Longevity begins with slaying demons and eliminating demons

Chapter 64 The Mysterious Ceremony
A few minutes later, Gu Xu and Shi Xiaohan arrived at their destination - Xunliu Street.

The area near Xunliu Street is the most lively place in Yishui County, and is also known as "Washe".

Big shops, small shops, dance pavilions, wine and tea houses are all gathered here, and experts in various industries such as fortune-tellers, drug dealers, and barbers often come here.

On both sides of this road, you can also see street performers with unique skills.

For example, the emaciated man who performed the "Bone Shrinking Soft Gong", he could shrink his body quickly and get into a small jar.

For example, the chunky middle-aged man who performed "Three Immortals Returning to the Cave" used one chopstick, two bowls, and three balls to make the three balls change back and forth between the two bowls, which was dazzling.

For example, the performer who had a large stone on his chest lay down with a large stone on his chest, while the other picked up a sledgehammer and smashed the stone into pieces, causing a burst of exclamations from the onlookers.

There was also a lame old man who, with a wave of his sleeves, conjured a goldfish bowl out of thin air in broad daylight!

"Gu Xu, this person should not be a cultivator!" Shi Xiaohan looked at the lame old man and couldn't help but exclaimed, "Even I can't see how his fish tank came out!"

Gu Xu looked at the old man and thought for a moment.

With the talent of [Bow Wen Qiang Ji], he can undoubtedly capture and remember every detail of magic.

"This old man, he's not lame at all," he replied, squinting slightly, observing every subtle movement of the old man, "he just keeps the fish tank between his legs for a long time - even after the magic show is over , so that everyone around him mistakenly thought he was lame."

"Then he paid too much for the trick!" Shi Xiaohan felt incredible.

She couldn't even imagine that when a person eats, walks, and buys things, he has to put a fish tank between his legs - what a painful life!
"If you want to practice a skill to the extreme, you must make sacrifices," Gu Xu sighed and responded, "Look, the person who performs 'Bone Shrinking Technique' needs to stretch his bones and joints hard, and a little bit. Inattentiveness can cause dislocation of the internal organs. If I am not mistaken, he has practiced thousands of times in private and risking his life before today's performance.

"Another example is the performance of the boulder on the chest. The principle is that the mass of the stone is very large and the inertia is also very large, so when the hammer hits it, the acceleration of the stone will be very small, and it will not cause excessive pressure on people.

“But if the sledgehammer moves a little slower and fails to remove the applied force in time to strike the stone, the performer’s ribs will be broken. This will undoubtedly require practice and practice day in and day out. Extremely tacit."

"I understand what you're saying," Shi Xiaohan said with a frown, "but what do 'inertia' and 'acceleration' mean?"

Gu Xu smiled and explained it in plain language.

Shi Xiaohan seems to understand but does not understand.

However, she didn't want to be too stupid in front of Gu Xu.

So she nodded, pretending to be suddenly enlightened, and giggling: "So it is!"

The two did not stay here too much.

After that, Gu Xu, with his powerful sense of consciousness, took Shi Xiaohan and walked towards the place where the yin and evil spirits in the market were more intense.

While walking, they suddenly met an old acquaintance.

"Aren't you two very busy on weekdays? Why did you suddenly have a leisurely mood today and came to Xunliu Street to wander around?"

The person who came was the hunchbacked old man who guarded the warehouse in the exorcism yamen.

He was holding the cricket's cage in his left hand, and the newly bought book "King of Jinhailing to Die" in his right hand.

"We are here to investigate the case." Gu Xu replied.

"That's such a pity," the old man shook his head, "Xunliu Street's new troupe recently arrived, and they performed wonderfully! If you have time, I would like to show you all!"

"The troupe?"

Gu Xu looked around.

I saw a huge crowd of people and a lot of traffic on Xunliu Street.

It is simply impossible to have enough space for the next stage.

Where is the troupe the old man said?
Gu Xu quickly knew the answer.

I saw a middle-aged man with a plain appearance and a gloomy temperament in the corner of the street.

He was wearing an old, coarse cloth, with a pocket on his back and a small wooden frame on his shoulders.

When the crowd of onlookers gradually increased, he placed the wooden frame on his shoulders on the ground, which looked like a miniature theatre; he put the pocket on his back next to the small wooden frame.

Then he beat the drum pads and sang popular zaju in a loud voice.

As soon as the song started, more than ten mice came out of the pocket.

These mice were all covered with masks, wearing small theater makeup, and accompanied by the beat of the music, one after another jumped onto the "mini theater", standing on their feet and dancing like humans.

The stories they deduce are completely in line with the lyrics of the middle-aged man.

"It's amazing!" Shi Xiaohan exclaimed, "So this is what the old man called the 'play troupe'!"

The onlookers also attentively watched the vivid performance of the mice on the wooden frame, and bursts of thunderous applause broke out from time to time.

The china bowl at the middle-aged man's feet soon filled with reward money.

Gu Xu stared at these mice for a while.

He found that even with his far superior observational skills, he could not understand how the middle-aged man was controlling the mice.

And this middle-aged man did not have the aura of real energy fluctuations, which obviously proved that he was not a practitioner who mastered the magic of beast control.

"Maybe this is the legendary ancestral unique skill!" He secretly guessed in his heart.

But the task is important.

Gu Xu and Shi Xiaohan only stayed beside the artist who performed the mouse opera for a moment, then continued on their way to find the source of the evil spirit.

At this time, Gu Xu couldn't help but envy the hunchbacked uncle guarding the warehouse - every time he had a holiday, the uncle would always have a lot of free time, either to go to Goulan to listen to music, or to come to the Washe to watch a play; When he was at work, he could also read the book and play with crickets in a leisurely manner.

This is simply the salted fish life that Gu Xu yearns for, but may never experience in his life.

…………

At the end of Xunliu Street, there are dozens of people in a circle, and the "God Dance" ceremony is being held lively.

"Jumping the gods" is a traditional divination custom in the Daqi Dynasty. It is said that gods can be invited to cure diseases, eliminate disasters, exorcise evil spirits and exorcise ghosts, and they can also ask ancestors to talk to the dead.

In the center of the crowd, there was an incense table on which offerings and incense candles were placed.

Next to the incense table, there is a young woman, who is wearing a skirt, beating a single-sided drum with an iron ring, dancing, and making a gesture.

She recited words in her mouth, like singing, but also like praying, the words were out of rhythm, and the lengths were uneven, giving people a strange feeling.

The young people next to him were also beating drums.

The drums sounded like thunder.

Because there is no rhythm, it looks messy and harsh.

After a while, the young woman suddenly shuddered and fell back to the ground.

Seeing this, everyone around them nodded and lowered their eyebrows, and said in unison, "Welcome the return of our ancestors!"

(End of this chapter)