Mysterious Martial Arts: The Record of the Swordsman

Chapter 168

The rustling fallen trees on the bank have already shaken all their cold leaves, shivering with the night wind.There was an unstoppable crackling sound among the branches, swaying like an old man suffering from the wind and cold in the middle of the night, standing together and coughing hysterically violently, only the figure reflected a series of treacherous shadows like cups, bows and snakes on the restless water. Bizarre shadows.

The ship's boss, who was still in shock, stopped the ship and landed in one go without giving orders, fastened the cables and lanyards as if flying, and scolded the boy on board without stopping for a moment, as if this was the only way to conceal the naked panic in his heart.

The four young disciples didn't dare to show their anger, and acted as they were told, but they couldn't help shaking their hands and feet and making mistakes again and again.

But from beginning to end, the boss of the boat only dared to get angry at his own people.He looked at the Dan people with awe and dodge in his eyes, as if in the emotion of facing them, there was a trace of fear synesthesia for unknown and hidden things that could not be easily detected.

Jiang Wen took a step back, deliberately looking at the dark sea and sky, and was on guard against the strange thunderous sound of dragon chant resounding in the sea again. Fortunately, from the beginning to the end, that sound seemed to be submerged under the mysterious abyss. There is no recurrence.

The Danmin people, old and young, kept silent, but the strong fear could be felt without words. The old people kept chanting vague words, stretching their thin hands on the Danmin children's heads, over and over again. Painted with curved and winding lines.

Fear comes from the unknown, but also from memories that cannot describe names.

Compared with the cowering, dodging and timid image during the day, the adult Dan people at this time are naked, with sinister tattoos all over the body, and the originally dark skin seems to be rolling through boiling water, revealing an unbearable The concealed crimson color fluctuated with the intense exhalation.

They were trembling all over their bodies, their eyes were painful and weeping because of the stimulation of sewage, but they relied on years of numbness and kept silent until their relatives smoothed their tightly clasped hands, and then shook them from the lines in the palms of their fingers. There was a trace of pale and foul-smelling flesh.

This is probably the first time that the physical distance between life and death is so close, and so tit for tat.

The people on the shore approached with drums and gongs, desperately trying to drive away the ominousness. Obviously, they couldn't guess that the ship would arrive in the dark night, and it would be accompanied by such a terrifying scene.

And Jiang Wen didn't expect that he would meet Yan Yongchun and his daughter again under such circumstances.

"Miss Yan, Uncle Yan!"

In order to prove that he was alive, Jiang Wen came to the shore and started waving, and then he saw a familiar tall figure waving the leader in front of the torch.She took the lead quickly, not at all like the villagers behind her who walked hurriedly, looked back three times, and occasionally roared desperately.

The breeze passing by on the river could still smell a fishy smell, and Yan Wingchun seemed to have heard the voice on the boat. Before he could identify the person, Yuan Ziyi rushed out first, and the two confirmed each other's identities.

"Zi Yi? Aren't you in the city? Why are you on this night ship?"

Yan Wingchun grabbed Yuan Ziyi's arm in surprise, then turned his head and saw Jiang Wen's expression that seemed to be a smile but not a smile, and his tone was even more surprised, "Master Jiang, aren't you in Wuyi Mountain? Why are you here too?!"

Seeing Yan Yongchun appear, Jiang Wen was sure that he had reached his destination at this time. Although there were inexplicable twists and turns in the middle, there was not much difference from the plan anyway.

"Miss Yan, it seems that this place is not a place to stay for a long time, let's take us to the village first."

Yan Yongchun nodded suddenly, turned his head to look at the villagers behind him, but frowned imperceptibly.

Father Yan also went up to greet him a few words, and also felt that it was not a place to stay for a long time. The sea with waves in the distance was still not calm, and it seemed that something secret was still brewing, so the group turned back without hesitation. The flames of the figure stretched in the direction of Zhangqiugang Village.

But the scene along the way also made Jiang Wen frown.

Zhangqiugang Village is located at the mouth of the Xijiang River, and the south side is directly connected to the sea. It is like a gateway between the river and the sea. It should be a prosperous place for commerce and shipping.But from what they saw along the way, the sandbar by the river was covered with densely packed barren graves, and the bones were washed away by the tide before they were buried shallowly, and there were many traces of bones in all directions.

