no soul

The sky prison was cold and dark, filled with stench, full of painful groans and desperate wailing, the sound of iron chains colliding, and "ding ding".

Candles dimly flickering...

All the prisoners here are serious criminals who commit murder and arson, and most of them will be sentenced to death.

Iron cages are covered with rotten straw mats, water bowls are placed on the ground, flies and insects are floating and mixed with soil, and the condemned prisoners who are chained are like dogs, unkempt, ragged, and sluggish. Sluggishness—when a person is dying, everything is not very important.

Lin Hong walked through the long corridor in a snow-white cloak. He had a handsome face, cold white skin, and clear eyes, as if a light suddenly shone on the ugly abyss.

"Let me go……"

"I shouldn't have..."

"I was wrong, let me go!"

"please!"

"I don't want to die!"

"help me……"

"I was wrong, I'm so sorry...help me..."

They are begging for mercy and repenting.

Death has always had such a destructive divine power, it can enlighten the wicked and enlighten the fool.

They are impenitent before their end, and only the fear of death can teach them humanity.

Isn't "death" a good thing?

Lin Hong had no sympathy for them, he followed Dai Xuchen all the way without looking sideways.

The officers and soldiers stood beside him and yelled at the approaching death row prisoners, using sticks to separate the hands that tried to grab Lin Hong.

The long corridor twists and turns, as deep as sin.

Lin Hong stood in front of the iron cage where Wu Niu was imprisoned.

Sitting in the dark, Wu Niu saw Lin Hong approaching, and immediately rushed towards him, kneeling on the ground, "Let me go...it's not my fault...it's not my fault...it's not me...someone else made me It was someone else who did this..."

Lin Hong laughed, "If you know good and evil, right and wrong, how can others teach you?"

"He bewitched me! He cast a sorcery! I don't know anything... I don't know anything! I didn't do it!" Wu Niu crawled over the ground and reached out to grab Lin Hong's clothes, "I beg you Let me go! I don't want to die!"

But his hand was slammed open by the officers and soldiers on the side with wooden sticks, "Be honest!"

"Ah!" Wu Niu screamed while covering his hands.

Lin Hong looked at him, "Then tell me how he bewitched you."

Wu Niu sat on the ground and looked up at him, "If I tell you, will you let me go?"

"You want to bargain with me?" Lin Hong smiled, "I am the best at bargaining."

Several officers and soldiers beside him smashed their sticks to the ground, and the loud "boom" echoed in the dungeon.

Dai Xuchen also put his hand on the sword.

Wu Niu felt cold all over his body, and swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He knew that he was now a fish and meat, and he had no room to bargain.

"That day... I met a cold person. He called himself Lin Hong, and he was good at Feng Shui Yin Yang. He didn't know what magical power he had to conjure a blue flame out of thin air in front of me! It's like a ghost fire!"

Lin Hongxin said that this "great teacher" can really play tricks, his blue flame is just phosphorous fire, probably tempered with flint powder - it contains extremely flammable substances, and alchemists like to mess with these things the most. (Note 1).

Lin Hong likes to look at strange things, and he has seen them in cooperation with many Western merchants.

Wu Niu continued: "He didn't know why, and said that I have the spirit of a dragon and a tiger, and I can become...to..." He looked at Lin Hong and a few officers and soldiers outside, and he was still a little afraid to say "I can become the emperor", he was afraid that he would One more crime...

"Then?" Lin Hong raised his eyebrows.He knew what Wu Niu was going to say and urged him to continue.

Wu Niu licked his chapped lips, "Then, he gave me a Jade Tiger Talisman..."

Zhao Yi threw the Jade Tiger Talisman into Wu Niu's arms, and said in a cold voice, "Go southwest to the top of the mountain, and you will see a lush bamboo forest with a pool of clear water in it, which is the dragon's den. Put your father in a waterproof coffin and bury him in the In the water, if Feng Shui is perfect after seven days, you will get your army of Yin soldiers."

"I'll give you this Jade Tiger Talisman. After seven days, if Feng Shui is completed and the Yin soldiers are formed, they will only be loyal to your father's blood relatives—that is, you. At that time, this Jade Tiger Talisman will be useless.

