Qingtian County has been filled with joy these days. Although it is not the Chinese New Year, it is even more lively than the Chinese New Year. All this was because the new county magistrate had driven away the cat demon that had been causing trouble in the county, and the people could finally have a good sleep in peace, so everyone was grateful to the new county magistrate.
The demon elimination even alarmed the people of several neighboring counties. They rushed to this small Qingtian County with their young and old, insisting to see with their own eyes what a three-headed and six-armed fairy figure the new county magistrate was.
This time, Qingtian County, which was originally remote and small, was actually crowded, with people everywhere.
If there are more people, there will naturally be more troubles.
In order to prevent some treacherous people from taking the opportunity to steal property or commit illegal acts, the county magistrate sent out almost all the yamen servants and asked them to patrol the streets in Qingtian County to prevent accidents.
I have to say that this county magistrate is really thoughtful. Although his arrangement made his yamen servants several times busier than usual, no one complained, and every yamen servant had pride and joy on his face.
There was only one Zaoyi yamen servant left at the yamen gate who was responsible for watching over the grievances. He originally stood with his chest raised and his head raised, as proudly as a rooster that had won a fight.
"stop!"
The yamen servant shouted suddenly, his right hand already pressed on the handle of the waist knife on one side. He saw a man in strange clothes coming in front of him. The man planned to rush directly into the county yamen without even saying hello, so he didn't politely shout loudly:
"What do you do? Do you know where this place is? How dare you break in? Be careful."
"Why, isn't this the government office of Qingtian County? I must have come to the wrong place."
The man wearing a golden crown and a mysterious robe stopped and asked the yamen officer with a smile on his face. He continued without waiting for the other party to reply:
"Go and call your county magistrate to see me."
"Ah! Who do you think you are? If you want to see our county magistrate, you also..."
Before the word "match" came out of his mouth, the yamen servant felt a gust of fishy wind blowing in front of his eyes. When he looked closely, he almost peed his pants in fear. It turned out to be the black cat demon that the county magistrate and the government officials had tried so hard to catch a few days ago!
The black cat demon was half lying on the ground, all the sharp blades on its claws popped out, and the sharp fangs in its mouth glowed with cold light.
Damn mom—my grandma!
The yamen servant turned around and ran into the yamen almost subconsciously. He tripped over the threshold and didn't have time to get up. He almost crawled and disappeared from the man's eyes.
The man in the different clothes chuckled, and with a wave of the black sleeve of his left hand, he dispersed the phantom of the black cat demon.
Not long after, the sound of hurried footsteps was heard, and the first to bear the brunt was the new county magistrate holding the ancestral sword.
"Where is the cat demon..."
The magistrate stood still and drew his sword out of its scabbard with a clang. He quickly scanned the surroundings, only to find that the people on both sides of the street looked calm and business as usual, not at all like a cat demon coming.
His eyes moved around, and finally locked on a strangely dressed man standing at the foot of the steps in front of the yamen entrance.
"Sir, he was the one who released the cat demon, he, he, he..."
The new county magistrate waved his hand to stop the yamen servant from continuing. He glanced up and down again, then slowly walked down the steps and bowed his hands:
"Qingtian County Magistrate Guo Zida, may I ask if you are... a five-color spiritual official!"
"Exactly."
The man in different clothes who called himself Lingguan nodded. He took off the red wine gourd from his waist, shook it and then smiled at Magistrate Guo:
"Can you ask Magistrate Guo for a drink?"
"Okay, okay, it's really rude of me to be a lower-ranking official. Please give me a favor, Lord Lingguan."
…
In the back hall of the Yamen, the two of them were seated as guest and host. Magistrate Guo quickly ordered his old servant to fry the new tea he had brought from the capital.
"Lord Lingguan, I don't know why you are here?"
Guo Zida was from a noble family in the capital, and he passed the imperial examination at a young age. Originally, his family planned to smooth things over for him and let him directly enter the Hanlin Academy or become an official near the capital.
