Chapter 84: Nearby
Following the road along the river to the outskirts, they came to a fork in the road in front of a mountain. Old Qiutou could no longer sense the talisman bird he had released with his secret technique. Whether the talisman bird was destroyed by the evil ghost or obscured by the nearby foul air, Old Qiutou immediately sat up straight and was ready for battle. The main event was finally about to begin, and even this elderly man was a little excited. Exorcising ghosts was not important. What made him happiest was being able to exorcise ghosts with Tan Xuan. He would have something to brag about when drinking with others in the future.
Tan Xuan bit his lip, also with an expression of excitement that he could not suppress. He had been busy for almost the entire night and now he finally saw the light of day. As long as he got rid of this nest of ghosts, Jiang Yingyue would be safe.
"Old Qiu, it's up to you. Help me find the place." Tan Xuan said excitedly.
"Well, don't worry."
Old Qiu agreed, pushed open the car door and got out under Xiao Di's puzzled gaze.
Old Qiu walked to the front of the car, took off his sunglasses and looked at the fork in the road with the help of the car's high beam. One road was flat and wide, along the river. The other road was narrow and steep, heading into the mountains. It was dark at this time, and the specific road conditions were unclear. The parking location was very remote, and there was not even a passing car nearby long these two roads were and where they led.
Old Qiu walked a few steps forward along each road, picked up the dirt on the roadside and smelled it, looked at the phosphorescent river surface under the moonlight and the hillside covered with trees, and then quickly returned to the car.
After sitting back in the car, Old Qiu didn't say anything. He picked up the talisman paper that he had been pressing on the bottom of the compass, then plucked a gray beard from his chin and placed it on the talisman paper. Then he twisted it with his fingers, and the talisman paper burned directly at his fingertips.
"ah!"
Xiao Di screamed in fear. She was not surprised by Old Qiu's operation, but she didn't understand why Old Qiu played with open flames in such a small confined space. Was he so angry that he wanted to burn himself? This was no joke. The smell of burning paper and burning hair filled the car in an instant, choking her and covering her nose quickly, and pressing the window switch.
"Don't open the window."
As soon as Xiao Di's finger touched the window lift switch, he was stopped coldly by Tan Xuan beside him.
"Don't move. He is using secret techniques. Opening the window will affect him."
Seeing Tan Xuan's serious look, Xiao Di did not dare to continue, quietly retracted her hand, and looked back again. At the same time, she secretly decided that if the fire could not be controlled, she would push open the car door and jump out of the car as quickly as possible. Regardless of whether this secret technique would succeed or not, the key was to ensure her own safety first.
Old Qiu seemed unaware of their conversation. He just stared at the inactive flame in his hand. After the flame completely engulfed the talisman paper, he picked up the compass and placed the burning talisman paper on the compass, and it landed very accurately at the intersection of the two red longitude and latitude lines.
"ah!"
Xiao Di was about to scream when she quickly covered her mouth. She knew that this was what Old Qiu was doing, but this method was a little too unique, and she always felt unsafe. Especially when the two red lines on the compass were burned by the fire, she looked at Tan Xuan and quietly put her hand on the door handle. Now that the car was not driving, jumping out was the safest option.
Unfortunately, before Xiao Di could complete the complete action of pushing the door and jumping out of the car, the light inside the car dimmed and the fire on the compass went out instantly. Only a section of the two red lines was burnt black, and there was no actual fire.
Xiao Di secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time secretly retracted her hand. She glanced at Tan Xuan guiltily with the corner of her eye. Regardless of whether the smell in the car was bad or not, she secretly breathed hard, proving with practical actions that she was also sharing the joys and sorrows with them.
Old Qiu picked up the compass and observed the disk carefully in the light of the reading light in the car. A strange light flashed in his black and gray eyes. After looking for a while, he took out the Lu Ban ruler and carefully measured the length of the longitude and latitude lines that were burned by the fire. At the same time, he kept calculating with his fingers and muttered softly.
Xiao Di nudged Tan Xuan, signaled with his eyes, and asked quietly: "He..."
Some words might cause dissatisfaction if spoken out, so Xiao Di hesitated for a while and didn't dare to ask.
"He is calculating the location in his own way, you don't have to worry about him. Just wait, this is a difficult job." Tan Xuan knew what Xiao Di was going to ask, and answered her directly and simply. After that, Tan Xuan opened the car door and got out of the car. Standing next to the car, he took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
Seeing Xiao Di sitting in the car without moving, and twisting his neck to look at Old Qiu who was counting on his fingers to calculate the direction, Tan Xuan couldn't help laughing, "Hey, you almost pushed the door and ran away just now, why are you still sitting in the car without moving? What's the matter, do you want to help me get rid of the smoke in the car?"
"What's it to you?" Xiao Di didn't expect that none of her little actions escaped Tan Xuan's eyes. She was dissatisfied and gave Tan Xuan a fierce expression, secretly cursing Tan Xuan for being a dog. She said toughly and pretended not to care at all, but Xiao Di still got out of the car very quickly, pretending to stretch her body to relax her stiff body. But she didn't walk to Tan Xuan, but stood on the other side of the car, secretly looking at Tan Xuan who was staring at the water. Gradually, she became as fascinated as the person in her eyes.
Tan Xuan didn't look at Xiao Di, nor did he notice the change in her eyes. He just lit a cigarette and stood by the car for a while, until the ashes fell to the ground and the cigarette was burned to the butt. He felt it was too hot and threw away the butt without taking a good puff.
