Day and night tour

Chapter 352 Red Ginseng Doll
"Red Ginseng Boy." The painter repeated.

"Can the Dongshan Fox Clan bring such treasures here?"

Yun Ziliang quickly asked back.

Zhao Wuya interrupted, "Is that a treasure? It's just a ginseng monster jumping around in the mountains. I've seen it several times while searching for dragons."

"Where have you seen him?" Yun Ziliang turned around and asked.

"In Jingshan Mountain in Jingchuan Prefecture, there is a ginseng spirit, whose entire body is snow-white, like a fat baby. He wears a bellyband and has two leaves on his head. He runs all over the mountain."

Zhao Wuya was a man with a strong desire to perform. As he spoke, he also gestured to Yun Ziliang with his hands and feet, which made Yun Ziliang angry. He asked, "Ya Zi, did you see the ginseng boy? Is his whole body pale? He has a fat face, and although he has facial features, his eyebrows are not very clear."

"That's right, don't they all look like this?" Zhao Wuya responded blankly.

"Bullshit! The ginseng monster you've seen is different from the red ginseng boy in color. One is all white, and the other is bright red..."

"Then I can just apply a layer of red paint. Isn't it just a different skin color?" Zhao Wuya sneered again.

"I..." Yun Ziliang couldn't bear it anymore, so he took off his shoes and was about to hit Zhao Wuya on the forehead.

Zhao Wuya lowered his head and became "Zen Master Wuya", chanting the Buddhist name: Amitabha.

Seeing Yazi's transformation, Yun Ziliang had to endure it even though he couldn't bear it. He was a Wuya Zen, and the Taoist was beating Wuya Zen - in a small sense, they were not from the same school, and he couldn't beat him in terms of origin; in a big sense, this shoe would deepen the contradiction between Taoism and Buddhism.
He had no choice but to put away the shoe and continue talking to the painter.

"Ku, Ku, Ku!"

A burst of suppressed laughter came from Zhao Wuya. Yun Ziliang turned around suddenly and found that Yazi was laughing wildly. He immediately understood: "Yazi, are you pretending to be Zen Master Wuya to escape the beating of your grandmaster?"

This time he didn't use shoe soles, but pulled out his belt and chased Zhao Wuya and beat him.

"Grandmaster, I won't act next time. I really won't act..."

Zhou Xuan was watching from the side and laughed, "Yazi, if you could hold back your laughter, maybe you could have gotten away with it."

He is so talkative and can't hold back his laughter. If he doesn't get beaten, then who will?

After Yun Ziliang finished beating Zhao Wuya, he scolded him, "Let me make it clear to you, yours is called a ginseng monster, and the one from the Dongshan fox tribe is called a red ginseng boy. They are not the same thing."

"What's the difference? Which one is more valuable?" Zhou Xuan also asked.

Yun Ziliang said: "The ginseng monster and the red ginseng boy are like a pair. One is a water radish grown at home, and the other is a thousand-year-old ginseng king who has cultivated himself in the valley. The former can be bought for a few copper coins, while the latter is in short supply and can be obtained with a ton of gold, but the ginseng king is not available."

He added: "Red ginseng boy can only be grown in the white mountain and black soil of Dongguan Prefecture. It is the king of mountain delicacies in the world and the best of the best."

"Then what exactly is this boy?" Zhou Xuan got to the bottom of it.

"After all, it is indeed ginseng." Yun Ziliang said.

Zhou Xuan: “…”

Zhao Wuya: “…”

It turns out that Yun Ziliang had been talking for a long time and finally came back to the point that they are all ginseng, so the only difference is the skin.

"It comes from a different place."

