Chapter 264 Jinjiang
After leaving Master Bai's house, Yan Shixun kept thinking about the records in the notebook.
The ancestor of the Bai family was a cautious person. After coming into contact with the old Fengdu ghost, he realized that this was no ordinary matter. So even if he wanted to pass down what happened that year, he was wary of the consequences if it was recorded on paper and fell into the wrong hands.
After all, although the old Fengdu has been destroyed, it is still where ghosts and gods live.
The ghost energy and power remaining inside alone are not something that ordinary people can withstand.
Once someone wants to use the ghost energy of the old Fengdu to do something, it will be a horrific disaster for the human world.
Especially in the human world where there are no ghosts and gods, it is even more impossible to resist the pressure from ancient Fengdu.
Therefore, the ancestor of the Bai family did not record everything in the notebook.
Most of the things have been passed down orally by his descendants with the surname Bai for thousands of years.
As for the information about the ancient site of Fengdu, it is hidden in the lyrics, covered under the hexagrams and directions of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. The location is not given directly, but people need to unravel the corresponding landmark places layer by layer, and rely on the position between mountains and rivers to finally locate the ancient site of Fengdu.
The Bai family's ancestors thought very carefully.
If there is a ghost exorcist who really needs to find the old site of Fengdu to save the world, then these preventive measures will not be obstacles for him, but only a test to verify his identity and strength.
If one is not strong enough, or wants to rob tombs or has bad intentions, he or she should be stopped outside and not be qualified to go to the Fengdu ruins.
The ancestor of the Bai family was grateful for the rescue of the unknown man, and was willing to do something for the ghost messenger whom he regarded as a confidant. Even though no one asked him to do so, he was still willing to guard the old Fengdu.
Like a gravekeeper.
The ancestors of the Bai family did not know what would happen in the future, nor did they know when and under what kind of terrible disaster someone would come to look for the old Fengdu.
Or maybe no one will come looking for it.
However, the ancestors of the Bai family chose to pass on the ancient story out of respect for the gods and ghosts of heaven and earth.
It’s like a retreat has been prepared for future generations, which may come in handy at some point in time.
The only thing that the Bai ancestor did not expect was that the world had changed dramatically.
The location marks of mountains, rivers and lakes he left behind have long since changed their positions after thousands of years. Even the mountains have turned into plains, and the lakes have risen from the ground to become peaks.
So the originally ingenious design has now become a stumbling block that prevents everyone from finding the old Fengdu.
After getting the notes from Master Bai, Li Chengyun stayed at Baizhi Lake for a long time before he deconstructed all the location information that served as reference to the old Fengdu one by one. Then, by comparing it with the previous situation known by Master Bai, he roughly determined that the old Fengdu was near Baizhi Lake.
But where exactly did Li Chengyun go after leaving Baizhi Lake?
Master Bai doesn’t know.
Yan Shixun held the delicate notebook in his pocket through his coat and rubbed it gently, as if he could see Li Chengyun from several years ago through this notebook.
His master believed in him.
I believe that he will become an excellent exorcist, strong enough to take on the heavy responsibility and continue to search for the old Fengdu on my behalf and find a way to support the heaven and earth.
Yan Shixun didn't know what was in the old Fengdu, so Li Chengyun didn't go directly to find the real Fengdu, but instead became obsessed with it.
However, he will complete the unfinished journey on behalf of Li Chengyun.
Yan Shixun pursed his lips slightly, and his gloomy brows faded away the emotions that he had just revealed in front of Master Bai, and became sharp and firm again.
When he raised his eyes again, there was only a look of indifference and calmness in them.
He looked at the surrounding village and suddenly felt that it seemed much brighter than when he came here, as if several houses nearby had turned on their lights.
This scene is so similar to the village next to the theater in the lake.
Yan Shixun walked over cautiously without making any unnecessary sound. Like a big cat walking on tiptoe silently, he quickly blended himself into the darkness beside the window and turned his head to look at the situation inside the window.
From time to time, a figure appeared and disappeared from behind the window.
When viewed from a distance, everything seems normal, and the eyes will naturally tell the brain that this is a shadow left by a person on the window.
But only when you get close can you find clues.
——It’s not a person’s shadow falling on the window.
Instead, there was no one there at all, only a black human silhouette.
Yan Shixun's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly realized that perhaps every household in the entire village was in the same situation, so he didn't see any villagers but only heard the sound.
