White Bone Monkey King

Outside the city.

Yinyi River.

At this time, the riverside had been blocked by the government officials to prevent the people who came to watch the excitement after hearing the news from crowding the riverside and pushing them into the river.

If you look down from a high place at this moment, you can see the wide scope of the Yinyi River's interruption. The river bed is winding like a sky-reaching moat carved by uncanny workmanship, opening up the world between the mountains and ridges. It is majestic and vigorous.

——Zeng searched the scene for fear that it might lead to the gods, and there should be an owner underground.

The cutoff in the section near Fucheng is only a small section of the Yinyi River.

It was still early in the morning, and the dew from last night had not completely dissipated, but at this time, the riverside was already densely packed with people watching the excitement.

As the news that the Yinyi River stopped flowing overnight spread wider and wider, the number of people who came after hearing the news continued to increase.

"Everyone, please stop moving forward."

"Anyone who dares to cross this line on the ground in a crowded place will be punished on the spot and punished for twenty years."

The government officials kept persuading and blocking people, maintaining order on the riverside.

At noon, something unexpected happened again.

Suddenly, the ground trembled, as if a marching and fighting team was passing by.

Not long after, a group of soldiers wearing armor and holding long spears, their armor clashing in the sun with a cold light, led by a dozen black-armored cavalry guards, boomed, boomed, marched out in neat little steps. military camp.

They marched quickly with murderous intent, chasing them into the distance.

There were hundreds of people in this army, and behind them, there were thousands of Xiangyong who came out of the "Yong Camp". These rural warriors can only be regarded as local rural soldiers. Their discipline is lax, not as well-trained as those soldiers, and they are full of murderous intent.

But even so, with more than a thousand people and densely packed heads, the aura alone can intimidate people.

Faced with the rapid march of thousands of people composed of this army and local warriors, the people along the way hurriedly got out of the way, fearing that they would collide with the military masters and be thrown into prison.

These military lords are different from those government officials.

The government officials have no character.

The military master enters the product.

Colliding with the army is no different from the crime of beheading.

The government officials and police officers who were trying their best to maintain order among the people by the river looked at these well-trained soldiers coming out of the barracks with envy.

Couldn't look away for a long time.

Especially when looking at the cavalrymen leading the dozen or so cavalry, they were even more envious, and the blood in their whole bodies seemed to be boiling.

State capitals are different from local county towns.

There are civil and military officials in the state capital. There are military tents in the state capital, and the military attache is called the capital.

There are two types of errands in Kangding State.

One is established by the local government, and the other is established by the imperial court for payment by the imperial court.

People like government servants, catchers, masters, etc., all feed themselves from local finances and are supported by the local government government, so it is difficult for them to get ahead in their lives. Therefore, even if the head catcher looks very majestic on weekdays, his real status is not high. If he cannot enter the imperial establishment, he cannot be of high rank.

If you work hard all your life until you die, you will still be a local establishment.

However, the status and status of these military men in the military camp who are usually aloof and superior are different.

They were given military pay allocated by the central government of the imperial court. They had good food, good drinks, and high salaries. They were on the official establishment of the imperial court. If they received military honors, they would have the opportunity to be promoted to military attache.

The people of Fucheng who had originally gathered around the river bank really exploded when they saw this thousands-strong team composed of regular soldiers and rural warriors walking away.

They all inquired one after another, what big thing happened, that even the military men in the military camp looked murderous and wanted to fight?

Actually, the military master and the local heroes all went out together?

Wuzhou Prefecture is located in the hinterland of Kangding State. It is not a border area like Grassland and Mobei. It should be impossible to fight. Could it be to suppress bandits?

I haven't heard of any serious banditry happening recently.

Even if there is a bandit trouble somewhere, the captain in Fucheng usually likes to train troops and suppress bandits. It is estimated that within a few days of taking the lead, he will be trained and suppressed by the captain, and there is no chance to grow stronger.

"Don't you know this? This time it's not about suppressing bandits, but it's not easy to cut off the flow of the Yinyi River this time. It not only exposed the river bed, but also exposed thousands of underwater caves that have been submerged by the river. "

"My uncle owns a tavern. Today, some of the waiters revealed some rumors while drinking..."