Yun Ziliang explained it in detail and said, "The black soil in Dongguan Prefecture is fertile, and most of the mountains are old. Needless to say, the spiritual energy is rich. It is a specialty of red ginseng. Red ginseng absorbs the energy of mountain spirits and goblins, and most of them can develop spiritual intelligence and become spirits.
However, these red ginseng monsters have too much essence. They absorb the essence of heaven and earth day and night, and their essence will overflow. When the mountain wind blows, the essence will float in the white mountain.
The spirit of one or two red ginsengs is naturally insignificant, but if thousands of them were gathered together, they could form a red ginseng boy."

"This red ginseng boy is extremely difficult to capture. If you are lucky enough to catch one, it will be of infinite use."

"What's the use?" Zhou Xuan asked again.

"The living dead, the flesh and bones... no matter how damaged the body is, just condense the boy's essence on the body and it will be repaired. If the soul is damaged, it can also be repaired with this method."

Yun Ziliang's face was red as he spoke, "In the law of fate controlled by the Nuo God, there is a realm called "substitute death". The function of this red ginseng boy is "reincarnation on the spot." "

"Oh... I see... No wonder you're so excited, Lao Yun."

Zhou Xuan said: "With this red ginseng boy, can you repair your body and return to the Nine Incense Sticks?"

"It may not be easy to return to Jiuzhuxiang, but...sitting on the eighth and looking forward to the ninth, it should not be a problem."

"That's easy. I'll go get the gift from the fox tribe and use it to replenish your body." The word "replenish" in Zhou Xuan's words is a verb.

Yun Ziliang's body was in such a state of tatters that he had to mend it really by patching it up.

Zhou Xuan told the truth, and Yun Ziliang became reserved. He winked and said in a long tone: "That's not good~~."

"It's no fun to pretend to be a fool."

"You can attract the Ancestral Dragon and invite the Mountain Ancestor to have a talk with me. Go back to the medical school, and those who should eat meat should eat meat, and those who should eat ginseng should eat ginseng."

Zhou Xuan said this with a smile, and then his soul traveled back to Huifeng Medical College with the painter.

……

On the playground of the medical school, there were hills of wild game of all sizes. The common people were skinning and plucking the hairs of the animals, singing happily and picking up all kinds of game.

According to the instructions given by the Bone Elders, for game, they would process two days' worth of fresh meat, and the rest would be pickled with salt, then hung on the playground to dry in the scorching sun to make it into jerky for easy preservation.

Zhou Xuan and the painter went directly to the back mountain of the medical school. The back mountain was where the Humen Hall performed the "lighting incense" ceremony.

Zhou Xuan has "conferred" the Hu clan's hall through the Kongming Mirror, and it has also been recognized by heaven and earth, so the "lighting incense" ceremony is not to invite gods or sacrifice to heaven and earth, the sense of ritual is greater than the actual effect.

There are lush forests and bamboos on the back mountain, and in the center of the bamboo forest, a flat area was leveled to create rockery, springs and ponds.

The former Bone Institute supported a large conglomerate and had a first-rate ability to make money, and Huifeng Medical College was the most important industry under the Bone Institute, which had put a lot of effort into the construction of the landscape.

At this time, the bamboo forest was already filled with smoke from burning yellow paper.

Next to the spring pool, there is a colorful paper temple. The temple has doors, windows, tiles and bricks, and is very beautiful.

"This paper-making craftsman has great skills."

When Zhou Xuan passed by the Paper Temple, he couldn't help but stop and look.

"Mr. Big."

King Xishan, wearing a fiery red robe, walked over and greeted Zhou Xuan.

"Lao Xi, today is your big day."

Zhou Xuan took out a folding fan from his sleeve, held it in his hand and clasped his fists, saying, "If not, I, the storyteller, will also tell you a story to celebrate your success in becoming the master of the hall."

"I don't deserve it. The fact that you came to see me is a great honor to me."

King Xishan pulled Zhou Xuan aside, and walked to the four old men in white fox robes, introducing them one by one: "This is the current patriarch of the Dongshan Fox Clan, the old fox fairy Hu Yunyi of the Yun generation."

"I don't deserve to be called an old fox fairy. I, Hu Yunyi, am just an old fox."