Because from the beginning, there were no villagers.
Like a projector that hides the truth from the public.
The lie that there are still people alive in the village is being played out.
Yan Shixun tentatively reached out his hand to the door and pushed it gently.
“Squeak——!”
The house had been uninhabited for years, and the door hinges had long since rusted, making a harsh friction sound.
In the room, candlelight flickered, but there was no one inside.
Even the furniture was covered with a thick layer of dust visible to the naked eye, and the interior of the house was dilapidated and covered with blue-black stains and mildew, as if no one had lived there for a long time.
There was only one person standing in front of the window.
The man was wearing old clothes from many years ago. There were two red spots on his pale face and his eyes were looking straight towards the door.
Yan Shixun met the man's gaze without warning, and was startled when he realized that it was not a real person.
But shadow puppets.
As Master Bai said, Southwestern shadow play focuses on integrating life into the repertoire. And this shadow puppet seems to be made to look like the villagers who lived here in the past, wearing the same clothes, appearing and disappearing in front of the window day after day without getting tired.
Shadows fell on the windows, and the candlelight was bright and warm.
It was as if the village was still maintaining its former peace and all the tragedies had not happened yet.
Yan Shixun originally wanted to leave this house and go to other people's houses to see if the same thing happened and verify his guess.
But before he turned around, he suddenly saw tears of blood slowly flowing from the shadow puppet's originally dark eye sockets.
The shadow puppet raised its hand, and its flexible and delicate skeleton supported its lifelike movements, reaching out to Yan Shixun.
It seemed as if he wanted to grab Yan Shixun and keep him here.
The lamp burst into flames, making a sound of sparks.
In an instant, the entire house and the yard outside became dark, and Yan Shixun's vision was spinning.
He was like a traveler who had stepped into a swamp, feeling empty and unable to step on solid ground, being dragged by the darkness and sliding into the depths.
When Yan Shixun opened his eyes again and the darkness in his vision gradually faded away, he calmed himself down and found that he was still standing in the village.
But it was different from the peaceful and harmonious village at night just now.
Here... is the last bit of calm before the storm.
Yan Shixun saw that he was still in the village house he had just been in, but judging from the furnishings and neatly arranged items, there were people living here, but they were not in the house now.
Instead, outside the yard, faint noises of noise and cheers could be heard.
Yan Shixun pushed open the door and looked in the direction of the sound. Not far away, under the cover of night, he saw clusters of torches going up and down, as if many villagers were running around holding torches for lighting.
He narrowed his eyes, and then his heart trembled because of this familiar scene. He quickly spread his long legs and ran towards the direction of the torch.
The orange-red light was like the setting sun, turning the starless and moonless sky into a blood-red color.
The villagers cheered and screamed, the firelight stretched their shadows into long, swaying shapes like hideous ghosts.
In front of them, the woman was holding the young boy's hand tightly and running away in panic.
Her face was as pale as gold paper, beads of sweat were as big as beans, and her pale lips without a trace of blood were deeply bitten by her teeth, leaving bloody marks. It seemed that her physical condition was not good and she was just trying hard to hold on.
The woman held her round belly and looked back with fear from time to time, but she was still unable to resist the weakness of her body. Her steps soon slowed down and she staggered and was about to fall.
Even though the boy next to her was young, he was already sensible. He tried to support his mother's shaky body with his tender and thin shoulders.
But, he was too small.
Whether it was the villagers behind him who were celebrating like jackals in excitement, or his mother in front of him, and the unborn child in her belly.
He could only watch everything slide into the abyss of tragedy and could do nothing.
The woman fell to the ground, blood spreading on her skirt. She cried desperately for help from the villagers on the roadside, but the villagers just closed their eyes and did not lend a helping hand to the woman due to heavy concerns.
Seeing the villagers quickly catching up with her, the woman gritted her teeth, struggled to get up, and continued to stagger forward with the boy beside her.
But the exhausted women and children, compared with the young and strong villagers behind them, were as weak as rabbits, and their throats could be bitten through effortlessly.
But the villagers were clearly not ready to end everything so quickly.
They were like wild beasts hunting a rabbit, driving the woman around with laughter and taking pleasure in her embarrassment and pleading.
The high-held torches illuminated the lake, and the rippling water reflected twisted and hideous faces, like ghost faces.
