Chapter 1048 Crossing the Water River
A terrible suspicion formed in everyone's mind. It was the thing that left those footprints... that carried away the coffin!
The temple is not big, so Chen Hao quickly walked around it. He was looking for Pang Xiaofeng's body, but unfortunately he could not find it. "Chen Hao." Jiang Cheng said in an indifferent voice and stretched out his hand to him. "Look at this."
Chen Hao came over and took a small thing from Jiang Cheng. It was a rhinoceros horn distributed by the watchman, but the difference was that this polished rhinoceros horn had burnt marks on it. Traces of burning.
“I found it on the ground.” Jiang Cheng looked at him calmly, “It’s in front of the incense burner.”
There is no doubt that the person who burned the rhino horn here last night must be Pang Xiaofeng. He must have encountered something terrible. Holding the rhino horn, Chen Hao looked at the incense burner.
There is only a small half of the incense left in the incense burner, and the incense has long been extinguished.
The candle mentioned by the watchman was also burned out, leaving only an empty candlestick.
At this moment, Jiang Cheng and Chen Hao raised their heads and turned their attention to the statue. The statue was no different from last night, with the same fluttering clothes, but they could see the clues.
Before he could say anything, Yu Chengmu walked over with twirling beard and splayed steps, "You two little brothers also see that something is wrong, right?"
"Although I don't know as much as the old gentleman, this statue is too realistic." Chen Hao replied truthfully.
"Haha, this is not a simple statue, but a specially built ghost altar." Yu Chengmu's voice changed, and it turned a little eerie, "In other words, this... is a ghost altar. Temple."
"Do you know who the woman above is?" Yu Chengmu looked at Chen Hao and Jiang Cheng with playful eyes, especially Jiang Cheng. He was very interested in this person.
But before he could continue to show off, Jiang Cheng stepped forward. Under the statue was a stone platform, and a curtain made of white cloth surrounded the stone platform.
Jiang Cheng stretched out his hand to lift the white cloth, and Chen Hao's eyes suddenly changed. The stone platform covered by the white cloth was carved with countless waves. The waves were layer upon layer, rolling and biting each other. At first glance, Go, it actually gives people a feeling of boundlessness, and an unstoppable sense of overwhelming power surges out.
And above the vast expanse of waves, there is a statue of the goddess walking on the waves.
"Empress Dahe." The name immediately appeared in Chen Hao's mind.
Jiang Cheng put down the white cloth and looked up at the statue of the goddess in front of him, "This temple should be called Dahe Empress Temple. I just don't know what good things this Dahe Empress has done for the villagers to make the villagers behave like this." He was so grateful to commemorate her that he built a temple specifically for her.”
The marginalized Yu Chengmu looked a little embarrassed, it was obviously him who was showing off. , no matter how hard I tried, the boy named Jiang pretended, "Haha, little brother Jiang has good eyesight, but it's a pity that you only know one and not the other." Yu Chengmu curled his lips and looked around the temple, "This This ghost temple has a strange origin. Judging from the surrounding layout, there must be an expert setting up here to suppress the resentment of this fierce ghost. "
Jiang Cheng did not know this, but he looked as usual.
Yu Chengmu looked at him, his eyes narrowed slightly, seemingly seeing through everything, but in fact his heart was pounding. He couldn't see through Jiang Cheng more and more, and he only felt dangerous.
Not long after, another gong sound came from outside. There were no more clues in the temple. The three of them turned around and left to join the crowd outside the temple.
When they learned that the temple was dedicated to ghosts, everyone’s expressions suddenly became wonderful.
Following the weird footprints, everyone walked out of the mansion. The top priority was to find the whereabouts of the coffin. It was best to find Pang Xiaofeng’s body. But as they walked, everyone found that the village was surprisingly quiet, as if the entire village was quiet. Everyone in the village has disappeared, which is not a good sign.
And the direction the footprints lead to is actually the direction where the gong sounds.
When they heard the third gong, they climbed over a relatively high mound, and their vision suddenly opened up. A large river appeared in front of them, and hundreds of people gathered densely on the river bank.
Looking at their clothes, they are the villagers who disappeared in the village.
Seven coffins were neatly placed on the river bank. The lids of the coffins were lifted aside, and the bodies inside were missing.