But if the Feng Shui is damaged within seven days, the Yin soldiers can also succeed, but you must hold this tiger talisman to mobilize the Yin soldiers. "

"But my father is still alive." Wu Niu was trembling.

Zhao Yi smiled coldly, "That's your own business. The water in the bamboo forest will dry up tomorrow night, so don't miss this opportunity."

Wu Niu swallowed heavily, and the palms holding the Jade Tiger Talisman were sweaty, "I don't have a waterproof coffin."

"I'll give you a bite tonight." Zhao Yi said.

"Why did you help me?" Wu Niu was not completely stupid.

Zhao Yi's voice was emotionless, and his tone was flat, "Naturally, I see that you have good luck to help you accumulate merit."

"This Jade Tiger Talisman is so important, you...why do you keep one?" Wu Niu pointed to Zhao Yi's waist.

Zhao Yidao: "If you lose both Feng Shui and the Jade Tiger Talisman, what should you do if something goes wrong? Naturally, I also want to keep a Tiger Talisman just in case. You only need to ensure that the Feng Shui is intact within seven days, after which the Jade Tiger Talisman will naturally disappear. Useless."

"How can I believe what you say?" Wu Niu looked at the Jade Tiger Talisman in his hand, already fascinated.

"What good does it do me to lie to you? What can you give me?" Zhao Yi sneered.

"Do it at ease. You have the aura of a dragon and a tiger. It is your destiny to be an emperor. The Yin soldiers will take shape and will level the world for you. At that time, you will be the Ninth Five-Year King. You will sit on the golden mountain and everyone in the world will look up to you!" You snort and kneel at your feet."

"That's it." Wu Niu roared, "He bewitched me!—I didn't do it! He did it, he killed my father! It wasn't me! I just buried my father, I was unconscious! It's his fault! Hurry up and catch him! What's the use of catching me! He will continue to do evil!"

Wu Niu's words did not match the words, and the rhetoric has changed from "I was deceived by others" to "I didn't do it, it was done by others".

"You killed your father with your own hands." Lin Hong reminded.

"It wasn't me! I said he killed it! It was Lin Hong who killed it! When he came to deliver the coffin, he sneaked into my house and killed my father! How could I kill my father? He was so kind to me, but he was my father Ah!" Wu Niu yelled, looking at Lin Hong with eyes of different heights, looking very sincere, trying to make Lin Hong believe what he said, but on the contrary he was even more trying to hide it.

Lin Hong felt a little ridiculous, "That's not what the eyewitnesses said."

"What witnesses! My father and I are the only ones at home!" Wu Niu knelt on the ground, waving his hands in an exaggerated manner.

"Really? Then why don't you ask Li Niang if she is wrong." Lin Hong said.

The word "Li Niang" seems to have awakened Wu Niu's terrifying memory. His face instantly turned pale, and he began to tremble all over.

The fact that he could not avoid was stripped away, dripping with blood...

He is clearly trying to forget it, he is clearly hiding it so deeply...

He thought that without them, he would be able to do his great things with peace of mind.

He sat on the spot, his eyes straightened, as if the heart-piercing horror scene was replaying before his eyes again.

His dream was based on this matter, he almost forgot...he clearly wanted to forget...

"I was wrong... I did it..." Wu Niu lay on the ground with his forehead on the ground, "I was wrong...forgive me...my lord, please let me go...my lord, I was wrong..."

Lin Hong staggered away from his bow, "There is someone else who needs your apology and repentance."

He took out the wooden hairpin Li Niang gave him, and put it on the flame of a candle beside him.

When the wooden hairpin meets the fire, it will turn into a wisp of light smoke and fall to the ground, turning into three figures, tall and short.

The officers and soldiers present were all transformed by Dai Xuchen's yin soldiers. When three people suddenly appeared, they took it calmly.

"what!!!"

But Wu Niu was different. When he saw who was coming, he fell to the ground in fright, his eyes widened, his mouth opened and closed in disbelief, but he couldn't make a sound.

"Father hahaha! Daddy!" Xiao Qi didn't know the situation, so when he saw his father, he jumped forward excitedly, grabbed the iron railing and shook it vigorously, causing a "ding ding" sound, as if he wanted to stop this person The iron cage in front of myself and my father was destroyed.

