Of Mountains and Rivers

Another young man who came with Dashan quickly led the horse and handed the reins to Chu Huan.

This person, Chu Huan, also had an impression that he looked a bit like a little girl, friendly and a little shy. In the Liyi tribe where both men and women are generally one size bigger than people in other places, he looks very thin and small, and he has a name. Translated as "long whip"...

I don't know which "whip" it is, and I don't know what kind of high expectations his parents have placed on him.

It is said that the horsewhip is the best in the clan, and he will follow Nanshan to sell things every time. Although he can't walk a few times a year, he is already familiar with the road compared to other people, and he can speak a little more Mandarin than others.

The whip smiled shyly at Chu Huan, led the horse, and kept urging: "Let's hurry up."

He said it three or four times in a row. In Chu Huan's impression, the horsewhip didn't seem to be impatient. He found that while the horsewhip was talking, he looked around in the direction of the end of the mountain and the woods, as if something was urging him there.

Dashan pinned his saber on his waist, his expression tensed, and his movements were a little more urgent than usual.

The two of them didn't know whether it was intentional or not, they sandwiched Chu Huan one after the other.

Those who knew said they were going to the market, but those who didn't know, seeing the tense and urgent atmosphere, could think that they were retreating strategically.

The three of them and a few horses walked quickly to the foggy river. On this day, there were no women washing clothes or children playing in the water.Just when the fast-moving horse's front hooves had already stepped into the water, Chu Huan heard a long and shrill cry of an eagle from behind, from far to near, followed by the sound of huge wings slicing through the air. whistling.

Horse Whip frowned and looked at Da Shan, and asked in a low voice, "Why did you come so fast this time?"

Dashan shook his head and didn't say much, just urged: "Go quickly."

When Chu Huan looked back, he saw a big eagle descending from the sky and landed less than ten meters away from them, staring at him with piercing eyes.

If it spread its wings, it might be two or three meters long.

But don't eagles of this size generally appear in the Northeast or Inner Mongolia?

Before Chu Huan had time to think about it, he heard a series of cries. When he looked up, he saw those big statues falling to the ground one after another like rain, forming a murderous phalanx.

Chu Huan looked around inexplicably. Is there a raptor farm nearby?

But his horse was a little frightened, its steps became chaotic, and its front legs scratched the ground restlessly.

Chu Huan tried his best to mobilize his poor animal knowledge, and he had never heard of the saying that horses are afraid of eagles.

He glanced at the strange eagles from the corner of his eye, stretched out his hand and patted the horse's neck to comfort him, and said softly, "It's alright, alright, what's so scary about having such a stupid emoji, even if it's a reinforcement company?"

The state of the person will also affect the state of the horse. The horse quickly calmed down under his comfort, but it still didn't want to be watched by the group of eagles for a second. If it wasn't for Chu Huan's slight control, it might have to perform "Sa Yazi fled".

When they arrived at the river filled with thick fog, Dashan led the way spontaneously, and the whip held his horse.

Chu Huan quietly turned on the signal receiving device on his glasses by holding up his glasses - when he passed by just now, he secretly pasted a signal transmitter on Dashan's body.

This dense fog is like a natural labyrinth. People will lose their direction involuntarily when they walk in. It seems to contain some hallucinogenic ingredients, but the objects of confusion are divided into blood. For example, the people of the Liyi tribe are completely immune.

It is rare for Chu Huan to be curious about such a natural wonder.

However, a strange thing happened. As the fog thickened, the signal from the other side of the mountain became weaker and weaker, and then it simply disappeared. At this time, Dashan was only half a horse faster than Chu Huan. The back is still within the range of his naked eyes.

His signal was blocked.

This dense fog wrapped the settlement of the Liyi tribe into an independent small world, Chu Huan took off his glasses, and tried to adjust the equipment while wiping the lenses covered by water vapor, thinking: "It's interesting. "

Suddenly, Chu Huan's back felt cold, he turned his head abruptly, and saw a person in the middle of the river.

At this moment, the fog had not yet reached the point where he could not see his fingers, and Chu Huan could still barely see the person in the water—a man with long hair, and the ends of his hair were floating in the water, like a big lump of rich seaweed soup. The naked upper body was tattooed with patterns similar to Nanshan's, but there seemed to be some subtle differences in the details. Covered by the mist, Chu Huan couldn't see the difference for a while.

