After tossing and turning all night, the clansmen only found a rag, and after identifying this piece of cloth from the Taoist robe worn by Zuo Biao, the clansman said that he found it on the road to Zhongzhai. Vertices

Jin Shan said that Zhongzhai is more than ten miles away from here, the mountain road is extremely complicated, and there are organs they have laid down, if people who are not familiar with the situation, it is impossible to find Zhongzhai.

In this way, the master and apprentice of the Ghost Face Dao are too suspicious, no one knows who the two of them are, but it is certain that the Ghost Face Dao understands the situation here, maybe he is still very familiar, it seems that he must be related to the tragedy thirty years ago, maybe the old silkworm king recognized him when he woke up, and he was afraid that the old silkworm king would tell some secrets, so he killed him, so thinking about it, a person suddenly flashed in my mind, that is, the young man who ran out of the back mountain to find Ah Duo girl for treatment, could it be ......

But if Ghost Face Dao is really a murderer, why did he have to apply medicine to treat the old silkworm king in the first place? Wouldn't it be easier to kill the mouth directly, in short, the more I think about it, the more confused I become.

"Without further ado, take us to Zhongzhai to chase the ghost face Dao master and apprentice!" Kongtongzi interrupted my thoughts and said to Jinshan.

Jin Shan nodded, "You still have to wait, the village has to immediately elect the new silkworm king, if the new silkworm king is not elected within twelve hours, the totem ancestral silkworm will have a worry about his life, and then my clan will also perish, and when the new silkworm king is elected, I will immediately escort the position to Zhongzhai." ”

It turns out that this is what Jin Shan said about the more important thing, after some preparation, at noon, the center of the stockade with branches and grass to set up a wooden platform three or four zhang square, the wooden platform is not high, it should be said that it is very low, normal people can step up as soon as they raise their legs, even so, there is still a slow slope of four or five zhang on the north side of the platform leading to the ground.

In front of the stage, more than twenty adult men dressed in new clothes lined up in two rows, neat and tidy, and Jin Shan was among them, obviously they were all the adult men in the village, and they were also candidates for the next silkworm king.

Women, old people and children gathered around, no one spoke, and their expressions were solemn.

When the hour came, the shrine maidens dressed up on the wooden platform, their heads and shoulders covered with snowflake silver decorations, dazzling, painted with red, white and black stripes on the left side of their face, and holding a thick wooden staff more than a man tall in their arms, and their totemic silkworms were carved on the head of the wooden staff.

The witch first inserted the wooden staff in the center of the wooden platform, and then shouted a few times, although the content was not understood, but everyone immediately lowered their heads and knelt on the ground, and then the witch began to do the method, and her mouth kept chattering, and sprinkled the prepared blood downward, about a cup of tea, countless white silkworms carried the huge ancestral silkworm out of the hole in the tree not far away.

The four of us are definitely not qualified to participate in their ceremony, but looking down from the window from the wooden building, looking high and far away, we can see more clearly, that is, a big tree hole in the ground, covered by grass and trees, it is very difficult to be found, no wonder the ancestral silkworm suddenly appeared in front of us at that time, this thing is so huge I am afraid that it is already thousands of years old.

Seeing that the ancestral silkworm moved very slowly, it took half an hour to climb up the slope to the wooden platform, and the witch took her voice and flashed aside, and the whole village was silent at this time.

Kongtongzi made a backward gesture to everyone, and we all moved back half a step silently, because Jin Shan told us when he was leaving, we must not let the ancestral silkworm find out

Otherwise, we are going to be in for a catastrophe.

Looking out from the crack in the window, something shocking happened, the ancestral silkworm raised its head and swayed a few times, and made a few strange screams of "chirp", I can't tell whether it is joy or anger, but such a big silkworm screams is indeed very human.

Suddenly, several thick silks spewed out from the mouth of the ancestral silkworm, firmly binding Jin Shan, and then eating Jin Shan into the mouth, at this time half of Jin Shan's body has been swallowed by the ancestral silkworm, only two legs are still kicking outside, but in an instant, the whole person has entered the worm belly, the worm belly is moving, Jin Shan should still be alive, he is struggling, but no one in the audience wants to rescue Jin Shan, but looks at it happily.

All this happened so fast that my heart was numb, and I drew my sword and prepared to rush down to save people, but Xia Ti grabbed me, and she pointed to her eyes and then to the bottom, meaning to take a look and wait to see what happened.

Thinking of Jin Shan's explanation, I endured it, looked at it carefully, and after a while, "Poof! With a sound, Jin Shan's whole person was spit out again, he curled up on the ground, swayed up, wiped the mucus all over his face, and saw that people were a little disgusted, he was scarred all over his body, it is estimated that he was injured by several rows of sharp tongs in the mouthparts of the ancestral silkworm, the witch hurriedly held him steady, fed him something, and then I heard that it was Baiqi, which could help him stop bleeding and prevent skin and flesh from festering.

