His posture was as determined as a blacksmith striking an iron stone. Unexpectedly, the sound that came back was also like hammering iron.
clang!
A scabbard wrapped in copper skin suddenly came out and was stuck under the dragon-slaying sword. A hand with clear muscles held the other end of the scabbard, as steady as an anvil.
Master Zhou glared at him.
"How dare you! Who dares..."
Before he finished speaking, he felt a pain in his wrist.
The dragon-slaying sword came out of his hand and was thrown high.
Immediately afterwards.
A black shadow quickly enlarged in front of my eyes.
Snapped!
The two back molars, along with about two hundred pounds of fat, flew off the altar in a swirling motion and rolled all the way down the stone steps to the bottom of the bridge.
The servants who were loyal to protect the Lord were blocked by the crowd, and they were knocked around like bowling balls, but they managed to stop the momentum and did not roll all the way down the river.
I lay on the ground feeling dizzy for a while, then I turned over and saw clearly that the meddlesome person was a strange short-haired Taoist priest. The Taoist priest was looking at the dragon-slaying sword in his hand, and then casually put a sword flower on his waist.
He reached out to the Dragon King statue.
Mr. Zhou's anger suddenly turned into panic.
His mouth was trembling, but he didn't say anything.
Wow~
The loud cries shocked both sides of the ancient bridge.
After a brief silence, the crowd was excited.
"What a child!"
"Tsk, what a cruel heart."
"Shh! Don't let his family listen."
The buzz of discussion was getting louder and louder, with doubts, anger, and ridicule all kinds of emotions spreading among the whispers, but the most overwhelming thing was excitement.
Yes.
How can you not be excited?
From the woman appearing to cry, to Mr. Zhou wielding his sword, to the Taoist priest coming on stage to stop it, and finally the baby crying, things developed with ups and downs, it was like the stories and characters in the storybook came to life.
This kind of unusual thing doesn't happen often, and the spectators under the bridge almost cheered and rewarded them with money.
However, in the middle of the "stage", Li Changan was much calmer. After all, the reason why he went to the bridge was because he smelled the human smell wafting from the Dragon King statue.
But he couldn't say he was completely calm, because when he really saw me, he was a wrinkled, ugly baby girl holding up short arms and legs and crying loudly.
Young Taoists are inevitably at a loss.
After panicking for a few seconds, I noticed that the baby was not even wearing a swaddling clothes in the cold autumn wind. I quickly took off my robe, wrapped the baby up, and gently held it in my arms.
Sometimes, Li Changan wonders if he has a thorn on his body. Whenever a child falls into his hands, he always cries.
Just like the baby girl in my arms, after being coaxed for a few times, she cried even harder. I had no choice but to go find the baby's biological mother, and as soon as I turned around, I bumped into Mr. Zhou's eyes.
At this moment.
The red marks on Mr. Zhou's face from being pulled out of the scabbard were still there, but his expression gradually changed from panic to ferocious.
He stared at the Taoist priest with a lot of muscles on his face. It really made people wonder if all his muscles were grown on his face.
"Grab that cow's nose!"
"I'm going to skin him!"
The servants rushed forward in a hurry.
…
They are all ordinary country guys, they don't need to see blood.
Li Changan was too lazy to draw his sword, so he lifted the scabbard and whipped the one in front of him, spinning him in circles.
Unexpectedly, children's moods and anger are just like those of women. They have no reason and no reason. When they see people spinning around and crying out in pain, they actually clapped their little hands and cried out "Ah ah" in order to laugh.
The Taoist priest then became energetic and worked hard to make each "top" spin a few more times, making each spin more beautiful.
However, the "tops" were really unbeatable. After a while, all of them lay down and pretended to be dead and refused to get up. Only Mr. Zhou was left standing there in a daze, with all the flesh on his face slumped down and turned into a big ""
The word "stay".
With such a character and such an expression, it is common for Li Changan to travel all over the country, and the next development is not unexpected.
First, apologize.
"Wait~ don't come over, don't come over!"
Then he screamed with anger and anger.
"You can't touch me! I am the head of the Zhou family, the county captain is my wife's uncle, and the prefect is an old friend of my family..."
Finally?
"It's not my attention, it's not that I want to kill the child, she is a sacrifice demanded by the Bridge God... My child has nothing to do with you, I want you to mind your own business... Leave quickly and leave the child behind, I can forget about it.
"
As Li Changan approached step by step, Mr. Zhou collapsed on the ground and gradually became incoherent. At first, he still refused to plead, but later his tone changed.
The Taoist priest didn't want to talk to him at first, but his stubbornness and stupidity really made people laugh.
He couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.
"Idiot, the Dragon-Slaying Sword cannot be stained with human blood. Which bridge god are you worshiping?"
