Shanhaizhi

The sun put away the last trace of heat, and the darkness enveloped the heaven and earth gently like a graceful veil.

"You did it." The soil mole stared at the crane with gloomy eyes without warmth, observing every subtle expression change on his face, and had no doubt that if the crane showed any flaws, he would pounce on him without knowing it. What did you do.But the crane just met the stern gaze of a mole scrutinizing him with incomparable magnanimity.

"How could it be?" A slightly bolder villager may have seen the whole process of Tu Mo leading us into the village, and interjected in a low voice at this moment, "They also just came here. Could it be... a beast in the mountains? "The people around were silent.We also know along the way that there are not many pheasants and hares in the mountains, and the possibility of large wild animals appearing is extremely small. This is the reason why this village is mainly agricultural and there are no hunters.If so, such a wreck... what a ferocious beast?

While speaking, I stepped forward and squatted down on one leg.The corpse was lying on its back and completely stiff. When it turned over, it was found that purple-red corpse spots appeared on the back. Pressing with fingertips, the corpse spots faded slightly. After waiting for a while, the original corpse spots did not disappear, and new corpse spots did not form.Secretly made a change, cut the skin of the corpse spot with sharp fingertips, ignored the noisy voice of "what are you doing" behind him, and dipped a little drop of blood slowly flowing from the section of the blood vessel with his fingertips, watching The light yellow liquid oozed out, and the bottom of the eyes darkened again, "Judging from various post-mortem phenomena, the time of death was six or seven hours ago. In other words, it was about the misfortune encountered at this morning." I stroked the eyelids of the corpse , closed the terrified and cloudy eye, and wiped off the blood stained on his fingertips.Villagers kept pouring in behind them, and they didn't lose their composure at the same time.Or...the occurrence of such a vicious incident in a closed and peaceful village is unacceptable to everyone for a while?When the brain is blank, there is no time to react to emotions such as thinking, anger, and grief. By the time you understand what really happened, your body has been completely seized by fear.Someone started throwing up.

The village is not big, and the land area is not vast. It is estimated that the old man known as the old man has been resting at home today, and people also work from sunrise to sunset, so the corpses in this remote place were not found in time. "If you guess more boldly, there is no trace of dragging or fighting at all. Lao Pan should have been attacked from the front and landed on his back first. Before he could cry out, his neck was bitten off. Then his intestines were picked open, and the corpse was bitten into this look." I signaled the villagers to pay attention to the wound, "It can directly throw a strong adult man to the ground and bite off his neck, the size and strength of a monster It can be seen that the height when standing upright is about six feet; judging from the claw marks, the monster has very sharp claws for tearing and cutting by itself, but strangely, the rather rough muscle tissue section shows that the monster's The teeth should be neat and not sharp." I secretly guessed in my heart that Lao Pan is facing the enemy head-on, and there are only three possibilities for such a scene: first, the speed of the monster is indeed too fast for Lao Pan to react, The second is that it was the time when night and day alternated, and the eyesight of monsters had a considerable advantage in the dark, and the monsters appeared in front of Lao Pan in the form of humans, and Lao Pan was completely defenseless. And that human figure...if it was someone Lao Pan knew well...

"Monster... Monster beast?" Several people in the crowd asked tremblingly.

"Ah, that's right." I stood up, seeming to have inadvertently glanced at the cloudy and cloudy expression of the soil mole at this time, "Although it is very weak, there is indeed a monster's breath left behind."

"I forgot to say, I am Jiang Bo, a magician who often deals with monsters, and I am currently traveling. Witnessing and recording the customs and geography of the mountains, seas and continents is the mission entrusted to me by my master. After crossing the desert through the country of Ni, today Fang When I came to this village, even if it was to repay our kindness for staying in the village, I will do my best to find the murderer and pay back justice."

"It's getting late, everyone go back to rest. It's best to work together during the day these few days. Lock the doors and windows and don't go out in the middle of the night. You don't have to take turns to be on duty." I paused, looked at the panicked crowd, Smiling, "Trust me, things will be resolved quickly."

The warm and confident smile made the stagnant air flow again.

Everyone seemed to have found their own voices, lamenting and sympathizing again and again.A few bold young people clamored loudly to find out the monsters to avenge Lao Pan, but they were reprimanded by the elders not to mess around.

"Then can we trust you? Respected guest from afar?" An old man with white beard and hair walked out with a cane. The crowd suddenly fell silent, and they automatically parted to make way for him.Time has carved too many traces on his face, his short and stooped body trembled as if unable to support his weight, but his voice was calm and solemn.

"In the name of Rage God." I straightened up and said solemnly.

