Uncle Bai's face changed suddenly when he heard this, and he hurriedly shook his head: "No!" I won't get involved in this matter, I can't control your affairs, and I don't want to get involved in causing trouble for yourself, you can do it yourself, and I will live my own stable life. With that, he turned around and was about to leave.

The old bustard looked at his back, and suddenly said coldly: "Is your life stable?" ”

Uncle Bai stopped after hearing this, and his footsteps were suspended in mid-air.

The old bustard then said: "During this time, the 'river demon' is afraid that it will come out of the hole again in pieces. You village cutters have to be on guard everywhere, and if you are not careful, you will take your life again. Are you safe? ”

The wind on the river bank was loud and whirring, and the voice of the old bustard was mixed in this wind, constantly reverberating in Uncle Bai's ears, and vaguely, it seemed that Uncle Bai's breathing suddenly became rapid.

"It's been hundreds of years, Uncle Bai, you said it yourself, for hundreds of years, the people of the village have been hiding from the 'river demon', but even like this, there are still people who die, and we may be able to find a way to deal with the 'river demon' in this operation, don't you want to know? Although this can't bring your dead wife back to life, it can also save the people of the village from such suffering! ”

Uncle Bai clenched his fists, and his old bones were grinded to the point of rattle, and he seemed to have fallen into that kind of pain again, into a kind of bitter regret for the old things and the pain of not knowing what to do about the current situation.

After some ideological self-struggle, Uncle Bai finally broke the tangle, he let go of his fist, turned around, returned to the shed again, untied the rope of the wooden boat inside, and said to us: "Take the handle, push the boat out, and prepare to go down the river." ”

It seems that Uncle Bai agreed to take us to the stone platform. I don't know why Uncle Rough Bai chose to compromise in the end, maybe he wanted to give himself an explanation for his wife's death, or maybe he didn't want to lay off the villagers from generation to generation to fall into the 'river demon's evasion.

This wooden boat is very rudimentary, without a shed, it is equivalent to a log dug into a hollow, but it is strong and large. This used to be the boat used by Uncle Bai when he was a corpse salvage, because when the corpse was fished, the corpse was soaked in the river water, and the weight was much heavier than normal, so the corpse man's boat was specially made, the bottom plate was thick and wide, and it was very load-bearing, and there was no pressure for the four of us to sit on it together.

We helped Uncle Bai push the wooden boat to the riverbank. Although the wooden boat has not been used for a long time, there are no leaks in the whole ship, and the wood has not deteriorated, and it can still be driven.

With our joint efforts, the boat was pushed down the river, and Uncle Bai grabbed the thick rope tied to the top with his hands, and got on the boat in the order according to his arrangement: Tang Haitang and I sat in the bow of the boat, the bustard sat in the middle of the boat, and Uncle Bai was in charge of rowing at the end.

We got on the boat in order, and after sitting down, Uncle Bai loosened the rope, stepped on the bow of the boat with a big stride, and then pushed the rocks on the shore with the boat in his hand, and the boat floated out with the strength of the water, rowing downstream along the current of the Yellow River.

As soon as I got down the river, the wood under the boat was immediately wet with the cold water of the Yellow River, and I sat on it and felt a cold that I had nowhere to hide, first touching my tail vertebrae, and then, like a poisonous snake, down my spine bones, all the way to the cavity of my skull.

The only kerosene lamp was placed in the middle of the ship, and the light from it illuminated the wooden ship.

Uncle Bai skillfully rowed the two boats in his hand and adjusted the direction of the boat. He said that the water flow in this area of the Yellow River is the slowest in this area, and it seems to be calm and the surface of the lake, but the water speed has suddenly become a little fast these days, but fortunately, the direction of the stone platform is just along the downstream, and we don't need to waste much effort.

Indeed, because we were going down the river, the boat was moving very fast, and after about five or six minutes I suddenly noticed that the water, which had been brown and yellow, suddenly became darker, and as we got closer to the center of the river, it became darker and darker, until at last it was as black as freshly ground ink!

