Chapter 148 The Market (4K)
Chang'an at night is more splendid than daytime.
Exquisitely carved wooden lanterns are hung under the branches and eaves of the trees. The crowd is bustling with accents from all over the world. This noisy and lively scene seems to never dissipate.
Li Ang walked in the narrow alleys. Thanks to the renovation project of the Chang'an Canal completed at the beginning of this year, the streets became much neater and cleaner, and the wanton sewage flow was invisible.
Pass Xiuzhengfang, Qinglongfang, and come to the bank of Qujiang Pool.
As usual, there were many painting boats parked on the river. Li Ang walked along the river for a while, and found a boat with four red and two white lanterns hanging on it, as mentioned on the token of Zhaoming.
It was docking on the shore, and there were bursts of laughter and interlacing sounds of silk and bamboo.
Li Ang lifted the medicine box on his shoulder and stepped onto the boat.
Seeing that he didn't show any abnormality, the man on the boat smiled and bowed to greet him, "Your Majesty, this way."
Li Ang stepped into the cabin, and there were two rows of tables in the cabin. Several scholar-bureaucrats and coquettish women were laughing and drinking, without looking at Li Ang at all.
Boom—
The boatman used the bamboo pole to support the shore twice, and the boat slipped quietly into the mirror-like river, heading towards the south side of Qujiang Pond.
"Is this your disguise?"
The laughter and laughter on the painting boat were still there. The young man who was busy with his work stuffed the towel into his belt casually, and asked Li Ang calmly with his hands on his hips.
"yes."
Li Ang nodded, he made a series of disguises after going out, including wearing height increasing insoles,
The bridge of the nose is padded, and shadows are applied on the cheeks and cheekbones. It looks more mature and three-dimensional, and looks more like a young man in his twenties.
In order to enhance the camouflage effect, he also put two soybeans on the sole of his shoes—this will passively change his walking posture, which is more than enough to fool the bad people in Chang'an Wannian County.
"Nice transformation. But it's better to wear this again."
The young man with a crow-like tone nodded, took out a leather mask from his arms and threw it to Li Ang, "We're going to the ghost market, and put on the mask so that I won't be recognized by my junior brother and the people in the ghost city."
Snapped.
Li Ang took over the leather mask. It was still the face of a middle-aged man, but it was different from the one used last time.
"Your junior brother?"
Li Ang put on a mask for himself and asked.
"Another disciple of my teacher Jun Qianzi. You can call him Wu Huo."
Crow Nine said lightly: "This time we act together with him.
Your identity is a doctor who has part of the heritage of the former Sui Zongmen Lihuagu. "
"oh."
Li Ang nodded his head, his thoughts changed sharply, what do you mean by [so as not to be recognized by my junior brother], doesn't Ya Jiu's junior brother know Li Ang's real identity?
Or did Ya Jiu pull him into the gang and give him the Zhaoming Token without Junqian's permission?
Or is it just that brothers Ya Jiu and Wu Huo hate each other and don't like each other?
Besides, why did Yajiu assign herself the role of Physician Lihuagu? He also asked himself to bring a medicine box, is it to heal someone?
"Also, there's this."
Yu Jiu took out something from the belt kit and threw it to Li Ang.
It was a tapered sharp claw tied with a gold thread. It was black and translucent, reflecting a warm luster under the candlelight.
It's a bit like touching a golden talisman.
"Level 2 monster, the claw of the mountain rat."
Crow Nine said: "The Digging Technique has been stabilized, and it can be used after infusing spiritual power, and it can be released up to three times.
Because it is a monster talent, it is more effective than the burrowing technique released by a monk in the cloud patrol realm, and it will save your life.
Pay attention to the timing of release, if you run out of times deep underground, you will be trapped there alive. "
Is this the advance payment?
Burrowing can melt the soil and travel underground. If necessary, drilling underground can save your life. It can also be used to escape or sneak forward. It's a nice alien indeed - and has no downsides.
Li Ang had seen the information on the item in the Library of the Academy, nodded towards Yajiu, and put Lianshan Mouse's Claw into the kit on his belt, "What am I going to do?"
The boatman in front of him, judging from Mosi's emotional perception, is not Yajiu's body either.
But since the other party can take out the second-level alienated item as an advance payment, they should not cheat or embarrass themselves.
"Sewing a wound."
Accompanied by Ya Jiu's words, the boat docked on the shore again.
The heavy clack sounded outside the window,
A boot stained with mud, boarded the board.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps gradually approached. A strong young man with bushy eyebrows and bronze skin boarded the boat and walked towards the cabin.
He had a lazy expression, his right hand stretched into the open arms of his clothes, scratching his muscular abdominal muscles, and his left hand was carrying a huge and heavy iron box.
"Something I brought."
A young man named Wuhuo threw the tin box on the cabin floor,
With a bang, the solid and reliable wooden plank of the cabin was smashed into a heavy depression visible to the naked eye.
