The rain stopped early.
The cold wind carried the drizzle and poured into the narrow alley, making it look somewhat miserable.
The eyebrows moved with the wind, and fell silently on the bluestone that was littered with water and fallen flowers. Under the slender but powerful waist, the frost-white sword blade and the fiery red skirt set off each other.
She remained silent.
Behind the ghost face, two stern eyes were cast.
If there is a wrong explanation, then yesterday's covenant will be overturned. At this time, right here, there will be another fight.
Li Changan nailed Zu Gui to the sword.
He pondered for a while.
He didn't rush to explain the reason for saving Zu Gui, but he asked a question.
"Miss Yu, can the demon epidemic in your mouth be cured?"
"Absolutely impossible."
"Have you tried it?"
Yu Mei's answer was decisive, and Li Changan's rhetorical question came out of his mouth.
However, when I asked this question, I got no response at all.
Li Changan frowned and gradually understood.
What are the duties of the Zhenfu Division?
That is, he is in charge of the affairs of monsters, ghosts, witches, monks, and Taoists in the world, and patrols and suppresses all kinds of monsters and disasters. As for the safety, welfare and lives of ordinary people, it is not within the scope of their responsibilities, and they will not take it seriously.
Therefore, this generation often behaves cruelly and violently, and is often looked down upon by the world and scholars.
However, this is the true nature of an eagle dog!
Like the Yan Xing Lie Dragon Picture, it is one of the few outliers that "puts the cart before the horse".
"Humans can become diseased and turn into monsters. Why can't monsters be cured and turn back into humans?"
The Taoist priest asked bluntly.
"Have you ever tried the possibility of a cure? If not, how dare you kill innocent people indiscriminately?!"
this time.
Yu Mei finally responded.
"How can you be innocent if you kill someone and suck blood?"
"This is caused by the demonic transformation, not its nature."
"If you fall into the devil's path, it's hard to turn back." Yu Mei's voice was as cold as ice, "So what if you save one person? As long as the culprit is still there, the demon will continue to change. It is only right to abandon the minutiae and hurry up to track down the culprit. "
These "correct" words made Li Changan shake his head and laugh.
"So, one person can't be saved?"
"insufficient."
The Taoist priest took a deep breath.
"Okay, okay, okay. Even if this person devours his wife and children, it is not a pity to kill him. But next time, another innocent person is unfortunately infected with the epidemic. What should we do?"
Yu Mei's answer was very simple.
"Just kill him."
Li Changan almost laughed out of anger at her.
"One person can be killed if he catches the disease, but what about ten people? What about a hundred people? What about tens of thousands of people? A city full of monsters, or a city full of genocide?"
The Taoist priest sneered and bowed his hands.
"If that's the case, please take care of it yourself, Mr. Yu. A poor man is greedy for life and is afraid of death. He doesn't want to be devoured by monsters and leave only a few bones and dregs."
When these words came out, the atmosphere on both sides dropped to freezing point.
In the narrow alley, both sides were speechless.
Only Yu Yu was crying in the cold wind, accompanied by the intermittently painful moans of the ghosts.
Quite a while.
Just when the Taoist priest thought that the other party couldn't bear it and wanted to take action.
Yu Mei silently sheathed her sword, which was a sign of relief.
Li Changan also got off the slope, put away his aggressive attitude, and patiently persuaded:
"Besides, killing is just a symptom. Finding the culprit is the root cause."
He pointed to the demon at his feet.
"This guy retains his wisdom as a human being. He can even pretend to be a normal person during the day and deceive us. Maybe he knows the culprit behind the scenes..."
The words were not finished.
"Taoist Priest..."
At the back door of Zhou's house outside the alley, a call stopped abruptly, and then Bo Ziyu's voice suddenly sounded.
"Don't panic, I'm here to help you."
Help you big-headed ghost.
Li Changan just cursed, and then he wanted to get out of the way of the person opposite him with his eyebrows and red dress floating.
He hurriedly called her:
"Wait a minute."
Yu Mei glanced at the entrance of the alley and whispered:
"I can't reveal (Harmony's) identity yet."
"I know."
Li Changan nodded.
This Yumei always put on a false face, and was secretive in his actions, which even attracted officials to encircle and suppress him. If his identity was revealed early in the morning, how could the county government announce a reward? However, she must have had some scruples and intentions when doing this.
The Taoist priest had long been aware of this, so he didn't tell anyone about what happened between the two. But the reason for calling her right now is...
"I am not good at magic. I don't have the means to suppress demons. I have to borrow the girl's soul-stabilizing needle."
When dealing with another ghost before, as well as the tiger aunt last time, Li Changan had vague thoughts of capturing them alive, but he did not have any spells to help, so he could only kill them hastily.
But now, although I don't have it, Yumei does.
