Wu Zheng, who staggered into the ancestral grave of the Wu family in the north of the fort, fell headlong in front of his grandmother's grave. With his hands on his chest, he had to gasp cautiously to relieve the pain of the injury.

In the cave at the bottom of the pond in Water Snake Bay, while reading the "Nine Styles of Lingxiao" on the wall of the pit over and over again, he ate the meat of the dead giant snake to satisfy his hunger. Four days passed, and the snake meat began to deteriorate, and Wu Zheng didn't dare to eat it anymore. In the end, Wu Zheng looked at the egg-sized giant snake gall, hesitated for a long time, and finally swallowed it in his stomach.

It stands to reason that such a giant snake cannot be the size of an egg. The reason why Wu Zheng hesitated was because he didn't think clearly about what was going on.

In fact, the reason why the snake gall is so small is entirely because of Wu Zheng.

Unable to spit out Wu Zheng all the time, the giant snake instinctively secreted more digestive juices in an attempt to digest its prey. It's a pity that the giant snake that secretes a lot of bile ignores that the prey is far from reaching the stomach at this time, even if there is more digestive juices, what can it do?

For the role of snake gall bladder, it is still when she often catches snakes when she is herding cattle and goes home to improve her life, grandma told Wu Zheng. It is said that snake gallbladder can not only brighten the eyes, but also clear the blood and remove evil fire, and has the effect of detoxifying all kinds of poisons.

I don't know if it's a psychological effect, anyway, Wu Zheng, who swallowed the whole snake gall, felt that the pain in his chest was slightly reduced. Knowing that without food and medicine, it was basically impossible to recover from his injuries, and after thinking about it, Wu Zheng, who had already engraved "Lingxiao Nine Styles" in his memory, finally had to choose to venture out of the cave.

Still didn't dare to enter Water Snake Bay from the entrance that was not at the bottom of the pond, so Wu Zheng laboriously moved three of the six iron cages in the cave into the hole, stacked them together, climbed up, and hit the translucent roof that leaked dim sunlight with stones.

Every time he tapped, he would always pull the injury to his chest, and after a few blows, Wu Zheng was already in a cold sweat and had to stop and rest for a while.

That's it, knock a few times, rest for a while, and then keep knocking.

After finally being knocked by Wu Zheng's perseverance, the water that suddenly fell, mixed with moss and dead grass and rotten leaves, watered Wu Zheng's face all over his face.

When he could finally see the scene outside, Wu Zheng suddenly realized.

It turned out that there was a huge stone buried deep in the ground next to the ancestral grave, and in order to prevent the clansmen from accidentally causing a mountain fire when they went to the grave to pay respects to their deceased relatives, the clan invited a stonemason to carve out a stone mortar the size of a water tank on the big stone. Usually, the stone mortar is always filled with water, so that when burning paper money, in case of fire, it can be used to extinguish it in time.

When Wu Zheng came out of it, he didn't have time to think about why the bottom of the stone mortar would transmit light, and why the cave with the entrance to the bottom of Water Snake Bay would extend all the way here, and so on.

What Wu Zheng urgently needs to do now is to sneak into the fort and return home at night, and take back the dark red bamboo tube that was hidden in the kang cave in the east and left by his father Wu Lipeng.

So, what happened next happened that Wu Zheng met Wu Lishan unexpectedly in his home, broke the lantern in Wu Lishan's hand, and caused a fire, found the bamboo tube in the kang cave, and escaped over the east wall.

It's just that Wu Zheng, who was unwilling, returned for the second time, and quietly lit the firewood stack under the eaves of Wu Lishan's house, and then returned to the grave of his grandmother in the ancestral grave again.

Wu Zheng, who fell to the ground and gasped for a while, suddenly felt a faint pain in his stomach. Then the pain gradually worsened, so much so that Wu Zheng forgot about the pain in his chest, and rolled on the ground with his hands on his stomach.

Wu Zheng, who still retained a trace of sober consciousness, knew that he must not stay near Wujiabao until dawn, but the increasingly severe pain in his abdomen made Wu Zheng unable to stand up if he wanted to, so how could he have the strength to escape?

