But when Zheng Xiu read the record about "Cotton Sloughing", he blinked and completed the words on the cover.
"Huh? The strong man actually knows the secret of 'Eternal Darkness'?"
The old man said in surprise.
Zheng Xiu shook his head and did not answer. After reading the record about "Cotton Sloughing" with a strange look on his face, he turned to the first page and read the outline.
After reading it in one breath, Zheng Xiu roughly understood it.
The person who wrote this book does not really know that there is eternal darkness, or has faced it directly.
Just as primitive people were afraid of the dark night in the ancient times without fire, so the ancient people were in awe of the unknown.
All fear comes from the "unknown" and from lack of firepower.
Mian was depressed from then on, but ten days later, Mian heard the sound of a baby crying at home, and finally found the baby in a sealed box.
They looked at Zheng Xiu and Ruchen as if they were looking at two monsters.
Zheng Xiu pulled out one, and there was nothing strange about the baby. It still didn't cry or fuss. Speaking of which, Zheng Xiu's initial feeling was not wrong. The baby's "cry" didn't sound like crying, but more like a kind of cry. "Scream" is not a sound that human babies can make at all.
Human beings are not human beings.
Such horrifying "stories" are recorded in ancient books in obscure words.
Zheng Xiu's brows jumped: "Twenty years ago?"
Zheng Xiu shook his head: "I didn't plan to delay for too long. In fact, I roughly thought of a solution when I checked the baby just now. Now that I have read the "Eternal Secret Record" preserved by Jingwu, I am even more sure. If everything goes well, it should be there tomorrow. This matter can be solved before it gets dark. The worst result is that they will miss the mark and follow their own native methods. Furthermore, when I was looking for cotton sloughs, they collected supplies for me, which also saved me a lot of time. Less time, two birds with one stone.”
"steamed stuffed bun?"
The more Zheng Xiu read, the more frightened he became.
He made a list and stated his requirements.
leave.
I don’t know how many years ago, the ancients imagined that the world is divided into two sides, one is the "eternal world" and the other is the "eternal darkness". The two sides are not connected with each other. But once strange things happen in the ordinary world, they speculate that there are evil things running out of the eternal darkness. Come out and cause harm to the world.
After sitting down, the old man's back gradually became straighter and straighter, and his cloudy eyes became brighter, as if he had changed into a different person in just a few seconds.
"Human antler" only looks like a baby, but in fact, it is a kind of insect called "cotton slough".
Great Success Vision.
Cotton slough is one of them.
"Follow the clue and follow the clue."
Zheng Xiu knew that time was tight and didn't want to waste time. He didn't talk nonsense at the moment and let Ruchen catch up.
Zheng Xiuyi said something as if he was pointing, and then walked towards the woman.
This ancient book also writes about many strange creatures, called demons and monsters, such as a carp with a human face, a tiger with an eight-legged spider body, a fish that wanders the world, and a sun chaser.
There was a voice in his heart that kept telling him that all this had nothing to do with him. But Zheng Xiu could not explain this unique time point as "coincidence" anyway.
Following the "silk" left by the cotton slough, you should be able to feel the nest of the cotton slough.
It can grow to the size of a child in three months in one month.
The old man was overjoyed when he heard this: "Seriously?" But after the joy, the old man looked sad: "However, ancient books record that the alchemists of that time were still burned."
Grass!
Why on earth!
If he first came into contact with this matter because of Ruchen's persistence and conscience, when Zheng Xiu learned that Mianshe had reappeared after twenty years, his mentality was slightly different.
When he looked down, Zheng Xiu found that the "human antler" held in the woman's arms had "silk threads" attached to it.
"I will solve the problem for you. Zheng is a psychic like the alchemists back then."
Zheng Xiu never explained. Ruchen was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot and kept scratching his head. When he saw Zheng Xiu raising his middle finger towards him, he stretched out his hand and shook it on Zheng Xiu's finger: "Brother Zheng, what are you pointing at me for?"