His skin is so pale that he doesn't look like an oriental person, almost transparent, and his lips are bright red, but everything is reversed, his lips are red and white to a certain level, and he actually shows a little strangeness like he just ate a dead person.

Ugly is not ugly, but it doesn't look like a living thing.

Seeing such a person halfway across the river, Chu Huan didn't have any poetic associations of "the grass is green and there is a Yiren" at all, and he just felt that a water ghost came out of there.

The whip and Dashan immediately reined in the horse at the same time, and Dashan yelled something in a low voice. It was a Liyi language that Chu Huan had never heard. It was a bit similar to when they called Nanshan, but not exactly the same.

He could hear that the young man's tone was very solemn, but he was a little guarded in his solemnity, and he was not as close to Nanshan Shishi.

If their address to Namsan is "Patriarch", what does that mean?

"Former Patriarch"? "Dead Patriarch"? "The patriarch from hell"?

The "water ghost" just stared straight at Chu Huan without saying a word.

Whip and Dashan looked at each other, Whip took a step forward, and carefully explained their itinerary. Chu Huan understood what he said this time, and he said: "The patriarch asked us to sell the last batch of things before winter comes. We are... just about to leave."

"Water ghost" didn't even look at the goods he indicated, raised his hand and pointed at Chu Huan, and asked in a voice that he didn't know whether it was "feminine" or "low and gentle", "Who is he?"

The whip replied honestly: "It is a guest brought back by the patriarch."

"Guest?" The water ghost's scarlet lips hooked suddenly, and even his smile was different from ordinary people.

When laughing, the upper half of the face seems to be frozen, the muscles are completely motionless, only the lips are changed into an upward curved shape, which is a benchmark interpretation of what is called "smile on the skin but not the flesh".

Chu Huan sat upright on the horse, his muscles tensed up involuntarily, and he instinctively felt the threat from the other party.

The water ghost suddenly jumped up from the water, he slapped the water surface suddenly, but there was no splash, under his palm, the not-deep river seemed to be pushed out into a huge undercurrent, even the horses in the water He was rushed back half a step.

Although I don't know how he did it, it is obvious that this is still a bowl of seaweed soup that cannot be taken lightly.

The figure of the water ghost passed by quickly, and arrived in front of Chu Huan like lightning, and looked at Chu Huan on the horse from bottom to top. His eyes were like two holes that could not see the bottom, so dark Scary, there seemed to be some kind of metallic color flashing across the pale palm, and it grabbed Chu Huan's leg.

At this moment, Chu Huan's horse backed up without delay, raised its front hooves slightly, and when it fell, the horse's head was gently pushed aside, and it turned half a circle on the spot without deviation. Steadily avoiding the water ghost's claws.

Everything was natural, as if the horse was afraid of the person in front of him and backed away spontaneously.

Chu Huan patted the horse's head lightly, the gentle friendliness on his face was swept away, and he looked at the people in the water indifferently.

The whip immediately stood in front of Chu Huan, while Da Shan rolled up his trouser legs and jumped down. The two young lads were very nervous.When Chu Huan heard Dashan call the other party, he emphasized his tone, but at the same time lowered his voice to show respect: "He is a guest invited by the patriarch."

"Water Ghost" stared at Chu Huan: "He has bad intentions."

Da Shan frowned fiercely.

"Get out of the way." Shui Gui said sharply, grabbing Dashan's shoulder.

Dashan turned sideways abruptly, lifted his shoulders and drew out the waist knife, and smashed it at the opponent's wrist. The metal shell of the waist knife collided with the water ghost's pale hand, and there was a "choke" sound.

Dashan's waist knife had just been pulled out halfway, but the ghost pinned his wrist at incredible speed, folded and pushed, the blade was pushed back fiercely, and fell into the water with a "plop".

The water ghost pressed Dashan's shoulder fiercely, and his nails left five bright bloodstains on his shoulder. He jumped up with his strength, stretched out his hand as a claw, and grabbed Chu Huan's shoulder.

