The death of the old village chief was more bizarre than sudden.

Qin Guiren was very puzzled by this, because, when their group came to this village, although the old village chief looked a little old, his body and spirit were still quite tough, and he was free from illness and disaster, how could he return to the West Heaven after just three days?

Qin Guiren remembered what the old village chief had said to him that night, and his intuition told him that the old village chief seemed to have foreseen his death, so he told him that someone in the village would go north in three days and take them out of the mountains and forests.

It is said that people become old and fine, and many old people can have a premonition that their limit is approaching when they are dying, is this true?

Of course, this speculation is untenable, but to say that all this is just a dramatic coincidence seems to be unreasonable. Fortunately, Qin Guiren did not tell those soldiers what the old village chief told him, because anyone who has led troops to fight knows that some things cannot be revealed to soldiers at will, which is very likely to cause instability in the army's heart, at that time, these soldiers have already sensed that the large-scale war may have ended, so at this moment, they are all like arrows, plus they have been wandering in the mountains and forests for many days, suffering from hunger and panic, and their mood is already very anxious. If there are really villagers who can take them back to the motherland in the north after three days, then there is naturally no need to hide this good news, but if things suddenly change, then Qin Guiren's prestige among this group of soldiers will inevitably be greatly reduced, which Qin Guiren is very clear about.

That night, the entire village almost sleepless night, men, women and children, came to mourn the body of the old village chief. Some of the villagers also performed a mystical ritual for the old village chief all night.

Those rituals are strange in form, and they are not the common kind of requiem rituals, but more like a kind of sacrificial ritual of ancient ancestors.

In order to show their respect, Qin Guiren and the others also stayed outside for a whole night, almost sleepless.

The ceremony is very long, from midnight until the early morning of the next day. Here, as a paraphraser, I can't add oil and vinegar at will, and I can't make some detailed descriptions, I can only give a general idea.

Among them, the most noteworthy is that after the death of the old village chief, the villagers brought a huge coffin out of nowhere, the shape of which is not the usual wooden coffin, but similar to the rectangular sarcophagus before the Han Dynasty.

The first impression of the coffin is that it is a little old, and there is even a thin layer of dust attached to it, as if it has just been dug out of the ground.

Qin Guiren was curious, and said in his heart, could it be that the villagers have become so poor that they even have to reuse things used by dead people such as coffins?

Also out of strong curiosity, Qin Guiren walked forward, and under the light of the fire, he saw the shape of the coffin clearly, and immediately gasped.

I saw that the coffin was blue and black, about two meters long and half a meter wide, and there were countless totem runes similar to auspicious clouds carved on it, which looked like a painting from a distance, and looked like some unknown text up close. Of course, what really surprised Qin Guiren was not the pattern on the coffin, but the material of the coffin - it turned out to be a bronze coffin.

The villagers first put the body of the old village chief into the bronze coffin, and then put some unknown tobacco herbs in the coffin before the bronze coffin was covered.

After the bronze coffin was covered, six young men came, lifted the bronze coffin with a wooden carriage, placed it on a firewood fire, and then an older old lady lit a fire. Strangely, the firewood seemed to have been soaked with water or other liquids before, so it didn't really burn, but billowed gray smoke, and on closer inspection, it seemed that a small amount of charcoal had been put into the firewood, slowly roasting the bronze coffin.

The cooking soldier beside Qin Guiren couldn't help but say: "Damn, isn't this a simmer on low heat, then you have to add water, otherwise it will dry the pot." ”

Qin Guiren glared back at him and motioned for him not to talk casually, because this was most likely a custom of the local villagers. In such barren mountains and mountains, it is not a fun thing to joke about other people's customs.

So they stood quietly and watched what was happening in front of them, and neither of them said a word.

I don't know how long it took, the firewood didn't smoke much, the charcoal inside didn't seem to have much heat, and the bronze coffin didn't react, it still looked cold.

Suddenly, Qin Guiren discovered the strangeness of the bronze coffin, and saw that the crack of the coffin lid of the bronze coffin also came out of the real white smoke at some point, but it was not as good as the gray smoke just now, but there was a faint fragrance, and after a closer look, he found that the smoke was not only coming out of the gap in the coffin lid, but the entire bronze coffin seemed to be emitting white smoke outward, as if those smoke could easily penetrate the bronze coffin.

At this time, the young people of the village began to dance in a strange way around the huge bronze coffin, and the villagers danced stiffly, like a group of zombies walking around the coffin.

The villagers jumped for a while, then knelt in a circle around the bronze coffin, leaving only one place to spare. The old lady who had just lit the fire walked into the circle of people from that empty spot at this moment, and she didn't know what to say, but in this case, as long as she was not a fool, she could guess that she must be reciting something like some incantation.

The chanting was sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low, and it sounded like it was whispering, sometimes it sounded like it was angry and muttered for a long time. Qin Guiren and the others almost fell asleep when they listened, but just when they felt confused, suddenly, there was movement in the bronze coffin.

Suddenly, the entire village, including Qin Guiren, held their breath as if something terrible was about to happen. And the old lady no longer chanted the curse at this moment, but knelt in front of the bronze coffin like the other villagers, looking very religious.

"Holy shit, what's going on? Could it be that the old village chief is not dead? Qin Guiren's younger brother Qin Guihe asked.

Qin Guiren didn't answer, but quietly watched everything that was happening in front of him. Suddenly, there was another noise in the bronze coffin, this time, the sound was clearer, and it sounded as if the old village chief was struggling in the bronze coffin.

"The village chief is not dead! Fast! Open the museum to save people! Qin Guiren rushed forward almost instinctively. Immediately, several villagers rushed forward to stop him.

At the beginning, Qin Guiren still wanted to struggle to save the old village chief, but soon, he no longer struggled, but felt a very weird and terrifying atmosphere.

It turned out that when he looked up at this time, he was shocked to find that the auspicious cloud-shaped totem runes on the bronze coffin had begun to gurgle out of it at some point, and suddenly, a strong rancid smell overshadowed the aroma of the white smoke just now.

At this moment, the other soldiers around Qin Guiren were also stunned, while the other villagers showed more pious and respectful expressions. In short, for a moment, the whole village once again focused all their attention on the bronze coffin, and after the bronze coffin made two noises at the end of the day, there was no other movement, only the bright red liquid gurgling out of the inside.

"W-This can't be fucking blood, is it?" The cook just now asked.

Qin Guihe was also dumbfounded on the side, and said, "If nothing else, it should be blood." ”

All this situation made people feel creepy, Qin Guiren and the others all realized at this moment that this unknown small village was definitely not simple!

Early the next morning, Qin Guiren led the soldiers to find the old lady who lit the fire last night, because, judging from last night's ceremony, after the death of the old village chief, the most prestigious person here is probably this old lady.

It's a pity that this old lady doesn't speak Chinese, but fortunately, the old village chief seems to have explained something to her before her death. The old lady hesitated and compared for a long time, and Qin Guiren realized that there would be a group of young people going to the north at noon today, and Qin Guiren and they could find their way home as long as they followed these young people.

Qin Guiren nodded, breathing a sigh of relief in his heart, and when it was noon, they simply ordered their equipment and brought some dry food from the villagers. However, since they had tried to stop the old village chief's posthumous ritual last night, the people of the village seemed to have developed some hostility towards them. Qin Guiren once again warned the soldiers not to let their guard down.

At noon, they walked out the door, only to be stunned by what they saw, and saw six young men standing there with a special wooden frame carrying the strange bronze coffin from last night and waving at them.