"Xixissuosuo..."
The grass in the mountains roared wildly.
Nothing could be seen clearly in the darkness, but just from the rustling noises and the occasional rattles, one could guess what was going on in the mountains at this moment - countless rats were summoned to gather again, crowding from the mountains. Sliding through the grass forest, the huge figure squeezed its companions, weeds, and even small trees, making a rustling sound, trying to save their king.
The calico cat stopped at the Taoist's feet, stretched its neck and looked into the distance:
"What a big rat!"
Song You raised her pony lantern.
Holding the lantern with one hand, the other hand pointed first at the lantern and then at the darkness in the distance. Dozens of fire points immediately flew out of the lantern, flying into the night like shooting stars.
Although it is spring now, due to the two years of drought and little rain in Lanmo, there are still a lot of dead grass in the mountains, which will burn if caught by fire.
The wildfires made the mice squeak.
It also reflects the true appearance of the rat tide.
They were all covered in black, big gray rats, and they struggled desperately when they were burned by the flames.
However, among these big gray rats, there are some rats that are larger than cats. They are all in pitch black, their fur is shiny by the flames, and their eyes are almost shining red.
Even if they are in a wildfire, they don't seem to feel hot, and this wildfire really can't hurt them.
What’s even more frightening is that more and more of these strange rats are gathering together.
"This rat demon is calling its soldiers."
"It doesn't matter."
Song You looked at them indifferently and said, "Just let them gather more."
The swordsman stopped talking.
The rats were obviously controlled and slowly retreated behind the wildfire.
The firelight reflected the figures of countless rats, and there were also many eyes that glowed red under the flames.
The swordsman stood watching with his sword in hand.
He has not seen the ferocity of these rats yet, but he has heard it from people in the city. And these strangely large rats in front of me are probably extraordinary, there are so many of them, tens of thousands. Even if his swordsmanship is regarded as the best in the world by the people in the world, and even if he has the courage to confront the rat demon face to face, he still has no idea. There was no way to resist this dark swarm of rats.
Not to mention him, even an elite army might not be able to resist the rats.
This is no longer something human beings can contend with.
No wonder this rat demon has been causing trouble here for many years.
But the swordsman didn't have any fear. He just stood next to the gentleman with his sword and stared at the rats without moving. He only waited for some sporadic rats to come to the gentleman's side, and he would naturally use his sword to kill them.
Slowly, the rat tide showed signs of commotion.
"It looks like it's almost done."
Song You turned his head calmly and looked at the calico cat: "If you want to get rid of the rats without missing anything, I have to ask the Sanhua Empress for help."
"How can we help?"
"I'd like to lend you Sanhua Empress a few rubs on her hair."
"You go ahead."
Song You bent down and gently grabbed some hair from the calico cat's body without using too much force. He then pulled it out gently, but the force was also light, and all that was pulled out were floating hairs.
After doing this several times, a large group has gathered.
At the same time, the rats moved.
"Wow..."
It was obviously just a mouse, but the thousands of tiny movements combined together turned into a rushing sound, like a rushing torrent.
Many big gray rats, led by the extraordinarily large black rats, squeaked and crossed the mountain fire, gathered into a river, and rushed towards the top of the mountain.
This King Qin is coming, so he is naturally unstoppable!
So the wildfires were extinguished piece by piece, replaced by shadows that spread like flowing water.
Song You didn't believe that this rat demon had hundreds of years of moral conduct at first, but now he believed it, but a mouse was a mouse after all, and his moral conduct was not reflected in his own strength, but in this terrible rat tide.
Even a big demon who is good at fighting would be hard to resist.
"laugh!"
The swordsman's sword has been unsheathed.
In the blink of an eye, all the mountain fires were extinguished.
The only thing left in this area was the lantern hanging on the dead tree, which shed a piece of yellow light. Under the yellow light, the young Taoist took the hair of Sanhua Empress, blew on it, and threw it into the air——
"Canopy..."
