Xing Renju and Long Guozhou followed Zhai Hu to the watchtower again, but this time only the old man was waiting for them in the watchtower, and the four people of Zhai Zhi, Zhai Sacrifice, Zhai Li, and Zhai Hu were just standing outside the watchtower and waiting, allowing the two of them to enter alone.

After entering the watchtower and coming to the conference hall, the two of them were still sitting on the two stone benches, looking at the old man with his back to them.

"Coming?" Zhai Lao said in a low voice.

Long Guozhou knelt down and said: "Zhai Lao, what happened last night really has nothing to do with Brother Jiu, I implore Zhai Lao to investigate." ”

Zhai Lao nodded slightly, but still didn't turn around: "I want to believe him, but other people in the village don't believe it, because this incident happened after Xing Renju came." ”

Long Guozhou defended: "However, before this happened, we had been away for several days, and we finally came back alive, and we found the first poisoned person at the mouth of the village, and we couldn't have had time to do it." ”

Xing Renju sat there, feeling very strange, strange why Zhai Lao didn't turn around to look at them, all the time with his back to them, and his voice was slightly different from last night, thinking of this, Xing Renju gently touched Long Guozhou with his hand, raised his hand and pointed at Zhai Lao who was facing back to them, and then took a sour plum from the bowl next to him and threw it directly at the back of Zhai Lao's neck.

Xing Renju's throw frightened Long Guozhou, and Xing Renju's behavior similar to that of a naughty child is a great disrespect to the old man in the village.

Long Guozhou tried to grab the sour plum with his hand, but he didn't catch it, the sour plum smashed straight into the back of Zhai Lao's neck, falling from the back of his neck into his clothes, Long Guozhou was stunned, waiting for Zhai Lao to get angry, who knew that Zhai Lao didn't say anything.

Xing Renju frowned, feeling that something was wrong, and at this moment, Zhai Lao suddenly roared: "What are you doing?" Why do you want to throw sour plums in my back? ”

Long Guozhou immediately glared at Xing Renju, but Xing Renju stepped forward and raised his hand to grab the shoulder of the old man.

"Brother Jiu, what are you doing!" Long Guozhou wanted to step forward to stop it, but it was too late, Xing Renju's hand had already pressed on Zhai Lao's shoulder, and the moment he pressed it, Xing Renju and Long Guozhou both saw that something was pulled out of Zhai Lao's body, and the moment it was withdrawn, it also left several silver lines in the air, and then Zhai Lao's body leaned back directly.

Xing Renju and Long Guozhou were quick and cooperative, Xing Renju raised his hand to grab the silver and white that was withdrawn, and Long Guozhou immediately supported Zhai Lao, carefully checked Zhai Lao's body, and then heard Xing Renju low "Hey", as soon as he turned his head, he saw Xing Renju holding the wrist of his left hand, and then saw that there was a blood mark in his palm.

"Cave puppet!" Xing Renju shouted, stepped on the stool next to him and jumped towards the beam above the council hall, after grabbing the beam, he turned over and didn't look at it, he raised his foot and kicked directly towards the position he judged, and directly kicked the person sitting on the beam, kicking it directly under the council hall, and then Xing Renju jumped down.

After Xing Renju jumped down, he saw Long Guozhou looking at him with a frightened look, and he fixed his eyes to see that the so-called person he kicked off the beam earlier was actually a puppet, and the entire face of the old man in Long Guozhou's arms was peeled off, not to mention, the eyeballs, nose, and lips were all cut off, and the eye sockets were filled with handmade puppet eyes.

Long Guozhou was actually stunned, he didn't know what was going on, he only knew that the old man of the village was dead, which was a big deal for the village, and there were only two people in the entire council hall, he and Xing Renju, this time he jumped into the Yellow River and couldn't wash it.

