"What now?"
On the tomb hill, the four of them looked around, looking at the tombs filled with pits and valleys.
"Gather it together and cover it. Leave a note explaining the situation."
After thinking for a moment, Li Ang said: "It gets dark very quickly here. After closing the coffin, we will go to the back of the mountain."
According to Zhuo Wenbai, everything in Qishui Village originated from the lake in the back mountain that produces black fish. It was the place where the celebration was held, and it was also the last place that Li Ang and his party had not explored.
Everyone worked together to dispose of the coffin and walked down the tomb.
At this time, the villagers in Qishui Village had finished their farm work early and gathered in the village. They changed out of their brown clothes and put on ragged old clothes. Silently, they arranged candles, drums, lanterns and other celebration props in an orderly manner.
.
"Those clothes are deliberately distressed."
Ji Xing looked into the distance and said: "It was originally a new dress, but it was cut into a tattered look and patched."
Guan Anyan asked: "Is it to imitate previous legends?"
"Well, it should be."
Ji Xingwang said: "They dressed up as their ancestors who were fleeing at that time.
Just like folk dances in some places, collective performances are used to restore the deeds in ancient legends."
Following Ji Xingwang's words, a group of villagers walked slowly over carrying fishing nets tied into long strips. The entire village seemed to have gathered here, including the villagers in the ancestral hall that Li Ang and others had seen during the day.
Except Zhuo Wenbai's family.
"They are packing up and getting ready to go up the mountain."
Ji Xingwang saw this and said quickly: "They will change when the sun sets. We have to get to the mountain before them."
"..."
Li Ang looked at Qishui Village, counting the number of people present, and was silent for a long time. Then he suddenly took out a pen and paper, drew a woman's face on the paper, and showed it to others, "Do you recognize this face?"
"Huh?"
The three of them were confused. Yu Yong took a look and said doubtfully: "This is a bit like... Empress Qihuai?"
Brothers Yu Yong and Yu Yuan visited the Qihuai Empress Temple in Bingzhou City, which was rumored to be very efficacious, and even obtained a lottery, so they were particularly impressed.
"Empress Qihuai..."
Li Ang realized something and said: "You go to the mountain to investigate, and I will explore elsewhere. If there is danger, I will launch communication fireworks."
"What?! Are you going to split up at this time?"
Ji Xingwang, who had always been steady and steady, couldn't help but question at this moment: "And where did you get this painting?"
"To make a long story short, it's a long story, so I'd better not say it."
Li Ang said quickly: "It's just a guess now. By the way, if you meet Yu Scholar and the others, you must ask about the origin of the Qihuai Empress Temple near Bingzhou."
After that, he kicked off the ground and quietly jumped into the dense forest.
Ji Xingwang and the others wanted to ask again, but at this time the sun was gradually setting in the west, and thick fog slowly spread out from the mountains and forests, gradually obscuring their sight.
In the distant mountain village, the group of water-dwelling villagers also played drums and headed towards the mountain.
"What is he doing?"
Yu Yong gritted his teeth and said: "I have said that there is a ghost in the fog. Is he going to die? Or does he want to escape alone?"
"Brother Lu is not that kind of person..."
Guan Anyan defended her words and frowned unconsciously. Her intuition was extremely sharp and she "feeled" that Luffy was not a bad person, but she also vaguely felt that he always lacked a bit of popularity, as if he had practiced evil techniques.
.
"Okay, if he wants to leave, we can't stop him."
Ji Xingwang withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice: "Let's go up the mountain. Get to the lake before the villagers do."
————
Zhuo Wenbo’s home has arrived.
Li Ang quietly opened the door. Zhuo Wenbai, his wife, and their daughter were not here.
"Sure enough."
He opened his mouth and spit out a piece of fish meat - it was black fish meat that was regurgitated from the abdominal cavity and cooked by Zhuo Wenbo's wife.
It is said that it is because of the existence of the Qishui God that people can catch snakeheaded fish in the lake, so Qishui Village must worship the god every year, and those who eat the flesh of the snakehead fish may see the phantom of the Qishui God.
p>
But just now, Li Ang chewed the black fish meat, and what he saw was the face of Empress Qihuai.
"The God of Living Water...Empress Qihuai..."
He murmured to himself, put away the fish, and pushed the door open.
————
The shadows of the trees on the back hill are longing, cold and inexplicable,
Ji Xingwang and others arrived at the back mountain first and saw that the lake in the back mountain was indeed as Zhuo Wenbai described, with perfectly round shores and clear and clean water.
With the remaining rays of the setting sun, one can see the black fish swimming calmly in the lake.
"There is a stone monument here!"
Yu Yong saw at a glance a stone tablet erected at an angle on the edge of the lake shore.
The stone tablet is in the shape of a column as a whole, with moss and dry vines growing on the back. The front is relatively well preserved because it is tilted downward, and you can barely see many crooked and crooked carvings on it.
"Deed..."
Ji Xingwang took a deep breath, immediately asked Yu Yong to step aside, and moved forward to observe carefully.
