Let’s talk about the sword furnace used for making swords during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In fact, it should be called the sword room. The palace is divided into three rooms, and has two floors, inside and outside. The outside is surrounded by refractory kiln bricks. The inside is just like a private house, with the same copper beams. The stone pillar contains an inner furnace for forging with fire. On that day, fire comes out of the furnace, and energy gathers in the earth furnace. There must be a living person in the human furnace who sacrifices his life to the sword. In this furnace, a swordsman hanged himself to death. A ray of hero's soul was absorbed into the sword energy, leaving an empty body hanging for a thousand years.
Zhang Xiaopian'er didn't know these reasons. He bumped into a hanged man on a swing in the sword furnace. He was really frightened by the boss and immediately wanted to shrink away and run away. However, the light from the fire tube in his hand flashed and he caught a glimpse of the hanging man's body. Yi Guiling Jing also showed a man covered in blood. Zhang Xiaobian'er had sharp eyes, and he saw a familiar face at first sight. It was none other than the old servant of Shopkeeper Tie of Songhe Hall – Lao Jun Tie Zhong.
Zhang Xiaobian'er rolled his eyes twice and thought to himself: "Since we stayed in Huaiyuan that night, shopkeeper Tie and Tie Zhong have been missing. No one has been seen alive or dead, and no body has been seen dead. I didn't expect that old man Tie Zhong was here. This is strange. Well, this man is a simple and kind person. How can I, Third Master, sit on the sidelines and watch?" He hesitated for a moment, then ducked through the furnace mouth again, entered the furnace and clasped his fists at the hanged ghost: "Yin and Yang are separated. We don’t interfere with each other, we are like water in a well and don’t interfere with the water in the river.”
Then Zhang Xiaopian'er came close to the old man Tiezhong, stretched out his hand to explore the pit of his heart, and found that it was still hot, but his whole body was bloody and badly injured, he also had a high fever, and his lips were chapped. It’s like the oil lamp has run out in the middle of the night.” It seems that he will not live long.
Zhang Xiaopian'er opened the teeth of the old man Tiezhong and gave him a few sips of water from a gourd he had brought with him. The iron-loyal old man drank the cold water, and after sighing, he regained his breath, and his mind gradually became clearer, just like "a cold valley encounters a warm spring, and the dead ashes are revived." But as soon as he opened his eyes in a daze, When I saw the cat mask on Zhang Xiaobian'er's head, I thought the civet cat in the mountains had become a spirit, and I almost died of fright on the spot.
Zhang Xiaowei'er quickly pushed the mask to his head and asked him how he ended up in such a situation. Old Man Tiezhong was very surprised when he saw that it was Zhang Xiaobian'er, but he was no longer frightened. Taking advantage of the light to return to his senses, he braced himself up and told him how he came to Huang Burial Ridge to transport the corpse.
It turned out that Zhang Xiaobian'er and Sun Mazi had just entered Lingzhou that day and brought the female body transported from Wengzhong Mountain to Songhetang Pharmacy in exchange for the black cat kept by shopkeeper Tie in his backyard. The iron shopkeeper was a good person and never engaged in loss-making business. He recognized the zombie as a beauty bowl from the previous dynasty. Because he died unjustly during his lifetime, his body remained unchanged. It was a rarity that was hard to find on the black market.
In recent years, many demons who practice animal-making evil arts have appeared in Jiangnan. They have taken advantage of natural and man-made disasters to do many unforgivable deeds. This group of people cut off the organs of dead people everywhere, and put the male masculine and female yin together into a pair, which can be used as bait. As the magic becomes more and more practiced, zombies and live-born children will eventually be needed. All the dead corpses that have been wronged and immortalized, as well as the children brought by theft, the fetus in the mother's belly, and even the placenta after birth are all this. What everyone desperately needs.
Since ancient times, wars and famines have been intertwined. Once a war is over, the land will be red for thousands of miles, and there will be no grain harvest. Countless people have died in wars and famines, and new deaths are everywhere. But ancient corpses and boy fetuses from hundreds of years ago are very rare, so some people secretly dig up, steal and abduct them, and then resell them to animal makers to make huge profits. In those days when the poor were laughed at but not the prostitutes, what was the point of earning such conscience-breaking money.
Although the Iron Rooster has a big family and a big business, he is stingy and mean by nature and has an insatiable desire for money. He is also in the medicine business, and he is familiar with the ins and outs of various docks. He knows some thieves who dig graves, so he privately started a business of purchasing zombie meat. Whenever licensed goods are obtained, he will personally Take them out of town and sell them.