In desperation, Wu Zheng could only grit his teeth and insist on climbing back to the stone mortar drilled up, and returned to the pit below.

From the pain in his abdomen, and the feeling that there seemed to be a fire burning in his body, Wu Zheng's mind was completely stagnant, and he didn't have the energy to think about what to do if someone found the broken stone mortar after dawn and found the pit along the stone mortar. Now there's only one word in his head: water.

Driven by instinct, Wu Zheng forgot everything, forgot the injury on his chest, forgot where he was, and even forgot that outside the exit of the cave that did not enter the bottom of the pond was the Water Snake Bay full of poisonous snakes. When he reached the entrance of the cave, he slipped into it without thinking.

Wu Zheng, who was agitated by the cool stream water and instantly regained a trace of clarity, only had time to worry about not being bitten by a poisonous snake in the water, so he didn't know anything.

As soon as the people in Wujiabao returned from Wu Zheng's house, which was only left with ruins and ruins, they heard Wu Lishan's shouts again, and many people didn't even bother to go out of the house to take a look, so they secretly cursed in their hearts:

"Don't let people sleep, isn't the fire already extinguished?"

It was only when I saw the window that was red by the firelight that I knew that it was not Wu Lishan shouting.

Wu Lishan's home is not like Wu Zheng's house, which is separated by a single courtyard and the surrounding neighbors are relatively far away, but in the center of the fort, which is almost the most densely populated place. Once the fire in Wu Lishan's house gets out of control, it will inevitably burn down most of Wujiabao.

Wu Youren, who was only across the street from Wu Lishan's house, was carrying a gong in his hand, beating and shouting at the same time, which was not at all the absent-minded appearance of Wu Zheng's family who had just gone to look at the fire.

Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night in Wujiabao, first Wu Zheng's house caught fire, and then Wu Lishan's house went to the water again. finally extinguished the fire at Wu Lishan's house, and was comforting Wu Lishan's parents, who were crying, when they suddenly heard a dull loud noise. Even the earth shook twice under the shaking feet.

When someone shouts:

"It's in the direction of the ancestral tomb north of the fort!"

The Wu family, who has always paid attention to feng shui, ran towards the ancestral tomb as soon as they heard the rumors. I secretly prayed in my heart that my grave would not collapse.

Judging by the sound just now, most people mistakenly thought that it was caused by the sudden collapse of the grave. Because something similar has happened before, after all, under the grave is a row of heavy long stones, commonly known as cover stones. Once it collapses and slams into the grave, it can indeed make a loud dull sound, especially the large tomb built by the rich family, and the movement will be even greater.

When the people ran to the ancestral grave, they did not find any collapse at all, but next to the ancestral grave, a stone mortar was carved out of it, and the huge stone buried deep in the ground was gone, and it was replaced by a black pit.

"Stop!"

Seeing that the clansmen were swarming around again, and even some bold people wanted to jump down to see what was going on, the patriarch Wu Youren suddenly shouted to stop everyone's moves.

"Liwei, take someone back to get the lantern torch. Wu Chun, lead people to maintain order, and before taking the lanterns and torches, no one is allowed to go down without authorization. ”

People who don't understand think that the patriarch is worried about everyone's safety, and those who understand Wu Youren's consistent style all curse in their hearts: Hmph, fake benevolence and false righteousness.

Yes, Wu Youren's first reaction was that under the suddenly fallen boulder, it might be an ancient tomb. If it's a tomb, there must be a lot of good stuff inside.

But what made him extremely disappointed was that Wu Youren, who was in the second subordinate pit behind Wu Chun, not only did not find any ancient tombs, let alone find good things, but found three iron cages that had been flattened by boulders and were used to sink into the pond before. Moreover, a cramped underground passage was found in the collapsed stone wall. Walking along the passage, three more iron cages were found, a giant snake that had long since died, and the flesh from the head down to half of its body had disappeared.

Immediately, Wu Youren, Wu Chun, and Wu Lishan, who followed closely behind, discovered the strangeness of all the iron cages left in the cave: each iron cage actually had a gap that was stretched out, and judging from the size of the gap, it was enough for an adult to drill out of it.

"Could it be that Wu Zheng is really not dead?!"