are mostly rural farmlands along the road. However, there are many vacant houses in the villages, and the farmland is often abandoned. In addition, the most special thing is that there are many snakes and rats along the way.
I saw snakes eating rats, and rats eating snakes.
Not far from the temple, we encountered a group of rats.
It seems that the Sanhua Empress went out to hunt a lot of mice last night. I don't know if she got the smell of mice or was remembered in some other way. The mice specially came to take revenge.
There were at least hundreds of rats, as big as half-sized cats, and they gathered together into a dark mass, which was scary to look at.
However, neither the calico cat nor the swordsman is as awed by it as the people here. These mice didn't seem to know that the one who hunted the mice last night was a cat god. When the calico cat heard the noise and poked its head out of the bag, it only glanced at it and while it was still yawning, the mice scattered and fled. .
Still present the ultimatum and enter the city.
Compared to Zhijiang County, Lanmo County is even more deserted, with only one or two meat stalls.
Still made some inquiries and inquired from many sources.
The people here have long been harmed by the rat demon, and have reached the point where they become disloyal when talking about rats. Many people Song You asked were unwilling to tell him and shook their heads when asked. Only a few people would tell him. Some were kind-hearted and lowered their voices to tell him some taboos or ways to avoid disasters. Some were upright. Filled with righteous indignation, seeing that he was a Taoist, he told him about the harm caused by the rat demon and asked him to get rid of the demon if he had the ability.
What’s interesting is that some people have kept statues of the Rat Fairy in their homes to pray for blessings, and I heard it’s really effective.
The crowd was mixed and spoke in different ways.
"It seems we have to ask God."
Song You shook his head and walked towards the temple in the city.
There is a temple in the city, and it is also a comprehensive temple. There are various gods in it. The ones in the middle are still Zhou Lei Gong and Liu Xian, and the other gods are slightly different. Compared with the small temple outside the city, there are several more statues of Thunder God and the main gods of Buddhism and Taoism. Because of their low status, the Earth God statue was taken out of the temple and built a separate room for half a person outside. A small, tall temple used for worship.
Song You specially bought three sticks of incense.
The Emperor of Heaven and the Buddha were of noble status, so they could not communicate casually. Tiangong Zhengshen is too lenient, and you probably won't get any answers if you ask them. It would be best to ask a local deity.
Song You stopped at the entrance of the small temple outside.
The swordsman had never seen a Taoist pray to a god before, so he couldn't help but be curious, holding his sword and standing behind to stare.
I saw the Taoist holding the incense stick and shaking it in a circle. The three sticks of incense in his hand ignited automatically, and wisps of green smoke came out. Then he inserted the incense stick in his hand into the mud on the ground and said in his mouth:
"Please come out and meet the God of Fude, Lanmo County, Hezhou."
"call……"
The green smoke rises but never disperses, strands accumulating in the air. In this dusk, when there is no one in the silence, it feels quite ethereal and mysterious.
Suddenly there was an old man in the green smoke.
I saw this old man with white beard and hair, wearing ordinary clothes, full of wrinkles, and wearing a cane. His figure was relatively thin and tall. Even if he was slightly rickety, he was not much shorter than Song You.
"Why did you ask the little god for a favor?"
The old man looked at Song You, the calico cat in front of him and the swordsman behind him, and then stopped at Song You.
"My surname is Song Mingyou, a native of Lingquan County, Yizhou. I was traveling down the mountain and passing by here. I heard that there was a rat demon causing trouble here. I was a little confused, so I invited the spirit of the society to ask about the rat demon."
"Yizhou Lingquan County..."
The old man frowned, as if he felt familiar.
After thinking for a while, he remembered and stared: "Could it be Master Song from Fulong Temple?"
"Um?"
Song You was a little surprised.
The status of this social god in the local area may be similar to that of Wang Shanggong on the Jinyang Road, but this place is probably nearly ten thousand miles away from Yizhou. Although the local social god is highly respected by the local people, after all, he has a relatively high status in the Tiangong pantheon. Low, he was surprised to know Fulongguan, but he didn't expect to be able to call him by his last name.
"Do you know the God of Society?"