Hu Yunyi did not dare to be arrogant and spoke modestly.

"Old Patriarch, this young man is the great master of Mingjiang Mansion. He was personally appointed by him to be the Hu Men Xuantian, and he also comprehended the Xigu Sutra passed down by the Taoist Ancestor."

"So young?"

On the way here, Hu Yunyi had imagined what Zhou Xuan looked like. He had imagined him to be as handsome as jade, or as a dignified middle-aged man. However, he had never imagined that he was actually a gentle young man in his early twenties.

"It's better to become famous early." Zhou Xuan said jokingly.

"Yes, yes, yes, you should become famous as early as possible..." Hu Yunyi bowed to Zhou Xuan and said, "I heard the third brother mention you. You have always taken good care of Ah Cui. The Fox Clan also relies on you this time. Your kindness to the Fox Clan is deeper than the sea. We, the Dongshan Fox Clan, rely on the mountain to make a living. We have prepared a small gift for the master. We will present the gift after the incense burning in the hall is finished."

Look, it’s a “small gift” again, or it’s the wealth of a wild immortal, who can eat from the mountains and become rich.

"Easy to say, easy to say."

Zhou Xuan responded politely, but his eyes swept over the three old men in fox fur coats behind Hu Yunyi. The three men had obvious bulges on their bellies, like pregnant women.

Needless to say, these three people are preserving the legendary "Red Ginseng Boy" in some way.

"Could it be that this boy is in the fox fairy's belly?"

Zhou Xuan had many suspicions in his mind, but the auspicious time had arrived and the ceremony had already begun. As an important guest, he could not look around, so he suppressed his suspicions and focused his attention on the ceremony.

The incense burning ceremony is not complicated. It involves nothing more than drinking blood, offering sacrifices, worshipping and burning incense.

The blood oath is made by the newly recruited human believers of the Hu Sect. They cut their fingers and bleed, then press their handprints on the paper temple that symbolizes the entrance of the Hu Sect to show their piety to the Hu Sect.

Only when your mind is firm enough can you communicate with ghosts and gods.

"Blood oath."

Fox Slave, the incense bearer of this ceremony, held nine incense sticks in his hand and shouted in a rough voice.

The believers, one after another, lined up to cut their fingers open and place their hand prints on the paper temple.

As hand seals were pressed one after another, a puff of green smoke suddenly rose from the paper temple for no reason. It floated up and when it reached a height of three feet, it ceased to float.

Zhou Xuan found this ceremony somewhat novel, so he devoted his attention to it. As he was watching the ceremony with great interest, suddenly, three streams of energy poured into his body.

He turned around quickly and vaguely saw three red lines that connected him to the bulging bellies of the three old men in fox fur coats.

Then, Zhou Xuan heard a burst of children talking. "It's so lively here."

"Second brother, look at that young man, he seems to be able to sense us?"

"Sanwazi, what are you afraid of? We are grasshoppers tied up by foxes. We won't be able to jump for a few days. What is there to be afraid of?"

"Big boy, do you want to eat pheasant? I smell the aroma of fried pheasant."

"You can eat whatever you want? Do you think this is still the Coffin Peak of Baishan?"

"I'm greedy."

When Zhou Xuan heard the child's voice, he laughed secretly. This red ginseng boy actually understood human nature and spoke human language. It was quite interesting.

However, apart from Zhou Xuan who was relatively relaxed, the rest of the people in the bamboo forest did not feel so good. Some felt sore backs, some felt unbearable itching in their necks, and some felt cramps in their calves. They all scratched to relieve the pain and itching.

But they were participating in an incense burning ceremony after all, and the scene was rather serious, so it was not appropriate to make any excessive movements. Everyone kept their movements to a minimum.

Fortunately, the pain and itching almost disappeared after the sacrifice, and people no longer paid much attention to it, thinking it was just caused by mosquito bites in the bamboo forest.

