Nightmare Apostle

Looking up, there were hundreds or even thousands of headless households standing on the large open space behind the monk. The households were one next to another, facing the direction of Yang Xiao, and they were arranged so densely that they could not be seen to the end. At this moment, time As if suspended, the surroundings were silent.

Yang Xiao's breathing stopped, and he stood frozen on the spot. The few Yang Xiaos at the front of the headless household looked familiar in their clothes, and they seemed to be the wandering villagers he had seen on the road before.

The monk squatting on the ground suddenly moved. Only then did Yang Xiao realize that there was something strange about the monk's body. His back was obviously turned to him, but the toes of his shoes were pointed at him. His upper and lower bodies were staggered, as if he was being swept away by an unknown force. The force forced it to twist 180 degrees.

The upper body that the monk carried on his back was extremely bloated, as if he had his hands held up in front of him, in a posture of worshiping the Buddha.

Because their backs were turned, Yang Xiao couldn't see the monk's face. He recognized the monk's identity from the ring scar on his bald head and the tattered robe on his body.

As the chanting in the ancestral hall gradually stopped, many headless corpses seemed to have received some kind of permission, and they surrounded Yang Xiao with tiny steps. Looking around, one layer after another of corpses surrounded him. It was airtight, and at this moment, Yang Xiao was completely cold. He could sense the purest malice of the households, and they seemed to have sworn hatred for him.

Yang Xiao desperately wanted to explain that he was just a passerby, passing through Dujia Village to rest for a few days, but his tongue was stiff and he couldn't say a word. He could only watch the monk in front of him stand up in an extremely strange posture. .

The next second, the monk who had already stood up rushed towards Yang Xiao at an incredible speed. Before Yang Xiao could react, he felt a cold hand grabbing his left arm. Then his body became weightless and his sense of direction was completely confused.

"Kick, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, crowing," Yang Xiao suddenly woke up. Cold sweat had already soaked his whole body, and he was breathing heavily. He was still lying on the bed, with several layers of thick quilts piled on his body, and his eyes were surrounded by people.

"How do you feel?" Tong Han, who was squatting next to him, asked with concern.

After a while, Yang Xiao took the bowl of water handed over by Mi Shu and drank a few gulps. Then Yang Xiao gradually came back to his senses and asked, "What's wrong with me?"

"You had a nightmare. Your body was convulsing violently and your body temperature was also lowering. We tried many methods to wake you up, but all failed until we heard a chicken crow outside." After the previous experience, Sui Chengguo said to Yang Xiao His attitude is also much more sincere.

"Yes, your body temperature was very low just now, as if you were thrown into an ice cave. We were all worried that you might not be able to survive." Lu Youcheng also breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was a nightmare. In the dream, I was drawn all the way to the ancestral hall in the village. I saw a ghost monk and hundreds of headless corpses."

Yang Xiao tried his best to describe what he saw in the dream in the shortest and most concise language. But to his surprise, no one was very surprised. Finally, it was Tong Han who told him that almost everyone did what he said tonight. This nightmare.

It's just that Yang Xiao's dream went deeper, and the others woke up one after another on the way to the ancestral hall. What's even more bizarre is that in their dreams, they also saw Yang Xiao who was walking in the front, his steps were frivolous, and his soul was lost, and those strange and wandering people. The villagers all followed Yang Xiao in a long line.

After just picturing this scene in his mind, Yang Xiao felt his whole body go numb, "Besides me and those villagers, did you see anything else?"

"No, it was dark and I couldn't see clearly." Mi Shu explained in a low voice. Judging from her expression, the scene must have been very scary.

"By the way, only Sui Chengguo and Wu Ma Haoming have not had such nightmares. We have analyzed the reason and it should be because of this." Cheng Cha asked them to take off their shirts, revealing a dark handprint on their left shoulder. Both of them had it. , the position is almost the same, the fingerprint is the same as the left hand, but there are only four fingers, and the index finger is missing.

The handprints showed a clear grasping shape, rather than a slap on the shoulder, as if someone had grabbed their shoulders and lifted them up.