Just like what gave the paintings aura in Yizhou City, this large bunch of cat hair all turned into blue smoke.
Then he raised his hand again, and several streaks of light flew out.
The streams of light were all dazzling yellow and white in color, either carrying the power of the Sun or carrying their own scorching heat, which melted into the blue smoke and suddenly turned into monstrous firelight falling to the ground.
The world was illuminated again.
I saw in the darkness, swarms of rats from all directions, centered on the Taoist in the mountains, rushing and gathering. The raging flames were like running water, also centered on the Taoist, but surging outward. If you look carefully, you can see the silhouettes of cats faintly revealed in the flames that are sweeping outward.
"boom!"
The two sides collided with each other in an instant.
These extremely large black rats are indeed extraordinary. However, the fire itself is not ordinary fire, and it is also blended with the divine power of the Sanhua Empress. When a mouse sees a cat, it becomes three points weaker. When it sees the divine cat, it becomes seven or eight points weaker - When the previously fearless black rats saw the flames coming from the front, their eyes widened with a hint of panic, and some even stopped in panic.
The consequences of being hit by flames like this can be imagined.
"Zhischi..."
"Zhizhi..."
There was a foul smell all around.
The black tide of rats crashed into the fire, and the flowing flames also crashed into the black water. However, the flames hit the black water and continued to spread, but the black water stopped in front of the flames.
In just a few moments, there were countless casualties.
After a while, the mice were frightened and turned around and ran away very fast.
However, this flame seems to have spirituality, chasing closely, and there is a faint silhouette of a vigorous cat, just like the Sanhua Empress, and just like the Sanhua Empress chasing the rat demon, they are approaching each other at an extremely fast speed. He chased after them and devoured them one after another.
After a long time, the firelight dimmed.
The calico cat was stunned.
The swordsman was also stunned and slowly sheathed his sword.
Song You withdrew his gaze and looked at his feet, lost in thought.
This mouse was hidden deep, and even though I sealed it, it was really hard to get it out easily.
Shake the mountain and shake the earth, and then kill it underground?
Use the method of holding the mountain to empty it bit by bit?
Or should we ask a god who is good at it to help?
While I was thinking about it, there was sudden movement not far away.
"..."
Song You looked up and saw a gust of wind coming, with a figure faintly visible in the wind, carrying a divine light.
"Who is here to slay the demon?
"Here comes a little god to help!"
Before the people arrived, the voice arrived first.
The figure comes with the wind.
The divine light dissipated, revealing a female figure.
His face looks like he is middle-aged, not particularly beautiful, but very approachable, graceful and luxurious, the path often taken by gods, with a slender and graceful figure, and wearing colorful divine clothes.
After stopping, he looked at Song You first, his divine light illuminated the dark night, and asked: "Are you an expert from Fulong Temple in Yin Yang Mountain?"
"My surname is Song, and my name is You. I am here to get rid of demons."
"I am Lan Mo Liuxian, my surname is Liu Mingyun, also known as Jinhua Empress, and I am the Earth God granted by the previous dynasty." Lan Mo Liuxian calmly bowed, "This is polite."
"It turns out it's Empress Jinhua, you're polite." Song You paused, "How did Empress Jinhua know that I came from Fulong Temple in Yin Yang Mountain?"
"We and other minor local gods are not as good as several Thunder Gods. There are only a few temples in this world. The temple where I stayed last night was one of them. Last night, someone offered incense to me and I had a conversation in it. The sound naturally came to my ears." Lan Mo Liuxian said, "Tonight I saw the fire outside the city soaring into the sky, the spiritual energy was amazing, and the rats in the city were restless, as if they were summoned by the rat demon, so I guessed that your Majesty was here to eliminate the demon. I also know that this rat demon is quite capable of hiding. If you find it troublesome, I am willing to sneak into the underground hole for you and catch this rat demon."
"Is Lady Jinhua sure?"