The heads of five kinds of livestock, namely pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and dogs, were chopped off and placed in a circle around the paper temple.

The heads of the five kinds of animals had not been processed and looked bloody, which added a solemn and murderous feeling to the bamboo forest.

Zhou Xuan approached the painter and asked, "Old Hua, why don't you cook the heads of these animals first? They are bloody and don't look good."

The painter smiled and said, "Master, how many incense sticks does Hu Nuer have in his hand?"

"Nine."

"This incense burning ceremony is also very particular. If you think you are the god, you only need to light one stick of incense. The gods have the power to perform the law, so the incense is less.
If you think you are a member of the White Walker clan, you are a Yin person. Yin people do not have the power to enforce the law, so you need to light nine sticks to show your respect for heaven and earth. But since you are a White Walker Yin person, you must follow the ritual of blood sacrifice. The animals cannot be cooked. This is one of the rules. "

The painter added: "The Humen is a demon clan. In terms of the status of the Well Nation, it is lower than the White Walkers. The only rituals and regulations they can adopt are those that follow the White Walkers' paradigm."

When Zhou Xuan heard this, he understood why this ceremony of opening the hall was a bit like worshiping evil gods. So this is the point.

After the sacrificial ceremony, the worship begins.

The purpose of the pilgrimage is to pay homage to the founder of this temple.

The Hu clan established a branch because of "King Xishan", so he was undoubtedly the first generation ancestor.

King Xishan was sitting in front of the paper temple. The believers who had sworn an oath of blood all knelt down before him and chanted something. In fact, it was just one or two sentences.
"The Hu family is pious, please allow heaven and earth to open the hall."

"We believe in the wild immortals of the Humen Sect. Please let heaven and earth sense our sincerity."

These are words expressing sincerity to heaven and earth, praying that heaven and earth will allow the "Hu Men" hall to burn incense smoothly.

King Xishan sat with his eyes closed. Invisible mouths seemed to appear around him, gnawing at the five sacrificial animals.

After repeated bites, within a few moments, only the skeletons were left of the heads of the five animals.

After eating the sacrificial animals, the wishes chanted by the believers began to take effect. The sound was like the wind, blowing onto the paper temple.

The bloody fingerprints on the paper temple turned into fire, burning the paper shell on the temple until it curled up. Hundreds of flames soon gathered together and became a big fire, sending the three-foot green smoke above the paper temple into the blue clouds in the sky.

Zhou Xuan looked up and saw only rolling clouds in the sky, but there was a gap in the sky, and there was a golden eye, looking at the bamboo forest of Mingjiang Mansion.

Perhaps it was because it saw the sincerity of the believers, or perhaps it was because it saw that Hu Men was well prepared for etiquette, that eye blinked, and a ball of fire flowed from the corner of the eye.

The fire was only the size of a wick. It fell from the sky. When it was only a hundred feet above the ground, it suddenly split into dozens of strands and scattered to the Humen Temples in every corner of Mingjiang Prefecture.

Among the folk procedures for opening a temple, there is a requirement to build a temple.

King Xishan had many foxes under his command. In just two or three hours, he had found thousands of foxes and built dozens of small temples in various places in Mingjiang Prefecture.

In every small temple, there is a stick of incense that is still burning.

These incense sticks cannot be lit by earthly fire...

The scattered heavenly fire shot into the small Humen temples, and then onto the incense sticks in the temples, burning the incense with a "swoosh" sound.

This is the most important part of the incense burning ceremony. Everything done before is for the purpose of lighting the incense now.

"The sky has an eye, the world has a few wisps of incense, the Hu family is happy with the mountain king, thank the heaven for lending fire, and light incense for the Hu family."

King Xishan sensed that the incense of the Humen Temple was lit and the opening of the hall was officially completed, so he stood up, recited the folk ritual words, and knelt down facing the golden eye in the sky.

