Half of July is actually a good day to celebrate the harvest and worship ancestors and gods.
On such a good day, Taoism has the Zhongyuan Festival, where it pays homage to the emperor, abstains from sins and blessings for all living beings, and saves the souls of the dead. Buddhism has the Obon Festival to make offerings to the Three Jewels and save the suffering beings in hell.
In this way, the door of ghosts is wide open, the ancestors who have a home to return to can enjoy the sacrifices of their descendants, and the orphans who have no owners can also take the opportunity to beg for a stick of incense to eat.
However, because the underworld is not peaceful, now this half of July has become a day when practitioners need to pay special attention.
No one knows if there will be any strange things mixed into the undead that return to the earth. If any evil spirits escape and make a big noise, it will turn a good thing into a bad thing.
In Wuning County, the busiest person is the City God.
Li Tayun rushed to Fox Slope with the City God's order, handed the City God's letter to Gong Mengbi, and said: "Teacher, the City God's side is short of manpower. I would like to ask you to help. Monitor the ghosts during the Ghost Festival and prevent them from letting go." They harm people.”
Gong Mengbi was a little surprised: "Taoist Master Yao set up the Zhongyuan Dharma Assembly, and Zen Master Faming set up the Obon Assembly. They both did it together, but they didn't have enough manpower?"
Li Tayun said: "The city god is very cautious. If there is no trouble, it will be enough. If there is trouble, I am afraid that we will be exhausted and the manpower will be slightly insufficient."
Gong Mengbi asked, "What do you mean?"
Li Tayun said: "According to my point of view, naturally I will help if I can. It is true that I am helping the city god, but in the end I am still helping the common people."
Gong Mengbi glanced at him and saw that he had such an awareness, so he laughed and said: "Okay, if you have such a vision, it is not a waste of time to study in Huziyuan."
Gong Mengbi opened the letter from the City God and found that what the old boy wrote in the letter was not what Li Dayun said. Li Tayun said that there might be a slight shortage of manpower, but when he got the letter from the City God, he just cried about poverty. We are extremely short of manpower and it is difficult to maintain the peace of Wuning County. Please give Gong Mengbi a helping hand. I will be very grateful.
He spoke sincerely and kept his attitude very low.
Gong Mengbi thought to himself: "It is really rare to be able to bend and stretch."
The City God is the righteous god entrusted by the dynasty, and has a high value in the Shinto system. Before his promotion, Gong Mengbi's Immortal Official was only at the ninth rank, while the City God who also lived in Wuning County was at the seventh rank.
Now Gong Mengbi is the Fox Chief of Dongyang County, in charge of the fox affairs of Dongyang County, and is a seventh-rank official. But compared to the Dongyang County City God, it was two levels lower than the County City God, who was at the fifth level.
This kind of righteous god lowers his face to seek help from a mountain fox fairy. Isn't it just that he can bend and stretch, and has a heart full of mountains and valleys?
Gong Mengbi replied to him a letter, saying that he would help and asked him to treat him to dinner.
Li Tayun took his letter and replied to the City God. The City God was very happy and said: "Okay, okay, brother Gong is indeed a cheerful person."
On the fifteenth day, the door of hell was indeed wide open. As the god who bridges the realms of yin and yang, the City God, the ghosts of Wuning County will undoubtedly come out of the ghost gate he guards, and will also return to the underworld through his path.
Gong Mengbi used the Qi Watching Technique to look at it, and he could see the gray mist spreading in the wind. Each ghost came to the world, either returned to his own home, or was captured by the Zhongyuan Dharma Assembly or the Bon Bon Assembly. Attracted, but the largest number of people are ownerless souls, who can only wander around.
The temple of the City God is shining brightly, and you can see the aura of the righteous god emanating from it from a distance, forming a majestic and indistinct appearance.
This is to warn the ghosts.
In addition, there are also Yin officials who escort the ghosts out and wander around. They are bull-headed and horse-faced, black and white, and impermanent.
