The rustling night wind shook the chill all over the ground, and the thin clothes were even more unable to stop me in the middle of the night, so much so that even my body seemed to be covered with frost, and I felt indescribably uncomfortable.
The ghostly houses were right in front of her, and Yuan Ziyi had no idea of exploring again. She also didn't know why Jiang Wen had to come here in the dark and face to face with these heart-stopping things.
Copper boats on the sea, underwater ghosts, strange corpses in the halls, and long men in sackcloth, these strange rumors spread in the countryside lingered in her mind, and also lurked in the middle of the night, as if a thin plush claw would poke out from the darkness at any time.
Pounce on yourself from an invisible corner.
Yuan Ziyi refused to admit that she was scared, but she couldn't help but have her own thoughts.
At first, she chose to walk at the back, so that she could see the two people in front of her at any time, which would bring a sense of security. But soon, she noticed that there was a rustling sound following behind her. The faster you move, the faster it will go.
If you are slow, it is also slow. With malice and insidiousness, it seems to be following you invisibly.
So she quickened her pace again, simply passed the two people in front of her and walked in front of the team, seemingly fearlessly leading the way, and soon arrived at the door of the house she was familiar with before.
But this time, she only felt that the rustling branches of the dense trees in front and back of the house were hung with disturbing strange shadows. When the cold insects were all gone, only the waning moon was left, as pale as smoke.
It seems to be shining but not shining, and the coldness lies on the horizon that is not far away. What I see is bleak, like the dream I woke up in the middle of the night in Mount Emei when I was a child.
Yuan Ziyi ignored the open door and deliberately pretended to go to the backyard to investigate, so that he could avoid the appalling black coffin in the hall and avoid the heartfelt disgust that death brought to him.
"It's a coffin!"
Yuan Ziyi took two steps toward the back of the house, then suddenly backed away quickly with an exclamation, as if he had bumped into something extremely unexpected, and hid behind Yan Yongchun.
When Yan Yongchun heard the sound, he was immediately alert. His body rose up like an electric shock, and he twisted the three joints and nine joints to the left. His left arm stretched out his ulna like a knife. He could meet the enemy with his fists at any time. He faced the unpredictability with cold eyes.
of darkness.
Jiang Wen took two steps forward and instantly saw the twisted and dark shadow crawling beside the courtyard wall, like a frightening shadow in a deep pool and spring.
"Don't be nervous, you saw it wrong. That's not a coffin, it's clearly a wooden plank used on ships."
In the dark environment, Yuan Ziyi apparently mistook the black-painted sampan in the backyard for a coffin leaning against the wall of the courtyard. He instantly thought of many disturbing things and mistook himself.
Startled.
Jiang Wen stepped forward and knocked on the shell of the ship's plank. He found that the keel of the ship's plank was hard and the pattern was straight. It was like jade to the touch and iron to the buckle. It was obviously a good piece of anti-corrosion wood, but the color was a bit off.
auspicious.
Yuan Ziyi slowly poked his head out and glanced at the courtyard. The unnaturalness in his expression gradually faded away, but his tone still sounded a little unbelievable, and he couldn't help but take a second look.
"This...the color is too similar!"
Jiang Wen frowned and thought for a while, then added.
"Well, you may be right about one thing. The ship plank and the coffin in the house may really be made of the same kind of wood that is resistant to rot and decay."
The boats used by the living are made of the same material and the same color as the coffins of the dead. Zhangqiugang Village doesn't know why there is such a custom, but it reminds Jiang Wen of the boat coffins in the Wuyi Mountains, which makes him feel like he is home.
.
Unfortunately, the faint stench in the room interrupted the association. Apparently, after being stored for several days, the corpse that had been soaked in water and drowned would inevitably decay and rot even in the cold winter. Burial was already an imminent matter.
"Master Jiang, I think it would be best not to act rashly in this house."
Yan Yongchun said with a slight worry, "The villagers said that ghosts first appeared in this room. Ziyi also encountered ghosts here, which means there must be something wrong inside and it is not advisable to enter head-on."
In order to strengthen his persuasion, Yan Yongchun also specifically expressed his own experience, "I have checked many times during the day before, and I just felt dizzy."
Yuan Ziyi quickly echoed: "Yes, I also think there is nothing to stay in this ghost place. If you are unwilling to do so, Master Jiang, why not go to the riverside to investigate."