According to the discussion between Cheng Cha, Tong Han and others, what happened should be like this. Sui Chengguo Wu Ma Haoming fell into the water one after another last night. The original result must be that he was drowned, or his body was taken away by something underwater, but that thing After the ghost discovered that the two of them were not villagers of Dujia Village, he gave up killing them and rescued them on the boat.

Finally, the boat was sent to the shore.

"The targets of ghosts are only people in Dujiacun. They will not kill innocent people indiscriminately. The reason why we were not involved in the nightmare in the early morning must be because of the handprint on our shoulders. The handprint is a mark to prevent us from arresting the wrong person next time. ." Sui Chengguo analyzed.

Yang Xiao suddenly remembered what happened in his dream, and immediately rolled up his sleeves. He saw that there was also a dark handprint in the middle of his left forearm, and his index finger was missing.

"In this mission, ghosts don't kill people, people kill people." Tong Han lowered his voice, "To be precise, it's the non-human and non-ghost things like these in Dujiacun that kill people."

"But why do they want to kill us?" Quan Doufeng joined the group chat.

"Nonsense, of course they want our bodies. Think about it, their bodies are so rotten, how long can they last? The Dujiacun can persist until now, just to resurrect the corpse, and I don't know how many people have been killed. Innocent lives. "Cheng Cha had seen with his own eyes the tattered bodies of the villagers and Patriarch Du. They were rotten and leaking pus. The scene was very disgusting. If it were Cheng Cha himself, he would have tried his best to find a new body. This It's not difficult to understand.

Several people got together and based on the currently known clues, they roughly sorted out a few points. First of all, the source of a series of supernatural events in Dujia Village should be the ghost monk. Secondly, the ghost monk only targeted people in Dujia Village.

Finally, there was a killing in the village and many people died.

As soon as he finished speaking, there were rapid footsteps in the yard outside the door, bang! broken! broken! Someone slammed the door hard, "My benefactors, it's not good! Brother Huyan... he was killed by a monster!" Du San's voice came from outside the door,

There was panic in his tone.

Opening the door, Du San ran out of breath. At the same time, he told Yang Xiao and others that Uncle Du Er was also killed by a monster, and the two died in the same way.

"Where was Hu Yanming's body found?" Yang Xiao asked.

Du San grimaced, "Wherever there are corpses, Brother Huyan only has one head left."

Du San did not stop him this time, and everyone in Yang Xiao's group followed. Ten minutes later, Hu Yanming's head was found on a quiet road. There was a large pool of blood on the ground not far away, and the blood was not yet wet. Completely dry.

Even more terrifying than Liu Haiping's appearance before her death, Hu Yanming opened his eyes wide, his eyeballs protruded, and his mouth opened, as if he had seen an extremely terrifying scene.

"The villagers who woke up in the morning discovered it and were frightened at the time." Du San explained at the side.

There was about ten meters between the head and the large blood stain. After a brief survey of the scene, Sui Chengguo discovered something suspicious. This road was relatively remote and was not the only way they had to pass last night. Wu Ma Haoming also confirmed this, starting from Hu Yanming Looking at his frightened expression, it looked more like he was being chased by something, and he fled into this path in a panic.

Yang Xiao analyzed that Hu Yanming was intercepted and killed by people from Dujia Village on his way back after the mission. Not long after, another villager came and told Yang Xiao and the others that the clan leader was waiting for them at the ancestral hall and asked them to go over and said There is something to say.

After confirming that there were no other clues at the scene, everyone rushed to the ancestral hall without further delay. Last night, the head of the Du family promised to tell them the secrets of the village.

The road became more familiar as he walked, and Yang Xiao couldn't help but think of the dream last night. From time to time, he looked at the courtyards with closed doors on both sides. These courtyards had long been dilapidated and no one lived in them, but he remembered that in last night's dream, these courtyards There are still figures wandering inside.

Chief Du was already waiting for them outside the ancestral hall. After Du San brought him there, the head of the Du family waved his hand and sent him away. At the same time, he turned around and walked around to the back of the ancestral hall instead of walking into the ancestral hall. Soon everyone discovered that behind the ancestral hall there was a dilapidated long building that looked like an livestock shed. The windows were partially nailed shut with wooden boards, and an indescribable stench floated in the wind.

