Chapter 173 Silver-eating ghost? Starving ghost! There were merchants, travelers, runners and knights on the mountain road. Some people saw a Taoist riding the wind between the treetops on the mountain top, with a white shadow following him. Others saw a Taoist riding a donkey on the mountain road, with a fox trotting in front of him, as if leading the way. The donkey looked dull and tireless, and the Taoist priest also looked like he was in a hurry to go to some distant place. Lin Jue's speed was almost as fast as the last time he left Shu Village and was chased by the bear monster. The time and distance are much longer. It was just past noon when he set out, and he walked until late at night before he rested under a tree in the mountains. He even ran into a few ghosts in the middle of the night. It was a full moon at that time, and several ghosts resembling scholars came out together to admire the moon, just like they were enjoying spring when they were alive, reciting poems and composing couplets. They accidentally saw the Taoist priest under the tree. It is hard to tell whether it was the Taoist who encountered a ghost, or the ghost who encountered the Taoist. In any case, Lin Jue was no longer afraid of seeing ghosts. Instead, these ghosts were frightened when they suddenly encountered a living person wearing Taoist robes in the wilderness. When he tried to run away in panic, he was stopped by the fox again. "Don't embarrass them." Lin Jue said to Fuyao. Thinking that it was a good opportunity to ask these ghosts, he said to them: "Everyone, I'm sorry for being so rude. Please don't be afraid. I am a cultivator of the Lingfa School. I will not hurt people or ghosts without reason. I am going to Zhongzhou for an important matter. It is a fate that I meet you here at this time. I think you like to travel at night, so I want to ask you some questions."

The ghosts were a little scared at first, but when they saw his gentle expression and the fox demon that blocked the road walked away, they looked at each other and then bowed and said: "What do you want to ask, Master?" "I heard that during this period, there were plague ghosts heading from Biluo County in the back to Zhongzhou. Did they pass through here? Did you see them?" "Epidemic ghost? But is there going to be an epidemic?" "Have you ever seen it?" "Never seen it." "Have you ever seen a strange ghost from another place passing by here?" “Never.” "The Immortal thinks too highly of us." Another ghost said, "Zhongzhou is separated from the south by the mountain gods and water gods. There are also gods guarding the major checkpoints, and there are also wandering gods patrolling day and night. If there are really plague ghosts wandering around, they must be hiding their whereabouts. How can we see them?" "That makes sense..." Lin Jue thought about it carefully and it made sense. Recalling some of the strange stories I had heard, in the stories, it was not easy for evil demons to sneak into or out of the city without other skills. They often even hid in dung buckets. I think it was the same for passing through the pass and avoiding the eyes and ears of the parading gods. In this case, if foreign plague ghosts enter Zhongzhou and spread the plague, it would not be so easy. Thinking about what Yan's grandson said, the two plague ghosts did intend to hide their whereabouts. Even if the plague ghost thing is true, it should still be in time. "Thank you all." Seeing a few scholar ghosts walking away hesitantly, they kept looking back at him and whispering to each other, and it was unclear what they were discussing. After they walked a little further away, they continued to admire the moon and recite poems, and Lin Jue fell asleep. Wake up early in the morning and continue on your journey. I don’t know how many cities and post stations I passed through, and how many checkpoints I crossed in the middle, until the evening of the second day, when I finally arrived at Cuiwei County, one of the three places among Qingchuan, Cuiwei and Liuyun. Lin Jue looked up and saw that the city gate was ancient and majestic, and the city walls were full of traces of time, cuts by knives, axes, stones and fire, which had the momentum of an ancient city in the Central Plains.

