Zi Shi, the Young Master's Mansion.
Han Yu’s specious “ceremony to invite gods” has already begun.
From the beginning to now, the mantras recited by Mr. Han have become more and more complicated. From the beginning, he called the Supreme Laojun, and gradually changed to calling the Jade Emperor, Tathagata Buddha, and then Dragon King, Zhu Bajie, and even Wong Tai Sin all tried to recite it.
During this process, in addition to keeping his hands clasped together, he also deliberately rolled his eyes and shook his head, as if putting himself in this trance-like state would make it easier to see ghosts and gods.
Just like that, after another moment and a half, the room really changed.
During the "sudden moment", Han Yu saw with his peripheral vision that the light of the candlelight around him began to change color, gradually turning from bright yellow to light green, and then to a faint blue.
Not only did the color change, the halo of the candlelight also spread, getting bigger and bigger, until Han Yu's sight was filled with blue light.
At this time, he also felt the diffused light. When it enveloped his body, there was no warmth from the fire. On the contrary, it brought a chill.
"It's done, right?" Han Yu muttered silently in his mind, feeling that it was almost done, so he suddenly opened his eyes wide, stopped chanting the curse, and looked up to look around.
This sight shocked him to the core.
"Ah" Han Yu looked closely and found that he was no longer in the study, but kneeling in a strange room.
This room is octagonal in shape, with walls made of white stone, and beams, floors, and ceilings made of wood. There are no doors or windows in the room, but there is a staircase in the middle that can lead up to the stairs. The light source comes from several candlesticks on the wall, and the candles burning on the candlesticks are all candles that emit blue firelight.
"Is there anyone there?" After a short silence, Han Yu, who had regained his composure, asked in a trembling, not too high voice.
As a result, his voice stirred up echoes in this strange environment, and most of the sounds climbed upward through the stairs in the middle of the room.
Judging from this echo, the space where Han Yu is located seems to be an octagonal "tower", and you can go all the way to the top of the tower through the stairs in the middle.
"Is there anyone?" Han Yu called again several times.
But every time he could only hear his own echo, and no one or anything else responded to him.
Seeing this, Han Yu hesitated for a while, but finally he plucked up the courage and prepared to go up the stairs to explore.
After making up his mind, Han Yu walked to the wall and tried to take a candle from the candlestick and hold it in his hand for lighting. After all, he didn't know if there was light on the floor above.
"Hey!" The moment he pinched the candle, Han Yu grinned and retracted his hand instinctively.
It turned out that it was the body of the candle, which actually felt like ice.So cold.
Of course, for the current Han Yu, this level of "strange things" was no longer enough to amaze him for too long. After a few seconds, he just rubbed his hands, then shook off his sleeves, and The cloth with sleeves picked up the candle with his hand again.
Although my fingers will still feel cold, it is bearable.
After getting something that could illuminate, Han Yu held the candle in front of him with his right hand, turned around and walked upstairs.
It should be mentioned here that walking with a candle is a little different from walking with a lantern because the candle is not protected by a lampshade, so when walking with a candle, you have to use both hands. , that is, hold the candle with one hand and use the other hand as a barrier to protect the candle flame. Otherwise, if you walk a little faster or accidentally encounter a gust of wind, the candle will be extinguished.
But the current tower is in a special situation. It has no doors or windows, and there is not even a breath of wind in the tower.
Therefore, even if Han Yu only held the candle with one hand and walked forward, there would be no problem.
Mr. Han has also thought about it. He can take advantage of this and let his left and right hands take turns holding the candle through the sleeves to prevent the fingers from freezing if one hand is held for too long.
Yiyiyi
Soon, Han Yu stepped on the wooden stairs that made noise, probably due to slight decay, and arrived at the second floor of the octagonal tower.
As soon as his head was higher than the floor of the second floor, he saw someone on this floor, more than one.
However, there were five or six figures on this floor, standing or kneeling, gathered in a corner away from the stairs, and in front of them, there was a pile of things vaguely placed.
Although Han Yu was scared, at this point he could only bite the bullet and step forward to see what those people were up to.
One step, one step
Han Yu held the candle and approached slowly. When he got closer for a few minutes, he could see clearly that the five or six people were all wearing hemp and mourning. They seemed to be They were doing nothing, but the pile of things in front of them was neither a coffin nor a altar, but a pile of bottles and cans.