But who would build a shed for raising livestock next to the ancestral hall?

This is obviously weird.

"What is this place?" Quan Doufeng was a little scared. He was worried that once he entered here, he would be killed by the villagers ambushing inside.

Sui Chengguo couldn't help but frown. He had been here before, and it was next to this weird building that he heard the voice of the clan leader's dead daughter.

"Everything you want to know is here, they are all here." At this point, the voice of the head of the Du family suddenly choked up.

As Chief Du took out the key and opened the old door, a stench mixed with excrement, rotten meat and other smells rushed towards him. It was very dark inside without any lighting. When Yang Xiao and the others' sights got used to it a little, After the dim environment, the next second, a scene appeared that almost scared Quan Doufeng to death, and completely subverted the perceptions of Yang Xiao and others. They saw several spaces separated by wooden fences, and more than twenty heads. The cow-bodied monsters were kept in separate pens.

After realizing that someone was approaching, several monsters raised their heads. Now everyone could see more clearly. These monsters with human heads and cow bodies were not congenital, but man-made. Some people cut off the cow heads and then sewed the human heads back on. When you go up, you can still see densely packed pins at the interface, which makes your scalp numb.

What's even more terrifying is that some cows actually have two, or even three or four heads sewn on their necks. These heads are crowded together and still moving, with different expressions on their dirty faces, and they are winking. His mouth was open, and there was a foul-smelling pus-like saliva left at the corner of his mouth.

The cattle pen was covered with dirty straw that had not been replaced for an unknown period of time, sewage flowed across it, and the stench was overwhelming. Yang Xiao saw with his own eyes a monster lowered its head and stuck out its tongue to lick the feces on the ground.

"Mou Yi Yi" Mu Yi Yi Suddenly a monster's head was raised, its neck was long, and it made a sound like a cow. At this moment, everyone understood that it was this thing that was making ghost noises in the evening!

"Hehehe——

Looking around, they saw a human head passing through the fence in a cattle pen farther inside, staring at them with its head tilted.

"Hee hee hee one by one"

"The head grinned and let out a weird and irritating laugh. This head was familiar to everyone. It was the daughter of Chief Du, and they had only seen it not long ago.

"Ning'er..::.:" Seeing this scene, Patriarch Du couldn't bear it any longer, with tears streaming down his cheeks. But at this moment, his "daughter" could no longer recognize him and just kept giggling.

As the daughter of the patriarch, this eldest lady is treated much better than other monsters with human heads and cow bodies. At least they don't have to share a cow body with other human heads.

As if I heard someone coming, sounds began to come from the innermost darkness, a gurgle.

There was also the sound of flapping wings, and then one "chicken" came out one after another. These chickens were very strong.

Even bigger than a goose, three or four chickens gathered together. Several chicken necks were twisted together, sharing a human head. As their mouths opened, they actually made a "clucking" sound. This scene was simply Subverted everyone's perception.

Quan Doufeng grabbed his hair. He suspected that he was crazy, or... or he was under too much pressure and hallucinating. He couldn't even dream of these ghosts!

Yang Xiao finally forced himself to calm down, "These...are the chickens that call in the morning, and the cows that call in the evening."

"Yes." The head of the Du family nodded painfully, "They are all villagers of my Du family village and my fellow villagers. But I can't save them. I can only help them extend their lives in this way."

After a pause, Tong Han said, "If it were me, I would rather die. Death is the best destination for them."

Shaking his head slowly, Chief Du looked sad, "You are right, but we can't do it. We, the people of Dujia Village, have been cursed and will never be able to leave this village. Even... we are not even qualified to die. Being deprived, only our bodies will rot, but our heads will not. We can feel ourselves rotting every minute and every second. You will not understand this feeling, and you will never understand it.”

Yang Xiao noticed that the bodies of these "chickens" and "cows" were also covered with rotten things, and along the rotten flesh and blood in the sores, there were clusters of plants coming out. He immediately thought of the things that the villagers often chewed. Plant herbs.

