Chapter 175

Chapter 170

Yin Meng sat on the second-floor railing, a pack of preserved plums in her hand, keeping watch through the night.

From time to time, she would lower her head to look at the young man sitting by the bonfire in the courtyard below, lost in thought.

Every time Li Zhuiyuan reached out to pick up a piece of firewood and throw it into the bonfire, Yin Meng would also take out a preserved plum and pop it into her mouth.

Accompanied by the "crackle" sound of the firewood burning out, she would also hold the preserved plum and smack her lips.

The rest of the people were all asleep.

The firelight illuminated the young man's face, alternating between light and shadow.

Xue Liangliang, wrapped in a blanket, walked over and sat down beside Li Zhuiyuan.

"Liangliang bro, you should go to sleep."

"I've slept enough and can't do much else, might as well keep you company for a while."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

"Xiao Yuan, are you worried about the current situation?"

"Not to that extent."

Li Zhuiyuan stood up, lifted the kettle placed on the bonfire, and filled the two large bowls in front of them, which contained brown sugar ginger tea.

Afterward, the two, one big and one small, each held a bowl, blew on it, and then slowly sipped.

Drinking this in the winter mountains was very comforting.

Xue Liangliang looked up at Yin Meng upstairs, then turned back to look at Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Lin Shuyou sleeping side by side in the room.

"Normally, you can't tell anything, but once you're out here, you all give off a completely different feeling."

"Experiencing more things always leads to greater maturity." Li Zhuiyuan looked at the cigarette Xue Liangliang had taken out, "Is that the same for you, Liangliang bro?"

"Yes, you're right, but it's far from comparable to you all." Xue Liangliang bit on the cigarette, lowered his head, lit it, and as he exhaled smoke rings, confusion also flickered in his eyes, "When encountering things like this, I find I'm really no help."

"Being able to bring us here, you've already helped a lot."

"Is that sarcasm?"

"No, it's sincere."

Before, Li Zhuiyuan would choose exam questions from A Li's dreams, but last time he went too far, scaring those unsavory things so much they didn't even dare to come near the table.

This time's exam question was "helped" drawn by Xue Liangliang himself.

Different forms, but Li Zhuiyuan believed that he ultimately held the advantage, although it was still unclear where this advantage would manifest.

The reason Li Zhuiyuan was still awake so late was that he was trying to disperse the fog on the chessboard as much as possible.

Then, he gradually realized that doing so didn't have much meaning.

Because it was very likely that the entire chessboard belonged to the old hag; this was her home ground.

She was different from any evil spirits he had faced before.

Firstly, she was free.

Secondly, she had a brain.

Finally, her state was relatively stable.

Not sealed, not severely injured, not just about to recover, she had been active in this area for many years.

In a strict sense, among all the opponents he had encountered, she was the first truly independent individual.

Her line of sight covered the Miao village, the construction site, the current village... and the surrounding areas.

Xue Liangliang finished smoking his cigarette, threw it into the bonfire, then took out a drawing from his chest and spread it out on the ground.

"Xiao Yuan, I don't understand feng shui, and I can't read those small flags you had people insert, so I can only look more closely at these drawings."

"Hmm?"

"Any water conservancy facility construction will impact the original landform environment, and this impact can sometimes be quite extensive, not limited to just the construction area."

"Liangliang bro, please continue."

"Look, although this river isn't wide and the water flow isn't large, it is indeed one of the mainstreams in the nearby small water systems, and when this hydropower station is built, the biggest impact will be here..."

Xue Liangliang took out a pen and drew a circle at a certain position.

"There's a lake here. We saw it when we rode the tractor into the village; the scenery is nice. After the hydropower station is built, this lake will lose its source of living water and should gradually disappear."

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze fixed on the lake, and he asked, "Liangliang bro, why would you notice this?"

"Because Xiao Yuan, your brain is good. The obvious things I can see, you definitely saw too, so I can only try to think about some small details that you might not consider."

Li Zhuiyuan's finger gently traced the drawing, and he closed his eyes.

He called up the memory in his mind, returning to the scene of riding on Ran Dacheng's tractor on the bumpy mountain road.

