The rustling night wind shook the chill all over the ground, and the thin clothes were even more unstoppable in the middle of the night, so much so that even my body seemed to be covered with frost, and I felt indescribably uncomfortable.
The ghostly houses were right in front of her, and Yuan Ziyi had no idea of exploring them again. She didn't know why Jiang Wen had to come here in the dark to face these disturbing things.
Copper boats on the sea, underwater dragon ghosts, strange corpses in the hall, and long men in sackcloth, these strange rumors spread in the countryside lingered in her mind, and also lurked in the middle of the night, as if a thin plush claw would poke out from the darkness at any time. Pounce on yourself from an invisible corner.
Yuan Ziyi refused to admit that she was scared, but she couldn't help but have her own thoughts on her feet.
At first, she chose to walk at the back, so that she could see the two people in front of her at any time, which would bring a sense of security. But soon, she noticed that there was a rustling sound following her behind her. It was faster if you went faster, and slower if you were slower. It seemed to be following her invisibly with malice and insidiousness. .
So she quickened her pace again, simply passed the two people in front and walked in front of the team, seemingly fearlessly leading the way, and soon arrived at the door of the house she was familiar with before.
But this time, she only felt that the rustling branches of the dense trees in front of and behind the house were covered with unsettling strange shadows. When the cold insects are all gone, only the waning moon, as pale as a wave of smoke, seems to be shining but not shining. The cold sky is not far away. What I see is a bleak one, like when I was a child, I woke up in the middle of the night in Mount Emei. An unrecognizable residual dream.
Yuan Ziyi ignored the open door and deliberately pretended to go to the backyard to investigate, so that he could avoid the appalling black coffin in the hall and avoid the heartfelt disgust that death brought to him.
"It's a coffin!"
Yuan Ziyi took two steps toward the back of the house, then suddenly backed away quickly with an exclamation, as if he had bumped into something extremely unexpected, and hid behind Yan Yongchun.
When Yan Yongchun heard the sound, he was immediately on alert. His body rose up like an electric shock, and he twisted the three joints and nine joints to the left. His left arm stretched out his ulna like a knife. He could meet the enemy with his fists at any time. He faced the unpredictability with cold eyes. of darkness.
Jiang Wen took two steps forward and instantly saw the twisted and dark shadow crawling beside the courtyard wall, like a frightening shadow in a deep pool and spring.
"Don't be nervous, you saw it wrong. That's not a coffin, it's clearly a wooden plank used on ships."
In the dark environment, Yuan Ziyi apparently mistook the black paint sampan in the backyard for a coffin leaning against the wall of the courtyard. He instantly thought of many disturbing things and mistook himself. Startled.
Jiang Wen stepped forward and knocked on the outer shell of the ship plank. He found that the keel of the ship plank was hard and the pattern was straight. It felt like jade and buckled like iron. It was obviously a good piece of anti-corrosion wood, but the color was a bit off. auspicious.
Yuan Ziyi slowly poked his head out and glanced at the courtyard. The unnaturalness in his expression gradually faded away, but his tone still sounded a little unbelievable, and he couldn't help but take a second look.
"This...the color is too similar!"
Jiang Wen frowned and thought for a while, then added.
"Well, you may be right about one thing. The ship plank and the coffin in the house may really be made of the same kind of wood that is resistant to rot and decay."
The boats used by the living are made of the same material and the same color as the coffins of the dead. Zhangqiugang Village doesn’t know why there is such a custom, but it reminds Jiang Wen of the boat coffins in the Wuyi Mountains, which makes him feel like he is home. .
Unfortunately, the faint stench in the house interrupted the association. Apparently, after being stored for several days, the corpse that had been soaked in water and drowned would inevitably decay and rot even in the cold winter. Burial was already an imminent matter.
"Headmaster Jiang, I think it would be best not to act rashly in this house."
Yan Yongchun said with a slight worry, "The villagers said that ghosts first appeared in this room. Ziyi also encountered ghosts here, which means there must be something wrong inside and it is not advisable to enter head-on."
In order to strengthen his persuasion, Yan Yongchun also specifically expressed his own experience, "I have checked many times during the day before, and I just felt dizzy."
Yuan Ziyi quickly agreed: "Yes, I also think there is nothing to stay in this ghost place. If you are unwilling to do so, Master Jiang, why not go to the riverside to investigate."
