After getting help from the Qi Family Army's soldier souls and the water ghosts, the originally life-threatening encounter was safely overcome.
The two souls did not stay here for long. After ensuring the safety of Zhang Tao and other Tianshifu disciples, they left. Everyone on the boat was still in shock and could not come back to their senses. Zhang Tao stared at the simple message on his mobile phone, his heart was turbulent.
"Junior brother, what's wrong?"
"You are not injured."
A Taoist priest saw Zhang Tao motionless and was a little worried.
Zhang Tao took a deep breath, shook his head, and reluctantly said, "Nothing, thank you for your concern, senior brother."
The Taoist saw that he didn't seem to want to say more, and didn't ask any more questions. He just thought of the scene he had just seen, and couldn't help but sighed, "What a life and death escape. If it weren't for the help of the two guardian gods, we would have died in the Huai River. I don't know which senior's trick was it."
"The two guardian gods almost have the demeanor of the legendary righteous gods and Yin generals."
"Old Liu, are you okay?"
The old Taoist turned around and saw the boatman still collapsed on the ground, his face pale. He helped him up and comforted him, "Don't worry, things are safe for the time being, don't be afraid."
The old boatman looked unspeakable, and looked at the gradually calming water surface. His face became paler, but the Taoists on the boat were all injured and didn't notice the subtle changes in their expressions. Zhang Tao looked at mobile phone, looked at his senior brother, and said:
"Senior brother, is there a way to drive the Yin God in modern times?"
The Taoist thought for a while and said: "Yes, but in this year, it requires a very high level of Taoism."
"Generally speaking, it takes a few hours to summon the Yin God and make it obey orders. It's very troublesome."
Zhang Tao was silent and said: "What if it takes less than ten minutes?"
The Taoist was surprised and laughed: "How is it possible?"
He just thought that his junior brother was confused and answered casually:
"Then unless the person who casts the spell has a high level of Taoism to the extent that he only needs to cast a talisman to make the Yin soldiers and gods obey orders, huh, where is that kind of person? If that's the case, wouldn't it be the realm of the legendary Daozang, where the name and official position have been left in the heavenly court?"
"That's the immortal."
"Immortal..."
Zhang Tao stared at the short time on the phone and couldn't say anything.
......…
Due to this encounter, several Taoists from the Tianshi Mansion were injured, and the boatman was also frightened and pale. Everyone no longer had the idea of continuing to move forward on the Huai River, but hurried back. In addition, the boatman was afraid, so he spent several hours directly back to the village.
He lived in a village along the Huai River.
The residents depended on the water for their livelihood, and occasionally took tourists across the river. The place was remote and only recently had electricity and the Internet.
After returning, I found that there was another person in the village, a young man with an ordinary face. He said that he was going to travel along the Huai River, so he came here to rent a boat. It had already been discussed, but when the boatman went to the village chief's house and talked for a while, he regretted it.
He said that at least the boat could not go out in the next few days, otherwise he would wait and see.
The young tourist was easy to talk to and agreed directly. After everyone in the Tianshi Mansion discussed it, since they had already notified the Longhu Mountain Tianshi Mansion, the uncles would naturally handle the matter. However, the villagers had encountered a water ghost with them before, and they didn't know if there would be any remaining dangers, so they might as well stay in the village for a few days.
Zhang Tao was still distracted by the short message on his phone, but when he went out, he ran into the tourist who was said to have come to the village a little earlier than them. He greeted him and said politely: "I don't know what to call you..."
The young man looked at him and replied:
"My last name is Wu."
Zhang Tao was surprised. This last name was relatively rare, but he didn't think much about it and nodded.
The man who claimed to be surnamed Wu stood at the entrance of the village and looked into the distance. The Qi Family Army soldier soul and the water ghost reported what had just happened to him. It was Wei Yuan who rushed over from Quan City. Human vision relies on reflected light. With the help of the influence of the water curtain on light, it is very easy to change what others see him as.
He did not show up directly, but landed from another place and arrived at the village before Zhang Tao and others.
The boatman was even more afraid when he saw the water ghost carrying the sedan chair being defeated. He must know something.
Only seven pairs of boys and girls carrying the sedan chair could not meet Wei Yuan's goal. He was also worried that after the Wuzhiqi power appeared, the evil creature behind it would be scared away. He had to resort to this last resort. Wei Yuan stared at the scenery in the distance for a while, and asked the water ghost and the Qi family army soldier soul to hide and stare at this village.
He walked around casually like an ordinary tourist.
The Huai River, at least the Huai River in this section of the river basin, was quiet for a while after the water ghost carrying the sedan chair was killed, and then it became more and more turbulent. It seemed that there was a being hidden under the water system, and it was extremely angry. Sometimes the surging waves were almost as big as a hill, as if it was going to submerge all the villages on both sides.
Zhang Tao and other disciples of the Tianshi Mansion went to take a look and their faces were very ugly.
It was obvious that there was something at work.
I just didn't know how much water had been stirred up, and how powerful it was.
But in any case, this kind of performance could already be called a local water god, and it was not a problem that a small Taoist like them could solve. That night, all the people in the village went to worship the God of the River. Zhang Tao wanted to dissuade them, but he didn't know how to start.
