White Bone Monkey King

Faced with Jin An's questioning.

The old Taoist priest pulled Jin An into the main hall of the Taoist temple mysteriously, as if he was afraid that the walls had ears and would be heard.

The main hall of the Five Zang Taoist Temple.

There are several statues enshrined in total. In addition to the Sanqing Saints, there is also the founder of the Five Zang Taoism.

Under the gaze of four statues of gods.

The old Taoist priest then said mysteriously: "Little brother, there are some hidden things in this."

"Those soldiers died not easily."

"Donor Ma's dead son is named Ma San. He is the third eldest son in the family and has been working as a local hero in the Yong Camp in Fucheng."

"This Ma San is very promising. Because he has been able to eat since he was a child and is stronger than ordinary people. In addition, he has attended private school for several years and knows some words, so he became a senior leader in the Yongying camp."

"Shi Chang can be regarded as a moderate official, and he is in charge of ten local warriors."

"This time, more than half of the soldiers and warriors who went down to Qiankudong died. However, the official publicity was that the river suddenly surged and the people who went down to Qiankudong had no time to escape, so half of them were drowned..."

"Actually, that's not the case. There's something else hidden in it."

The robe of an old Taoist priest is indeed very suitable for activities among the people, because it is easy to gain the psychological kindness of ordinary people.

Therefore, the old Taoist priest just went out and actually got a lot of secret information from Mr. Ma's family.

"Just now, when I was comforting donor Ma and his family, I accidentally learned the truth... Those people did drown in the Thousand Cave Cave, but it was different from ordinary drowning."

"According to the remaining people who escaped, more than a thousand people set up camp at the beginning, rested for a night, and recharged their energy. The morning fog of the next morning had not yet cleared, and they began to descend into the Qianku Cave."

"It went smoothly at the beginning. There was nothing abnormal. These more than a thousand people were scattered in the Thousand Cave Cave. Although they could not explore all the caves, they had the advantage of numbers. They continued to explore deeper and steadily, and they could eventually find the end."

"And along the way, many floating corpses were also found."

"Those floating corpses, I heard described by those who escaped, had skin that was soaked and turned white, but there were no obvious signs of decay. In short, they were very evil."

"But when it comes to the most evil sect, it has to be this Thousand Cave Cave."

"There is a different cave inside, and the caves are connected. The more these more than a thousand people walked in, the more they discovered that this underwater cave was so big that it extended in all directions. No matter how you walked, you couldn't reach the end. It was like an enchanted cave. What do you think, little brother? Is it an evil door? That's more than a thousand people entering the cave together, not a hundred or so people, more than a thousand people are not a small number, tsk tsk."

"As we walked further in, we encountered more and more corpses. I don't know when a layer of mist began to float in the cave."

"This layer of mist is not corpse miasma, and no one has been poisoned. There is nothing unusual about it. The officer leading the team thought it was the mist caused by the heavy cold and humidity in the cave, so he didn't take it seriously at first."

"Later, the officer leading the team calculated the time and realized that it was going to be dark outside soon, so it was not suitable to stay in the cave overnight, so he planned to order people to retreat first, but something went wrong during the retreat."

"There is a unique cave under this thousand caves, which seems to be able to confuse people's five senses. The officer calculated that it should still be daytime outside, but he didn't know that it was already dark outside. When more than a thousand people withdrew half of them, the flow was cut off. The river water suddenly surged without warning and poured into the dry river bed, drowning the remaining half of the people who had not had time to evacuate under the cave."

"I heard from those who escaped that the scene was horrific. Many people had no time to escape. They didn't even scream, and were washed back to the depths of the cave by the influx of river water."

According to what the old Taoist priest said next, with such heavy casualties this time, none of the dozen mounted guards, including the deputy commander, escaped the disaster.

The officers who led the troops were at the front when they were advancing, so when they retreated and turned around to go in the opposite direction, they were at the back and responsible for cutting off the rear.

As a result, before they had time to evacuate the cave, they were drowned in the cave by the backflow of the river, and no one escaped.

This was a huge blow to morale.

The remaining half of the people who escaped in embarrassment finally fled back to Fucheng in embarrassment.

Later, in order to stabilize people's hearts, the government concealed the matter and was not allowed to mention it to the people.

Only relatives of the victims were notified.

Even the relatives of the victims did not know a series of strange things happened under the cave. They only said that the river flowed back and they drowned.

Later, a neighbor who was also a Xiangyong couldn't bear it when he saw that Mr. Ma not only gave away the white-haired man to the black-haired man, but also couldn't even see his son and his body for the last time, so he secretly told Mr. Ma the truth about Ma San's death. family.