When Mr. Zhou heard this, he paused in his muttering and slowly lowered his head.
Li Changan saw that his face turned red quickly as if it had been put into a steamer, then he suddenly raised his head and looked at him fiercely.
"You monster! You're a fake! Don't try to deceive me with lies. The master clearly said that as long as..."
As he spoke, he was suddenly stunned, and then he shouted loudly as if he had grasped a life-saving straw:
"Master, Master!"
However, no matter how he shouted or raised his neck and looked around, the master he mentioned was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, there were thousands of pairs of eyes on both sides of the stone bridge to help him find it.
soon.
The wizard, who took off his conspicuous colorful clothes and slipped off the bridge at some point, exposed Xingzang.
He lowered his head to hide his face and wanted to leave quietly, but the onlookers pretended to be nonchalant and moved their feet together to block the road.
After several attempts, until Mr. Zhou gave a cry full of hope, the wizard finally accepted the reality that he could not escape.
The wizard turned around helplessly, looked around at the audience on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and took a deep breath.
"Dear fellow citizens~"
With both voice and emotion.
"Did Mr. Zhou sacrifice that child for the Zhou family? No! It was for the big guys, and for everyone present!"
"This bridge has been too old and has become a spirit. It has evil powers and has evilly cursed Grandpa Dragon King, causing the Dragon King to bring disasters."
"If we don't quickly use human sacrifice to break the evil spell and make the Dragon King angry, everyone will suffer!"
As he spoke, he suddenly pointed at the crowd.
"Xu San'er, are your cats and dogs howling every night for no reason lately?"
The crowd murmured quietly.
"Zhang Laohei, does your hen's new chick have three legs?"
There was whispering among the crowd.
"Granny Zhou, does your newly born grandson have white eyebrows and hair?"
The crowd was buzzing with discussion.
"These strange things are all signs that Grandpa Dragon King is angry!"
He pointed to the winding Snake Creek under the bridge.
"The biggest omen is the river itself! Dear elders, it has rained intermittently for several months this year. Several sections of roads in the mountains have been soaked. Normally, the river would have flooded the fields. But now, the bridge piers
Never failed."
"Look, this is the Dragon King warning us. If we don't break the evil spell, there will be drought in the coming year!"
Li Changan nodded repeatedly as he listened on the bridge.
The flow of water in Snake Creek is indeed strangely small.
As the saying goes, "When something goes wrong, there will be a monster," I actually didn't notice it.
This is true on the bridge, let alone under the bridge.
"The evidence is as solid as a mountain." There were already a lot of voices in the crowd that agreed with the wizard. Many people talked about recent strange things, such as "losing money by playing leaf cards", "not being able to pay for the public food", etc. It turned out that it was all caused by the Dragon King.
disaster.
Seeing that the fire was almost done, the wizard quickly put the fire on Li Changan's head without further ado.
"That Taoist priest was transformed by the Bridge Demon. He wants to cause us to have no income and ruin our family in the coming year..."
At this time.
"evil creature!"
"How dare you deceive the public with your evil words."
There was a sudden loud shout.
Fa Yan strode out from the crowd.
In a few steps, he arrived in front of the wizard.
He reached out and grabbed the wizard's neck firmly.
The wizard was also a burly man, but he struggled to break free, so he had to move his lips and tongue again.
"Okay! No wonder Laoqiao didn't cause trouble earlier or later, but he did it now. It turned out to be a ghost in the mountains. Folks, this monk was transformed by an old bear in the mountains. Quickly kill him!
"
Most of the surrounding villagers have been bewitched by the wizard's words.
The old man persuaded the monk to let go of the wizard.
The reckless ones have already gathered around, no matter what is right or wrong, let's take down the person first.
Fa Yan remains unmoved, but...
"Amitabha."
A Buddhist chant was like a bell, suppressing the din of the whole place.
"Hurry up and reveal yourself!"
The words just fell.
The people who had gathered around suddenly dispersed like a flock of frightened birds in the grass. A man who had tripped over sat on the ground with a pale face, trembling and pointing in the direction of Fa Yan.
"Yao~Yaokai!"
But when I saw what Fa Yan was holding in his hand, there was no wizard anywhere. It was clearly a big python.
Hiss~
The python spit out a long snake letter, wrapped its long body as thick as a sea bowl around Fa Yan, and then slowly tightened it.
Such strangulation is enough to grind rocks and twist flesh and bones into mud, but the law is as strict as the Dharma Protector made of steel in the temple, and even the corners of his clothes are not even wrinkled.
On the contrary, when he tightened his iron palm slightly, the python was so painful that it uttered words.
"Bald Donkey, are you afraid you turned into a nun? Use some strength! If you can't kill grandpa today, I will eat your grandpa alive tomorrow."
