Kaifeng Monster

Chapter 38
So crazy to pursue the impossible, and now, even what I once had is lost.

For a moment, the anger, resentment, fanaticism and ruthlessness that had supported her for hundreds of years were gone, leaving behind unprecedented fatigue.She prostrated herself on the ground, her face buried in her arms, her shoulders twitching tremblingly.

After a long time, she slowly raised her head.

"Can I have a glass of water?" she said, "I'm thirsty."

Duanmucui took a look at Li Ji, leaned over to the water tank, scooped out a spoonful of water and handed it to her.

Li Ji gulped down the water, the water was cold enough to soothe her painful and scorching heart at the right time.

"Where did Wen Guweiyu go?"

"I don't know." Li Ji raised her head and wiped the water overflowing from the corner of her mouth with her sleeve, "He didn't say, really."

"Where's the God of Plague?"

"Let's go with him." Li Ji smiled, "I guess it's because he has a big appetite, and a Xuan Ping might not be able to satisfy him."

Therefore, Li Ji saw Duanmucui frowning for the first time tonight.

"He left me behind and told me that if there are still people in Xuan Ping who are still alive, I will send them off."

"Really?" Duanmucui sneered, "It seems that you have done your duty too much."

"I also want to fill my stomach." Li Ji said calmly, "Although the cat demon usually eats carrion, if there is a living person for me to eat, I am still willing to eat it. It is like having two bunches of grapes. Fresh ones and rotten ones, which one do you choose?"

Li Ji felt that she asked this question very cleverly, so she quietly covered up her sin.

If you were, which string would you choose?Duanmucui, I don't believe you will choose the bad one.

"I don't choose any bunch." Duanmu Cui said lightly, "I don't like grapes at all."

Li Ji was stunned for a moment, opened her mouth, and closed it again.

"By the way," Duanmucui suddenly remembered, "I need your help with something."

"Help?" Li Ji was surprised, "What can I help you with?"

There was no answer, Duanmucui had disappeared.

Not long after, Duanmucui came in from the door with a smile, holding an ink bowl in his left hand, leaning on a writing brush in the bowl, and holding a stack of rice paper in his right hand.She put the pen, ink and rice paper on the table of the Eight Immortals, and then said to Li Ji: "Please help me, draw me the appearance of Wen Gu Weiyu."

Draw it?
Li Ji's face was full of surprise, Duanmucui's right hand was slightly retracted, and there was a crisp chain sound, and the gun chain in Li Ji's heart flicked out, and it became smaller and thinner in an instant, and flew straight towards Duanmucui, entangled on Duanmucui's wrist. Three rounds.

"Come and draw." Duanmucui urged her.

Li Ji got up hesitantly, and moved step by step to the table of the Eight Immortals, reached out to pick up the pen and passed along the edge of the ink bowl, but her gaze fell on Duanmu Cui's wrist.

There, a very thin and exquisite silver chain, with a delicate lotus flower on the clasp.

"This chain..." Li Ji muttered, "It's really... beautiful."

Of course, she didn't really praise this chain for its beauty. Just now, she almost died under this chain.

"Really?" Duanmucui smiled sweetly, "It's called Chuanxinhua."

"Did someone give it to you?"

"Father Shang gave it to him. He makes chain belts on weekdays and chain guns in wars." Duanmucui smiled, "Father Shang said, Nezha has a hot wheel, Yang Jian has a divine halberd, and so do I." There should be a handy weapon, be careful..."

The word "be careful" was addressed to Li Ji, and Li Ji realized that the ink soaked in the brush had dripped onto the rice paper, and hurriedly threw aside the dirty ball on the top.

Putting down the pen carefully, she couldn't help but ask Duanmucui: "Why did you ask me to draw Wen Gu Weiyu, haven't you seen him?"

"I've met him a few times." Duanmucui frowned again, "But, I don't quite remember what he looks like."

"You don't remember his appearance?" Li Ji felt incredulous, "You both are immortals in Yingzhou..."