But Jiang Wen's attitude was extremely firm, and he deliberately said in a relaxed and teasing tone: "Miss Yan, don't worry, you'll be fine. It's okay if the main entrance can't be used. We can just change the direction and go in."
Since ancient times, life and death have been separated, and springs and rivers are not connected. Only fear can lead to terror, fear can lead to disgust and pity, and compassion can be broken throughout life. Buddhism also has a practice method called White Bone Meditation, which is one of the five Zen methods of Buddhism. It usually starts from impurities and enters White Bones, with the purpose of extinguishing the desire for the physical body. But in the eyes of ordinary people, they would just shy away from the dead body.
Jiang Wen also once thought that compared to the idea of extinguishing color and deep greed, perhaps the White Bone View is a way to see through the great terror, and this terror comes from the famous "Uncanny Valley Effect".
The dead bodies were once members of the human race, sufficiently anthropomorphic as entities in the uncanny valley that they could even be mistaken for members of the human species when static.
But when people observe unconsciously, they will find flaws, such as purple blood vessels, rotten flesh, collapsed skin, and maggots breeding. Then unintentionally, these abnormal human-like characteristics will appear in the human gene pool. Potential impact, warning to observers.
This is true for corpses, so why isn't it true for things like "ghosts"? At least they all look human, but not human.
The harsh scratching of nails can cause inner disgust and discomfort, precisely because this sound was once used by ancient apes struggling to survive in the dense forest to convey danger signals.
As for the uncanny valley effect on humanoids, this fear deeply embedded in genes is so specific that Buddhism, which is well versed in human nature, has to use methods to restrain it. Does this mean that in the process of human evolution? , we once had to avoid an existence that looked very human but was extremely dangerous...
The three of them stayed for a while, and finally entered the village house.
Zhangqiugang Village is not considered barren. The village also has the traditional Lingnan "three rooms and two corridors" form, which is very neatly arranged. From a plan view, it has a symmetrical triple courtyard layout. The main building has three bays and two corridor houses in front. and patio, so it is called "three rooms and two corridors".
The history of houses like this can be traced back to the Han Dynasty tomb utensils unearthed in the suburbs of Guangzhou. They are obviously the product of the integration of Han culture into Lingnan.
Jiang Wen was the first to open the back door and found that the courtyard in front of him was a single-story structure, with the hall in the center, rooms on both sides, and the kitchen and utility room on both sides of the patio.
But when I opened the firewood door and looked at it, I saw that everything stored inside was empty. The charcoal ash in the stove was full of moisture. Only the pots, pans and other kitchen utensils were left here due to the hasty departure, but they were all covered with a layer of moisture. layer of dust.
The faint stench lingered over Zhangqiugang Village, so that the originally bright moonlight began to shine dimly, as if separated by a layer of gauze, and it was impossible to see clearly. There was obviously no fog at the end of the village road, but there always seemed to be fog. Something is wandering.
Jiang Wen decided to enter through the back door, and Yuan Ziyi followed in a circuitous way. The three of them followed each other and entered the empty hall. They saw nothing except the shadow of the oil lamp, but they could already see through the door. In the corner of the black coffin, the sound of dripping water from the soles of the feet still sounded slowly throughout the night, dripping onto the hard and messy ground.
"The corpse will be toxic if left for a long time. I'll just go up and take a look. Don't get too close."
Jiang Wen confessed first, then covered his mouth and nose with his hands, and slowly looked at the dead-eyed corpse with bulging eyeballs in the black coffin.
It seems to contain great resentment, so that its eyes are filled with anger, staring at the position of the top of the beam with pale pupils, and it continues and stiffly maintains the appearance of exhaling the last breath before death.
"Miss Yan, when were these villagers fished out?"
Jiang Wen looked at it intently and suddenly asked.
Yan Yongchun looked at the body warily and whispered: "It was about five days ago. It could not be salvaged before, and it was not until five days ago that it drifted ashore one after another. Unfortunately, the body was completely damaged, as if it had been bitten by some aquatic species..."
The corpse, which had been soaked and turned white, had begun to swell and burst the exposed skin. Jiang Wen did find that the corpse was covered with scars, and there were even a few deep wounds on the bones of the arms, chest and abdomen, which were easily reminiscent of minions. The ferocious water dragon lurks in the dark seabed, hungry for their flesh and blood.
