White Bone Monkey King

The sun is shining high, and the heaven and earth are completely bright.

The crystal clear desert sea glows with blue waves under the direct sunlight.

An old ship floats quietly on the vast desert sea, as small as a fallen leaf floating on the water, making gentle ripples.

The desert is so cold at night that it can freeze people to death, but it's so hot during the day that it makes people sweat and make them dizzy.

Fortunately, the water here is very clean, so a boatload of people and livestock don't have to worry about the difficulty of drinking water in the desert.

Ari came back from the cabin after taking care of the camels and sheep. Just the short distance from the cabin to the cabin was so hot that he couldn't stand it. Even through a layer of turban, his hair still felt like it was on fire, so he hurriedly ran away. Enter the ship building.

After running to the cabin and drinking half a bottle of water, he felt like he was alive again.

Although the road from the cabin entrance to the ship building is not long, it is too hot in the depths of the desert, and the basin becomes like a big steamer placed on a fire.

As soon as Yari entered the ship building, Surti and others' eyes lit up, and then they ran to Yari to mutter a few words.

"how?"

Although Jin An was closing his eyes to recuperate his energy, his six senses were not closed and he looked over with his eyes closed.

Ari scratched his head in embarrassment. This tanned desert man smiled naively at Jin An and said, "Taoist Master Jin An, they said that I talk to you too much. Let me ask you why we have already found Guchi." National Holy Mountain, why don’t you rush into the mountain?”

Hearing this, Jin An pursed his lips and smiled.

Then he patiently asked, "Didn't you notice that the water outside the boat is accelerating and is flowing rapidly towards the Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom?"

ah?

Ari and the others shook their heads in confusion, saying that they didn't feel anything unusual.

"The speed of the water is accelerating, not static, which indicates that the earth is shattering this time and the water level is falling. The sea surface on the side of the Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom will not be very calm. There should be a huge cave or an underground river fracture there. The sea water is being sucked over there. If we rush over there right now, we will most likely be sucked under the water by the whirlpool of the current, and the boat will be destroyed. So when the sea water over there calms down, it won't be too late for us to go there."

…

…

Jin An waited for a full day. At dawn the next day, he ordered the ancient ship to move at full speed in the direction of the dust he saw yesterday.

A towering and majestic mountain peak appears suddenly at the end of the desert sea. It shines goldenly under the eastern sun, like an isolated island in the vast blue sea. It is magnificent and incredible.

This mountain is so majestic that even the desert and the sea cannot submerge it. There are still mountain tops above the water. If such a high mountain peak were covered with a layer of sand, it would be a large sand dune that is rare in the desert.

"Mountain!"

"Mountain!"

"A majestic mountain appears in the desert. This is a sacred mountain. It turns out that there really is a sacred mountain in the desert!"

"We finally found the Holy Mountain of Guchi Country!"

When they saw the majestic mountains for the first time, many people shouted excitedly, some were shocked, some were horrified, some were stunned and in disbelief.

No wonder they are so excited. Most desert people will never see a mountain once in their lifetime. They can only see various aspects of the mountain in the oral stories passed down by the elderly or in the murals of some ancestors. What's more, this is the legendary sacred mountain of Guchi Kingdom that people have been searching for for a thousand years and cannot be found, with countless mysterious colors.

Between the mountains, there is a crack at the entrance of the cave, and a large amount of lake water is pouring into the cave, and it is unknown where it is flowing.

As expected, Jin An was right.

There is a huge cave here.

Fortunately, he acted cautiously and did not rush in rashly from the beginning. With such a large cave whirlpool, before they could even see the mountain, the ship would be sucked by the whirlpool current.

Now that the water surface has dropped to almost the same level as the cave, the water flow has become calm again. Jin An drove the ancient boat and began to slowly sail into the Guchi Kingdom's Holy Mountain Cave.

This cave is very large and can easily accommodate ancient ships. The cave is humid and the rock walls are filled with water vapor. There is a light breeze in the cave. The wind carries the moist water vapor, bringing a rare coolness in the desert. Everyone is excited to run to the cave. The breeze blows on the deck.

"It's windy. It seems there is an exit at the other end of the cave." Jin An stood on the bow of the boat, enjoying the rare cool breeze with great energy.

He has been in the desert for three or four months, and no one knows how much he misses the breeze in the forest of the Central Plains.

At this time, someone who saw the mountain for the first time leaned out half of the railing and touched the rock wall with excitement and surprise.

The cold and wet touch kept him excited for a long time.

Then more people ran over to touch the slippery rock wall.

Even the four sheep and twenty-odd camels who were staying in the cabin all ran to the deck and looked at the cave ceiling above their heads in shock.

