There is a trick

Chapter 77: Strange Town (13)

After getting up at five o'clock in the morning and reciting the scriptures, everyone in the Zhou family sat around the dining table.

Zhou Sanji brought a small jar, used chopsticks to pick out a few large pieces of fermented bean curd from the jar, and placed them on a plate.

The unique aroma of red fermented bean curd permeates the air, making people salivate secretly.

Afterwards, Zhou Sanji brought the sesame oil bottle, poured some sesame oil into the fermented bean curd dish, and stirred the fermented bean curd with chopsticks. The aroma became even more tempting.

In front of everyone, there was a bowl of thick vegetable porridge.

At this time, Zhou Sanji said, "Let's eat!"

People picked up their large bowls, picked up small pieces of fermented bean curd with chopsticks, put them on the porridge, and began to eat breakfast noisily.

Today's breakfast is much richer than usual.

Not only did the porridge change from thin porridge to thick porridge, but there was also a dish of fermented bean curd underneath the porridge, and sesame oil was added.

Zhou Sanji was in charge of the Zhou family's three meals a day rations. The reason why he suddenly increased the meals was that he felt that in today's world, he might not be able to live for many days, so he might as well live to the fullest and be happier, without having to be as frugal as before.

"I washed a few pieces of bacon, and we'll cook it for lunch." Zhou Sanji held the bowl of porridge and ate slowly, without even raising his eyelids, and said, "After dinner, I'll give each of you a magic weapon passed down from my ancestors. You can take it in your hands, and whether it works for you or not, just treat it as a souvenir.

You should stay indoors all day today and don't walk around.

Ah Chang, I will go to Tiekan Village with you later."

Zhou Chang heard this and shook his head and refused: "I can go by myself, you should stay at home.

We only have one iron plate in our hands, and there is only one person who can enter the threshold and participate in the meeting inside the iron threshold. When the time comes, I will attend the meeting inside, and you will be alone outside, I am afraid something will happen.

If you were allowed to come back by yourself, there might be other risks along the way.

You just stay at home."

Although his grandson did not express it in his words, Zhou Sanji could still hear the concern in his voice.

He grinned and smiled silently, saying, "You are worried about leaving me alone - will grandpa be relieved if I leave you alone to attend the Iron Gate Society? No way..."

While the old man was speaking, Zhou Chang looked at Yang Rui.

Yang Rui understood, put down the bowl of porridge, and said to Zhou Sanji: "In my opinion, just follow Achang's arrangement - he is much more capable than you now, and you must know this.

Let him go to Tiekan Club by himself. If you go with him, he will not only have to look after you, but also have to worry about whether you will encounter any danger when you are alone. This will cause trouble for the child.

Also, if you stay, ask your neighbors to see if the road out of town is still accessible?
Is there anyone coming back from outside?"

"Can't you do these things? Why do you ask me to do it alone?" Zhou Sanji retorted to Yang Rui in annoyance.

However, Yang Rui suddenly interrupted and finally made Zhou Sanji stop insisting on following Zhou Chang: "Then you can go to Tiekanhui by yourself, Ah Chang, anyway, if I follow you, it will only cause trouble for you.

You better be careful on the road. I'll get you the best magic weapon in the house later, you can take it with you!"

……

The best ritual implement in Lao Duan Gong's home is a thumb-sized iron seal.

The crouching animal on the seal button had lost its specific shape after being rubbed and played with for many years. Only the inscription under the seal base remained clear, which was the four characters "Thunder Commander".

According to Zhou Sanji, this seal symbolizes the identity of a Taoist priest and the ability to command thunder.

But the actual situation is that the symbolic meaning of the seal is far greater than its practical meaning. No matter how Zhou Sanji cast spells and chanted incantations, not a trace of thunder could be summoned.

However, the seal is an old item after all.

Zhou Sanji asked Zhou Chang to wear it on his body, which was also a kind of psychological comfort.

The various magical instruments he distributed to everyone were no different; they sounded impressive, but in fact, they had no real effect.

Zhou Chang hung the seal on his belt, said hello to everyone, and walked out of the courtyard.

The rain was gradually stopping, but the rain and fog that filled the streets and alleys showed no sign of dissipating.

The gray-blue mist lingered between the houses. As the mist floated in the wind, a figure could be seen quietly escaping from inside.

There are fewer pedestrians on the streets today than before. Zhou Chang walks on the deserted streets, but he doesn't feel lonely.

He passed by the entrance of an alley.

In the alley, in the mist, there stood a vague figure with disheveled hair and a white dress.

The figure faced the wall, shook his neck mechanically and stiffly, and slammed his head against the wall again and again.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The dull sound was mixed with the sounds of bones breaking and flesh being torn.

Zhou Chang, who was passing by the alley, turned back at this time. He glanced at the fog where the dull sounds continued to come from, but the figure in the white dress disappeared in the fog.

Even the dull sound disappeared without a trace after Zhou Chang turned around.