Everyone was jubilant, the ancestral silkworm slowly returned to the tree hole, it was obvious that the new silkworm king it chose was Jinshan, and the clansmen gathered around and saluted Jinshan.

At this moment, a lot of confusion flashed through my mind, thinking of the ghost face Dao master and apprentice, I always felt as if I had overlooked some details.

Surrounded by everyone, Jin Shan walked up to the wooden platform and reluctantly said a few words, which were probably some words of encouragement.

Later, he arranged for someone to take us to Zhongzhai, Jinshan told us that after burying the old silkworm king and worshipping the ancestral hall, he personally took people up the mountain to meet us.

Before leaving, also gave us a wooden whistle, this wooden whistle shape is very special, bronze bell-shaped, slightly smaller than the fist, there is a gap in the middle, the bottom of a mouth poked out, Jinshan taught us to use its method, as long as it is in this back mountain, when encountering danger to blow the wooden whistle, it will attract a very special "bug", this kind of worm will lead people to a safe place, to avoid disasters. Moreover, the whistle can be heard for several miles, and the clansmen will follow the sound to come to the rescue.

It's just that Jinshan is a little vague when he says the word "bug", but I don't want to ask more, maybe because I have an indescribable uncertainty about Jinshan.

After politely thanking him, we followed the two people up the mountain, and the journey was very twisting and turning, but it was very smooth. Just as the sun was about to set, we came to a stone monument, and when we looked ahead, this place was really strange, full of potholes, and tattered stone tablets were scattered all over the place.

I guessed, "This looks like a mass grave." ”

Kongtongzi pursed his lips, "No, there should be no corpses here." ”

The two clansmen who led the way stopped, and one of them pointed ahead, and after a few words, he turned around and walked back, as if he didn't want to stay here for a moment.

Qingyun said in a trance: "This, where is this?" I'm a little scared, or let's go back. ”

Xia Ti said: "Brother Qingyun, don't be afraid, the front should be Zhongzhai, and the three villages in the back mountain do not interact with each other, I think those two clansmen can only send us here." ”

Kongtongzi glanced at Qingyun and scolded: "Hmph, it's not as good as a female doll, how can it be a big thing in the future." ”

We continued to walk forward, sure enough, less than a cup of tea, a row of houses of the same style appeared in front of us in a regular manner, this is the middle village, at this time the sky is getting dark, the whole village is shrouded in a layer of mist, the houses behind are blurry, not clear at all.

Xia Ti reminded everyone to try to get together as much as possible and not be alone, and pay attention to the surrounding situation. I also beat the drum in my heart, this is the frog clan, don't jump out of a big frog again.

But after entering the village, not only did not see the frog, but even the wooden building did not have the carving of the frog totem. We walked a big circle in the village, the strangest thing is that the wooden buildings here are built exactly the same, the points are not bad, but it is not straight in a row, it seems to be arranged in some order, but compared with the lower village, the middle village is much better, the house in the lower village is built on a dragon mulberry tree, where it is like a village, living like a bird's nest, but the houses here are very neat, the streets are spacious, the village is also large, I roughly calculated, there must be at least one or two hundred households in the village, but this day has just been blackened, how can no one see it.

This makes people's hearts more and more bottomless, won't it be the trouble caused by the head lowering Gu again? We casually found a family, knocked on the door for a long time, no one answered inside, just as we were leaving, the door creaked open a small crack, inside was a fifty-year-old Miao old man, he had no expression on his face, his eyes were a little cloudy, his eyes were dull, I secretly said that luck is too bad, this old man does not look very bright, I don't know if I can ask something.

"Old man, we are passing by here, may I ask if this is Zhongzhai? We are pedestrians passing by, and it is getting late, so dare to ask if it is convenient for us to spend the night? Kongtongzi asked.

The old man was expressionless, and he didn't know whether he understood or not, but he just gestured with his hands stiffly, and when he saw that we didn't understand what he meant, he went out and beckoned, meaning to let us follow him.

I whispered, "This old man seems to be a mute, or let's find another household and inquire again, so don't fight with this old man." ”

Xia Ti said: "I don't think it's necessary, in addition to the relatively high status of the people here, most of them only speak the local language, even if they change another household to inquire, people may not be able to understand what we are talking about, this old man has already come out to show us the way, just follow him first." ”

As we spoke, the old man led us to the door of another house, and he reached out and slammed it a few times, and before it could be opened, he went back.

Soon, there were a few noises inside, and when the door opened, there was an old lady with a wrinkled face, she looked almost old, thin, and a little rickety, but her eyes were very bright, and somehow she always felt that she looked a little familiar, but she certainly hadn't seen it.

"Who are you looking for?" The old lady spoke, her voice a little muddy.