"Why did you send it out so late?!"
"I'm almost on fire waiting for so long."
The monsters didn't suspect much. They were just small monsters. They were in a remote place in the village and had some wine and drinks. Besides, they were already drunk and very hungry. Now that food was served to them, they were already overjoyed.
One by one, without even doubting, they all started to take the money.
At this point, Zhou Yan had already given it his all.
On the contrary, I'm not afraid at all.
"Come on, this is yours!"
"Don't rush, don't rush, there are still a lot, yes, a lot."
Zhou Yan smiled familiarly and greeted enthusiastically the monsters he had met before. He also gave each monster a large portion of meat. Every monster was satisfied and did not even wait for their companions. They started to eat on their own, fearing that they would not eat enough.
For a moment, the only sounds here were swallowing and chewing.
A monster asked: "Brother, don't you want to eat?"
Zhou Yan replied: "If I eat it, who will cook meat for you?"
Another monster asked, "Brother, aren't you hungry?"
Zhou Yan replied: "Just watching you guys eat makes me not hungry anymore."
"There's not enough meat left. Let's go get some more."
He asked Li Zhiwei to get himself dirty, used the ash from the bottom of the pot to mess up his face, asked Li Zhiwei to follow him, and then swaggered through the house full of little monsters.
Not only did the monsters not stop them, they even wished they could get out quickly.
when--
Suddenly there was a crisp sound, and the bowl in a monster's hand fell to the ground and broke with a snap. That monster ate the most voraciously and the most, as if his appetite would never be satisfied. At this moment, he was looking at the meat paste on his hands.
The cheeks stuffed with meat twitched and the eyes bulged.
"This, this meat—"
"What kind of meat is this?!"
The blood vessels on his face suddenly twitched, his eyes turned red, and he struggled to get up, but suddenly lost his strength and fell down, crying out: "What kind of meat is this!?"
With a clang, clang, clang, as if in a chain reaction, the bowls of meat in the hands of these monsters fell to the ground, and then one by one they began to howl, and their already huge bellies became even bigger and bigger, no longer in human form.
When Zhou Yan heard the first cry, he remained calm. He just grabbed Li Zhiwei's wrist, quickened his pace, and ran out with her. Looking back, he saw the group of monsters struggling in pain, lying on the ground wailing loudly.
"This is?!"
At this time, Zhou Yan relaxed and noticed the scroll in his consciousness. The scroll had been opened to a page at the back. The entire book appeared to be jade-like and was still blank.
But Zhou Yan had already killed two monsters. The screaming soul fragments and their own spirits turned into the black gas he saw for the first time, which was absorbed by this jade book and then subdued.
After the monster was subdued, words corresponding to the monster appeared in the book.
And because the book was in his consciousness, the words actually appeared naturally in Zhou Yan's mind. He understood them in an instant without having to read them.
[If there are sentient beings who commit light evil deeds with their body, mouth, and mind, and give rise to increased greed, evil jealousy, wrong views, and attachment, and even at the end of their lives they are attached to material possessions, they will fall into the realm of hungry ghosts due to this cause and condition. ————"The Sutra on the Differentiation of Karma"]
If there are living beings who go against human ethics and eat blood and flesh, [cannibalism for a long time], they will fall into the evil path, and their eyes will be red and blazing, their stomachs will swell like jars, their throats will be as thin as pinholes, they will lose all their nature, and eventually become demons. Their bodies are hungry and thirsty, [because they ask for food from others, so they are called hungry ghosts].
The life gate is in the mind, and when it devours its own kind again, its human nature will be stimulated, and it will recall the pain and struggle when it swallowed the first bite of human flesh, causing its own consciousness to go crazy and sink into exhaustion. Therefore, hungry ghosts can coexist with each other without devouring each other.
After subduing the spirit of the monster that was killed previously.
You can see through the true nature and weaknesses of this kind of monster at a glance.
Zhou Yan shook his head, concentrating his mind at this time, and noticed that golden words were emerging and falling on the scroll.
"Suppress the remaining souls and identify the true form of the monster...?"
Zhou Yan felt the power of this book, and also felt that this jade book had not yet demonstrated its true power.
However, he also understood the situation of this group of monsters - they were monsters that had degenerated into cannibalism. Once they devoured their own kind again, they would fall into madness and powerlessness because of the violent conflict between their past and their subsequent actions.
In other words, these monsters are now in a weak and powerless state.
Zhou Yan looked at these suffering monsters.
A thought rose up in my heart and I couldn't suppress it.
He was quiet for two breaths, then suddenly laughed to himself.
He said, "I'm not afraid of shit!"
Li Zhiwei's heart was pounding. He felt that the changes in this period were really sudden. First he was caught, and then when he was about to be eaten, he was rescued. It would have been fine if he had just rescued him, but he also smashed the monster into meat paste and fed it to the monster, and then walked out swaggeringly.
