He was lonely, the kind of loneliness where one bird has a thousand miles of sky and can't see any other bird. - "Chronicle of the First Emperor of Chu"

Lao Peng's knife turned out to be reversed, and the tip of the knife was bent in the direction of the blade, not so much a knife as a long iron hook with a blade.

He shook his hand and pointed the tip of his knife at the abdomen of the snake corpse, and slowly slashed down.

The guys in the vicinity who watched him cut open the snake's belly all screamed. Even if the guys haven't walked through the cloud wilderness, they are also veteran businessmen, and they never lack courage.

But this exclamation was born from an irrepressible fear. A few guys took a few steps back, their faces were pale, and they vomited "vomit".

The python's huge belly was not a small snake, but a human corpse, which had been half digested, and could only be seen in a general human form, the skin of the whole body had been dissolved, and the white bones of the forest were embedded in the blurred flesh and blood.

No wonder the snake couldn't move its entire body, and its lower abdomen was caught in the huge food.

Even the lame man and Qianjun, who were watching from the sidelines, changed their faces slightly.

Lao Peng fiddled with the knife in the belly of the snake for a while, and slowly raised the knife, and a silver ornament hung on the tip of the knife.

It was a silver hundred-legged scorpion, with a scorpion on the upper body and a centipede on the bottom, a kind of totem for the witches.

"It's a witch." The cripple squinted.

"Hunting eagles all day long, but being pecked by eagles," Wang Lie also looked frightened, "Those witches just like to play with snakes, and I don't know which unlucky guy ate the snake." ”

Lao Peng pondered for a moment: "How did I hear that only the people of Snake King Mountain like to play with snakes?" ”

Wang Lie was slightly stunned: "Yes, among the four mountains of Wumin, the people of Snake King Mountain like to make snakes." ”

"This is south of Daze Mountain, is there such a big snake?"

Wang Lie was stunned and thought for a while before shaking his head: "I haven't heard of it, the big snake is only in the place of the Snake King Mountain." ”

"Then how can a big snake come to the place south of Daze Mountain to eat people?"

Wang Lie blinked, this time he was really stupid.

"The long worm is crossing," said Old Lu astringently, "it is a sign of great evil......

A faint chill surged in everyone's hearts, although they felt that something was wrong, but the feeling of wandering could not be expressed.

"Take a break to eat, you're on the road when you're full!" After being quiet for a while, Lao Peng, who was still standing with a knife on the side, spoke, "Don't scare yourself, go to Daze Village today, stay for a few days and then leave, there is mildew, and wait until the mildew is over!" ”

The men hurriedly put the mules and horses together, and took the air-dried pheasant meat from the luggage to roast, originally the python was a good meal, but thinking about the half-turned human form in the snake's belly, it was good not to vomit.

Dogan and a few brave men moved the snake corpse and the witchman's corpse into the distance, and covered it with a few large plantain leaves.

Lao Peng didn't seem to have a little appetite, so he silently roasted his hook knife on a fire, and then took a piece of cotton cloth and wiped it slowly.

Twenty of his men were surrounded with gloomy faces, as if they would not let outsiders set foot, and others could vaguely hear them whispering something, but they could not really hear it.

The good signs of the good weather were gone, and there seemed to be some cold wind in the woods.

"Lao Wang, are you really okay? The long worm is a terrible omen, didn't our leader encounter this before, but as soon as he entered the Snake King Mountain, he never came back......"

Lao Lu was the least courageous in this gang, relying on the fact that he and Wang Lie walked in the cloud wilderness in his early years, and he had a bit of face, so he said it hesitantly.

"What are you talking about!" Wang Lie's face was not good, and he took a bite of the mountain chicken hard, as if he was ruthless, "The time when the leader suffered a disaster before, was it because he fucking saw the long worm Hengdao?" If you want to get rich, don't be afraid of death, be so daring, don't let people see jokes. ”

"What the hell is going to happen?" Qianjun sat next to him and asked in a daze.