It was because he didn't want to and had to go to this remote place to be a small county magistrate. His ancestors were military commanders, but in his generation, his family did not allow him to practice martial arts. They only taught him to read since he was a child, hoping that he would become a good official.
"Brother Guo, you don't have to speak like a spiritual official. It makes someone feel a little embarrassed."
The man in different clothes took something out of his arms, reached out and handed it to Guo Zida's hand, and said with a smile:
"My surname is Xia, with the double-character name Zhichan. I am one year younger than Brother Guo..."
What was handed over was a two-finger-sized gold token with "No Taboos Blessed by Heavenly Officials" engraved on the front and Xia Zhichan's detailed origins written in small regular script on the back.
This thing is unique to the royal family of Da Qi, and is given to each generation of five-color spiritual officials walking in the world.
The origin of these five-color spiritual officials begins with the founding of Da Qi.
Three hundred years ago, evil spirits were rampant in the world, and ghosts roamed the wilderness. The former Great Weekend Emperor was a licentious and immoral man who favored weird and evil arts and used human sacrifices on a large scale to seek immortality. Emperor Taizu of Daqi started from a young age, held high the banner of righteousness and crusaded against the unjust, and received help from capable people, and finally conquered the world.
When Emperor Taizu rose to power, he was assisted by three capable men and strangers who were capable of subduing demons. Only in this way can the decadent previous kingdom be overthrown, and all the evil spirits that are raging in the world can be driven to sparsely populated places, so that the people of the world can live and work in peace and contentment.
These three people are Buddhist Zen Master Bodhi, Taoist Wuya Patriarch, and the first-generation spiritual officer Yan Chixia.
After the world was peaceful, Buddhism and Taoism each flourished. Only the Lingguan lineage was recruited by the royal family and became a special official position. This is because people of the Lingguan lineage only learn techniques to subjugate demons, but they never seek immortality or worship Buddha. They do not need to recruit disciples and rely on incense for worship like the Buddhist and Taoist families.
"Then Brother Yu asked me to call him Brother Xia Xian. I don't know why Brother Xia Xian came to Qingtian County. If you need Brother Yu's help, just ask."
Guo Zida quickly handed the Lingguan gold medal back to Xia Zhichan's hand. He knew in his heart that the reason why the other party took out the token was to dispel his doubts and prove his identity. After all, it’s not unheard of for someone to pretend to be a spiritual official to cheat people out of food and drink.
"As for the matter, it's almost done."
Xia Zhichan lifted up the wide black cuff of her left hand, shook it left and right a few times, and saw a bulging thing coming out.
It was a round, dark little head with a pair of pointed ears. Two emerald green jewel-like eyes adorn it, and a slender and cute beard hangs on both sides of the pink nose.
"Meow."
The kitten meowed softly, and its two small paws with pink balls hooked on Xia Zhichan's left cuff.
"Brother Xia Xian is actually so interested. This cat is actually very cute."
Guo Zida doesn't keep cats, but it's just because he feels that cats are so valuable that people need to spend a lot of time and care to take care of them, otherwise they will easily be unable to survive.
In the past few days, because of the chaos caused by the cat demon, he almost felt unspeakable discomfort when he heard the cat meowing. However, when he saw such a cute little kitten, even though Guo Zida was a big man, he couldn't help but feel a little fond of it.
"What? Brother Guo doesn't recognize her..."
"Don't you recognize it? Could this be..." Guo Zida was still looking at the little black cat on Xia Zhichan's sleeve with a smile, but after hearing this and thinking about Xia Zhichan's identity, an answer was ready to come out. Appeared in his mind:
"Could this thing be the cat demon?"
"Exactly."
Xia Zhichan swung his sleeves again, and the kitten fell straight into the depths of the sleeves, and there was no more movement. He picked up the tea and took a sip.
People in the capital love to drink Sushan Yunwu, and the best of this tea can create a cloud of white mist in the cup, which lasts for a long time. No need to drink, just take a sip of the cloud breath and you will be able to taste the unique fragrance of the mountains and forests.
“Good tea.”
Xia Zhichan praised it. He had never drank such delicious tea since he left the capital.