"It's not surprising." Duanmu Cui said, "There are so many gods in Yingzhou, so I don't necessarily have to remember all of them clearly. Besides, the gods in Yingzhou judge their superiority by Taoism, while Wen Guwei and Yu Daoqian are superior. It’s just that Yingzhou is in charge of the last little fairy in the classics, I don’t remember him being very normal.”

"The technique you mentioned, do you mean spells?" Li Ji considered the words carefully, "The ones with high spells are subdued instead?"

"The upper realm ranks Taoist masters and skill assistants. Those with high spell skills may not necessarily be great immortals." After speaking, he reminded Li Ji, "Hurry up and draw, I'm in a hurry to use it."

Li Ji nodded, and drew carefully.When she was concubine Xiao Shu in the past, she was very good at piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, so if she wanted to draw a Wen Gu Weiyu, she would naturally be at her fingertips.

Duanmucui looked closely at the side, and the two chatted casually.On the side of Li Ji, knowing that there is no way to escape, she calmed down on her own; Duanmucui had already captured Li Ji, but she didn't make fun of her, so in the eyes of others, it looked like a close friend in a boudoir chatting with each other. Can you guess that one is a fairy and the other is a demon, and they were still life and death enemies just a moment ago?
In fact, the purpose of Duanmucui's coming down to the realm this time is not to chase after the murderer.

On that day, the Jinluan Temple changed, the elder immediately found Duanmucui, and asked why there were nine levels of water and fire outside Yingzhou, why such a tragic change happened, Duanmui guessed that the demon used the "Yingzhou Map" to enter and exit.

This time the elder was very terrified, and bluntly said that it was a big mistake to leave the picture of the fairy mountain to the world that day. If he left it alone, there would be hidden dangers in Penglai, the abbot, and Yingzhou; The power of a demon must be strong, and ordinary immortals are not opponents, so Duanmucui is required to go to the human world immediately, and must find the map of the fairy mountain from the hands of the demon, bring it back or destroy it.

I didn't want to find Xuanping's scriptures, the hostility was very strong, there was a hint of the tragedy of Jinyang that day, and I was shocked. When I entered the city to check, I found the body of the guard guard under the tower. With the evil spirit of the corpse, Realizing that Li Ji was also in the city, he captured Li Ji in one fell swoop.

At that time, the bewitching aura of the raccoon girl had been concealed by the hostility. If Duanmucui hadn't entered the city, he might not have been able to find the raccoon girl.

After finishing the picture, Duanmucui held up the picture and looked at it carefully, and unconsciously said: "This is Wen Gu Weiyu? He looks good."

Hearing this, Li Ji's heart moved, and she couldn't help looking at Duanmucui, seeing her delicate features and graceful appearance, and thinking of Wen Gu Weiyu, for some reason, she sighed a little, because she thought: that day when I heard that Duanmucui died, Wen Guweiyu Gu Weiyu lost his composure and nearly strangled me to death. At that time, he felt that he must be interested in Duanmucui. Unexpectedly, Duanmucui couldn't even remember his appearance. It was just like an old saying, what is meant by falling flowers, The running water is ruthless... While thinking wildly, Duanmucui reached out to take the remaining rice paper, shook it in the air a few times, then pointed to Wen Guweiyu's picture and said, "Open your eyes wide and let me see clearly." , now I will look for him in all directions, and come back immediately when I find him."

When I looked carefully again, the stack of rice paper was only about the size of a square, and it suddenly moved and spread out, and even scattered into countless white paper butterflies, with their wings slightly fanned. Fly away.

Duanmu Cui suddenly said: "Wait."

Those paper butterflies were fixed in the air immediately, looking from the table, they are very beautiful.

Duanmucui said with a smile: "Be smart. If someone finds out, you'll pretend to be dead... Let's all go." As he spoke, he spread his clothes lightly, and as the strong wind passed by, those paper butterflies flew from east to west, from north to south, All were rolled away.

Watching Zhidie go away, Duanmucui just turned to look at Li Ji.

Li Ji smiled miserably, and said, "It's my turn, how are you going to deal with me?"

Let's talk about Zhan Zhao, after Li Ji disappeared for no reason, those common people came up to him, making troubles endlessly.Not long after, Gongsun Ce arrived and said that he was a doctor from Kaifeng. When he asked about the disease in the city, there were dozens of people around him, and they rushed to inform him. Some immediately wanted to take Gongsun Ce home to see a doctor, and they flocked to complain, which was expected.

