Mr. Zhuan, who was standing on the bow of the boat, ignored the rocking of the wooden boat and looked steadily at the water, with a proud smile on his face.
After Chujiu explained it, I also started to feel shocked.
I have known that jujube is one of the five evil-fighting trees since I was very young, but I have never heard of such a large lightning strike tree, let alone seen it.
The bracelet that Master Vidyadhara gave me years ago was made of thunderbolt wood. When I heard that I gave it to Xiaoyu, the distressed look on his face left a deep impression on me to this day.
According to Chujiu, there is probably no other lightning strike tree of this size in the world.
If placed in the largest Taoist temple, it would be enough to make a wooden sword for each Taoist priest. All the Taoist priests in a Taoist temple would hold such a magical weapon in their hands, and the Taoist temple's strength would instantly rise to the top.
After Chujiu finished speaking, I looked at the wooden boat again and never worried that it would fall into the water.
"You have some knowledge, please pass me that cock."
The pride in Mr. Zhuan's tone was even greater. No one would be able to hide his pride if someone found out that he was carrying a treasure, but others would still worry about being robbed.
The wooden boat floated to a position near the center of the river.
Mr. Zhuan took the big rooster handed to him on the ninth day of the lunar month, took one look at it and nodded with satisfaction. You probably couldn't buy such a strong rooster for twenty yuan.
"Uh, Guo Guo, give me another twenty yuan tomorrow and I'll give it to people secretly."
The wooden boat suddenly picked up speed, and there was a faint sound of wind in my ears.
This speed was no less than that of the fastest stretch of river when the bamboo raft floated down the mountain from Grandma Jian Shu’s village later that year.
The effect of half a bottle of Laobaigan is now showing, and the cold wind blowing on my face just feels a little cold.
But looking at Chujiu’s red ears, I guess high alcohol only makes us less aware of the cold, not really not cold.
"Master Brick, this wooden boat has no wood pulp. How do you control its speed?"
Chujiu lowered his body and tried to hide himself in the middle of the boat.
Occasionally, we encounter one or two big waves, and the height of the water wave is just a hair away from rushing into the boat. It is definitely a lie to say that we are not worried, but I just believe in Mr. Zhuan more in my heart.
The wooden boat drifted faster and faster. Mr. Zhuan stood firmly on the bow. Hearing Chujiu's questions, he showed a rare normal smile.
"This is my unique secret. Do you want to learn it? I can accept you as my apprentice. It will only be a matter of time before you surpass me if you have the foundation in Taoism."
There was undisguised expectation in Mr. Zhuan's eyes, and he stared blankly at Chujiu.
"Why do you want me to be your disciple?"
Chujiu waved his hand, it was more comfortable to be a little Taoist priest, without so many rules.
"Who else wants to accept you as your apprentice?"
Mr. Zhuan looked at the river in front of him, turned around and asked curiously.
"Just that Indian man Ivan Qiaobai."
After Chujiu finished speaking, Mr. Zhuan's eyes flashed with surprise. He looked at Chujiu again and shook his head with a sigh.
I remembered the conversation I had with my grandfather on the night of the first day of the lunar new year. My grandfather said that the most confusing thing for people of their generation right now is apprenticeship.
It can be seen from Ivan Qiao to Mr. Zhuan that after seeing Chujiu, they all wanted to recruit disciples.
"Master Brick, why are you asking me? I'm not sure I am willing."
I looked at Chujiu's little round face. Is this guy so cute? Is it because he is a born Taoist boy as my uncle said? I felt a little jealous.
"You? Let's forget it! You are not suitable for this bowl of rice. If I accept you as my apprentice, you will probably die before I die."
Just when I was extremely depressed, Mr. Zhuan added another sentence.
"If you don't die, it won't be you anymore."
Chujiu laughed and said that I just felt uncomfortable because of nothing, and then asked Mr. Zhuan what immortality meant and that it was not me anymore.
Mr. Zhuan frowned, and after two or three seconds, he said softly: Who wouldn't want to live for two more days? Even if it's not his own body.
Chujiu and I seemed to understand. Mr. Zhuan sighed, there are too many untouchable beings in the river.
After adding this sentence, I understood. Even though my twin-soul destiny has survived the biggest disaster at the age of twenty-one, I will still be at the mercy of others when encountering an existence that defies heaven. There are many such defiances in the Yellow River.
The existence of heaven.
"Hey, Mr. Zhuan, just tell me what did my grandpa do on your boat last time?"
Seeing the evil smile on Chujiu's face, I quickly changed the topic.
"Yes, Master Zhuan, just tell us about Master Qin. We are not outsiders."
Chujiu looked at Mr. Zhuan expectantly for a moment.
"Not an outsider? Could it be an insider? I can only tell you that I sent him to meet someone. As for what Qin De wanted to do with that person, I don't know."
After getting acquainted with Mr. Zhuan, I found that Mr. Zhuan’s irritating way of communicating can sometimes be quite funny.
"Meeting someone? Meeting whom?"
Chujiu became even more curious when he heard Mr. Zhuan's reply, and simply moved a little closer to the front cabin.
Zhuan Ye returned to his previous attitude of ignoring everything, staring at the river and ignoring Chujiu.
Chujiu glanced at me and curled her lips towards Mr. Zhuan.
During this period of time together, we also discovered that there was no way we could ask about the things Zhuan Ye didn’t want to talk about.
I smiled helplessly and motioned Chujiu to sit down obediently.
Just when I thought Master Zhuan would not tell us anything, Master Zhuan spat out two words coldly.
"River God!"
The air suddenly became quiet, and I could clearly hear the sound of my own heartbeat.
I believe Chujiu is not much better, you can tell by looking at him holding on to the boat board and digging his nails on it unconsciously.
"River God? River God is actually a human being?"
After a while, as soon as Chujiu murmured to himself, Mr. Zhuan yelled: "Shut up!"
With the sudden shaking of the hull, we realized that we were floating on the water at this moment.
I glared at Chujiu fiercely, and Chujiu pointed to his mouth in embarrassment, indicating that he would stop talking nonsense.
For the rest of the journey, none of the three of us spoke.
Listening to the sound of wind in my ears, I mentally calculated the distance to my destination.
According to the content in the information, it is not difficult to estimate that our starting point is about twenty miles away from Guitou Bay.
Seeing a sand dredger docked at the pier on the left side of the river, I believed my judgment even more. There was still ten miles to go from Guitou Bay, and it would only take ten minutes at most at the current speed.
Sure enough, the speed of the wooden boat slowed down after a while.
The originally straight river formed a big bend under the stone cliff a mile away and flowed to the left.
Seen from a distance in the night, the towering black stone cliffs give people an extremely oppressive feeling.
The wooden boat moved forward slowly for a while, and Chujiu screamed and pointed to the river bank on the right.
"Guo Guo, look over there!"
Following the direction of Chujiu's finger, a rope as thick as a finger is tied to the boulder on the river beach on the right, and the other end of the rope is soaked in the river water.
This is the rope Mengkou left here before, which means that dozens of meters ahead is the dangerous Guitou Bay.