"Old man..." The hoarse call seemed to contain great pain, the sound was very soft, but it hit the hearts of everyone like a heavy blow.Aunt Hu, who was supported by the villagers, woke up leisurely. She stared blankly at the old man in front of her, "Pan Zi..." But she couldn't continue.

Dull silence.

The old man sighed for a long time, "Everyone will have such a day. Pan Zi, it's just that his time has come, so he returned to the embrace of Rage God."

Aunt Hu stopped talking, and her eyes slowly lost all light.Just when everyone was worried, she rushed forward, shook off the dissuading hand, and walked forward half-kneeling until she grabbed a black-brown hem of the corpse's blood-stained clothes.No crying, no tears.She just repeated monotonously and mechanically: "Why...why...".The little girl went forward to hold her mother's hand, but Aunt Hu didn't break away this time. "Mom, what's wrong with Daddy, I'm afraid..." There was a cry in the immature voice. "Don't be afraid, mother is here..." Aunt Hu hugged the little girl back, like a drowning person grabbing a piece of driftwood, and hugged her tightly, "Don't be afraid..." Before she finished speaking, big drops, big drops Tears rolled down from the sockets of her eyes, and soon soaked the fabric of the little girl's back, and smudged into an irregular shape.

People are quiet, they don't know what to say at this moment, or any language is so weak at this moment.The suppressed cries of the women drifted across the field.

Tu Mo just walked forward silently, knelt on the ground, hugged the crying mother and child with both hands, and buried his head deeply.

Afterwards, everyone worked together to dig a shallow pit to bury the corpse hastily. The time for the funeral was agreed, but the crowd dispersed after a long time.Tu Mo didn't send them back with the people, he silently turned back to the spot and carried the firewood basket on his back. "I still can't trust you." Tu Mo's light brown eyes stared at the crane following him, and then at me, "Including you whose origin is unknown."

I just returned a gentle smile, "I'm just a magician."

"I will protect this village, no matter who the other party is." Tu Mo said word by word, like a warning to us, and like an oath to himself.

no moon.The stars in the sky flickered coldly.The glow fell on the boy's warm-toned eyes, adding a bit of determination and a trace of uneasy confusion, but the fragility was fleeting, and was soon covered by perseverance.

Is that so?Crane seemed to know something, and turned his face to me, feeling a little sad suddenly.

Although there were some twists and turns, we still came to the home of Tujia according to the original plan.It was a house with a thatched roof and brick walls, with a courtyard planted with pomelo trees, simple but extremely neat.

Accompanied by the greeting of "Mother, I'm back.", Tu Mo skillfully stacked the firewood under the eaves, and pushed the door in.

"Thank you, it's so late, you must be starving, right?" The adoptive mother struggled to get out of bed and reheat the food on the table, but was stopped by the soil mole, "Mother, I'm not hungry. Lie down quickly. "

"Stupid child, you're being polite to your mother..." As she was speaking, she found me and He standing by the door, so she asked, "Where is this..."

"Sorcerer Jiang Bo and his servant Crane. Passing by here, I will take them to roost for one night." Tu Mole replied with some reluctance.

The adoptive mother, Shu Yan, said: "This is fate. Let the guests live in the empty room on the east side." She looked at us, with small wrinkles but amiable face that could still vaguely see the beauty of girlhood, she nodded slightly, She said with a shameful apology, "Even a humble house doesn't have anything nice to entertain you."

"Where, we are bothering you." I replied.

With the help of Tu Mole, the adoptive mother leaned her upper body on the back of the wooden bed, and said with a long sigh: "I heard some commotion, it seems that Lao Pan is dead, what's going on? Alas, two days ago I put I broke my leg, otherwise I should have gone to see it."

The hand that arranged the tableware paused, "Uncle Pan is dead. Tomorrow is the day of his official burial."

"Bless God." The adoptive mother folded her hands together and said silently, "You are young and strong, why did you leave all of a sudden?" Me, "Come and eat together, respected guests." There was no trace of respect in the tone, but it was [-]% helpless.

"Huang... God bless you." The adoptive mother's voice trembled, but she didn't ask any more questions.

"No need." I said.

It was said that the soil mole just ate two chopsticks quietly, and then put back the utensils. "I'm full, take the guests to the room."

"Is this enough to eat? I really ate very little in the past two days. You left in the morning and only brought some dry food." The adoptive mother asked worriedly, "Don't worry about your health. Do you think something is wrong?" not comfortable?"

"No." Tu Mo turned his head and tried to raise a bright smile, "Maybe it's because I haven't done much work recently so I'm not hungry."

I was noncommittal, but Crane glanced at her before going out, and saw her adoptive mother sitting withered in the room with the oil lamp turned off, like a silent statue with a worried look.

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