"Your Majesty, you don't know something." Lan Mo Liuxian said with a slight smile, "This rat demon itself is not very powerful. What is powerful is the rat tide and its hiding ability. Now the rat tide has been destroyed by your immortal magic. Being trapped here again by Your Excellency, the rest is very simple."
"..."
Song You thought for a while and then smiled: "I am confused and don't know how to catch it. If that's the case, then there is Lady Lao Jinhua."
"I don't dare to take it seriously. Please remove the spell."
"good!"
One person and one god looked at each other, and everything was unspoken.
Song You suspected that Liuxian raised the bandits to be self-respecting.
To be on the safe side, I had only asked the social god before, not her.
Liu Xian also guessed Song You's suspicion of him.
However, regardless of whether he respected himself as a bandit or not, the Liuxian here really protected the local people. Without her, the local people would have been devoured by this transformed rat demon. These are reflected in the respect and admiration the people of Lanmo have for her.
Now that she is here to help, if she did not encourage the bandits to respect themselves, she will naturally prove herself with actions and clear away the suspicion. If she really encourages the bandits to respect themselves, she will be considered as making up for her fault.
Coupled with Fulongguan's former reputation, especially the evil reputation left by many Taoists decades ago, Song You did not doubt that she would deliberately let the rat demon go, and simply withdrew her finger to the ground for steel. . Liu Xian turned into an invisible stream of light and went directly into the ground.
Song You could vaguely see that it was a cauliflower snake.
Then there was a lot of movement underground.
Song You and the swordsman couldn't hear clearly yet, but with the twitching tip of the calico cat's ears and the flickering eyes of the calico cat next to them, they could also imagine some of the underground fighting situation.
It took about half an hour.
"call……"
Following the sound of wind, the streamer emerged from the ground and transformed into a human form.
She was still the Jinhua Empress from before, graceful and luxurious, but she was carrying a big gray mouse in her hand.
The big gray mouse was struggling in her hands, but her hands didn't move at all and her expression was very calm.
Yes, snakes often eat mice too.
"How do you want to deal with it, your honor?"
Song You took a look and saw that it was indeed the rat demon.
After pondering for a moment, he said:
"I'm just a Taoist who travels around the world and passes by this place, just to get rid of demons. If I burn him, that's it. Since I captured him alive, it's better to hand him over to the Heavenly Palace for disposal."
"Your Majesty means..."
"Since Empress Jinhua is the righteous god who has been granted the title of righteous god, please ask Empress Jinhua to do it for you and hand it over to the Heavenly Palace."
"This is all due to your honor."
"I am a human, not a god. The merits of the Heavenly Palace are of no use to me." Song You looked at her lightly, "I won't stay here for long, and we will continue our journey after tomorrow. There are many demons in the north now, and we have to rely on others to protect this place. An earthly deity like the Jinhua Empress."
"How good is this..."
"Then there is Lady Lao Jinhua." Song You said, pausing for a moment, "Don't let a rat demon die and another demon come."
"..."
Empress Jinhua's expression did not change, but she solemnly saluted: "Thank you, Your Excellency. The little god will definitely guard this place."
"Ms. Jinhua, please go slowly."
"Farewell."
In the blink of an eye, Liu Xian flew away again.
Only Song You and his party were left in the mountain.
There is half a bright moon and hundreds of stars.
The black horse was frightened and quite uneasy.
The bay horse used its hooves to dig up the burnt grass ashes on the ground and gnawed the grass stems below. It chewed and chewed until it felt unpalatable and spit it out.
Song You thought for a while, then turned to look at the swordsman and asked: "I plan to go around all the five and thirty-nine counties in Hezhou. Isn't it time to stop?"
The swordsman immediately held his sword and saluted: "Shu may not be able to help, but I am willing to go with you sir!"
"Thank you very much."
Song You smiled slightly and turned around to go down the mountain.
A horse bell jingled behind him.
In the dark night, the hillsides overlap and the lanterns move slowly. I don't know what time it is. I only know that the sky is slowly turning white. The sunrise here is really beautiful.
This is just the beginning.
(End of chapter)