Chu Huan's horse took another half step back with perfect timing, and the man on the horse seemed to slowly pull out a black "iron rod", and for some reason, he handed it to the water ghost's claw so precisely inside.

The water ghost instinctively joined hands together, and met Chu Huan's half-smiling gaze in mid-air.

Chu Huan: "Why did I have malicious intentions? Is your persecution paranoia already spreading at an advanced stage?"

While speaking, he pinched the horse's belly firmly and lightly, and the horse took a big step forward. The whip handle in Chu Huan's hand seemed to bump into the opponent's elbow unintentionally.

The water ghost's claws involuntarily lost their strength, and fell back into the water with a "plop".

This time, he was clearly irritated.

The water ghost took a step back, looked at Chu Huan coldly, raised his hand and flexed his fingers to whistle, and blew a long and sharp whistle.

As soon as the whistle sounded, the expression of the whip suddenly changed, and before he had time to explain, he whipped the whip on Chu Huan's horse without hesitation. It became a pot of boiling dumpling soup, and I rushed straight away.

The water ghost refused to let him go, and relentlessly jumped over the whip and the mountain to catch up.

This time, Chu Huan didn't feel sorry for Ma Jing.

He didn't know who this half-dead boy was, but he could tell from the attitudes of the two young men that he either had a close relationship with the Liyi Clan or was a relatively important person in the Liyi Clan. For the reason that the people in the family have taken good care of him these days, although the other party has been aggressive again and again, he has repeatedly backed down.

However, years and experience endowed him with maturity and reason, which does not mean that Chu Huan himself has a good temper. The probability of him being a hooligan when he was a child and growing up to be a model young man who is gentle, respectful and thrifty is too low.

The horse was frightened again, and Chu Huan felt a little annoyed. When he turned around, he pulled out the dagger that Nanshan gave him, planning to go crazy and fight on the spot.

But at this moment, there was a sudden violent tremor under the water, and the horse Chu Huan was riding wailed and stopped suddenly.

This time it couldn't be appeased no matter what, its knees softened, and it knelt down directly. If it wasn't for Chu Huan's riding skills, he would have been almost thrown off by it.

Wait, what kind of tradition is this habit of calling foreign aid in fights?

There was a stench, and there was a loud noise. The shallow water was split in half by something, and a big head surged out of nowhere under the water ghost's feet, lifting him up high.

Chu Huan: "..."

Foreign aid is a giant python.

Not to mention seeing it with his own eyes, Chu Huan never thought that a snake could be so big.Its body cannot be hugged, and when its upper body is lifted, a big man can stand on top of its head.

The snake was almost black and blue in color, and when it opened its mouth, it showed sharp teeth like awls, and the fishy taste in its mouth made people dizzy for a while.

Chu Huan suddenly heard a small "hissing" sound. He looked down and found a small head protruding from the cargo bag containing woodcarving handicrafts. The little green poisonous snake didn't know when to sneak into it while people were not paying attention. After entering it, it raised its head for a glance, then slowly retracted. After a while, it put a piece of wooden bird the size of a fingernail on its head, swam to the horse's back, and placed a bird that was exactly the same as that huge monster. shape.

Chu Huan felt that he should express his gratitude to his new friend for supporting the scene so bravely, but at the same time, he had to admit that it really has the specialty of "disgraceful".

The water ghost was riding on the giant python's head, looking down at Chu Huan from a high position, his gaze was like looking at a dead object, when he suddenly let out a shout, the big snake immediately understood the command to attack, its upper body straightened up suddenly, and then, with With lightning speed, the probe bit towards Chu Huan.

At that moment, Chu Huan inserted the short knife back into the holster on his thigh, reached into his arms, and touched his pistol.

Anyone who dared to open their mouths at him had to be mentally prepared to be shot in the head.

The foul wind rushed towards the face, and suddenly, there was a rush of leaf flute sound, which was so sharp that it seemed to tear through the thick fog.

The big snake that was bitten down in the air seemed to be hit by a fixed body, and it maintained a posture halfway through the attack on the spot, and did not move at all.

Everyone turned their heads together and saw a person wading through the water.

Nanshan?

Nanshan walked straight between the big snake and Chu Huan, and Yuan Ting stood upright.

"Go your way," he said.