Chapter 704 The Shrine of Dreams
There is nothing wrong with the ritual of worshiping the Lake God. The problem is that the people worshiping are different from before.
Guan Miao glanced at Han Fei quietly and did not dare to continue speaking. He was afraid that Han Fei would say something outrageous again.
After the copper coins fell into the water, the speed of the wooden boat became much faster. It seemed that the water ghosts in the lake really just wanted to collect the passing money.
The water collides with the wooden boat, and the gurgling sound seems to carry some kind of special melody, making people's hearts rise and fall involuntarily with it.
The further they rowed toward the center of the lake, the quieter the surroundings became, as if they had entered another space.
Here there is only a bottomless lake and endless darkness.
The sense of direction gradually weakened, and several people on the boat felt that their bodies were undergoing subtle changes. They were obviously sitting on the boat, but they felt as if their bodies were slowly sinking.
Everything seemed like an inescapable dream. The conscious mind could clearly feel that the body was being flooded by cold water, the vision was submerged by the lake, and breathing gradually became difficult.
"Don't fall asleep!"
Han Fei, who was sitting on the bow of the boat, suddenly spoke. He waved his hand and injected Xu Qin's curse into the bodies of the three companions. The bone-chilling pain from their hearts brought them back to consciousness.
"The curse I put on you won't hurt you, it just prevents you from being brought into the dream." At the critical moment, Han Fei could only take the simplest and most effective way to deal with it. He used the curse to fight fire with poison. Although it would hurt a little, it would still be the best way to deal with it.
It is much better than dying in a dream.
Yan Le and the lifeguard only felt severe pain when they were cursed. Guan Miao showed strong uneasiness after being exposed to Xu Qin's curse.
A large amount of blood seeped out from under his turban, and scars similar to fish scales fell off. What was even more terrifying was that some black bugs crawled out of the wounds on Guan Miao's skin.
Those bugs seemed to come out of black cocoons. They looked completely different from butterflies. They were extremely ugly, as if the ugliness and disaster of the entire world had gathered together.
The lifeguard wanted to avoid Guan Miao, but the boat was so big, so he could only keep curling back to prevent the bugs from crawling on him.
"Old man, are these parasites on your body? Do you usually like to drink raw water?" The lifeguard waited for a while and finally asked.
"I don't know when these things entered my body." Guan Miao shook his head. He took off the blood-stained turban, revealing his somewhat scary face: "I just remember the constant
Dreaming, and then the body starts to get sick."
"As long as you have a dream of turning into a fish, fish scales will grow on your body, and these scar-like things will appear. Can dreams really affect reality?"
The lifeguard was surprised after checking the bodies of the old people. He thought that dreams could only bring people mental pain and torture. Who would have thought that dreams could also cause changes in a person's body.
"Continuous nightmares affect a person's heart, spirit and consciousness. The real cause of changes in the body is cocoons." Han Fei also knows something about dreams: "Dreams seem to have all kinds of cocoons.
, there are different bugs in each cocoon, and those bugs are probably turned into humans."
Han Fei remembered the human chrysalis created by butterflies, which turned certain unique souls into insects, allowing those corrupt souls to complete their rebirth in another body in this way.
The wood pulp repeatedly stirred up water, and the boat rowed toward the dark depths for another ten minutes, but the island in the middle of the lake that the old man mentioned still did not appear.
Both the lifeguard and Yan Le's mother began to become restless. They said they would be there in twenty minutes, but now half an hour has passed.
"Are we being cheated?" Yan Le's mother stared at Guan Miao. She opened her mouth wide, and the face of an adult woman appeared in her throat. She didn't care whether Han Fei could destroy the dream ritual, she only cared about herself.
Han Fei took advantage of his daughter's safety and tied her to his side.
"It's coming soon, it should be coming soon." Guan Miao was unsure. He took out something like a compass from under his clothes. After fiddling with it for a few times, he found that the pointer on the compass kept spinning: "How could this happen?"
Picking up the flashlight in the cabin, Guan Miao tied it to a rope and slowly lowered it into the lake.
The bright light from the flashlight dispelled part of the darkness and allowed everyone to see clearly below the wooden boat.
"what is that!"
Directly under the boat, there was a large shadow, which seemed to be following the boat forward.
"too big!"
A rough estimate is that the length of the shadow is more than six meters, twice as long as the wooden boat.
"Water monster?" The lifeguard player has never seen such a big fish in a freshwater lake, and the size of the thing doesn't look like a fish at all!
Everyone on the boat panicked, and Guan Miao's body became stiff. He didn't know whether he should take back the flashlight. The thing underwater seemed to have noticed the light.
The water flow has obviously become turbulent, the wooden boat is undulating up and down a lot, and there is a possibility of capsizing at any time.