Under his spiritual vision, Zheng Xiu discovered that there was a green light spot floating in the sky above Jingtang Town. Countless light spots danced with the wind, sometimes upwards and sometimes downwards.
"So that's it." Zheng Xiu wondered if the alchemist who was the first to discover Mianshe had also seen the same scene, and then he came up with the idea of burning Mianshe to death with fierce fire.
In other words, it is due to human beings' "ignorance" and "weakness".
Ruchen looked at Zheng Xiu's weird actions, but he couldn't see Zheng Xiu's weird things. He was wondering if Brother Zheng had an itchy scalp. He was about to pay attention to it, but saw Zheng Xiu's eyes were firm and did not look like he was playing, so he obeyed. Close your mouth and watch what happens.
Mian and her husband were shocked. The mud seemed to have a spirit, slipped into the crack of the door and disappeared into the night.
"Xiao Zhao, do you still remember the 'Sun Chaser's Theory'?"
The book says that "cotton slough" is invisible and colorless and difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
Since ancient times, to solve the problem of "cotton slough", the only way to prevent further reproduction of cotton slough is to burn all "human velvet" and pregnant women with cotton slough with fire.
Before the founding of Daqian, on a starless night, it is said that there was a young and beautiful woman named "Mian" in an unknown village. She was pregnant for ten months, but during her labor, she gave birth to a "child" that looked like mud. .
Farewell to the Jingwu family, the doors and windows of the houses in Jingtang Town are still closed.
Xiaozhao helped his grandfather back into the house.
Another day, Mian heard a baby crying again in another room at home. When he opened it, he saw another baby.
"Don't worry, Zheng has no ill intentions." Zheng Xiu showed a charming smile to Cuihua and reached out his hand at lightning speed.
Twenty years ago.
The frightened man opened his hands to block Zheng Xiu and Ruchen.
Zheng Xiu rolled his eyes, but soon he discovered something. Ruchen's fingers passed through the cotton thread without any hindrance.
The appearance of the slough looks like that of a normal child, except that it is exceptionally quiet, does not cry or fuss, and grows very quickly.
The baby's eyebrows were like cotton, and the woman missed her baby so much that she thought it was her baby's transformation and rebirth, so she named her baby "Sheo".
But on second thought, Zheng Xiu denied this possibility. If the alchemist could really see the "silk thread", he would naturally be able to follow the clues and find Mianshe's hiding place. How could he use such cruelty to kill one thousand enemies and damage himself eight hundred? Method. Psychics and psychics cannot be generalized. Zheng Xiu had to achieve great success to see deeply. Presumably, the alchemist's level of psychics back then was not as deep as Zheng Xiu's now.
Maybe Brother Zheng’s rule for performing surgery is to scratch his forehead? While thinking about it, Ruchen touched his bald head out of habit.
The old man didn't answer and asked suddenly.
Ordinary successful [Inspiration] cannot be seen clearly, but under "concentration", Zheng Xiu's vision suddenly changed, and the outlines of the characters and the eaves on the ground were simultaneously dyed with a layer of gorgeous ink light and shadow.
"It doesn't matter, if it can't be solved, you can burn it again." Zheng Xiu said in a neither happy nor sad tone: "In exchange, Zheng hopes to receive compensation for this matter."
Zheng Xiu touched his eyebrows with his fingers, and a dice moistened with a faint black air came out of his eyebrows.
The old man was overjoyed when he heard Zheng Xiu's request. They had no money, but they needed supplies. As the fifteenth generation of pure witches, he had a certain prestige in the town, so he could easily get what Zheng Xiu needed.
Therefore, this phenomenon was later called "cotton sloughing".
But a door or window secretly opened many gaps. Zheng Xiu and Ruchen were walking on the road. The eyes coming from inside made Zheng Xiu feel uncomfortable.
The invisible "silk thread" was like a spider's thread. After Zheng Xiu pulled it out, the thread actually stuck to Zheng Xiu's finger and extended downward.
