As we all know, a temple is a dwelling used to worship and worship the gods.

If there is no temple, then there will be no 'god'.

This is also why there are temples such as mountain temples, river temples, and dragon king temples in many places, just to keep the 'gods', burn incense and worship, pray for good weather and protect the people.

And this place is so solemn for the sacrifice of the river god, but there is no river temple, so it is very likely that this paper river temple was used as a temporary replacement.

It is located behind Wufeng Mountain, surrounded by mountains, and the road up the mountain is high and rugged, and it is not so easy to build a river temple here.

At least for the now barren society, it will require a lot of human and financial resources.

Therefore, Xu Tianchuan saw the needle, in the name of being kind and charitable, crossing others and himself, on the grounds of helping to build the river temple, to gain the favor and trust of the other party.

This will be more convenient for the back of the set.

In addition, when this old man heard that he was willing to pay to help build the River Temple, his eyes were shining, and basically he guessed that these were all eight or nine.

"You...... Are you really willing to help us build the River Temple for free? ”

The old man's voice trembled a little with excitement.

"Well, this can be regarded as accumulating virtue and doing a good deed for myself."

Xu Tianchuan smiled heartily, and was about to continue asking, but before the words could be spoken, the old man immediately knelt in front of Xu Tianchuan with a puff of excitement, and kowtowed again and again with moist eyes: "Great good man, you are really a great good man!" I thank you on behalf of the villagers in our vicinity, and I think the river god will surely bless you as well......"

Before the old man could finish speaking, Xu Tianchuan hurriedly went to help him up.

At this old man's age, he can be his grandfather, and this kneeling ceremony is afraid that he will lose his life.

"Great good man, dare to ask your name? After the construction of the river temple, your name will always be remembered on the merit monument for our generations to admire......"

The old man looked at Xu Tianchuan again and asked.

"Your surname is Xu, and your single name is Chuan."

"Uncle, what do you call it?"

Xu Tianchuan asked with a smile again.

"Me? My surname is Ma, most of the people in our nearby villages have the surname Ma, my generation is slightly older in the village, and many people call me Mrs. Ma directly. ”

Mrs. Ma?

This generation is not a little higher.

Immediately afterwards, this Mrs. Ma said: "In fact, as early as a few years ago, there was a river temple here, and it was very large, the incense was continuous, almost every day people went into the mountain to burn incense and pray for blessings, worship the river god, and even some outsiders would rush here to ask for a high incense."

But just two years ago, we had a flood here, and the dam that had been built before burst and caused the river to rise and completely submerge the river temple. ”

"In fact, several villages near us have also considered rebuilding the river temple, but because the terrain here is too partial, it is necessary to cross the mountains and mountains to transport the bricks here, which not only requires a lot of manpower, but also needs a lot of money, but in recent years, the crop harvest has not been very good, coupled with the chaos of the military war, the war every year, the public grain handed over is also rising every year, the people can only barely eat half full, where is there money to rebuild the river temple, so you can only temporarily tie a river temple with paper to worship the river god, And the domestic animals that are sacrificed to the river god every year are also fed by the nearby villagers for a year's ......."

Speaking of this, Mrs. Ma shook his head with a bitter sigh, like a stomach of bitter water poured out.

"Your own lives are so difficult, and you still take ......"

Listening to Mrs. Ma's words, Jiao San next to him took over the words with some excitement.

But before the words were spoken, Xu Tianchuan hurriedly stopped them.

Of course, Xu Tianchuan knew what Jiao San wanted to say.

Life has been so difficult, what river god are you going to worship?

If the river god really blessed the wind and rain on both sides, the days would be like this, and there would be floods that flooded the temples dedicated to them?

Generally speaking, the better the day, the more solemn the worship becomes, and on the contrary, there is only one steamed bun, and I would rather go hungry and give half of it to the 'river god'.

This is the real-life version of 'distorted superstition'.

It is also one of the reasons why superstition should be overthrown and the four olds should be destroyed after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

And the reason why Xu Tianchuan didn't let Jiao San say it was because this was equivalent to blasphemy and disrespect for the 'river god'.