A few camels even leaned out, stretched out their necks and tongues to lick the rock wall, imitating the way humans "touch" the rock wall.

Jin An could understand everyone's excitement. After searching for so long and suffering so much, he finally found the Holy Mountain of Guchi Country and was one step closer to finding his disciple to sharpen his sword. Even he was feeling excited at this time. . However, he was so excited that Jin An still had to remind everyone: "You can't swim, be careful not to fall into the water. The water level here is the same as that of the desert sea outside, which means that there are cracks in the mountain and cliffs of hundreds of feet under our feet. The water is deep and cold.”

As soon as they heard that there was a cliff at the foot of the mountain, everyone was so frightened that they took a few steps back.

The cracks in the mountain were somewhat deep, and the ancient ship bumped forward for a while. The environment was deep, and it actually felt like it was getting deeper and deeper. Later, Ari and the others began to put torches on the railings of the ancient ship for lighting.

"Taoist Master Jin An, this cave is so deep. Why do I feel the colder I get as I walk in." Ari held a torch and came to Jin An, who was standing on the bow of the boat.

Jin An nodded with a calm expression: "I observed carefully along the way. There are traces of artificial excavation on the rock wall of this cave. It is very likely that it was widened by the Guchi Kingdom."

Yali was shocked and subconsciously said, "Why did Guchi hollow out such a huge mountain? Their people don't live in the mountains."

Looking at the dark cave in front of him, Jin An frowned and pondered: "Holy Mountain, that is the name of the people of Guchi Country. The Holy Mountain of Guchi Country has another name in the outside world. Do you know what it is, Yari?"

Ari nodded without thinking: "I know, Hidden Corpse Ridge."

Jin An raised his eyes and looked around: "The name of Corpse Hidden Ridge comes from the fact that Guchi Kingdom used it to bury the bodies of ancestors, but we have always ignored a question. Are the dead people of Guchi Kingdom buried outside the mountain? Or inside the mountain?"

Yali was confused by Jin An's words.

Think about it carefully.

There are indeed very few records about the holy mountains of Guchi Kingdom.

The Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom has always been a forbidden area where outsiders are forbidden to set foot. Naturally, no one knows what is going on in the Holy Mountain. For example, is the dead person buried outside? Or buried in a cave?

Jin An stared at the surroundings and continued: "Now it seems that the most important thing about this corpse ridge is the word 'hidden'. The real corpse ridge should be in these artificially widened mountain cracks. If buried in Outside the mountain, the wind and sand in the desert are so strong that Tibetan Corpse Ridge is buried by wind and sand for eleven months of the year. It is estimated that the people of the Guchi Kingdom want to go up the mountain to worship their ancestors and they can't even find the bones of their ancestors, so why worship their ancestors. "

"Yari, please ask everyone to pay attention and don't let down your guard. We are trespassing into the Guchi Cemetery. I'm afraid this mountain won't be clean. You should also stay away from the railings. Danger is most likely to be hidden underwater. Be careful when sailing. ." Jin'an asked Yali to warn everyone to be careful, and take all the camels and sheep that ran onto the deck back to the cabin. It would be too much of a hindrance to stay here. If something happens, they can't be taken care of.

"Taoist Master Jin'an, why do your words sound so scary? Are you saying that there is a big tomb inside this mountain and we are walking in the big tomb?" Ari shuddered and couldn't help cursing in his heart. It was really too cold in the cave, making his whole body feel uncomfortable. He still felt that the scorching sun in the desert was more suitable for the living habits of desert people like them.

I don’t know that the coldness in the cave is a result of his psychology.

It's still really cold.

The ancient ship continues to sail in the cave. The water here is living water and has been flowing slowly forward.

Maybe Jin An was too cautious.

It was peaceful all the way.

No abnormal phenomena were encountered.

Just when everyone was gradually relaxing their vigilance, suddenly, a man's high-pitched scream sounded in the quiet cave. Such a startled scream suddenly sounded in the already silent cave, and everyone's heart felt like He was hit hard by a fist and jumped hard.

"Nanbi, what was your name just now! Don't you know that scaring people can scare them to death!" Both Yali and Sureti deliberately lowered their voices to criticize the man who just screamed.

Nanbi was still jumping and scratching his body, as if something had crawled into his clothes. After jumping a few times, he finally shook the thing out of his clothes.

That thing was moving very fast and wanted to run away as soon as it fell onto the deck of the ship.

At this moment, Jin An, who came over to check the situation, put his index and middle fingers together and quickly clamped the thing.

It turned out to be a small insect, twisting and struggling in Jin An's hands.

"Taoist Master Jin'an, what kind of insect is this?" Yali, Sureti, and Nanbi, who were still scratching their bodies with goosebumps, came over.