"Step aside."
It wasn't until the third time that Zheng Xiu finally triggered [Opportunism] and achieved great success.
Now you have to believe it even if you don’t believe it.
Xiaozhao answered: "I remember. Legend has it that in ancient times there was a man named 'Zhu' who worshiped the scorching sun. One day he ran and ran towards the scorching sun, running through thousands of mountains and crossing thousands of rivers. Finally, he stood on a very high mountain.
, I caught the sun on such a high mountain."
The old man nodded and said with a smile: "Well, just remember, what happens next?"
"Don't make any noise."
The woman only thought that the baby had caught a cold when he was born, but the husband looked more and more strange because the baby looked like cotton and not like him.
The creature that looks like a baby on the surface has actually been replaced by "cotton slough".
"This is?"
Zheng Xiu had seen the baby with his own eyes. If he hadn't used [Inspiration], superficially, the baby would have looked the same as a normal baby and would have been difficult to distinguish.
Two cotton-padded jackets to keep out the cold, firewood, dry firewood, and some coarse grains.
"No..." Zheng Xiu's pupils shrank and he subconsciously held his breath: "It's spores."
Cotton slough, which occurs once every hundred years, appears again after 20 years.
Until the sixth strange baby appeared in the village, someone invited a magician who claimed to be a natural psychic. The magician said that the child was evil, and after a fire burned all the children and the pregnant woman, the baby was finally born.
Ended this matter.
Zheng Xiu and Ruchen returned to the open space where the "purification ceremony" was held. The flames burned out, leaving only a mess.
Shortly after Zheng Xiu and Ruchen left.
Ruchen burst into laughter: "You are really weird! It was you who wanted to burn your wife, and now it's you who jumped out! Since you can watch your wife being burned to death, aren't you making people laugh by being so hypocritical now?
?”
【Concentrate your attention!】
At the end of the record about "Cotton Slough", the author speculated based on the words left by the strange alchemist at that time that Cotton Slough is a kind of "worm" from Changdian. After a hundred years, it will sneak into the belly of pregnant women and eat the babies in the belly.
And replace it. When a pregnant woman gives birth, the newborn cotton slough will escape in the form of "sludge". After a period of development, the human-shaped "human velvet" will be sent to the pregnant woman's home to continue to absorb nutrients and break down more
"Human antler".
What's even stranger is that on top of the dust, there is a thick layer of black crow feathers. The crow feathers are brand new, as if they had just been plucked from the crow.
For things that cannot be explained by "common sense", they range from climate change, the alternation of day and night, to water condensing into ice and fire burning into charcoal. The ancients with rich imagination combined what they saw and heard with certain subjective conjectures to combine some strange phenomena.
Secrets are recorded in this way.
"I didn't mean you."
When Ruchen saw this, he was stunned. He was about to curse a few words, but when he saw the man kneeling on the ground and crying bitterly, he suddenly couldn't curse anymore.
Zheng Xiu waited for a while.
"Go! Follow!"
At the same time, in Mian's village, another pregnant woman also gave birth to a mud baby.
Cotton slough starts out like an infectious disease.
"Why do you believe so much in the ancient books?"
Hearing Zheng Xiu talking to himself, Ruchen quickly asked.
Zheng Xiu shook his head and waved his hand: "No."
He remembered what the master said: There are eight eccentricities in the world, and one stone is owned by strange people. The implication is that everyone in the world is normal, except for thaumaturgis who behave strangely in order to follow all kinds of strange "rules"
, which conforms to the "restrictions" of thaumaturgy and is difficult for ordinary people to understand, so it is called a miraculous person.
"Yes, strong man." The old man smiled helplessly: "The old man had burned human antler with his own hands, and he knew that cotton sloughing was very powerful. After burning the human antler, the old man felt guilty and depressed. He trained Xiaozhao to become the leader of Jingtang Town.
The sixteenth generation of pure witches has returned to his fields."
It was twenty years ago again.