The scholar first whetted people's appetites, enjoying the pleasure of being noticed. After everyone urged him again and again, he continued to talk eloquently.

"Everyone knows that there are mountains on both sides of the Yinyi River, which are submerged by the rushing river all year round. No one knows what is under the river."

"But from ancient times to the present, the Yinyi River has always been associated with various mysteries and ancient sacrificial legends. For example, the century-old fish king crashed into a shipwreck, and the millennium-old turtle spirit overturned a boat and ate it... Another example is that floods occur every year, and people on both sides of the river offer sacrifices to the river. God, the River God, threw twenty-eight girls into the river to marry the River God, and prayed that there would be no floods in the coming year."

"Although the Yinyi River has been cut off several times, the past few times have been small-scale cuts, and no big surprises have happened. But this time, the scale of the cut-off is really rare and unheard of. Because This time the flow was cut off, unexpectedly, thousands of caves were exposed at the foot of the mountain. These thousands of caves are connected to each other and extend in all directions. They have been submerged under water all year round and no one knows about it. And strange things happened in these thousands of waterways... "

Ordinary people don't know about the Zhijie Immortal. This is considered secret information in a small area, so these people have never heard that the Zhijie Immortal was dug out when the Yinyi River dried up in the early years.

This is precisely why Uncle Lin, the owner of the coffin shop, was surprised when Jin An told the story of the corpse.

The scholar continued to speak eloquently: "The first person to discover the discontinuation of the Yinyi River was probably a small village near the river at the source of the discontinuation."

"Just think about it, the villagers on the river bank who are used to hearing the roar of the river will definitely get up immediately to check if there is a sudden silence."

"It is precisely because of this that the villagers on these river banks discovered the thousands of caves exposed under the broken river bed."

"But these villagers were timid and did not dare to go down to check the situation until dawn. As a result, not long after they entered these caves, they lost two people. The caves are connected to each other. From the outside, they look like large and small water holes. When they go inside But there are caves and caves, which are interconnected and extend in all directions, forming an underwater cave that is even larger than what you see from the outside. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of caves."

"In order to find the two lost people, the villagers used long ropes to continue descending into these underwater caves. As a result, they could not reach the end no matter how far they walked. There were so many water holes in the caves that it was like a enchantment array. It’s a crowd-pleaser.”

"Just when the villagers were about to give up, a scream echoed through the cave. When the villagers found the villager who screamed, they saw several corpses floating in the water that had not receded in the cave."

"At this time, people scattered in other directions began to scream. The deeper they went into the cave, the more and more floating corpses were found. The villagers were so frightened that they ran outside quickly, and then hurriedly came to the city to report to the official, saying that they had found a body in the water. When we went down to the corpse cave, two villagers were missing."

…

The troops and village warriors who came out of the military camp and the brave camp marched in a hurry, covered with dust all the way.

Finally, at midnight, they finally arrived at their destination.

This is the dangerous corner where a landslide occurred and the river was blocked when Jin An came.

Here, many village warriors from several nearby villages, under the leadership of several Li Zheng, have blocked off the surrounding land and waterways to prevent anyone from accidentally entering.

As soon as the soldiers arrived in a hurry, they immediately stood upright and respectfully stepped forward to report the situation.

It turns out that there has been more than one mudslide here. The mountain where the last landslide occurred, perhaps because there was a hidden risk of loose soil, had another landslide yesterday, a month later.

This time the mudslide was more serious than last time. It happened to be the narrowest point of the sharp bend of the Yinyi River, directly blocking the river channel.

After the man Li was reporting the situation, he urgently asked for help in finding the two missing people in their village.

The leader of this thousand-man team is the cavalry guard of more than a dozen horses. Each of them is powerful and has sharp eyes. They are all masters in the army who are decisive in killing.

The dozen or so riders were dominated by one of the bearded deputy commanders.

After hearing Li Zheng's report, the deputy commander did not go down to the cave immediately. It was night and the visibility was not good at night, so it was inconvenient to go down to the river bed. Moreover, the sergeants had been exhausted from marching for a day, and now they were exhausted and needed to camp for a night's rest.