Looking at the struggling insect in his finger, Jin An smiled calmly and said, "It's nothing, just an ordinary dragon louse."

"Dragon louse?"

"Dragon lice are also called corpse lice. They like dark and moist places by nature. The most common place is that they like to hide in ancient tombs and eat carrion. Once there are many corpse lice, you should pay attention. Either there are large tombs or there are many carrion corpses. Nourish this little creature.”

After Jin An finished speaking, he threw it away, and suddenly, as soon as the corpse fell into the water, it dived without a trace.

This little guy ran away pretty fast.

How could Yari and the others know that there are such disgusting things in the world? The climate in the desert is dry, and the corpses will dry into mummies within a few days. There is no nourishing and living space for those weird bugs. When they heard about disgusting bugs like corpse crickets, It’s all indispensable.

The worst thing is Nambi.

He was so frightened that he took off his clothes and pants on the spot and checked his whole body for any wounds or blood stains caused by insect bites. His face turned pale with fright.

"Huh? Master Jin'an, why did you release the corpse insect again? Didn't you say that the insect grew up eating dead human flesh? What if it hates us and comes back to bite us?" Yali said in surprise, by the way. Give Nambi a sympathetic look.

Jin An smiled and said: "Don't worry, according to the physique of that little thing, it's not that fierce now. It will bite people when it eats more carrion and grows up."

Although Jin An said it in the calmest tone, Yali and the others felt a numbing feeling of horror.

At this time, Jin An looked at Nanbi: "Don't worry, you have no wounds on your body and you are safe. Tell me, what happened just now?"

Ari took the initiative to translate very well.

After listening to the translation, Nanbi told what happened with great relief. It turned out that an insect had just fallen from the wall of the cave above his head into his collar, crawled around on him, and its claws were very painful. He screamed out in pain subconsciously.

Cave roof?

Jin'an, Yali, and Sureti subconsciously took torches and shined them above their heads.

But the cave wall above the head is a bit high, and the torch lighting is limited.

Jin An jumped up and climbed to the top of the ship as light as a swallow. This time he continued to raise the torch to shine on the cave wall above his head.

At this time, Yali and Sureti, who were both agile, also climbed to the top of the boat building, and together with Jin An, they held torches to illuminate the cave wall.

Tick ​​tock.

Tick ​​tock.

Apart from the high humidity and the occasional drop or two of water droplets, there was nothing unusual about the cave ceiling. Not even a corpse cricket was seen.

The torch swayed back and forth, the light and shadow flickered, sometimes darkening and sometimes brightening. Just when Ari was about to give up, suddenly, a ghostly figure with eyes open above his head flashed.

"ah!"

Yari screamed in fright, lost his balance and almost fell. Fortunately, Jin An reacted quickly. He grabbed the waist of his pants with his left hand and pulled him back. He raised the torch with his right hand and shined it at the place where the ghostly figure had just flashed.

Under the dim light of the fire, a hollow was dug out on the rock wall near the top of the cave. A plump, lifelike hairy human face sat cross-legged in the cave. His eyes were open, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. It was as if he was looking down from above at this group of outsiders who had entered the sacred mountain of Guchi Kingdom without permission.

The slightly raised corners of his mouth seemed to be teasing and mocking, giving people a chilling and gloomy feeling.

Even though they were mentally prepared, Yali and Sureti, who were standing behind Jin An, were frightened by this evil scene again. Their body muscles tensed and they subconsciously pulled out their swords nervously.

Only Jin's security guard looked calm, and the man holding a torch continued to look at the people in the pit.

The people in the pit had tattered clothes and a thick layer of dust covering their bodies. It looked like they had been here for many years.

Poisonous insects and beasts are afraid of fire. Several corpse crickets crawled out of the man's shabby clothes, fled in panic along the rock wall, and quickly disappeared into the dark corner where the torch could not reach.

Seeing the two people behind him nervously drawing out their swords, Jin An said comfortingly: "Don't be nervous, this is just a dead person. To be more precise, he is guarding the entrance and exit of the tomb to drive away snakes, insects, rats, and ants to prevent snakes, rats, rats, and ants from invading the empty tomb and eating them." The elephant-like tomb-suppressing beast that drops the bones of the owner of the tomb is also called the tomb-suppressing beast with an animal face and a human body.”

"Logically speaking, tomb beasts are all stone beasts. This is the first time I have seen this kind of barbarian technique of directly making people and beasts into tomb beasts."

This was not comforting, but the two of them had goosebumps all over their bodies after listening to it.

The ancient ship continued to move forward, and the strange figure of the tomb-suppressing beast with an animal face and a human body quickly disappeared from the sight of several people.

