When the Yangtze River flows eastward and flows into the shallow sea area, a large amount of sediment is gradually deposited here due to the decrease in specific drop and the slowdown in flow rate.

On the one hand, this phenomenon creates coastal plains on the north and south banks of the Yangtze River estuary, and on the other hand, it forms estuarine sandbars dotted in the middle of the river.

Chongming Island is a typical estuarine sand island.

From the time it was exposed to the surface of the water to the time it finally formed a large island, it has undergone more than 1,000 years of ups and downs.

Today, this island, with a length of nearly 200 miles from east to west and a width of nearly 40 miles from north to south, is the largest sand island in the country.

According to the records of the household registration check a few years ago, there are more than 10,000 households living on the island, about 80,000 people.

Because of the expansion of trade in Songjiang Province in recent years, the atmosphere on Chongming Island has also been greatly affected, and there are many people doing business.

For example, the sand boat industry, which existed in the Song and Ming dynasties, was revived and vigorously developed, and the profits of transporting white salt and yellow sand between the north and south should not be underestimated.

There are more than 100 kinds of medicinal materials produced on the island, and there are not a few people who make ideas and do business in this regard.

But no matter whether the people on the island are farming, selling medicine, or sailing with boats, they all have the same identity, that is, fishermen.

Chongming Island is a place where brackish and fresh water meets, and it is particularly rich in fishery resources.

Large yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, hairtail, pomfret, squid, cuttlefish, jellyfish, pike crab and so on in marine aquatic products.

River eel, anchovy, bass, sea bass, mullet, crab, white shrimp, green shrimp, crab fry, eel fry and so on in the Yangtze River aquatic products.

Half eating and half selling these aquatic resources is the greatest guarantee for the survival of the residents of Chongming Island since ancient times.

Here, behind the eaves of every house, you can see dried fish and pickled salted fish.

Seven or eight-year-old children know how to use a net to catch the live fish, tighten the rope at the mouth of the net, tie it to the stake by the river, and let these fresh goods be raised directly in the river.

They can steam fish, boil fish, braised fish, and cook fish rice, and there are many ways to eat it.

But holding on to a live fish and nibbling on it is still a bit beyond the ability of the women in the fishing village to accept.

She covered her daughter's mouth, hid behind her doorframe tremblingly, and secretly looked at the man squatting outside next to the big water tank.

The woman's eyes were filled with fear and incomprehension, but they were also full of tears that kept falling.

Because that's her husband.

The one who suddenly went berserk, smashed the door panel, fished out a live fish in the tank and gnawed until his mouth was full of blood, and the fish bones pierced his lips, and he was still eating.

At first, when the woman saw such a scene, she hurriedly tried to dissuade her, but her husband pushed her down.

With that kind of action, the sound in his throat is like a big dog protecting food, and in his cloudy eyes, it seems that he can't recognize his wife who has been with him for so many years.

The woman even felt that the man with his mouth covered in blood might pounce on her neck and bite her.

She screamed, but didn't wait for the neighbors, who were the most inquisitive neighbors, to come and check on the situation.

On the contrary, similar screams and shouts soon came from all over the village, everywhere.

When the woman ran back to the house in fear, she saw the neighbor's husband and wife at the last glance, and they also pounced on it, biting the grain hanging at the window.

Those dried fish that had to be boiled in water for half an hour before they could be poked with chopsticks were bitten open and swallowed by them indiscriminately, choking on their faces and thick necks, rolling their eyes, but they still kept eating.

The aunt, who kept the house in order and spoke softly on weekdays, actually hit her son's nose with her head and snatched food.

"Great compassion Avalokiteshvara, King Jizo Bodhisattva, Chenghuang Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva bless! Bodhisattva bless! ”

The woman was unavoided, tears were rippling, huddled in the doorframe to protect her daughter, and her mouth was turning over and over with some words of prayer.

The man outside the house had already eaten all the fresh fish in the tank, made a strange sound of ho-ho in his mouth, and fell on all fours, turning his head to look at the side of the house.

The woman was so frightened that she immediately lost her voice, held her breath, and stared at the man.

It was her husband, of course she knew his man's figure and facial features, but the man was obviously much thinner than the woman's impression.

His eye sockets were deeply sunken, his cheekbones were high, his tattered lips were full of wounds, and his mouth must have been cut a lot, but there was not much blood oozing, as if the blood had just come out and he had swallowed it again.

He had eaten so much just now, and his stomach was obviously bulging again, and his limbs were even more thin.

The palms, which were thick and powerful, capable of holding oars and carrying goods, covered with calluses and old scars, were now skinny, as if there were only bones left under the skin.

The man's Adam's apple slid up and down, his eyes wandering hungrily over his wife, like a hungry beast, measuring an adult antelope before finally fixing his eyes on the cub.