Otherwise, according to the Taoist priest's temperament, how could he chatter nonsense with her for a long time?
Yu Mei did not answer after hearing this, only when the figure disappeared over the wall.
A short needle came through the air and sank into the back of the ghost's neck.
At this time, Bo Ziyu finally arrived, stepping on the stagnant water.
He pulled out the blade and gestured wildly, gasping for breath.
"Where is the demon...the demon girl?"
"Ran."
"Run away?" His face was stunned, "Why didn't you chase me?"
"How to chase?"
In the empty alley, Bo Ziyu was speechless. His eyes turned coldly and he caught a glimpse of the things under Li Changan's feet that were neither humans nor ghosts nor fish.
"This is?"
"Zhou Huai."
"Hiss~"
He choked on a mouthful of cold rain.
…………
The main hall of Zhou's house.
Li Changan held up the candle.
The dim candlelight illuminated the hall.
Bo Ziyu was sent out to deal with the bodies of his colleagues. There were only two people in the room, Li Changan and Zhou Huai, and oh, there was also someone listening in the corner.
The Taoist priest glanced at a certain spot on the beam, where there was a faint corner of bright red.
"I don't like to talk nonsense with others. I know you can hear and see, so you can talk after I finish."
Li Changan put Zhou Huai on the bed, who was as if he was dead after being hit by the soul-fixing needle, took out a stool and sat down opposite him, and said straight to the point.
"You recognize me?"
That’s all.
The tone of voice is gentle and eloquent.
"Although you pretended to be foolish and filial during the day, you deceived us. In fact, you deliberately revealed the clue of 'pancake'. Although this clue is obscure (harmonious), as long as a thoughtful person can actually It’s not difficult to detect, and it’s easier to follow this clue to find out where your father is.”
"After all, in this small Xiaoshui City, it is really eye-catching for a famous person like you to appear in front of people disheveled and buy a large basket of cakes with your own hands."
"Why did you betray your father?"
Taoist priests ask and answer themselves.
"My guess is that your disguise only works during the day. At night, you will change back to this half-human, half-fish appearance. So you need to divert your attention to get away. But you never expected that we would come back It’s just so quick.”
Li Changan paused.
"But the premise of all this is that you know those people can threaten you and threaten a monster. After all, ordinary government servants will only become your food.
In this Xiaoshui City, there are very few people who can truly threaten you.
For example, poor people.
For example, someone who is secretly cleaning up the demons. "
On the beam, Yu Mei's breathing became rapid for a moment. Li Changan ignored him and just leaned over to take off the short needle from the back of Zhou Huai's neck. Shi Shiran asked:
"So, who's warning you?"
Is Li Changan's inference rigorous?
No.
It's just full of mistakes.
He just picked the one that looked good among thousands of possibilities and bluffed the other party. Of course, everyone will be happy if they guess correctly, but if they don’t guess correctly... the worst thing is that they will make up another one and continue to cheat. Anyway, everyone is in their own hands, just cook it slowly.
as expected.
After taking off the soul-fixing needle, Zu Gui said nothing and just stared at the Taoist priest with a strange expression.
Guessed wrong?
Li Changan scratched his head.
Infinite Heavenly Lord, we are really not qualified for this line of work.
But what else can be done? If you hand it over to the government, you might scare the officials half to death first; if you hand it over to Yu Mei, you might not be able to survive afterwards.
With no choice, the Taoist priest had to change his strategy and give gentle advice.
"Don't worry, I don't mean to harm your life. On the contrary, I will hire a famous mage doctor to treat you. Even if you can't be cured for the time being, I will only temporarily detain you until I find out the culprit behind turning you into a monster. I will definitely pay you back..."
"puff."
A sneer sounded particularly harsh in the spacious and bright room.
This laughter did not come from Li Changan who was so sincere, nor did it come from the eyebrows on the roof tiles, nor did it come from Bo Ziyu who was "humming" and carrying the corpse outside.
The Taoist priest's eyes grew colder, and he looked at Zhou Huai with a sarcastic grin.
"turn out to be."
it says.
"You know nothing."
A cold wind came from nowhere and slipped into the house.
Shake the candle.
The dark and messy candle shadow reflected on the Taoist priest's face, making his expression even more indifferent.
"what for?"
"You want to know?"
The corners of Zhou Huai's mouth became more and more cracked, revealing two rows of fine teeth.
"You stupid bastard, sleep bug! It doesn't hurt to tell you, this Xiao..."
Halfway through his words, he suddenly stopped.
The remaining half was stuck in the throat, making only a "whoo" sound.
Li Changan frowned.
"What about you?"
It was unable to respond, and its body trembled violently, with fine drops of blood oozing out from under its scales.
Its mouth was wide open, as if it had used all its strength to spit out four intermittent words.
"Peel...the belly..."