"Puchi..." Xiao Di laughed out loud, cursed softly "You deserve it", and turned his head to the side before Tan Xuan turned his head. The mountain under the moonlight was very dark, like a lurking monster, looking a little scary.
"Mr. Tan, Mr. Tan, I figured it out..."
Old Qiu got out of the car and ran to Tan Xuan, holding a compass in one hand and a Lu Ban ruler in the other, his face full of smiles and looking very excited.
Tan Xuan was overjoyed when he heard this. He put his hands on Old Qiu's shoulders and asked happily, "So soon, where are you?"
"It's five kilometers ahead. I'll show you."
"Okay, let's get in the car first."
Tan Xuan was a man of swift action. Now that he knew the location, he could not wait any longer. He got back into the car and rushed to the lair of the evil ghost. Tan Xuan was fast, but there were people who were even faster than him. When he got into the car, Xiao Di had already fastened his seat belt. Only Old Qiu, who was old, was a little slow and delayed him.
"Mr. Tan, take the road on the left, it's going this way." After getting in the car, Old Qiu began to give instructions. Tan Xuan stepped on the accelerator and the car sped away. There were no street lights on this road, and there were no cameras to take pictures of traffic violations. Tan Xuan drove all the way without caring about speeding.
"parking!"
After quickly passing several intersections, Old Qiu suddenly called out to Tan Xuan at a place where there were no intersections.
Old Qiu looked at it with the compass, opened the door and got out of the car. He checked the direction with the compass again, pointed to the hillside beside the road and said, "It's over here. It went this way."
"let's go."
Tan Xuan pushed open the car door and got out, left the car on the side of the road, crossed the drainage ditch on the side of the road and followed Old Qiu up the hillside.
"Wait for me." Xiao Di hurriedly got out of the car and followed. She ran a few steps to catch up with Tan Xuan. She was very annoyed looking at Tan Xuan's back, but unfortunately Tan Xuan didn't even look back at her.
The hillside doesn't look high, but it's not that easy to climb, especially after the first section of the hill. Old Qiu is obviously a good climber. He was clumsy just now, but now he walks briskly, as if he is at home, as if this steep hillside is like flat ground. Tan Xuan is also flexible and walks easily. Only Xiao Di is the most pitiful. Her body, which she has trained in the gym every day, is obviously not adapted to this purely natural "equipment". The first few steps are quite easy, but the higher she goes, the heavier her steps become. Although there are no bushes or the like blocking the way on the hillside, there are only some weeds, but the weeds are not low. The ground covered by the weeds is uneven, and it is very difficult to walk with one foot deep and one foot shallow. In addition, some of the grass lying on the ground is very slippery, and you will get into trouble if you are not careful.
Fortunately, the slope was not too high, and Xiao Di finally climbed up with the help of Tan Xuan. However, when he reached the top of the slope, Xiao Di was dumbfounded again. He saw that Old Qiutou fiddled with the compass and then went down the slope from another direction. He really climbed over one slope after another, and the side facing the sun was covered with grass and shrubs, which was more difficult to walk than before. Moreover, Old Qiutou, who was walking in front, had no intention of stopping to wait for them. This made Xiao Di suffer, and even more so Tan Xuan who was supporting Xiao Di. What is a burden? It means being tired and heavy. Xiao Di wanted to lie completely on Tan Xuan.
Old Qiutou finally stopped walking and stopped in a valley. He said to Tan Xuan with a puzzled , "Mr. Tan, I can only infer that the Fu Bird disappeared near here, but the surroundings are ordinary and there is no place with a strong evil aura."
Tan Xuan stood on a high place and looked around. The moonlight was not very bright, but it was enough for him to see the situation nearby clearly. There were mountains on both sides and ravines and bumps nearby. It was indeed unremarkable. Even he, who was good at observing the aura, did not find anything unusual here.
"Are you sure that the last breath of your talisman bird appeared nearby?" Tan Xuan asked with a frown.
"I'm sure." Old Qiu nodded and said confidently, "I can guarantee that the place where Fu Niao was is no more than 20 meters away from where I am standing now."
Tan Xuan returned to Old Qiutou, looked around again, and said, "Since we are nearby, there must be something fishy here. Let's split up and look for it first."
"Yeah." Old Qiu nodded, picked up the Luban ruler in his hand and used it as a walking stick, pushing aside the weeds to check if there was any special place nearby. There were as many stones as grass in the valley, and he didn't know where the invisible things were hidden, so he could only look for them bit by bit.
"Xiao Di, follow me." Tan Xuan greeted Xiao Di. He didn't know where the evil ghost would come out from in a while, and it should be no problem for Old Qiu to self-destruct. What Tan Xuan was most worried about now was Xiao Di's safety.
"Oh." Xiao Di, who was sitting on a big rock and rubbing his feet, agreed, put on his shoes, stood up, and jumped off the rock after stretching for a while.
"ah!"
Xiao Di screamed after landing. The weeds on the ground were slippery with dew, and she almost stumbled. Fortunately, she held onto a stone nearby, so she didn't fall too badly. But when she was about to stand up with her hand on the stone, her feet went weak again.
“Crash…”
With the sound of sliding soil falling, a downward sloping hole suddenly appeared on the small slope under Xiao Di's feet. Then Xiao Di fell and slid directly down from the hole, leaving him no chance to dodge.
"ah……"
In panic, Xiao Di disappeared with just a scream.
"Xiao Di!"
Hearing the cry, it was too late for Tan Xuan to go to Xiao Di. He watched Xiao Di being swallowed by the cave in front of him. Tan Xuan had no time to avoid it, so he rushed to the cave entrance and jumped in.
