A bird with a white background and gray stripes was quietly hung upside down on the branch of a tall tree. Due to the effect of gravity, its two wings spread downwards, revealing its bloody feathers.
One of the bird's feet is tied with a string. The bird's eyes are lifeless. Although it is small, it can give people a great sense of fear.
The bird carcass was on the tree in front of Yu Xing. Yu Xing stared at the string for a moment, then turned to another direction.
Birds in the same condition hang upside down on the branches. Some are intact, some are rotting, and some have exposed bones. They are like bells on a Christmas tree, swaying silently with the gusts of wind.
At this scene, even the well-informed Yu Xing could not help but get goosebumps, and his stomach was churning for a moment.
This is not to say that he was afraid, but that the scene was too weird, and the huge and dissipating rancid smell caused his body to react involuntarily.
“Does this bird have any special significance?” Yu Xing’s difficulty lies in the fact that he does not belong to this world, lacks understanding of the animals and plants in this world, and cannot analyze the meaning of various practices as soon as he sees them.
He had only seen the custom of hanging cat corpses in some villages and remote towns before. People there believed that cats were special. Some villages believed that cats symbolized the unknown and could not be buried underground with people. In other places, cats were considered to be a kind of human being.
This symbol of a god cannot be buried casually.
No matter what the cause was, those areas invariably chose to pick up the bodies of dead cats, wrap them in something, put them on branches, and just let them rot.
Day after day, year after year, more and more cat corpses are found. Such a forest is so spooky even in broad daylight that even adults feel scared when they enter it, let alone ignorant children who accidentally break in.
Yu Xing had heard many such cases, saying that a child broke into the cat corpse forest and accidentally touched a tree trunk. A cat corpse fell from the tree, the rags tore apart, and the cat's half-rotted head rolled away.
Coming out, such a scene will definitely cast a shadow on that child for the rest of his life.
It’s the same here, except instead of placing cat carcasses, we hang bird carcasses.
Yu Xing's mind flashed to the 2-meter-4-meter-high rickety little giant that he had just lost. The thing's hand just now was holding the same kind of string that hung the bird carcasses. He probably hung up all the forest birds.
Then... you rushed over with a rope, trying to kill him like a bird and then hang him on a tree?
Yu Xing imagined it for a moment and showed a very disapproving look.
That rope is too thin. If it is tied to his leg, it will definitely be very uncomfortable. Then can’t the rickets use a wider rope to catch him again?
While despising the rickety man's perfunctory behavior, he continued to walk forward. There were basically no leaves on the branches of these trees, but the ground was covered with a thick layer of leaves, which made a constant crunching sound when stepped on.
This forest is not small. Yu Xing observed that no one from Chongyin Mountain was flying in this forest. The flowers and grass were all dried up and insects and snakes were extinct. It looked a bit like the Valley of the Dead.
It’s just that there are dead people in the Valley of the Dead and dead birds in the woods.
Thinking of this, Yu Xing paused.
Since the dead can be resurrected, are the dead birds in the forest also used for resurrection?
Is the rickets the only humanoid creature on the mountain? How long has he lived here before he could hang so many bird carcasses? What is his purpose of hanging bird carcasses? Is it just for appreciation, or does he know about the demon tombs under Chongyin Mountain?
function, so it is performing some kind of ritual?
In other words... what is the relationship between the rickets and the tombs of demons?
The questions came one after another, and Yu Xing felt that he could not answer them without finding the home of the rickets.
That's right, he thought that since the rickets would get lost if they followed him in the mountains and forests, he should just go steal the house. The house would never be lost unless the rickets carried the house and ran away overnight.
Although the rickets were poorly dressed, they were not as dirty as those exposed in the mountains and forests. Instead, they were very clean. Yu Xing speculated that the rickets must have a fixed residence that could protect them from wind and rain.
Unknowingly, Yu Xing put himself in the position of a great villain.
Another strong gust of wind blew, and several bird corpses fell down. Yu Xing avoided the dead bird on the branch next to his face with some disgust, and did not let the rotten and smelly little corpse get stuck in his face.
.
Anyway, with the idea of stealing a house, Yu Xing endured nausea and wandered around the bird corpse forest, trying to find the rickets' house. But somewhat unexpectedly, this forest seemed to be only the "workplace" of the rickets, not the house of the rickets.
Home.
Yu Xing didn't find the rickets' residence, but only found a deep pit as big as a basketball court.