"The deed is the writing on the oracle bones of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. It is named after it is carved on tortoise shells and animal bones with a deed knife. It is the content of epigraphy."
Guan Anyan explained to Yu Yong: "Senior Brother Chu studies the inscriptions."
"Oh."
Yu Yong nodded. The study of epigraphy began before the Sui Dynasty. Some sects, such as Taixuan Sect, had collected a large number of bamboo slips, oracle bones, bronzes, and stone tablets. They studied the texts on them and tried to restore the history of ancient times.
Gain the power of ancient monks.
Legend has it that there was no way to practice cultivation in ancient times. Humans and gods co-existed. The closer the bloodline is to the gods, the stronger the power. For example, "Hua Xu followed the footsteps of a great man, and Fuxi was born in Lei Ze."
After the end of the era when humans and gods lived together, the Shang Dynasty still worshiped ghosts and gods. Regardless of fighting, grazing, plowing, or praying for rain, they always prayed for the guidance of gods.
It was not until the Haotian Taoist sect appeared later that the worship of ghosts and gods gradually turned into the worship of Haotian, that is, heaven itself. And the method of worldly cultivation also changed from blood inheritance to cultivation based on spiritual veins.
Because of that ancient history, it involves the secret of the birth of Haotian Dao Sect,
The successive leaders of the Haotian Dao Sect have been sparing no effort to cover up and eliminate, and have always sealed the secrets in Taihao Mountain.
This also caused the Central Plains Dynasty’s understanding of the history before the Shang and Zhou dynasties to stagnate at the stage of legends and myths.
In fact, the reason why Taixuanzong was the first to start studying epigraphy was that they were powerful and secretive.
On the other hand, it was also because during the pre-Sui Dynasty, several headmasters of the Haotian Taoist Sect died prematurely or died unexpectedly, which led to endless internal turmoil in Taihao Mountain. Several priests who were most likely to rise to power criticized each other and fought among themselves to control the dynasty in the world.
The strength is greatly weakened,
This allowed Taixuan Sect and other sects to grow wantonly, which led to the subsequent expansion of the academy, and gradually gained the confidence not to be afraid of the Haotian Dao Sect.
Yu Yong was not interested in this historical secret, but Ji Xingwang, who had been studying epigraphy, was very excited.
He gently brushed the scratches with his palm, rubbed out something like a thin paste from the scratches, and murmured "Bletilla striata water..."
"Senior Brother Chu has been here?"
Guan Anyan said excitedly.
The traditional Chinese medicine Bletilla striata is immersed in water and boiled to obtain a sticky glue, which is one of the tools for epigraphic rubbings.
The traces of Bletilla striata water are still very clear, which means that someone has been here not long ago and made rubbings on the stone tablet - it is obviously Chu Haoman.
"Well. Haoman got here before us and must have gotten some information. Now we just need to figure out the words on the stone tablet."
Ji Xingwang squatted on the ground, struggling to analyze the words on the stone tablet word for word.
Guan Anyan asked: "Teacher, what does the deed above mean?"
"Jiawu divination...Zhenwu...today...use...Yan..."
Ji Xingwang shook his head, stood up and said: "No, these words have been peeled off and eroded a lot by the wind, so I can't fully interpret them, I can only make a guess.
In this sentence, Jiawu is the date of divination.
Zhen was a person who specialized in divination and asking gods in the Shang Dynasty.
And Ying, "Zuo Zhuan: The Second Year of Xuan Gong" says that the butler Ying Xiong is not cooked. It means cooked thoroughly.
It sounds like during the Sino-Japanese War, someone asked the gods for divination and got a certain result and cooked something."
"Did people in the Shang Dynasty need divination to even eat and cook?"
Yu Yong frowned,
Before Ji Xingwang could explain, the sound of drum music was already coming from far away.
The group of villagers living in the water walked towards the mountain carrying lanterns, candlelight and fishing nets.
"Hide."
Ji Xingwang immediately retreated with the two of them and hid far away in the depths of the dense forest. He set up isolation notes and other talismans to hide his presence and quietly observed the actions of the villagers living in the water.
Dusk has arrived, and the villagers living in the water appear even more dull and numb. Some people's limbs are twisted and their bodies are blurred. They are only one step away from completely turning into evil spirits.
But they are still driven by some mysterious force, strictly carrying out the celebration process, as if they are performing for non-existent ghosts, gods and tourists.
The villagers wearing tattered clothes appeared as the ancestors of the refugees and circled the lake for several weeks. During this period, they kept moaning like they were dreaming, sometimes falling down and sometimes standing up.
The drum band, on the other hand, concentrated on playing noisy music selflessly.
I don’t know whether it’s because of the original nature of the dance, or because the actors have turned into ghosts, but the whole process presents a strange and creepy feeling.
Ji Xing, who was hiding in the shadows and spying on the three people, felt cold all over his body, his five senses were trembling, and disgust, irritability and fear welled up in his heart.
After an unknown amount of time, the dance finally ended. The villagers moved out a heavy wooden square table covered with red cloth - something bulging was obviously placed on the table, with its outline emerging from the red cloth.<
/p>
Soon Ji Xingwang and the others knew what it was.