But Jiang Wen's attitude was extremely firm, and he deliberately said in a relaxed and teasing tone: "Miss Yan, don't worry, you'll be fine. It's okay if you can't go through the main entrance. We can just change the direction and go in."
Since ancient times, life and death are separated, and springs and springs are not connected, so fear can lead to fear, and fear can lead to disgust and pity, which can lead to a life of compassion. The Buddhists also have a practice method called White Bone View, which is one of the five Buddhist Zen methods.
Usually the purpose of entering the bones from impurity is to extinguish the desire for the physical body. But in the eyes of ordinary people, they will only shy away from the dead body.
Jiang Wen also once thought that compared to the statement of extinguishing color and deep greed, perhaps the White Bone View is a way to see through the great terror, and this terror comes from the famous "uncanny valley effect".
The dead corpses were all once members of the human race, and as entities in the uncanny valley are sufficiently anthropomorphic that they can even be mistaken for members of the human species when static.
But when people observe unconsciously, they will find flaws, such as purple blood vessels, rotten flesh, collapsed skin, and maggots breeding. Then unintentionally, these abnormal human-like characteristics will appear in the human gene pool.
Potential impact, warning to observers.
This is true for corpses, so why isn't it true for things like "ghosts"? At least they all look like humans, but they are not human.
The harsh scratching of nails can cause inner disgust and discomfort, precisely because this sound was once used by ancient apes struggling to survive in the dense forest to convey danger signals.
As for the uncanny valley effect on humanoids, this fear deeply embedded in genes is so specific that Buddhism, which is well versed in human nature, has to use methods to restrain it. Does this mean that in the process of human evolution?
, we once had to avoid an existence that looked very human, but was extremely dangerous...
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The three of them stayed for a while, and finally entered the village house.
Zhangqiugang Village is not considered barren. The village also has the traditional Lingnan "three rooms and two corridors" form, which is very neatly arranged. From a plan view, it has a symmetrical triple courtyard layout. The main building has three bays and two corridor houses in front.
and patio, so it is called "three rooms and two corridors".
The history of houses like this can be traced back to the Han Dynasty tomb utensils unearthed in the suburbs of Guangzhou, and they are obviously the product of the integration of Han culture into Lingnan.
Jiang Wen was the first to open the back door and found that the courtyard in front of him was a single-story structure, with the hall in the center, rooms on both sides, and the kitchen and utility room on both sides of the patio.
But when I opened the firewood door and looked at it, I saw that the things stored inside were empty. The charcoal ash in the stove was full of moisture. Only the pots and pans were left here due to the hasty departure, but they were all covered with a layer of moisture.
layer of dust.
The faint stench lingered over Zhangqiugang Village, so that the originally bright moonlight began to dimly shine, as if it was separated by a layer of gauze, and it could not be seen clearly. There was obviously no fog at the end of the village road, but it always seemed like there was
Something is wandering around.
Jiang Wen decided to enter through the back door, and Yuan Ziyi followed in a circuitous way. The three of them followed each other and entered the empty hall. They saw nothing except the shadow of the oil lamp, but they could already see through the door.
In the corner of the black coffin, the sound of dripping water under the feet still sounded slowly throughout the night, dripping onto the hard and messy ground.
"The corpse will be toxic if left for a long time. I'll just go up and take a look. Don't get too close."
Jiang Wen confessed first, then covered his nose with his hand and slowly looked at the dead body in the black coffin with bulging eyeballs.
It seemed to contain so much resentment that its eyes were filled with anger, staring at the top of the beam with its pale pupils, and it continued and stiffly maintained the appearance of exhaling its last breath before death.
"Miss Yan, when were these villagers fished out?"
Jiang Wen looked at it intently and suddenly asked.
Yan Yongchun looked at the body warily and whispered: "It was about five days ago. It could not be salvaged before, and it was not until five days ago that it drifted ashore one after another. Unfortunately, the body was completely damaged, as if it had been bitten by some aquatic species..."
The corpse, which had been soaked and turned white, had begun to swell and burst the exposed skin. Jiang Wen indeed found that the corpse was covered with scars, and there were even a few deep wounds on the bones of the arms, chest and abdomen, which easily reminded people of minions.
The ferocious water dragon lurks in the dark seabed, hungry for their flesh and blood.
