The old man who looks like a dead thing and the idol who looks like a living thing still stand opposite each other.
Vague chants swaying in the rain.
Even if you enter an alley.
Li Changan still couldn't help but look back and stare at him. Zeng Guangwen thought he still had a grudge, half-smiling and half-persuading.
"The old man can't hear well and his brain can't function properly. Don't worry too much about it."
How can a Taoist priest have such a small belly? He waved his hand and explained:
"Everyone ages. I'm just curious about what the old man is singing."
"That's a local folk song."
Without further questioning, Zeng Guangwen started talking on his own.
"It tells the story of a hero who sought help from a god named '喖吔娦ke' during a time of famine. He passed many trials and gave up on glory and wealth. In the end, the god was moved by the hero's bravery and kindness and sent down his divine power to save the people.
"
Li Changan sounded familiar.
"Azhi and the Mountain God?"
"Have you heard of it, Vice Captain Li?" Zeng Guangwen just showed a surprised look, then realized that this statement could easily be misunderstood, and quickly made up for it, "This thing is very unpopular."
But his "fascinating eyes" were thrown to a blind man. Li Changan was not used to guessing what was behind his words, so how could he misunderstand him?
"I heard what Wang Zhongguo said on the way here." He called out "Ma Chunhua" at the top of his voice, but there was still no response. "In the story, the blood of the mountain god can also 'live the flesh and white bones of the dead', which is similar to the soul-returning sand."
This sentence was originally just said casually, but when it fell into Zeng Guangwen's ears, it seemed to have other meanings.
He suddenly slowed down, and there was a subtle smile on his lips. His expression was as if he heard someone at the wine table bragging about something he was good at.
"I heard from above that Deputy Captain Li joined this work because he is very interested in folklore and has done a lot of research in this area?"
What else can Li Changan say? Could it be that the self-explosion materials were all made up by relevant departments? Is he just an amateur?
I had to bite the bullet.
"Has little knowledge."
Zeng Guangwen's pace became even slower.
"Then you must understand 'ghost'."
Not only did he understand it, but he also killed many of them with his own hands. The Taoist priest was modest and cautious.
"which aspect?"
"The difference between man and ghost."
Zeng Guangwen took off his rain-stained glasses and wiped them slowly.
The voice is neither fast nor slow.
"There are countless stories about ghosts in the past dynasties, but in different eras, the relationship between humans and ghosts in the stories is constantly changing. In the ghost stories of the Qin and Han Dynasties, in addition to offering sacrifices, redressing grievances, and seeking revenge, most of the time humans and ghosts
They are clearly separated and do not interfere with each other. But in the late Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that humans and ghosts live in the same world. Half of the people in the world are actually ghosts, but ghosts can distinguish humans, but humans cannot.
It’s just a ghost.”
"In the Southern Song Dynasty, this view went further. According to legends at that time, ghosts simply left the tombs and walked into the market, stealing, robbing, defrauding, begging, working, working as small traders, and even as officials, providing food and clothing.
Living and traveling, marrying a wife and having children are no different from living people."
"There are many reasons for this change, but they are all inseparable from one thing."
He raised a finger, and his expression reminded Li Changan of the history teacher who showed off his illicit goods during his student days.
"The war has caused a large number of refugees to flow into the city. They have no household registration and no livelihood. If they disturb public order, don't they become 'ghosts'?"
The Taoist smiled: "Ghosts are originally humans."
Zeng Guangwen put his glasses back on and smiled reservedly.
"The legend is based on reality."
Finished.
He squatted down again, rummaged through the rubble, took out an object, and showed it to Li Changan.
It is made of pottery, larger than a palm, roughly fan-shaped, and has a very fine animal face pattern printed on one side.
Li Changan: "Oh, we belong to a wealthy family."
This thing is a tile. Considering the age and sophistication of the building, it is not something that rich people cannot afford.
Zeng Guangwen put the tile away and shook his head.
"Every house in this village has this thing."
"Have Deputy Li noticed that every building in the village is made of high-quality blue bricks, strips of stone, and tiles? Every one of them! This was nearly a hundred years ago, and there were still people sitting on mud in the imperial capital.
House!"
"It would be understandable if it were a prosperous place like Suzhou and Hangzhou, but in Liangshan, it is still a poor area with ravines?"
His tone was a little excited.
"Just transporting these materials in would probably cost a lot, let alone digging a road into the mountain."
The Taoist priest spread his hands and raised his banner.
“Perhaps they are made from local materials?”
"Then money is indispensable. With this money, why are you still suffering in the mountains?!"
He turned around and looked over with bright eyes.
"If part of Azhi's story is true, then what makes a mountain village become rich quickly, makes the villagers cling to the mountains, kill each other, and finally break up?"
"Resurrection Sand?"
"The soul-returning sand is just a fairy tale."
Zeng Guangwen sneered and retorted, and then his expression became more and more excited, even excited.
"But in many myths and stories, the essence and blood of mountain gods are veins of minerals!"
"I have a bold speculation. If Azhi's family discovered a gold mine in this mountain and led the villagers to mine it, the mountain village would become rich. However, in order to protect the secret of the gold mine, the villagers would rather spend huge sums of money to stay in the mountains.
They didn't want to leave. Later, maybe because the mining technology was backward, maybe because the ore veins were very small, the gold mines were exhausted, and the villagers had conflicts in the uneven distribution of interests. They killed A Zhi's family, divided the property, and finally broke up.
, left the mountains."