I told them about the strangeness of my observations, but the old bustard river Tang Haitang had already noticed this. The bustard told me that this was due to the strong yin qi in the water. Because the lower reaches of the Yellow River were originally the place where the drowning corpses were piled up, the continuous accumulation of yin qi and the lack of yang qi broke the balance of yin and yang in the river, so that the water color became more and more black.

After hearing this, I looked at the river again, and it was true that the color of the river was completely black, and the mud and sand mixed with it made it even more turbid. As a result, there is no dividing line between the darkness of the water and the darkness of the night, and it seems that it has been completely integrated, and we seem to be shrouded in an empty sense of unknown, and we can only rely on the bean-sized lights to identify the direction.

Perhaps the darkness around us was so oppressive that the four of us didn't speak much, and we all remained silent, waiting quietly for the wooden boat to come to the stone platform in the center of the river. This silence lasted for a while, but was finally broken by my bitter voice.

At that time, I had forgotten that there was still a skin mantis on my leg, until I realized that it was getting worse and worse when the muscles in my leg felt an unbearable pain again.

It was like a nail had drilled into my thigh, and the pain was about to tear every inch of my muscles and tendons, and it went up from the joint of my leg and kept poking it in, so painful that I immediately cried out, and my face turned pale, and I almost collapsed on the boat.

Everyone else on the ship noticed my anomaly. The bustard was the first to reflect, knowing in his heart that the skin mantis on my leg was beginning to move, so he hurriedly stepped forward and lifted my pants to take a look, only to see that the pimple I was stuck in the popliteal area was now constantly moving up the back of my thighs, and the skin wrapped outside was also repeatedly bulging and deflated, as if the skin mantis living inside was constantly struggling with the restraint of this layer of skin.

"Quick! Medicine, take the medicine out! The bustard asked me anxiously. I struggled to point to the pocket that was attached to my chest, and the bustard immediately reached in, took out the medicine bottle hidden inside, and in a panic pulled the wooden cork, and poured the powder inside onto the moving pimple.

As before, when the powder touched the pimple, the pain in the leg disappeared instantly. I was much better now, and the pimple that lived in the skin mantis seemed to be suppressed by something, and suddenly remained motionless, as if it had been sealed.

When the pain disappeared, I was relieved and collapsed. Now it seems that I was like an addict who has committed addiction, and the pain is unbearable, and the bottle of medicine is like the opium that relieves my addiction, which makes me settle down.

But my focus at the time was not on that, but on the pimple. By the time I looked closely, the pimple had already "crawled" to the center of my thigh! It's only a short distance away from the red rope with black dog blood to ward off evil spirits and demons that Tang Haitang tied to my leg! I secretly said in my heart, at this rate of development, my stomach will soon be broken by this worm!

The bustard's face was serious: "We have to find a way to deal with these skin mantis as soon as possible, time is really running out." ”

I don't know if the bustard doesn't have much time to refer to the time of this operation and the time I have left to live, in short, I don't feel good when I hear it, but I also know that at present, the three people on the ship have no better way to solve this problem, so the top priority now is that we must enter the grave as soon as possible, so that we can know the method as soon as possible.

Uncle Bai also saw it in his eyes, he just sighed helplessly and didn't say anything.

I touched the pimple on my thigh with my hand, it was hard, and the cut-skin mantis inside was also very quiet and didn't move, but this silence was terrifying, and no one knew when it would wake up next time, or if the next time it would be fatal.

At this time, Uncle Bai's voice suddenly sounded in our ears: "It's almost time to arrive at the sacrificial stone platform." ”

After hearing this, the old bustard hurriedly lifted the kerosene lamp placed in the middle of the boat and leaned in the direction of the bow of the boat. Our river Tang Begonia also raised his head to look, and by the light, we found a brown "island" on the surface of the river not far from us. If you look closely, it is actually a large large rock slab, seven or eight meters long, and it is angular and angular, looking like a land floating in the center of the Yellow River. This should be the stone platform.

