Third watch

The underground river turned into an undercurrent not far ahead. After the wooden boat ran aground, the three of them jumped out of the boat and came ashore with knee-deep water.

"What are those?" Lu Xiaolu vigilantly scanned the stacked black shadows everywhere.

"It's a box." Zhong Yi stepped on the wet ground with his boots, and there was a crackling sound of rotten wood chips being broken from time to time, "They were all put in by the villagers,"

Ye Xun stepped forward to take a look, and picked out a box that was almost soaked in water. With a slight push, the lid of the box was tilted in half, and a damp and rancid smell came straight.

Master Bai on Ye Xun's shoulder slapped Ye Xun on the mouth forcefully, quickly jumped onto Wang Xiaoming's head, and clasped his head firmly like a long-legged hat.

Wang Xiaoming collapsed, "Master Bai, your paw hurts—"

Zhong Yi tore off Master Bai from his head, stuffed it into Lu Xiaolu's arms, and went forward to check the corpse in the box with Ye Xun.

"That village." Ye Xun only took a look, then sneered and pushed back the lid of the box.

Wang Xiaoming couldn't bear to look at it: "A child too?"

The size is about the same as the one on the boat, and the people in Red Lantern Village are not even willing to give them a coffin.

"I can't tell, it's stuffed in." Ye Xun said.

"Those people are monsters." Lu Xiaolu said softly.

The so-called normal people in Red Lantern Village were afraid of being viewed as monsters by others, so they turned their relatives into monsters first.

Wang Xiaoming always felt that this kind of mentality was more deformed than those "ominous".

"Go." Zhong Yi raised the flashlight.

Where the light beam shines, everyone can see that someone seems to have barely cleared a way among the piles of boxes——

"Xinghuangqi!" Wang Xiaoming blurted out.

Two small yellow flags were inserted on the ground, like two small street lamps, erected at the entrance that was not counted as the entrance.

"My grandfather's!" Wang Xiaoming was too excited to speak.

This is one of the mini five-color flags made by Wang Dazhuang himself. It is not used for fighting gods and demons, but it can open a vent in places where grievances are stagnant and disperse grievances.

"It's probably used to appease the ghosts in the cave temporarily." Ye Xun also looked around: "Red Lantern Village has sent the bones of deformed children into the cave for a long time. .”

Lu Xiaolu: "Oh, so when Grandpa Xiao Ming and the others came in, they realized that this was a hidden danger sooner or later, so they made a temporary solution first?"

"This is simply a cave for hiding corpses. Unless a large number of people enter the cave, it will not be finished for a while." Ye Xun said: "Otherwise, even if this cave is blown open with explosives, these corpses will be exposed to the sun and not exposed to the sun." For ten days and a half months, the cloudy energy will not dissipate."

Holding the lamp, Zhong Yi took the lead through the layers of 'boxes and coffins' and stopped at the end.

A stone door was embedded in the cave wall, which was engraved with secret texts just like the cave wall above the waterway.

The difference is that the traces of the secret text on the door here do not know what material is filled in, and it has not faded after many years, and it is extremely red.

Zhong Yi tried first: "This door is dead."

Wang Xiaoming: "You, why don't you read what is written on the door first?"

Zhong Yi said, "Can you understand?"

Wang Xiaoming: "I don't understand, but—"

Lu Xiaolu interrupted: "What else can I write, it's nothing more than a warning about the presence of bears: the monsters are fierce here, and idlers are not allowed to enter."

Ye Xun added with a smile: "I think there should be another sentence: 'Trespassers die'."

Zhong Yi said: "So it's useless to watch, come and help."

No matter whether the four young men were pushing, pulling or pushing, they couldn't make Shimen move a little.

Ye Xun said: "This is definitely wrong. Those old men must not be as strong as us, how did they get in?"

"Wang Dazhuang is proficient in spells, he may have invited five ghosts." Zhong Yi narrowed his eyes: "Stand back."

Luban also has the method of moving mountains.

Zhong Yi took out a piece of delicate iron horn and put it in the crack of the door, and said in a low voice: "One of nine cows is made, and the two sides are divided."

Before the words fell, the horns of the iron bull gradually swelled up as if inflated, and slowly pried open the stone door that had been motionless.

It was pitch black behind the door, and there was no sultry wind blowing out, so everyone knew it was because the stone door had been opened recently.

Zhong Yi took the lead and led the four of them sideways into the stone gate. The passage inside was unfathomable and dead silent.

"Strange." Lu Xiaolu said as he walked, "I thought there must be a monster behind the door."

"Maybe there were originally." Ye Xun said pointedly.

This is the place closest to the exit. If there is any agency ambushing, it is likely that Wang Dazhuang and his party will encounter it first.

Zhong Yi remained silent. After entering Shimen, there were no corpses and boxes of those deformed people in Hongdeng Village. The whole corridor was empty, as if it would never end.

Di Ting hung on Wang Xiaoming's shoulder, his claws grabbed Wang Xiaoming's clothes, and he remained silent.

Wang Xiaoming kept staring at the light source in front of Zhong Yi, when his eyes were stabbed suddenly, he twitched his eyelids involuntarily, and grabbed Zhong Yi.

Zhong Yi was pulled back a bit by him, and when he turned around, seeing Wang Xiaoming covering his eyes, his expression immediately turned aside.

"What?" He freed a hand to pull Wang Xiaoming's palm.

Wang Xiaoming covered his eyes and shook his head: "Front."

The three of them looked forward together, but found nothing.

"Ahead... is a turning point." Wang Xiaoming's eyes hurt: "Something is shining."