These activities were done secretly, and even the close relatives and trusted people in Tie Gongji's family were not aware of it. It was just that he was weak and could not do it alone, so he had to bring his old slave Tie Zhong with him every time. .
Old Man Tiezhong didn't know exactly what the Ghost Spirit Sutra was at first, but after going back and forth for a long time, he couldn't help but see some clues. He is a simple and loyal person, but how dare he do such a thing that was struck by lightning? He even persuaded his master to stop to avoid getting into trouble. Our drug store has such a big business, why should we be afraid of doing such a dirty business?
But the iron rooster has the smallest eyes, and can only recognize the word "profit". Although he has made a huge fortune, he values a penny more than his life. In addition to making money, he will do anything to make money, and he is also extremely mean and stingy to his own family. As soon as he opened his eyes in bed every morning, he would burst into tears and hate himself. He felt that the evil in his chest was hard to calm down. What did he hate? I just hate that the sun, moon and stars are going back and forth in the sky. I had eaten yesterday, but I woke up today and have to eat again. I can save any money, but I have to eat two meals a day.
At that time, rich people and stingy businessmen had their own ways to save money. I won’t mention anything else. Just say that Iron Gongji’s family is rich in gold and silver, but he has two meals a day, morning and evening, and he can’t bear to eat pickles. He only buys one fish every year and marinates the fish with heavy salt for half a month until it is salted. People, dead and alive, even the greedy old cat didn't dare to eat it secretly, so they hung the salted fish on the top of the dining table.
When it's time to eat, every time the whole family takes a mouthful of brown rice, they will look up and glance at the salted fish. Just one look at it will immediately make them salty to the pit of their stomachs, and then they will quickly take two bites of rice into their mouths. This will save them money on food throughout the year. Got off. It wasn't until the night of New Year's Eve that the salted fish that had been hanging for a whole year was picked off, the salt was removed with water, and the whole family, old and young, ate it. On the morning of New Year's Day, everyone coughed as if they were going to "change" "Yanbahu"①.
This incident is not uncommon in the old society, because these misers know that money is not easy to come by, and every rich man has deliberately tried every possible means to get it. Therefore, except for the nouveau riche, most wealthy households are extremely stingy and do not take advantage of money. The word money is taken too seriously. Most of them believe that money is the most spiritual thing. Only when they cherish it thoroughly can money follow them willingly. If you don't take the money seriously and pass it from hand to hand, you will definitely offend the God of Wealth. How can you send money to him again? Therefore, no matter whether you are stingy or not rich, as long as you are stingy, you will definitely be rich.
People like Tie Gongji are stingy people who love money as much as their lives. They spend all day calculating how to make ends meet, but they live up to the old saying, "You are destined to make money but not to enjoy it." My old father cut it up and sold it without any reluctance. How could he take the words of his servant Tie Zhong to heart?
Ancestor Tie Zhong has been a servant for generations. In the past, he never dared to say no to the things ordered by his master. He persuaded Tie Gongji twice to no avail, and he was so worried that he couldn't sleep all night long. When he was at a loss, the shopkeeper asked him to work at night again, so he had to go ahead. The two peeled off the beauty bowl in the secret room, took the broken bones to the furnace and burned them. They put only the skin, flesh, and the head of the female corpse into a leather bag, and escaped from the drug store over the wall while no one was aware. Tie Gongji had previously bribed a group of tuan yong who were patrolling the city with a few counterfeit medicines, opened the water gate of Lingzhou City and slipped out, and together they rushed to the Desolate Burial Ridge at Yuebei Feng High School.
Iron Rooster was not familiar with the roads here, but he also knew that the valley was full of wild dogs and did not dare to go in rashly. He took a white lantern and put it in his hand. After waiting for a long time in front of the mountain, he saw an old bald-tailed man coming out of the valley. dog. This dog seemed to be a "line guy" leading the way. He looked at the two people in front of the mountain, then turned around and walked in with his head and tail wagging.
Tie Gong quickly asked Tie Zhong to carry the skin bag full of corpses, and followed the bald-tailed dog into the valley, going deeper and deeper, and finally came to a cave. He saw a pug with white hair lying on the ground guarding a mouthful of money. The box is full of gold bars and silver ingots, including not only the silver from our country, but also a lot of "gold and foreign money" that can only be found overseas.
This was the first time Shopkeeper Tie came to do business in Desolate Burial Ridge. The broker said that "Master Bai" wanted to see the goods. He also said that he was doing business with someone as before, but there was not a single person in the valley. Could it be that he was doing business with someone in the past? Is this dog Mr. Bai? Iron Rooster thought to himself, I don't care whether you are a human or a dog, as long as you have money, you are a man, so he opened the skin bag in front of the white-haired pug, took out Beauty Bowl's head and placed it on the ground.
