By the Zhuo River, Peach Blossom Valley.

Hanging dragon gate.

For countless years, the Zhuo River has flowed endlessly from west to east.

Nowadays, due to severe flooding in the entire north, the water in the Zhuohe River is far more abundant than usual, and the water is as vast as a lake and sea.

It's a little better when it flows through the middle reaches. There are continuous mountains and river bends blocking it, and it can barely restrain this tyrannical yellow dragon.

But once you pass the Taohua Valley, you have officially left the mountainous middle reaches.

Come to the dividing line with downstream.

It is also the second dragon gate among the upper, middle and lower dragon gates above the Zhuo River - [Xuan Long Gate].

The huge turbidity current that originally passed through the mountains rushed into the plains downstream through here.

Because of the large amount of sediment it carried, it suddenly turned from an underground river into an above-ground suspended river, so this second "Dragon Gate" is called this.

now.

The gradually gloomy night and the heavy rain started again, trapping a group of pedestrians in a ruined temple in Peach Blossom Valley.

They were old and young, men and women, there were about a dozen of them in total, but they were all ragged and skinny.

They are clearly a group of refugees fleeing for their lives.

In this era, the emphasis was on kinship, and even when people were fleeing, they were still based on the family unit.

They all come from the same village and are more or less related to each other.

At least we can help each other, which is far more reliable than strangers.

Although they were exhausted, a group of people worked together and managed to carve out a shelter from the abandoned monk temple that had been abandoned many years ago.

But no one realized that the unknown clay Buddha statue in the temple seemed a little too clean even though the paint on it had been mottled for a long time.

In the crowd, a girl who was about four or five years old with two pigtails pulled her mother's sleeves and whispered:

"Mom, I'm hungry!

Didn’t you say that dad and uncle went to look for food? It’s already dark, why haven’t they come back yet?”

Because he was too thin, the child's dark eyes looked extremely big.

Looking at these eyes that were still innocent and innocent despite all the hardships, the young mother couldn't help but tremble.

The other people in the ruined temple couldn't help but look sad.

Not far from this ruined temple is the Zhuo River. Before dark, the men in the team wanted to try to see if they could catch a few fish to provide their wives and children with the only meal of the day.

But just as they approached the river, two people were swept away by an inexplicable large wave.

Others only saw a huge blue-black fish tail, flashing away in the turbid waves.

I immediately realized that I had encountered a man-eating spirit in the water!

Shocked, he could only retreat in fear and fear, never daring to take a step closer to the water again.

Even though the fire of hunger has made my stomach hurt, I can only continue to endure it.

Sighing softly, the young mother touched her little daughter's head and put a green peach with white down into her hand.

This was a fish that the husband, who had a sharp eye and quick hands, found under a leaf when he was passing through Taohua Valley. He ate it reluctantly and secretly left it for his wife.

After all, they were not the first batch of refugees to flee through Taohuayu.

After the disaster in their hometown, countless people who could not survive took their families and wanted to go to the richer plains to beg for food.

August is the season when local peaches are ripe. No matter how many wild peaches there are in Peach Blossom Valley, they have all been picked long ago.

Even this peach is already the last ration for the two of them.

Having lost the backbone of their family, their future is doomed to be gloomy.

"Mom, let's eat together."

The little girl begged her mother to let her take a bite first, and then she squinted her eyes and started chewing it with relish.

Even a small green peach made her extremely satisfied.

Even the peach core, which was still a little soft because it was immature, was chewed up and eaten, not even a trace of crumbs was wasted.

The wind and rain outside the temple became more and more fierce.

It had just fallen into the night, and the endless exhaustion made everyone's eyelids start to tremble.

The young mother held her daughter in her arms and patted her shoulder gently.

"Go to sleep. You won't be hungry when you sleep."

It won't take a while.

This group of refugees huddled in a corner and fell asleep.

When the snoring started, everyone could finally have a full meal in their dreams.

Thick corn porridge, white flour steamed buns, if you can add a small plate of pickles, it would be so satisfying.

For these victims, even dreaming is so humble.

at this time.

Click!

The clay Buddha statue on the stone platform, more accurately speaking, is a [Clay Bodhisattva]. Its eyelids suddenly opened, revealing a pair of khaki eyes that were like clay balls.

Looking around in the temple, a strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Then

He climbed down from the stone platform very lightly.

He walked silently on tiptoes to a middle-aged man, slowly bent down, and sucked hard into his face.

Wisps of white and blood-colored smoke suddenly rose from the seven orifices and quickly entered the mouth of this [Clay Bodhisattva].

Then, the clay sculpture body gradually became alive.

dong dong dong

There was even a faint sound of a strong heartbeat in the chest.

It seems that as it continues to eat people, it is slowly transforming from a body of mud to a body of flesh and blood!

【Weird Clay Bodhisattva】

There is a saying that "a clay Bodhisattva cannot protect himself when crossing a river." Even if it is enshrined in a temple, how can it protect others?

I only know how to take, but I can't give anything in return.

Taboo: You need to offer incense when entering the temple. If you don’t offer incense, you must offer blood food!

Since a large number of refugees cannot pass through the roadblocks set up by local governments on the main roads, they can only take this usually deserted trail.

During this time, I don’t know how many people have brought themselves to the mouth of [Clay Bodhisattva] in a daze.

The night is getting darker and darker, and the rain is getting heavier and heavier.

Another pair of young travelers walked into the dark peach forest of Peach Blossom Valley.

A tall and straight young man in a green shirt and a barefoot and black-haired girl in a red skirt, one handsome and the other pretty, held an oil-paper umbrella together, but they were not wet by the rain at all.

Behind him was a big black dog, although he was directly caught in the rain, but the water droplets slipped off his shiny fur.

Now the domesticated Lao Hei is becoming more and more like a real spirit, and is gradually showing signs of miraculousness.

Opening your mouth to speak is just around the corner.

"Sister, don't worry. We can continue on the boat after crossing this section of Peach Blossom Valley on the shore.

After passing [Xuanlongmen], go down the river and find a few more water ghosts to push the boats in the lower reaches where there are almost no river bends. We can reach Yunhe County by tomorrow night at the latest."

Although before the [Dragon Gate] opened and revealed its magic, these places were usually just waterfalls with rapid water flow.

But Wang Yuan kept in mind the taboos of the boatmen on the Zhuo River:

——The Zhuo River is bounded by three dragon gates. The ferry cannot cross the boundary. Once it crosses the boundary, the boat will capsize immediately and people will die!

Before reaching [Xuanlongmen], we put away the boat and walked ashore.

Since we are on the territory of the [One-eyed Stone Man], we naturally have to bow our heads.

He currently does not have tens of thousands of [Yin De] to change to a new identity.

"Well, after all, I've been waiting for fifteen years, so it's not too late in just a few days.

I just don’t know if the people in Yunhe County are the same as what we saw along the way.”

After saying that, both of them fell silent.

Only after seeing the outside world with their own eyes did they truly understand the tragic situation of "people eat each other and starve to death everywhere" as mentioned in history books.

They followed the Zhuo River all the way east.
To be continued...