The smell in the deep pit was the most unbearable before entering the mountain. It was mixed with all kinds of extreme smells that humans can bear. Yu Xing climbed to the edge of the pit and looked down, and was almost knocked down by the stench coming from the pit.
.
“…Damn, it’s too scary.” Yu Xing’s eyes showed fear, and he finally found what scared him in this deduction.
What the hell, it smells really bad!
Just smelling it made him feel dizzy. He had no doubt that if he had withdrawn a few seconds later, even with his physique, he would have fainted on the spot.
This is a physical attack, an extremely powerful physical attack.
As for the piles of bird carcasses in the pit, it was nothing to Yu Xing. It was just a visual impact. Are the dense white and gray lines or the small corpses with gray and white lines scary?
not at all.
After seeing the pit, he quickly left the forest, thinking that as long as the rickets still had some sense, they would not live in the forest and endure the smell of the corpse pit every day.
The rickets’ home should be behind the woods.
In addition, Yu Xing has already guessed that if hanging bird corpses upside down has its own meaning, then the bird corpses thrown in the pit should all be corpses that fell during the hanging process and were "no longer useful".
He touched the goose bumps on his arms through his clothes, walked out of the bird corpse forest with a dull face, and saw a trodden path.
There is no road in the world, but when there are many people walking on it, it becomes a road.
There is only one "person" who walks back and forth on this road, and that is the rickets.
Yu Xing’s eyes lit up and he continued his process of stealing the house and walked along the path.
For the sake of convenience, he tied the Tang sword and the scabbard to his belt and placed it next to the painting tube. In this way, he only needed to pull the sword out of the scabbard and there was no need to unlock the painting tube.
Continuing to walk forward, Yu Xing saw the footprints beside the trail. As the soil became wetter and wetter, the footprints became deeper and deeper. He raised his eyebrows slightly. Could it be that the secret passage was once an underground river under his feet?
Otherwise, why would the perfectly good ground be wet?
At the back, the land was as muddy as it was difficult to walk on, and Yu Xing really felt disgusted as he finished the walk.
His familiarity with this mountain forest temporarily disappeared at the Bird Corpse Forest, but it was restored as soon as he left the Bird Corpse Forest. Stepping on the wet soil, Yu fortunately felt as if he had seen all the trees around him before.
An idea gradually took shape in his mind. Yu Xing looked at the ferocious branches of the trees and walked through the forest along a gap that allowed people to pass through.
The air ahead was getting colder and colder. Yu Xing seemed to be walking relaxedly, but in fact he was already alert.
He turned around and passed through several strange corners, and finally saw a small black shadow in the distance.
As he approached, the outline of the small black shadow gradually became clearer, which was the source of Yu Xing's sense of familiarity!
A small ancestral hall stood there. It was an ancient building. The upper part of the ancestral hall was the same as what he had seen in the woods outside Coffin Village. It had vermilion wooden walls and dark brown mortise and tenon structure. It was about 20 square meters.
, there is no gate.
In fact, in general, the ancestral hall is not black, but the vermilion walls show a deep texture in the dark night, and the overall tone is darker.
The reason why Yu Xing fixed the word "black ancestral hall" in his mind was the identical huge black coffin in the wide open door of the ancestral hall.
In fact, the coffin is the only center of the ancestral hall.
The ancestral hall in front of us cannot be said to be very similar to the one in Coffin Village, it can only be said to be exactly the same.
Furthermore, even the woods outside the ancestral hall are the same as the woods in Coffin Village. The tree species, height and density are exactly the same.
Yu Xing believes that Coffin Village and Chongyin Mountain should be two geographically opposite places with completely different climates, temperature differences, and altitudes. It cannot be a coincidence that such similar mountains and forests are produced in these two areas.
It can only be the coffin that plays a role.
only……
With gentle steps, he quietly approached the ancestral hall and stared at the closed heavy coffin.
The coffin in Coffin Village is sleeping in the coffin of the self-aware Zhou Yongsheng. So in this coffin...
Yu Xing walked over step by step, recalling his attitude towards the coffins in the coffin village, thought for a moment, and stretched out his finger.
“Dong dong dong.”
He bent his fingers and knocked on the coffin three times, and then said loudly: "Why are you sleeping? It's not time to rest, and you've lost your mind!"
Things in the coffin:???
This statement would probably force a man to raise his coffin. Yu Xing huffed and immediately hid behind a square table in the ancestral hall after hearing the noise in the coffin. Next to him were large candlesticks with candles falling from them.
It's full of dust and hasn't been lit in I don't know how many years.
