Ten days later, in Tongchuan County, Dazhou, several children were playing on the roadside. The children held hands and formed a circle, singing the same children's song repeatedly while spinning.
It's getting dark, the cold wind is blowing,
The little boy returned home quickly,
Once you enter the ghost bird's nest,
Both mother and father burst into tears.
Xu Shouguang was sitting in the tea shed, holding a bowl of tea in his hand. While sipping, he asked Dr. Tea not far in front of him: "I said, Dr. Tea, I have heard children's songs and nursery rhymes from other places. They are heroes, or they are enlightened children, why do the children's songs here sound so terrifying."
Dr. Cha added a handful of firewood to the fire under Chozi, and then said to Xu Shouguang: "The guests are from other places, so of course they don't know. In fact, our Tongchuan County... is not peaceful!"
"oh?"
"...The guests don't know something, and we have a monster here!"
"Monster?"
"Well, these days, ghost birds often appear in Tongchuan County. They specialize in catching children under ten years old and eating their hearts and livers. Many children of ordinary people have been kidnapped by this bird demon, and none of them have come back! This ghost bird made people in the county panic. Everyone was worried that their children would be next, so they made up a children's song to remind children to go home early..."
"Does the county government not care about this?"
"The county government office? The county government office is actually a bunch of people who only exploit the people. If something happens, they will not be useful. So the local salt gang organized a group of village warriors to patrol every night. It’s just that this ghost bird appears and disappears, and in the past few days, I haven’t been able to catch any trace of it.”
"That's it..."
"Yes. After drinking tea here, the guests should go to find an inn as soon as possible. Don't wander around at night. Although this ghost bird only preys on children, there were adults who encountered the ghost bird a few days ago and were injured by the ghost bird. They are still at home now. Just lie down..." Dr. Cha kindly reminded Xu Shouguang again, and then went about his business.
"Xiao Bai, what is this ghost bird?" Xu Shouguang asked in a low voice.
"Humph, you don't even know this!" Xiaobai did not hide his disdain for Xu Shouguang.
"...Yes, yes, that's why I need help from my little master Bai to solve the puzzle..." Xu Shouguang laughed along with him.
Xiaobai seemed to be very satisfied with the word "great god" in Xu Shouguang's mouth, so he lowered his voice and said calmly: "Ghost bird, also known as Guhuo bird, "Xuanzhong Ji" says, this bird flies at night and hides during the day, covering ghosts and gods. The hair is like a flying bird, and the hair off is like a woman. People in the world call them ghost birds, and there are many of them in Jingzhou. I don’t expect them to be present in Dazhou, which is thousands of miles away."
"Oh, does this ghost bird have bad teeth?"
"What's the meaning?"
"If it wasn't for bad teeth, why do we always catch children to eat? Is it because adults can't bite the meat?" Xu Shouguang joked.
Seeing that Xu Shouguang was so dishonest, Xiaobai simply ignored him.
Later in the evening, Xu Shouguang found an inn in the city and ate some pancakes randomly. Then he wanted to practice some more exercises, but he felt a little tired. He thought it was because of the hard work along the way, so he took a rest early.
At midnight, I suddenly heard a noise in the alley outside the window, and then the sound of a woman crying. Xu Shouguang was sleeping soundly when he was woken up by the noise, so he opened the window and looked out. The dark clouds in the sky covered the moon, and the city was completely dark. Only a vague shadow could be seen floating quickly on the roof.
"Is this... a ghost bird?!" Xu Shouguang quickly grabbed his coat and put it on his body. Then he turned over and jumped out of the window. He tied his belt and chased after him from the roof. The black figure was extremely fast and very skilled. It was like walking on flat ground on these undulating roofs with different widths. Xu Shouguang was following behind, but he couldn't catch up no matter what.
Seeing that the distance was getting farther and farther, Xu Shouguang put the index and middle fingers of his right hand together and took out a flying needle from the wishful bag. Previously in the Xinggu wooden house, Xu Shouguang found two books under the bed as Zhao Tianyu said. One was "Tang Sect's Secret Art of Hidden Weapons" and the other was "The Poison Classic". There was another book under the two books. There were flying needles in the bag. Xu Shouguang thought it might be useful, so he put them all into the wishful bag. Xu Shouguang threw the flying needle towards the black shadow in front of him, and saw a silver light in the darkness quickly cutting through the night sky and heading towards the back of the black shadow. Just when the flying needle was about to hit the black shadow, the black shadow suddenly turned to the right as if it had eyes on the back of its head, just in time to avoid the flying needle.