The mouth of the bottle is small, and the mouth of the jar is big. He can't see what's in the bottle, but what's in the jar can be seen to be rice.
Although Han Yu didn’t understand it very well, as a layman, he could also tell that the way those bottles and jars were placed on the ground was not random or random, but was deliberately arranged. Some kind of "formation".
Just when Han Yu was hesitating whether to take the initiative to say hello to these people
Dong
Suddenly, there was a soft sound from his feet. .
Han Yu looked down and realized that he had accidentally kicked down a bottle on the ground, and what flowed out of the bottle was a nearly transparent liquid. Unfortunately, because at this moment The light in the room was blue, which made it difficult for him to judge whether the liquid itself had any color.
The next second, when they heard the sound of the bottle falling, the five or six people wearing sackcloth and mourning were startled almost at the same time. Then, one of them, the one closest to Han Yu,That one slowly turned his head.
That was a woman, a very young and beautiful woman.
Han Yu felt that she seemed familiar, but at the moment he could not remember who this woman was, where or when he had seen her.
"Who are you?" Han Yu said, wanting to ask the other party.
But before he could say a word, the woman silently leaned over, picked up another bottle on the ground, and handed it to him.
Han Yu didn’t know what it meant, but he still took the bottle.
The liquid in the bottle was still there. Han Yu put it under his nose and smelled it. Suddenly, he felt a scent of oil rushing straight to his forehead.
"What does it mean that there is oil in the bottle and rice in the jar?" Han Yu was confused and looked at the woman with a questioning expression on his face.
The woman suddenly started to cry and raised her hand to make a "drink" gesture.
"You want me to drink this oil" Han Yu was even more confused now.
Although poor people had little oil in those days, oil and water were indeed good things that only rich people and nobles like him could enjoy freely, but I have never heard of anyone drinking them directly like this
I think so. Thinking this way, Han Yu's hand unconsciously brought the small bottle of oil to his mouth again.
At this moment, he smelled the bottle again.
But this time, in addition to the unusually strong aroma of oil, he seemed to smell some other smells
It was a stench, a kind of stench, due to the stronger smell. The scent of oil covered it up so that he couldn't smell it for the first time.
"Ah" Finally, Han Yu thought of something. He quickly threw the bottle away and took a few steps back.
The tearful woman looked at him, still expressionless, but at this moment, her fair face seemed to gradually become terrifying under the blue light.
Then the other people wearing sackcloth and mourning also turned their heads and looked at Han Yu.
They are all women, both young and beautiful.
Han Yu felt that each of them seemed familiar, but he could not remember any of their names and did not know who they were.
Their faces look more and more terrifying.
"No no" Han Yu didn't know what he was rejecting. He just muttered the word "no" repeatedly, retreated all the way to the stairs, and stumbled towards the third floor of the tower.
The third floor.
There are many clothes hanging on the beams on this floor.
Those clothes are all made of fine fabrics and fine workmanship; the way they are unfolded and hung one by one is like people floating in mid-air with their arms outstretched.
There was also fire on one side of this floor. Han Yu looked there and found two people burning clothes there.
These two people did not wear sackcloth or mourning, but simply wore nothing. They were all naked, even their underpants. It was no shame that they were both men.
And these two people are full ofScars, their skin is full of bruises, burns, and fatal lacerations that look like they have been sutured. It can be said that there is no good piece of flesh.
But even so, their actions did not seem to be affected. One was collecting the clothes in a leisurely manner, and the other was throwing the collected clothes into a big fire pit one by one.
The fire in the brazier was not small, but there was no smoke and no heat was emitted. Wherever the blue light shone, there was only a chill.
At this time, Han Yu was paralyzed by fear. He did not dare to contact these two people rashly, but he did not turn away directly, so he just stood there stupidly. Observing the two people from a distance.
Han Yu didn't look at it for long. Suddenly, the man looking at the brazier turned his head and looked back at him.
That face also looked familiar, and it was different from the situation on the second floor. This time Han Yu took a few seconds to recognize the other person as Ma Er
"You, haven't you already? "Han Yu murmured in his mouth.
Just when he was about to say the word "death".
Another person, the one responsible for "collecting clothes", suddenly appeared next to Han Yu.