When external fears are internalized in the heart, they will become ghosts in the darkness.
You must know that the ancients were not so superstitious that they were full of foolish opinions and harbored ghosts and ghosts. At least Wang Mingqing of the Song Dynasty expressed it very clearly in "Toujia Lu": "Thunder, sudden lightning, heavy rain, fierce wind, surging waves, and dragons." The sight of a dragon sloughing off can be said to be strange! It has its own purpose and is used to look at, so it is very different. The mood of ghosts and gods is like the stone words in the Jin Dynasty, the gods descending into the wild, Qi Huan's disease, and the rapid development of life. Is it okay to think otherwise in the book of Cun Zhi Zhuan?"
Ordinary things that have never been seen before are called strange, and ordinary principles that are difficult to understand are called ghosts and gods. When they see things that cannot be explained by the knowledge system, they will be afraid of them and keep them at a distance, and then respectfully record them on paper.
The Confucian kings of the Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties pursued the undeniability of ghost stories from the two dimensions of natural phenomena and historical narratives. At the same time, Zhu Xi used questions and answers with students to explore the concepts of ghosts and gods and the authenticity of ghost stories, so as to avoid people falling into the trap of A cycle of bottomless suspicion.
However, what is interesting is that on the one hand, Zhu Xi constantly persuaded the students that "the ghosts and gods are secondary, and the invisible shadow is difficult to understand." On the other hand, when the students told about ghosts and strange things, and said that such stories " The brochure said that neither the legends nor the legends can be trusted, it must be seen by oneself." Zhu Xi retorted: "It's just that I have never seen it."
According to Jiang Wen's guess, Zhu Xi must have been thinking about those weird things and immortals on Wuyi Mountain when he said this.
"Look, the bones and flesh between his upper and lower arms are torn apart and crumbling, with only a few strands of skin and flesh remaining connected. They should have been torn apart by the wind and waves in the water. There must have been strong undercurrents on the bottom of the sea on the day he went to sea."
The corpse is the last words of the deceased. If you ignore these clues, you will waste the truth that is right in front of you. Jiang Wen leaned over the coffin and carefully inspected the traces of the body. He ignored the hideous appearance and slowly determined a few things.
"It is true that this dead body died of drowning. At least it avoids the suspicion of murder. The direct cause of his death was drowning. Compared with other disasters at sea, there is nothing unusual."
The disenchantment of the dead is itself a very simple matter.
First of all, the cause of death of the corpse was drowning and wind and waves. Although the wounds on the body were horrific, it could still be seen that they were caused by sharp rocks scraping the shells. The shells attached to them were as sharp as knives and could naturally be cut to this extent.
Secondly, the body did not seem to have been soaked in water for as long as Yan Wing Chun said. The tragedy of the boat capsizing supposedly happened ten days ago, and it took five days to salvage it. However, this body did not seem to have experienced such a long time at all. Instead, it was strangely fresh. Presumably, this was why it was considered to be filled with resentment and stiffness. An incorruptible horror.
Finally, all in all, Jiang Wen didn't think that such an ordinary corpse had the ability to scare the whole village to the point of restlessness, let alone make Yan Yongchun tense up as soon as he entered the house, and his Wing Chun skills never relaxed for a moment. .
"Miss Yan, tell me honestly, have you seen any other strange things here?"
Yan Yongchun and Yuan Ziyi were originally standing on the left side of the coffin facing the gate, only one step behind Jiang Wen. At this time, Jiang Wen, who was carefully examining the autopsy, suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the two of them. Yuan Ziyi was startled, thinking that something appeared behind him, and looked behind him as if he was frightened.
"Headmaster Jiang is indeed very discerning, and things are just as you said..."
Yan Yongchun sighed slightly, but his expression seemed to be relieved of some invisible burden, and he finally told what he had experienced a few days ago.
"Three days ago at midnight, I bumped into a ghoul in the village. At that time, I was opening the door to go out. I felt that it was pitch black outside the door. I could neither see the road nor the lights. But in an instant, I saw a sudden flash of light at the crack of the door. The face looked like a living person, staring at me uncertainly."
Yan Yongchun pointed to the front door and explained why he did not want to go in or out through the door, "The ghost was as bloated as a pile of cotton, and the top almost overflowed the courtyard wall. Its belly protruded like a gourd, and it had a vaguely human face. The outline of the object. When I hit it with my palm, it was like hitting the air. It squirmed and suddenly disappeared into the alley next door, never to be seen again."