There are two big characters "Cuiwei" above. Below, people were coming in and out, with carriages, horses, cows and mules, but there was no sign of any disaster. There were also four soldiers guarding the city gate, wearing linen clothes inside and simple iron armor outside, with long swords on their waists and spears in their hands. It was dusk and the sky was dim. Indistinctly, it seemed that there was a vague figure in an official robe. He looked carefully at the fox following him, but he disappeared in the blink of an eye. Lin Jue walked over. "By your will!" The gate guard stopped him. "I am a Taoist from Yishan, Huizhou, Lin Jue, and this is my certificate of ordination." Lin Jue took out the certificate and presented it to him. “Come here…” The soldiers guarding the city wanted to ask him why he came here, but when they saw that the certificate was a piece of paper, different from the ordinary paper certificates, they stopped talking and did not ask him what he came for. They just stretched out their hands and said: "So you are a wizard, please come in." "Thank you." Lin Jue took back the certificate and said thank you. Then, under the gaze of the four guards, the Taoist did not go in immediately, but turned his head to look at the empty space, thought for a moment, and said as if talking to someone: "Can I see the priest who is guarding the city?" "Ok?" The four officers and soldiers all looked over in confusion. There was indeed no one there, not even anyone passing by, but there was a small temple two feet wide and two feet high next to the city wall. Inside there were two clay statues whose faces were almost invisible, as well as some leftover incense sticks and candles, and some paper ashes. Suddenly, the paper ashes were blown up by the wind. This Taoist did not enter the city, but walked past it. In Lin Jue's eyes, there were two priests wearing red robes, one fat and one thin, looking at him with frowns. As soon as they saw Lin Jue coming over, they began to accuse him: "Where did you come from, Taoist priest? Don't you know that to see the gods, you need to light incense, go through the rituals, and then wait for the gods' approval? How can you be so ignorant of etiquette!" "I am from Yishan, Huizhou, and I am a Taoist from the Lingfa School." Lin Jue was afraid of causing unnecessary panic and did not want others to hear him, so he deliberately lowered his voice and said, "I have something important to report to the priest." "Yishan, Huizhou? Taoists from the Lingfa School? Can Taoists from the Lingfa School call the gods out to meet them at will? Can they do whatever they want just because they know a little bit of Taoism and magic?" The fat priest's brows furrowed even more tightly: "Besides, you are a Taoist from the Lingfa School. Why don't you hide in the mountains and practice hard? What's the point of looking for gods? And you are a Taoist from Huizhou. What are you doing in Zhongzhou?" "Forget it. I don't want to bother with him. Let's just listen to what he has to say first." said the thin priest. "The thing is like this..." Although Lin Jue frowned, he did not argue with them. Instead, he explained the matter of Yan's grandson and the plague ghost in detail, and added:

"What I said is absolutely true, but we don't know whether it is true or not. We just think that this is a serious matter and dare not neglect it, so I will go ahead and check it out first, and also inform the gods of this place." "Where is the plague in the city?" "No?" "Interesting! You believe what this person says? If you are not lying, then he is lying. If he is not lying, then he is just imagining things and deceiving himself!" The fat priest said coldly, "There has been no plague recently, and there has been no plague from heaven. If there was a plague from heaven and the Plague God came here, we would have gotten the news." "There is indeed no plague in the city! Moreover, with us guarding here, no plague ghosts or evil spirits can get through?" the thin priest also said. "That's good. It would be even better if this matter is false. However, I would like the two priests to pay more attention to it. It would be best if you inform the city god in the city, and then he will report it and inform the city gods of other counties." "You are such a Taoist priest. You don't practice your spiritual skills properly, but come here to worry about nothing." The fat priest said, "Even if there is a plague, the plague god in the sky will be responsible for taking care of it." "If you want to enter the city, please enter quickly. The city gate will be closed soon! You are not a simple fox, are you? I see that you are a Taoist who has come from afar, and there is no other evil smell on you, so I will not make things difficult for you. You should also not cause trouble for us! Rest for a night and leave tomorrow! If you don't rest, I will leave now!" The thin priest said to him: “You must know that, let alone you are a Taoist from the Lingfa School, even if you are a Taoist from the Fulu School and a Taoist who has been granted a talisman, and you have lit incense and performed rituals, the talisman granted by the Huizhou Master is not from the same faction as ours. If you disturb the gods without any business, you will be held accountable!” "..." Lin Jue cupped his hands: "Farewell!" Then he turned around and left with a cold face. The fox seemed to have sensed that he was a little annoyed, and bared its teeth at the two priests before trotting after him. The four officers and soldiers at the door looked at each other. In their eyes, they could only see the Taoist priest standing in front of the small temple under the city wall. He seemed to say something to the empty temple. They couldn't hear clearly, but they saw that there seemed to be wind swirling in front of the small temple, blowing the paper ashes up and swirling, which was obviously unusual. Seeing the Taoist priest coming, no one dared to stop him. Even those who usually believed in these things could not help but raise their hands to salute and see him off. Lin Jue naturally returned the greeting and then went into the city. Everything in the city is normal and quite lively. It seems that the story of the plague ghost is true or false. But Lin Jue was still a little puzzled—— Those two priests didn't have much spiritual power to begin with. If they fought, they might not even be as good as Liu Taihou. Yet they were so rude and arrogant. What is even more puzzling when you think about it is not this. Rather, the gods should value moral behavior. Although gods are ghosts holding official positions, the most important thing for them is virtue. For example, a position like the City God should be held by a local person with virtue and reputation after his death, either by imperial decree or by spontaneous support from the people. In short, the most important thing is virtue and being respected. Although the position of this kind of priest is not as high as that of the City God, generally speaking, it should be chosen from people who have held such positions during their lifetime, or at least have held similar positions, and who are suitable for the position and perform their duties conscientiously. These two priests are so arrogant. Seeing that the street was normal and since he was a newcomer, Lin Jue didn't say anything. He just walked on the street, looking left and right. Until it was completely dark. "It seems that there is really no plague here. But we should also go to other counties and inform the gods there." Lin Jue said to the people beside him as he walked in the alley, "But it's a little late today, how about we find a hotel to stay for one night?"

"Hey..." The fox focused on the road and responded casually, moving forward quickly on its four long and graceful legs. There happened to be a hotel in front. Lin Jue asked for a small room. The room was not big, with only a bed, a small table and two benches. Because it was late and Lin Jue was a Taoist priest, the innkeeper charged him a low price. After entering the room, Lin Jue took out the paper donkey and examined it with heartache. "You've suffered a lot along the way." The paper donkey made by Second Uncle was made of solid material. After all this tossing and turning, Lin Jue was about to fall apart, his butt hurt so much, but the paper donkey was fine. The donkey's remaining soul was tired and weak, and it was faintly about to disperse. If it walked like this for another two days, it would definitely fall apart. At this time, you have to use the method of refining bean soldiers and nurture it well for a few days. But before that, Lin Jue took out the wood carving. "Are you here?" "exist……" A weak voice came from the wood carving, almost inaudible. The fox was curious and came over to see what was wrong with it. Two breaths later, a thin wisp of white smoke came out of the wood carving, as if it had no strength left. It took a long time before it gathered into a ball in the air and turned into a big-headed child ghost. "I have seen the real person..." "How are you?" "My little one...I am fine..." "..." How could Lin Jue not see its weakness, but it was not easy to say anything at this time. He just felt around in his arms and took out two pieces of silver totaling twenty taels: "I'm sorry to have made you suffer. It's because our master passed away some time ago, and we went down the mountain afterwards. We were short of money and couldn't get enough food for you. These were given to me by my senior brother. After we got the food, we didn't have a suitable opportunity during the journey, and I thought you didn't want others to know about it, so I didn't invite you out." "So much the better……" The silver-eating ghost answered dully, his eyes fixed on the silver in his hand, with no time to think about anything else. There was a rich aroma coming from it. "Gudong!" The silver ghost swallowed hard, unable to resist his appetite and impulse, but he was really afraid of being hungry, so he said to Lin Jue: "Here... here are twenty taels! Why not divide it into two months?" "..." Lin Jue felt really guilty.

I had to make up my mind to try my best not to let it go hungry in the future. (End of this chapter)