"Teacher, the student has been waiting here for a long time," Ma Xuan said. As he spoke, he was about to put a piece of clothing on Han Yu, "Put it on quickly. , this is specially reserved for you."
Han Yu almost suffered a cardiac arrest when he saw the other party's face and the exquisitely crafted shroud held by Ma Xuansheng. .
But he still held on
After a breath, Han Yu pushed Ma Xuansheng away, without saying a word, turned around and ran up the stairs again.
When he reached the fourth floor, he quickly turned back and looked down to see if "anyone" was catching up.
But looking down from the fourth floor, even with the help of candlelight, you can only see an abyss-like darkness.
"Hey" At this moment, Han Yu also discovered another situation. At some point, his right hand holding the candle through his sleeve could no longer let go.
Because he had been so nervously focused elsewhere that he completely forgot to change the candle he held, so only then did he realize that his palm had touched the cloth of his sleeves, and The body of the candle was frozen and stuck together, and the entire palm of the hand was purple and black from the cold, and there was no feeling.
But then again, compared to other things that happened here, frostbitten hands are nothing to Korean.
Also talking about the fourth level.
This is the top floor of the tower. The stairs end here and there is no way to continue upward.
And this is also an anomaly in itself.
According to ancient concepts, the number of days is odd, the number of earth is even, the odd number is yang, the even number is yin, the sky covers the earth, and the balance of yin and yang is what architecture, especially some specific buildings, must follow. rule.
So you can see that buildings like "towers" mostly have an odd number of floors, and the sides on the plan areThe sum angles are mostly even numbers.
This is the rule. If you break this rule, it will be abnormal.
For example, the current tower has eight corners, which is no problem, but the number of floors is also an even number, which is wrong; this breaks the pattern and breaks the Yang number.
Ordinary residential buildings do not have this particularity, but "pagodas", which have a certain significance in Taoism and Buddhism, are not supposed to "take the negative number from the top", only from the bottom, what are the "eight hells" ", "Ten Halls of Hell", "Eighteen Hells" often take negative numbers.
Of course, Han Yu didn't understand this very well, and he didn't have the time and energy to care about it at the moment.
At this moment, Han Yu's attention was already focused on another person besides him on this floor.
This man was wearing a gray Taoist robe, and he looked about forty, but he was thin and small, with sinister eyebrows and rat eyes, a sharp mouth and narrow cheeks. He had no fairy-like temperament at all. On the contrary, he made people feel a little Very obscene and evil.
"Master Han, you are here." The voice of the gray-robed Taoist priest also matched his appearance, with a voice and intonation that sounded very sinister.
"Where am I and who are you?" Han Yu asked.
"Hmph." The gray-robed Taoist snorted coldly, "Master Han has exhausted all his abilities in this life. At this desperate moment, you can just pray to gods and worship ghosts. How can you wait until ghosts and gods really come to you? In front of me, you are scared and confused and still ask these unnecessary things."
Hearing this, Han Yu suddenly felt a fierceness rising from the depths of fear, and his expression also changed. Yiling: "Okay, then let me ask this great immortal how to help me."
"Help you." The gray-robed Taoist smiled, "Who said I would help you?"
"What? "Han Yu said, "Didn't you just admit that you are the ghost and god I invited?"
"Yes." The gray-robed Taoist asked, "But when I come, do I have to help you?" Can't I just want to play with you first, and then swallow the karma and karma you are carrying and have a feast?"
"You?" Han Yu felt that his blood ran cold when he heard this.
Of course, this is reality.
There are so many "exchanges of equal value" in this world. When pure malice strikes, you are the victim, and the evil party will negotiate terms with you
More Needless to say, Mr. Han brought these "things" here himself.
"Then Han doesn't need your help anymore. Please let me go back." When Han Yu said this, he wanted to run down the stairs again.
But as soon as he took a step, he felt that his foot was empty and the world was spinning.
When he came to his senses again, he found that he had been hung upside down, and the entire building was upside down.
The gray-robed Taoist priest also gradually changed at this time. In Han Yu's frightened eyes, he turned into a huge gray mouse and clung to the "ceiling".
"You've come all the way down here, why are you talking about leaving?" Although the Xuanzhu Rat turned into a demon, he could still speak human words, "Even ifYou can leave, but I won’t let the delicious meal slip away from my lips, hahaha”