Pick up the Dragon

Peng Yu was about to say "yes", when suddenly a cold paw grabbed his wrist, and when he turned around, he found Li Yi staring at the boat thoughtfully: "Go and buy that boat, I think there is something wrong in the water. , something might happen."

Peng Yu was taken aback: "What's wrong? Could there still be water ghosts in it?"

Li Yi shook his head: "It's hard to say now, one thing more is worse than one thing less, don't take innocent lives."

Peng Yu thought that what was wrong could involve human life, and looked at him suspiciously, but Moulong didn't answer, so he had to stop the boatman, explaining his purpose and handing over the money bag at the same time.

The boatman paused for a moment, and then his face was filled with joy—this young master from other places is really rich and powerful, and the price he paid was several times that of this broken boat.The two reached a deal very readily. The punter was hit on the head by the "pie" from the sky, said a lot of auspicious words in a thick accent, and taught them how to row the boat very enthusiastically. Holding the purse tightly, he happily ran away.

Four people boarded the boat one after another—although the boat was a big "black tent", it was not much bigger than a small black tent, and it could carry seven or eight people, which was more than enough for a few of them.Peng Yu and Qian Yue boarded the boat first, and the hull hardly shook. After the two dragons also stepped on the boat, the boat suddenly creaked, and the hull tilted, almost throwing Peng Yu directly into the water.

Li Yi hurriedly jumped to the other side, and the hull was barely stable. He gave Jiu Yuan a slightly reproachful look: "Can't you wait a little longer?"

Jiu Yuan returned an innocent look. Although he didn't speak, the Dragon King still understood - "The last time I took the Peng's boat, I didn't even shake it."

Li Yi silently gave him a supercilious look, wondering if there is any comparison between these two boats, he was too lazy to waste words with him, so he lifted the awning and got into the cabin.

He made a spell casually, and the awning boat actually started to move by itself, and slowly left the ferry, sailing towards the center of the river.

Peng Yu looked at him in surprise—it's no wonder that this fellow didn't like to listen when the boatman talked about how the boat was rowing, and after a long time of arguing, there was no need to row at all.

The boat broke through the river and sailed towards the distance, watching the majestic Mount Heng gradually fade out of sight, the continuous mountains turned into a blurred distant view, and a silver line on both sides of the river stretched infinitely towards the invisible distance.

Peng Yu put one hand on the red bean and slowly rubbed its fur, rested his chin on the other hand, and leaned on the side of the boat to enjoy the scenery—although there is really nothing to see in winter.

He stayed silent for a while, and suddenly saw Li Yi came out of the cabin again, put his finger on his lips and whistled something, the voice was instantly left behind by the boat, and scattered far away.

Peng Yu raised his eyes to look at him suspiciously, saw that he didn't intend to explain himself, so he didn't ask, and leaned on him as if he had no bones, and sighed lazily.

After a while, ripples suddenly appeared on the calm river surface, and the sound of the water stirred violently twice. A golden-red koi broke through the water, and with a perfect "carp kick" in the air, it threw itself onto the black-topped boat. The moment it landed, it turned into a human form.

Peng Yu couldn't help opening his eyes wide, and was amazed at this sudden scene, when he heard Li Yi's doubtful "hmm": "Strange, my name is Xiangshui God, what are you, Mr. Xiang quit? "

The human form of the carp was a boy in brocade clothes, about eight or nine years old, and Banban was about to bow to him, but he froze in embarrassment when he heard the sound of "what?" Well, it's just me for now."

"Going out? What are you going to do?"

The brocade-clothed boy lowered his eyes respectfully: "Mr. Xiang heard about the vision of Lishui, so he rushed to assist Mr. Li. It has been more than ten days since he left."

Li Wei put on an unexpected expression—since the construction of the Ling Canal hundreds of years ago, the successful confluence of the Li and Xiang rivers, the water gods of these two rivers seem to have also exchanged friendship.He pondered for a while, put aside his original intention to inquire about Suzaku Ling, and asked, "What happened to Lishui?"

The little boy said: "Dragon King knows that there is a section of water above the Li River that is as flat as a mirror and its reflection is picturesque. Do many literati like to take a boat to write poems and Fu here?"

Li Yi nodded.

Xiao Tong: "That's what happened there. Dozens of small boats have disappeared in this section of water within three months. The people on board have not been found yet. No one is alive or dead."

Li Yi frowned slightly: "Did Mr. Li go to investigate?"