As a villager lifted the red cloth, several plates of neatly stacked grains appeared on the table.
The villagers poured grains and grains into the lake, and the lake immediately splashed with water.
Countless snakehead fish that were originally swimming in the lake surfaced one after another and ate the food.
Wow——
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the villagers dipped their fishing nets into the lake, knelt on the ground and made a prayer.
"Teacher..."
Guan Anyan said softly: "The shape of the placement of the grain..."
"I know, like a human being."
Ji Xingwang breathed in and said: "The head is rice, the body is millet, the heart is millet, the hands are wheat, and the feet are suede. They form a human shape. This should be a simulation of the scene when the Qishui God immersed in the lake when Qishui Village was first built.
.."
"Ahhhhhhhhh-"
A sharp hissing sound interrupted Ji Xingwang's words.
In the lake, after devouring all the grains, the plump black fish did not fall into the fishing nets, but slithered away one after another along the gaps in the fishing nets.
This incident seemed to have brought great fear to the Qishui villagers. They stopped drumming and performances, gathered around the lake, looked into the lake, and screamed in fear.
Gudonggudong.
The surface of Qishui Lake is like a boiling soup, with large and small bubbles constantly emerging. The grains and grains that have not been eaten splash out as the bubbles burst and scatter to the lakeside.
"Is this part of the celebration? Or is the celebration a failure?"
Yu Yong asked subconsciously.
I saw that the lake water continued to surge like a boil, forming a long flood, extinguishing lanterns, washing away the soil on the riverside, and breaking the trees along the bank.
The snakehead fish in the lake were washed ashore by the current and stranded one after another.
Looking around, countless snakeheaded fish are piled up on the ground, on trees, and on rocks. It makes people wonder how deep the lake is and how many snakeheaded fish there are.
The villagers of Qishui Village were not at all happy about the fish catch. They screamed in fear, got up and retreated, and through the broken and collapsed forest, they saw Ji Xingwang and three people hiding in the forest.
"..."
All the villagers froze in place, staring at the three outsiders with godless eyes.
"Escape!"
Without any time to think, Ji Xingwang threw several talismans forward, grabbed Yu Yong and Guan Anyan with both hands, used the Feather Falling Technique, and glided down the mountain.
The half-demon-turned-ghost villagers seemed to have decided that they were the culprits that interfered with the celebration, and they chased after them like crazy.
The strong wind howled in my ears,
Ji Xingwang gave Yu Yong and Guan Anyan a piece of Feather Falling Technique, allowing them to glide on their own, while he turned around, using the magic in his hand endlessly, and unleashed it on the chasing village ghosts.
Fire Binding, Earth Splitting, Lightning Strike, Wind Claw...
Boom boom boom boom!
As a monk in the Xunyun Realm, Ji Xingwang took action with all his strength, and the Xuanhe thunder struck straight down, and the fierce fire ignited the mountain forest.
The dozen or so ghosts that were chasing after them were blown away, but a larger number of ghosts still rushed towards them with the force of falling.
"Wood contains yang energy, and if it is carefully constructed, it will burn. If it is burned endlessly, it will give rise to the flaming mountain..."
When Ji Xing saw this, a sharp look flashed in his eyes. He formed a magic formula with his hands, facing diagonally downwards, and swept heavily from bottom to top.
Huh——
The fierce wind followed the path of his fingers and blew towards the mountain. The moment it passed through the forest, the temperature suddenly increased.
It directly ignites the air, ignites the forest trees, and draws a fire belt nearly fifty feet long on the mountainside.
Patrolling Cloud Realm·Yamshan Technique
The wind helps the fire, and the fire borrows the power of the wind.
The fire belt spread rapidly, causing the air to distort and deform, and the falling ghosts were also blocked from the fire belt.
"It should be able to delay it for a quarter, half a quarter of an hour."
The pale-faced Ji Xingwang let out a long sigh of relief, and floated to the ground with Yu Yong and Guan Anyan, and his feet softened involuntarily.
"Hold on."
Yu Yong supported Ji Xingwang and suddenly heard footsteps approaching from far away.
He suddenly turned his head to look at the forest, raised his arm, holding a dagger in his palm, ready to throw it out at any time.
"Wait, it's me!"
The panic-stricken Scholar Yu ran out of the fog and said in a breathless voice: "I just came from the cemetery. Liao Kaifeng and Yan Yan who were with me have both died and turned into ghosts.
Liao Kaifeng was killed once, and Yan Yan was also dumped by me, but he may come at any time. We'd better leave immediately..."
"No rush."
A low voice came from the fog,
Li Ang stepped closer and casually dropped a fat black fish on the ground.
"You..."
Ji Xingwang looked at the black fish and reacted instantly, "Have you been to Qishui Lake? Were you responsible for the movement in the lake just now?"
"It's not me, to be precise, it's your disciple, Chu Haoman."
Li Ang said lightly: "We'd better move to the ancestral hall now, and during this process, Scholar Jade, you can tell me the origin of the Qihuai Empress Temple."
This chapter has been completed!