When Yan Yongchun said this, his body trembled unnaturally. He had doubts about his beliefs, and he was even more confused about the idea of creating punches and rescuing the weak from danger.
Others may not understand it, but Jiang Wen knows this feeling very well. Even if he is proficient in martial arts and has superb swordsmanship, facing the barbarians and monsters, Xi Zhi can only move forward with courage in his heart and walk alone. Walking on thin ice.
"Miss Yan, martial arts cannot solve all problems, but martial arts is your own path. If you don't follow it, no one can help you follow it."
Jiang Wen looked at Yan Yongchun's haggard face, his eyes full of determination and encouragement.
No wonder he always felt that Yan Wing Chun's demeanor was a bit weird. Yan Yongchun is enlightened and determined enough, so she has already touched the boundaries of martial arts in advance. This can't be said to be a good thing, but it can't be said to be a bad thing either. What she lacks is the spirit to throw her moves regardless.
Ever since he entered the Nanhai Ancient Temple, Jiang Wen noticed that the atmosphere inside was abnormal. There was some extremely depressing and extremely sensitive factor that was affecting people's perceptions, so much so that even Yuan Ziyi, who had just arrived, would have hallucinations under the influence. , saw strange things in Zhangqiugang Village.
The weird atmosphere was so pervasive that even if they relied on the protection of the gods in the ancient temple, the villagers still could not get relief from it. Their hearts at this moment should be mixed with the panic of the death of their loved ones and the onset of nightmares, huddled in the deserted ancient temple late at night. Even Yan Wing Chun is on the verge of reaching his limit and may fall into the same collapse at any time.
The current situation can still be controlled by Yan Yongchun's force, but if this continues, the future situation can be foreseen. This phenomenon often occurred in ancient wars. Although it did not occur frequently, once it occurred it would affect the entire battle.
That is Yingxiao.
The so-called battalion roar refers to a situation where a sergeant becomes nervous and suddenly the entire battalion becomes excited, collapses, and collapses thousands of miles away. In severe cases, people will fight each other like crazy until they die. Since it is difficult to distinguish between friends and foes at night, and there are prone to noise from the wind and cranes, howling often occurs at night, which can also be called night terrors.
Sometimes, the more people, the better.
Judging from Jiang Wen's conversation just now, even the most knowledgeable and experienced elders in the village are still full of the weird superstitions and taboos of Jiangwan Ancient Village, and they maintain a very fearful attitude towards the bizarre things in front of them. manner.
It is difficult to tell whether the ghosts they saw were the fear of violent death or the longing for their loved ones, but there is no doubt that they all believed that as the person who sent them to the dragon boat, they themselves were burdened with Inescapable guilt.
Jiang Wen didn't know how to resolve it. After all, prejudice was a big mountain, and the understanding formed over decades was even more deeply ingrained. It wasn't someone's words of unique insights that could make everyone wake up.
The same pressure, the same confusion, the same bewilderment. Incidents like Yingxiao not only happen in places like Zhangqiugang Village where information is limited and strange stories are common, but they are not uncommon even in real life hundreds of years later. .
Take the not-too-distant year 2012 as an example. There are many people in global religions who shout doomsday slogans and deceive themselves. Even being safe and sound can be attributed to sincere prayers. To a certain extent, is this just a spontaneous, self-owned, and self-reinforcing "camp roar"?
Guiding effective venting of emotions may also be a means of solving problems.
"I know! The method of living in the Yangzhai in the shadows and keeping the household with gods and men is just a trick that someone came up with after the talisman failed. He wanted to use magic to defeat magic and superstition to defeat superstition. Once the villagers became accustomed to dead bodies and the dead turned into bones, After that, all fear naturally disappeared.”
Jiang Wen sighed slowly, "This man is so profound in humane law, but he understands human nature so well, but he shouldn't be unable to see that, Miss Yan, you may not be able to hold on until the matter is over, right..."
The god on the red paper still has his eyes wide open with anger and his beard splayed. He is silently alone in the hall. It seems that there is a circle of divine light turned into anger shrouding the place, suppressing the cold wind and rain in the place with his anger. Ghostly.
