chasing shadows

In a room on the second floor of the inn.

Xia Ying took out the compass, chanting a series of spells in her mouth, and then the compass pointer turned quickly.

It's just that the direction of the pointer is east for a while, then west for a while, and finally rotates simply and quickly like a circle.

Xia Ying put down the compass and realized in her heart that his black brother was indeed staying in this foggy town, and he didn't feel wrong.

This compass belonged to Uncle Liu. Uncle Liu and the puppet borrowed this compass to find the whereabouts of the "black brother". Xia Ying could sense it in her heart, but only used it occasionally to ensure that there were no mistakes in their itinerary.

Xia Ying listened to the laughter of people outside the window. In fact, he wanted to take a look. He touched the mask covering his eyes and sighed silently.

The half-section worn on Xia Ying's face is called "Wugou". I heard from Uncle Liu that when Xia Ying was three years old, it was specially worn by Uncle Liu's 90-year-old grandfather. He said that Xia Ying was born with strange eyes. , It is easy to see the femininity, and it is also easy to be entangled by the femininity. Once entangled, not only Xia Ying's own life is in danger, but also the people around Xia Ying may be in trouble again and again.

Therefore, the only way to prevent Xia Ying from seeing what she shouldn't be seeing is to wear this mask called "Wugou" that he has cursed and cast. He specially emphasized that Xia Ying must not take it off in this life.

Xia Ying doesn't remember what happened before she was ten years old, and she doesn't even know who her parents are. According to Uncle Liu and the puppet, it's because he took off the mask without authorization and was almost seduced by evil spirits. , although Xia Ying lost her memory, she was thankful for her narrow escape.

Although in the eyes of outsiders, "Wugou" completely covers Xia Ying's eyes, it has no effect on Xia Ying herself. He can still see the outside world clearly through the white mask, so he and ordinary people It's no different.

However, a year ago, Xia Ying's black brother, Xia Ying's shadow, left Xia Ying, and everything changed completely.

At the beginning, for Xia Ying, if there was no illness or disaster, it would be nothing if the shadow left.At most, in a place with light, you can't see your own shadow, which is a bit different from ordinary people.

What Xia Ying didn't expect was that since Xia Ying disappeared, some strange things would come to him from time to time.

When Xia Ying, who had no shadow for the first time, saw a little girl in red clothes following behind him, he was still surprised.

He squatted down and looked at the little girl with a round face, and asked, "Why do you keep following me?"

The little girl in red squinted her eyes and said with a grin: "I like my brother, he is so good-looking." But the curvature of her mouth seemed to be propped open with a special stick, which was weird and uncoordinated.

Although Xia Ying felt a little weird, she still smiled and said, "You're pretty too."

The girl in red grinned even wider, "Brother, do I look good like this?" As she said that, the girl in red actually pulled out one of her own eyes and handed it to Xia Ying.

Xia Ying gasped, and when she realized it, she immediately wanted to get up and run away, but her body seemed to be held tightly by someone, and she couldn't move at all.

Then the girl in red opened her mouth again, tore off her own tongue, and fresh/blood gushed out of her mouth, she said vaguely: "Brother...does I look good like this?"

Xia Ying was so frightened that her whole body trembled, and her throat seemed to be squeezed suddenly, "Uncle Liu, puppet!" He wanted to call out loudly, but the voice he shouted was like a mosquito moaning.

The girl in red was getting closer and closer to Xia Ying, her already empty eye socket began to ooze black blood, and as she kept shouting: "Brother, brother", the blood in her mouth also gushed out "puff". come out.

"Ah!!" Xia Ying could no longer bear the fear in her heart, and screamed out.

Fortunately, the puppet and Uncle Liu came in time. When they came to Xia Ying in a hurry, they found Xia Ying's face was ashen, waving her hands, and kept shouting: "Ghost! Ghost!"

Since then, a series of strange things have happened to Xia Ying.