Wang Lie shook his head: "The ghost knows, this place in Yunzhou is evil!" ”

After being silent for a while, he threw the remaining half of the pheasant into the fire and stood up: "Take all the guys with you!" Get ready to hit the road! Be sure to rush to Osawa Village before dark today! ”

"One last time!" Wang Lie stared at the sky on the other side of Daze Mountain, "God forbid, if you survive, you will be fine, and in the future, you will die safely, and Lao Tzu will stop doing this nine-death and life-saving business!" ”

He said this sentence so low that only the Qianjun closest to him could hear it clearly.

After Wang Lie finished speaking, he turned his eyes and glanced at him faintly, and a cold fire flashed in his cloudy eyes.

With Wang Lie's order, Lao Peng's subordinates also got up one after another.

Although Lao Peng's subordinates are arrogant, they are orderly and orderly, and they are by no means the way of ordinary scattered merchants.

Before Lao Peng set out, he ordered that Wang Lie would arrange the action, and these subordinates complied.

At this time, the entire caravan moved, and the momentum was quite huge for a while.

The sound of people and horses, and the commotion, seemed to suppress the shadow brought by the python just now.

Qianjun stood there silently, gently pressed the leather bag on his waist, and looked up to see the still clear sky, as if it had been washed with water.

"You see, such a dangerous place, but also such a beautiful sky......" he whispered, as if muttering to himself.

Then he turned to his black horse, turned on his horse, and removed the black sheath spear from his saddle and pinned it to his belt.

"Black blood?" Qianjun was a little surprised.

Suddenly, he noticed that his black horse was snorting with its ears pricked up.

He had been riding this black horse for some days, it was the horse entrusted to him by the teacher, and he knew the horse's habits, which was a sign that it was on its alert.

He looked in the direction of the black horse's gaze, and it was the corpse of the witch in the woods covered by banana leaves.

The banana leaves were still silently covered with the two corpses of the snake and the human, but he suddenly felt that it was different from what he had just seen.

"Let's go," Goudan came up and called him, "Wang Tou'er said, you saved his life, and asked me to take care of you on the way and make sure you are okay." ”

"Oh," Qianjun smiled shyly, pointing to the pile of things under the banana leaves, "Did anyone touch that thing just now?" ”

"Who isn't afraid of disgusting that thing?" Goudan frowned, "Even if there is, it is a greedy person who steals the snake gall." Let's go, the clouds are catching up with us. ”

Qianjun looked back at the south, and the impenetrable dark clouds piled up high clouds in the sky, as if they would collapse at any moment.

The wind was blowing to the north, and the dark clouds were rolling back to their side.

The dog was right, that sunny day was only temporary, and they hadn't escaped the rain clouds yet.

The cowbone whistle sounded again, and the caravan headed in the direction of the black water shop.

As we approached the village of Osawa, the dark clouds finally caught up with the caravan.

Before it was dark, and the faces of people could no longer be seen from a few feet away, the men lit torches.

There was nothing to do along the way, and gradually everyone was a little relaxed, in fact, in the final analysis, it was just a big python eating a witch, although I had never heard of a big snake operating south of Daze Mountain, but according to Qi Lie's words, Yunhuang is a ghost place, and things that are impossible in other places will happen here.

"Turn this bay to Daze Village, give me all your strength!"

Wang Lie shouted in front.

By this time the caravan had come out of the woods, and there was a mud under their feet. It is said that it is a bay, but there is no river, only a thin layer of water mixed with sludge flows slowly, this is the so-called Daze, a slurry land, not a single grass grows.

"Walk through the rocks," Wang Lie yelled at the top of his voice, "don't fall into it!" "He is an old man who has walked through the clouds, and he knows that this surprisingly quiet mud also hides a killing motive that cannot be taken lightly.

Daze is far deeper than it seems, and the more you go to the center, the more you will feel that the bottom is all mud when you step on it, and you can't step on it at all. There are also some particularly deep holes, called "mud holes", which are completely covered by sludge.

If you accidentally step into it, it will be a catastrophe, and people struggle in the mud but have no strength, and slowly fall into the mud.

He still heard older people say that there was a rare drought in Yunzhou one year, and Daze was half dry, and some places bottomed out. Only then did I see that there were holes in the east and west of it, like a honeycomb, and often a skeleton was trapped in a mud hole, like a burial pit that had been dug a long time ago, and it was perennial for many years, and I don't know how many people were devoured.

