Chapter 64 Mysterious Ceremony
A few minutes later, Gu Xu and Shi Xiaohan arrived at their destination - Xunliu Street.
The area near Xunliu Street is considered the busiest place in Yishui County, and is also called "Washe".
Big shops, dance pavilions and song stands, wine shops and teahouses are all gathered here. Fortune tellers, medicine dealers, barbers and other professionals often come here to attend business.
On both sides of the road, you can also see street performers with their own unique skills.
For example, the thin man who performs the "Bone Shrinking and Softening Kung Fu" can quickly shrink his body and fit into a small jar.
For example, the short and fat middle-aged man who performed "Three Immortals Returning to the Cave" used one chopstick, two bowls, and three balls to make the three balls change back and forth between the two bowls, which was dazzling.
For example, in the performance of breaking a large stone on the chest, one person lay down with a large stone on his chest, while the other person picked up a sledgehammer and suddenly smashed the stone into pieces, causing a burst of exclamations from the onlookers.
There was also a lame old man who, with a wave of his sleeve, actually created a goldfish bowl out of thin air in broad daylight!
"Gu Xu, this person shouldn't be a cultivator!" Shi Xiaohan looked at the lame old man and couldn't help but exclaimed, "Even I can't see how he conjured up this fish tank!"
Gu Xu looked at the old man and thought for a moment.
With the talent of [Extensive Memorization], he is undoubtedly able to capture and remember every detail of magic.
“This old man, he is not lame at all,” he squinted his eyes slightly, observing every subtle movement of the old man, and replied, “He just kept the fish tank between his legs for a long time - even if It was after the magic show that everyone around him mistakenly thought he was lame. "Then the price he paid for doing the magic was too high!" Shi Xiaohan felt unbelievable.
She simply couldn't imagine that a person had to hold a fish tank between his legs when eating, walking, or shopping - what a painful life it was!
"If you want to practice a skill to the extreme, you must make sacrifices," Gu Xu sighed and responded, "Look, the person who performs the 'Bone Shrinking Kung Fu' needs to stretch the bones and joints hard. Failure to pay attention can cause dislocation of internal organs. If I guess correctly, before today's performance, he had practiced it thousands of times in private at the risk of his life
"Another example is the chest performance. The principle of breaking large rocks is that the stone has a large mass and a large inertia, so when the hammer hits it, the acceleration of the stone will be very small and it will not cause excessive pressure on people.
“But if the person swinging the sledgehammer moves a little slower and fails to remove the force in time at the moment of hitting the stone, the performer’s ribs will be broken. This will undoubtedly take a long time. Day after day of practice and extreme tacit understanding.”
“I understand what you are saying,” Shi Xiaohan said with a slight frown, “But what do ‘inertia’ and ‘acceleration’ mean?”
Gu Xu smiled and explained in plain language.
Shi Xiaohan seemed to understand but not understand.
However, she didn’t want to appear too stupid in front of Gu Xu.
So she nodded, pretending to be suddenly enlightened, and said with a smile: "That's it!"
The two of them did not stay here too long.
Then, Gu Xu relied on his powerful spiritual perception to lead Shi Xiaohan towards the place where the evil spirit was stronger in the market.
As they walked, they suddenly met an old acquaintance.
"Aren't you two very busy on weekdays? Why do you suddenly feel free and relaxed today and come to Xunliu Street to hang out?"
The person coming is the Exorcist Department Yamen. The hunchbacked old man guarding the warehouse.
He was holding a cricket cage in his left hand and a newly bought storybook "King Hailing of Jin Hailing Suicide" in his right hand. He was humming a little tune and leisurely watching the street performers perform tricks.
“We are here to investigate the case.” Gu Xu replied.
"That's such a pity," the old man shook his head, "A new troupe recently came to Xunliu Street, and their performance is wonderful! If you have time, I would like to show you!"
“The theater troupe?”
Gu Xu looked around.
I saw a sea of people and traffic on Xunliu Street.
There is simply not enough space to place a stage. Where is the theater troupe that the old man mentioned?
Gu Xu soon knew the answer.
On the corner of the street, there was a middle-aged man with an average appearance and gloomy temperament.
He was wearing old coarse cloth clothes, with a bag on his back and a small wooden frame on his shoulder.
When the crowd of onlookers gradually increased, he placed the wooden frame on his shoulders on the ground, making it look like a miniature theater building; and placed the pocket on his back next to the small wooden frame.
Then he slapped the drum board and sang a popular drama in a loud voice.
As soon as the song started, more than ten mice came out of the pocket.
These mice were all covered with masks and little theatrical makeup. To the beat of the music, they jumped onto the "mini theater" one after another, standing on two feet and dancing like humans.
The stories they interpret are completely consistent with the middle-aged men’s lyrics.
“It’s amazing!” Shi Xiaohan exclaimed, “So this is what the old man called the ‘troupe’!”
The onlookers also watched the lifelike performance of the mice on the wooden frame attentively, and bursts of thunderous applause broke out from time to time.
The porcelain bowl at the middle-aged man’s feet was quickly filled with reward money.
Gu Xu stared at these mice for a while.
He found that even with his far superior observation ability, he could not understand how this middle-aged man controlled these mice.
And this middle-aged man does not have the aura of true energy fluctuations on his body, which obviously proves that he is not a practitioner who masters beast-controlling spells.
"Perhaps this is the legendary ancestral skill!" He secretly guessed in his heart.
But doing the task is more important.
Gu Xu and Shi Xiaohan only stayed for a moment next to the artist performing the rat show, and then continued to move forward, looking for the source of the evil spirit.
At this time, Gu Xu couldn't help but feel envious of the hunchbacked old man who guarded the warehouse - on every day off, the old man always had a lot of free time, either to go to Goulan to listen to music, or to come to Wa. He gave up watching plays; even when he was at work, he could read a storybook and play with crickets leisurely.
This is simply the salted fish life that Gu Xu longs for but may never be able to experience in this life.
.........
At the end of Xunliu Street, dozens of people gathered in a circle and were holding a lively "God Dance" ceremony.
"Tiao Shen" is a traditional witchcraft custom in the Daqi Dynasty. It is said that you can invite gods to cure diseases and eliminate disasters, drive away evil spirits and chase ghosts, and you can also invite the spirits of your ancestors to talk to you.
In the center of the crowd, there is an incense table with offerings and incense candles placed on it.
Beside the incense table, there is a young woman, wearing a skirt, beating a single-sided drum with an iron ring, dancing in a lively and lively manner.
She was mumbling words, as if she was singing or praying. The words did not follow the rhythm and were of uneven length, giving people a strange and eerie feeling.
Several young men nearby were also playing drums.
The drums sound like thunder.
Because there is no rhythm, it looks messy and harsh.
After a while, the young woman suddenly trembled all over and fell straight backwards to the ground.
Seeing this, everyone around them nodded and lowered their eyebrows, saying in unison: "Welcome our ancestors back!"
(End of this chapter)