When external fears are internalized in the heart, they will become ghosts in the darkness.
You must know that the ancients were not so superstitious that they were full of foolish opinions and harbored ghosts and foxes. At least Wang Mingqing of the Song Dynasty expressed it very clearly in "Toujia Lu": "Thunder, sudden lightning, heavy rain, fierce wind, surging waves, dragons
The sight of a dragon sloughing off can also be said to be strange! It has its own purpose to look at, and it is habitual, so it is not strange. The behavior of ghosts and gods is like a stone speaking in Jin Dynasty, a god descending into the wild, Qi Huan's disease, and rapid life.
Is it okay to think otherwise if I keep the written biography?"
Ordinary things that have never been seen before are called strange, and ordinary principles that are difficult to comprehend are called ghosts and gods. When they see things that cannot be explained by the knowledge system, they will be afraid of them and keep them at a distance, and then respectfully record them on paper.
The Confucian kings of the Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties pursued the undeniability of ghost stories from the two dimensions of natural phenomena and historical narratives. At the same time, Zhu Xi used questions and answers with students to explore the concepts of ghosts and gods and the authenticity of ghost stories, so as to avoid people falling into
A vicious circle of bottomless suspicion.
But what is interesting is that on the one hand, Zhu Xi constantly persuaded the students that "the ghosts and gods are secondary, and the invisible shadow is difficult to understand." On the other hand, when the students told about ghosts and strange things, and said that such stories "
What the book said and what others said cannot be trusted. It must be seen by oneself." Zhu Xi retorted: "I just haven't seen it before."
According to Jiang Wen's guess, Zhu Xi must have been thinking about those strange things and immortals on Wuyi Mountain when he said this.
"You see, the bones and flesh between his upper and lower arms are torn apart and crumbling, with only a few strands of skin and flesh remaining connected. They should have been torn apart by the wind and waves in the water. There must have been strong undercurrents on the seabed on the day he went to sea."
The corpse is the last words of the deceased. If you just sit back and ignore these clues, you will waste the truth that is right in front of you. Jiang Wen leaned over the coffin and carefully inspected the traces of the corpse, ignoring the hideous and terrifying signs.
Epidermis, slowly determined some things.
"It is true that this dead body died of drowning. At least the suspicion of murder has been avoided. The direct cause of his death was drowning. Compared with other disasters at sea, there is nothing unusual."
The disenchantment of the dead is itself a very simple matter.
First of all, the cause of death of the corpse was drowning and wind and waves. Although the wounds on the body were horrific, it could still be seen that they were caused by sharp rocks scraping the shells. The shells attached to them were as sharp as knives, so they could naturally be cut to this extent.
Secondly, the body did not seem to have been soaked in the water for as long as Yan Wing Chun said. The tragedy of the boat capsizing supposedly happened ten days ago, and it took five days to salvage it, but this body does not seem to have experienced such a long time at all.
On the contrary, it is fresh and a bit strange, and presumably that is why it is considered to be a terrifying thing with deep resentment and rigidity.
Finally, all in all, Jiang Wen didn't think that such an ordinary corpse had the ability to scare the whole village to the point of restlessness, let alone make Yan Yongchun tense up as soon as he entered the house, and his Wing Chun skills never relaxed for a moment.
.
"Miss Yan, tell me honestly, have you seen any other strange things here?"
Yan Yongchun and Yuan Ziyi were originally standing on the left side of the coffin facing the gate, just one step behind Jiang Wen. At this time, Jiang Wen, who was carefully examining the autopsy, suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the two of them. Yuan Ziyi was frightened.
I jumped, thinking something appeared behind me, and looked behind me as if I was frightened.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Head Jiang is indeed very discerning, and things are just as you said..."
Yan Yongchun sighed slightly, but his expression seemed to be relieved of some invisible burden, and he finally told what he had seen and experienced a few days ago.
"Three days ago at midnight, I bumped into a ghoul in the village. At that time, I was opening the door to go out. I felt that it was pitch black outside. I could neither see the road nor the lights. But all of a sudden, there was a sudden flash of light at the crack of the door.
The face looked like a living person, staring at me uncertainly."
Yan Yongchun pointed to the front door and explained why he did not want to go in or out through the door, "The ghost was as bloated and huge as a pile of cotton, and the top almost overflowed the courtyard wall. Its belly protruded like a gourd, and it had a vaguely human face.