Xing Renju approached the puppet and looked at it carefully, and then looked at the corpse of the old man in the village, and it took Long Guozhou a long time to react and asked, "Brother Jiu, what is a cave puppet?" ”

"Do you know the puppet?" Xing Renju frowned and said, "In common words, it is a puppeteer, a puppeteer, but those puppet performances you see now, many of them are combined with Westerners, and those who can be called cave puppets are all passed down from the ancient puppet masters of the Han Dynasty, and they are roughly divided into standing cave puppets and sitting cave puppets, and the meaning of standing cave puppets is to raise the line puppet, people are in high places, and use the line to operate the puppets below to make movements, and the sitting cave puppets include cloth puppets and battle head puppets. ”

Long Guozhou subconsciously looked at the puppet who was kicked down by Xing Renju: "Then what is this?" ”

"Although there is a puppet in the cave, but from the size of the puppet, like a big puppet in northern Sichuan, the most amazing thing is that someone is secretly controlling this big puppet, using the big puppet as a medium to control the dead village elder, because of the cumbersome relationship, can only let the dead village old do some extremely simple actions, but this is not simple." Xing Renju looked around, "And there was more than one person in the room before, there were two of them, one controlled the puppet, and the other imitated the old man in ventriloquist to talk to us. ”

Long Guozhou put down the old corpse of the village and looked around: "Why not a person?" ”

Xing Renju explained: "I heard a friend who is a cave puppet say before, on the surface, the control of the puppet is to use arm strength and flexible fingers, but in fact, it is the qi of the dantian, strictly speaking, when manipulating, you need to use every muscle in the body, and ventriloquism is not to speak with the abdomen, but not to open the mouth, to use the voice to make sound, the original control of the puppet is already very hard, normally speaking, there is no longer the strength to use ventriloquism." ”

Long Guozhou understood at this time: "Brother Jiu, do you mean that we were blamed?" ”

Xing Ren looked around: "Yes, and they are two masters, and they are very familiar with the situation in the stockade at the same time, and it cannot be ruled out that there are their accomplices in the stockade." ”

Long Guozhou was stunned: "You mean Zhai Hu is their person?" But why would they do it!? ”

Xing Renju frowned: "It seems that they should have come at me, nothing more than to dig out the secret of Qimen from me, their purpose must be to force me into a desperate situation, using the people in the village to threaten my life, no, it is a double threat, they should know that I don't take my life seriously, and when I die, the clue will be broken, this is done to force me into a desperate situation, and at the same time tell me that if I don't tell it, then they will kill the innocent people in the village one after another." ”

Long Guozhou slowly knelt down and knelt in front of the corpse of the old man: "So, we can only sit and wait?" Brother Jiu, you go quickly, and I'll take care of the rest. ”

"No, you don't." Xing Renju shook his head, "What they want is a clue, then I'll give them clues, find a pen and paper, and I'll draw a road map to Jiacuo Hall now." ”

Long Guozhou immediately asked, "Is it useful?" They want clues, and the clues are in your head, and they can't go to Kocuo Fort anymore to look for them. ”

Xing Renju said lightly: "I can't remember what I hid in Jiacuo Fort with my brain, do you understand what I mean?" ”

Long Guozhou understands that Xing Renju has laid out this game step by step over the years, layer by layer, if you want to solve the game and find the real clues, you must follow the steps he designed, it is very likely that Xing Renju left a map similar to a maze in the Jiacuo Palace, or a step to unlock a certain mechanism, these are not things you can write down with your brain alone. If he is captured alive and tortured, he can't stand telling the truth, after all, Xing Renju, who used to be a policeman, knows very well that some torture methods, no matter how strong a person is, he can't bear it, and he is the same.

Long Guozhou found a pen and paper, and Xing Renju wrote the case, even writing and drawing, and said at the same time: "I also cut off my own back road, because I can't even believe myself." ”

Long Guozhou asked again: "But, once you give it to them, isn't everything over?" ”

Xing Renju smiled faintly: "We are in and out, nine deaths and one life, if it weren't for the tacit cooperation of the two of us, we would have died in it a long time ago, let alone them?" I have to gamble now, or the whole village will die!" ”

After a long time, Xing Renju finally finished writing, and after the ink on the paper was dry, he lifted it up, turned around and handed it to Long Guozhou: "Guozhou, you have this with you, I have to go, if I don't leave, it will only bring harm to the village, as soon as I leave, they will appear to look for you, and then you will give them this thing." ”

"But......" Long Guozhou frowned, but he didn't say any more, Xing Renju walked to the other side of the watchtower, pushed open the wooden window, nodded towards Long Guozhou, climbed down the outside of the watchtower, and soon disappeared into the stone houses below.

