Chapter Five Hundred and Twelve: River God Sacrifice
Fengluo Town, at the wharf by the Yellow River in front of the town, there is a buzz of people, a high altar, gongs and drums shaking the sky, He Po is dressed in a large white sacrificial robe, wearing a face of the river god and ghost on his head, holding a sword in his right hand, a bell in his left hand, and praying in succession.
"The mandrills live in the mountains and want to take away my body; the ghosts live in the water and want to eat my soul; they feed my heart and feed on the gods..." "Boom! Boom!..." "Feed by the gods.
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on...boom!"
On the sacrificial platform, He Po holds a sword and rings a bell. She dances with sacrificial steps while chanting sacrificial words to the River God. Her voice is long and deep, as if there is a mysterious magic power that falls on people's ears.
Morning bells and evening drums echo for a long time, shocking the mind. In front of the high altar, there are eight cowhide drums placed. Eight shirtless men with white silk hair tied on their heads and bulging muscles. The muscular men are waving the drums in their hands vigorously.
The mallet was used to hit the drum head time and time again as He Po chanted. The sound of the drum was loud, mixed with He Po's chant, and reverberated throughout both sides of the Yellow River. The sound resounded for a long time.
On the shore behind the altar, there are also densely packed figures, all of whom are people from Fengluo Town. Whether they are men, women, old or young, they all have solemn expressions at this moment, and they are singing prayers to the river god along with the river woman.
"The mandrills live in the mountains and want to take away my body; the ghosts live in the water and want to eat my soul; they feed my heart and feed on the gods..." "Boom! Boom!..." "Feed by the gods.
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on...boom!"
This is a shocking scene. The entire town of Fengluo chanted prayers in unison and stood on the pier. Mixed with the vibrating drums, the sound shook both sides of the bank. On the water in front of the pier, there was a boat full of people.
The flower boat with red lanterns is not big, with only one floor. There is a square shed like a sedan in the middle, with pink gauze curtains. In the middle of the shed, two people are wearing bright red bridal robes and bright red hair.
The hijab bride is sitting inside, motionless, but if you look carefully, you will find that the hands and feet of the two brides are tightly tied, and their entire bodies are fixed on the flower boat, unable to move.
The flower boat is fixed with several ropes. One end of the rope is tied to the wooden pile of the pier to prevent it from being washed away by the current. At the bottom of the flower boat, there are several leaking holes. They are not very big, but they are
There is a thin stream of water seeping up from the bottom of the boat into the flower boat. It can be predicted that as time goes by, as the water seepage increases, the flower boat will slowly sink into the water.
"Wow——" "Whoosh——"
As the River God Sacrifice Ceremony proceeds, deep in the Yellow River, which is invisible to the naked eye, something in the darkness seems to open its eyes. A violent whirlpool undercurrent appears from the bottom of the water and spreads to the surface. Finally, the undercurrent vortex rises.
When we reached the water surface, a large splash of water and a whirlpool of river water were set off in the center of the river, seeming to swallow everything.
"On the altar, He Po, who was presiding over the sacrifice, seemed to have felt something. With a pair of turbid eyes in his sunken eye sockets, he glanced at the water surface of the Yellow River in front of the dock. He stopped suddenly and stopped his voice.
"Dong!" "Dong!" "Dong Dong!" When the eight drummers in front of the altar saw He Po's actions, they knocked the drum head hard four times at the end, and then stopped. The others behind the altar also did the same.
Stop.
"Sacrifice to the river god!" "Send the bride away!"
Finally, after a few quiet breaths, He Po on the altar suddenly changed her tune and shouted in a long, sharp voice.
After He Po finished speaking, two men with machetes stepped forward and cut off the rope holding the boat with a few swipes. The rope was no longer fixed, and the flower boat followed the current from the dock to downstream.
Floating away, at this time, He Po on the altar shouted loudly and sharply——
"Sacrifice to the river god!" "Send the bride away!" "Dong! Dong! Dong Dong Dong!——"
The heavy and mighty drum sound also rang from the dock again, shaking both sides of the Yellow River.
"Wow!"
In the vast Yellow River, a piece of water rippled, and something inexplicable popped out of its head in an instant, leaving behind a large swath of spray and a ghostly black shadow, chasing straight towards the flower boat.
At the same time, at the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Fengluo Town, at the dock, Lin Tianqi and his party of six people, who had been waiting for an hour or two, finally waited for a boat.
The boatman was a fisherman who had been fishing. He was thin, dark-skinned, and looked to be in his forties or fifties. After agreeing on a price, he agreed to take Lin Tianqi and the six of them across the river.
"By the way, uncle, are there any bridges across the river up and down here?"
After agreeing on the price, Lin Tianqi asked the other party again. The main reason why he asked this was because there were more than six of them, and there were two carriages and many salutes in the carriage. The boatman could send them there.
But carriages can't do that, which is the main reason why they have been blocked here. If it were just people, Lin Tianqi would still be confident to take people across the river, which is more than 100 meters away.
"Bridge, there isn't one nearby. There isn't one in this stretch of water. Only boats can cross it."
The fisherman opened his mouth and told Lin Tianqi and others about the situation. There were no bridges in this section of the Yellow River, only boats.