The guys didn't dare to be scornful, they all wore high-quality cowhide riding boots, and the first one to explore the reality with each step, and then followed the footprints of the people in front of them, and they didn't dare to deviate half a step.

"You recognize this way, right?" Lao Peng also dismounted and walked and approached Wang Lie's side.

"No mistake, I haven't been here for a few years, and I still have this bit of eyesight," Qi Lie pointed to the footprints around him that were as deep as a foot, all of which were left by the guys after they had solidified the stones under the silt, "The stones below are not there, they were all moved by the witches and thrown in, so that it is convenient to walk in the rainy season."

Don't look at the small ones exposed on it, you can see it when the mud dries out in the dry season, and each piece is two people high.

Seeing these stones is like seeing Osawa Village, fast. ”

Lao Peng nodded silently.

"Wait!" Wang Lie suddenly roared.

The dog who walked in the front was stunned and stopped.

Wang Lie dragged the mud leg forward a few steps, his face was a little strange: "Fuck, don't go, there's something strange." ”

Lao Peng's eyes were cold, and he also followed: "What's wrong?" ”

"It's bubbling in front of you, it doesn't look like there's a stone...... Wang Lie's fingers trembled and pointed to the mud in front of him, his face glowing an ugly grayish white.

A few caravans who walked in front of them all gathered around, and as soon as Qi Lie reminded them, everyone noticed that the mud further ahead was indeed a little weird, not only was the mud thinner and flowing faster, but it was also bubbling and bubbling, like a pot of boiling viscous noodle soup.

"Do you have long bamboo poles?" Qianjun narrowed his eyes and asked back.

"Yes!" One of Lao Peng's men copied a two-zhang long bamboo pole and handed it over.

Qianjun reached out and flipped his wrist to catch it, and stabbed it into the mud.

Everyone looked at the long rod in his hand in amazement, and the long rod pierced through the mud and pierced deeper and deeper, and finally only a few small bamboo knots remained outside.

Qianjun immediately chose several different places to stab several rods, and each time he stabbed straight to the end.

"You say, those stones were laid by the witches?" Lao Peng turned to Wang Lie and asked in a low voice.

"That's right," Wang Lie wiped his face with his sleeve, his face was already splashed with muddy water, but now he wiped it in cold sweat, "The Tao is this way, yes, but those stones ...... Why are they all gone? ”

The whole caravan stopped in the middle of the mire, and some people were in trepidation.

These people have always relied on Wang Lie's ability to find the way, and Qi Lie has never made a mistake, but at this time he was also at a loss, and everyone found that they had already fallen into the middle of Daze, looking around, they were surrounded by mud, and they couldn't see the slightest difference in the dark.

Qianjun raised his eyes and looked at the sky: "I can't see the stars, I don't know the direction, but I'm afraid it will rain tonight, if the water in the mire is big, maybe we will die in it." ”

"Go forward first," Lao Peng calmed his face and remained silent, "Walk through Daze and then find Daze Village." ”

"No," Wang Lie shook his head, "Those stones just now are just stepping on the feet for convenience, and the last section of the remaining is the thinnest and deepest place in Daze mud, there are those stones and people trapped in it, walking like this is definitely a dead end." ”

There was a dead silence in the air around them.

After being quiet for a long time, Lao Peng nodded: "Then let's go back first, find a dry place to camp, and find a way tomorrow." ”

"That's it......" Wang Lie was just about to turn around, and his body suddenly shook, "Listen, there is a voice!" Everyone held their breath in unison.

In the curling night breeze, there was really a thin voice, as if there was a woman singing softly from a far, far away. Overhead, the yin wind is swirling, but the song in the wind is ethereal and intoxicating, as if with a wisp of sweet fragrance. Such a sweet song sounded in this cloudy night, but it made people feel unbearable palpitations, and there was a piercing chill in the chest.

How can anyone sing in such a place? The guys looked left and right with frightened faces.

The song seemed to come from the left, and then from the right, back and forth, elusive, like an ethereal ghost wrapped in the wind.

"Demon ...... The goblin ......" the old iron shuddered. The legend of the mountain demon water spirit is particularly prosperous in the two continents of cloud and thunder, and the legend is that the stars are accumulated in the deep mountains and ancient pools of the Western Continent, and they will not be harassed by the essence of humans and beasts for many years, and over time they will give birth to an ethereal and invisible spirit.