Jiang Wen tried to get closer to the other party in his thoughts, searching for clues. However, the long-suppressed environmental rendering in his heart became loose because of this, and it seemed to directly tell him that something not good appeared in the darkness.
Jiang Wen took a step slowly and looked thoughtfully at the night outside the house. The sound of dripping water from the bottom of the black coffin suddenly accelerated at this moment, resounding clearly through the house. From behind the door, there was constant knocking on the door panel. , the violent sound of objects colliding, as if something invisible is surrounding this place, waiting for an opportunity to launch an attack.
"Don't be afraid, it's just causing trouble."
Jiang Wen raised his head calmly and slashed at the divine case in the hall with the ancient bronze sword. He cut off a piece of wood with one strike. The flying wood chips caused a huge noise, which instantly overwhelmed the knocking sound from the kitchen. Everything was silent again.
Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun lowered their heads and remained silent at this time, as if they were unaware of the strange sound. Their eyes were full of confusion and confusion, and even Jiang Wen, who was so close, could not detect it.
But at this moment, the open door was suddenly blown by the strong wind, and the mildew-like white talismans fluttered, like thousands of moths spreading their wings, and on the tall cypress tree outside the door, suddenly Two red eyes lit up, like lanterns, and a shadow deeper than the darkness sat on the branch.
The shadow was like a humanoid figure with broad shoulders but no head. It was like a severed head directly connected to a huge body part like a wheel. It folded a pair of huge wings. The huge red light shined with dangerous light, staring at Jiang heard three people.
Jiang Wen was shocked. He was surprised not only by the other person's inhuman appearance, but also by the fact that the other person closely resembled the terrifying figure in his mind - but this appearance should have been on November 12, 1966, near West Virginia, USA. Was sighted in the local cemetery!
"Just in time to see the sword!"
The white jade snake-slaying sword turned into a rainbow and flew away. Jiang Wen was like a dragon emerging from the water. He suddenly jumped up to the level of a tree branch more than ten feet away. He used mysterious and mysterious sword moves to pounce on the headless figure from all directions, killing any possibility of the opponent's escape.
But the unfavorable sword move seemed to fall on the air with no place to rest. The strange shape on the tree suddenly stood up, split and shattered into countless star points, just like this, the nearby land and walls were heard from the river. , corpses, and the air were instantly separated from each other, gathered into an indescribable dark object, and shot straight into the sky!
Jiang Wen's Qing Gong strength dissipated and fell back to the ground. Suddenly, he realized that the strange things in his field of vision had disappeared. The eyes of Yuan Ziyi and Yan Yongchun slowly recovered their brightness. They suddenly came back to their senses, but they couldn't help but gasp out of fear. gas.
"The ghoul they were talking about turned out to be this thing!"
Jiang Wen looked at the scattered black shadows blending into the night sky, and immediately thought of something recorded in ancient books, called Yi.
Most people may have never heard of the word "皚", and even this word is a rare word. However, records about it abound in ancient books, but usually there are only fragments in Song and Sui histories, or scattered in county annals in various places.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that in Renyinshuo, the sixth month of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, "the red ball rolled out from the Huzaimen Temple of Fire. There were thousands of fireflies at the corners of the front gate tower, and they combined like a wheel." "Shui Shu" records that later Qi Dynasty In March of the fourth year of the Heqing Dynasty, "something fell in the palace, red in color, shaped like several buckets, and followed by stars like small bells."
The "Puning County Chronicle" was more specific and also wrote down its name: "In the summer of Guiwei in the 16th year of Chongzhen, there was a flow of demons flying like fireflies. People made Chongzong, and when they spread, they scattered like countless fireflies. When gathered together, the light is like a bucket.”
This thing usually confuses people's ears and eyes, and occasionally there are incidents of attacking people and injuring people, often after major disasters, and there are actually some more famous incidents abroad, such as George Washington's encounter with a strange green creature during the American Revolutionary War.皚; During World War II, when the British and American air forces conducted air raids on Germany, they encountered a large number of 皚-shaped objects. At first, they thought they were some kind of secret air force weapons or aircraft of the German army...
Wei, this may be the most harmless monster in the world, or it may be the most dangerous thing in the world, because it means that people can create the things they fear most with their own hands.
And it is always watching with cold eyes, and all it wants to do is to gently push us standing on the edge of the abyss when all fears begin to ferment...
(End of chapter)
