"Old Taoist! Where's the sword sharpening?"
"When you fell below, why did you leave without waiting for us?"
"What is the Book of the Dead?"
Jin An quietly approached the old Taoist priest and the mourning brothers. He was surprised at first, and then asked in a lowered voice.
After getting closer.
Only then did Jin An see it.
The old Taoist priest and the mourner brothers were both a little embarrassed.
The clothes on his body were torn in many places, all of which were caused by falling in the tunnel. There were also many scratches and bruises on his hands and arms.
Fortunately, they were just flesh wounds.
Faced with Jin'an's question, the old Taoist priest did not answer immediately.
Instead, he turned his head and glanced nervously in the direction of the suspension bridge on the river. The most important thing was to look at the black cloth prayer flags floating quietly in the wind on the suspension bridge. When he saw that there was no abnormality in the black cloth prayer flags, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Little brother, it's a long story to talk about."
The old Taoist priest looked uneasily in the direction of the suspension bridge and the Dead Man's Passage, grabbed Jin An's wrist, and hid in the darker place behind him.
I don’t know if it’s because it’s humid and cold here, and the old Taoist priest’s hands are a little cold.
The abrasions on his hands made the old Taoist grimace in pain. He talked about the situation after the fall: "When the four of us first fell, thanks to the sharp swords, we were able to get rid of them in time, except for a few minor abrasions.
, avoiding more serious injuries.”
"It's just that when we first fell down, we were disturbed by the things under the tomb. It's not peaceful under the tomb. Mom, there are so many rats, so densely packed together that I can't even count them."
"Those rat spirits survived by eating the dead people in this tomb, and they became fat and big-eared by eating the flesh of the dead."
"Although these little things look very naive and fat, these little things eat dead human flesh to survive and have become bloodthirsty. When they see a living person, their eyes are as wide as mung beans.
They are as big as a bastard and very ferocious, and the pain on their hind legs is more painful than a rabbit kicking someone. Thanks to our running speed, we finally ran up those suspended steps to avoid those rat spirits that eat the carrion of the dead."
As the old Taoist priest spoke, he reluctantly lifted up his robe and trousers to show Jin An that there were indeed many scars on his lower back and calves.
Luckily I didn't get bitten or scratched.
Otherwise, these black dolphins, which crawl around in the piles of dead people and specialize in eating the carrion of the dead, may not be able to cure the highly poisonous poison in their teeth and claws.
"Little brother, when you came down, didn't you encounter those mung bean-eyed rat spirits?" The old Taoist priest glanced at Jin An in surprise.
Jin An replied that there were, but most of the black dolphins were attracted by the old Taoist priests. He only encountered a few or two that were alone. When he saw him, he ran away with his head in his arms and did not chase him and bite him.
The old Taoist priest looked at Jin An suspiciously: "Little brother, Taoist, I always feel that when you talk about 'mouse holding its head and running away' at this time, you are insinuating us, Taoist, and our embarrassment?"
Jin An's forehead had a few black lines hanging down, and he glared at the old Taoist priest: "You are such a bastard, you haven't said where the sharpened sword went, and what is the Book of the Dead?"
After the old Taoist priest became acquainted with Jin An, his face became thicker and thicker, and there was no trace of embarrassment on his face.
"We were bitten by those rat spirits all the way. We sharpened our swords and went into the Book of the Dead to find another way out."
Hidden in the dark, the old Taoist priest raised his finger and pointed to the suspension bridge on the river not far away, as well as the black prayer flags. Perhaps it was because of the low temperature at the bottom of the cliff. The low temperature made the water vapor on the river and the suspension bridge float a faint layer of light.
Mist, with a hazy feeling of virtuality and reality.
"What is the Sutra of the Dead?" The old Taoist priest looked solemn.
"A dangerous and desperate situation that can kill people, and even more, living people!"
"This Dead Man's Sutra is a bridge between the underworld and the Yang world. The Yang energy in the Yang world is suppressed the weakest, and the solitary Yin surges. Once you step into the scope of the Dead Man's Sutra, there will no longer be a boundary between the underworld and the Yang world. It is equivalent to a living person stepping into the underworld. This
It's more harmful to human life than using one's soul to travel to the underworld. There are all kinds of dead people in the underworld, and the hearts, livers, spleens, lungs and kidneys of living people have never been seen in their lives."