"It's a coincidence." The social god's attitude was even lower. "It seems that more than a year or two years ago, Zhou Lei Gong and Chen Lei Gong from the Lei Department came to Lanmo County to eliminate demons. They also called the little god to inquire about the situation. , after the little god finished answering, he listened to the conversation between the two thunder masters and talked about the immortal master."
The God of Society raised his eyes slightly as he spoke, glanced at Song You, and said quickly: "But Zhou Lei Gong didn't say anything bad about the Immortal Master. He only talked about the Yunding Mountain incident, which was suspected to be related to the Immortal Master. They are all people who admire the Immortal Master." if……"
The swordsman behind him listened silently, but his heart was not so peaceful.
Lei Gong is one of the most commonly talked about gods among the people, and Zhou Lei Gong has a great reputation among the people. The popularity among believers seems to be higher than that of the chief officer of the Lei Department...
And the incident of meeting an immortal in Yunding Mountain has long been spread among the people and the world.
The swordsman has long known that his master's Taoist cultivation is extremely high, but now he still feels a little refreshed in his knowledge.
"I see."
Song You smiled and nodded. He didn't care what Zhou Lei Gong said about him, he just took this opportunity to ask about the situation.
"I wonder which demon the two Thunder Lords came to get rid of more than a year ago?"
"It's the rat demon outside the city."
"Since the two Thunder Lords came here to slay the rat demon more than a year ago, why are the rat demons still causing trouble in Lan Mo now?" Song You asked in confusion.
"The Immortal Master doesn't know something..."
The God of Society looked around and seemed to be in trouble. He lowered his voice and said in a tone similar to that of an old man in the village gossiping: "The rat demon is difficult to get rid of. Although the two Thunder Lords have boundless power, they are helpless."
"Appreciate further details."
"The immortal master also intends to eliminate demons?"
"Exactly."
"Then the little god will tell you carefully."
At this time, Miao Zhu came out of the temple, looked left and right, and asked Song You and his party what they were doing here.
The social god shut his mouth and said no more.
The swordsman said a few words casually.
Miao Zhu left soon.
The social god then spoke and continued:
"First of all, the rat demon is very good at hiding. There are rats everywhere in Lanmo County for hundreds of miles. Even Thunder God can't find its traces for a while. Even if you find the general area, you don't know which one it is."
"Most rat demons are good at hiding." Song You nodded, as was the agile immortal from Nan Hua back then.
"I think the immortal master has seen more demons and ghosts than the little god." The social god casually complimented him and continued, "Secondly, come on, although the thunder god has great power in his palm, but this thunder, maybe It only takes one blow to kill a demon who has been practicing for a hundred years, but it takes one blow to kill a mortal who has done many evil things. It may also take one blow to kill a mouse, but there are more than tens of millions of mice here? Thunder God often needs help. Only rain can kill one with one blow."
"Um……"
"What's more, rats often huddle in underground holes, and the rat demon hides in unknown depths. No matter how powerful Thunder God's thunder is, it can't hit the ground."
"It makes sense."
"Come on, the Northland is in chaos, and there are so many ferocious demons." The God of Society said, "Although this rat demon does many evil things and is very annoying, it is timid and restrained, and the Liuxian here is... The empress can also suppress it, and it can't cause big chaos for the time being. Compared with the big monsters in the north, it is much better. In fact, there are only nine righteous gods in the Lei Department. At this time, troubles are everywhere in the north, even though there are nine righteous gods in the Lei Department. They are all working hard to get rid of the demons, but they are too busy, not to mention that several demon kings in the north have become climates, and some have even built demon kingdoms on the ground. To get rid of this rat demon, I am afraid Zhou Lei Gong will also have to spend a lot of time. How could the God of Thunder be wasting so much energy on a mere rat demon at this time?"
Song You listened thoughtfully.
The social god was looking at his expression, as if trying to figure out his thoughts.
Song You naturally felt the gaze of the god of society. He thought about it for a while, but without any expression on his face, he suddenly asked: "The god of society said that the nine thunder masters worked hard to eliminate demons. What about the chief officer of the thunder department? "
When the god of society heard this, his expression suddenly changed in a panic.
"Ha ha."
Song You laughed twice and said to him repeatedly: "Ask me casually, ask casually, don't let the gods of society care..."
(End of chapter)