Long Guozhou stood at the window, looked down, waited for a long time, Zhai Zhi, Zhai Hu, Zhai Sacrifice and Zhai Li four people walked up, the four people saw the corpse of Zhai Lao and did not panic, Zhai Sacrifice squatted down and began to collect Zhai Lao's body, Zhai Li helped on the side, Zhai Zhi and Zhai Hu stepped forward and walked behind Long Guozhou to wait.

After a long time, Long Guozhou turned around and handed the things that Xing Renju handed him to Zhai Zhi: "I have already gotten it, this is the road map to enter Jiacuo Fort, I have seen it, it is exactly the same as what I walked with Xing Renju a few days ago, there is nothing wrong, so, there is no need to chase him anymore, he will definitely go to the northeast." ”

Zhai Zhi took the picture and looked at it carefully, Zhai Hu said on the side: "Thanks to his trust in you, otherwise we wouldn't have easily obtained this picture." ”

"Easy?" Long Guozhou frowned, "More than a hundred people died, and the old man also died, you still say it's easy!?" If it weren't for your cowardice, would we be blackmailed by those people? In turn, we don't even know who they are! ”

Zhai Zhi put away the picture, and said lightly: "As the old village, you must be ready to sacrifice for the village at any time, you should also know this, the village is willing, only in this way, we will not be exterminated, just imagine, if we don't agree, those people will poison us with the wrath of the witch god anytime and anywhere, and then our entire village will be finished." ”

Long Guozhou shook his head: "The wrath of the witch god was originally the poison found in the village, but who knew that it turned out to be the culprit who destroyed the village." ”

In the following three days, a grand funeral was held for the old man in the village, and the burning torches and bonfires continued to burn for three days until the old man was buried. Standing on the edge of the cliff at the top of the mountain, watching the series of rituals in the stockade, he knew that from the day he was tasked with hiding the clues of Qimen, everyone could not be trusted, but sadly, he had to try to trust those who asked for help.

Four days later, in the early morning, when Long Guozhou left the village with Zhaihu and the other two behind-the-scenes masterminds who had been masked and did not show their true faces, and came to the edge of the cliff, Xing Renju, who was watching from afar, just said lightly: "Guozhou, I'm sorry." ”

After finishing speaking, Xing Renju turned around and left, and embarked on the road to the northeast of Guanwai.

……

Decades later, the nameless Miao Village has become an unmanned village. When the torture technique climbed up from the hillside with He Chenxue's hand, and saw the totem pole in front of the gate of the stockade, he also saw Yan Gang, who was already waiting there.

Yan Gang got up, stepped forward to help them with their backpacks, and asked Samuchuan at the same time: "Samuchuan, have you been to this place?" ”

Samuchuan shook his head: "No, I haven't been to the forbidden place of the new Miao people, how could I come to this place?" But in Xiangxi, there are many Miao villages that have been abandoned for decades or even centuries, most of them are in the deep mountains, and the rules are not quite the same as some Miao villages outside, but you still have to be careful. ”

Tan Tong, who was covered in sweat, unbuttoned his coat: "Hey, Mu Chuan, is everyone in the Miao people Gu down?" ”

"How is that possible?" Samuchuan couldn't help but laugh, "If the Miao people all use Gu poison, and the Gu poison is as magical as the legend, will the Miao uprising fail back then?" Not at all, but will easily win. ”

Torture sat down and looked at the totem pole, the lines on the totem pole were no longer clear, it seemed to have been burned by fire, to be exact, it seemed to have been struck by lightning, the gate of the village was also crooked to one side, surrounded by weeds, and from time to time I would see one or two unnamed birds flying by, far away from the tattered fence watching them.

Torture asked, "Hades, where is Xiaobai?" Did they enter the stockade? ”

Yan Gang nodded: "Xiaobai followed up and kept a distance from them, but they also knew Xiaobai's existence, and it seemed that if they wanted to go to Jiacuo Fort, they might have to pass through this stockade." ”

At this time, Samuchuan raised his head and pointed to the mountain behind the stockade and said, "It's not very likely, right?" That mountain has to be climbed, with our current equipment, it is impossible, it looks nothing, it will take at least two to three days to climb up, and under the premise of no accidents, believe me, the mountains in Xiangxi are not so easy to conquer. ”

Tan Tong looked embarrassed: "Then should we enter the village, or not?" ”

"Enter, there are some things I have to ask Fan Meng face to face." As he spoke, he got up and walked towards the stockade first.

