In the past few days in Jining City, first there was Jiang Muchan visiting Prince Lu's Mansion at night, then there was Xiao Wuji who broke into Qinglian Hall alone, and then there was the pair of playfully playing with corpses. It can be said that there has been constant turmoil.
This is undoubtedly a troubled time for the Fire Lotus Sect.
But there are some things that they still have to do...
As we all know, those corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry in ancient times loved to spend time during the New Year and the holidays. Make money by doing things.
Take the officialdom as an example. Except for some extreme examples that everyone is familiar with, such as Hai Rui, generally speaking, even if you are an upright official, when you catch up with the "three festivals and two birthdays", can you not hold back a little bit? Gifts and red envelopes for children?
Not to mention the local tyrants and evil gentry, some of them are shameless and hold birthday banquets all year round. When the third aunt, the eighth uncle, the eighth aunt’s nephew celebrates his birthday, they also have to surround themselves with Invite all the neighbors to come. If you don’t come, you won’t be given face. If you come, even if I give you some “flower and hair”, you have to give a big red envelope.
Don’t think it’s outrageous. This trend still exists today, and now it’s not just local tyrants and evil gentry who do it, but anyone can do it. Maybe some of your relatives do it.
As for the Fire Lotus Sect, they are even more arrogant. They don't even bother to treat you to a meal, and they directly care about your money and things.
What reason are you looking for?
The Winter Clothes Festival before us is a hurdle that the people in Jining have to go through every year.
According to tradition, on the Cold Clothes Festival, people have the custom of "burning cold clothes" for the souls of the dead.
The so-called "burning cold clothes" generally refers to burning five-color paper that symbolizes cloth, and then burning some paper, incense foil, etc. If you have the conditions, then tie some paper people and horses together. Burn, this is pretty good.
But in the territory of the Fire Lotus Sect, the rules of the Cold Clothes Festival are different...
According to the "rules" of the Fire Lotus Sect, on the Cold Clothes Festival, everyone in Jining Every household must conduct a "burning offering" under their organization.
What is "burning and offering"?
That is, you have to "donate" some real property and hand it over to the hands of the Fire Lotus Sect, and then the Fire Lotus Immortal will "do the magic" for you to bless your deceased relatives and you. .
If you "donate" less, then your family will be in trouble because you are not pious... If there is "retribution" for something bad in the future, for example, someone digs up the ancestral graves at home. Ah, someone threw rocks at your window in the middle of the night, and every now and then a chicken or a dog was stolen... Don't be surprised.
Of course, if you really don’t have money, if you have an older girl or a younger daughter-in-law at home who is willing to offer it to the leader for “consecration”, that’s fine too.
And if you can’t offer anything and your attitude is very uncooperative, then it will be embarrassing - "burn".
Nothing else, I just said that your home has bad feng shui and is a very dangerous place with evil spirits. If you leave it alone, your home will become a "ghost cave" on the night of the Winter Clothes Festival. NeighborsRegardless of whether anyone has "offered" something, he or she will be "unlucky" in the future.
So, for the "benefit of everyone", the Fire Lotus Church set a fire in your house before dark, and only allowed the neighbors to put out the fire after it was almost burned.
What? Do you think this is unreasonable?
In fact, there is an even more unreasonable situation...that is, if you have reached the stage of "burning" and still resist stubbornly, then you will be "ghosted" and will be burned together with you. .
Burn alive, the government doesn’t care.
But... except for the first year after the establishment of the Fire Lotus Sect, there has been no such situation in the past few years. It's better to "offer" melons and dates than to have your house burned down before winter.
Some families really can’t get anything out of it, and they don’t want their daughters to be captured and raped by the Fire Lotus Cult, so they simply hang themselves as a family before the Winter Clothes Festival, so that they can at least remain innocent and have their bodies intact.
Don’t think this is an exaggeration, and don’t say anything like “Why didn’t the whole family leave Jining?” Back then, it was not as good as it is now. It was extremely difficult to move to another place at that time. thing.
If you are single and have no parents or children, then it is easy to say that you can just find a distant relative to join you. Even if they don't accept you there, you can still stay there to work or get a job. A meal.
But if you want to move your whole family from one place, it is as difficult as trying to immigrate for a family whose monthly income is just enough to maintain the minimum living standard.
Do you have any relatives who can defect to you? Can your relative take in your whole family? You go to the government and tell the government that your family's household registration is to be moved, and you need to submit a travel document... How can you get it without spending some money? And where will the food, drink and accommodation for your whole family come from? Do you still need to run if you have as much money as mentioned above? Wouldn’t it be enough to just “offer” a part of it?
In short, in the past few years since the rise of the Fire Lotus Sect, as soon as the common people hear the three words "Hangyi Festival", their scalps will go numb, and they wish that God will wipe out this day. .
This year, the corpse has encountered unpleasant things one after another in the past few days, and he wants to use this "burning sacrifice" to make a good profit so that he can "recover the loss".
So, early in the morning on the first day of October, the Fire Lotus Sect began their "donation collection" operation in the city.
Since all the masters and chief officers of Qinglian Hall have been killed in the past few days, Shi Xuanzi has not arranged for new replacements for the time being, so this year the disciples of Qinglian Hall can only be divided into the other four. The Tangkou was acting as a follower.
As for the other four halls, because there is one less person to share the "meat", they are even more frantic. After all, this is a pure job of extracting oil and water. Who doesn't want to take the opportunity to make more money?
Those wealthy families are fine, because the richer and more powerful the Fire Lotus Cult is, the more polite they are to them; when they come to "collect donations" from such families, the Fire Lotus Cultists usually wait. At the door, not entering the house, waiting for the housekeeper to send the money out, and after seeing that there were enough, he sent them away.