The woman panicked and was tripped by a rock, and fell into the lake with a scream.
Mother--!
The boy's eyes widened and he rushed over like crazy, trying to grab his mother.
But missed it.
The woman's expression was frozen in panic and fear, but her heavy and weak body still fell into the lake uncontrollably.
"Plop!" There was a loud noise.
The woman screamed for help and struggled hard in the cold lake water, her wet head floating up and down again.
She stretched out her arms desperately, hoping someone would pull her up.
But the villagers had already run to the lake, slowly stopped, gathered around the lake, looked coldly at the struggling woman in the water, and laughed at her pain.
The boy who wanted to rush into the lake to rescue his mother was also caught by the strong villagers. They held him in their hands and allowed him to struggle and roar in anger, but they could only watch it all happen.
The woman slowly stopped struggling.
The cold lake water choked her mouth and nose, taking away her body temperature, making her already weak body even weaker and colder, and she couldn't muster any strength.
So cold, so painful… so tired.
The woman looked at the boy on the shore across the cold lake water, with one last tired and serious look.
Then she closed her eyes, no longer able to raise her arms to struggle, and slowly sank into the lake.
Ripples appeared on the water surface, reflecting the torches, and the sunset was broken here.
The woman never came up again.
The boy watched his mother sink to the bottom of the lake with her unborn child.
The cold mountain wind took away his body temperature, and the only sounds in his ears were laughter and strange cheers. In the jubilant crowd, his mother's struggle and death seemed like a shadow play for people's entertainment.
The boy's eyes were bloodshot and his cries were heartbreaking, like a young animal that has lost its mother and is coughing up blood and crying.
The cries echoed among the mountains and lakes, layer upon layer, like the howling of ghosts.
The villagers were frightened and then beat and kicked the boy in anger.
However, the fierce wind from the fist blew past, and the person who fell heavily to the ground was the villager who had attacked.
Yan Shixun's eyes were red, his body was trembling slightly as he suppressed his anger, his finger bones were clenched into fists so hard that they turned white, and all the villagers who stood in front of him were knocked over by his merciless punches.
The villagers who were originally surrounding the boy also discovered the stranger Yan Shixun. They let go of the weak and young boy and rushed towards Yan Shixun, loudly asking who he was.
Yan Shixun pursed his lips tightly, and there was nothing but anger in his cold eyes, not a trace of fear of being surrounded. The heavy sound of punches hitting flesh aroused Yan Shixun's fighting spirit even more. Each punch was more fierce than the last, smashing the villagers' faces with blood and throwing them flying.
Soon, the villagers who had been so arrogant just now were lying on the ground by the lake, covering their wounds and wailing.
The boy who was abandoned by the villagers rushed into the lake immediately and tried to save his mother.
Only Yan Shixun was left standing by the lake, looking at the boy in the lake with his head lowered, without saying a word.
The knuckles of his fists were bruised and bloody, and blood was dripping slowly down his fingers, but he seemed not to feel the pain at all. He stood among the wailing villagers on the ground, looking at the boy with pity in his eyes.
Letting a child witness his mother and his unborn sister sink to the bottom of the lake with his own eyes... This is a cruelty that even wild animals cannot be capable of.
But what is even more cruel is——
Yan Shixun knew very well that what he saw was just a shadow play.
All this happened decades ago and has long been a foregone conclusion.
He could not save the woman who fell into the lake and died, nor could he save Zheng Shuli who was overwhelmed by hatred and anger.
Even though he was now stepping on the wailing villagers on the ground, he still had the power to overturn the entire village, but... he was a few decades late.
Yan Shixun was silent for a long time, with the boy's mournful cries and the sound of splashing water in his ears.
But just as Yan Shixun noticed that the boy in the lake was gradually turning pale from the cold, he took a step forward and wanted to pull the boy out of the lake, when light footsteps suddenly appeared behind him.
Yan Shixun immediately looked back vigilantly.
But Zheng Shumu was seen pushing aside the drooping branches of the trees by the lake and walking slowly down the slope.
He lowered his head, his scattered hair was mixed with strands of gray, and his already weather-beaten face was filled with unspeakable sorrow.
"Mr. Yan."
Zheng Shumu looked over Yan Shixun's shoulder and looked at the boy who was crying hoarsely in the lake: "You found out...right?"
"That's me and my dead mother."
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