The woman was startled, and hurriedly pressed her daughter's head into her arms, and stared at the man deadly, her teeth trembling with fear gradually clenched.

"Ah Sheng, this is your ......"

The man's roar interrupted her and pounced.

The woman did not know where she got the strength, she closed her eyes and hugged her daughter, leaned forward, and slammed her head forward.

But when she hit it, she hit the air, and her body staggered forward, and she was pressed by a hand on her shoulder.

"Open your eyes!"

A majestic cold drink opened the woman's eyes.

I saw a strange man, standing outside her house, carrying her husband in one hand.

"I'm the prefect of Songjiang, what's going on here?"

Ling Duxian frowned and looked the woman up and down, "Many people in your village have already committed madness, you and this little girl are ordinary, why are you unharmed?" ”

The woman froze in place, at a loss.

Ling Duxian's scrutinizing eyes suddenly showed three points of impatience, but after glancing at the sky in the distance, the corners of his mouth unconsciously pulled down.

His mind wandered between self-abandonment and unwillingness for a long time, but he decided not to deal with it anymore, and he worked hard, maybe he could win a chance to be sentenced to a heavy labor camp.

Before the woman came back to her senses, Ling Duxian's eyes swept away, and she had already checked the entire house, inside and out, and it was just the most ordinary fisherman's house.

However, at the base of the wall, a piece of yellow laminated paper was pasted, and the paper was probably painted with fish blood, painted in red, roughly like a small boat.

"Huh?!"

Ling Duxian immediately asked, "Are you a member of the Blood Pool Society?" ”

When the woman heard the familiar words, she woke up and nodded her head again and again.

Although it sounds like it is full of evil and cruelty, it is just a very loose folk sect that persuades people to do good, and it is mainly popular among the women of Songjiang Prefecture.

The members of this association believe that after death, the bad things that people have done in their lives must be liquidated and tortured in the blood pool of the underworld.

If you kill less, eat less meat, persuade people to be kind, and recite the scriptures, you can avoid the blood pool after death and go to reincarnation earlier.

However, the ordinary people of Songjiang Prefecture can't eat much meat in the first place, and it is not realistic to let them stop eating fish and shrimp at all.

The rules of a small sect formed spontaneously in the countryside like the Blood Pond Society were naturally relaxed again and again, and finally it became, saying that it was okay to eat less fresh fish, and it didn't matter if you ate dried fish or salted fish.

Ling Duxian was mixed with the position of the prefect of Songjiang at the beginning, although it was mainly to make money and enjoy, but he only liked the kind of grand entertainment, and he was too lazy to go to the private banquet of three or two people.

He has too much free time, and when he is drinking, he likes to collect those folk customs and rumors, and listen to them for fun, but from a strange angle, he has a good understanding of some people's livelihoods in Songjiang Mansion, and he thinks of the key in a flash.

"Could it be that there is a problem with eating fresh fish recently, and those who eat salted fish are fine?"

Ling Duxian's heart turned sharply, and he said, "The people in your village who have committed madness have all been pointed out by me. ”

"But the cause of this problem is unknown, you'd better stay away from them, wait at the entrance of the village, and someone from the yamen will deal with it."

As soon as the words fell, Ling Duxian's figure volleyed away.

In a single sweep, he was able to glide at a low altitude for more than 200 meters, and in a few ups and downs he had already swept over the entire village, and went to other places, observing the homes of those who had not fallen mad along the way.

His means of striking points in the air are fast enough, but they are far from being as good as the two in the distance.

I saw a plain white vitality gun shadow more than 300 meters long in the sky.

He Zong stood on top of the metal disc, pushing the middle of the spear in his right hand, flying at a constant speed.

The barrel of the gun, which is hundreds of feet long and the thickness of a bucket, is facing downward, constantly scattering white beads of air.

The spear was pushed sideways, and all the sick people in the area covered by the ground were set on fire.

In the other direction, the temperature in the sky plummeted and snow fell.

The fine needles condensed by ice and snow, as thin as cow's hair, flew in the air.

Even if it is pierced on a person's body, it does not just pierce into the acupuncture point, the ice needle will turn into a cold current, swim along the acupoint, close the five senses and seven emotions, and make the person fall into a dormant state all around the body, inside and outside the body.

Gray-white snow clouds poured endlessly, like a layer of fog, sweeping over the villages.

Soon, the snow cloud and the spear met in the heart of Chongming Island.

The snow clouds converged, revealing Su Hanshan's figure, and the spear faded away.

"The main reason is that there are many sick people in the fishing villages in the east, and there are basically no problems in other places."

He Zong clasped his hands in front of his chest, overlooking the entire flat terrain of the island, and said, "But conservative estimates suggest that nearly two thousand people have been killed. ”

When I say those who have lost their lives, I don't mean those who have fallen ill.