I don't know if it was because they were too nervous, but the two of them always felt like there were two beast-faced blue eyes behind them watching them leave.

To be able to scare two desert warriors into such an overly nervous state, the beast-faced tomb-suppressing beast with a human body is truly terrifying.

It wasn't until they were very far away that the two of them felt that the eyes behind them disappeared. At this moment, they both looked at Jin An with admiration: "Taoist Master Jin An, you looked calm and calm just now. What's that name? What kind of tomb beast is it? It looks so scary. , suddenly appeared above your head, are you not nervous or scared at all?"

With a calm expression, Jin An continued to hold a torch and look at the wall of the cave above his head, looking for any other tomb-suppressing beasts with animal faces and human bodies or more ferocious tomb-suppressing beasts with human faces and animal bodies.

While searching, he calmly replied: "Well, I'm afraid."

"?"

"?"

Yali and Sureti looked at Jin An in confusion. Is this because they were afraid? Why do we see you, Taoist Master Jin An, looking so calm?

Ari: "Taoist Master Jin'an, you are not only very capable, but also knowledgeable. You even know something as terrifying as a tomb beast... If there is a tomb beast with an animal face and a body, is there also a tomb beast with a human face and an animal body? "

Jin An thought for a while and said: "These are actually the Yin and Yang Feng Shui secrets from the Central Plains. It's normal that you haven't seen them. It seems that the Corpse Hidden Ridge in Guchi Kingdom has been instructed by an expert, and it is not really what it looks like. They are ignorant, ignorant and barbaric. But Ari, you are right about one thing. Don’t look at the tomb beast with a human face and a beast body, which is scary. It also scares snakes, insects, rats, and ants. The most powerful thing is the beast with a human face and a heart. The human head is like a tomb beast."

Ari shrank when he heard this, but couldn't help but continue to ask out of curiosity: "Does this man and the tomb-suppressing beast have anything powerful to say?"

People are so contradictory.

The more mysterious and unknown it is, the more curious it becomes.

Jin An: "There are actually very few tomb beasts that are used to suppress humans. This is because these beasts are too evil and like to eat human flesh. They will not refuse anyone, living or dead. It is too harmful to one's moral character and can easily backfire on the owner of the tomb, so there are not many of them." See. It’s not as gentle as the lion, elephant, or human-faced beast. It only scares poisonous snakes, scorpions, and rats.”

"The beast-faced tomb-suppressing beast with a human body just now used a Tibetan fox head, but there was no Tibetan fox body or human head. If Guchi Guo really dared to use the Tibetan fox body and human head to make a human tomb-suppressing beast, I would respect them for being honest. Man."

Yali and Sureti both looked at Jin An in shock. Just now, the Elephant Tomb Suppressing Beast was so scary. Priest Jin An, you actually said that this kind of thing looks gentle and kind?

What they saw today somewhat overturned the world view of the two people's peaceful life. After a while, they thought of another thing: "Taoist Master Jin'an, didn't you say that the tomb beast like the Elephant can drive away poisonous insects, poisonous snakes and rats? Then why just now?" Will there be corpse crickets on the body of that elephant tomb beast?"

Jin An: "That's why they are called corpse crickets."

Jin An looked very matter-of-fact.

"?"

"?"

…

As the boat moved along the river, we saw a few fox-headed tomb-suppressing beasts on the left and right sides of the cave wall. I don’t know whether it was because I was used to seeing them too much, or because Jin’an had popularized the knowledge about tomb-suppressing beasts, and there were no more unknowns. The sense of fear, or in the perception of Yali and Sureti, that Jin An is very capable and very safe... In short, when they saw the tomb beast again, the fear in their hearts gradually diminished. , on the contrary, I find the square-headed Tibetan fox-headed tomb-suppressing beast quite amusing.

It's just that the human and the tomb beast were never seen along the way. Not only Jin An was disappointed, but these two people also felt lost.

I don’t know whether I should say these two people are adaptable or courageous.

"Taoist Master Jin'an, be careful! There seems to be a huge boulder blocking the road ahead!" Yali suddenly warned, raising his hand and pointing to the dark water ahead.

In fact, no need for Yali to say, Jin An had already noticed the movement in front.

There was indeed a black object standing straight in front of them blocking the way.

The ship drifted along the current and soon approached the obstacle. When they saw clearly what the thing was, everyone on the ship took a breath, including Jin An, who was also stunned for a moment.

It was an old merchant ship that ran aground on a reef. It had a light head and a heavy tail, and was tilted straight up against the roof of the cave. A large hole was pushed out of the stern of the cabin by the reef. Many coffins poured out, and they were piled high on the reef. The young man's body fell out of the rotting coffin and soaked in the water.

How could this sunken ship appear here...