This story is somewhat interesting, and the ups and downs are so ups and downs that the Taoist priests relished it.
"So, the flesh and bones of the living dead are actually gold?"
Zeng Guangwen pushed up his glasses and put on a gentle look.
"This is just speculation."
"but……"
The alley ahead branched off, and the two of them had to search separately.
Before leaving, Zeng Guangwen dropped a few words.
“Can’t money bring life and death to life?”
…………
Let’s not talk about whether money can make people live or die, but Ma Chunhua first tortured everyone to death.
Walking through the ruins in the heavy rain.
From morning to noon, when we returned to the ancestral hall, no one found any trace of her. After eating something hastily, everyone decided to expand the scope and search carefully again.
But this time my mood was slightly different.
The previous time I was looking for a living person, this time I was looking for a dead person.
…
Li Chang'an swam through a yard of yellow mud soup, reached into an abandoned well with a long bamboo pole, and stirred until it reached the end. No obstacles were found, and no corpses emerged from the well.
He breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to step into the mud soup again.
In fact, the houses in mountain villages are made of exquisite materials and have a good drainage system. There are culverts under the stone slabs of each lane. However, they are in disrepair and often have blockages. When it rains heavily, it will naturally overflow...stagnant water?
The Taoist priest lowered his head and looked at the water under his feet, then opened the stone slab and looked at the "turbulent" water channel. He stood blankly for a moment, then suddenly dropped the bamboo pole, rushed out of the village, and climbed up a big banyan tree at the entrance of the village.
Looking up, you can have a panoramic view of the terrain.
The village is located in a valley surrounded by mountains, and the village is at its lowest point.
Even if it rains heavily, you can still see the muddy water accumulated in the mountains rolling down, overflowing the fields, and finally pouring into the village lanes, but... what about the accumulated water?
Heavy rains for days and months cannot be solved by a few canals and reservoirs. Logically speaking, the village should have been submerged in Chengzeguo, but what about the stagnant water?
unless.
There is a cave underneath the village.
An underground river? A cave? Or a mine?
The Taoist priest was in high spirits. Although it was just a guess, he finally had a seemingly feasible direction compared to blindly searching.
However, the village's alleys are winding and the building layout is dense and complex. It is troublesome to turn over the stone slabs one by one to find the water channels.
Fortunately, he happened to have a cheap way.
…………
Xiaoshui and his party, Li Changan gained two benefits.
The first is a small booklet on talismans compiled by Yu Zhenren. It is a thin book. It is not an encyclopedia-like collection, but selects typical examples, makes high-level suggestions, and explains the essence of talismans in simple and profound terms. It can be said that it directly points to the essence of talismans.
Every time Li Changan read it, he felt that he had benefited a lot, so he kept it close to his heart and did not bury it in the mudslide with other tributes.
This booklet has a section dedicated to how to use the magician's own spirituality to make talismans. The example used to explain is called the "Wandering Dog Talisman", which is a talisman used by some third-rate magicians in Lingnan to guard the dojo when they go out.
"Wandering" means wandering outside, and "dog" refers to the soul of a corpse dog. You will peel off a part of the corpse dog that is responsible for vigilance among your three souls and seven souls, implant it with a yellow talisman, and leave it at home. In this way, due to the relationship between the practitioner and
Their souls are closely connected, and even if they are thousands of miles away, they can still sense the situation at home. In short, it is "inserting eyes".
Without yellow paper, a brush, or cinnabar, Li Changan simply made do with the shabby stuff. He took the note-taking notebook he had on him, tore out a page, bit his finger and drew the talisman with blood.
It is not difficult to draw this talisman. What is difficult is how to cleverly cut off the spirit of the corpse dog and fill it with spiritual thoughts and mana, instead of directly cutting off the soul body, causing damage to the soul, or even disintegrating on the spot.
Fortunately, the teacher taught carefully and the students learned carefully, so there were no accidents and the blood talisman was drawn.
But the problem comes again.
The "Wandering Dog Talisman" is just an eye, how can you make it find the target?
Simple.
Just make it come alive.
This has to mention the second benefit Li Changan received, a new earth evil magical power called "spray".
There are usually two types of Taoist transformation techniques, one is deformation, which means making objects deform, and the other is divine transformation, which means making dead things come alive.
"Spraying" is the latter. This technique is to pass a breath of spiritual energy to endow objects with spirituality, turning dead objects into living objects within a certain period of time.
for example.
Li Changan folded the paper charm into a small fish, took a gentle breath, and then put it into the water that covered his feet.
At first it was like a piece of paper floating on water, swirling with the current.
Er.
There was a sudden tremor, but the fish's tail trembled, and it suddenly came to life and suddenly dived into the water waves.
Sometimes he was walking through the grass, sometimes he was jumping out of the water, and sometimes he was playing at Li Changan's feet.
The Taoist priest laughed.
The law is done!
I looked up and saw that there was no sign of thunder. I found a stone under the tree that was above the water and sat down cross-legged.
Close your eyes and calm down.
The mind and thoughts are connected along the mysterious induction.
Then "open your eyes" again.
Li Changan became a small fish in the current.
Drifting with the current, through meadows and mire, into village lanes, and into dark, narrow ditches.
The ditch has complicated twists and turns.
I don't know how many gaps I got through, how many obstacles I bypassed, and then merged into a "lake" with the water flow.
There is an undercurrent hidden in the "lake", which pulls the small fish down and is swallowed up by a gap at the bottom of the "lake".
After the gap is another tunnel.
Follow the tunnel, all the way down, down, and down again.