What is incomprehensible is that when we approached the stone platform, the water flow around it suddenly became slow, and the change in water speed was only around the stone platform, and the water flow was still turbulent outside, as if this stone platform had some invisible aura suppression.

It was also because of this that we were able to sail the wooden boat to the stone platform smoothly. Uncle Bai shook the boat in his hand and pushed away the two rattling sounds, which seemed particularly quiet in this dark space.

Soon, Uncle Bai docked the boat next to the stone platform, took the rope, got off the boat first, and tied the rope to a stone raised on the stone platform. Because the water near the stone platform is very slow, we don't have to worry about the boat being washed away.

The remaining three of us got off the boat one after another and walked onto the stone platform.

The old bustard looked around with a kerosene lamp, the stone platform was very dry, there was no sign of the river wetting, it seemed that it was completely separated from the water, it seemed that what Uncle Bai said was true, the Yellow River water seemed to never be able to submerge the stone platform.

We walked cautiously on the stone platform, constantly observing it.

We found that there were many cracks in the rocks, each of which looked like it had been scratched with countless scars, and if we looked closely, each crack could probably fit into a finger, and they were all very deep, as if they had been cracked from the bottom to the rock face.

The bustard seemed to have discovered something, and suddenly fell to the ground, and his eyes looked at a crack in the ground.

I wondered, "What to see?" ”

The old bustard did not speak immediately, but slowly put his finger into the gap, buckled it, and pulled out something black and mushy from it, which looked a little familiar. The bustard raised his head at this moment and said, "What do you think this is?" ”

If we take a closer look, we can see clearly that the pitch-black thing is actually a leather mantis! Except for the color, everything else is the same, but at this moment, the black thing looks motionless as if it is dead.

After Tang Haitang looked at it, he untied the iron umbrella tied around his waist, and pointed the tip of the umbrella at the black thing and poked it, only to hear a crisp sound of clicking, and the black thing broke into pieces of messy pieces.

Tang Haitang told the truth: "It's the molting of the skin mantis." ”

It dawned on us that the black thing was hollow inside, and it was just a shell, a thin layer like a cicada.

Later, we continued to find that there were several cut-skin mantis of different sizes molting in this stone crevice, and in several other cracks, the same result was achieved. It seems that there is some connection between this stone platform and the tailoring mantis.

"Under this crack in the stone should be the nest of those seven-star ladybugs, I'll see if I can find a way to break this crack."

After the bustard finished speaking, he got up with the kerosene lamp and prepared to pick up his precious bronze shovel.

However, just as he stood up straight, he seemed to see something, and suddenly he froze in place.

"Bustard?" I noticed the bustard's strange appearance, and I was afraid that some ghost on the stone platform would bewitch him, "What's wrong with you?" ”

However, the bustard didn't answer me, just kept looking straight at somewhere on the stone platform. I saw his brows slowly furrowed, as if he sensed something unusual. After a long time, a few words came out of his mouth: "Look at all these cracks, it seems to form a pattern." ”

As we listened, we followed his direction and turned our gaze to the rifts.

At first, we didn't pay much attention to these cracks, but after a closer look, we found that there was no interlacing between the cracks, and they were really as the bustard said, they were all enclosed in shapes, and as far as the eye could see, the whole stone platform was divided into several "stones" by these cracks, which looked like patterns on the turtle shell.

But the point is not there, when we pay attention to the center of these patterns, we slowly find that the cracks in the Tao there are not just divided into "stones", these "stones" are large or small pieces of piecework, but form a peculiar pattern.

"That's it!" I was surprised. I saw a familiar pattern.

Uncle Bai also saw it: "An eye? ”

"That's right!" Tang Haitang clenched the iron umbrella in his hand and gently bit Yinghong's lips: "It's Tsukasan!" ”