The memory picture quickly rewound, finally returning to the moment the lake appeared.

In his ear, the voice of Tan Wenbin from that time appeared:

"Damn it, I've heard of regional discrimination, but this is the first time I've discovered there's also terrain discrimination!"

He was sitting on the tractor at that time, and the lake appeared exactly in his line of sight. The lake surface wasn't large, just a bit bigger than a pond.

The memory picture continuously fast-forwarded and rewound, intercepting his views from various angles, finally piecing together the lake and its surrounding terrain as completely as possible.

Then, Li Zhuiyuan began to try to analyze its terrain feng shui.

The result was... ordinary.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes, which meant that if there had been any special feng shui pattern, he would have definitely noticed it when passing by.

Xue Liangliang lit his second cigarette. He didn't notice Li Zhuiyuan's expression and actions but continued with his analysis:

"In fact, although the project hasn't been completed, the effect of intercepting and cutting off water has already appeared. The water level of this lake should be much lower than the normal level in previous years."

Water level much lower?

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes again, recalling that picture in his mind.

He actively made the picture dynamic, raising the water level, raising it again.

Suddenly, Li Zhuiyuan was stunned.

Just by raising the water level, submerging the surrounding areas and small hills, the entire feng shui pattern instantly became the standard [Park Yue Ying Kui].

The Ying Kui at the juncture gathers the essence of the mountain forest, like human lungs, exhaling the old and inhaling the new.

This was an auspicious position, described in the "Liu Shi Wang Qi Jue" as a place where mountain spirits and wild demons most liked to perch, borrowing natural momentum to nurture themselves.

He had simply passed by and couldn't just add and subtract from the scenery in front of him, so he had just overlooked it.

If he had passed by before the project construction, he probably would have seen at a glance that the lake was a very good location.

Not suitable for burying people, but suitable for nurturing people. If elderly people lived here for a long time, it could prolong life, that is, the so-called elderly holy land.

Such a good place, only in the mountains could there be "wild" existence.

If placed in a place like Luoyang, as long as it was a slightly higher grade feng shui auspicious spot, one shovel dug down, one layer of tombs, two layers of tombs, three layers of tombs... good spots were long ago squeezed into shared rentals.

Compared to the feng shui pattern of that lake, the feng shui peculiarity at the hydropower station construction site was nothing. In fact, it was very likely that the old hag deliberately arranged it there, pretending to be a maze, to divert attention.

Perhaps, she buried an ancient corpse with coffin qi under the site.

She was fishing this way.

The feng shui masters invited by the construction unit were all amateurs, who messed up a bunch of things but didn't even find the fake bait.

The old man of the Miao village found it, sent his three disciples to solve it, but they were counter-solved by the old hag.

She was really cautious.

Li Zhuiyuan was very curious about what exactly she忌惮.

Was it忌惮 the Heavenly Way?

But from her behavior logic, it didn't seem like it.

Evil spirits忌惮 the Heavenly Way should be reflected in their "sense of existence," but her sense of existence was extraordinarily strong; she just hadn't conducted large-scale killings, that's all.

It was as if in the dark, there was something very close that forced her to restrain herself in this aspect.

"Liangliang bro, thank you. The point you pointed out is very useful."

"Not just being polite?"

"No, that lake is very key."

"I think we'll go to the lakeside after dawn to see, then it'll be appropriate for you to say this to me."

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and tapped his forehead: "No need, I remember everything here."

Xue Liangliang's mouth slightly opened, finally turning into a bitter smile: "Your memory is really enviable."

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and drank another sip of brown sugar tea.

Everything has two sides. "Forgetting" is sometimes actually a self-protection mechanism.

Having too good a memory will make all the unhappy things one has experienced in the past "fresh in memory."

Just at this moment, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly raised his head. He heard footsteps, cautiously.

"Pa!"

Yin Meng on the second floor drew out her whip, flicked it forward, and a cracking sound transmitted.

Inside the room on the first floor, Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Lin Shuyou immediately ran out, all carrying tools in their hands.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up and looked towards the southwest earth wall, waving his palm forward.

