Chang'an Catching Demons

Chapter 12: Shangyuan Lantern Monster

In the blink of an eye, it was the Shangyuan Festival. The lanterns in Chang'an City were decorated, and the Suzaku Street was full of all kinds of lanterns, such as dragon lanterns, phoenix lanterns, fish lanterns, and horse lanterns kept turning, reflecting half of the sky. The people traveled at night with lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, eating lanterns, and the noise could be transmitted to the roots of the imperial city.

Lin Yu and the three of them also mixed in with the crowd. Su Yao held a rabbit lamp in her hand, and the snow ball squatted on her shoulder, and her amber eyes were brightened by the light. Chen Feng carried a food box with the lanterns he had just bought, and handed one to the two of them from time to time.

"Speaking of which, this is the first time we have spent the Lantern Festival together." Su Yao bit the Yuanxiao stuffed with sesame seeds and smiled with her eyebrows curled. "At this time in previous years, my father always locked me at home to embroider flowers."

Lin Yu looked at her cheeks, which were red by the light, and the corners of his mouth raised unconsciously: "If you are not busy in the future, we can live together every year."

Chen Feng joked on the side: "I'm afraid it won't be the three of us in a few years."

Su Yao's cheeks were even redder and she stretched out her hand to hit Chen Feng. The three of them laughed and forgot about those strange things.

When I walked to the edge of Qujiang Pond, the atmosphere suddenly became a little wrong. The flower lamp by the pool was bright, but it was cold. The lotus lamp floating on the water was also crooked, as if it had been dragged by something. Several children approached the pool with lamps. Just as they were about to put down the lotus lamp, they were pulled away by their parents in a panic.

"What's the matter?" Su Yao was puzzled.

The old man selling lanterns next to him sighed, "Girl, I don't know that there are always accidents by the pool these days. A little baby's lantern fell into the water and reached out to catch it. He was almost dragged down by something in the water. Fortunately, he was pulled by someone.

Lin Yu's heart moved and he walked to the edge of the pool, and the evil bell trembled slightly. The water surface is dark, reflecting the shadow of the lantern, but in the depths of the shadow, there is something faintly wriggling, with a faint demonic aura.

"It's a water monster." Lin Yu whispered, "By the yang gas of the lantern to cover it, it's in the water."

Chen Feng frowned and said, "The Yang Qi of the Shangyuan Festival is the most prosperous. Demons and evils should have avoided it. How dare they make trouble here?"

As soon as the words fell, there was a sudden exclamation across the pool. I saw a child's lantern falling into the water. The child cried to pick it up and slipped into the pool. The parents screamed in fright. The people around them hurried to save them, but they saw a black fog on the water, wrapped the children and dragged them to the bottom of the water.

"That's not good!" Lin Yu sacrificed the peach wood sword, tiptoed, and rushed over with the lotus lamp on the water. The snowball jumped off Su Yao's shoulder, turned into a white shadow, and jumped into the water.

There was a child's cry in the black fog. Lin Yu stabbed the black fog with a sword, and the golden light of the peach wood sword suddenly appeared. The black fog screamed and opened a gap. The snow ball took the opportunity to get into the crack and quickly took the child's collar and dragged him out of the water. Chen Feng had already jumped into the water, took the person handed by the child to the shore, turned around and stood side by side with Lin Yu.

The black fog re-condensed and turned into a human figure. He was wet all over, his hair was scattered like water grass, holding countless broken lanterns in his hand, and his eyes were two black holes, showing resentment.

"It's a lamp monster." Wei Laodao didn't know when he appeared on the shore. He stroked his beard and said, "It's an abandoned old lantern, which absorbs too many children's yang qi, and stains the yin qi of Qujiangchi, turning into evil things."

The lantern monster roared and threw the broken lantern in his hand to Lin Yu. Those lanterns exploded in the air, and Mars splashed everywhere. Unexpectedly, they were corrosive and fell on the water, stirring up a string of bubbles.

Lin Yu waved his sword to block the lantern and said to Chen Feng, "It is afraid of open fire, use a torch!"

Chen Feng immediately asked the people around him to light the torches. Although the people were afraid, they also knew that they could not retreat at this moment. They raised the torches one after another and connected them into a fire wall. The lantern monster was forced to retreat by the fire, and the black fog gradually thinned.

The snowball drilled out of the water, with a wet wooden tag in its mouth, on which the word "E" was engraved - and the mark of the Eyang Religion!

"It's the devil who did it!" Su Yao shouted, "They deliberately hid the evil charm in the old lantern and threw it into the Qujiang Pool to refine this lamp monster!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, the lantern monster turned around and wanted to dive into the water. How could Lin Yu let it go? He sacrificed the bell to suppress evil. The bell penetrated the water, and the lamp monster screamed. The black fog completely dissipated, revealing a pile of broken lanterns inside, which gradually turned into ashes in the fire.

The child was rescued ashore, but he was frightened, but it was not a big deal. The parents kowtowed to the three people repeatedly to thank them, and the surrounding people also applauded.

Wei Laodao walked to Lin Yu's side and whispered, "The Eyang Religion is getting more and more rampant, and he dares to take action on the Shangyuan Festival. I watched the celestial phenomena at night and saw the gathering of demons in the southeast. I'm afraid they have a new stronghold outside the city.

"The southeast... is it Duling?" Chen Feng recalled, "There are many imperial tombs of the former dynasty, which have been abandoned for a long time, but it is a good place for Tibetans."

Lin Yu nodded and said, "I will go to Duling early tomorrow morning to investigate."

The night was getting darker, the lanterns were still bright, and the noise by the Qujiang Pond gradually recovered, as if the shocking scene just now had never happened. Su Yao looked at the re-lit lotus lamp on the surface of the pool and whispered, "They always make trouble when it's so lively, just to scare everyone."

"Then we won't let them succeed." Lin Yu looked at the light in the distance and said, "The more lively it is, the more we should keep this peace."

Xuetuan rubbed his palm, as if he was agreeing. The three of them walked back side by side, and the halo of the rabbit lamp cast a swaying shadow on the snow, intertwined with the lights all over the city. Lin Yu knew that Du Ling's trip must be dangerous, but as long as they were around and there were lights all over the city, there was no difficulty that could not be broken through.

The moon of Shangyuan Festival is particularly round, illuminating every corner of Chang'an, and also illuminating the evil hidden in the shadows - and under the light, the evil will eventually have nowhere to hide.