In fact, most of those who fell ill were still eating live fish near their homes, and did not immediately target living people of their own size.

Su Hanshan, they came fast enough.

So far, almost no living person has died because of the attack of the patient.

However, those who are still able to breathe, eat, and move are likely to have died, judging from the meaning of death reflected in Feng Shui.

"They can also be restrained because of the acupoints, which shows that the blood veins in the body are still circulating normally, the five internal organs are still active, and the physique is no different from that of normal people."

Su Hanshan's tone was solemn, "Feng Shui evil qi reflects a general trend, there is lag, there is ambiguity, although Feng Shui reflects the meaning of dead silence, but it does not necessarily mean that these people have no chance of life." ”

Ling Duxian shouted below, "Two of you, I have made some discoveries!" ”

Su Hanshan immediately landed: "Say." ”

"If there are both sick and unharmed people in the same household, the biggest difference is that the sick people have eaten the fresh fish caught in the past two days, while the unharmed people often do not eat it for various reasons."

Ling Duxian carried a net bag in his hand, "A certain family, the fresh fish that they have eaten in the past few days are all raised in this net bag, and I brought the remaining few here." ”

Su Hanshan flipped over his hand and grabbed it, a ball of golden light, and fished out a live fish from his net pocket.

Pure Yang True Qi, with the softest and most sensitive posture, penetrates the whole body of this fish and senses the strangeness in it.

Even if you have tried your best to soften it, if you want to observe the most detailed degree, this penetration will inevitably cause a little damage, and it is not usable in people, and in fish, there are not so many concerns.

"The fish has something in its belly."

Su Hanshan flicked his fingers, and the fish's stomach suddenly deflated, and its mouth opened, as if it was about to vomit something, but it didn't spit out.

"It seems that it is not just attached to the stomach of the fish, but has been adsorbed and penetrated into the flesh of the fish."

As he spoke, Su Hanshan's palm flipped over, the golden light turned blue, and it suddenly cracked, freezing the whole fish into ice crystals and splitting in half.

The internal organs of the fish are all on the body of half of the fish, and the other half is only the bones and flesh.

Ling Duxian looked closely and noticed that there was a slight difference between the color of the flesh of the fish belly and the raw fish meat.

He Zong had also landed, and with his eyesight, he could see more detailed.

"It looks like the eggs of some kind of undersea creature."

The things that seep between the flesh of the fish are indeed tiny, gelatinous eggs.

However, the surface of the egg is not smooth, but has many small hairs that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Obviously, even in the state of the egg, these things can already move with the help of whiskers, parasitize the body of the fish, and penetrate into the flesh.

Su Hanshan turned the blue light into gold again and heated the fish.

The flesh quickly ripens white, and even appears a faint brown color, revealing the aroma of fried fish.

Those eggs are even more inconspicuous among the ripe fish, and ordinary people can't distinguish them at all.

However, with the eyesight of the three people present, they could all see that those eggs did not die under such high temperatures, but appeared to be more active.

Su Hanshan stared at the eggs, and the temperature of the golden light continued to rise, until the fish meat had turned into charcoal, and even began to burst into flames, and those eggs died completely.

"Since it is parasitic by being eaten, the root of those patients' diseases should also be in the stomach."

Su Hanshan came to a nearby village and pressed his hand at a man who had entered a dormant state and stood still.

In this hand, with a slight concussive squeezing force, even if it is rooted between the stomach and flesh, it will inevitably be squeezed out of the esophagus because of the smooth shock of this hand.

The man's throat bulged, his mouth opened wide, and a black and fleshy flower seemed to grow in his mouth.

It has a pure black background, silver-white spots, five-petal flesh, and mouthparts that look like sharp teeth and stamens in the center.

That's a starfish!

Su Hanshan's eyes sank, and he felt that the vitality in the man's brain was gone.

He used the method of Xuanbing Ice Sealing Dormancy, and the state after the ice was frozen could delay any damage, but this vitality suddenly disappeared, which means that this man's brain had died long before the ice was frozen.

The vitality that Su Hanshan felt before was not the patient's own brain activity, but the disguise of this starfish parasitic on the stomach.

It grows rapidly in the human stomach, and after destroying the human brain through neurotoxins, it continues to stimulate the brain in its own way, forging sets of instructions to control physical activity.

"Hey, how can it be such a starfish?"

When He Zong saw the egg just now, he hadn't yet distinguished it, but now he saw the whole body, and after using his skills, he thought of a past incident after careful exploration.

"It shouldn't be a creature of this era, the only complete corpse I saw at overseas auctions back then was soaked in an ultra-ancient crystal container."

(End of chapter)