Yin Meng made the first move, using her whip to hook the railing and swing over from the second floor.

Runsheng rushed forward, bending his knee at the bottom of the earth wall. Lin Shuyou, while sprinting, stepped on Runsheng's knee and leaped directly over the earth wall.

Subsequently, Runsheng jumped up, clinging to the edge of the earth wall with his left hand, then used his arm strength to pull himself up and flip over.

Although this earth building was old, it probably served as a semi-military place before liberation, so the earth wall was very high and very smooth.

Tan Wenbin rushed to the bottom of the wall, saw that Runsheng had already flipped over without waiting for him, and continued to maintain his running motion, retreating backward to Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang's side.

They all went out, so he would stay to protect the important personnel.

Xue Liangliang somewhat nervously asked: "She came?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "Not her."

Listening to the sound revealed that the footsteps were more like a thief's movements.

Not long after, the earth building gate was pushed open, and Runsheng walked in, carrying a man wearing dirty work clothes in his hand. The man had a look of panic on his face.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to his front and asked: "What is your name, Cui Hao or Li Ren?"

"My name is... Cui Hao." The man looked around, "You, you are from the construction team?"

"Um."

"Then you... then you..."

Cui Hao really couldn't understand when the construction team's technicians could "whoosh whoosh whoosh" descend from the sky.

He had just sneaked to the outside of the earth wall when suddenly three figures landed in front of him, surrounded him, and then one of them lifted him up directly, like lifting a little chicken.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Talk about your situation. Is Li Ren still alive?"

"He is still alive, but he is injured."

"Tell me about what happened to the two of you."

Cui Hao was surprised and said: "Since you are from the construction team, shouldn't you go with me to save people now?"

"Li Ren won't die for a while, right?"

"Won't die."

"Then there's no rush."

Li Zhuiyuan sat down and motioned with his hand.

Runsheng pressed Cui Hao to sit down. Tan Wenbin walked over, gripping his dagger. Before Cui Hao could react, he first grabbed his hand and then made a cut on his finger.

"Ah!"

After the blood dripped, he checked and Tan Wenbin nodded, indicating it was a real person.

"What are you all going to do?"

Li Zhuiyuan reminded: "Say the main thing, tell about your and Li Ren's experiences during your stay, say it once. Give him something to eat, let him eat while he talks."

Yin Meng handed over her half-pack of preserved plums to Cui Hao.

Tan Wenbin used his arm to block Yin Meng's hand: "Giving him this won't make him hungrier."

Subsequently, Tan Wenbin threw a pack of compressed biscuits to Cui Hao and poured him a bowl of brown sugar tea.

Seeing that there was food, Cui Hao began to gobble it down. After stuffing himself fiercely with some food, he then sighed and began to narrate his and Li Ren's experiences during this period.

Their leader had adopted a democratic approach, letting everyone vote anonymously to elect two people to stay behind.

This was almost the same as voting to elect "who you dislike the most."

Cui Hao was elected with high votes, Li Ren was second, and the gap between their votes overwhelmingly surpassed the third from the bottom.

Everyone else went back for the New Year, and the two of them stayed behind. It was impossible not to feel resentment in their hearts.

However, their resentment was soon swept away, as fear needed to make room.

Cui Hao recorded that the night "they" came back was actually just the beginning.

Because next, the people in the courtyard downstairs all came upstairs, and their consciousness also began to blur at that time.

It was like having a dream, in a muddled state, they actually joined them and started a meeting.

In the meeting, the leader and colleagues repeatedly raised questions, which were then answered by Cui Hao and Li Ren.

This meeting went on for a long time, and by the time it ended, the sky had also brightened.

Cui Hao and Li Ren woke up and found themselves lying in the courtyard.

The two thought they had encountered mountain ghosts and immediately ran out for help, but every person they met in the village, after listening to the beginning of their narration, just let out a gloomy laugh.

The whole village was full of fucking ghosts!

The two ran out of the village in fear and directly hid in the mountains.

From before the New Year to after the New Year, the two basically lived in a Zhao Jun Temple in the mountains.