Zhan Zhao then asked the old man next to him about the cat demon, and the old man said tearfully that Xuanping was plagued by disease, but after closing the city, there would be a cat demon committing crimes at night, killing dozens of people one after another.For a while, people were in a state of panic, and they hid at home before nightfall. Unexpectedly, the cat demon broke down the door and killed them. Even if the lights were not lit, every household would inevitably die.

You must know that the bottom line of oppression is resistance. In the past few days, everyone finally couldn't bear it, and decided to fight hard. They mixed iron chains to form a rope net, and used people as bait to catch the cat demon. Unexpectedly...

While talking, dozens of strong men passed by dragging the rope net. When they looked at Zhan Zhao, they couldn't stop their eyes with admiration when they thought that this man was able to fight with the cat demon without losing the wind.

Not long after, Gongsun Ce came over and said to Zhan Zhao: "Guard Zhan, the epidemic situation in this city is better than we thought before, but those who have not been infected with the disease don't know how to avoid it, so it will be very bad if things go on like this. I plan to find more Angelica dahurica and wormwood from the pharmacies in the city—I just made an agreement with the shopkeeper Li in the Juke Building on this street, and tomorrow I will cook a decoction to avoid the epidemic in the Ju Kelou place and distribute it— What do you think?"

Zhan Zhao nodded: "But according to Mr.'s arrangement. In addition, people with severe disease are like other people in different places, and the spread of disease is difficult to control. Would it be more appropriate to allocate another area to separate people with severe disease, light disease and those who are not sick? "

Gongsun Ce said happily: "Guard Zhan, it's no wonder that the adults always praise you for your carefulness, I never thought of it."

The plan was initially decided, and they discussed this method with everyone. Since the county magistrate abandoned the city, these people have no leader, and they are panic-stricken. , Zhan Zhao is a character who can fight against cat monsters, how can he not be happy?Then they divided up the tasks, whoever went to the pharmacy to get medicine, whoever went to inform others, whoever went to Juke Building tomorrow to help Gongsun Ce, whoever vacated the courtyard to accommodate patients.Everyone scrambled to take the lead, and the score went extremely smoothly.

Even so, it still took more than an hour to complete the assignment.The shopkeeper Li from the Juke Building came over and led the two of them to the Juke Building to rest. After walking a few steps, Zhan Zhao suddenly felt moved, and turned around and said, "Who is it?"

Gongsun Ce was taken aback for a moment, then turned his head to look, and saw an eight or nine year old girl from the shadow of the corner of the wall, dressed in gray cloth, with two buns on her hair, she was very timid, not surprised, because she thought: this is another who is it?
Zhan Zhao was also at a loss, the girl stepped forward, looked up at Zhan Zhao and said, "Big brother, you saved me just now, but I... haven't thanked you yet."

Only then did Zhan Zhao remember that she was the girl he rescued from the cat demon, he lowered his head and smiled and said, "You don't have to thank me, it's so late, go home quickly, your parents should be in a hurry."

When the girl heard the words "father and mother", her face darkened suddenly, and the shopkeeper Li sighed: "Young master, this girl's mother got sick a few days ago, and her father was killed by a cat demon again. Alas, at home Only the blind grandma is left, so poor."

Zhan Zhao felt pity in his heart, thinking to himself, it's strange that she ran outside in the middle of the night to catch the demon.I couldn't help but lowered my body, put one knee on the ground, stretched out my hand to brush the girl's hair, and said softly, "What's your name?"

The girl saw that although Zhan Zhao was covered with a medical scarf, her brows were full of gentleness and amiability, her pair of black eyes were as bright as stars, she couldn't help stretching out her hand to swipe on Zhan Zhao's eyebrows, and said with a grin: " My name is Xiaocui."

Zhan Zhao was taken aback, and murmured, "Your name is Xiao Cui?"

Xiao Cui hummed, her expression was very cute.

Zhan Zhao lightly grabbed Xiao Cui's hand that was gesturing on his eyebrows, and asked her, "Where is your home? I'll take you home."

