After Chujiu jumped on the boat, he pointed to me the pendant hanging on the bow of the boat.
The pendant is a skull the size of a child's fist. I once suspected it was the skull of an underage monkey.
I asked Chujiu with my eyes. Chujiu shook his head slightly and said that he didn't know either.
"Say what you want to say, be careful not to get sick."
Mr. Brick noticed our little move without even looking back.
Chujiu curled his lips and asked, "Master Zhuan, is that pendant of yours a monkey's skull?"
"To be precise, it should be a water monkey. In some places, it is called a water ghost."
Mr. Zhuan answered casually, as if he was talking about an ordinary and extremely ordinary thing.
I was so stunned as I stared at the pendant that I didn't even notice that the wooden boat started to slide toward the water.
This night, I clearly confirmed in my heart that Mr. Zhuan is an expert, but when I still heard the words "Water Monkey", I couldn't help but think that I still underestimated Mr. Zhuan's strength.
I have heard too many stories about water monkeys since I was a child.
Once I heard my friends tell the story of the Water Monkey. I went home and asked my grandpa if the Water Monkey was really more powerful than the Water Ghost.
Grandpa didn't answer directly, but asked me which one is more powerful in folk tales: water lion ghost, water ghoul, fallen ghoul, drowned ghost, or water ghost?
After thinking about it, in the stories for both adults and children, apart from the water monkey, the water ghost is the most powerful.
Grandpa smiled and touched my head. The names he just asked me were actually the nicknames of water monkeys in different regions.
Whether it is a large river or a remote mountain pond and reservoir, as long as there is water, there must be water monkeys.
The places with the most water monkeys are water sources in the wild.
Water monkeys rely on water to survive. As long as they are out of water for a few minutes, their limbs will become weak, and their skin will quickly dry up and die.
But in the water, the strength of the water monkey is several times greater than that of humans, so once someone is hugged by it in the water, there is only one result.
According to folklore, water monkeys have mysterious powers in the water and can dig under the water and travel through different ponds and rivers.
The water monkey catches a person who has fallen into the water, drags him to the bottom of the water, and covers his orifices with mud, causing him to suffocate to death.
Legend has it that water monkeys like to eat human nails and eyeballs the most, followed by drinking human blood.
I remember my grandfather used one sentence to describe it at that time.
"If I encounter a dragon and a water monkey in the water, and I have to choose to deal with them both, I'd rather choose the dragon."
This sentence does not mean that the water monkey is stronger than the dragon. In terms of strength and status, the dragon can crush the water monkey. It probably only takes one finger to kill the water monkey.
As for why he chose the dragon, grandpa said that you still have a chance of survival if you fight with the dragon. It can be said that you will have a narrow escape from death.
If you fight with a water monkey in the water, you will die without rebirth.
Later I asked my grandfather, is it true that no one can deal with water monkeys in the water?
Grandpa stared at the sky in the distance and pondered for a long time. He sighed and told me yes.
Now that I think about it, grandpa's complicated expression at the time must have been because he missed our master.
Apart from the master, the person in front of me is most likely someone who can fight the water monkey.
"The real person who doesn't show his face is talking about Mr. Zhuan."
Chujiu said that it was recorded in Taoist books that dealing with water monkeys was extremely complicated and required a lot of preparations in advance. He didn't expect Zhuan Ye to be able to kill the water monkeys so easily.
"Haha, you two idiots, which of your ears heard that it was me who killed the water monkey?"
Mr. Zhuan's bellows-voiced laughter was no less penetrating than the so-called ghost's scream at this moment.
Chujiu rubbed his arms back and forth. Needless to say, he was just like me, with goosebumps all over his body.
The image of a master that Mr. Zhuan had just established in my heart disappeared in an instant.
"Hold on tight!"
The bow of the boat tilted upward again, and Mr. Zhuan let out a loud roar, and I realized that the wooden boat had hit the backflow again.
With our previous experience, Chujiu and I clung to the boat's eaves the moment Mr. Zhuan made a sound.
The waves and violent shaking I imagined did not appear.
The wooden boat tilted forward and easily crossed the outermost backflow and became stable again.
"This section of water is relatively calm. As you young people like to say, it is called the calm before the storm. We want to get to that place."
Mr. Zhuan actually had a sense of humor at this moment. I was no longer nervous because of his teasing. When I saw the direction of his fingers, my toes tensed and my heartbeat instantly accelerated.
"Hammer!"
Chujiu's eyes widened, he looked at the center of the whirlpool twenty meters away, and cursed.
A tornado-shaped vortex three to four meters wide, accompanied by the sound of roaring water.
With the naked eye, a tree trunk as thick as a bucket could be seen floating around the whirlpool. It was instantly swallowed up by the whirlpool and disappeared without a trace.
Compared to how nervous Chujiu and I were, Mr. Zhuan looked much more steady. He calmly looked at the huge dark whirlpool and controlled the wooden boat to move forward slowly.
"On the ninth day of the lunar month, we will arrive at the center of the whirlpool soon. Remember to be quick and don't delay."
Mr. Zhuan reminded Chujiu again that because the wooden boat was carrying the two of us, he could not guess what would happen suddenly. He only hoped to solve the problem as soon as possible and leave quickly.
If she was the only one on the wooden boat, there would be no problem in staying there for any time.
Even if it sleeps in the center of the whirlpool, the ship will not be sucked into it.
Chujiu took out a piece of talisman paper from the cloth bag at his waist and held it in his hand. He glanced at the stars in the sky and nodded seriously towards Mr. Zhuan.
After confirming that everything was ready for the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Zhuan squatted down and picked up the big rooster that had been trembling with fear with one hand. He took out a small knife with the other hand and stabbed it into the comb of the big rooster.
"Ahhhhhhh..."
The big rooster flapping in panic in Mr. Brick's hands, letting out a scream, and the blood from the cock's comb was controlled by Mr. Brick and spilled into the water around the wooden boat.
Later, Mr. Zhuan casually threw the big rooster into the cabin, said something to Chujiu and started to summon the spirits when the boat stopped.
While the wooden boat continued to move slowly, Mr. Brick, who was squatting half-crouched on the bow of the boat, uttered a strange chant.
I can only hear that the melody is similar to some ancient Sanqu style, but I can't understand any lyrics, not even a word.
The distance of twenty or thirty meters was not far, and within a short time, the wooden boat floated near the center of the whirlpool.
Just when I was holding the eaves of the boat so tightly that my nails were digging into the wood, the wooden boat stopped a foot away from the whirlpool.
Only then did I realize that Mr. Brick, who had been singing a strange melody in his mouth, had his eyes closed.
Chujiu suddenly stood up, stood with his feet spread apart, and stared at the center of the whirlpool. He raised his left hand holding the talisman above his head, his right hand in the shape of a sword, and began to chant a spell.
"The three masters of collecting souls and the three young men should not eat a little water from the underworld. The souls collected from thousands of miles away also return home. The three souls return in a fluttering way. The seven souls return in a vast way. The soul returns to the body and the body is at ease. The soul returns to the person and the person is pure.