Those people were all drowned on the same day they went down to Qiancao Cave, but the remaining people fled back to the capital, and then sent out cavalry guards to investigate and confirm, and then the officials compiled the roster, which took some time. , so it was not until today, two days later, that the news of the death was notified door-to-door.

Then, Mr. Ma and his family approached the old Taoist priest.

Tell the truth.

They begged the old Taoist priest to summon Ma San's soul so that they could see Ma San one last time.

But even the old Taoist priests can't do anything about it.

Because Ma San died under water, and water is a black evil that can suppress evil spirits and restrain the soul. People who drown will be trapped underwater forever and will never be able to get to the shore.

Unless a scapegoat is found, this underwater water ghost can't come ashore.

Therefore, even if the old Taoist priest wanted to summon the soul, he could not summon Ma San's soul.

This time, the Yinyi River mysteriously stopped flowing overnight and then mysteriously resumed flowing again overnight, swallowing up hundreds of people. It can be said that Fucheng suffered heavy losses.

How many families have experienced life and death, losing their husbands, sons, and fathers? Jin An and the old Taoist priest sighed.

Mr. Ma's whole family cried for a whole day, which clearly shows the grief of the white-haired man sending the black-haired man away.

…

It's night, and it's deep at this time.

After nightfall, there is another high-rise courtyard in Fucheng. This is He Mansion, one of the three major medicinal merchants in Fucheng.

The style of He Mansion is as majestic as the two foot-high stone lions in front of the door, with high walls, green tiles, loops, and carved beams and painted buildings.

The He Mansion occupies a large area, which is one of the best even in the city. It is as prosperous as a small palace with rockeries, bridge railings, flowing water, flower beds, and exotic flowers and trees.

Zhen'e is a servant in the He Mansion. Because of her poor family, she was sold by her parents into the He Mansion since she was a child. When I was a child, my family was poor and the food rations were not enough. Only by joining a wealthy family and serving others could I have enough to eat and a way to survive.

But Zhen'e never blamed her parents.

On the contrary, I feel that it is quite good to serve the servants in the He Mansion. At least I can have enough to eat, and the Master and Mrs. He Mansion are not unkind to their servants.

I can go home to visit my relatives for one day every month. After working for ten years, I can still get wages every month.

So Zhen'e is really contented.

In He Mansion, the servants lived in the lower chambers in the lower courtyard. There were several lower chambers in one lower courtyard.

There were six people living in the lower room where Zhen'e was.

The six of them were servants in He Mansion's laundry room who were responsible for starching clothes and sheets. But for some reason, after nightfall, Zhen'e lay on the bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

On the contrary, the other five people in the same lower room were all sleeping soundly.

Just when Zhen'e couldn't sleep, snap, snap...

There were footsteps outside the lower room.

Zhen'e quickly covered her head with the quilt. She thought to herself that the only person who was still awake so late was her grandma.

I heard that it had been more than forty years since the old woman was sold to the He Mansion. The housekeeper of the He Mansion saw that the old woman was old and could not do heavy work, so she put the old woman in charge of managing their lower house.

As the old ladies get older, they are prone to insomnia, so they often wake up at night to check on them and see who is not sleeping and chatting, which delays their getting up early the next day to serve He Fu.

The old nanny was very strict with them, so the sisters in this lower courtyard were all afraid of the old nanny.

Zhen'e covered herself in the quilt and listened for a while. When she felt that the footsteps of the old woman were far away, she immediately took away the quilt.

The person had been covered in the quilt for a while and was already sweating profusely due to the heat.

She gasped for air, almost suffocating herself under the quilt just now.

But who knew, pat, pat...

As soon as she got her head out of the quilt, the sound of footsteps walking away in the yard was heard again. She was so scared that Zhen'e covered her head in the quilt again, her heart was pounding, and she was extremely nervous.

It seemed that the old grandma saw that there was no movement in the lower room. After the footsteps lingered at the door for a while, she turned and left again.

Zhen'e hid under the quilt and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But the quilt was too stuffy.

My head was always covered with the quilt, making me feel hot and suffocated.

Zhen'e didn't hold it in for long before she felt like she couldn't hold it in any longer, so she secretly lifted up a corner of the quilt to take a few breaths of fresh air.

But when Zhen'e secretly opened a corner of the quilt, there was cold moonlight shining through the open door into the lower room.

The night breeze in the lower courtyard also blew into the lower room along the open door, making the lower room a little cold.