"Qi'er..." Wu Niu trembled to touch Xiao Qi's little hand holding the iron railing...

But Li Niang pulled Xiao Qi into her arms, not letting him touch her, "Xiao Qi is back! It's not your father, it's a monster!"

Wu Niu was stunned.

In the past, before meeting Zhao Yi——before he killed his father and begged for Yin soldiers, no one ever said he was a monster...

His eyes were straightened, and he began to tremble violently, tears filled his eyes, and his chest heaved violently.

Endless remorse drowned him like waves churning ice, enveloping him with a piercing chill and excruciating pain.

He thought that as long as he was in a high position, he could have nothing, because he could have more.

What is he after?In fact, he had everything... In the end, he had nothing, even lost everything he had!

It was he who destroyed his gentle hometown with his own hands, and he himself jumped into the endless abyss to be company with dirty worms.

It was he who turned himself into a real monster.

"Niu'er, it's fine that our appearance is different from ordinary people. How can there be so much beauty and ugliness in external things? You should become a person who is admired from the bottom of your heart."

——He thought of his father's kind voice and gentle eyes.The mellow and saturated power stroked his curved spine like an invisible hand.

But how did he do it... He wanted Yin soldiers, he wanted the world, he wanted everyone to submit to him instead of respecting him... He was wrong...

He even killed his father...his loving father...

What did he say when his dagger was stabbed into his lower back?He said he was in pain...

it hurts……

When the executioners peeled off the skins of his Li Niang, his Xiaoqi, and his mother, what did they say?They say it hurts...

it hurts……

"Boom"!

Wu Niu hit his head hard on the ground.

He sold his soul to the evil spirits and lost everything for his unwarranted hegemony.

It's so cheap that I don't even know what "good" is.

So he knelt down on the ground.

Li Niang hugged Xiao Qi and stood outside the iron cage with Jiang Shi in her arms, confronting him.

No one spoke, and the air froze for a long time.

Wu Niu raised his head, the blood on his forehead slithered across his face, he stared at the three of them, "I was wrong, I dare not ask for your forgiveness, but I failed you in the end... I deserve to be cut to death It's me, you don't want to be angry with yourself anymore, go back and go to the next new beginning."

Li Niang closed her eyes, and when she saw Wu Niu, she realized that there was no way to vent her hatred, the person he hated was so pathetic...

Wu Niu's confession is meaningless to her, and now she has lost her way and has no way of knowing her way back.

But he was right in one sentence - don't be angry with yourself, go to a new start.

She bowed her head and said a few words to Jiang Shi, Jiang Shi nodded.

Xiao Qi looked up at his mother with her small face up, and Li Niang looked at him lovingly, and touched his delicate cheek, "Mother wants to meet you in the next life..."

Xiaoqi laughed "hahaha" and hugged her mother's waist, "Okay!"

Li Niang looked at the embarrassed Wu Niu, "You can do it yourself."

The three are slowly dissipating, and they are going to die.

"Thank you son." Li Niang nodded slightly to Lin Hong.

Lin Hong nodded, as long as he can help the three of them.

Wu Niu knelt in the iron prison, with his head bowed, the blood on his forehead dripped down his chin, and he gradually faded away in the black smoke.

He looked up at Lin Hong, "It's not me who has the deepest obsession, you have to wake up the one in the temple."

When the words fell, he completely disappeared.

Lin Hong stood where he was, looking at the empty prison.

It seems that starting from this Wu Niu is not enough to go back.

One is before the event and the other is after the event.

Half of Wu Niu recalled his wife and children, recalled his failure, and realized that he should not have taken that step.

But the other half of him has forgotten the bloody past and is still intoxicated in the flashy "success".

The loser knows regret, but the winner is still sinking.

"The morning court has begun, my king, please give me instructions." Dai Xuchen bowed to Lin Hong.

The author has something to say:

Note 1: Flint: A tool used to ignite a fire with a scythe and velvet, containing white phosphorus, etc.

White phosphorus: low ignition point, very easy to spontaneous combustion.It was originally extracted by alchemy.

Ghost fire is also called phosphorus fire, and its ingredient is phosphine.Phosphorus is contained in human bones. After the corpse rots, it undergoes changes to produce phosphine. Phosphine has a very low ignition point and can spontaneously combust.