The outline of it. I waved my palm and hit it, but it was like hitting the air. It squirmed and suddenly disappeared into the alley next door, never to be seen again."
When Yan Yongchun said this, his body trembled unnaturally. He had doubts about his own beliefs, and he was even more confused about the idea of creating a boxing technique that he had been looking forward to to rescue the weak and in danger.
Others may not understand, but Jiang Wen knows this feeling very well. Even if he has great martial arts skills and godlike swordsmanship, facing the barbarians, Xi Zhi can only rely on the courage in his heart to move forward and walk alone.
It's like walking on thin ice.
"Miss Yan, martial arts cannot solve all problems, but martial arts is your own path. If you don't follow it, no one can help you follow it."
Jiang Wen looked at Yan Yongchun's haggard face, his eyes full of determination and encouragement.
No wonder he always felt that Yan Yongchun's demeanor was a bit weird. Yan Yongchun was enlightened and determined enough, so she had already touched the boundaries of martial arts in advance. This can't be said to be a good thing, but it can't be said to be a bad thing. What she lacked was just indifference.
All the enthusiasm.
Ever since he entered the Nanhai Ancient Temple, Jiang Wen noticed that the atmosphere inside was abnormal. There was something extremely depressing and extremely sensitive that was affecting people's perceptions, so much so that even Yuan Ziyi, who had just arrived, would have hallucinations under the influence.
, I saw something strange in Zhangqiugang Village.
The weird atmosphere is so pervasive that even if they rely on the protection of the gods of the ancient temple, the villagers still cannot get relief from it. Their hearts at this moment should be mixed with the fear of the death of their loved ones and the onset of nightmares, huddled in the deserted ancient temple late at night.
In the film, even Yan Wing Chun is on the verge of reaching his limit and may fall into the same collapse at any time.
The current situation can still be controlled by Yan Wing Chun's force, but if this continues, the future situation can be foreseen. This phenomenon often occurred in ancient wars. Although it did not occur frequently, once it occurred it would affect the entire battle situation.
That is Yingxiao.
The so-called camp roar refers to a situation where a sergeant becomes nervous and suddenly the entire battalion becomes excited, collapses, and collapses for thousands of miles. In severe cases, people will fight each other like crazy until they die. Because they cannot distinguish between friends and foes at night, and
It is easy to have a roaring situation, so howling often occurs at night, which can also be called night terrors.
Sometimes, the more people, the better.
Judging from Jiang Wen's conversation just now, even the most knowledgeable and experienced elders in the village still filled their words with the weird superstitions and taboos of Jiangwan Ancient Village, and maintained a very fearful attitude towards the bizarre things in front of them.
manner.
It is difficult to tell whether the ghosts they saw were the fear of violent death or the longing for their loved ones, but there is no doubt that they all believed that as the person who sent them to the dragon boat, they themselves were burdened with
Inescapable guilt.
Jiang Wen didn't know how to resolve it. After all, prejudices are a big mountain, and understandings formed over decades are even more deeply ingrained. It's not like someone's words of unique insights can make everyone wake up.
The same pressure, the same confusion, the same bewilderment. Incidents like Yingxiao not only happened in Zhangqiugang Village, a place where information is limited and strange stories are common, but they are not uncommon even in real life hundreds of years later.
.
Take the not-so-distant 2012 as an example. There are many people in global religions who shout doomsday slogans and deceive themselves. Even being safe and sound can be attributed to sincere prayers. To a certain extent, this is also true.
Is it just a spontaneous, self-generated, and self-reinforcing "camp roar"?
Guiding the effective venting of emotions may also be a means of solving problems.
"I understand, the method of living in the Yangzhai in the shadows and keeping the housekeepers is a trick that someone came up with after the talisman failed. He wanted to use magic to defeat magic, and superstition to defeat superstition. Once the villagers became accustomed to dead bodies, the dead would turn into bones.
After that, all fear naturally disappeared.”
Jiang Wen sighed slowly and said, "This man is so profound in humane law, but he understands human nature so well, but he shouldn't be unable to see that, Miss Yan, you may not be able to hold on until the matter is over, right..."
The god on the red paper still had his eyes wide open with anger, his beard spread out, and he was silently alone in the hall. It seemed that there was a circle of divine light turned into anger that enveloped the place, suppressing the cold wind and rain that filled the place with his anger.