Zhen'e looked at the door Qing Leng pushed open, with surprise and confusion in her eyes.

When was the door of this room pushed open by the old woman?

The old grandma was really confused. After opening the door to check, she actually forgot to close the door before leaving...

Zhen'e carefully poked her head out and glanced at the sisters who were still sleeping. She casually put on a coat, then got up and closed the door.

Before closing the door, Zhen'e looked outside. The yard was dark, empty, and cold. The old grandma's room was also in the lower courtyard, but it was dark there, the door was closed, and the old grandma seemed to be sleeping soundly. Yes, people didn't wake up in the middle of the night?

Zhen'e was confused.

call--

A gust of night wind blew into the yard, and Zhen'e shivered from the cold. She stopped thinking about it, quickly closed the door, got back into the warm quilt and covered her whole body.

It's finally warmer now...

It was strange this time. She could not fall asleep before, but she fell asleep quickly this time.

Tonight, she had a very strange dream.

In her dream, she dreamed that the room was very lively, and there seemed to be many people standing there.

Those people were talking loudly, making a lot of noise, talking and laughing, pointing at her in her dream, and then the voices got louder and louder, and the laughter became louder and louder.

Zhen'e wanted to see clearly who those people were, but those people were standing at the door, some distance away from her, and their figures were blurry from beginning to end, with a feeling of being in a cloud, making it impossible for her to see clearly. people.

So, she tried hard to hear what those people were saying loudly, but she still couldn't hear clearly.

It was as if... there was a hazy veil between her and those people. She could clearly see those people, but she couldn't see them clearly.

Facing such a weird dream, Zhen'e became a little nervous and scared.

She struggled desperately to wake up from her dream.

But people just can’t wake up.

Those who entered the room continued to point at her, who was struggling on the bed, and their voices became louder and louder...

…

A few days later.

Jin An, who had been eating peaches for several days, felt a little tired of eating them, so he decided to change his taste today.

Today he is growing apples.

The old jujube tree in the front yard of the Taoist temple has new flowers, but the fruit it produces is bright red apples that are refreshing and crisp.

After Jin An finished sharing the apples with the old Taoist priest, the sharp sword, and the goat, he went on to find Uncle Lin opposite the Taoist temple to "share the spoils together."

In the past month or so, Uncle Lin had taken great care of the Taoist temple. He never forgot to introduce the old Taoist priest to do any rituals or salvation for the dead, so Jin An always kept this kindness in his heart.

Perhaps for Uncle Lin, these are just a piece of cake and he doesn't pay much attention to them.

But Jin An always remembered it.

Don't let a kindness go unnoticed.

As a human being, you still have to repay kindness with kindness.

Of course, Jin An didn't just go to Uncle Lin without chatting. Every time he went to Uncle Lin, he took the opportunity to inquire about everything in the city, so as to understand the city.

Because he will stay in the city for a long time to digest his negative virtues and accumulate foundation.

After all, no matter what, his foundation in this world is still too shallow, and this world is not peaceful at all.

Not long after Jin An and the old Taoist priest hung out in the coffin shop and returned to the Taoist temple, the coffin shop received new business early in the morning.

She was a maid from a wealthy family.

This maid turned out to be one of the maids beside Mrs. He who appeared at the coffin shop a few days ago.

"Mr. Lin, my wife ordered me to order a coffin." The maid next to Mrs. He wanted to order a coffin as soon as she entered the shop.

This maid's face was not pretty, she looked a little pale, and she looked frightened.

Uncle Lin raised his eyes and glanced at the maid: "Did your wife say, black coffin, white coffin, red coffin, yellow coffin, which coffin you want?"

"People die differently, and the coffins are different colors."

Uncle Lin's words seemed to have something in them.

After hearing Uncle Lin's words, the maid's face changed several times. She lowered her head to hide the fear in her eyes: "I, my wife, want Mr. Lin to come to the house in person to see which coffin is needed..."

"At the same time, I would also like to ask Mr. Lin to introduce some Taoist priests or monks to the mansion to collect the corpses and perform rituals, chant sutras, and save the souls of the dead."

When Uncle Lin heard this, without even thinking about it, he raised his hand and pointed at the Five Zang Taoist Temple opposite the coffin pavilion, and said: "The expert your wife needs is in the Five Zang Taoist Temple opposite."

"I am the only one guarding my shop and cannot leave. You can go directly to the two Taoist priests in the Taoist temple opposite. After they have seen the body, they will know which coffin should be arranged."

Uncle Lin's words made the maid subconsciously look at the incense and cold Taoist temple opposite the coffin shop.