"Quick! Turn off the flashlight!"
The shadow under the water floated forward. When Guan Miao heard Han Fei's voice, she immediately pulled the rope back and turned off the flashlight.
Darkness returned to the surroundings, with only the bow of the ship still glowing faintly.
"The water monster seems to be following the light of the lantern? I seem to know why lighting a lantern can break the obstruction of the water monster." The lifeguard glanced at the lantern on the bow of the boat: "The underwater monster was attracted by the light of the fire and swam under the boat.
Of course those water ghosts dare not come over, they are not giving your ancestors face, but they are afraid of that huge shadow."
Guan Miao has lived by the water for so long, and this is the first time he has seen a giant thing underwater. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "You can't say that. Since my grandfather's generation, there has been a saying of lighting lanterns to guide the way.
, that water monster might be a friend of my ancestors."
"Don't talk, keep quiet." Han Fei also saw something underwater. His eyesight was far better than ordinary people, and he could vaguely see the outline of the giant shadow with the help of the light of the flashlight.
The water was no longer calm. Han Fei stood on the bow of the boat and carefully observed the changing water patterns. His expression gradually became serious. After a moment, he shouted to several people: "Hold on to the wooden boat!"
Just a second after Han Fei finished speaking, the bottom of the wooden boat was violently hit, and the entire boat was almost overturned!
"Paddle forward! Go to the island in the middle of the lake!"
Han Fei had been rowing for half an hour, and it was definitely too late to go back now. They could only move forward with all their might.
Before the wooden boat could stabilize, Han Fei grabbed the wood pulp and started rowing. His physical strength of over 30 points fully exploded.
The impact of the underwater monster seemed to be some kind of signal. The darkness was shattered, and the surrounding black water plants quickly fled.
"quick!"
The four people on the boat did not dare to stop and rowed forward with all their strength. The huge shadow was not ready to let them go. The collision just now seemed to be just a test.
An indescribable sense of urgency hit the hearts of several people. All they could do now was to protect the only boat. If it fell into the water, the consequences would be disastrous.
When facing an unknown danger, Yan Le’s mother was the first to react. She knew that her daughter could not swim. Once she fell into the water, no matter how many ghosts and monsters were sealed in her body, it would be difficult to help her daughter escape.
When the worst happened, she reached into her throat and pulled out a blood-stained flesh sac.
"This is carrion with a 'dream' smell. Those ghosts and monsters should like it very much."
The fleshy sac is not big, and its skin is similar to that of an orange, covered with white and brown lines. It will shrink and expand regularly when touched by hand.
Yan Le's mother waved her arms and threw the thing far away.
The stinking flesh sac splashed with black blood drops. Just when it was about to fall into the lake, huge waves set off, and a huge black shadow jumped out of the water. The torn mouth swallowed the flesh sac instantly.
"Oh my God!" The water spray soaked the lifeguard's body. He stared blankly at a place a few meters behind him. The scene of the black figure jumping out of the water was deeply imprinted in his heart.
"Pull quickly! Don't be stunned!" Yan Le's mother spit out a mouthful of blood. She grabbed the rope on the boat and tied Yan Le to the wooden boat: "The monsters at the bottom of the lake are very sensitive to the breath of 'dream', and they have all been subjected to the resurrection ritual.
Affected by the influence, could it be that Meng also prepared an inhuman body for himself?"
What comes to mind is the largest lake in the city. The center of the lake is very deep and connected to underground rivers. It is said that every corner of the city can be reached through those rivers.
If the mind is compared to the brain of a city, then countless underground rivers are like nerves and blood vessels extending from the brain. There must be a deeper reason why dreams hold resurrection rituals here.
The underwater monster was attracted by the meat sac, which bought Han Fei and the others time. They rowed forward desperately, and finally a small island appeared in their field of vision.
The island loomed in the dark night, looking like a black eye.
Hope is in front of them, and the four of them work extremely hard. Just as they are getting closer and closer to the island in the middle of the lake, the surroundings fall into dead silence again. Murder is hidden under the water, but there is peace above the water.
"Did you hear the child crying?" Guan Miao suddenly raised his head. Unknowingly, his eyes were different from those of normal people. Some of them looked like fish eyes, which looked very scary.
"It seems there really is..." The lifeguard pricked up his ears and looked in the direction from which the cry came. There was a broken boat upside down on the water on the left side of the island in the middle of the lake. There was also a bamboo basket hanging on the stern of the broken boat with stuffing inside.
Wearing a lot of old clothes, the baby's cry came from the bamboo basket.
"You want to sacrifice a living baby to worship the lake god?" Han Fei glanced at Guan Miao, who kept moving his hands to maintain the speed of the boat.
"How is that possible!" Guan Miao shook his head repeatedly: "The sacrifices are only three animals and..."
