"Has it evolved to this point?"
Li Ao murmured to himself and cast his gaze further away.
Thick smoke was vaguely visible, black fog was rising, and most of the city was shrouded in a smoke-filled atmosphere.
"The city has suffered heavy casualties, several blocks have been lost, and tens of thousands of people have been killed!" The official who greeted them no longer had the initial smile on his face, and said with a bit of solemnity, "We have to give up. In the southwest corner of the city, with the street as a ravine, it was heavily fortified.
But even so, there is no way to stop the spread of those cloth monsters..."
"Have you told the people the truth so that they can be on guard?"
Suddenly, Li Fan turned his head, stared at the official, and asked a crucial question.
"This..." The official hesitated.
"Why not inform them! Even if you only tell part of the truth, more people can survive!"
"Weird things are all secret and should not be known to the common people."
"Bullshit on your mother, telling the devil about its weaknesses and how to deal with it, or anything related to weird things, you clearly don't want to take responsibility!"
Li Fan snorted coldly and interrupted the other party roughly.
But even so, he could not say that the officials in the city had done anything wrong, because they did act according to the rules and closely kept the secret of the strange incident.
"Who is the Demon Suppressor here? I want to see him immediately!"
"Zhong Baihu is on the opposite street. I'll call him here..."
"No need, prepare your horse immediately, I'll go find him!"
After a while, Li Fan rushed to the street where Zhong Cheng was located and saw Zhong Cheng who was personally leading a patrol.
He was wearing a pair of leather armor, and the soldiers beside him were some wearing armor and patrolling, and some were wearing straw skirts, shirtless and scattered everywhere, looking around cautiously.
"Are you..." Zhong Cheng was stunned after just one glance, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "My lord, may I ask who this lord is..."
Youdao is to respect Luo Yi first and then respect others. Li Fan was wearing a bright flying fish suit and an official hat, which could only be worn by rank 4 or above. He was accompanied by a group of department elites in bright clothes and angry horses. He was definitely not an ordinary character.
Zhong Cheng didn't know the specific identity of the other party, but he knew that the other party's official position was much higher than his own.
"I am Li Wei, the envoy of the Ministry of Defense, and I have been ordered to supervise you and others to fight against the evil cloth demon and deal with the Yinshan Demon Cave case. Are you Zhong Cheng?"
"That's right, the official."
"I heard about your decisive handling of incidents in the city."
Li Fan's face brightened slightly, he nodded and jumped off the horse.
Zhong Cheng looked gloomy: "It's a pity that we still can't stop the spread of cloth monsters. Now they have occupied most of the city. General Huo ordered that the middle line that has not been invaded by cloth monsters be used as the boundary, and the west of the city should be abandoned to lead the people."
Li Fan inexplicably remembered the original Xingdaofang fire, and shook his head helplessly: "Now it seems that this is the best we can do."
While he was talking, someone suddenly came galloping over on a fast horse: "Master Baihu, Master Baihu... they succeeded!"
"Really?" Zhong Cheng turned around and saw the envoy on horseback running over. The vaulting horse was half kneeling on the ground, and he excitedly reported, "The cloth stocks of Ma's Trading Company, Lin's Trading Company, and Chen's Trading Company in the south of the city have all been destroyed. If burned, there shouldn’t be a large number of cloth demons spawning in a short period of time..."
It turned out that he had just sent people to burn the confiscated cloth.
Due to the obstruction of those wealthy businessmen, the government did not have time to dispose of those things in time. Leaving them in unguarded occupied areas would cause great hidden dangers.
Zhong Cheng could be regarded as risking his own wealth and life to destroy them, because those were the properties of wealthy businessmen, and even at this critical juncture, they still had to bear the burden.
Li Fan took a deep look at the other party: "Zhong Baihu has the courage to do his job and is commendable for his loyalty and bravery. Are there similar hidden dangers elsewhere in the city? We can't deal with the clothes and cloth of ordinary people's homes, but those cloth shops, trading houses, etc. It can be dealt with.
You don’t need to take on this matter alone. I order you to send people to burn it down immediately. "
"Sir, you..." Zhong Cheng didn't expect that Li Fan would support him on the spot.
"Don't be stunned, act quickly!"
"yes!"
…
In the west corner of the city, at the home of Yan Yuandi, a commoner in the city, a man, two children and three people were hiding in the cellar behind their house and shivering.
Yan Yuandi was a talented scholar in the city. He failed many times and was already disillusioned. He found a job as an elementary school teacher for a wealthy family and earned extra money by writing letters and couplets to others.
Originally, with his talents, he could live a life like this despite being poor, but he never thought that one day he would encounter such a catastrophe.
First, there was chaos in the city, and someone shouted: "The evildoer is causing trouble!"
He wanted to run out, thought of his family, and went back to organize things, but the street was blocked and he couldn't get away.
Cloth demons are everywhere in the city, and all kinds of clothes, pants and quilts are moving around as if they are possessed by demons, chasing and killing living people everywhere.
Neighbors and villagers crowded into each other and were blocked in the road. They were overtaken and strangled. Another person set fire to cloth, and finally set the house on fire and suffocated him to death.
Some people were forced onto the beams and roofs of the houses, and were dragged down and fell like rain. Their hands and feet were broken, and their livers and gallbladders were torn apart.
When the clothes and cloth in the house came to life, they joined the demon army one after another. Everyone panicked and ran away without knowing the direction, creating a mess.
Yan Yuandi was much smarter than ordinary people and hid his two children immediately. However, he only saw his wife dancing and shaking in the house as if she was possessed.
In a panic, his neck was suddenly twisted, his hands and feet were broken, and his clothes fell off, stripping him naked in an instant.
It turns out that the clothes on her body have also become evil spirits, trying to bind and kill the original owner and break free from her body.
Yan Yuandi was devastated, but fortunately he remembered that someone had used a torch to deal with the cloth demon before, and lured it to the edge of the fire before escaping.
Returning to the cellar at home, the child cried and asked his mother, saying that he was hungry. Yan Yuandi felt so sad that he couldn't help but howl and cry. He felt sad and didn't know why.
After a night of panic and helplessness, I stayed up until dawn the next day and went out to check the details. Only then did I realize that I was extremely lucky.
Because at least he and his two children were still alive, while nine out of ten victims in the neighbors were already covered with corpses.
Most of them were strangled with clothes or strangled to death with long cloth. Infants and children who lacked strength suffered first, and then the old, weak, sick and disabled. After that, perhaps the number of cloth monsters continued to increase, and the young and strong became stronger. No one can be spared anymore.
On the contrary, a weak scholar like him survived because he paid attention to avoidance all the way.
The victims he saw were all naked, men, women, old and young, with all their private parts exposed. Some of them were badly bruised, some had broken arms and shins, and some were still breathing. They were murmuring in a low voice, howling like ghosts weeping.
All over the streets, the victims had their arms folded and their hands and feet resting on each other. They were in an intimate state, but in fact it was so terrifying that it was like seeing hell.
"Oh my god...how did it become like this?"
Yan Yuandi's body trembled and he almost collapsed on the street.