Lu Xiaolu: "Is there light?"

Zhong Yi turned off the flashlight, and the four of them were immediately shrouded in darkness.

Wang Xiaoming opened his eyes: "No more...you didn't see it?"

Di Ting raised his upper body and moved his ears.

"Go forward," it said.

Zhong Yi glanced at Wang Xiaoming and turned on the flashlight again.

But he didn't take a step immediately. Instead, he took out a mirror and raised his hand to check. The mirror surface was shining with golden light, but there was no sign of living things moving.

The four of them turned the corner cautiously, and a space as big as a playground appeared in front of them. The underground river seemed to surge up again, and the water flowed fast.

The uneven surface of the rocks on the four walls was as smooth as a mirror. The light Wang Xiaoming saw just now was refracted from the flashlight in Zhong Yi's hand.

"This is..." Lu Xiaolu looked at those huge rocks fascinatedly: "What? It's so smooth, I'm afraid the ancient bronze mirror polishing technology can't compare to this."

Their figures were clearly visible on the rocks, and they were indeed bright enough to be used as mirrors.

Ye Xun also stepped forward: "This doesn't look like a man-made product... Could it be a stone spirit?"

"What?" Lu Xiaolu said.

"It's said in the internal biography of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty." Ye Xun looked at the bright rocks in front of him fascinatedly: "There are Liusi stones where the golden light hides shadows and transforms into shapes... I just heard about it, but I didn't expect it to exist. "

Zhong Yi's attention was elsewhere.

"Wang Xiaoming?" Zhong Yi raised his voice and called out.

Wang Xiaoming was standing by the dark river, he didn't know what he was concentrating on looking at something, and he turned his head only when he called out.

"Zhong Yi, do you think that Hexin Island is a bit weird?" Wang Xiaoming asked hesitantly.

In the middle of the dark river, there is a dark bulge, which looks like a reef.

Zhong Yi frowned and looked: "Lu Xiaolu."

Lu Xiaolu hurried over.

"Try what it is." Zhong Yi said.

"What? Isn't that a big rock?" Lu Xiaolu said, taking out a slingshot from his pocket.

Before setting off, Zhong Yi gave him some iron marbles soaked in rune water. He raised his hand and flicked them, and the marbles bounced straight into the edge of the 'rock', making a 'pop' sound.

Three people: "..."

How could Lu Xiaolu's marbles sink into stones?

This unscientific.

Ye Xun said, "It's definitely not a rock, it's moving."

Wang Xiaoming took a closer look, and sure enough, the 'big rock' undulated slightly with the current, not like a river island, but like a prototype driftwood.

Lu Xiaolu walked a few steps forward along the river bank, carefully followed the object with the flashlight, and suddenly it caught a person's head, almost jumping up in fright.

"There's someone up there!" Lu Xiaolu shouted.

Ye Xun squinted his eyes, took out a light stick from his backpack, waved his arm, and the light stick precisely fell to the side of the human head.

In the glowing white light, a half-naked woman was half-submerged in the water with her head down. Her long hair spread out like water plants, which was in stark contrast to her white back. However, in this dark cave, there was no fragrance, only feel terrible.

"Is... is she human?" Lu Xiaolu stepped back a little bit, reluctantly asked one more question in a humanitarian spirit: "Is she still alive?"

Ye Xun said: "Dead. Look carefully."

Lu Xiaolu looked back along the woman's back, and found that the woman's lower body was actually connected to that 'big rock'.

"This is not a rock, but a big turtle." Zhong Yi said.

"She was swallowed by bullies?" Lu Xiaolu and Wang Xiaoming opened their mouths together.

Zhong Yi glared at them: "This is a turtle ghost. The lower body is a giant turtle, and the upper body is in the shape of a woman."

Ye Xun tut-tsk: "This is also the first time I saw it. Fortunately, this is a dead one. Otherwise...don't look at it as a daughter...mother, it may not be weak when fighting."

The turtle ghost has extremely sharp claws, a hard back shell, and can spit out poisonous mist. It is said that the ancient Qin emperor dug up one when he was repairing the tomb. After countless deaths and injuries, he was finally captured alive by warlocks. Tomb-suppressing beasts, wherever the poisonous mist goes, no insects and ants will live, and people and animals will die when touched.

"In ancient times, the turtle ghost was a tomb guard beast, so what does this turtle ghost do?" Ye Xun said, "Could it be guarding something?"

"Over there... is its leg?" Lu Xiaolu's eyes were sharpest: "Look, that black one seems to be holding something on it."

At this time, the current became more and more urgent, and even though the turtle ghost's body was huge, it was washed like a dumpling in boiling water. During the ups and downs, something could be seen tied to the turtle ghost's hind leg.

Zhong Yi took out a climbing hook, swung his arms round and swung it over. After several attempts, he was able to hook the thing in the waves, but he felt extremely heavy.

The four of them pulled back together, and the thing was finally pulled out of the water with a clatter—it turned out to be an extremely thick fine iron chain, one end seemed to be directly nailed into the turtle ghost's hind leg, and the other end was hung in the water, caught by them It was pulled straight, and when it was pulled out of the water, a vortex suddenly appeared around the iron chain, and a wave slapped on the flat ground in the middle of the river, causing the four of them to stagger forward a few steps.

Zhong Yi had an ominous premonition, and quickly shouted, "Let go!"

But it was too late.

The river, which was originally just turbulent, surged in an instant, and covered the calf in the blink of an eye, and several huge waves jumped up out of thin air and slammed their heads at them. The sound of the water was rumbling, like thunder!