When we arrived at the west side of Guishan, it was almost twelve o'clock. Although it is up a mountain, the mountain is not high. There is a lake on the edge. We don't know its name yet. Standing at the foot of the mountain, you can see the small pavilion of Boyatai. If compared with the height of the lake, it is only a few dozen meters, which is not too high.
The mountain behind it is much higher. Because the slope of the slope is relatively large, there is no way to climb up directly. The mountain roads are also winding. The drop is only a few tens of meters, but this road has enough height. It's several miles long. Sure enough, when we were halfway there, we saw several small roads, several of which were in the same direction as the mountainside where the pavilion is located. Songzi pointed to one of the roads and told us that when he came to investigate a few days ago, , it was walking along this road that I saw the dense woods.
So the three of us started walking along that road, and the grass on the edge became deeper and deeper, which meant that the deeper we went, the fewer people would come. Now that it's summer, we also saw many reptiles or toads on the road. Pine nuts are relatively timid, but at the slightest stirring, they can scream, and then they will echo on the mountain for a long time. If others heard us, they might think we were killing someone on the mountain.
Soon we reached the edge of the forest. I looked over and saw that the sparse trees at the entrance really didn't look like a "forest". Qin Bukong walked to the edge but asked us to wait a moment, because there are snakes in the mountains in summer, and we are here to find "mandrills". We can avoid the snakes in the mountains if we can. I snorted and said, "How can you avoid it? There are grasses everywhere here, and snakes are hiding in them. You can't guard against them." No wonder you brought Ganmu with you. You wanted Ganmi to drive away the snakes for you, right?
Qin Bukong sneered and said, Brat, you look down on people too much. I, Qin Bukong, was the first to be a snake charmer. How can I still be unable to deal with snakes? Is it necessary for Gan Mu to drive away snakes? It is here to help us. After all, it is more effective in the mountains and forests.
After speaking, Qin Bukong knelt down and found a long weed on the roadside. He picked three of the weeds into his hand but did not pull them out. Then he whispered a mantra, and with his right hand he wrote something back and forth on the three grasses in his left hand. Then he put the three grasses together, then gently twisted them around to tie a knot. But this knot is a slip knot, it only goes around once and can be easily untied.
Qin Bukong said, in this way, all the snakes in the mountain will not come out of the cave, and even if they are not in the cave, they will still surround us. I exclaimed: Is it so magical? Qin Bukong said this is nothing, it's just a small trick, it's just that everything has animism. We come here to find things. After all, we disturb their purity, so we can't hurt them unless we have to. After we finish our work and come out, we have to Untie the knots of this straw and set them free.
Although I don't know what Qin Bukong's trick is called, I don't have any doubts at all. With his so-called "little tricks", we can save us more trouble.
Qin Bukong released Ganmu from the bamboo basket. Ganmu was quite docile and stayed by Qin Bukong's side. The three of us and one snake got into the woods like this. Qin Bukong and Gan Mu walked in the front, Songzi was in the middle, and I was in the back. Because Songzi's skills are limited, he is the one who needs others to protect him most when he is in danger. people.
The small forest that originally looked sparse outside began to become dense as we went deeper and deeper. The density of trees was quite high. There would be a tree about one meter apart horizontally and vertically, and There are many very thick trees among them. It can be seen that the vegetation here has not been destroyed. It is a rare primitive jungle in the city. The trees become denser as we get closer to the center of the forest, so dense that even the sunlight at noon can only filter in through the branches and leaves. Even so, we still feel the coldness and darkness.
No one spoke, maybe they were all on guard, so as we walked, we could only hear the rustling sound of three people's feet stepping on fallen leaves. Other than that, it was surprisingly quiet. , even the chirping of birds that I always thought should be in the woods is completely absent now. I started to get a little scared, so I couldn't help but ask Qin Bukong, "We can't just walk around aimlessly like this. Where are you taking us?"