If he really said this, this Ma Taiye might turn his face directly and pick up his red-tasseled spear again to duel Jiao San......

This Ma Taiye's superstition about the river god has reached the level of 'terminally ill'.

Not only this Mrs. Ma, but also the people nearby!

"Master Ma, I believe that after the river temple is rebuilt, the river god will definitely help the people to control the flood!"

Xu Tianchuan responded with a smile, and then pretended to be very interested and asked: "Master Ma, I see that what is enshrined in this temple is the true face of the river god?" ”

Master Ma nodded: "There was originally a river temple here, and we also reproduced it with paper according to the original appearance of the river temple, and the original river temple was dedicated to the river god and his ten sons." ”

"I heard you just say that the river temple was only flooded because the river level rose here, not washed away, so the original river temple is still under the river?"

Xu Tianchuan asked again.

Master Ma nodded: "Yes, that river temple has a solid foundation, it is said that it has existed for hundreds of years, my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather has existed in his lifetime, no matter the wind and rain erosion, it is indestructible, even if there was a big flood that year, the river temple did not collapse, it was just flooded, and it was flooded more than once." ”

"Where is the original site of the River Temple?"

At this time, Xing Chang, who had not spoken, suddenly asked.

In order to avoid suspicion, Xu Tianchuan hurriedly added a sentence later: "Let's build a temple and repair a temple, we must also pay attention to the location of feng shui, it is definitely not built casually, first know where the original river temple is, we can also find a feng shui gentleman to see, and then choose a new place to rebuild the river temple." ”

The sentence that Xu Tianchuan added later does have some truth.

Master Ma nodded, pointed to the southeast of the waterhole, and said, "Do you see that flat-topped mountain peak in the southeast?" The river temple is backed by that peak. ”

Xu Tianchuan looked in the direction of Mrs. Ma's finger.

The so-called flat-topped peak in Mrs. Ma's mouth is only less than seven or eight meters high on the surface of the water, and it is covered with green plants.

"That's what it's called a mountain? It's not as tall as my grandfather's grave. ”

Jiao San frowned deeply, with a look of questioning.

And Mrs. Ma glanced at Jiao San and said: "You know a fart, this peak was originally called Fengling, it is said that it is the place where the phoenix inhabits, originally this Fengling is thousands of meters high, it is the highest peak of Wufeng Mountain, there are books in our local area, there was a serious drought hundreds of years ago, the drought caused the water level of the Ru River to drop seriously, that is, because the water level of the Ru River dropped, thus revealing a river temple under the Fengling Mountain!" It was also the first time that the river temple appeared in the world, and since then, our local people have believed in the river god, and the river temple has always been above the water level.

But after a few decades, there was another flood here, which broke the Fengling Ridge, and the river temple was submerged again, and it took more than a hundred years before the water level dropped before the river temple reappeared.

It was only in the last two years that the water level rose again and once again flooded the river temple......"

"Fengling?"

As soon as he heard these two words, Xu Tianchuan suddenly perked up, and his eyes stared at him in surprise like two copper bells.

The Fengling I've been looking for is actually here!

If what Mrs. Ma said is right, the river temple was built with its back against Fengling, and it has existed for thousands of years, and the first record of the river temple was not built by the locals, but the drought caused the water level to drop and emerged from the bottom of the water, as for the true origin of the river temple, no one knows.

This also shows that the river temple has existed for thousands of years, and it is still unknown.

Because this is the upper reaches of the Ru River, once there are droughts and floods, the water level will increase significantly, and as Ma Taiye said, in the past few hundred years, the river temple has been flooded back and forth due to the rise of the water level, and it has been repeated many times.

The entrance to the cave of the ghost god is just below Fengling, and there is a mysterious river temple under Fengling.

Xu Tianchuan firmly believes in his heart that there is definitely no coincidence between the two, and there must be many mysterious connections.