But under the bleak wind and cold moon, with dead trees and grass along the road along the road, everyone walking on the dirt road could only feel the miserable wind gusts, whimpering like weeping, and all kinds of sounds hovering in their ears, mixed into a mournful sound like silk and bamboo orchestras, constantly coming from The muddy stone cave poured out, and only by desperately beating and playing the drums, and the sound of musical instruments with a barren tone, could these strange sounds that shake people's hearts be overwhelmed.

Jiang Wen and Yuan Ziyi looked at each other in blank dismay. Only then did they understand the functions of the various musical instruments held by the villagers.

"When did Zhangqiugang Village become like this..."

The boat boss hurriedly followed behind Jiang Wen, as if he didn't believe what he saw, he turned his head and said to the boat boy, "When we went out to sea to burn incense a few months ago, this place was very good."

But his words did not stabilize people's hearts, but instead triggered a new round of panic. As a result of whispering, they were all guessing whether they were stepping on the ancient road among the underworld.

"This can't be the Netherworld."

Jiang Wen said to them irrefutably, "I've seen it there before, there should be yellow soup, muddy water and big wriggling bugs."

After saying this, the rest of the people became even more afraid, only thinking that the dirt road would soon meet a group of bull-headed messengers escorting lonely ghosts.

Sometimes there are too many people to strengthen your courage, but sometimes too many people will only inadvertently strengthen psychological hints and turn into group fear, making it even more difficult for people to stay calm when they are in it. Outrageous, and in Jiang Wen's view, these seemingly sleep-deprived and listless villagers can't rely on the confused and frightened eyes in each other's eyes to give them much spiritual help.

Anyway, the nausea and weakness revealed behind the bursts of drumming, and the sloppy footsteps felt during the reluctant march, all made the scene in front of me look a bit weird, making people dare not look forward to the end of this road.

But it's not just the villagers. After careful observation, Jiang Wen found that even Yan Yongchun, whose spiritual will is far superior to ordinary people and his martial arts attainments are also extraordinary, can't hide his mental exhaustion at this time, leaving only burning eyes The unquenchable fortitude is helping her resist the heavy pressure from the outside world.

"Miss Yan, are you okay?"

Jiang Wen looked up and knew that this was a symptom of mental exhaustion and overthinking, which might cause mental damage in the long run, so he asked.

Yan Yongchun forced a smile, Jiao Hao's face looked a little pale under the moonlight.

"I'm fine, Head Jiang. The village is not peaceful recently, so let me go to the front and tell you the whole story."

Fortunately, Zhangqiugang Village was not too far away. Everyone looked at the ups and downs of the road, and soon came to a small hill, and saw a dense forest, revealing a narrow path.

Then everyone hurriedly passed through a stone arch engraved with "Sea Calm Waves", and finally saw the scattered appearance of village houses and private houses. It looked peaceful and peaceful on the outside, and the village was falling into a deep sleep at night.

Before Jiang Wen and his entourage came to the village house, they found that the villagers who had been walking in front of them kept their eyes on each other, and their steps became faster and faster. They almost jogged to avoid their own residences, and they refused to even stop.

Taking a closer look, Jiang Wen and the others realized that although the houses in this village were neat and tidy, there was a row of white paper lanterns densely covered under the eaves. shadow.

As I heard before, the young people in Zhangqiugang Village were coaxed into drowning and drowned. Now it is almost a tragic situation for every family to wear mourning.

But Yuan Ziyi couldn't help but feel puzzled, turned his head and quietly looked at the village houses on both sides of the road, ignoring the same low walls and thatched roofs like a horse, trying to feel the paradox of the matter.

She walked in front of the cramped and cramped village houses, only to see that the lights in the house were dimly lit and full of shadows, which were not as bright as the doorway illuminated by white lanterns.

In the shadows of the village houses, Yuan Ziyi vaguely saw someone standing in the door of a certain room waving to greet him, wearing a faded linen coat, bowing slightly and bowing his head, slowly stretching out his arms, but Can't see his face at all.

Yuan Ziyi suddenly noticed the abnormality, stopped quickly, and quickly retreated to the door of the house where she saw Bai Ying just now, but this time she only felt her scalp numb, and her back was soaked in cold sweat instantly.

"Girl in purple, what's wrong with you?"

Jiang Wen also stopped curiously, and came to Yuan Ziyi, who was standing still, but was instantly grasped by her cold and sweaty palm, and the other hand firmly pointed into the room.

"I... I just saw clearly that someone was in the house..."

Jiang Wen's heart skipped a beat, and he also looked at the direction Yuan Ziyi was pointing at, only to see two faint yellow oil lamps standing abruptly in the dimly lit village houses, while the white candles beside them had already burned out and turned into altars The melted waxy white marks in front of him were like dried blood.

