"I have something to do in the Dark Realm. I'll be back soon."
Luo Zheyu comforted him.
"What do you want to do?"
The Thousand-Faced Mirror said suspiciously, very alert.
Just a short while ago, he was still stationed in Luo Zheyu's mind, and they were bound to each other.
Everything that Luo Zheyu had experienced, whether it was seen or heard, the Wanmianjing saw and heard it with him, so how could it not know what he had to do?
"The speed of death energy transfer is too slow. I will go find help."
"...Where to look for? Who to look for?"
The multifaceted mirror asked.
Luo Zheyu glanced at his true form.
Why do you talk so much?
The Thousand-Faced Mirror immediately fell silent and stopped talking.
“Remember the paper lanterns that carried us across the river?”
Luo Zheyu reminded Wanmianjing that when the last word fell, the person had already flown away from here and was far away.
…………
The old Taoist strode ahead, and Xu Xiaoyu lagged behind by half a step, following closely behind.
The others, who were dressed differently and were mostly talented people, looked around hesitantly, wanting to follow behind to see the world and learn.
"I would like to thank everyone for their company today." The old Taoist turned around and blocked the crowd who were about to follow.
"But please stay. I will walk the Yin Road to the underworld with this little girl. I am not very experienced. I have only been there once ten years ago. It is already the limit for me to take a living person to the underworld today. I really cannot take so many people with me."
Hearing this, the rest of the people decided not to follow. The old Taoist said that his Taoism skills were not good enough and he could only lead one person. However, they were far inferior to the old Taoist. They couldn't even find the way to the underworld, let alone travel alone.
After declining the police's offer of manpower support, the old Taoist priest held the puppet and took Xu Xiaoyu out of the police station gate, stepped into the dim street, and walked all the way to the end of the darkness.
The old Taoist priest stretched out his thumb, dipped something in it, and rubbed it on Xu Xiaoyu's forehead, cheeks, and chin a few times, then rubbed it on his own face.
Then, he took a small bag of rice in his hand, walked a few steps, and scattered a grain.
It was dark and there were no lights in the alley. I could only vaguely see that there was no road at the end of the alley. It was a dead end.
Grains of white rice fell to the ground. Xu Xiaoyu opened his eyes wide, but was unable to find the rice grains in the darkness.
"This is fragrant rice." The old Taoist priest suddenly explained.
"My fragrant rice is not the fragrant rice of the fragrant rice variety, but the fragrant rice that has been offered as tribute on the altar with burning incense sticks."
Xu Xiaoyu looked at it carefully, but couldn't see any difference from ordinary rice, nor did she smell any different taste.
“Haha…” The old Taoist priest smiled and said, “After we take the Yin Road to the underground world, we have to follow the path where the fragrant rice is scattered to come back.”
"Is this the only way to come back?" Xu Xiaoyu asked in surprise.
The old Taoist stroked his beard and nodded, then he shook his other hand lightly, and two grains of rice fell out of the bag and onto the ground.
"What if the sanitation workers clean them up!?"
Then we can't come back!
The old Taoist's hand, which was touching his beard, suddenly froze. He frowned and found that what Xu Xiaoyu said made a lot of sense.
This alley is remote, and after the fragrant rice is scattered, it will not be discovered or damaged in a short time. Even if it is damaged, it will not be a big deal if there are only a few dozen grains. But if it is swept away by a broom, it will be terrible.
Then he said in a low voice with annoyance: "Everything changes with each passing day! I have only been in seclusion for six years, and now I can't recognize or understand anything. Six years ago, there was no one cleaning these alleys and corners every day."
He paused and seemed to be talking to someone.
"Master, no wonder you urged me to come out of seclusion. How come the mortal world has changed so much?"
The old Taoist priest paused for a moment and listened attentively and respectfully.
…
"...Ah? This...isn't it a waste? The rice I used to have is all gone, and I only have this little bit of fragrant rice left."
…
"Okay, okay, at worst, I can just spend some time to offer some more fragrant rice. When I have a disciple, I can let him take care of these trivial matters..."
The old Taoist priest reached into his cloth bag and grabbed a handful of fragrant rice, then scattered it along the road as he walked, forming a thin white line on the ground.
"If we spread more fragrant rice, the place will be filled with the scent of incense and candles. Then, even if someone sweeps away the fragrant rice, we won't be afraid of not being able to find it back."
As the old Taoist explained, he turned back to look at Xu Xiaoyu.
Unexpectedly, there was no sign of Xu Xiaoyu behind him.
The old Taoist priest was stunned and looked around, only to find that Xu Xiaoyu had distanced himself from him at some point and was following him tiptoeing a few steps away.
The old Taoist priest didn't hide his mutterings from anyone.
Xu Xiaoyu who was following behind heard it clearly.
So that's what happened.
"Master, look at you, you scared the little girl." said the old Taoist priest, putting the blame on a non-existent person.
It was as if his master was right beside him.
Xu Xiaoyu felt uneasy when he heard this, but he had to bite the bullet and follow the old Taoist priest.
The road around him became darker and darker, until finally, Xu Xiaoyu could no longer see any other objects except the old Taoist priest in front of him.
Whether it was the sky, the scenery, or the road under my feet, everything was dark.
Only the fragrant rice in the old Taoist's hand emitted a bright white light. In this dark night, like a firefly, it flowed from the cloth bag into the old Taoist's hand, and then fell to the ground, winding out a thin white light trail.
The distance they had walked had long exceeded the scope of the dead end. Logically, they should have hit a wall, but now they were still moving forward.