But in Zhao Taicheng's epitaph, only recorded that there is a hole under Fengling Mountain, but there is no record of the river temple, Zhao Taicheng belongs to the Northern Song Dynasty is more than a thousand years ago, according to Ma Taiye, the first discovery of the river temple was hundreds of years ago, which shows that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the river temple was still submerged under the water, and was not discovered by the world.

In addition, the entrance to the cave of the god Gugu is on the top of the river temple.

This is an ironclad fact.

"Master Ma, if you estimate how many meters should this river temple be submerged by the water level?"

Xu Tianchuan could hide the surprise in his heart, but he just inquired curiously.

Mrs. Ma frowned slightly, thought carefully in his heart again, and said: "There are almost at least ten meters, and it is a coincidence that the current water level has just submerged half of the sacrificial caves. ”

"Worship the Cave?"

"Worship the Cave?"

"Worship the Cave?"

Mrs. Ma's words behind made Xu Tianchuan, Xing Chang and Jiao San subconsciously exclaim at the same time.

"What is the Cave of the Gods?"

Jiao San couldn't help but ask curiously at first.

Mrs. Ma looked at the direction of Fengling through the water, and said with a serious expression: "There is a big cave under Fengling, it is said that the river god lives in it, whenever the water level drops, revealing the god of worship cave, it indicates that the river god is going to come out to manifest the spirit, it happens that this year has just passed the New Year, in the absence of drought, the water level has dropped inexplicably, revealing the god of worship cave, so we have specially sent so many sacrifices to the river god this year!" In order to seek the river god to control the water, I wish us good weather and a good harvest in the coming year......"

"And whenever the shrine appears, our local villagers will bring sacrifices into the cave, contaminated with the spirit, and ask the spirit of the river god to bring health and peace......"

Listening to Mrs. Ma's words, Xu Tianchuan, Jiao San and Xing Chang glanced at each other in unison.

It seems that these words are really not in vain, Zhao Taicheng's epitaph is true, and the direction he is looking for is also right.

The so-called sacrificial cave is the name given by the local people, and it is actually the water hole where Zhao Taicheng brought out the ghost eggs back then!

After Shaoqing.

Xu Tianchuan rolled his eyes, looked at Mrs. Ma and said sincerely: "Master Ma, about the construction of the River Temple, let's settle it like this, but the cash I have on me may not be enough, so I will send someone to the money in the city to withdraw the money, and by the way, find a feng shui gentleman to see where it is appropriate to build a new temple......"

Speaking of this, Xu Tianchuan deliberately paused again, and then continued: "Master Ma, you just said that whenever the god cave appears, the villagers will enter the cave with sacrifices, in fact, I also have a pious and reverent heart for the river god, why don't you bother to show the way, and also take us to the god cave by boat, and worship the river god at close range, how about it?" ”

In fact, the goal is very clear, even if Xu Tianchuan and the three of them go by boat, it will be no problem, but if you find a local person as a guide, it will naturally be better.

Master Ma hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded and agreed: "It's okay, but it will have to wait until tomorrow morning!" ”

"No problem, it just so happens that we also have time to prepare some sacrifices!"

Xu Tianchuan immediately nodded happily.

"It's still dozens of miles away from the market town, if you three don't dislike it, stay at my house tonight, I'm a lonely old man."

Mrs. Ma looked at Xu Tianchuan and said lightly.

"That's really a big hassle for you."

Xu Tianchuan bowed politely.

Until the evening, when the sun was setting, Mrs. Ma took Xu Tianchuan and the three of them out of the mountain and returned to a small mountain village.

This mountain village is not very large, with about dozens of families living there, and Ma's house is a three-room small tiled house with a bed on each side of the east and west.

Xu Tianchuan, Jiao San and Xing Chang spent the night in the same bed......

Nothing to say all night......

After breaking through a thick fog, Xu Tianchuan saw at a glance a circular cave half on the surface of the water under Fengling Mountain.

From a distance, the cave is not small, and the edge of the cave is covered with dense vegetation and vines, and it looks like a large flattened mouth, showing a mouth shape that opens and closes......