"Brother, since the cat demon has been captured, why don't you kill this thing immediately..."
Guo Zida didn't finish what he said, but what he meant was that since you have caught the cat demon, why not just kill it? Guo Zida didn't finish speaking because after all, he had only heard of the Five Colored Spirit Officers, but had never actually received them, and he didn't know their methods of subduing and eliminating demons.
Some words can easily offend people if they are said in a confused way.
Although Guo Zida is new to officialdom, he has been exposed to it since he was a child and has a general understanding of this kind of twists and turns.
"Sir, the lower official made a mistake."
"It doesn't matter."
Xia Zhichan waved his hand. He stared at a piece of green leaf floating up and down in the tea cup on his right hand. After a while, he continued:
"Buddhism talks about karma and retribution, and Taoism talks about reincarnation. In fact, all the great avenues of heaven can be unified..."
Um? Guo Zida didn't understand why the other party said such a profound sentence without any clue. He had only a superficial understanding of the religious philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism, and it was suddenly unclear what Xia Zhichan meant by what he said.
"The sky is fifty, the earth is forty-nine, leaving only a thin line for others to fight for."
Xia Zhichan put the tea cup back on the table beside her, dipped her right index finger into the tea, then pinched the formula with her left hand and flicked it with her right index finger.
Tick.
This drop of water fell from the fingertips, passed through the heavy clouds, and hit the surface of the green tea water, causing ripples.
Slowly, the fog cleared. Many figures appeared in the small tea cup.
Guo Zida was attracted by this strange scenery and no longer thought about the meaning of Xia Zhichan's words just now. His eyes were completely attracted by the figure appearing in the tea cup.
Xia Zhichan's voice rang in his ears, and as he spoke sentence by sentence, the scenery in the tea cup was constantly changing:
"This cat demon's real name is Liu Cuicui, and she was originally from this Qingtian County. Her mother died young, and her father was addicted to gambling. When she was 12 years old, she was sold into the Wang family as a maid by her father in the name of paying off gambling debts. Later, she was sold by her master. She was so humiliated that she became pregnant. But the mistress didn't tolerate it and poisoned her and the unborn child in her belly..."
The small teacup shows various scenes of how Liu Cuicui was sold by her biological father, how she was insulted, and how she was poisoned and killed.
"Her resentment couldn't go away, and she finally took on the form of a cat demon by chance. That's why she came to seek revenge after fifty years."
"Oh, that's it." Guo Zida nodded, there was something he couldn't figure out. That is, since the cat demon started causing trouble, only the Wang family compound in the county has suffered, and everyone else has been fine. It turns out that this cat demon is causing trouble to avenge herself.
"Then...that's not right. I asked a mage to subdue demons before, but didn't a Taoist priest die tragically?"
"That Taoist priest was Liu Cuicui's father in his previous life. He lost all the money he gained from selling his daughter in gambling. Then he suddenly became seriously ill and had no one to take care of him. He eventually died of cold and hunger."
Xia Zhichan stretched out her hand to cover the tea cup. The scene above the tea was finally fixed on Liu Cuicui's father dying of hunger and cold in a ruined temple.
When he raised his hand again, the tea had returned to its original state.
It seems like everything is a mirror image.
"It turns out that's the case. No wonder the old people say: Everything is fate and no one can control it. Now it seems that it is really true."
Guo Zida was a little sad. He didn't expect that behind a demonic act, there was such a story involving human lives.
"I came to the county government this time mainly to find something. Brother Guo, please help me find something."
Now that the cat demon's matter is almost settled, Xia Zhichan doesn't need to go to the county government office at all. So he actually had other purposes for coming here this time, and he didn't plan to speak until now.
"What is it? My dear brother, you may say so, but your foolish brother will do your best."
When Guo Zida heard this, he hurriedly patted his chest and assured Xia Zhichan. He had been swearing to it at first, but when he heard what Xia Zhichan said next, he was stunned on the spot.
"One..."
Xia Zhichan's eyes narrowed, and she softly uttered two words:
"Heads."