After entering the village, they found that the weeds inside had grown as tall as half a person, and they could see the bones of some cattle and sheep lying on one side, but they didn't see the bones of half a person. Yan Gang pushed open the door of a stone house passing by, as soon as he pushed it open, the door collapsed, he glanced inside the house, and then came out and said: "The things in the house have not been taken away, the seats, benches, pots and pans are all there, and there are some foods on the table that have long been dry. ”

Tan Tong also entered the stone house in front of him to take a look, and when he came out, he said: "It seems that it is true, the things in the cabinet are neatly placed, and you are not in a panic, why do you want to go?" ”

Tan Tong said and looked at Samuchuan, Samuchuan looked around and said: "I have heard the master talk about it before, and he also heard his master talk about it, saying that a few decades ago, there were several Miao villages in the deep mountains of Xiangxi, and overnight, all the people and animals disappeared, and other Miao villages also sent people to investigate, but there were no results, no one was found, and no one's body was found, as if overnight, people evaporated." ”

Samuchuan's words, coupled with his tone, made everyone next to him stop and look at him, Tan Tong stroked his arm up and down, and asked in a low voice: "Hey, you scared us just when you came in?" ”

Samuchuan replied solemnly: "I didn't scare you, it's true. ”

As soon as Samuchuan finished speaking, a huge mouse flew through the grass, Tan Tong jumped up in fright, and almost didn't save Samuchuan, Yan Gang took out the dagger, raised his hand and threw it, nailing the mouse to the door panel on one side, and then walked over, pulled out the dagger, stepped on the mouse with his foot and said: "The rats here are all one size bigger than usual." ”

He Chenxue was a little scared, because when everyone didn't speak, this Miao village was dead silent, only the wind that blew from time to time blew the half-human-high weeds and made a "rustling" sound, and if you didn't pay attention, you thought that someone was whispering in the grass.

"Scared?" A man's voice came from the end of the stone roof on one side, and everyone turned around to see Yuan Zhenba standing there with his hands behind his back and a sneer, "What Samuchuan said is true, there were indeed several Miao villages that disappeared overnight a few decades ago, and this is one of them, but I know how they disappeared." ”

As he spoke, Yuan Zhenba jumped from the end of the stone roof where he was to the other end, and after stopping, he said word for word: "Samuchuan, you are from the Miao tribe, you should have heard of the 'wrath of the witch god', right?" ”

Samuchuan frowned, and everyone else looked at him, then he nodded.

Yuan Zhenba jumped down from the stone roof again: "Yes, everyone here was killed by the 'wrath of the witch god', and all the people, including those who were not harmed by the wrath of the witch god, were also killed indirectly. ”

Tan Tong, who was next to Samuchuan, immediately asked, "Hey, what is 'Godless Wrath', is it a spell or a Gu poison?" ”

Samuchuan just shook his head, Yuan Zhenba smiled, and walked towards the outside of the village: "Let him explain it to you, I'll go and inspect the surroundings to see if it's safe here, we have to spend the night here tonight." ”

After Yuan Zhenba walked away, Xingshu asked, "Samuchuan, what is the 'wrath of the witch god'?" ”

Samuchuan sighed: "It's actually a mushroom, according to the current statement, that kind of mushroom should be regarded as a stimulant, hallucinogen, but it doesn't matter if the dose of this kind of thing is small, the momentum is over, but once the dose is a little larger, people will go crazy and attack everything they can see around them, first use tools, use limbs when the tools are broken, and bite with teeth." ”

Tan Tong gasped: "Isn't this a zombie?" ”

"Don't talk nonsense, where are so many zombies." Xingshu looked at Samuchuan, "Then did your master say that the accident in this village is related to the 'wrath of the witch god'?" ”

Samuchuan shook his head: "I haven't said it, but once the mushroom 'Wrath of the Witch God' appears around the village, all the people in the village will go out to eradicate this kind of thing, and even everything around the mushroom that grows will have to be burned, because no matter who eats the 'Wrath of the Witch God' by mistake, even if they are caught and tied up, the final result will be self-harm and death." ”

Yan Gang said: "In other words, if the poisoned person has no way to attack other living creatures, he will attack himself, in short, he will completely lose his mind and reason?" ”

Samuchuan said: "Yes, in fact, in the early days of liberation, there was a similar incident, but I am still not sure whether it was the 'wrath of the witch god'. ”