The old man they saw last night was holding a black gong in his hand and standing in front of the coffin. Because he was far away, his expression could not be seen clearly.
In the crowd, there were people in white mourning clothes kneeling down not far from the coffin. A cold and damp wind blew, and a woman's low and hoarse cry could be heard vaguely, as if she was crying in mourning.
The group of people approached and were discovered. The old man was holding a gong and walked over with the help of a young man. His steps were trembling. After seeing Jiang Cheng and the others, his emotions could no longer be restrained. "Dear masters, Our village is sorry for you, let one of your masters go free Lost his life!"
Zhang Junyu frowned when he heard this. He looked around for a week and didn't see Pang Xiaofeng's body. He couldn't help asking, "How did you know that one of us was dead?"
< br>Was there anyone else in the house besides them last night?
The watchman?
The old man's eyes were red and his voice was hoarse: "Masters, see for yourselves." The old man turned sideways and pointed to the river with his fingers, which were trembling.
The river surface is very wide, and the entire river surface has a vague black color, and the visibility is very poor. The position of the old man's finger is close to the middle of the river, where there is a less obvious whirlpool.
And inside the whirlpool, there is something floating and sinking.
Hold your breath and look attentively. Du Moyu, who had good eyesight, suddenly frowned. He saw a pale and bloodless face, "It's Xiaofeng!"
" Yes, it's one of you masters." The old man looked very guilty and couldn't help but sigh, "I only heard about it this morning, and I hurried over after that."
"Who. The first body found?" Yu Chengmu looked at the old man.
The old man waved and summoned a dark-faced shirtless man to introduce to everyone, "That's him. You can call him... just call him Su Da."
"Su Da." Yu Chengmu said, "What are you doing? The body was found at that time."
"When it was dark, I saw something floating in the whirlpool. Then I took a closer look and saw that it was a person." Su Da looked very honest and said in a loud voice. stuffy.
Zhou Qing sneered, "It's just dawn, what are you doing here at the river? Also, now that it's bright, we can barely see the body clearly. Tell me, how can you see clearly when it's dawn?" ”
Seeing this, the old man explained: "Masters, don't be angry. It's like this. Su Da is arranged by the village. Every day at dawn, we have to arrange for people to come to the river to inspect. Today it happens to be his turn."
Having said this, a hint of bitterness appeared on the old man's face, and he sighed deeply, "You masters are the benefactors of our village. I dare not hide it from you. During this time, people have disappeared from time to time in the village at night, but as long as they are missing, Soon, the bodies will be in the river The surface surfaced, and it was always there."
The old man glanced at the river with some fear, and whispered: "It's... the whirlpool you saw."
"The body in the coffin too?" Du Moyu asked.
The old man nodded, "Yes, they are all."
Chen Hao looked around, looked back and said to the old man: "Do these villagers have anything to do here? If nothing happens, let them Go back, we still have some information to ask you.”
The old man looked at Su Da, "You have heard what the masters said, go and ask them all to go back." Before Su Da could leave, the old man stopped him again, "Wait, tell them, don't worry. As long as the masters are here, nothing will happen to the village!"
Su Da nodded his head and agreed angrily.
But this last sentence made Jiang Cheng and others frown. What do you mean, if we are in the village, everything will be fine? Why not kill us instead of killing the people in your village?
Everyone knows that 80% of them are being used as scapegoats again this time.
The top priority now is to find out what happened in the village, and what the relationship between the evil ghost this time and the village is.
When everyone was almost gone, Yu Chengmu smiled and took the old man's hand and asked in a long voice: "Village chief, the temple where we went to watch the night last night...who is it worshiping?"
< br>Yu Chengmu clearly felt that the old man's hand shook.
Yu Chengmu’s hand clenched tighter, not giving him a chance to escape at all. The face like withered tree bark came close to him, with a smile on his face, but his two eyes stared intently. Looking at the old man's face, the next second, he suddenly said: "It's Empress Dahe, right?"
"Ah!" When the old man heard these words, he was so frightened that he dropped the gong in his hand and his face turned pale. The blood color faded completely.