For example, the strange old man who had a good chat with Xia Ying suddenly grabbed Xia Ying's hand tightly and asked him to help him stitch up his broken stomach, or the young man with a simple and honest smile suddenly dropped his head from his neck, and then he yelled She grabbed Xia Ying's neck and asked Xia Ying to fix his head, and the shy and beautiful girl took out a piece of human skin and asked Xia Ying to choose which one was the most delicate.

Xia Ying remembered the game he played with several children when he was 11 years old. They stepped on each other's shadows. As long as they stepped on one shadow, that person became a "ghost", and as a "ghost" stepped on the shadows of other children, so As a result, as long as a "ghost" steps on a shadow, that person also becomes a "ghost".

One of the children stomped his feet because someone stepped on the shadow and said, "I hate shadows the most. It would be great if I didn't have shadows!"

At this time, the grandfather who had been looking at them laughing and laughing, that is, Uncle Liu's grandfather, suddenly said: "It is impossible to lose the shadow. Once there is no shadow, it is not a person. A shadow is a thing that separates the underworld from the underworld. If you lose your shadow, filthy things will entangle you, and life would be worse than death."

He turned to look at Xia Ying, touched Xia Ying's head, and said gently: "Little boy, don't lose your shadow. If you are really careless and lose your shadow someday, this rope is the Luo Ying rope. Now I put it on It is given to you, and you can use this rope to tie up your naughty shadow, so that it will not run around." Then, the old man tied a long red rope around Xia Ying's wrist.

Thinking about it now, it seems that everything is in the old man's expectation.

It's a pity that the old man passed away five years ago, Xia Ying has lost his shadow now, and no one can tell him what to do.

Fortunately, the last four generations of Uncle Liu's family have been Taoist priests who have eliminated ghosts and divination. Although his family has completely declined, they have left behind a lot of books on spells, formations and other spells.

Xia Ying found one of the "Dirty Art Records", which contained the recorded methods, roughly meaning:

Applying cinnabar mixed with his own blood on the half of his "Wugou" mask that covers the genitals can play a role in isolation.

To a certain extent, it prevented many evil spirits from looking for Xia Ying, even if some evil spirits with deep grievances could not completely isolate them.

In Xia Ying's eyes, at least they were already blurred and unclear shadows, not as bloody and clear as before.

More importantly, there are not many evil spirits with deep resentment. At least since Xia Ying's mask was painted with cinnabar and dyed red, she has never seen anything strange.

But at the same time, Xia Ying's eyes were really covered by this half mask, and she couldn't see the people or things around her in reality, like a blind person.

He can't live like this forever.

So this alone is far from enough, they searched and read many books again, and found the method in a yellowed little book "Yin Sha Ji".

In layman's terms: Find Xia Ying's shadow, use Luo Ying's red rope to bind the shadow, and let the shadow and body become one.

As for how to integrate the shadow with the body, they haven't found a way yet, but the top priority is to find Xia Ying's shadow.

Now Xia Ying and the three of them are chasing Xia Ying's black brother, Shadow, for thousands of miles, and at the same time doing fortune-telling and divination to make some money.

Brother Hei has a wide range of interests and excellent physical strength. He took Xia Ying and the three of them through many places along the way. .

Xia Ying withdrew her thoughts, leaned on a bamboo stick, came to the bed, and lay down with her clothes on. She was really tired from running around all the way.

It's just that Xia Ying had just fallen into a deep sleep when suddenly a cry of "AH!!!!!!" rang out.

The heart-piercing cry woke Xia Ying up from her drowsiness. He sat up from the bed, and a layer of chills suddenly surged from his feet to his whole body. He could vaguely see the scene around him: the fiery red light was shining Spreading around, slowly crawling towards Xia Ying like a snake.

Since "Wugou" was stained with cinnabar mixed with blood, it shows that Xia Ying can't see things in the real world. If he sees something else, it must not be some yang/thing, more precisely, it must be something Yin ghost obsessed.