The rest of the people on the scene also knelt down in unison to show their gratitude and awe to the Golden Eye of the Sky.

Only Zhou Xuan did not kneel.

He is a descendant of the Taoist ancestor and the Nuo god. From a certain perspective, he represents the human world - heaven and earth. Although noble, the human world is not humble either, so he does not need to kneel.

Precisely because he did not kneel, he actually saw that everyone in the bamboo forest had a red thread tied to their body, and the red threads were released by three red ginseng boys.

At this moment, the hundreds of red threads were stretched straight.

"Second and third kids, they are all worshipping Golden Eyes. It's time for us to escape."

"Ouch!"

"what!"

"escape!"

The first, second and third kids encouraged themselves at the same time and tightened the red threads at the same time. Then, when the red threads were stretched tight enough, the three ginseng kids relaxed their strength at the same time, and the red threads bounced out violently. With the power of hundreds of red threads, the three ginseng children jumped out from the cradles in front of the three fox-fur old men.

Three red dolls carved out of gold and jade, wearing red bellybands, appeared in front of everyone.

"Run separately."

The biggest kid yelled, and then the three kids ran away very quickly in the east, west and north directions.

The three dolls were running while untying the red ropes on their heads.

Although these dolls are small in size, they run really fast. They disappear without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"This red ginseng boy is really good at running away."

Zhou Xuan also thought these three kids were very cute.

But no matter how cute they are, we can’t let such a big precious ginseng run away.

"Baby, run faster, your Uncle Zhou is chasing you."

Zhou Xuan put away the folding fan, entered the bamboo forest by means of his soul traveling and changing shape, and immediately picked up the eldest and second kids in his hands.

"We can't run away."

"Come on, Sanwa."

"Wow!" The eldest boy was still encouraging.
And from the deepest part of the bamboo forest, Sanwa's response came: "Ha!"

This sound of "ha" inexplicably tickled Zhou Xuan's funny bone - these three kids can run, but they don't seem very smart. If I imitate the eldest kid's voice and keep saying "ho", won't you, the third kid, keep saying "ha" in response to me?

Are you afraid that I won’t be able to catch you?
Zhou Xuan threw the first and second children to the painter and Hu Yunyi, and said, "The third child can't escape. I'll go catch him."

He used his folding fan to cover his voice, changing it to that of the eldest child: "Wow."

"what!"

As expected, Sanwa replied very obediently (han han).

Zhou Xuan heard the sound and moved again. He just approached Sanwa who was in the deepest part of the bamboo forest. Sanwa had already untied the red rope on his head...

Zhou Xuan tried to grab Sanwa's vest, but he failed and only grabbed a ball of air.

"Hey, that's weird."

Zhou Xuan bent down, picked up the red string on Sanwa's head that he had thrown away, returned to the bamboo forest, and said to Hu Yunyi, "Chief Hu, Sanwa was not caught, so I only picked up this one."

Hu Yunyi took a look and immediately said with a bitter face: "Oh, there is always a loophole. This Sanwa..."

"Great! The third one ran away." The eldest boy was very proud.

"Wow! Ha!" Erwa danced with excitement, as if it was it that ran away.

"Master, it's really because our Dongshan Fox Clan is not careful enough. These three ginseng children can easily turn into the essence of the mountain and escape. The red rope is a magic weapon to prevent them from turning into energy. The three children untied the red rope and turned into essence. They have already merged with the mountain. It is impossible to find them out now."

Hu Yunyi beat his chest and stamped his feet. The "small gift" he had sent was now one third thinner, and he felt ashamed.

The other three elders also apologized to Zhou Xuan at the same time: "Master, one of the children ran away. It is our fault for not supervising them properly. Please punish us, Master."

"It doesn't matter."

Zhou Xuan said: "Of course, if they run away, they will be punished... But, that little kid can't run away at all... It turned into the essence of the mountain, it can hide from others, but it can't hide from me, Zhou Xuan."

(End of this chapter)