Innate warrior.
Li Ang smacked his lips imperceptibly. Both Ya Jiu and this so-called Wu Huo have strengths at the cloud patrol level, and they don't know what they are planning.
Wu Huo sat down cross-legged carelessly, raised his head slightly, looked at the taciturn Li Ang, and asked Ya Jiu casually: "This is the doctor you found? Is it reliable?"
"More reliable than you."
Ya Jiu replied lightly, squatted on the ground, and opened the iron box.
The inner wall of the iron box is engraved with complicated runes, and the bottom of the iron box is covered with a thick layer of straw, which is anti-collision and anti-fall.
In the middle of the straw, there is a piece of arm quietly placed.
Li Ang's pupils shrank slightly, and the material of the arm contained in the box was neither flesh nor gold nor wood.
Starting from the broken surface of the arm, it showed a lifeless off-white color until the fingertips turned waxy yellow.
It's like the whole arm, petrified from the fracture surface.
Ya Jiu's tone was flat, through a layer of white cloth, he picked up the arm in the straw, and turned it over.
The broken arm looks as solid as a stone sculpture, and on the back of the arm, there are dense black characters.
It is not Chinese characters or the fonts used in Xijing and Nanzhou, nor is it any of the characters seen in the books of the academy.
Shi Xingseng.
Li Ang's heart moved. Shi Xing was the "eminent monk" in Chang'an a hundred years ago. He was born in a small town on the border between Jing State and Yu State. He showed Su Hui when he was three or four years old.
The monk Chu Ming, who was the abbot of Chang'an Baima Temple at that time, took him back to Baima Temple on a special trip to teach him carefully.
Shi Xingseng is handsome and knowledgeable. At the age of thirteen, he was able to silence all opponents in the debate on monkhood and Taoism.
At the age of fifteen, he reached the cloud patrolling realm, almost breaking Su Zi's practice record two hundred years ago.
Ink painting, silk and bamboo vocal music, as well as tea ceremony, poetry, natural history, etc., Shi Xingseng has shown extraordinary excellence.
Even Qiu Zhibai, the school chief at the time (and also the teacher of the current mountain chief Lian Xuanxiao), wanted to make an exception and accept him as an outer disciple. But was rejected by Shi Xingseng.
The reason is "May the three generations serve the Buddha."
According to the normal development process, Shi Xingseng will become the youngest abbot in the history of Baima Temple. However, no one thought that he would find a copy of the "Da Yun Jing" from the Northern Liang Dynasty from the vast sea of Buddhist scriptures, re-comment it, compile it into "Da Yun Jing Shu", and dedicate it to the Holy Queen.
The "Da Yun Jing Shu" records the story of a woman who became a king and was promoted to a Buddha, highlighting the theme that the Holy Mother God Emperor was ordered by the Buddha and Haotian, and strongly implied that the Holy Queen should change her dynasty.
Shi Xingseng's reputation and status, as well as the concubine's acquiescence and even fueling the flames, caused a large number of faithful men and women and Buddhist monks to ask for a copy of the "Dayun Jingshu" as soon as it was published.
The holy empress was happy to see the success of this, and ordered all state capitals to build Dayun Temple to store this scripture. The final result is that all parts of Yu State are full of praises and praises for the Holy Queen, helping the Holy Queen to ascend to the throne.
Shi Xingseng received many awards afterwards, including titles and purple cassocks, for his pioneering work. Since then, he has been able to enter the palace to give lectures in a legitimate way-this behavior has also been suspected by some people that he is the face of the Holy Empress.
In the next ten years, the Holy Empress honored and favored Seng Shi Xing, until one day the Holy Empress suddenly decreed to kill Shi Xing with the torture of cracking a car, and also executed Shi Xing's disciples in the White Horse Temple.
The sudden change in attitude of the Holy Empress gave rise to many opinions in later generations. Some people say that the holy queen hates the excessive money-gathering of Buddhism, and wants to use it as an excuse to wake up people.
Some people said that after reading a book left by the sword fairy, Shi Xingseng went crazy like that sword fairy, and made false and demonic remarks to the holy queen, which made the holy queen terrified and inexplicable, and hurriedly ordered him to be killed. .
Some people say that Shi Xingseng is the reincarnation of the Buddha, and he had expected to die a long time ago, but he just returned to reincarnation early by the hand of the Holy Queen.
No matter what the possibility is, it is extremely strange that Shi Xingseng was crushed to death by a car—his cultivation talent is far beyond that of ordinary people.
A strong man in the Candle Sky Realm, even if he faces several opponents of the same level, he will not die silently.
But Shi Xingseng was caught without a fight, and let the people of the Holy Queen tie him up, imprison him, and tear him apart. He died with a kind smile on his face.