Just as they wanted to get closer, the villagers stared at them with great resentment. One of the women even cursed fiercely:
"What are you doing here?!"
"If you hadn't harmed the messenger of the God of the River, Huai Duye, how could Huai Duye be so angry and disrespectful to the gods!"
When it comes to cursing, how could a few Taoists be her opponents?
They all retreated in embarrassment.
The woman who was extremely fierce when cursing was extremely pious during the prayer ceremony for the God of the River.
But it was obvious that the God of the River, Huai Duye, in their mouths, didn't appreciate it.
On the first day, large jars of white glutinous rice and highly alcoholic liquor were poured into the river. The part of the river bank where the liquor was poured was filled with a strong aroma of liquor, but the river became more turbulent.
On the second day, before getting up, the Taoists heard the cries of animals. They ran out to see that the local residents had brought living cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and chickens from somewhere, gathered the five animals, and worshiped in front of the river. They killed the animals on the spot for sacrifice.
This was almost the standard for offering sacrifices to heaven and gods in ancient times.
Blood poured into the river, and the Huai River was turbulent, but it still did not subside.
That night, several Taoists discussed how to stop the river and repel the evil spirits in the river. In another place, in the village chief's house, there was one person in every household in the village, and they were all silent. The village chief looked around and said hoarsely: "You all know the situation."
"Now those outsiders have harmed the messenger of Huai Duye. Now Huai Duye is angry. The sacrifices that were effective in previous years are now all useless. When Huai Duye is flooded, we can't escape."
A young man said: "Then we can't run away?"
The village chief sneered: "Run?"
"Don't you know what happened to those who ran away in the past few years?"
Now everyone was silent. In the past few years, they did hear that someone ran away. It was said that he went to a big city, lived a good life, and gave birth to a pair of children. As a result, only a year or two later, the villagers set a net in the Huai River to catch fish, and the corpses of the whole family came up on the net, which scared the fishermen at the time.
Since then, everyone has given up the idea of leaving the village.
In addition, in the past, when there was a flood, they only used glutinous rice liquor to deal with it. Occasionally, someone would die in the river, and they could make a living by relying on the river water. In previous years, people often died, and they always thought that it would not happen to them. But who knows, now not only glutinous rice liquor, but also five animals are useless.
The shadow of death loomed over everyone.
After a long silence, the village chief looked around and said, "There is only one way."
He said, "Live sacrifice."
Everyone's face changed. The last live sacrifice was decades ago. Some of them were still young at the time and had no impression of it. Some were not born at all. They just thought it was a so-called tradition that was lost in ignorance. But when the usually gentle and generous village chief said these two words, they realized that this tradition was not lost at all.
A woman said, "Since you said so, why don't you just send someone from your family? I remember your grandson is only six years old, which is just right."
The village chief's face changed, and he said angrily, "What did you say!"
The woman was startled and said, "Why, you are the village chief, don't you set an example? Besides, your grandson is just at the right age."
The village chief said, "Humph, isn't your grandson also this age? Old Liu's family has five children, and giving up two to keep everyone safe is just right?!"
"Village chief, why did you two drag me into the quarrel?"
"Why, you..."
The crowd started quarreling in an instant, scolding each other and exposing each other's shortcomings, and the quarrel was fierce.
Suddenly, a deep voice said, "...Draw lots."
"No one can escape."
Everyone paused and stopped talking.
They looked at each other and fell into the psychological attitude they had left in the village before - some people would be unlucky, but most people would be safe, and they always believed that they would be safe, so they found a piece of white paper, tore it into strips, and grabbed it.
A man's legs and feet became weak and he sat on the ground.
Her daughter was drawn.
......
In order to prevent the disciples of the Tianshi Mansion from getting involved.
The villagers planned to quietly complete the most important sacrifice. They brought cloth bags, leaving the eyes part to cover their faces, and then held torches to find the woman's home. The man who was extremely pious to Jiang Shen before did not come, he had been knocked unconscious.
The moment his daughter was drawn, he was crazy and wanted to push these people away, wanting to protect his daughter, but was hit hard on the back of the head and completely fainted.
In the dark night, a group of people smashed the door and knocked the woman inside unconscious.
The latter didn't even see who did it.
She only saw faces without fear or shame, stretched out under the torches, with swaying shadows on their faces, like demons lurking in the dark.
It seemed that after putting on the mask, there was no need to worry about being retaliated against, and no psychological burden.
But at this moment, a noisy sound rang out, and everyone turned around and saw the young tourist in simple clothes. He looked at those people and the little girl with tears on her face, and said, "What are you going to do?!"
No one answered, and the people who covered their faces with black bags stood indifferently.
They picked up torches and shovels, changed their previous appearance, and approached the people step by step.
The young tourist paused and said, "Let go of the child."
"No matter what, the child is innocent."
"If there is anything, I will take her place."
Everyone paused and subconsciously looked at the shortest figure in the crowd. It was the village chief. The latter looked at the young man who spoke silently. Looking at the latter's healthy and young body, he thought that if one living sacrifice was not enough, there could be a second one, so he nodded slowly.
Someone tied the young man's hands and took him and the little girl away together.
This young man will be the sacrifice of the Water God of Huaishui.
Such a healthy and young sacrifice.
I think the Water God will be satisfied.