The little boy sighed, with a rather helpless look on his face: "I have gone, but like those people, I will never return. Mr. Xiang sent letters to him many times, but he didn't get a response. He was worried, so he went to find out in person."

Li Yi tapped the side of the boat a few times: "Even the water god of the Lijiang River has disappeared? Why didn't you report such a major change to the heavens earlier?"

The little boy scratched his head in embarrassment, and said falteringly, "This... I don't know. I was only mentioned by Mr. Xiang in recent years. I am not proficient in many things. Please forgive me, the Dragon King."

He bowed deeply to Li Yi, the latter obviously didn't mean to blame a carp, he just lost his mind for a while before asking: "What's your name?"

"Jin Yu."

"Do you know Suzaku Ling?"

A look of blankness flashed across Jin Yu's face: "I haven't heard of it, is it related to the Suzaku God?"

Li Yi saw that he was not pretending to be dazed, so he didn't continue to ask. Peng Yu leaned over and whispered in his ear, "What do you mean? Then where are we going now?"

The red bean lying on his shoulder responded softly, raised a wing and pointed in one direction.

"That's right in the direction of Lingqu, and after passing Lingqu is Lishui." Li Yi said, "Although I don't know what the relationship between these two things is, but since you're on the way, you might as well go and have a look-the recent strange situation It seems that there are too many, I am afraid that the power of the sacred object will be exhausted, and all kinds of monsters will come out to make trouble."

Peng Yu nodded: "So since the matter is urgent, why should we take a boat? Wouldn't it be better to fly there directly?"

Jin Yu then said: "The abnormality of the Lishui seems to only involve the boat passengers. Occasionally, people who swim in the water are fine, and they all have to come back intact. Maybe only by boat can we find the root of the abnormality."

Li Yi frowned even more when he heard the words - this is strange, the swimmers are fine, but the boatmen disappeared?No matter how you look at it, the latter also has one more "boat" than the former, and an extra line of defense, right?

Could it be that the problem lies with the "ship"?

He couldn't help but paused slightly, thinking about it and said: "Maybe this is not a vision, but man-made? Is there any problem with those boatmen?"

Jin Yu shook his head: "Dragon King, please let me go, I, a little fish demon, really can't understand human minds, what I said just now is what I heard from Mr. Xiang, and other things... I really don't know .”

Li Yi glanced at him, but couldn't see anything from that still immature face.

Jin Yu said again: "If the Dragon King has no other orders, I will leave first. Mr. Xiang told me to take good care of this water area when he is away. I really can't go with you."

"Go ahead."

After getting the order, Jin Yu bowed to him again, then turned back into golden red and threw a koi into the river, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Peng Yu poked Li Yi's arm, pouted in the direction where the carp disappeared: "Is he reliable?"

"I don't know, but I don't think he needs to lie to us."

The boat sailed smoothly in the middle of the river, and the scenery along the coast quickly retreated. Peng Yu found it boring after watching it for a while, so he got into the cabin to take a rest.

Li Yi stood on the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, and sent Jiuyuan out to explore the way, while Qianyue sat on the side and played with Huangdou.It was rare that Hongdou didn't pester Peng Yu to cover him, but slowly slid up to Dragon King's side, hooked the two small hooks on his wings to his clothes, and crawled onto him with repeated tricks.

Unexpectedly, the Dragon King is also like a dog, but he doesn't care about small animals like Master Peng. He quickly lifted his foot and looked down at it: "What are you doing? Don't get close to me. If it is difficult, our Dragon Clan will not save it."

Hongdou suddenly let out a thin whine, which made Li Yi get goosebumps all over his body: "Don't forget that you took the initiative to start war against us 1000 years ago, why don't you stay in the south, you have to compete with our Yunlong clan." Half the sky?"

Hongdou opened her sharp beak, but she didn't make a sound, she lay down on the ground with her head drooping, buried her head under her wings, and curled up into a ball without making a sound.

Jiu Yuan quickly returned without success, and lightly kicked the red bean that was in the way, making it stay on the sidelines, while he sat down to accompany Qian Yue.Hongdou quickly realized that she was not seen by the two dragons, so she staggered into the cabin and went to Peng Yu for comfort.

The days in winter are extremely short, and the waterway is far or near, and it was already night when the awning boat reached Lingqu.

Li Yi slowly docked the boat, looked at the large and small ships waiting ahead, and slightly twitched the corner of his mouth.