Zhou Chang's face remained calm as he continued walking along the street.

He walked to the end of the street and passed by a rammed earth house that had been in disrepair for a long time and had not been occupied for a long time.

On the walls made of yellow mud mixed with straw, there were some charred marks left by fire, and those fire marks were extremely old. Through the window holes on the wall, Zhou Chang could see the blackened beams and wooden pillars inside, which all reminded him that this rammed earth house had once suffered a very serious fire, and the owner of the house might have died in the fire.

Zhou Chang walked a long way out of the rammed earth house and felt as if he was being watched.

He turned his head expressionlessly and looked at the window of the rammed earth house.

In the window hole, two people with charred bodies and peeling skin revealing bright red muscles were holding a black swaddling cloth.

The three 'people' stood behind the window, staring straight at Zhou Chang.

"Huh...hiss..."

“Help—help—help us!”

"Save us!"

"Why didn't you save us? Why didn't you save me?!"

"Why weren't you the one who was burned to death?!"

Just as Zhou Chang was staring at the three charred men, bursts of wheezing sounds like a broken bellows came into his ears.

He saw the three 'burnt people' in the window hole open their mouths, with charred skin and dandruff constantly falling off their faces, and their resentful cries for help almost pierced Zhou Chang's eardrums!
Zhou Chang rubbed the bone ring on his finger.

The bone ring gave him a cold touch, which made his mind stay on the level of reality. He raised his hand and shook out a strange skin.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

A fierce barking sound then came out from the hole in the bone ring.

The strange skin inflated at a speed visible to the naked eye. Doji, a mastiff with black curly hair all over his body, stood on all fours beside Zhou Chang and barked loudly at the rammed earth house that had been hit by the fire.

In Zhou Chang's eyes, the three "burnt people" that appeared in the window of the house suddenly turned into a burst of illusory and colorful food amid the barking sounds.

The fragrant aroma dissipated in the rain and fog that was floating around and disappeared without a trace.

Everything is calm.

"Good dog!" Zhou Chang touched the head of the mastiff Doji and pointed ahead, "Lead the way!"

"Ow!"

The mastiff Doji barked excitedly, grinned with his bloody mouth, and walked in the rain and fog with his four hooves stomping in the mud.

At the same time, Zhou Chang picked up a stick of incense with his fingertips. He clearly did not light the incense head, but the incense stick spontaneously combusted without fire - the fragrant air flowing in the air ignited the incense stick.

His nostrils inhaled the incense, and the world in his eyes was instantly divided and differentiated.

In the left eye, there is a world of mixed qi, where the empty streets are crowded with almost invisible figures;

In the right eye, the world remains unchanged.

Zhou Chang soon discovered that those almost invisible figures were densely gathered around "Ao Duoji". They constantly transformed into illusory and colorful food auras and merged into the strange skin that Ao Duoji was inhabiting.

Doji's mood gradually became irritable.

"Shh!"

Zhou Chang spread out his five fingers, and clusters of iron threads burst out from his fingertips, instantly passing through the rain and fog, and sewing on the body of Ao Duoji, arranging them with the six needle techniques passed down by the "Hidden Needle Lady", interweaving into an impenetrable net.

After putting on this "net clothing", the Mastiff Doggie's mood gradually stabilized.

No matter how crowded the invisible figures were, they could not squeeze into the strange skin it inhabited.

Zhou Chang was holding the dog on a leash, and his body knocked over the invisible figures crowded around him.

Those figures could not get close to Zhou Chang's figure at all, and could not integrate themselves into Zhou Chang's body at all.

This corpse was originally hungry for feasting thoughts and strange creatures, but now faced with so many feasting thoughts and strange shadows, it was indifferent - the fundamental reason was that Zhou Chang was wearing a black cloak that looked black from a distance, but when you looked closely, it was a colorful black cloak that was purple in black and red in purple.

This black cloak was sewn by Bai Xiu'e herself and was given to Zhou Chang as a gift.

A man and a dog kept walking through the streets and alleys, gradually approaching "Mengshan" on the edge of Qingyi Town.

Tiekanzhuang is built on the gently sloping Mengshan Mountain.

Even though Zhou Chang had his mastiff Doji to help lead the way and clear the fog, he still walked many repetitive roads and detours along the way, and encountered situations like "ghost walls" and "ghosts covering his eyes" several times.

It is already so difficult to travel through the streets and alleys of Qingyi Town, so it is obvious that it would be even more difficult to leave Qingyi Town.

Zhou Chang was led by Ao Duoji around the tomb-like peaks of Mount Meng. Tiekan Village, which was built in the center of many "tombs" and surrounded by high rammed earth walls, was looming in the rain and fog.

The sound of gongs and drums continued to be heard from Tiekan Village.

Zhou Chang approached Tiekan Village and called the mastiff Doji back into the bone ring.

The unique aura of Ao Zanben also dissipated in the rain and fog.

The strange shadows in the mist sniffed each other, trying to catch some subtle clues.

(End of this chapter)