The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 26 Another

Li Miao used his Qinggong skills to chase after the man in night clothes.

He already knew what was going on from what he had heard from the servants in the tavern during the day.

There are no ghosts or gods in this world.

If dying miserably and with hatred could turn one into a ghost, the Jinyiwei Prison would have become the underworld long ago.

In all the years he had served in the Jinyiwei, he had only seen the jailers gradually become fatter, the people who tortured people were promoted step by step, but he had never seen anyone die at the hands of the devil.

In this world, the only thing that can do this is the poisonous insect from Miaojiang.

The art of witchcraft has a long history and was recorded as early as the Warring States Period. Later, it frequently appeared in power struggles and was regarded as a major threat by emperors of all dynasties.

After all, elite soldiers and generals can block swords, but they cannot protect against curses and poisons.

This thing has been confiscated many times in successive dynasties. The "Continued Zizhi Tongjian" records that in the second year of Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty, "326 families of people who kept Gu in various counties of Yongzhou were moved to remote areas of the county and were not allowed to return to the village." Now it is rarely seen in the Central Plains, and is only passed down in a few villages in Miaojiang.

If this thing appears in the territory of Dashuo, as long as it is reported, the Jinyiwei will come within half a month.

I didn't expect to meet one in this Qi and Lu area.

Generally, people who raise poisonous insects know that they cannot be exposed to the light, so they buy some livestock in secret and feed them with their flesh and blood.

Humans are the most intelligent creatures in the world, so using humans to sacrifice the poisonous insects would certainly be more effective. But after all, human life is at stake, and if someone reports it to the authorities, it will inevitably lead to death.

This is also the reason why Li Miao said to Wang Hai, "Who knows who raised it here, but it died outside and we didn't have time to take it away."

Within a few days, the old guard, the coroner, and the master killed three people and a bunch of livestock. The whole Pingshanwei knew about it. It was simply unscrupulous.

Moreover, eating flesh and blood continuously like this will indeed make the insect grow rapidly, but it will also stimulate its ferocity, making it difficult for the person who raises it to control it.

If a poisonous insect with an owner did this, it could only mean that the owner was tired of living. Either he wanted to be eaten alive by the vicious poisonous insect, or he wanted to use the torture instruments in the Jinyiwei prison.

He had seen a man who raised Gu once before. According to the Miao people, that man was also a "great witch".

It was he who rescued Xiao Si from that man.

At that time, he killed the witch and the poisonous insects on his body with one palm, and planned to call it a day. However, he accidentally glanced inside the house and found a hidden dark room.

He entered the dark room and saw more than a dozen large vats placed side by side. Each vat had a lid with a hole in the lid. More than a dozen children's heads poked out of the hole.

Some of the children had already died, their bodies were dry, their eye sockets were sunken, their heads were tilted on the lids, and all kinds of insects were crawling out of their seven orifices.

Some of the children were still alive, but their eyes were lifeless and saliva was flowing from their mouths and noses. They had been tortured to the point of losing their minds and had become breathing corpses.

Only a little girl saw the light, forced her dry lips open and shouted.

"help me……"

This little girl is Xiao Si.

Later, Li Miao checked the notes found in the witch's residence and found out that he was using children to make "human Gu".

There are many ways to make poisonous insects. The most common one is to keep poisonous insects in a sealed container, deprive them of food, and let them kill each other. The only ones that survive are the poisonous insects.

However, in the concept of those who practice witchcraft, humans are the spirits of all things, and Gu is the true essence of heaven and earth. Using humans as sacrifices to refine Gu worms will have the best effect, so the great witch took a different approach: if humans were refined into Gu, wouldn’t it be the most powerful Gu worm in the world?
All we can say is that, although the great witch had no humanity, he was indeed a figure who could establish a school of witchcraft.

His crazy idea worked.

Xiao Si is the only "human Gu" that he has successfully refined.

But he didn't get to see it and was killed by Li Miao's palm. It was a good thing for him that he died so quickly.

This is Xiaosi’s life experience, and also the reason why Li Miao took her out of Beijing.

Firstly, although Xiao Si doesn't know martial arts, she can still protect herself if she really faces an ordinary martial arts master. If she unexpectedly meets an unskilled person, even a top martial arts master might fall into her hands.

Secondly, Xiao Si was just one step away from becoming a real "human Gu" when he was rescued by Li Miao. The Gu poison in his body is not stable, and Li Miao needs to use his true Qi to drain it every half a month to keep him alive. No matter how good your martial arts skills are, you can't draw a circle on the ground to protect people. Besides, it's easy to block an open spear, but it's hard to guard against an arrow from behind. Li Miao won't be so arrogant as to really take a powerless girl with him to travel the world.

Back to the present, after Li Miao went to the courtyard to check, he was sure that it was a witchcraft incident. Wang Hai's martial arts were just suitable for dealing with the witches, and with Xiao Si around, there was no need to worry about any accidents.

Li Miao ignored the poisonous insect and stayed on the highest roof of the Wu Mansion, waiting for the person dressed as a ghost to appear.

Once he figured out the man's location, he took action to cut off the mechanism that controlled the "ghost".

After checking the mechanism and satisfying his curiosity, he started chasing the man.

Although he was not good at light Kung Fu, his level was high enough after all. At this moment, he used light Kung Fu like an arrow shot from a bow, leaving a vague figure on the roof.

The distance between him and the person who was escaping was constantly narrowing.

The man in front had very advanced martial arts skills and did not look like an ordinary thief. Even with Li Miao's speed, it took him a while to catch up.

But the more he looked at the man's light Kung Fu skills, the more familiar they seemed, as if he had seen someone use them before.

Li Miao frowned: "What a coincidence? Another one?"

"How many disciples did he teach before he died when he let him escape?"

Seeing that the distance between the two men was enough for him to attack, Li Miao picked up a piece of broken tile from the roof, crushed it in his hand, and threw it with all his strength, splashing it around the man.

He thought that judging from the man in front of him's lightness skills, his martial arts must be quite good, and these broken tiles could not hurt him.

But as long as he tried to stop him and paused for a moment, Li Miao would be able to reach him.

"what!!"

But the broken tiles hit the man hard, and he screamed and fell onto the roof of a house.

When he stood up and tried to escape again, Li Miao was already standing in front of him.

Li Miao looked the man up and down and asked curiously, "How did you practice martial arts?"

"You only have internal strength and light skills. You don't even have any strength in your arms. You don't even know when a hidden weapon is in front of you. You don't learn fighting skills or ear skills."

"No wonder you can only pretend to be a ghost to scare people. It would be a disaster for you if you met a good dog."

When the man saw Li Miao suddenly standing in front of him, he fell to his knees without any hesitation.

He took out the silver stolen from the Wu Mansion from his bag with both hands and raised it above his head respectfully.

"Senior! Spare my life!"

Li Miao was stunned by his overly sensible behavior.

He had seen soft bones, but this was the first time he had seen one as soft as this one, so soft that it melted in his mouth.

He walked forward, took the silver and put it in his arms, then walked around the man twice.

The man knelt on the ground, his face covered with cold sweat.

It's true that he only knows Qing Kung Fu, but he is gifted and has reached the highest level of Qing Kung Fu. Since he learned it, he has never encountered a situation where he couldn't escape.

Now all he could do was pray that Li Miao was kind-hearted and would let him go for his good reason.

Just when his heart was beating fast, he heard Li Miao speak.

"I can spare your life... It's not impossible."

"But you have to tell me, where did you learn this Qinggong?"

"The man who taught you Qinggong called himself the Plum Blossom Thief?"

(End of this chapter)