Ghostly.
Jiang Wen tried to get closer to the other party's thoughts and search for clues. However, the long-suppressed environmental rendering in his heart was loosened because of this. It seemed to directly tell him that something not good appeared in the darkness.
Jiang Wen took a step slowly and looked thoughtfully at the night outside the house. The sound of dripping water from the bottom of the black coffin suddenly accelerated at this moment, resounding clearly through the house. From behind the door, there were constant knocks on the door.
, the violent sound of objects colliding, as if something invisible was surrounding this place, waiting for an opportunity to launch an attack.
"Don't be afraid, it's just causing trouble."
Jiang Wen raised his head calmly and slashed at the divine case in the hall with the ancient bronze sword. He cut off a piece of wood with one strike. The flying wood chips caused a huge noise, which instantly overwhelmed the knocking sound coming from the kitchen in the afternoon.
, everything was silent again.
Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun lowered their heads and remained silent at this time, as if they were unaware of the strange sound. Their eyes were full of confusion and confusion, and even Jiang Wen, who was so close, could not detect them.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But at this moment, the open door was suddenly blown by the strong wind, and the white moldy talismans fluttered like thousands of wings.
Moths were about to fly, but on the tall cypress tree outside the door, two red eyes suddenly lit up, like lantern eyes, and a shadow deeper than the darkness sat on the branches.
The shadow was like a humanoid figure with broad shoulders but no head. It was like a severed head directly connected to a huge body part like a wheel. It folded a pair of huge wings. The huge red light shined dangerously, staring at the river. Hear three people.
Jiang Wen was shocked. He was surprised not only by the other person's inhuman appearance, but also by the fact that the other person closely resembled the terrifying figure in his mind - but this appearance should have been on November 12, 1966, near West Virginia, USA. It was only seen in the local cemetery!
"Just in time to see the sword!"
The white jade snake-cutting sword turned into a rainbow and flew away. Jiang Wen was like a dragon emerging from the water, suddenly leaping to the level of a tree branch more than ten feet away, and using mysterious and mysterious sword moves, he pounced on the headless figure from all directions, killing any possibility of the opponent's escape.
But the unfavorable sword move seemed to fall on the air with nowhere to rest. The strange shape on the tree suddenly stood up, split and shattered into countless star points, just like this, the nearby land and walls were heard from the river. , the corpses were instantly pulled out of the air, gathered into an indescribable dark object, and shot straight into the sky!
Jiang Wen's Qing Gong strength dissipated and fell back to the ground. Suddenly, he realized that the strange things in his field of vision had disappeared. The eyes of Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun slowly recovered their brightness. They suddenly came back to their senses, but they couldn't help but gasp out of fear. gas.
"The ghoul they were talking about turned out to be this thing!"
Jiang Wen looked at the scattered black shadows blending into the night sky, and immediately thought of something recorded in ancient books, called 皚.
Most people may have never heard of the word "皚", and even this word is a rare word. However, there are many records about it in ancient books, but usually there are only a few words in the history of the Song Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, or scattered. Scattered in county annals in various places.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that on Renyinshuo, the sixth month of the sixth month of the Apocalypse, "the red ball rolled out of the Huzai Gate Fire Temple. There were thousands of fireflies at the corners of the front gate tower, and they combined like a wheel." "Sui Shu" records that later Qi Dynasty In March of the fourth year of the Heqing Dynasty, "something fell in the palace. It was red in color, shaped like several buckets, and followed by stars like small bells."
The "Puning County Chronicle" was more specific and also wrote down its name: "In the summer of Guiwei in the 16th year of Chongzhen, there was a flow of demons flying like fireflies. People made Chongzong, and when they spread, they scattered like countless fireflies. When gathered together, the light is like a bucket.”
This thing usually confuses people's ears and eyes, and occasionally there are incidents of attacking people and injuring people, often after major disasters, and there are actually some more famous incidents abroad. For example, George Washington encountered strange things during the American Revolutionary War. During World War II, when the British and American air forces conducted air raids on Germany, they encountered a large number of green objects. At first, they thought they were some kind of secret air force weapon or aircraft of the German army...
Hui, this may be the most harmless monster, or it may be the most dangerous thing. It is just a thing that people create and fear.
And all He had to do was give us a gentle push at the beginning of everything...