In addition to Jin An, the old Taoist priest, and the corpse stitcher, the people who entered the mountain were also accompanied by some villagers.
The mountain road was difficult to walk and overgrown with bushes, so some villagers were needed to help open the road, mainly the parents and relatives of the three lost children.
When they arrived outside the village, the corpse-maker blew a whistle, and several big dogs that had been out looking for food at night ran over with green eyes.
So this temporarily formed team officially set off.
The corpse maker took out the clothes that Da Mao had worn, put them in front of the dogs and smelled them, and then the big dogs ran wildly towards the mountains.
The team followed Big Dog to the foot of the mountain. Looking at the silent mountain, their expressions changed: "Big Mao and the other three guys have indeed returned to the mountain again!"
It is not easy to walk in the deep mountains and old forests at night, not only because of the rugged mountain roads, but also because of the poor visibility at night. Even if there are strings of torches for lighting, the ordinary villagers are still frightened and nervous when listening to the sounds of wild beasts and night owls in the mountains and forests at night.
The only good thing is that the continuous drought since summer has made the mountain roads less muddy and difficult to walk.
"It has been 20 or 30 years since our Xicai Village moved away from the old village. Maybe this is why Da Mao saw his grandma in the old village. When people get old, they have the idea of returning to their roots after falling leaves, and it is difficult to leave their homeland."
Along the way, the corpse stitcher talked as he walked, not only to keep the atmosphere in the team from becoming too tense, but also to briefly introduce the old village to people from outside the village.
"The unknown things about the old village have to start with the Empress Temple, which is the temple that Da Mao once saw in the old village."
"Taoist Master Jin'an, Taoist Chen, do you believe that the empress in the empress temple will come back to life? The empress statue in the old village came to life. From then on, there will be no peaceful life in the village."
"This story begins with an alcoholic husband. It has been so long that I no longer remember the specific name. I only know that the alcoholic husband beat his wife all day long, and every night he could hear his wife's miserable cries from being beaten. But
No one dares to mess with an alcoholic in the village. Occasionally, if someone can't stand it and comes to try to persuade him, the alcoholic husband will chop his head to pieces with a hatchet. Over time, everyone chooses to be numb."
"That day, while her husband was asleep after drinking, the wife sneaked out of the house and asked the villagers for help. Only then did everyone discover that the wife was pregnant with a big belly. The amniotic fluid had ruptured and she was about to give birth.
, maybe this is the mother’s love for her child, she ran away from home because she wanted to ask someone to help her deliver the baby.”
"The human heart grows from flesh after all. Some villagers hid the pregnant woman at home and called the midwife to deliver the baby. However, because the wife was often beaten and weak, she could not give birth to the child. But at this time, the drunken husband woke up and found
When his wife disappeared, he knew that a pregnant woman was not far away in the mountains. He started knocking on doors with a hatchet in his hand, and brutally broke into anyone who didn't open the door... The memory of that year was too far away, and many details could not be remembered. He only knew about the alcoholic husband.
He is just a madman, and when he is drunk, he is stronger than an ox, and the villagers dare not provoke him."
"Seeing that the alcoholic husband was about to find someone, the wife sneaked away and hid in the Empress Temple and gave birth to a baby alone. However, it turned out to be a stillbirth. The wife was malnourished for a long time, and she was often subjected to domestic violence, resulting in the baby being born.
There will be no life.”
"My wife couldn't bear the blow and went crazy in the Empress Temple. From then on, everyone always said that every night, they would see the dark shadow of a long-haired woman standing outside the window, as if staring at the sleeping child on the bed.
Some people boldly went out, but there was no one outside the window. Once or twice, it could be said to be hallucinations, but after everyone had similar experiences, it was no longer as simple as hallucinations. During that time, people were panicked. Some people said that the black shadow outside the window looked like the Empress Temple.
Some people say that the black shadow outside the window looks like the crazy wife of an alcoholic husband."
"In short, the village was very uneasy during that time. Children would cry non-stop at night and were too frightened to sleep. Not to mention the children, even the adults were too frightened to close their eyes."
"During that time, because of the black shadow outside the window, everyone was so nervous that they didn't notice that since the wife went crazy and was brought home by her alcoholic husband, it had been a long time since she heard the cries of the wife being abused by her husband.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my alcoholic husband go out to buy alcohol or go hunting…”
"When everyone noticed the strong smell of corpses, it was already too late. When they rushed into the alcoholic husband's house, they saw that the alcoholic husband's head was almost split in half with a hatchet. There were many human bones scattered in the house. The wife used her husband's corpse as a weapon every day.
Even though the corpse was highly decomposed, he still chewed it raw and swallowed it...I didn't see the scene at that time. It is said that people who saw that scene vomited on the spot and never dared to eat meat again."