"It's all that monk. He is so vicious. He actually... gave us such an inhumane curse just because we didn't save Hanjia Village!" Patriarch Du gritted his teeth with hatred, "But he doesn't know about Bujia Village at all. How people treat us!"

"Clan leader, calm down." Yang Xiao tried his best to comfort him, "Speak slowly and in detail, so that we can know how to help."

With Yang Xiao's comfort, Chief Du's expression recovered a little, and everyone finally understood the whole story from his words.

It turns out that although Dujia Village and Hanjia Village are not far apart, the relationship between the two villages is very bad. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are mortal enemies. Hanjia Village has not existed for a long time. It is a village composed of people who fled, and there are still remnant soldiers and The villagers do not pay much attention to fishing, hunting and farming. They are cruel by nature and often rob nearby villages. Some passing business travelers even change their expressions upon hearing this and would rather take a detour to avoid them.

But Dujia Village is a local, and their ancestors have lived here for generations. The city wall around the village was built to resist the harassment of Dujia Village. Facts have proved that it is indeed very successful. Since the protection of the city wall, the people of Hanjia Village have been attacked several times. Nails, lost troops and generals, will not cause trouble again.

After a few years of living together peacefully, suddenly one day news came that Hanjia Village had suffered a great disaster.

When they intercepted and killed a group of caravans, they accidentally let a few people escape and offended a big shot who shouldn't have been offended. Now they have sent an army, which will arrive soon and will definitely kill the entire Bujia Village. No scraps of armor remain.

"I didn't believe it at first, but the next day, people from Hanjia Village came to our Dujia Village with their families. There were hundreds of people, mostly old, young, women, and children. They asked to come to our Dujia Village for refuge, and they asked for the best possible shelter. , they can change their names from now on and merge into our Dujia Village. Even if we can’t take them in, please open the door and let these old, young, women and children go in and hide. As soon as the limelight passes, they will leave immediately. "

"I didn't believe them because the people in Bujia Village regarded us as a thorn in their side. I was worried that this was a ploy. Once the city gate was opened, the men they were ambushing nearby would rush in, so I ordered not to open the door."

After a moment of silence, Chief Du sighed softly, "I admit, I also have selfish motives. There are too many blood feuds between our two villages, and it cannot be explained in a few words."

"The people of Qiujia Village begged under the city wall all night, until at dawn, some villagers with blood on their bodies ran over from the direction of Hanjia Village, shouting that the officers and soldiers were coming to kill, and they would kill anyone they saw. All the men in the village have been killed and are now being chased here.”

"Now there is even more chaos under the city wall. Everyone is crying, kneeling down and begging us to take them in and give them a way out." Patriarch Du frowned, "At this time, a passing monk stood up and begged us to help. Be merciful, open the door and at least take in these poor children.”

"All the people in Dujia Village believe in Buddhism and are very devout believers. This monk is also kind-faced, but...who dares in this situation? If we open the city gate, the officers and soldiers chasing us will think that we are all the way." Yes, then...what about my Dujia Village?"

"We put down the bamboo basket and hung the monk up on the city wall. The monk repeatedly begged us in front of the whole village, but I didn't agree."

"The pursuers came soon after. I have never... never seen such ferocious soldiers. Their riding skills are very good. They can actually gallop on the rugged mountain road. They are covered in blood and there are still stains on the saddle. The newly severed heads were tied to each other. The monk continued to plead after seeing this, but we were already frightened. The soldiers rushed into the crowd with sabers, slashing left and right, and soon chopped everyone to death, and their heads were also Take it off."

"It was too late for us to come to our senses after the soldiers had left the massacre, but there was no one left alive. The monk walked out of the city gate, meditated in a pool of blood, faced us, and lit one of his fingers with a torch stuck in the ground. We were all frightened by the monk's face. He kept chanting scriptures, saying that he cursed us in Dujia Village to live in fear for generations, suffer the pain of the five precepts, and not be born or die. Then he bumped his head against the blade and committed suicide."