Pale white talismans were pasted on the open door panel, densely packed like mold spots growing in the dark, but the beckoning person Yuan Ziyi described was nothing to be seen, only a huge black coffin was placed in the main hall, and the coffin lid stood alone on the side , entwined with a long and thick hemp, the floor in the hall was ticking endlessly, and some suspicious and smelly water stains were hanging down.

"The house lives in the shadows, the gods guard the house..."

Jiang Wen muttered to himself, and sure enough, he found a piece of red paper pasted on the altar in front of the black coffin, on which a turtle-shaped crane back, big ears and round eyes, and a beard as hard as an iron halberd were drawn with rough and unrefined brushwork. The long-bearded god, wearing a big red robe, looked at Jiang Wen angrily.

"How could they keep the dead body at home when no one lives in their own house?"

Under such extreme psychological hints, Jiang Wen was not sure what Yuan Ziyi saw, but he knew that it would be useless to stay for a long time, so he immediately pulled her away from the private house.

Now looking all the way, Jiang Wen found that every village house is similar, with black coffins and red-robed gods in the same place, and there is no trace of people in the crooked corridors between the houses. The whole village seems to be murdered by the dead. Occupied, turned into a treacherous and gloomy ghost village.

At the end of the road is a majestic and majestic temple. After filing in, they found that the temple was full of panicked villagers. In exchange for a little comfort.

The four characters "Nanhai Ancient Temple" are written on the gate of the temple. The main ridge and side ridge of the roof are made of Shiwan terracotta tiles and Bogu flower panels. All are exquisite in structure, majestic and magnificent, which is in line with the style of this majestic temple.

Yan Yongchun, who had been silent all the way, let out a deep breath at the moment he stepped into the main hall of Nanhai Temple, his eyes showed a hint of helplessness, but he didn't seem to notice the strangeness of Yuan Ziyi's expression.

"Master Jiang, we've seen so many weird things in the village these days, I really don't know how to describe them..."

Standing in the main hall, Yan Yongchun looked at the majestic statue in the shrine wearing a red python robe, and narrated what happened recently.

Zhangqiugang Village is located in Haikou on the bank of the river. At first, it was just a cliff protruding from the bank of the West River. There have always been rumors of strange rocks in the river. Haike Business Travel donated money to build it, which is used to protect safety.

However, there is no dragon king Mazu in this temple. The one worshiped and prayed is King Guangli Hongsheng. Since ancient times, he has been a god-man who controls and suppresses the South China Sea. He is best at subduing rivers and floods and balancing rain and drought.

The specifications of the temple are grand, with blue brick stone feet and red brick pavement inside. The mung bean green terrazzo brick wall outside is green in color like black jade. It is also fine and smooth in texture and very fine in craftsmanship. Fired with fine water and clay, neither water, fire, nor lightning can destroy it.

Behind the statue of King Guangli Hongsheng, there is a large relief mural. In the center is a five-clawed golden dragon spraying water over the Nanhai Temple. In the distance are sea boats with white sails. , They are "fubo thousands of miles to show the real dragon, and a thousand boats along the water to make a pilgrimage to Hongsheng".

According to legend, where the statue is located and under the mural, the legendary dragon acupuncture point is suppressed. This dragon vein runs from Mount Longtoushan through the ancient temple of the South China Sea, and crosses the Pearl River to the end of Hualonggang in Panyu. Suppressed the mighty Hongbo and prevented the Lingnan counties from turning into Zeguo.It is said that because of this, even if the soil under the dragon's acupuncture point is alone on Zhangqiu hills, it will be moist all year round when touched by hands.

But things have been a little unusual recently.

When young people in the village go fishing, they often look at Jianhaikou from the Xijiang River. There is a huge copper boat floating in the middle of the sea. It is covered with copper and rust, and there are no sails. , there will be a deafening clanging sound, mixed with the sound of screaming and roaring all over the sky, the scene is extremely frightening.

Since then, there have been frequent shipwrecks outside Zhangqiu Gang, especially the ships of the Qing court navy, which capsized frequently and could only be hastily buried on the sandbars along the way. The voice came.

For fear of shaking the morale of the army, the admiral of Guangzhou kept his secret instructions and those who disobeyed the order would be beheaded, but Zhangqiugang Village was tortured by the overturned ships in the past few days. No one wants to wake up every day and encounter many dead and mutilated limbs, so they invited the mage to do it, trying to extinguish the resentment in the sea in the water and land dojo.