But their wilderness survival ability was really too poor. They didn't have time to bring supplies when they escaped from the village, and in the end, they could only sneak into the village at night to steal a little and hide back in the mountain's Zhao Jun Temple before dawn.

Originally, when they entered the village to steal things, the two of them didn't dare to approach this earth building again. After all, this was the starting point of the nightmare.

But Li Ren accidentally stepped on a hunter's beast trap in the mountain. Although he broke free, the wound began to inflame because it didn't receive good treatment.

Cui Hao found some herbs, mashed them, and applied them to Li Ren, but the effect was very obvious: Li Ren's wound swelled high and began to suppurate.

There was no other choice. Cui Hao sneaked into the village tonight and made his way towards the earth building here, because he knew there was medicine here.

Then, he was caught.

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his forehead while analyzing Cui Hao's words.

Cui Hao didn't lie, but what he said might not be the fact.

There were definitely not all ghosts in the village; they were just being targeted.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that the scene that night was possibly the old hag wanting to figure out the construction team's true intention, whether they would give up the hydropower station construction.

Later, the yin-laughing villagers that Cui Hao and Li Ren encountered in the village should all have been fake.

But there was one point that didn't make sense. Either ask and stop, or ask and kill. What was the purpose of asking and then playing with people? So boring.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Zhao Jun Temple, what kind of place is it?"

Cui Hao: "Just a broken temple on the mountain, has some history. When we were surveying, we went there. At that time, someone in the team said this was a merit temple and also led several of us to worship together, and each took a piece of tile as a protective talisman."

"That piece of tile, is it on you?"

"Always carrying it."

"Let me see."

Cui Hao somewhat reluctantly took out a piece of tile from his pocket and handed it to Li Zhuiyuan.

The tile was very small, with three patterns engraved below three vertical lines, meaning that the upper part bears the will of heaven, the lower part follows the hearts of the people, and the merit is immeasurable.

It was indeed a merit tile, but it didn't have actual evil-repelling effect.

Folk indeed had the tradition of collecting merit tiles or merit bricks, not to collect as antiques, but to believe that putting this into one's own house could secure the home and repel evil.

It is said that the real Leifeng Pagoda collapsed because nearby people took too many bricks.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that since the tile had no effect, then what was effective might be the temple behind the tile.

Zhao Jun Temple... Li Zhuiyuan hadn't heard of this kind of temple. He knew of Zhao Jun Temple (referring to Zhao Jun, a historical figure).

But this Zhao Jun could actually make the old hag忌惮, even with his piece of tile in his pocket, she didn't dare to really kill the two.

Li Zhuiyuan clapped his hands, stood up, and said to Cui Hao:

"Let's go, we'll go save your colleague."

...

Zhao Jun Temple was already in a semi-abandoned state, or rather, the initial purpose of building it was not for incense inheritance, because its location was really too remote and difficult to reach.

The area around the temple had collapsed, and wild grass and vines were overgrown. Only the main temple roof there still had a broken roof, barely sheltering from wind and rain.

In the past few days, Cui Hao and Li Ren had just been hiding here to survive in the wilderness.

Li Ren's condition was not good. The wound was infected and he also had a fever. His consciousness was in a muddled state.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to him, and Yin Meng immediately squatted down, starting to help him treat the wound.

The rest of the people then began to examine this Zhao Jun Temple.

There was a stone carving in the temple, but it had been exposed to wind and sun for a long time, and the stone carving had also become very rough. Of course, not all the blame could be put on wind and frost; mainly, this stone carving was carved quite roughly from the beginning, not very heartfelt.

Behind the stone carving, there was a merit stele.

The writing on it was mottled, but it could still be vaguely discerned.

It mainly narrated Zhao Jun's merits. After he came here, he helped the mountain people to control water and build canals, and also drove away the demons and evil spirits harming the mountains.

Li Zhuiyuan slightly frowned. The content on this merit stele was also very vague. It didn't even clearly write Zhao Jun's name. Zhao Jun should be an honorific title.

Drive away evil spirits?

So, this Zhao Jun had once dealt with the old hag?

Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the dilapidated temple, turned back to look at the direction the stone carving faced, turned sideways, and according to the map memory in his brain, this direction faced exactly that lake.

The young man suddenly realized that this was a sub-temple, or called an accompanying temple.

The real main temple of Zhao Jun was not here.

But from the position of the sub-temple, it shouldn't stand here, but should be a bit higher up.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his head and looked towards the pile of large stones above Zhao Jun Temple.

"Runsheng bro, try to pry open a stone."

"Okay!"

Runsheng inserted the Yellow River shovel into the gap and began to exert force to pry.

Soon, the stone gradually loosened, and one of them was pried open.

Inside was a stone stele, soaked in years, with blood as writing, vigorous and powerful.

When he saw the content on the stele, Li Zhuiyuan's gaze also froze.

"Miao border saintess, stepped onto the wrong path, willingly fell, plundering and killing infants and young children in all directions, supplementing herself,妄图 using herself as the furnace to nurture a gu child.

Heaven is angry, people resent, people and gods are indignant together.

Now I am in this place, killing the gu child and suppressing the saintess.

Years are long, human power has limits. If the suppression fails, this evil will reappear.

When it rises again to kill, that is the time for my descendants to uphold my will, again come to this place, and heavily suppress the evil!

— Jiujiang Zhao Wuchang."

Jiujiang Zhao family.

Zhao Yi's ancestor.

Zhao Wuchang was Zhao Jun. Li Zhuiyuan guessed that this person was probably the dragon king in the history of the Jiujiang Zhao family, and also the only one.

According to reason, this should have been Zhao Yi's opportunity; he was also walking the river.

This wave should have been given to Zhao Yi.

Instead, it was divided to himself.

Li Zhuiyuan involuntarily looked at Xue Liangliang standing in front of him, who was also looking at the stele text.

At this time, the first thought in the young man's brain was: this is a good opportunity to set a trap and kill Zhao Yi.

This was a kind of instinctive reaction.

Because Zhao Yi was worthy of respect, worthy of being killed.

But soon, this thought was erased by Li Zhuiyuan from his brain, because doing so was quite meaningless.

If in normal times, when both sides encountered each other, they would rely on their abilities, mutually dig pits, and bury the other in advance. That would be fine.

But under the personal inscription of the Zhao family dragon king, to ponder and consider this kind of thing again felt like a child throwing a tantrum in front of adults, seeming boring and childish.

After all, no matter what, every generation's dragon king was worthy of respect.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, gently pushed Xue Liangliang away, and walked alone to the front of the stele, standing frankly, and opened his mouth:

"Unfortunately, your Jiujiang Zhao family has only produced you, one generation of dragon king, up to now."

He bore the inheritance of two families' dragon kings. Even facing other families' dragon kings, at least the first sentence couldn't show timidity, meaning he couldn't be too polite.

Each family had its own pride, each leading the fashion of a generation.

Subsequently, Li Zhuiyuan bowed towards the stele, then performed the rituals of the Qin and Liu families.

This bow was not to the Jiujiang Zhao family, but to the predecessor who once suppressed the江湖 evil spirits.

The ritual was finished, and Li Zhuiyuan straightened up, opening his mouth:

"Your Zhao family dragon king's work, I, dragon king Qin, dragon king Liu, have taken over!"

"Ka cha!"

As soon as the words fell, the stele cracked, splitting into two halves, and in the middle, a rusty copper coin sword was inserted.

Li Zhuiyuan blinked his eyes.

He didn't expect the Zhao family dragon king to be so generous.

The inscription said that descendants would come to suppress; but even descendants of other families, as long as they were willing to come here to suppress this evil, he would gift them the tool to help.

This was probably the breadth of mind of a dragon king.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and grabbed the copper coin sword. The moment he touched it, a cool feeling flowed from his palm straight in, making his mind a burst of clarity.

Good stuff!

Li Zhuiyuan pulled out the copper coin sword, while observing the precious rust on it, sighing in his heart:

"Sorry, Zhao Yi."

———

This is to supplement yesterday's word count; there will be more tonight.

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