The white-haired pug came closer and took a few sniffs, then used its paws to pull two gold bars out of the box. The Iron Rooster bowed repeatedly: "Thank you, Mr. Bai, for the reward." Then he took two steps to pick up the gold bar and put it in his arms.
Old man Tiezhong has never seen such a weird situation in his life. It is really weird. How could such a thing happen in the world! I couldn't help but worry that I had encountered a monster in the mountains. I hurriedly tugged on Shopkeeper Tie's sleeves and persuaded him to take the money and go back quickly. Who would have thought that Iron Rooster would get angry when he saw money? Besides, there was no one in the mountains except for a white-haired pug looking at a large box of gold and silver, especially the gold and silver coins. After tossing and turning inside a few times, he came up and couldn't hold it back any longer, so he deliberately took the money box as his own.
Iron Rooster had just picked up a stone in his hand, and wanted to go around behind and kill the white dog, but suddenly a giant dog jumped down from the mountain, as big as a donkey, with blood spots on its back, wrapped in a gust of cold wind. will come down. It dropped the iron rooster to the ground, just like "an evil tiger comes out of the forest to eat a lamb, or a soap eagle chases a purple swallow in the air." The iron rooster didn't even bother to struggle, and in the blink of an eye it took out a bloody human heart from its chest.
Poor Tie Gong xx has been scrupulous and frugal all his life, worried and toiled, and tried his best to be scheming, but in the end he ended up like this. I really don't know that he "lost his life in the end, who is the sweetener of all the hard work"? The old man Tie Zhong looked on dumbfounded. He had seen this giant dog with his own eyes many times at the execution ground of death row prisoners in the city. He was called a divine mastiff by the people. He was panicking and just wanted to escape. Unexpectedly, He stepped on the air and somersaulted into the Sword Hearth Stone Room.
Tie Zhong fell down and broke his leg. His body was scratched by stones and he was bleeding. By luck, he got into the sword furnace and blocked the narrow furnace mouth, so he was able to survive. When he went to look for the night, he would bring some dry food and water with him to sustain himself. He could barely survive until now, but it was difficult to move even an inch and his life was almost in ruins. He knew in his heart that he would not live much longer. Before he kicked his legs and closed his eyes, he had no other thoughts. He only begged Zhang Xiaopian'er for the sake of convenience and to bring a message back to Shopkeeper Tie's family so that they could know whether the shopkeeper was alive or not. Even the corpses were eaten clean by the dogs. Please quickly ask the monks and masters to build a water and land dojo to save the souls of the dead, and buy a tomb to avoid leaving the host's family as a lonely ghost.
The eyes of the old man Tiezhong gradually became blurry. By the time he finished explaining intermittently, he was so angry that he finally couldn't turn around in one breath and wailed in front of Zhang Xiaobian'er.
Zhang Xiaowei'er was secretly shocked. He didn't expect that the Tie shopkeeper of Songhetang Pharmacy would actually collude with the evil people who make livestock. In addition, the old ghost in the forest didn't tell him about the white-haired pug guarding the money box in the Burial Ridge. , then is it possible to capture and kill the Mastiff? After thinking wildly in his mind for a while, he bowed twice to Tie Zhong's body: "Tie Laojun, if you have a soul in heaven, you must protect Mr. Zhang from returning safely, otherwise you and Shopkeeper Tie will settle your injustice and die. I don’t understand.”
At this moment, I suddenly heard a large group of wild dogs barking in the valley. The sound came from far away and came closer very quickly. Zhang Xiaobian'er knew something was wrong, so he hurriedly blew out the fire tube, climbed along the wall of the sword furnace to the height of the stone house, and took a peek at the movement in the mountains under the moonlight. I saw that group of wild dogs in the deserted ridge. I don't know which tomb they pulled out of a litter of foxes. They were three large and one small. One of them, an old fox, held a little fox in his mouth and was about to die. Running wildly for their lives. It is said that among all things in the world, except for humans, foxes are the most intelligent, so they are called fox monsters. Even alert and fast hounds cannot catch them easily. Who knows that they will be chased to death by wild dogs? , and fled straight to the dead end in the valley of Huangzianling.
It's exactly this: "The telling of his deeds shocks the world, and the revelation of his whereabouts shocks the past and present." If you want to know what happened next, listen to the next chapter of "The Beast in the Golden Coffin".