"To be honest, everyone was scared when they saw their wife going crazy and eating human flesh alive, so they locked her up and had her fed on time every day. But the nightmare also started from that time, and graveyards in the village would be dug up every once in a while.
Open, the bodies inside were missing. In the end, the lost ancestors' bones were found at the crazy wife's house, but the corpses had been eaten until only the bones were left. The woman was not only crazy but also had pica. No one knew it.
How did the crazy woman who was locked up in the house come out to dig up graves and eat dead people? However, the black shadow outside the window still appears every day after dark. A saying began to spread in the village that when the crazy wife gets tired of eating dead people, she will start eating dead people.
When it comes to eating living human flesh, we start with eating children..."
Alas, at this point, the corpse stitcher sighed.
"There were too many strange things happening in the village at that time. Some villagers, in fear and anxiety, did something stupid and... buried people alive."
Hearing this, Jin An and the old Taoist priest couldn't help but frown.
"By the time the village knew about this, it was already too late. The disaster was already approaching. People were dying every day. There were new coffins in every household. Some people and their whole family had all died. So there was the subsequent relocation of the whole family.
, the old village was abandoned.”
Since the family moved, no one in Xicai Village has ever returned to the old village. The corpse stitcher led the way according to his memory, taking several branch roads along the way. Fortunately, under the sensitive nose of the dog, the group saw an abandoned road next to a dry valley.
of villages.
When he saw the abandoned village, the old Taoist priest had a look of surprise on his brows. He did not speak, but pondered as he walked, looking very worried.
The village has been abandoned for a long time, and most of the buildings are made of rocks. Walking in the empty and deserted village, you always feel that the surrounding temperature is very low, as if there is a chill climbing up the back of your head towards Tianling Gai.
When passing by an intersection in the village, I encountered several collided trucks with their boards damaged and overturned. They were now covered with thick dust.
From these colliding carts, it can be seen that the villagers were walking in a hurry and were in a hurry to escape for their lives.
Jin An gently squeezed the wooden handle of the cart, and clicked. The wood had already become brittle in the wind and rain, and it broke when touched.
Because they have been abandoned for too long, the wooden doors of many stone buildings have decayed and fallen, revealing dark door openings. This quiet and abandoned old village looks very gloomy and gives people a strong psychological suggestion. It always feels like there is something behind the door opening.
Hiding a pair of bloodshot, cold and numb blue eyes.
Otherwise, Jin An was very brave. He walked directly into one of the stone houses holding a torch. As soon as he entered the house, he first saw a black wooden coffin, which gave people a strong visual impact.
Next, I walked through several houses, and every house had a black wood coffin, and no one was an exception.
"Hey." The corpse stitcher sighed, saying that strange things happened frequently in those days, and if there weren't too many people dying, everyone wouldn't abandon their family business and move the whole family.
Jin An didn't say anything about the corpse craftsman. He glanced at the old Taoist priest who looked a little strange along the way.
The expression on the old Taoist priest's face changes very slightly. If you are not familiar with the old Taoist priest's character, you will never notice this subtle difference in his expression.
The old Taoist priest must have discovered something.
I haven’t said it yet, maybe it’s because the time hasn’t come yet.
Jin An looked back from the corner of his eye and continued to lead the families of several missing children to look for someone in the village. There were so many people there now that he was not in a hurry to ask the old Taoist priest.
The mountain village is desolate and dead, and no disturbance can escape the eyes and ears of a few people. However, this deserted village is quiet, and it doesn't look like a child is hiding here.
"It's strange that even my dog's nose failed as soon as he entered the village. After sniffing the air for so long, he still couldn't find the three children." The corpse stitcher said in surprise.
Indeed, as mentioned, those big dogs sniffed on the ground for a while, always wandering in place, as if they had lost their way.
"Could it be that...there are so many dead people in coffins here, which interferes with the dog's sense of smell...I always feel that since I moved to the old village, there is always a strange smell in the air. In short, it makes people feel uncomfortable all over." A villager said
Xian whispered tremblingly.
His words were immediately echoed by several other villagers, who all said that they smelled a strange smell in the old village. Everyone was frightened and joined a group to keep warm, and did not dare to wander around.
"The Temple of the Empress, the home of an alcoholic husband, the place where crazy women are buried alive, do you remember?" Jin An pondered for a moment and looked at the corpse stitcher.
The corpse stitcher nodded and pointed in a direction: "If I remember correctly, there is the Empress Temple not far away. Let's go to the Empress Temple first. If there are no clues about the three children there, we can only search each house."
The deserted village is not big, and we soon arrived at the Niangniang Temple.