Dharma is as peaceful as ever.
"Snake demon, who asked you to incite human sacrifice here."
"Hahaha, bald donkey and that cow nose, it's too late!"
"What's too late?"
"By the time you take off the Dragon-Slaying Sword, you will already be too late!"
The snake demon's answer was clueless, and he kept making "hissing" sounds out of the snake's letter, and his words were unclear, but Fa Yan could extract an uneasy feeling from it that made his hair stand on end.
The palm of the hand unconsciously exerted force, squeezing the snake demon's eyes outward, but it opened its snake kiss and burst out laughing wildly.
"I'm coming!"
What's coming?!
However, there is no need to ask questions anymore, Fa Yan has already heard part of the answer.
It was a "rumbling" sound that came from nowhere, like a drum beat, getting faster and faster, and getting denser and denser, to the point where the ground beneath my feet began to tremble and vibrate like a beaten drum head.
Fa Yan suddenly raised his head.
Birds were flying in the forest in the distance, all kinds of wild beasts were running wildly and neighing in the forest, and the crowd around them was already in chaos.
Some people are running around like headless flies.
Some people were prostrate on the ground, not knowing which gods and Buddhas they were worshiping.
Others cried loudly:
"The earth dragon has turned over!"
earthquake?
Fa Yan intuitively told himself that it was not that simple. He couldn't help but look at the stone bridge, looking for the person who might be able to give him the answer. Li Changan stood with his sword and stared into the distance. Fa Yan was stunned for a moment. After walking together for a long time, he saw Taoist Xuanxiao for the first time. Seeing such beauty.
It's like a sword giving off light.
He couldn't help but follow the Taoist priest's gaze.
Behind him, where the numerous green hills meander from Snake Creek, the endless indigo indigo is being smeared with large swaths of white.
The white color is not the clouds rising from the mountains, nor the rain falling from the sky, but the huge waves rushing out along the river!
The raging torrent rolled up thousands of feet of waves, sometimes whipping the mountains with a roar, and sometimes rising to the blue sky and connecting with the clouds.
Just like the Milky Way.
Just like the sea and the sky are upside down.
Ordinary floods would never have such power.
really.
At the height of the flood peak, a huge snake head like a hill emerged from the waves.
This is a big snake causing a flood!
…………
There is a river beach outside the east gate of Yuhang City.
The flow of water here slows down, causing sedimentation and creating large tracts of reeds.
If it's autumn, on a bright moonlit night, the fine waves on the river are like the gurgling moonlight, just when the reed flowers are blooming, and the white velvet swaying in the wind, just like snowflakes swaying in the moonlight.
It’s a rare beauty, but few people are willing to enjoy it, especially at night.
Probably due to the terrain, floating objects floating upstream often run aground on this river beach. What are most floating on the river these days? Dead people.
However, tonight, this lonely river beach had two visitors.
It was a woman, holding an oil lamp and wearing a jingcai cloth skirt. She looked to be in her twenties and almost thirty years old. Her outline still had the beauty of her youth, but her brows showed age and fatigue.
Yes, there is another little guest, a big black cat nestled in the woman's arms, with a round head and fat belly, and two bright green eyes that are alert to the surrounding movements.
A man and a cat have just arrived at the river.
The woman let out a short exclamation.
There was a monk lying on his back on the river beach, his eyes closed, motionless, and his whole body was wet. It was probably a stranded object that had drifted down from the river.
After being surprised, the woman was not afraid. Instead, she approached carefully, put down the cat, and leaned over to feel the monk's breath.
"Don't worry, girl, the monk is still alive."
The woman shivered with fright and hurriedly raised the oil lamp.
Ahead, the reeds shook, and another short-haired monk emerged.
The short-haired monk was also soaked all over. He held a baby in his arms, wrapped in dry reed velvet flowers, pressed his thumb, and slept soundly.
"Don't be afraid, girl, he is not a bad person." The short-haired monk added, "Is there a doctor nearby? This child seems to be sick."
The woman listened and looked carefully.
Only then did I notice an abnormal blush on the baby's cheeks.
Come up quickly.
"let me see……"
The words just left my mouth.
"Meow!"
The black cat suddenly jumped out, roaring with fur.
The woman stepped forward and took a closer look at the short-haired monk. Her face instantly turned pale.
Suddenly he picked up the big cat and ran away without even paying attention to the oil lamp.
It disappeared like a gust of wind.
The short-haired monk was left behind, or Li Changan was confused, saying that he didn't look like a bandit or bully. Even during the holidays, when his seven aunts and eight aunts introduced him to a blind date, they praised him for his good looks and that he would not suffer anything.
As for scaring away the older girl?
He looked left and right for a long time, and finally found a clue.
The moonlight shines brightly in the sky, but there is no shadow under my feet.