The project in the world seems to be too shabby. Although this Lingqu connects the Lixiang River, it is really limited in terms of boat passage. The water depth is insufficient and the waterway is cramped. Ships with a slightly deeper draft will run aground and can only pass through The steep gate increases the depth of the water, but the opening and closing of the steep gate is too cumbersome. If the boat does not wait for three days and three nights, I am afraid that it will not be able to pass.

He cast contemptuous glances at the innocent river, and decided to abandon the boat and go ashore, but seeing that Mr. Peng was asleep, he didn't have the heart to wake him up.

He looked at the saliva that was about to flow from someone's mouth, and raised his hand to gently pat his jaw shut.

Finally, the Dragon King decided to spend the night on the boat for the time being. Anyway, it doesn’t matter where he sleeps—after the boat stopped, Jiuyuan took Qian Yuefei out to have a snack. At this moment, there are only two of them on the boat... oh, and two more bird.

The two birds, one red and one yellow, stopped on the roof of the cabin, and it was rare for them to rest peacefully. Li Yi also lay down beside Peng Yu, closed his eyes and fell asleep slowly.

Unfortunately, as soon as the Dragon King fell asleep, Peng Yu woke up.

Young Master Peng sat on the spot staring dazedly to wake up, then saw the person lying beside him, he couldn't help being stunned for a moment, the corners of his eyes slightly turned up, and he couldn't help pecking lightly on his lips.

Then he tiptoed out of the cabin, like a cat that just finished stealing fish, standing on the bow of the boat with his tail up and blowing the cold wind for a while... Then he contributed a "rain" into the river.

He whistled briskly, feeling comfortable all over his body, and was about to go back to sleep when he heard something.

The sound was very soft, and if it wasn't for the silence of the night, it would be hard to hear—at first he thought it was two birds whose paws were scratching gently on the side of the ship, but after listening carefully, it seemed that it was not the case, because the sound Not from one direction, but from all directions!

Immediately, the hairs all over his body stood up, he held his breath and listened carefully, feeling that the sound might be coming from under his feet, as if there were countless tiny claws scraping the bottom of the boat, and it was getting denser and louder!

His scalp was numb, and goose bumps all over his body instantly exploded, as if the whole boat was trembling slightly.He took a step back uncontrollably, his feet accidentally tripped over the bulkhead of the boat, and he sat down on the ground.

He hurriedly supported the side of the boat with one hand and tried to get up, and his eyes naturally fell over the boat—by the dim moonlight, he suddenly saw countless small black shadows flashing in the river, densely gathered from all directions, They are still approaching the boat continuously!

"……what!"

A short exclamation broke out, and Li Yi was finally startled by him, he lifted the curtain and got out of the cabin: "What's wrong?"

"Water... in the water..." He pointed at the river with a pale complexion, then blinked suddenly, with a bit of hesitation in his panicked tone, "why...why didn't it disappear again?"

Li Yi looked into the water following his gaze, and a dragon fire popped out from his fingertips and ignited into the water with a "呲啦", instantly lighting up the water area near the hull for more than ten feet. Fine particles and a few aquatic plants, nothing was found at all.

The dragon fire burned for a long time before it slowly extinguished. Peng Yu stared wide-eyed at the river that had returned to darkness, speechless for a while.Li Yi grabbed his still trembling fingers, only felt that his palms were full of cold sweat, and his fingertips pressed on his pulse, the pulse was so fast that he could even feel the blood rushing madly in the other's body.

Peng Yu shuddered, his whole body trembled, and finally the shock subsided. He withdrew his hand forcefully and let out a long breath of relief.

Li Yi saw that some of the blood on his face slowly recovered, and then asked, "What did you see?"

"I can't tell," Peng Yu raised his hand and pressed his temple, "There are many, black, very fast, maybe... bugs."

"Bugs?" Li Yi's eyes flashed, as if thinking of something, "Is it the kind of bugs I've seen before?"

But Peng Yu shook his head: "No, definitely not, it's much wider than that one, and shorter... But I ran too fast, and I didn't see what it looked like."

Li Yi looked at him suspiciously for a long while, somehow felt that his reaction was a bit wrong, and asked tentatively: "Since you haven't seen what they look like, why do you think they are insects?"

He looked at the other person's expression: "Shouldn't a normal person's first reaction be a fish? Small black fish one or two inches long are often gathered in hundreds or thousands, and it's easy to create this effect."

Peng Yu paused, raised his head to meet the other party's inquiring gaze, his pupils shrank slightly, and he pursed his lips tightly as he remembered something.