On starless and moonless nights, they summon travelers with songs, and when they are happy, they transform their hideous faces and devour their bones, blood and brains for a living.

To this day, there is still a kind of woman in Wanzhou Qinglou who does not show her face, which is brought by some businessmen with mysterious whereabouts from afar and sold into the prostitution hall at a high price.

These Qinglou women have been stunning since they were children, and they have charming bones, and they are obedient to the guests, but they are very human.

It's just that she doesn't understand the sophistication of human feelings, and she is far inferior to ordinary Qinglou prostitutes in terms of piano, chess, calligraphy, painting and even coping, so she has the title of "depicting red puppets".

The merchants who betrayed them all said that they were young girls from poor families bought from other states, but there were legends in the secret that these were the spirits conceived by evil magicians through human bodies, empty of human bodies, but without human souls.

Lao Peng's face was gloomy, and he suddenly inserted the torch in his hand into the mud, and pulled the knife from his waist with a "ho", and the reverse hook knife flashed miserably in the light of the fire.

As he moved, twenty of his men picked up the fellows, and the lame fastened three feathered arrows to the bowstring at a time, and sank in the mire like a leopard.

The guy who handed the bamboo pole to Qianjun just now turned out to be a good spearman, holding a spear with a thin rod in his hand.

The barbed spear half-sank into the mud. There are several major schools of spearmanship in the Eastern Continent, and the "Seven Changes of Snake Bone" is one of the prestigious ones, Rong Liang's gesture is a snake, and the head of the gun is like a snake head that is about to burst out at any time.

Lao Peng is not a timid person on the old road, but the song is indeed true.

In this unfortunate weather, he encountered strange things, he was not afraid of mountain demons, but he was afraid of lurking enemies, and at this time he was in the quagmire, as long as the arrows were raining around, none of them could survive.

So he first put out the fire, and then he was on full alert.

The whole gang was as tight as the bowstring in the cripple's hand, and it only needed a slight trigger.

"Hey, hey, go to the mountains and the sea with bare feet, step on a hole in the mountains, wash your mud feet when you encounter water, and don't look back when you hit the zenith! Hey, hey! ”

The song suddenly sounded in the darkness and shattered the liver and gallbladder of a group of brothers, and the song was hoarse and rusty, as if scraping the bottom of a rusty pot with a blade, which made the scalp tingle for a while. It was Qi Lie's voice, Wang Lie was actually enchanted and began to sing loudly! The cripple raised his arm almost involuntarily, and the feather arrow pointed directly at the back of Wang Lie's head.

He used a bow and arrow as a weapon, and his skill of "listening to the wind" was extremely profound, and he could distinguish the direction with the help of subtle wind sounds, not to mention that Wang Lie's strange singing voice was deafening at this time.

His green bow was already full, and as soon as his fingers loosened at this time, he would kill Wang Lie.

But both hands stretched out from the darkness at the same time, and clutched the shaft of the arrow.

The lame man's scalp was numb, and he was covered in cold sweat, so he wanted to abandon the bow and pull out the short knife on his waist.

"It's me!" The two said at the same time in the dark.

A hoarse voice was none other than Lao Peng.

The other voice was indifferent, but it was a thousand troops who spoke.

The cripple regained his composure slightly, and when he looked down, he saw that Lao Peng's backblade and the spear in Qianjun's hand were forming a cross.

The dim spear in Qianjun's hand reflected a burst of misty blue light at this time, as if the moonlight was covered by thin clouds, but under that thin layer of cyan there was a faint strange and inexplicable red light that was flashing and shining, and if no one looked closely, it would not be possible to find it for a while.

Qianjun and Lao Peng glanced at each other silently, and the eyes of the two of them lit up slightly in the air.

Lao Peng smiled slightly, the scar on his face that crossed the bridge of his nose was slightly twisted, and he whispered to the surroundings: "Don't make a sound, listen to Lao Wang's movements!" ”

The two parted suddenly, and Qianjun strode closer to Wang Lie, trying to appease Wang Lie, but Lao Peng flashed to the back of the lame man and patted him on the shoulder: "Steady!" Before you get to the most dangerous place, don't toss yourself and lie down first. ”