‘Shi Xingseng died seventy years ago. The cause of his death is strange, and no one knows the body and grave. How did the Zhaoming organization find this severed arm? What do these words on the back of the broken arm mean? Why did Yajiu ask me to sew up the wound? Could it be that someone wanted to transplant Shi Xingseng's severed arm? Venus? He is. '
Li Ang's thoughts changed sharply. The case of Shi Xingseng was full of doubts, and it involved the mystery of the reign of the Holy Empress. Even in the academy, there was not much information - after all, the Holy Empress was able to take the position at the beginning, and it was the same as Qiu Zhibai, the head of the academy at the time. A neutral attitude has a lot to do with it, and it's not so glorious now.
"Get dressed."
Yu Jiu cast a sideways glance at Wu Huo, who snorted coldly, pulled up his clothes lazily, lay down on the stool, pretended to be drunk and fell asleep,
Li Ang also played the role of a guest on the boat, smiling and drinking with the puppets of Yajiu.
The boat passed the Qujiangchi Pass smoothly, sailed out of Chang'an City, and stopped by the river.
The other puppets of Yajiu have prepared their carriages and are waiting by the river.
Li Ang and Wu Huo boarded their carriages and traveled eastward to a mountain depression.
The shadows of the trees in the mountain depression are flickering, and there are strange birds and beasts roaring from time to time,
Wu Huo jumped out of the carriage without any surprise, went straight to the river, and lightly lifted a huge boulder one person tall, revealing the dark cave entrance below.
Chang'an Ghost City extends in all directions, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a thousand caves for cunning rabbits.
Ya Jiu abandoned the other puppets, and as a boatman, carried the iron box containing the broken arm of Shi Xingseng and walked down the cave.
Li Ang followed closely behind, and Wu Huo also moved the boulder back to its original place after jumping down from the cave.
"follow me."
Yu Jiu pinched his fingers, ignited a small flame on his fingertips, and waded along the winding river.
He is obviously very familiar with the terrain of this area. After passing several corners and turning over several seemingly insurmountable waterfalls, the height of the top of the rock wall in front suddenly rises, the air is no longer dull, and there is even a faint dense fire.
That's a real ghost market.
Li Ang narrowed his eyes slightly, and saw that the terrain ahead suddenly opened up, the top of the rock wall was as high as 100 meters, and the river bed was more than ten feet wide.
The wide river bed makes the dark river no longer violent and violent, and calm like the surface of a lake on the ground.
The ground on both sides of the river bed is still paved with neat bluestone slabs, and there are long lamps inserted on the wall.
Countless figures, walking under the flickering candlelight,
The peddlers are sitting in low huts made of wood and bamboo, hawking like ordinary peddlers in the two cities of Chang’an,
Nothing but.
"Lamb meat, fresh lamb meat—"
"The anchovy demon is worth a thousand."
"Beef liver depends on the meat, eating it can improve eyesight!"
Boom!
The tall and strong butcher shop owner, with a swing of the meat cleaver, split the three-eyed sheep's head in half,
The soup shopkeeper next to him casually squeezed out a colorful double-headed snake from a cage full of poisonous snakes, gently cut open the snake's belly with a dagger, picked out the snake's gall, and threw the snake's gall into boiling water to clean it. Cut it into pieces and pour it into the soup to make snake gallbladder soup.
The boss who sold birds and beasts yelled, while beating the iron cage with a bamboo stick, causing the dog-shaped monster locked in the iron cage to bark loudly, and coughed out a cloud of dark flames.
Damp water vapor, mixed with the smell of spices, food, birds and animals, etc., turned into an indescribably weird smell.
The whole ghost city is crowded and noisy, chaotic and dirty, but it reveals some kind of weird order—there is even a group of soldiers wearing ghost masks similar to Jin Wuwei armor, patrolling along both sides of the river to maintain order.
This is a completely different scene from Chang'an City and the Academy. Li Ang followed Yajiu, and he could vaguely feel that most of the people here are practitioners, with high or low cultivation levels.
Many wear masks for camouflage,
Those who don’t wear masks also use thick coir raincoats to cover their faces, or they are just unkempt, so they can’t see their original appearance clearly.
"Xiao Langjun, do you want to buy flowers?"
A hunchbacked old woman approached Yajiu with a basket of flowers, and slowly raised her face, revealing a half-aged, half-immature face.
Her flower basket contained a layer of black soil, and the flowers growing out of the soil were gray in color, with slender and stretched petals, emitting a burst of fragrance, which was very pleasing.
But if you look carefully, what kind of flowers are planted in the soil, it is clearly a dry human hand. And the so-called slender petals are just overgrown long and narrow nails.
"Need not."
Yu Jiu rejected the other party with a cold expression, strode past,
When Li Ang passed the old woman, he glanced at the flower basket, shook his head, and muttered softly: "I got onychomycosis, one infects both"
(end of this chapter)