Just ten days ago, a sloppy Taoist priest who claimed to be a living god came to the village. He first evolved a "fairy technique" of "grinding his head, washing his face, and reinventing himself." Taoist.

Then, he released two "dragons" the size of loach from the gourd.He dug a small hole by the sea and threw the two loaches into the water hole. After the loaches entered the water, they immediately swam back and forth in the hole, sweeping the surrounding area of ​​the water hole with their tail, and the surrounding area of ​​the water hole followed its tail. It collapsed due to the contact of the body, the area of ​​the puddle became larger and larger, and the water in the pit also skyrocketed.

After a while, the length and width of the puddle in the sea became several feet. At this time, the Taoist said to the villagers: If the puddle becomes bigger, it will be difficult to catch the two dragons.So he took the two dragon-turned loaches back into the bottle. Seeing this, the villagers gradually believed that there were real dragons, and they respected the Taoist priest who claimed to be a living god from then on.

After earning trust step by step, the Taoist categorically told the villagers that there have been frequent spooky and strange sightings in Zhangqiugang Village recently. Niejiao, it has devoured the ancient corpses of the former Song Dynasty on the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years, and it is about to become a climate, and this is how it turned out that the bronze boats at the end of the Song Dynasty harmed the living people and the common people.

Although King Hongsheng in the temple has powerful mana, he was trapped by the dragon's lair, so he couldn't go to the vast sea to capture monsters. Only by returning to the dragon's lair to suppress again can this disaster be eliminated.

The villagers believed this to be true, so they sent a strong man from the village to invest in the boat and choose a day to go to sea. They also asked the living gods to retreat overnight to consecrate the dragon boat to ensure that it was safe.

But no one thought that this "living fairy" was actually the "living king of Hades". He had already seen it during his trip, but he actually sawed off the dragon boat overnight and glued it together.The next day, the villagers rowed to the middle of the sea and encountered big waves, and the boat capsized. Only then did the story of King Zhao who never came back from the southern tour repeat...

"When I came to Zhangqiugang Village, a catastrophe had already happened. I was so angry that I stayed to uphold justice and prevent someone from taking advantage of the fire."

What Yan Wingchun said is very common, but the tragedy of wearing mourning like this means that the young and middle-aged men in Zhangqiugang Village are exhausted, leaving only some old and weak women and children standing alone—this is the original intention of Yan Yongchun to learn boxing , obviously because of this moved compassion.

"Miss Yan is so merciful, respected teacher and five teachers will definitely be very pleased to see her."

While praising Yan Wingchun, Jiang Wen deliberately glanced at Yuan Ziyi, and successfully got a supercilious glance.

Jiang Wen thought for a while, and under Yan's father's introduction, he found a village elder in Zhangqiugang Village, and asked about the location and omen characteristics involved in the incident in detail, and refused to let go of even the slightest details.

Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun looked at Jiang Wen and asked the village elders, their expressions sometimes pondering, sometimes hesitating, sometimes stunned, and finally stood up, looking helplessly at the dark night outside the ancient temple in the South China Sea.

"Master Jiang, although I haven't personally experienced the whole thing before, it still feels weird and terrifying. After many days, I haven't found any clues."

Yan Wing Chun shook his head and continued.

"These things didn't end after I came. Not only have life and death disasters occurred in the village recently, but also ghostly appearances. There are frequent ghosts in the mourning hall in the village during the day, and in the middle of the night they turn into ghouls and attack the villagers. Even if I slightly I know martial arts, but I can't deal with them..."

Jiang Wen's expression changed. A "ghost" like Yan Yongchun, who can't even deal with martial arts, didn't know what shape it would have, and what kind of supernatural phenomenon it would have.

Yuan Ziyi couldn't help but turned around and asked Jiang Wen: "Master Jiang, you have always said that learning martial arts can't solve the problem, so what solution do you have for the current matter?"

Jiang Wen said with a slightly serious expression: "Girl in purple, these two things should not be confused. The former is obviously killing people, while the latter seems too bizarre. I am not afraid of ghosts in the world, but I am afraid that a bunch of fake ghosts will get in there." Only 'really ghost'..."

"Really?"

Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun asked in unison.

Jiang Wen nodded and said in an indescribably helpless tone.

"If you don't believe me, why don't you come and see it with me. In fact, I'd rather be a ghost—after all, some things are released, which are more terrifying, unpredictable, and disturbing than ghosts..."

(End of this chapter)