The "zombie" incident soon spread throughout the county.
It was drizzling in the early morning. The Yamen mobilized all the officers and walked up and down the street holding torches. Among the noisy people, I seemed to hear a sentence:
"Master Zhang Xian is here to slay demons in our county!"
"Crack!"
There was a sound of locks and gongs and drums.
I saw a dozen blue-robed Taoist priests carrying swords and holding big red oil-paper umbrellas. They all looked arrogant and otherworldly.
There was an open-top bamboo sedan carried in the procession. Through the gauze curtain, you could see a Taoist priest in green robe sitting in the sedan. The incense burner curled up with green smoke, and the morning light flickered. It really gave off a fairy-like atmosphere.
The magic stick swaggered through the city, and people paid homage to it one after another.
"Master Zhang Xian! You have to help our county!"
The people spontaneously followed the procession and prayed for blessings as they walked.
"Tsk... As soon as someone died, this magician came to collect money. This was clearly planned!" Liao Heng was indignant.
Song Che only said: "Let's see how he shows off his power first."
Three people also joined the team.
Master Zhang Xian walked around the county town and gained thousands of "followers", and finally stopped at Dongsheng
The same few powerful gentry were in the same place where donations were collected yesterday. Different from the past, today there was a corpse covered with white cloth next to the money box.
Although the body has been covered, the hands are still raised high in the shape of claws, and the shape is very scary.
"Why is this? Why doesn't it put its hand down?"
"You didn't know you came late. Several government officials tried their best to break off its hand just now!"
"Ah? Then it will also become... a zombie!"
Just a pair of hands that couldn't let go caused panic to escalate again.
"Quiet! Silence!" Master Huang called to everyone: "Don't worry, fellow villagers. With Master Zhang here, no monsters or monsters will dare to cause trouble!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Master Zhang Xian also stepped down from the sedan chair and saw that he was in his late forties, with a three-inch long beard, fleshless cheeks, a sharp chin raised slightly, and his eyes revealed a sense of indifference from the past. Silk is arrogant and has a bit of fairy air, but not much.
Master Zhang Xian shook the dust with his hand, walked to the corpse, shook his head and sighed: "I watched the stars last night and saw evil spirits coming from the southwest, so I knew that someone must be mourning. When I visited this city today, I felt that evil spirits were lingering. I never thought that I would be late. One step forward."
"Master Zhang Xian, thank you very much. Shima County has been really uneasy recently. The mass graves are haunted by ghosts, and the persecutors came to the city last night." Master Huang responded, pointing to the corpses on the ground: " This man's name is 'Zhang Da', which is the same as yours. He has worked diligently as a watchman in the county for more than ten years. Everyone in the neighborhood knows that he is an honest man, but the evil spirit has found him. Alas... pitiful Oh, how pitiful!"
Mr. Huang was shameless and shed crocodile tears.
Master Zhang Xian said softly, "Yes", and used a fly whisk to lift the shroud apart. He saw that the corpse's eyes were bulging, its mouth was wide open, there were two bloody holes in its neck, and there were no fewer than ten bloody holes in its chest. It was simply too horrible to look at!
The crowd who saw the corpse were also frightened into an uproar.
Master Zhang Xian frowned, squatted in front of the corpse and inspected it before saying, "This man was indeed sucked by a zombie. There are teeth marks on his neck and sharp claws on his chest..."
As soon as this statement came out, the people became even more frightened.
"Then that...that immortal master, he...can he also become a zombie?" Master Huang asked.
Master Zhang Xian said calmly, "Its hands have become stiff and stiff. In another three to five hours, when the corpse poison has flowed all over the body, it will most likely transform into a corpse. Don't panic. There is a way. A clever trick can relieve its resentment."
After that, he flicked his sleeves and produced two yellow talismans. He waved his whisk twice, recited two spells, and shouted:
"Burn!"
"coax!"
Two yellow talismans were instantly ignited!
"Here comes the bowl!" he shouted again.
The Taoist boy waiting on the side quickly took out a porcelain bowl from the Qiankun bag. Master Zhang Xian grabbed the porcelain bowl and said, "Dragon King of the Four Seas, listen to my order and lend me holy water to shock the demons!"
He wiped the mouth of the bowl with a whisk, and a bowl full of water came out in an instant. He then stuffed the burning talisman paper into the bowl, stirred it up, fed it to the corpse, and said:
"There is always an owner for wrongs and debts, and death is like a lamp going out. Why bother wandering around in this world? Go ahead!"
The moment he drank the talisman water, the corpse put down his hands. Master Zhang waved a whisk on its face, closed its eyes and closed its mouth.
"Hey! It's amazing! It's really a god descending to earth!"
The people clapped their hands and applauded.
Master Zhang Xian slowly closed his eyes, with an inscrutable expression, and said calmly: "I have cast a spell to eliminate its resentment. After going down, I will use peach branches as firewood, burn the body, and put the ashes into the ground."
Master Huang waved his hand, and the officials carried the body down, and then came forward to ask for advice: "Master Immortal really opened our eyes just now. How do you think that zombie that sucks human blood can be subdued?"
Master Zhang Xian said slowly: "Didn't Japanese Dao deal with you in the past few days? Hundreds and thousands of bones were buried in mass graves, and the resentment was overwhelming. We could only build a temple of the golden body of Zhenwu Emperor to suppress it."
Master Huang deliberately raised his voice: "I followed your instructions yesterday, but a few thorns came from nowhere. They don't believe in ghosts and gods, and they hindered the raising of funds for the temple..."
"Oh?" Zhang Xianshi opened his eyes, "How can there be such ignorant people? The so-called zombies are zombies transformed by resentment. They have come to the city to look for food, which means that resentment is about to overflow. If we don't try to suppress it, huh? ...Don’t blame me for not warning you. When the evil spirits come to the county, even if Emperor Zhenwu descends to earth, it will be difficult to stop the river of blood!"
The common people, who had only daily necessities of food, rice, oil and salt, could not withstand the deception and intimidation, so they paid out of their own pockets one after another, planning to lose money to eliminate the disaster.
"Wait!"
Song Che shouted and squeezed out of the crowd.
"It's you again!" Master Huang exclaimed, "Yesterday it was you who hindered the raising of funds and caused Zhang Da to die on the street. You still have the nerve to come out and make noise! If you dare to scaremonger again, I will really put you in jail. Got it!"
"Yes, tiger fighting hero, you are a foreigner and don't know the strange things in our Shima County. Donate some money to the gods and pray for peace." The common people also came to persuade.
"That's wrong, that's wrong. I will stand up today, not to stop everyone from donating, but to set an example and do my best," Song Che explained to the people, raised a finger and said loudly:
"If I can really eradicate evil plagues for the people, I am willing to pledge one thousand taels of silver to help eliminate the evil!"
Master Huang's eyes lit up: "Are you true?"
"As a gentleman says, a horse cannot be chased! But——"
Song Che changed the subject and smiled at Master Zhang: "After all, none of us saw the zombie last night. If Master Zhang can catch it and show everyone its true face, I believe no one will be stingy with donations... Of course , I am definitely not doubting your ability, Master Immortal, it is simply that what you hear is false and what you see is true."
You old man, let's see if you can fall into my trap!