Then, he stared straight, and a pair of pupils dilated and spread, like two deep holes, through which life and soul quietly slipped away, leaving behind a shriveled body that gradually became cold and hard.
he died.
…………
Red shadows flipped.
Yu Mei couldn't hold it any longer, so she jumped off the beam and fell into the house.
Li Changan winked at her, and she nodded silently, holding the sword in her hand.
The Taoist priest drew his sword and turned the corpse of the ghost over. The tip of the sword penetrated the fish's belly and opened the flesh bit by bit.
However, a foot-long opening was opened.
suddenly.
Zu Gui seemed to have come to life, his stomach suddenly expanded and contracted.
Immediately afterwards.
A long shadow emerged from the mouth of the fish belly, carrying a fishy and strange stench, and hit the Taoist priest's face.
Yu Mei next to him has been waiting for a long time.
The sword light flashed one after another.
The thing was sent back and cut into pieces.
The Taoist priest's expression did not change, he picked up the tip of his sword and took a closer look.
The long shadow turned out to be a slender insect.
The head is like a lamprey eel, and the body is about the thickness of a goose egg and is in the shape of milky white links. The links have fine tentacles, like the roots of a plant. You can imagine how these "roots" penetrate into the host's flesh and blood when hiding in the belly of the demon, sucking out the host's essence and blood.
Yu Mei only cut off its head and a small part of its body, while most of the body was still in the belly of the ghost. With slight twitching, it slowly slipped out of the fish's belly.
Yu Mei was wearing a mask and his expression could not be seen clearly.
Anyway, Li Changan felt very numb when he looked at this damn thing.
All right.
Now I probably understand who the jar of internal organs is for.
"Taoist Master."
Bo Ziyu's voice sounded outside the door.
Yu Mei was motionless and didn't react at all. Li Changan quickly pushed her, and she seemed to come back to her senses. She took a few steps and jumped onto the rafter.
"I heard something moving, but what happened?"
Bo Ziyu opened the door and rushed in. But as soon as he saw the scene in the room, his face turned pale, he covered his mouth and hid outside to retching.
Li Changan quickly grabbed him back and asked immediately:
"Where are the bodies of the other two ghosts?"
…………
Yizhuang in the north of the city.
The guard was a stooped old man. He might have been around corpses for many years, and his complexion looked no better than the corpses.
He pointed at the three corpses in the yard, as if introducing the cabbages in his garden.
"The hairy woman the day before yesterday said it was filth, so she took firewood and burned it early. It's this weird fish and the weird fish-like guy. If you two are late, I will also And burned. As for those who died violently before, including the woman who ate her own child, they had already been picked up by their relatives and they didn't know where they were buried. Only Qian Dazhi, because he was a merchant, was waiting for his fellow villagers to drop by and take the bodies. Send him back, so he still stays in Zhuangzi."
After he finished speaking slowly, Li Changan bowed his hand.
"I'm sorry to bother you, husband."
The old man waved his hand.
"I'm serious. This guy can be considered a nephew of an old man. He can help with some small things if he can."
After saying that, he smiled and stepped aside, leaving Bo Ziyu standing in front of the corpse, holding a knife and tremblingly looking at Li Changan.
"Taoist priest?"
Li Changan nodded.
"Watch out for corpse aura."
The smile on Bo Ziyu's face was uglier than crying.
The Taoist priest could only say, half comforting and half urging: "Don't worry, I'll be there to protect you."
The young detective was helpless.
Whoever dared to follow him had the courage to follow, but his martial arts skills were low and he couldn't do the job of protecting him, so he had to be responsible for skinning the belly of the corpse.
He gritted his teeth and slashed the stomachs of the three corpses one by one.
But luckily, no more bugs came out of it.
Just then he breathed a sigh of relief, but saw the Taoist priest's face solemn.
"No intestines."
What?
He turned his head and took a closer look, but saw that the three corpses had all the internal organs in their bellies, but there was no intestines.
Where did the intestines go?
Or.
Where did the thing that occupied the place of the intestines go in the belly of the corpse?
…
The two of them thanked the guard and said goodbye to Yizhuang.
Looking outside the door, the night is as dark as iron.
Li Changan couldn't help but recall the question and answer he had with Yu Mei on the top of the Dionysus Temple.
"How many kills?"
"Seven out of thirty."
The Taoist exhaled a deep breath.
Thirty-seven people!
How many of these thirty-seven people have this strange insect in their stomachs? Is this kind of strange insect the source of demonic transformation? If so, did those escaped bugs create more monsters lurking in Xiaoshui City?
"Taoist Master." Bo Ziyu was a little worried. "What should we do next?"
Li Changan rubbed his temples tiredly.
I haven't had a good night's sleep in the past two days.
What can be done?
"Go back to sleep."