He could still decide whether the lives of two ordinary villagers were more important than the lives of thousands of people.

Although this matter was cruel to the two ordinary villagers.

But kindness does not command troops.

The deputy commander and a dozen cavalry brothers who had dismounted their horses, their steel plate armors clashed with each other, and they came to the river bank calmly.

It's a pity that the Yinyi River at night is completely shrouded in the shadow of terror, and nothing can be seen.

"Vice Commander, do you think that the river's flow stopped overnight this time, could it be the same as the time when the corpse-disciplining immortal was born?"

One of the cavalry brothers asked curiously.

The facial features of the bearded deputy commander flickered in and out under the night torches, making it difficult to see the true expression on his face.

He stared at the riverbed exposed by the cessation of water flow below his feet.

But in the dark night, nothing could be seen.

After a moment of silence, the bearded deputy commander finally spoke, his voice deep and rough: "Do you really believe that a mudslide that blocks the river will cause the river to stop flowing overnight?"

When no one answered, the deputy commander continued: "That's why I refused to go down to the river at night to save the lives of my brothers. Instead, I waited until dawn tomorrow to find out what the so-called Cave of Thousand Corpses was all about. ."

"I don't care if it is a cave of thousands of corpses or a cave of ten thousand corpses. I don't believe that I brought so many brothers today and can't turn it upside down. If it doesn't work with so many brothers, just blow them up and kill them all. , so as not to come out and cause trouble later.”

"What's going on down here will naturally be clear by tomorrow daytime."

…

…

The next day.

The story about the Yinyi River's cessation has spread all over the city.

After a day of deliberation, the matter spread to nearby counties and villages along with businessmen and people traveling out of the city.

But what is most talked about and discussed after dinner is about the Cave of Thousand Corpses that appeared after the Yinyi River stopped flowing overnight.

Although officials have come forward to refute the rumors, saying that there is no such thing, people should not spread rumors and create panic.

After the river stopped flowing, thousands of caves did appear, but there were no corpses at all. It was just a rumor among the people.

It was just an ordinary Thousand Cave, because it was washed away by the river all year round, and the rocks under the river were washed out into water holes.

The reason why the Yinyi River stopped flowing is also very simple, because the debris flow collapsed, causing the river water to be cut off.

Although some officials came forward to refute the rumors, people still talked about the Cave of Thousand Corpses with great interest, and this matter also reached the ears of Jin'an and the old Taoist priests.

In the early morning of this day, Jin An stood on the roof of the Taoist temple, facing the morning glow, and after breathing out the vitality, he used Taoist skills to "search for things" and stole a few peaches without doing his job. After that, he went to Uncle Lin opposite the Taoist temple to share the peaches.

After following Jin An for so long, the old Taoist priest has learned well now. Now, as long as Jin An sticks out his butt, he will know what color Jin An is going to fart.

The old Taoist priest who was sweeping the yard with a dustpan and broom immediately followed Jin An to beg for peaches. In the end, the old Taoist priest, the sharp sword, and the goat all got the peaches.

When Jin An came to the coffin shop opposite today, he found that there was business coming to the coffin shop early this morning. It was a woman and two maids.

From the looks of it, he is someone from a wealthy family.

Jin An and the old Taoist priest saw that the coffin shop had business this morning. They originally planned to come to the coffin shop owner later, but unexpectedly, Uncle Lin took the initiative to call Jin An and the old Taoist priest.

The two walked into the coffin shop with some curiosity.

"Mrs. He, these two are both Taoist priests of the Five Zang Taoist Temple. If you want to find someone to exorcise evil spirits, you might as well talk to them."

"This is Taoist Priest Jin'an."

"This is Daochang Chen."

Uncle Lin introduced the other party that in order to avoid being noticed by others, Jin An had been wearing the five-viscera Taoist robe since he came to Fucheng.

Exorcism?

Jin An was really curious now.

Since the other party is a noble lady, she seems to have status, status and no shortage of money. Why would she go to a small shop like Uncle Lin to find someone to exorcise evil spirits?

This is not because Jin An deliberately looked down on Uncle Lin.

The main thing is that this matter is indeed illogical.