"Then abandon the car, take the important gifts with you, cross the river and find a place to settle down and rest for the night, and buy two carriages to travel tomorrow."
Immediately, Uncle Jiu made the decision directly, and everyone nodded after hearing the words. Indeed, the carriage could not cross the river, so they could only abandon it. Lin Tianqi and his master had the same idea. Since marrying Bai Ji, money has
For the two masters and apprentices, there were only numbers left. However, Xu's father and Xu's mother felt a little heartbroken. The two elders had always lived in the village and had always lived a frugal life. They had never been so wasteful.
With the decision made, several people immediately unloaded the important salutes from the carriage and began to cross the river.
The boatman's fishing boat had limited space and could not carry all six people and their luggage at once, so they divided the group twice. Uncle Jiu, Father Xu, and Mother Xu boarded the boat first and brought some luggage.
It took more than ten minutes to wait for the boatman to send the three people to the other side, and then turned back to pick up Lin Tianqi, Xu Jie and Xu Dongsheng.
"Xiaojie, you sit in the middle."
After getting on the boat, Lin Tianqi asked Xu Jie to sit in the middle, with Xu Dongsheng in front and Lin Tianqi in the back. The boatman was rowing on the stern plywood.
Because it is not a diesel engine-powered boat like that of later generations, it can only be rowed by human power, so the boat travels very slowly on the water. However, it takes several minutes to cover a hundred meters of river surface, just like a turtle crawling. Watching
Seeing the rolling water of the Yellow River under the boat, Xu Jie was a little scared and grabbed Lin Tianqi's arm tightly with both hands. Xu Dongsheng was very curious and looked up and down the river from time to time.
"Brother, do you think there are monsters in the Yellow River? In the past, I always heard some people talk about strange things and legends in the Yellow River. I wonder if they are true?"
After watching the river for a while, Xu Dongsheng turned his head and spoke to Lin Tianqi with a curious expression. Xu Jie also became somewhat interested when he heard this and looked at Lin Tianqi.
"It's hard to believe the rumors in the world, but you can't completely disbelieve them. However, the Yellow River has a long history, and it makes sense that there are some things hidden in it that we ordinary people don't know."
Lin Tianqi smiled lightly when he heard this. He naturally knew about the legend of the Yellow River, and he had heard a lot in his previous life. Of course, he had only heard about it. As for whether it was true, he had never seen it.
However, he knew that given the long history and conditions of the Yellow River, it was inevitable that there would be something hidden in it. The only difference was whether or not it would be found.
"I heard that most people living in the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River believe in the river god. So, senior brother, do you think the river god is real?"
Xu Dongsheng asked again, thinking of what he had heard before about the people beside the Yellow River believing in the river god, and asked.
"River God."
Lin Tianqi smiled slightly when he heard this. The so-called gods are actually just titles given by ordinary people out of fear of ignorance.
Just like some people believe in fox fairies, some people believe in Wong Tai Sin. In fact, in the eyes of their Taoist practitioners, they are just monsters such as vixens and weasels who have developed spiritual wisdom and have some spiritual practice. It's just that ordinary people are afraid of ignorance.
We believe in them and call them immortals and gods. In fact, the same principle applies to river gods. We believe in some fairies and ghosts in the river as gods and we call them river gods.
He smiled faintly and was about to speak when suddenly, Lin Tianqi's eyes suddenly focused and he looked towards the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
Noticing Lin Tianqi's expression, Xu Dongsheng also expressed doubts, and then both he and Xu Jie looked upstream.
"There seems to be something."
When the two of them looked upstream, they both paused slightly. They saw a small red dot in the distance in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. However, because the distance was too far, Xu Dongsheng and Xu Jie
They could only vaguely see what seemed to be a red thing, and it seemed that part of it had sunk into the water.
"Brother, what is that?" Xu Dongsheng looked at Lin Tianqi and asked.
"A ship."
Lin Tianqi said, looking at the red dots upstream. Xu Dongsheng and Xu Jie couldn't see clearly, but with his eyesight, he could naturally see clearly. On the river upstream, there was a big red flower boat. He even saw it clearly.
It can be clearly seen that there are two people wearing bright red bridal clothes and red hijabs on the flower boat. They seem to be two brides.
But at this time, a large part of the flower boat had sunk into the river, and the two brides were only left above their chests exposed on the water, and they were still sinking.
"This is a sacrifice."
Lin Tianqi's eyes narrowed and he immediately thought of some legendary sacrificial activities in which living people were used as sacrifices.
"Sacrifice to the river god, this is a sacrifice to the river god."
At the stern of the boat, when the boatman saw the big red flower boat upstream, his expression changed and he spoke.
"Sacrifice to the river god."
Xu Dongsheng and Xu Jie looked shocked when they heard this. They had just mentioned the River God, but they didn't expect that they were offering sacrifices to the River God. No, it should be a sacrifice to the River God. Involuntarily, the two sisters looked upstream again.
Looking, in order to see clearly, the two sisters stood up directly and looked upstream. At this time, a large section of the flower boat flowed downwards. With their sight, they could already vaguely see the outline, but
At the next moment, a sudden change occurred!
"Wow!"
In the field of vision, a large splash of water suddenly appeared at the flower boat on the river in the upstream direction. Then, the big red flower boat sank suddenly as if it was caught by something.