Xiao Zhao wiped off the dust on a stool with his hands and turned a blind eye to Crow Feather in the room. After helping the old man sit down, Xiao Zhao obediently knelt beside the old man's knees and asked with innocent eyes blinking.
The woman was still holding the "human antler" and was sitting on her knees on the ground. The husband at the side did not dare to come forward, but he was obedient.
To be honest, Zheng Xiu had read some ancient folk books like this before he was imprisoned, and they contained all kinds of strange things. However, the things recorded above were too bizarre. In today's world, people still generally believe that the "theory of a round sky and a square earth" is
, it is difficult for Zheng Xiu to regard these strange stories as true.
After careful identification, the light spots turned out to be umbrella-shaped, which reminded Zheng Xiu of a plant called "dandelion".
"What do you want to do to our Cuihua!"
fail.
"Do you still want money?" Xiaozhao suddenly raised his voice and interrupted.
The old man touched Xiaozhao's head and expressed embarrassment: "What the strong man doesn't know is that Jingtang Town is located in a remote place and rarely communicates with the outside world. Living in the town does not use Daqian's coins and gold and silver, but
When bartering, if a strong man seeks wealth, I'm afraid..."
The other residents of the town were also safe.
"As expected of Brother Zheng!" Ruchen smiled and gave Zheng Xiu a thumbs up.
The house had been covered in dust for many years and was covered with cobwebs, so it was obviously uninhabited all year round.
"Grandpa, I haven't seen you for five years, why did you suddenly come back?"
Zheng Xiu had no expression on his face and clenched his fists.
When the special effect disappears, Zheng Xiu throws it away again.
The old man sighed: "Because, about twenty years ago, there was already a cotton slough here."
"That man is really a beast. How could he watch his mother-in-law being burned alive! I might as well slap him to death!"
"What nonsense are you talking about, monk!" When the man heard this, he said angrily: "The Jingwu said that being burned by the fire is purification! Besides, it was Cuihua who didn't want to be separated from the insect! That's not a human being! It's not a human being at all!
It's a bug, wuwuwu... If it weren't for that insect, how could I watch Cuihua being burned to death... Wuwuwu... What did our old Zhang family do wrong to cause God to deal with our Cuihua like this?
Woohoo!”
Cotton slough is called the "100-year-old bug" because this phenomenon occurs every hundred years, mostly in remote places.
Until two months later, the child suddenly fell into a deep sleep and dark green mold spots appeared on his body.
The green light spots were not dense. Zheng Xiu took a few glances and took the time to look for clues.
Ruchen followed Zheng Xiu obediently, jumping up and down, looking very happy, but his face turned sad when he smiled: "Brother Zheng, tell me, if we intervene in this matter, will it delay your rescue of Feng Bei?"
What about the donor?"
Ruchen looked at the obedient husband, suddenly showed a ferocious look on his face, and said something murderous. Then he returned to normal. When he turned to look at Zheng Xiu, he was as simple and calm as the white moonlight. Ruchen touched his bald head and wondered: "Zheng Xiu"
Brother, how are you going to find that insect called cotton slough?"
The man who was furious at first suddenly collapsed and cried bitterly.
Zheng Xiu held down the monk's bald head and resumed breathing. This cotton slough would only seek parasites on pregnant women, swallowing their babies and replacing them. Such a regular reproduction method made Zheng Xiu understand the "spores" in the sky that can only be seen with spiritual vision.
It is harmless to others except pregnant women, otherwise the ancients would have noticed the difference long ago.
Suddenly, Zheng Xiu thought of a strange question. Such a cruel method to solve cotton sloughing. No matter how ignorant a normal person is, they would not believe an outdated ancient book and directly choose to burn pregnant women and children alive.
"Later, the candle melted."
The old man smiled and said: "The candle was melted by the scorching sun because it was too close to the sun..."
The old man said this and closed his eyes.
for a long time.
The old man opened his eyes again: "It's the same if it's too close to the darkness!"