The things in the coffin seemed to be very excited, and the action of opening the coffin lid made a loud noise, as if they were very eager to catch the guy outside the coffin who said "he" had lost his bird.
Yu Xing: I didn’t play with the color, I meant it seriously.
He suspected that this coffin was the "home" of the rickety man.
So, doesn’t the bird corpse belong to a rickets? The bird corpse fell down, so there is no problem at all!
He was well hidden, sticking out half of his head to peer into the coffin.
I saw that the coffin lid was opened by a force from the inside. With a shudder, when the coffin lid retreated more than half, a deformed figure with protruding shoulder blades sat up from the coffin.
As soon as this man came out, he looked around with his head that looked like it was embedded in his shoulders. This time the distance was very close and there were no trees to block it. Fortunately, he could see the side of the rickets man's face clearly with the help of the moonlight outside the ancestral hall.
silhouette.
It was a flat face, with a slight bulge at the bridge of the nose, a round chin, and the mandible was like a sac, holding something.
The rickets man's protruding copper bell-like eyes resembled the death look of a person who had been strangled to death.
But he is not dead yet.
Yu Xing retracted his head and thought: "Maybe he was strangled to death, but like Zhou Yongsheng, because of the existence of the black coffin, he retained some of the characteristics of life. And this ancestral hall is so close to the tomb, so it may be more effective.
High, so that the rickets can move freely in the forest while being deformed. I don’t know how many years this guy has lived..."
"who is it?"
Cryingly, a hoarse voice sounded above Yu Xing's head.
Yu Xing froze, and then shrank himself into the square table. He knew that the rickets were standing behind his table now. Due to his height advantage and forward-tilted head, he seemed to be talking above his head.
But what surprised him was not that the sound of the rickets' footsteps was not as obvious as in the forest, but that he was surprised that this guy could actually talk?
Have been alone in the mountains for so many years, and I don’t know how long I have been dead, but my language function has not deteriorated yet?
Is it possible to go to the mountain in front every day to chat with the big white flowers in the vines?
"who is it?"
The voice above his head moved, as if he walked to the door of the ancestral hall and said something to the outside.
Yu Xing turned his head and could see the rickety man's slender legs from the corner of the square table.
There was no tablecloth on his table, and he just managed to hide because there was no moonlight in the temple and it was darker than outside.
Rickets have very good eyesight, and Yu Xing just wanted to test whether this guy had night vision, or if he just had better eyesight than a living person.
Facts have proved that in the dark, you must be blind when you should.
The rickets man searched for a long time but didn't see anyone. He stamped his feet angrily on the spot. The string in his hand was thrown away angrily. While Yu Xing was watching the fun, he ran out and picked up the string again.
He came back and held him in his arms like a baby.
Perhaps looking at the behavior of the rickets, you can even see a childishness in it, but if the childishness is produced by a terrifying and slender figure of 2.4 meters, then I am afraid it will only be scary.
Yu Xing thought leisurely, why didn't the rickets go looking for me in the woods? Didn't he suspect that I ran into the woods? What does it look like to be incompetent and furious near the ancestral hall?
His question was answered by a hoarse yawn from the rickets.
The sound of the rickets yawning was like thunder on the ground, and the dull sound could travel far. Yu Xing felt his sleepiness empathetically.
Is it because I have to sleep... Is this a side effect of the "resurrection" of the coffin? I have to lie in the coffin and sleep most of the day to maintain this state?
No wonder Carlos didn’t mention this stooped giant during the paper phone call.
Because the location of the black coffin and the ancestral hall are relatively remote, not on the only way forward, either Carlos' team did not see the ancestral hall, or they saw it and did not dare to open the coffin.
Yu Xing watched helplessly as the rickets lay back in the coffin with his bulging eyes that could not be closed, yawning as he closed the lid of the coffin.
"Tsk, I thought he would chase him into the woods so I could check the black coffin." The last time he saw the black coffin, the power of the curse on him was too much in the way, preventing him from getting close to the coffin, otherwise the power on the coffin would
It will make him die many times due to the riots caused by the power of the curse.
This time it was better, the power of the curse was firmly suppressed. Although he could not feel the special power everywhere and lacked a radar, he could observe what he wanted to see without being affected.
He put aside the matter of the black coffin for the time being, got up and wandered around the ancestral hall, focusing on the candles on the candlesticks.
These candles are heavily dusted. Unlike the candles in Coffin Village, the candles in Coffin Village are often lit. Every time a person is sacrificed, the candles will all light up.
But the rickets here don’t seem to need candles to survive.