After walking in the endless darkness for an unknown amount of time, Xu Xiaoyu gradually got closer and closer to the old Taoist priest. She walked to the back and simply shrank behind the old Taoist priest, holding onto the corner of his clothes. She followed him every time he took a step.
It's too dark here.
Quiet and empty.
The darkness enveloped the two tiny people, like leaves gradually sinking to the bottom of the sea.
A faint light gradually appeared in front of us, which was a cluster of orange-yellow light, like stars.
The old Taoist priest took Xu Xiaoyu and walked for a while until they were surrounded by orange-yellow light, then they stopped.
"Hold this in your mouth. Although you can eat it, don't really eat it." The old Taoist priest handed Xu Xiaoyu a wooden stick half a finger long.
The wood strips are very original and look like they were taken out of trees and dried.
Xu Xiaoyu hesitated and put it into his mouth.
The taste is slightly sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste, followed by a fresh aroma, like standing in a forest washed by rain, the fresh scent of grass and trees is refreshing.
"Lie down." The old Taoist priest said suddenly as he lay down on the ground.
Xu Xiaoyu: ???
"No matter what happens later, you can't move or speak until I tell you to. Just pretend to be asleep."
…
In the darkness, the orange-yellow ball of light that surrounded the two people moved, and split into three balls that flew towards them.
When the orange-yellow ball of light floated closer, I could see clearly that it was not a ball of light at all, but three paper lanterns.
It feels like someone is lifting me up in the air.
The long red tassels decorated under the paper lanterns fluttered, extending in the wind, and the strands of tassel silk stretched towards the old Taoist priest and Xu Xiaoyu.
The tassels, like human fingers, gently poked the two people who seemed to be sleeping soundly. After confirming that they were asleep and unresponsive, the tassels wrapped around their limbs and pulled them up.
Xu Xiaoyu's body was stiff and she dared not move. She remembered the old Taoist's words in her heart and let the tassels under the paper lantern wrap around her body, hanging her up and floating in the air.
She quietly opened her eyes a crack and saw that the old Taoist priest was also entangled and hung up. However, what was surprising was that the crude human-shaped puppet that the old Taoist priest had been carrying with him was also treated as a human by a paper lantern, with its limbs and body wrapped around it and carried in mid-air.
Xu Xiaoyu stared at the crudely made puppet in front of her. She saw the puppet being led by a lantern, facing towards her with its back to the front.
On the face made of white cloth, the black button eyes were illuminated by the light of the paper lanterns above the head, and the straight mouth sewn by the red line suddenly curved upwards, revealing a kind and benevolent smile.
She was stunned for a moment, and suddenly reacted. Her hair stood on end, her scalp felt numb, and cold sweat rushed to her vest. She felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave.
…………
Knock, knock.
He bent his slender fingers and knocked his knuckles against the table.
"The progress is too slow. We need to allocate more manpower to move the dead energy."
The skinny man in a suit opposite him, about 1.8 meters tall, with only a layer of skin above his skeleton, looked at him dejectedly with a look of despair.
"uncle."
"Master."
"Grandmaster!"
“We also want more manpower to solve the problem of dead energy as soon as possible. Otherwise, both the dark world and the human world will be finished in a few hundred years. But the thousands of ghosts in the dark world have all been assigned to move the dead energy, and only a few dozen are left to maintain other jobs. They can’t leave, there are no more souls, ah ah ah ah…”
“You don’t know, but in the past there was no Yin energy in the human world, and ghosts had no nutrients at all and could hardly survive there. But ever since the appearance of death energy, Yin energy has mixed into the human world, and the ghosts in the human world are hard to control. Each one is so violent and ferocious, even more ferocious than us law enforcement officers. They refuse to come to the dark world and insist on staying in the human world. But those ghosts’ willpower is not strong enough, and after absorbing the Yin energy polluted by death energy for a few more days, they even forget their own names. They only know how to cause destruction and kill every day. Even our law enforcement officers in the dark world have lost a lot because of this. We are so miserable... sob...”
The skeleton man in the suit was crying and pretending to wipe his tears with his long, thin fingers.
He is one of the high-ranking officials in the dark world, and was pushed forward as a representative to negotiate with Luo Zheyu.
Luo Zheyu had no intention of appreciating his tearful sobbing and interrupted him in a very calm tone.
"No need for ghosts, other beings will do."
"ah?"
The skeleton man in the suit looked up blankly, his fingers wiping his fake tears almost poking into his eye sockets.
"There are only ghosts in our dark world..."
"Those paper lanterns on the dark roads are spirits, right?" Luo Zheyu reminded him.
"So you are talking about those crazy people..." The skeleton man in the suit suddenly realized and refused without hesitation.
"That won't work. You probably don't know that those guides guard the Yin Road and are not under the jurisdiction of the Dark Realm. They are all very greedy. They usually help the Dark Realm to bring people across the Styx, and they charge a lot of money. If they are asked to move the dead energy, they will definitely charge more. The Dark Realm cannot afford it and cannot pay them that much."
Luo Zheyu thought for a moment and asked, "What do you want as a reward for attracting idiots?"
"They want incense and candles."
The skeleton man in the suit said, "The incense and candles are what the living people burn to commemorate the dead. Now it's not popular to burn these things in the human world. Even if they do, they only burn a few during the Qingming Festival and the anniversary of the death of the deceased. Naturally, there are not many in the underworld, and they are only enough to supply the ghosts to cross the river."
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