Xia Ying knew that she was being entangled by evil things again, so she forced herself to calm down and recited the meditation mantra in her heart.

Xia Ying slowly touched her chest with one hand, preparing to use a spell as a protection.

Xia Ying was completely a monk on the way. The so-called little spells were learned by Xia Ying from a few yellowed spells and other books that Uncle Liu dug out from the foot of the bed.

Not to mention that there are a lot of typos in these books, and the sentences in the explanations are even more incoherent. Eight out of ten sentences are wrong sentences. According to Uncle Liu's explanation, it is because their Liu family has been living for generations. They are not materials for reading, and it is already very good to be able to compile a few books.

Xia Ying also learned to use spells to suppress the undead without hesitation, but it was only superficial. Once she encountered a ghost with a lot of evil spirit and deep resentment, Xia Ying could only silently pray that they didn't notice him.

Seeing that the blurred red light was getting closer and closer, she rushed towards Xia Ying with roiling heat. Xia Ying stretched out her hand forward, as if she had been bitten, and suddenly retracted. It was fire. It turned out that these red lights were Burning fire.

Xia Ying deceived herself and said: This is all an illusion, don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

But my heart is beating drums. Ever since the mask was painted with cinnabar, the scenes created by the ghosts are almost blurred. In Xia Ying's eyes, some are dots, some are a line, and it is basically impossible to present a complete picture. The shape and color are either transparent or dark, but there is no other color, and of course no temperature can be felt.

At this time, Xia Ying could not only see the red light clearly, but even feel the burning heat. Xia Ying knew that this thing was not simple.

"Ah!!!!" The screams sounded again, suddenly male and sometimes female, the voice was extremely shrill, and immediately before Xia Ying's eyes, a black shadow with fangs and claws leaped, its body was surrounded by scorching fire, and it rushed towards Xia Ying Waving his limbs, he screamed continuously, as if he was calling for help or screaming.

No matter how much Xia Ying recited the calming mantra, she couldn't calm down anymore. He stepped back a few steps and was about to take out the spell on his chest, but just as his right hand was about to stick out of his chest, the gnawing heat immediately flowed like a converging river. They all rushed towards Xia Ying.

Xia Ying's outstretched hand was also tightly grasped by that thing, unable to move, her wrist was burning unspeakably, "Zi Zi." The burning sound seemed to burn from her wrist to her whole body, and Xia Ying could even clearly hear it I can feel my flesh melting and falling off little by little while being burned.

Are you going to die?Are you going to be burned like this?Why no one came to save me?

The despair of going deep into the bottom of the sea made Xia Ying unable to breathe, he could only keep opening his mouth, like a drowning man longing for a little air outside, save me, save me...

"Go away!" Xia Ying pulled out a yellow charm from her arms violently, and stuck it on that thing's body.

"Ah!!!" The scream seemed to shatter Xia Ying's eardrums, and just when Xia Ying thought she was about to be swallowed up by the increasingly scorching flames, the thing suddenly made a weak voice, "Help. Help..." Immediately afterwards, the confinement in his hand disappeared, and the heat around him disappeared in an instant.

The blurry thing instantly turned into a small black spot, and then disappeared, and Xia Ying's eyes were once again in darkness.

At this time, the puppet and Uncle Liu who heard the sound also rushed to Xia Ying's room.

"Firefly, what's wrong with you?"

"Master, did you encounter something again?"

When Uncle Liu and the puppet arrived in a hurry, they found Xia Ying sitting on the ground beside the bed, clutching her right wrist, lowering her head, panting continuously.

Uncle Liu got anxious and quickly squatted down, raised his orchid finger and pushed Xia Ying's shoulder, and said nervously: "Master, don't scare Uncle Liu, what's wrong with you, tell me something."

The author has something to say: what went wrong?why lock