This experience is really...
Then she saw the young man suddenly smile, and then -
This guy walked in again?
Li Zhiwei widened his eyes, took a step forward, grabbed Zhou Yan, and whispered hurriedly: "What are you doing?"
Zhou Yan said: "I just remembered that there is something I haven't done yet."
"What?!"
"Wait for me here. If you are really scared, you can just go forward. There is a small tree there. You can rush forward and get out. There will be no monsters here."
Li Zhiwei saw that guy walked in. The cups and plates were in a mess, and a group of monsters fell on the table, revealing their true appearance, struggling, crying, whispering, shouting, and all kinds of sounds, which were ear-splitting.
Zhou Yan, dressed in tattered clothes and wearing hemp shoes, swaggered through the group of monsters.
If anyone is blind enough to stand in the way, just kick him away.
He looked at the woman's arm and didn't say anything.
Then he came out again, carrying the oil barrel from the kitchen, and splashed the oil in all directions. The monsters collapsed on the ground, all drenched in the oil. As they walked, they kicked over the candles.
The candle flame inside was soaked in grease and suddenly began to ignite, burning the bodies of these monsters, burning their clothes, flesh, and hair, and the howling sounds became louder and louder.
Zhou Yan finally escaped.
Then he threw the oil barrel and the last bit of oil onto the roof of the house.
The places where these ordinary little monsters eat and drink are standard straw houses. The frames of the houses are made of bamboo, the walls are pasted with yellow mud mixed with straw, and the roofs are made of multiple layers of straw, thatch and sorghum stalks, all of which are flammable materials.
Zhou Yan picked up a torch and threw it up with all his strength. The torch spun and landed on the roof. With a crash, the whole house was lit up. The flames burned violently in this realm of demons and ghosts.
The monsters screamed, but because of their current state, they could not escape. They could only writhe and writhe in the fire, howling in agony. Li Zhiwei was stunned, and Zhou Yan's breathing became a little breathless. He looked at the scene in the raging fire and seemed to see the woman again.
We have only met once and haven't been together for long, so it's impossible to say how much friendship we have.
Just pity, just the initial anger.
What did that woman pay in order to stay alive and move on, what was her state of mind, what kind of mood, pain and struggle, and what kind of determination did she have?
Is being kind to strangers in dangerous situations just an inner compensation for the act of selling daughters and children? Is doing good things to comfort yourself after doing what you think is a bad thing? This behavior tells yourself that you still have humanity and kindness.
Keep yourself from breaking down.
Zhou Yan didn't know and didn't want to find out.
He could only see the tip of the iceberg. In this world, people's hearts were cunning and helpless. He couldn't control so many things, but he would be unhappy to leave like this.
It just doesn't feel good.
The raging fire burned the evil spirit. Zhou Yan took off the white cloth on his arm and thought about the lively and lovely little girl in the woman's mouth.
"I hope you are happy in the other world."
He said, then let go.
The white cloth was swept up by the heat wave and should have been burned, but it was lifted up by the heat wave and passed through the layers of flames. In the heat wave and among the group of hungry ghosts with outstretched claws, it floated to the woman's last arm.
Zhou Yan looked at the white cloth, as if he saw a little girl spreading her arms and jumping over. When the cloth landed on his arm, the arm also suddenly started to burn. He vaguely saw the figure of the woman, hugging a little girl.
Their blood-stained clothes gradually became clean in the fire amid the monsters' wailing. They seemed to be crying. The little girl stretched out her hand and beat the woman. Finally, they looked over, bowed to Zhou Yan, and slowly dispersed in the fire.
The little girl looked really well-behaved, smiling and waving her hands vigorously.
Li Zhiwei seemed to have seen this scene as well and was stunned. He then looked at the boy who was only one or two years older than him.
Zhou Yan watched this scene.
Is it a dream, an illusion, true or false?
Who knows.
I don't know, I'd rather say -
Fuck it!
Zhou Yan stretched out his hand, waved vigorously at the little girl, smiled, and said:
"Hey, thanks for the stuff!"
The fire in his heart turned into a raging flame that burned away the monster and the anger in his heart. Zhou Yan felt relieved and turned his back to the monster burning in flames.
"Let's go."
He ran without hesitation. Li Zhiwei chased after him and asked in a low voice: "What should we do? Just run? Will there be more monsters ahead?"
Zhou Yan said: "I don't know, maybe there will be a gatekeeper."
"So you shout after me."
Li Zhiwei was stunned, and then saw Zhou Yan pulling his mouth.
I heard him shouting in a panicked voice:
"——The fire is burning, come and put it out!!!"
"Put out the fire!"