Even Li Tayun and the others wore official uniforms and patrolled around to prevent evil spirits from harming people.
Gong Mengbi also ordered the foxes to go down the mountain to look after the villages without social gods and ancestral spirits. Since the floods last year, many social gods and ancestral spirits have suffered. Some died of conspiracy, and some lost their sacrifices and maintenance.
The new social god may not be able to cope with such a scene, so he still needs to take some care.
Whenever he went down the mountain, Gong Mengbi would write a fox talisman on a leaf and cover it with an immortal official talisman as a proof of identity to avoid being caught as an evil spirit by the wandering underworld.
The fox lights fox fire and travels through various villages. Ma Shenpo has already received the instructions and spreads among the crowd: "It is Taishan Empress who sends foxes to guide the souls of the dead to prevent them from getting lost in the world. This is a good sign. Don't be afraid."
Gong Mengbi sat on Fox Slope to watch all directions to avoid trouble.
They lived in peace until midnight, when the gate of hell was about to close. The ghosts were either led by foxes, urged by the underworld officials, or moved forward spontaneously, gathered in front of the City God's Temple, and returned to the underworld through the gate of hell.
When midnight came and the gate of hell was closed, the City God took a breath and silently counted the number of ghosts traveling to and from the gate of hell. Then his expression suddenly changed and he said: "It's a disaster!"
Li Dayun and other little foxes and ghosts who maintained order in front of the ghost gate looked at each other, wondering what the city god meant.
The judge of the Onmyoji Division asked: "Sir, what happened?"
The City God's face turned pale as he said, "Didn't you find that the number of ghosts coming and going doesn't match up?"
"This..." The civil and military judges looked at each other and said, "My subordinates are tired of dealing with the ghosts coming and going, so I really can't figure it out."
The City God paced back and forth and said: "Not only is there a missing ghost, but one of the ghosts is also missing. There is a problem, a big problem! Hurry! Go and find it for me! Civil and military judges, you go to Taiqing Temple and Huaguang Temple Inquiry, Li Dayun, you go to the Fox Courtyard to inquire. I want to contact Shangguan and the underworld to find out where the underworld messenger came from to escort the underworld soul, but it turned out to be too late!"
The city god was very worried. If it was just too late to arrive, it would be a minor problem. He would just extradite him when he arrived. But if you can't find it, you'll be in big trouble.
The City God immediately ordered the kid under his seat to flip through the paperwork, look for the official documents handed over, and then write to the County God and the Underworld to find out who was missing.
Li Dayun arrived at Fox Slope to discuss with Gong Mengbi. His face was frightened and he said, "Teacher, something happened!"
Li Dayun told Gong Mengbi what had happened, and Gong Mengbi immediately ordered Kang Wen to ask all the foxes if they had seen any ghosts who had not returned.
He asked Li Dayun to sit down and wait for news about Kang Wen.
Gong Mengbi said in a deep voice: "Don't be anxious. If the sky falls, there will be tall people holding it up, so it won't hit you. The city god reacted quickly. The responsibility for this is not yours. At most, you will be scolded."
Li Tayun gradually calmed down and asked, "Teacher, do you know what's going on?"
Gong Mengbi said: "It's just a guess. It may be a premeditated sneak escape. Impersonating, buying off, or killing a Yin official is not what a Yin ghost can do. In the end, this matter will have to be investigated by the Yin department, and you don't have to do it yet. Come and take the blame.”
Even so, Gong Mengbi still sighed and said, "I hope we can find out. I don't know what these ghosts are trying to do when they sneak into the human world."
In fact, Gong Mengbi had a deeper conjecture that he didn't say.
Wu Ning County, ghosts smuggled into Fanyang, this story sounds very familiar.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
The second chapter is not finished yet. I will send it out first to ensure diligence. It will take about 20 minutes to finish. Please wait a moment.
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