Qin Bukong coughed and said, don't worry, we just follow Gan Mu. After saying this, he "tsk tsk tsk" a few more times at Gan Mu, so I stopped talking, thinking that Qin Bukong had his reasons. And I remember that not long before that, I had read a newspaper at Qin Bukong's house, which specifically introduced cold-blooded reptiles such as snakes or lizards, which do not rely on smell or sight, but rely on observing heat. In other words, in Ganmu's eyes, the three of us living people may be just three balls of hot meat emitting red and yellow light. In this case, Ganmu must also be able to detect the areas with heavier Yin energy, but it just looks blue-black in its eyes. Since we have concluded that the stone box and the "mandrill" are here, then such a big ghost must be generated by the accumulation of strong Yin Qi, so as long as Ganmu can find the location with the heaviest Yin Qi in this forest, We probably found the place where the stone box was buried.
Continuing walking, we were almost a hundred meters away from the entrance into the woods. When I looked back, I was blocked by dense trees and could not see the entrance at all. At this moment, Qin Bukong suddenly turned and led us towards the slightly higher half-slope. I know this is probably because Ganmu has found a clue and is leading us there. The road up the mountain was much more rugged, because it wasn't really a "road" at all, so we had to cross many protruding rocks. The slope is quite steep. If the soil is slippery instead of dry, it is indeed very possible to slip and fall. There are rocks protruding from the mountain everywhere, and it is easy to be seriously injured.
We walked cautiously. The higher we went up, the denser the forest seemed, and even the light became very weak. At this moment, Ganmu suddenly stopped, and then his whole head and part of his body quickly stood up. I have seen that posture before. This was a posture where he felt threatened and started to protect himself. Qin Bukong took out the vajra prong from his bag, and then said to us, everyone, be careful, something seems to be coming.
My heartbeat quickened, and I couldn't help but move a little closer to Qin Bukong. Songzi was sandwiched between us and began to figure out the compass to calculate the direction. I took out the Miao Wu scimitar from the bag and held it with my right hand. I didn't hold anything in my left hand, but prepared the Ziwei Tao. After all, this mountainous terrain is complicated. If I slip, I won’t be able to save myself if I grab something with both hands. We held our breath and looked around, but we couldn't see anything except trees or trees, and we couldn't hear any unusual sounds in our ears.
I stood like this in a deadlock for ten minutes, but nothing was abnormal. I began to have some doubts, so I asked Qin Bukong if Gan Mu had made a mistake. Otherwise, why has there been no movement for so long? Qin Bukong said, Ganmu has been following me for so many years and he never makes mistakes. Animals are different from people and they cannot cheat. So I stopped talking and continued to be in this stalemate. At this time, Songzi whispered to us, Situ, Senior Qin, something seems to be wrong.
I was startled and then asked, what's wrong? Songzi said, it seems that the compass is no longer working here. I originally thought that as long as the north-south and meridian lines were aligned, the location of Li Gua could be used as the only criterion to find it. But just now I was standing without moving, and the direction of the compass suddenly changed by itself. changed.
Although I don’t use a compass very much, I understand the basic principles, so I couldn’t help but lean over to look at the surface of his compass. The pointer was only shaking slightly. I thought it was because Songzi was afraid, so his hands were shaking a little. Because of this, even a layman like me would feel something abnormal when seeing the movement of the compass needle. Because the compass needle actually swayed upside down from left to right, and it was dragging and swaying very mechanically. It was definitely not because of an unstable hand, but more like it was attracted by a very strong magnetic field, and that magnetic field was moving Moving around is not very fast, but we living people can't feel it at all.
When I was wondering, I saw a white shadow rushing farther away from us. The white shadow was left by Ganmu. The color of its body looked very bright in such a relatively dark environment. Extraordinarily prominent. It seemed to have discovered something. It ignored the three of us and crawled forward quickly. After Qin Bukong said "tsk tsk tsk" several times, Ganmu still refused to obey, so Qin Bukong said to us, don't get separated, let's follow.
So the three of us started chasing each other. There was no way we could run fast in the woods, but Ganmu could. So we were quickly thrown away by Ganmu for a long distance. After running like this for a few minutes, we stepped on a relatively flat area and saw Ganmu. He was under a big tree. He was trying to climb up the tree in a circle. He stood very high and his head was too high. Keep staring in the direction of the treetops.
Seeing Gan Mu like this, we couldn't help but look up. It was okay not to look at it. After looking at it, everyone was shocked.