"With what?"
"Anyway, we will never sacrifice babies. This is too hysterical." Guan Miao lowered her head, not daring to look at Han Fei again.
"Then there is no need for us to save the baby. Who would take a baby out to fish for no reason? The bamboo basket should contain other things." Han Fei is not a hard-hearted person, he just keeps his sense at all times.
"Something else is pretending to be a baby? But this cry is too similar." The lifeguard is a good person, otherwise he would not be a lifeguard. The salary is not much, and sometimes he has to risk his life.
"Listen to me!" Han Fei was the backbone of the team. He continued rowing towards the island in the middle of the lake without hesitation.
As they passed by the broken boat, the old clothes on the bamboo basket suddenly slipped off, and a strange, ugly, scaleless fish jumped out of the bamboo basket and fell into the water.
"That fish can still make a baby cry?" The lifeguard took a breath and was about to say something. The broken boat not far away was overturned. The cabin was full of bloodstains and tooth marks, and there was a large area of darkness under the boat.
Something is crawling.
If Han Fei and the others had been close just now, they would probably be targeted by those crawling water bugs as soon as they entered the water.
"What's going on in this world?" The lifeguard feels that this world has huge problems. It is simply the end of the living. All kinds of weird stories and monsters are emerging one after another, and there is no safe place.
After avoiding the broken ship, Han Fei and the others successfully approached the island in the middle of the lake.
Under Guan Miao's guidance, they tied the boat to the simple ferry on the shore as quickly as possible, and the four of them quickly disembarked.
"Don't forget the things on the boat, bring them all to the island!"
With his feet on the ground and the sense of crisis in his heart fading a little, Han Fei held the statue and looked around.
You can see the island in the center of the lake at a glance. Apart from various strange rocks and trees, the most eye-catching thing is a three-story stone house.
"Put the statue of the lake god into the shrine and complete the second half of the ceremony. That should be enough." Guan Miao's heart ignited hope. He didn't expect that everyone could actually successfully land on the island. He was so excited that he didn't even think about it.
I found that my voice was obviously different from before, as if I had been soaked in water, and my pronunciation became increasingly blurred.
Walking along the stone path for worshiping gods, Han Fei hugged the statue with a strange expression on his face. He vaguely felt that something was calling him.
It was clearly a dream resurrection ceremony in his mind, but he felt a trace of pain deep in his heart, as if he was being sacrificed and the one being tortured was himself!
The closer he got to the stone house, the stronger the feeling became, but at this time he couldn't think about so many things. With Xu Qin and the Death Knife here, he was confident that he could deal with most ghosts.
Soon, the four of them arrived in front of the stone house. They were surrounded by locust trees, most of which were dead. Only a few trees near the stone house were particularly lush.
"Just open the door and go in. You need to complete the next ceremony alone." Guan Miao tightened her hands and looked a little nervous.
"Am I going in alone?"
"Yes, normally, only orphans who participate in the ceremony can board this isolated island. Everyone else is waiting for him in the boat. After he places the statue, everyone will go back together." Guan Miao said about the tradition of the village.
"Is this really true?" Han Fei grabbed Guan Miao's collar and said, "Come with me."
When I opened the door of the stone house, a damp and fishy smell hit my nostrils.
Inside the stone house is not the ground, it is completely hollowed out and is a bottomless pool.
Holding a flashlight and shining it, you can vaguely see something swimming under the turbid water.
"The wooden ladder is on the left wall, and the shrine is on the top of the stone house, which suppresses the entire lake." The old man pointed towards the third floor of the stone house.
Everyone looked in the direction of his finger and saw a rotten wooden ladder hanging from the wall of the stone house that had been in disrepair for a long time. The ladder led to the top floor of the stone house.
In the center of the top of the stone roof, which is the center of the entire mind, a wooden shrine was built.
This shrine seems to be reinforced every year. Its appearance is also different from all the shrines Han Fei has seen before. It is completely black and engraved with water patterns, divine patterns and dream patterns.
"Open the shrine and put the statue in."
It's easy to say, but difficult to do. The wooden ladder is so rotten that if you miss the step, you will fall directly into the pool where something is hidden. Moreover, the statue is very heavy. It is already very difficult to hold the statue with one hand, and you have to be careful.
Run along the wooden ladder to the top floor of the stone house.
After staying at the door for a while, Han Fei picked up the statue of the Lake God and said, "All the shrines in the shrine world are symbols of some kind. I want to see what the shrine that Meng has prepared for me looks like?"
After moving his arms, Han Fei entered the stone house. He grabbed the wooden ladder with one hand and climbed up.
The sound of widening cracks kept ringing on the wooden ladder, and sawdust fell from high places, sank into the deep pool, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
This chapter has been completed!