Since he is a nobleman and his family is not short of money, he must go to the Bailong Temple, the largest temple in Fucheng, to exorcise evil spirits. There are several other big temples and Taoist temples in Fucheng, but it seems that the small temple can't get the chance.

Unexpectedly, when the woman met Jin An and the old Taoist priest, she took another look at the dilapidated Taoist temple opposite the coffin shop, a deserted Taoist temple with no incense and believers. She politely greeted the two of them, and then told Uncle Lin that she wanted to go there again. After thinking about it, he took the pair of young maids behind him and left.

When the lady walked out of the street, Jin An threw a peach to Uncle Lin, and then asked Uncle Lin what happened to the lady just now?

Uncle Lin didn't care whether the peach had been washed or not. Anyway, he ate it uncleanly and didn't get sick. After taking a bite of the fresh and juicy peach, he talked about the reason.

"That lady is the eldest lady from He Mansion."

"Master He Guihe from He Mansion is one of the three major medicinal material dealers in Fucheng. These three medicinal material dealers control most of the medicinal material purchase channels in Fucheng."

"But recently, something unfortunate happened to the He family. Because this kind of unfortunate family matter should not be publicized too much, the people of the He family cannot go to those big temples and Taoist temples, where there is a lot of incense. More or less, she would interact with famous people in the city. So she heard someone’s introduction and came to me, hoping that I could introduce her to some exorcists with real skills and practices.”

"Perhaps it's because in recent days, Mrs. He has been in urgent need of medical treatment and has found many charlatans, so she is a little wary and needs to go back and think about it for some time."

Jin An heard this and asked curiously: "What kind of misfortune happened to the family?"

"You need to hide it so much, are you afraid of being known by outsiders?"

Uncle Lin shook his head this time and said: "Mrs. He didn't tell the truth. She was very guarded. She only said that she would tell her in private when she confirmed the candidate."

This was just a small incident, and Jin An didn't waste too much energy on it.

Instead, Jin An asked about another matter: "Why did Uncle Lin recommend us to Mrs. He so firmly?"

Uncle Lin continued to eat peaches and said, "Taoist Master Chen and Xiao Taoist Jin An are both people with real abilities."

Uncle Lin's words were a bit ambiguous.

On the contrary, the old Taoist priest beside him made his eyebrows dance and his face couldn't stop being happy.

After eating the peaches and chatting for a while, Jin An's life returned to its usual routine. Since he practiced "Blood Knife Sutra", "Baji Xingyi Quan" and "Black Mountain Kung Fu" to perfection, Jin An's these days have become Heaven has been consolidating cultivation.

He was not in a hurry to issue martial arts secrets.

It took him a month to complete the entry speed that others had achieved in twenty or thirty years. He was worried that his foundation was unstable, so he spent a lot of time in recent days polishing and consolidating what he had learned.

There is no conflict between accumulation and progress in practice.

And on this night, the Yinyi River, which had stopped flowing overnight, miraculously regained its water level at night.

However.

Jin'an's peaceful life was broken by miserable cries after the third day.

This morning, Jin An, who was practicing in the private backyard of the Taoist temple, heard the crying that didn't stop for a long time, so he stopped and prepared to go out to see which family was crying.

As soon as he reached the front yard of the Taoist temple, he met an old Taoist priest coming back from outside.

"Old Taoist, what's going on with the crying outside?"

The old Taoist priest said regretfully: "It's Mr. Ma from this street. His son, who was a local hero, died in a thousand caves. He didn't even see his body. I heard that this time the officials went down to the cave. Many people died. Of the more than a thousand people who set out from the barracks and brave camps a few days ago, half died, and only half escaped. Those soldiers and local braves who died in Qiancao Cave all died without seeing their bodies. Everyone stayed in the Jiangxia Cave."

The old Taoist priest called Mr. Ma, Jin An knew about this man.

A month ago, when Jin An first arrived at Wu Zang Taoist Temple, this old man was among the old people sitting at the door basking in the sun.

The man's body is strong and his eyes are clear. Unexpectedly, in just over a month, a man with white hair has given birth to a man with black hair.

"What's going on? Could it be that because the river water recovered the night before, those people were drowned alive and could not escape?"