After dodging the flying needle, the black figure twisted its upper body, as if it was looking back at Xu Shouguang, but its feet were still moving skillfully across the roof. Suddenly, the black figure suddenly descended, jumped from the roof, and got into the alley. When Xu Shouguang saw this, he quickly quickened his pace a little more. He jumped to the place where the black shadow disappeared just now and jumped down. The alley was darker than that on the roof. Xu Shouguang took out the iron sword from his wishful bag and held it in his hand. He opened his eyes wide and tried to look around, but the shadow had long since disappeared.
At this time, a rustling sound came from a corner not far away from the alley. Xu Shouguang quickly pricked up his ears and followed the sound. When he walked to the corner and looked around, a whooshing sound suddenly appeared in Xu Shouguang's direction. The thought of it shocked Xu Shouguang, and then, a black shadow flashed in front of Xu Shouguang. In less than a breath, he had already run far away.
Xu Shouguang hurriedly chased after him with his sword. The black figure heard the footsteps behind him and realized there was someone behind him. Suddenly, the black shadow turned sharply to face Xu Shouguang. With a swish sound, the black shadow's body suddenly expanded, and the whole body seemed to be covered with feathers and exploded outwards. Immediately afterwards, Xu Shouguang felt a strong wind coming in front of him. He quickly raised his sword to block it, and then heard a clang. The iron sword collided with a hard object, causing a spark to fly. With the faint light of the spark, Xu Shouguang saw the iron sword. There is a bird's claw on the sword!
The bird's claws were very strong and gripped the sword tightly. Xu Shouguang was unable to withdraw the iron sword for a while. At this time, the black shadow suddenly approached Xu Shouguang, and a pair of yellow eyes lit up in the darkness. The yellow eyes carefully looked at Xu Shouguang up and down, left and right. This movement came so suddenly that Xu Shouguang was not prepared for the moment. He was so frightened that he dropped his iron sword and took a few steps back. Seeing Xu Shouguang abandoning his sword, the dark figure did not take the opportunity to launch an offensive. After sizing up Xu Shouguang, he threw the iron sword to the ground with a clang, turned around and ran away deep in the alley.
Xu Shouguang hurriedly picked up the iron sword and chased after him, but it was so dark in the alley that he couldn't see his fingers. Xu Shouguang was not like the black figure. He had a pair of yellow eyes that could see in the dark. After running a few steps, the black figure disappeared. Traces of shadow. Xu Shouguang had no choice but to jump to the roof and look around. But at the moment, everything was strangely quiet, and he didn't know which way to pursue.
"Xiao Bai, is that black shadow that I just fought against a ghost bird?"
"have no idea..."
"Don't you know everything about ghosts and ghosts?"
"Just because I know everything, it doesn't mean I can see clearly in the dark. I hate the dark the most!"
"Oh, it turns out Xiaobai, you are afraid of the dark..."
"It's hate, not fear! I'm not like you, who was so scared that I even dropped my weapon..."
"...Well...Xiaobai, why not do this? We both forget what happened just now, and no one is allowed to mention it in the future..."
"Okay! Whoever mentions who is the puppy!"
After burning a stick of incense, Xu Shouguang followed the way he came and returned to the area near the inn. At this time, the surrounding neighbors were awakened by the commotion and went out to see what was going on. The good people formed a circle in front of a door. Xu Shouguang squeezed in and saw a middle-aged woman in the middle of the crowd. Sitting on the ground crying. After a while, I saw a man leading a group of country warriors coming over with torches.
The man squeezed his way into the crowd and shouted to the middle-aged woman sitting on the ground: "Madam, stop crying and tell Zhang Tuanlian first what happened below!"
"Woo...wow...just now I was at home and saw that the fire was a little small. I was afraid that my house would be cold in spring, so I went outside to get firewood. Unexpectedly, just as I was carrying the firewood and turning around to go back to the house, I saw a dark shadow. She carried my Chun Sheng out of the door and ran towards the alley over there! My poor Chun Sheng... Wu... Wu..." After the woman said that, she started crying again.
"What about you?" Zhang Tuanlian asked the man.
"I was sleeping in the back room when I heard my wife crying, so I went out to check, but I didn't see anything, so I wanted to invite our hometown protection team to come as soon as possible." After the man said this, he turned to the woman on the ground beside him. He complained: "I blame you, but I have to go out to add firewood..."
"You still have the nerve to blame me. If you had prepared more firewood at home during the day, it wouldn't have been like this... Sigh... My poor Chun Sheng... He's not even four years old... Wow... ."