Xiaocui's little hand was wrapped by Zhan Zhao's, and she felt warm and happy at the same time. She stretched out her other finger and pointed to the end of the street, saying, "It's over there."

Zhan Zhao nodded to Gongsun Ce, then dragged Xiaocui to the end of the street.

Along the way, Xiao Cui babbled, babbled, jumped up and down, with indescribable joy.Zhan Zhao looked down at Xiao Cui, with a smile on his lips.Suddenly Xiaocui raised her head, her eyes widened, she pointed forward and said, "Big Brother, Butterfly!"

When Zhan Zhao looked up, he saw that there seemed to be a white butterfly flying in front of him, he felt strange, and wanted to make Xiao Cui happy, so he raised his breath and jumped over, stretched out his hand to catch the white butterfly, and caged the white butterfly in his hand.

As soon as Die took it, she knew it was wrong, and Xiaocui clapped her hands and shouted: "Big brother is amazing!"

Zhan Zhao shook his head with a smile, stretched out his hand to show Xiaocui what was in his palm, and said, "You read it wrong, it's not a butterfly."

Xiaocui let out a sigh, and when she looked down, she saw that it was just a small piece of paper, she couldn't help shaking her head in disappointment, "So it wasn't."

As he spoke, he puffed up his cheeks, and with a whoosh, he blew the paper scraps to the ground.Zhan Zhao smiled, didn't take it seriously, and pulled Xiao Cui to continue walking.

After the two walked away a few steps, the shredded paper that fell on the ground suddenly moved, spread its wings suddenly, and spun lightly on the spot, then flew higher and higher, passed the corner of the eaves, and disappeared into the sky. In the endless dark night.

The weather on the second day was not good, it was gloomy and cold, the sun was hidden behind thick clouds, and there was some faint sunlight, without any warmth at all.Duanmucui, who was sleeping on the table, just woke up when the voices of people came from the street. When he saw the household items around him, he forgot where he was for a moment.

After finishing last night, she sent Li Ji to purgatory.

This is what the elders ordered——

"Murdering an immortal, ten thousand deaths is not enough to atone for her sin. I want her to fall into the nine levels of purgatory forever, wailing day by day, crying out every night, shed blood, and repeating itself endlessly."

Perhaps the most painful thing in this world is not death, but not being able to die.Clearly knowing that death is impossible, all kinds of pains imposed on the body will never stop.The last hope of getting rid of it has been extinguished, there is no future, what is there is just a nightmare that is destined to linger like a shadow.

Death, for Li Ji, is more kind.

But obviously, in the eyes of the elders, Li Ji's life and Shangxian's life cannot be equated.Just like in the human world, the lives of princes and grandsons are much more precious than ordinary people.

Forget it, why bother to laugh at a hundred steps at fifty steps, even if it is a blessed land of immortals, aren't the immortal families divided into three, six, nine, and nine classes?The God of Wealth is arrogant, the God of Plague is hiding in Tibet, the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother are sitting firmly in the hall, and a group of little gods are running hard.

Duanmucui laughed at herself.

Behind the huge copper gate of purgatory, the flames soaring into the sky are burning, sometimes dark and green, sometimes red like blood, ghosts and ghosts are illusory on the four walls, this is the deepest part of the ground, but the sobs are dumb like weeping like mourning The sound of crying still seems to come from a deeper place, slowly oozing out from the soil under your feet, penetrating through your clothes, permeating your skin, and invading your bone marrow. I can't take it off, I can't drive it away, and I will be obsessed with you until death.

"Is this what will happen to me?" Li Ji muttered with crimson flames in her eyes, she was actually insane.

Walking forward, the back is indescribably thin and desolate.

Suddenly, Duanmucui stopped her.

"What's your name?"

"name?"

Li Ji stood still, for the first time in her life, her eyes showed a blank look.

What is her name?
Turned into a demon, she called herself Li Ji, and the demon servant respected her as Niang Ji.

Before that, Wu Zetian abolished Xiao's surname as Xiao, and when history books mentioned her, she was called Xiao's family.

(End of this chapter)