According to what the three children had said before, there was a grass stage opera troupe set up in the Niangniang Temple, and many villagers were sitting and listening to the opera. But when they came to the Niangniang Temple, they found that there was no stage, and there was an open space in front of the door, with only a
An old tree that is hundreds of years old.
The old trees grow luxuriantly, providing shade and covering the Empress Temple.
Looking at the temple and the old tree, Jin An frowned slightly.
In terms of Feng Shui, it is good to enjoy the shade under big trees. Building temples under the shade of trees to worship ancestors or righteous gods can bring prosperity and vitality to the population.
But this must be based on the premise of righteousness.
Wood, like people, also has yin and yang.
If the village is deserted, no one worships it, and the righteous gods do not come, and snakes, insects, rats, and ants that like yin are brought in, it will easily breed evil spirits and attract wild gods and ghosts to move in. Then the yin energy will breed the ancient trees, and the ancient trees will grow taller and taller, with a crown like an umbrella.
It covers the sky and the sun, and becomes a wild god hiding under the big tree to enjoy the shade.
So this is why the ancient trees at the entrance of the village are fragrant and pleasant, making people feel friendly and comfortable; while the ancient trees in the deep mountains will give people a gloomy feeling, as the Yin energy nearby is particularly strong and there are many poisonous snakes.
The century-old tree in front of him gave Jin An the feeling of the latter.
I'm afraid something has happened to the Empress Temple.
The Niangniang Temple is not big. A group of people entered the Niangniang Temple holding torches and had a panoramic view. No one has come to offer incense for decades. The temple is old and dilapidated, and there is only one statue of the Niangniang God.
The most eye-catching thing is the pile of bones in the Empress Temple.
They are all animal bones.
They just entered the Empress Temple and disturbed the sleeping of a big blue and white snake. The big snake came out from behind the statue and tried to attack the corpse stitcher nearest to it. However, one snake was hard to beat with four punches and was quickly killed by several vicious dogs raised by the corpse stitcher.
He was bitten to death, and the fresh blood that came out was extremely smelly. Seeing that there were no clues in the Niangniang Temple, everyone covered their noses and walked out of the Niangniang Temple.
Later, at Jin An's suggestion, the corpse stitcher led the way to the alcoholic man's house to find the whereabouts of the three children.
As soon as the group of people arrived at the place, the big dogs raised by the corpse stitcher suddenly barked wildly and uneasily, which sounded harsh and empty in this quiet and deserted village, and spread far away.
After the corpse-maker scolded him a few times, the big dogs whined and became quiet.
"Is there really... something in here?" Some villagers said nervously and fearfully.
"Master Cai, when you were at the Empress Temple just now, those big dogs you raised were not even afraid of a python as big as that. They bit them into pieces when they went up to them. Now they are barking at an empty house...don't you mean that one back then?
Has the crazy woman been buried alive by the older generation of villagers?"
The villagers were afraid to look at the corpse stitcher.
After calming the dog, the corpse maker also looked surprised. He looked solemnly at the room in front of him and said: "The drunken husband was eaten, and all his souls and souls entered his wife's belly, and the wife was buried alive somewhere else.
There is no such thing as an alcoholic husband lingering around the house after his death!"
"It is indeed a bit weird here. This is the first time I have returned to the old village after so many years. Is the story from that time wrong? After so many years, has something happened in the old village that we don't know about?"
After hearing the corpse stitcher's words, the villagers swayed their bodies, huddled together, and said nervously: "Master Cai, please don't scare us. I think we should not go in. The doors and windows of this house are boarded up and have not been pried."
Traces, I think Da Mao and the others are definitely not here."
"Yes, yes, I don't think it's possible for three children to be in here."
On the contrary, the families of the three children turned to the corpse stitcher for help. They searched the whole village but could not find the children. This was their last hope.
Jin An just glanced at the corpse stitcher without comment, then continued to look at the building in front of him.
He noticed that the exterior wall of the alcoholic man's house was stained with many black marks and was covered with badly damaged and faded talismans. Later, after the corpse stitcher explained, he found out that the black marks were the black dog's blood that the villagers had spilled to ward off evil spirits.
Even the door of the house was nailed shut by the villagers with wooden boards, as if what was sealed inside was not a crazy woman with a pitiful life, but the fear of the whole village.
Finally, the corpse stitcher gritted his teeth and decided to let the villagers break down the door. They had already arrived in the old village anyway. No matter what, he must try hard to find the missing children.
Other villagers did not dare to break down the door. The father of three children took the pick and hoe and smashed it. The door was sealed tightly, and it was not easy to finally open it.
call--
As the air circulated, a dark wind blew out of the house, and a smell of rotten meat that had been sealed in a closed space for decades came out. The stench was so unpleasant that the villagers were shocked.