But for those ordinary poor people, the more money and power they have, the more ruthless the Fire Lotus Sect will be - they will just kick in the door, ask for it with open mouth, and rob people if they have no money. Things, arresting other people's female relatives, burning their homes if they dare to resist, they are worse than robbers.
Just like this, in just one morning, the entire Jining City was in a state of chaos, and the people were in dire straits.
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the day. According to the current situation, it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. The "collection" of the Fire Lotus Sect was finally over.
At this time, crowds slowly gathered at the market entrance in the city.
What are they here for?
Let’s see the great immortal’s “practice”.
As I said before, after the "collection of offerings", the Fire Lotus Immortal will do something to "bless" everyone.
Someone may want to ask, does Shi Xuanzi really do the magic to protect the people?
How is this possible...
Where in the world is there any magic that can "bless" the people of the whole city at once? If so, it wouldn’t be called magic, but social insurance.
So what method is Shi Xuanzi going to do now?
It’s simple – do a trick.
First of all, since he has said that he will do something to protect the people after "collecting the donation", then what's the harm in showing it to the people?
Secondly, performing a few tricks that have no practical significance but look very exaggerated and show them in front of the people is also a kind of shock in itself.
As for the common people... they have paid their "offerings" and come to take a look. From a certain point of view, they are also considered consumers.
At the beginning of the morning, Xie Xuanzi’s figure finally appeared on the altar at the entrance of the market.
This "Dharma Platform" is very tall and large, and was completed two days ago. The Dharma Platform is surrounded by squares and roads, and even if there are thousands of people watching, people in the distance can see the platform. situation.
At this moment, with the appearance of Xie Xianzi, the originally noisy square quickly became quiet.
His presence and sense of oppression are indeed strong. Just standing on the stage and looking around can make people far away from him feel creepy and silent.
"Humph..." After standing on the stage for a moment, and when the surroundings were completely silent, Xi Xuanzi raised the corners of his mouth with satisfaction, and then said, "Dear disciples and fellow countrymen... today On the first day of October, the Ghost Festival, as usual, I will pray for the dawn of Jining people, appease the souls of the dead, and protect all living beings... I am very pleased to see so many villagers coming to witness. ."
At this point, he shook the whisk in his hand and acted like a fairy, as if he was waiting for the crowd in the audience to applaud his hypocritical nonsense.
"The leader of the Immortal is alive!"
"The leader is very compassionate!"
"The Fire Lotus Immortal! His merits are overwhelming!"
"Great Immortal of Fire Lotus! Immortal magic is boundless!"
Fire Lotus SectThe reaction of the grandsons was not slow either. The hall masters and chief officials standing by the stage immediately took the lead in shouting. As soon as they shouted, the other minions followed suit.
As for the common people, those who stood closer to the Fire Lotus cultists on the side of the stage naturally had to shout a few times, otherwise they were afraid that their appearance would be remembered and Qiu Hou would settle accounts, so they stayed far away. Well... they only move their mouths and don't make any sound at all.
After the group of people shouted for a while, Shi Xuanzi waved his hand again, signaling his minions to stop, and said again: "Hey~ I just became a monk. What a person should do is not worth mentioning. I deserve to be so loved by you."
And his speech similar to "please increase your efforts" is undoubtedly more important. prompting a second round of flattery chants.
When the second wave of shouting was over, Shi Xuanzi walked slowly to the side of the altar, came to a table with several magical instruments, picked up a bell, and Said: "Okay, let's not delay, I will start the performance now..."
Just when the corpse was about to start the formal performance, unexpectedly, a loud shout came from the sky : "Demon! Have you finished farting?"
As the words fell, a figure emerged.
But among the crowd, someone suddenly flew out.
With his outstanding lightness skills, this person moved forward like a dragonfly on the heads of the Fire Lotus Sect members. In a few leaps, he had already jumped onto the towering altar.
Before he could stand still, Xi Xuanzi had already recognized him through his figure... Who was this, if not Jiang Muchan?
"It's you again..." Xi Xuanzi was very unhappy when his "performance" was interrupted. What's more, the other person was the person he wanted to kill before, so he didn't hesitate at this moment. He said covertly, "What? Did you come here specifically to die today?"
"Ha...I won't die even if you die." Jiang Muchan sneered, "Today I am I'm here to take your life!"
"Just you?" When Shi Xuanzi responded to these words, many of the Fire Lotus cultists in the audience had come to their senses and started to fight. The blades were all drawn out.
"It's really impossible to rely on me alone." Jiang Muchan didn't pay attention to the actions of the gang around the stage, and just continued, "But if you add another person, it will be more than enough to deal with you. ."
Hearing the words "the other one", Xi Xuanzi immediately thought: It is probably the "Old Immortal Xudong".
But Shi Xuanzi remained calm on the surface and asked in a deep voice: "Oh? Who is it?"
"Good question!" Jiang Muchan seemed to be waiting. As he said this, the next second, he suddenly took out a gong and a small hammer with a cloth head from his arms, and banged it like a street performer. After he finished knocking, he said, " He is... the chief disciple of Xudong Old Immortal, the living golden body of Beitian Dangmo Tianzun - Zhang Baoguo!" Upon hearing this, Xi Yanzi said in his heart: "Who is this? Couldn't he be the one who played shit that day?"
Dan Yu?After hesitating for a moment, Shi Xuanzi still asked: "Then where is he now?"
Pa——
Before Shi Xuanzi finished speaking, a voice came out The trident's blade had already broken through the wooden board under his feet, suddenly sprang out from under the high platform, and struck hard at his crotch!