After reacting, the old man's legs softened, and he knelt on the ground. He said in a crying voice: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, masters, I didn't mean to hide it from you. To be honest, Yes...I really don’t dare to tell you. In the past, the masters we hired would stay away as soon as they heard this name, and they wouldn’t come no matter how much money we paid.”
Lei Mingyu was so angry that he raised his leg and was kicked to the ground by the old man, "If others don't want to come, you just trick us into coming. You old man, your life is life, but our life is not life, right?" !”
Worried that Lei Mingyu would do more things, Du Moyu stepped forward and pulled him behind. Lei Mingning stared at the old man, feeling that if you don’t tell the truth today, I Give you the momentum of throwing yourself into the river.
Jiang Cheng was done with his calculations. He stepped forward to help the old man up and dusted him off. "We don't need to pursue the previous matters, but now you have to explain to us clearly what exactly this Dahe Empress is." What's going on, and what does it have to do with the strange things in the village?"
The old man was killed by Lei Mingyu. He couldn't catch his breath from kicking his feet, so he sat on a big stone and calmed down for a long time before finally speaking: "You are right, that temple is called... it's called the Dahe Empress Temple. We built it for the eldest daughter of the Wu family. "
"The house you lived in last night was the former Wu family house."
"It's a long story." The old man shook his head slightly, his eyes slowly becoming blank, "You may not believe it, but 10 years ago, our village was the richest village nearby. The village is backed by mountains, and most importantly, it is... Next to this crossing river, which is called the lifeblood. ”
"But suddenly late one night, the Dushui River swelled wildly. The water broke down the embankment and poured into the village. Many people drowned, and many others were swept away by the river. Even their bodies were not found."
“Originally we thought that the river embankment was in disrepair, so we started adding more The river embankment has been fixed, and this kind of thing has never happened since the establishment of the village. We just thought it was due to bad years."
"I didn't expect that this was just the beginning." The old man said. There were ups and downs, and the expression became frightened, "After the flood, the village appeared There are more and more strange things happening. The Dushui River, which originally had a lot of fish, could not catch even a single fish overnight. "
"Some people did not believe in evil and contacted more than a dozen fishing boats to jointly set up a trap. Zhang Juwang wanted to see what was going on in the water.”
"But after waiting for a long time, there was no movement at all."
"Seeing that the sun was about to set, everyone was ready to pull the net up, but when they pulled it, they found something was wrong. The net was very heavy, very heavy, like It hooked something under the water. "
"I often fish in the river, and everyone has experience. No matter how hard I pull, the thing under the water won't move. It must be a dead thing, and it is very big. "
“Experienced old people analyzed that it may be that after the flood, the river bed was washed away, exposing a large stone with a strange shape, and the stone hooked the fishing net.”
“Such this He said that no one dared to pull it hard. After all, the fishing net is used for food, and it would be serious if it was broken. So someone suggested that while it was still dark, go down and feel the situation underwater. "
"A man who was very good at water volunteered, took off his clothes, and plunged in."
"He went down for a long time, so long that everyone was worried that he was in danger, but with a series of Blisters, the man finally emerged from the water. "
"According to the man, the net got entangled in a big rock under the water, and he couldn't figure it out alone."
" After knowing the situation, two more men said nothing He said that he took off his clothes and went into the water, but after a while, the three people surfaced one after another, urging a few more people to come in. The situation under the water was more complicated than imagined. "
"At this time. It's already half dark, on the boat The old man in charge looked at the sun with its last remaining rays, and had an ominous premonition in his heart. Even though the people in the village grew up by the river, as long as the sun sets, no one will go down to the river. This is the rule. "
"But some people were reluctant to part with their own fishing nets. They planned to seize the opportunity to take back the nets while it was still dark, as long as they moved quickly. So they refused to listen to the old man's stop and jumped out with four more people."
< br>"This time, seven people came up, and then others went down to help, right?" Hearing this, Du Moyu had already roughly guessed the next direction of the matter.
The old man nodded with a painful expression when he heard this, "Yes, that's the case, but this time, it was completely dark, and the people who stayed on the boat also realized that something was wrong."
"They refused to go into the water, and those who wanted to be in the water should hurry up and get on the boat. We will wait until dawn tomorrow to find out about fishing nets and other things." (End of Chapter)