"No one knows what kind of underworld the Death Man's Sutra has opened here. The danger of this underworld mainly depends on the power of the Dead Man's Sutra. There are so many Dead Man's Sutra flags and banners here. According to the old saying, I
Look, I'm afraid there's a great devil hiding in the world. Even if a thousand years have passed and the power of these Sutras of the Dead is somewhat weakened, it will only turn a land of ten deaths into a land of nine deaths. Sword-cutting physique
What’s special is that he walked on those suspension bridges alone to find out for us which underworld the suspension bridges lead to.”
The old Taoist priest explained to Jin An.
Because there were outsiders present at this time, the old Taoist priest did not explicitly say that the sword-sharpener was a corpse-catcher, but only implicitly said that the sword-sharpener had a special constitution.
The person who retrieves the corpse belongs to the aspect of death of the living, and specializes in going to the place of death that the living cannot go. In the eyes of the dead, the person who retrieves the corpse is a dead person, not a living person.
Jin An instantly understood the meaning of the old Taoist priest's words.
Jin An's eyes were filled with surprise.
Can a living person set foot in the underworld?
These black cloth prayer flags are certainly not a good sign.
Just as the old Taoist priest had just finished introducing the underground situation to Jin An, there were several torches approaching like long snakes on the dark suspended steps, and there were also the quiet footsteps of many people walking on the stone steps.
"Book of the Dead!"
The country goddess who was walking at the front saw so many black cloth prayer flags in front of her. Her shoulders trembled and her steps suddenly stopped.
They were just as shocked and panicked as when the mourning brothers first saw the Dead Man's Sutra.
"Sister, Captain General, we are here."
In a shady corner, an old Taoist priest wearing a Taoist nine-beam scarf revealed half of his head, waving and calling softly.
The country goddess came back to her senses after seeing the Dead Man's Sutra for the first time, and hurriedly approached the old Taoist priest with a torch in hand, and also saw Jin An.
"Jin En Gong."
The country goddess came over happily.
The old Taoist priest was depressed: "Sister, there is still me..."
The country goddess nodded lightly: "I have met Daozhang Chen."
The old Taoist priest seemed not to notice the difference in the tone of the country goddess before and after. He was satisfied when he heard the country goddess greet him for the first time.
At this time, the captain, the three monks of Bailong Temple, and Kuixing Kidou also came together.
But I didn't see those cavalry guards.
Jin An pondered for a moment and then figured out the reason. The cave that collapsed was not wide, and the armors on the cavalry guards were too heavy, making it inconvenient to get down.
Afterwards, the old Taoist priest repeated the situation he just introduced to Jin An to the captain and others.
Not many people can recognize the Sutras of the Dead.
The captain, the three monks of Bailong Temple, and Kuixing Kidou all saw the Dead Man's Sutra for the first time. When they heard the power of the Dead Man's Sutra, they all looked a little more solemn.
Next, after a short discussion, everyone decided that they could not pin all their chances of survival on this dangerous and treacherous suspension bridge in front of them, and looked for other ways out.
What a pity.
After searching around for a while, everyone came back to the same place to meet again without success.
There is only one road under this cliff, the suspension bridge in front of you.
Everywhere else is a dead end.
And at the end of those dead-end roads is the unfathomable black Gulongdong River.
"Old Taoist, how long has it been since you sharpened the sword?"
Seeing that Jiajian had not yet come out of the suspension bridge, Jin An asked the old Taoist priest with a slight frown.
The old Taoist priest first counted the hours silently in his mind, and then said: "It should be almost two sticks of incense time."
"Has it been so long..."
Jin An looked at the river and the suspension bridge covered with a thin layer of mist, as well as the black cloth prayer flags fluttering like ghosts waving in the thin mist.
"It is not an option to keep waiting like this. There is no other way to go under the cliff, and it is not realistic to go back to the cliff and follow the original path. In the end, we have to walk from these suspension bridges to the other side of the river to find
There are other ways to survive.”
"Old Taoist, you should still have some stock of the thirty-year-old corpse oil. Can we use the old method again to deceive the dead people whose souls are wandering in the underworld?"
After Jin An pondered for a while, he asked the old Taoist priest.
What Jin An is referring to is using corpse oil to cover a person's three yang fires. This method has repeatedly made miraculous achievements for Jin An.
Jin An's words really confused the old Taoist priest.
To be continued...