After that, the couple complained to each other, and Xu Shouguang stopped listening. He lowered his head and carefully recalled the scene just now.
"When we were on the roof just now, the black shadow half turned and looked back. Why didn't we see a child in its arms at that time... Later when we were in the alley, although it was dark, it seemed that there was no trace of light in the brief encounter. I didn’t see the child...where did it hide the child..."
Thinking of this, Xu Shouguang searched in the corners of nearby alleys, but after searching carefully for a while, he couldn't find anything special. Xu Shouguang had to go back to the inn to rest, thinking that he would go to the streets to look around tomorrow. .
There was nothing to say all night, and at dawn the next day, Xu Shouguang went to the busiest wine shop in Tongchuan County.
When it comes to asking for information, this wine shop is definitely the best choice. Firstly, there are many customers inside. People in the Tang Dynasty are good at wine. As long as the wine is slightly better, the wine shop will be full every day. Secondly, there are many customers inside. People from all over the world, from all walks of life, from all walks of life, like to get into this place, and news is spread in basically every door. Thirdly, when this person drinks too much, he likes to brag, whether it is true or false, what he can say or not. , as long as it is news that can make people take a good look at you, there is no way to stop it. This is why wine shops are better than teahouses. So Xu Shouguang came to this wine shop early in the morning hoping to get some news about ghost birds.
People in Dazhou love wine, so many guests gathered in this wine shop in the early morning. The guests gathered in small groups, chatting and bragging while drinking.
"Did you know? Yesterday, this ghost bird captured another family's baby."
"That's right! She's from Carpenter Xu's family, and his wife is very shrewd..."
"That's right, I live right across from his house. The noise caused by her wife's crying and howling last night was so loud that the neighbors started making a fuss. The hometown protection group also came, and even Zhang Tuanlian came here in person!"
"Zhang Tuanlian is nothing! If he is useful, how can the ghost bird catch so many babies?"
"Sigh... Zhang Tuanlian still has some tricks. In the early years, the gang of thieves in Shirenshan consisted of more than a dozen people, all with strong martial arts, but they were killed by Zhang Tuanlian alone. Let me tell you, it's not that Zhang Tuanlian can't do it, but Zhang Tuanlian can do it. That ghost bird is so weird!"
"That's right! I heard that in order to deal with this ghost bird, Song Dahe, the leader of the Salt Gang in Dazhou, sent hero posts to heroes from all walks of life in Dazhou and several nearby states and counties, and planned to hold some kind of demon-eliminating convention..." A said the pockmarked drunkard.
"Except for a hammer, it's a monster hunting conference! It will be held today at Huixian Village, Yanbang. I'll finish this bottle of wine and join in the fun later, and discuss with them the plan to eliminate monsters!" A red-nosed man said The drinker corrected.
When Xu Shouguang heard about the monster hunting convention, he quickly came over and said, "Brother, I also want to visit the monster hunting convention. May I ask how to get to Huixianzhuang?"
After hearing this, Hongbi turned around and saw the face of his whole life. After looking up and down, he asked: "This little brother, have you received the hero post from them?"
"Never received it." Xu Shouguang answered truthfully.
When the red nose heard this, there was a hint of contempt in his eyes, and he curled his lips and said, "Then you'd better not go, we won't even let you in without a hero card!"
"So have you received the hero post?"
"No..."
As soon as the red-nosed man finished speaking, there was a burst of laughter. Among them, the pock-marked face whom he had just scolded laughed the loudest. While laughing, the pock-marked face asked: "Okay, what are you capable of? It turns out there are no hero posts!”
"Hmph! Although I don't have a hero ticket, I have good martial arts skills! In addition to getting a hero ticket in this demon hunting competition, you can also compete at the entrance of Huixianzhuang and pick five people in a row to qualify."
"So, how do we get to Huixianzhuang?" Xu Shouguang interjected and asked.
"It's easy to find. Go all the way east along this street. The busiest place is Huixianzhuang. Boy, why don't you go over there in a while and help me out! I used to learn Tongjiquan back then, which can be said to be... Defeat the invincible hand in Dongchuan..." After Hong Bi Tou said this, he sat on the stool and performed two moves in a decent manner.
"Come on, how can you beat the invincible opponents of Dongchuan even though you're so bad? Hahaha!" said with a pockmarked face, sneering.
"You...you dare to laugh at me...punch me..." Hongbi punched the pockmarked face in greeting.
Seeing that the two men were fighting, Xu Shouguang hurriedly withdrew. He didn't want to mind other people's business. He turned around and left the wine shop and walked east along the street towards Huixianzhuang.
