Chapter 15 Chapter 14 Evil Sacrifice: The Heavenly Punishment of the Ancient Ba People

I was startled when I heard it, and hurriedly followed with Old Lame Wang. After looking at it, he felt a little relieved. What the three fat men fished out was a mummy. The whole body was wrapped in rotting clothes, only the limbs and head were exposed.After being soaked in the cave water at this moment, the dust on his body was also washed away, and he could clearly see that this was a man, but the appearance of his death was really scary.The entire face shrank and collapsed, the two eye sockets were black and sunken, and the shape of the whole person was very distorted, as if he had suffered great pain before his death.

The third fat man, Chen Jianguo, spat, couldn't help cursing, shouting bad luck, quickly walked to the side of the dead face, and asked him why he didn't remind himself. Standing next to the mummy, I couldn't help being surprised.Where did this mummy come from?How did it appear in this cave?Moreover, there were green needles growing on its face, neck, hands, and feet, which were very dense, as if they were going to wrap his entire body. How is this going?How could there be green hair growing on the corpse? No wonder San Fatty called it the green-haired rice dumpling. "Damn it, is this mummy damp and moldy? Why is there so much moss growing on it? Just now I almost scared the fat man..." The third fat man complained.

"It's not moss, it's corpse hair!" Old Cripple Wang's complexion began to change, "It seems that many people died in this place back then." Although it was pitch black in the water cave, with the help of the light from the torch, the details of the mummy could still be seen clearly. "Damn it, you're saying that it's not moss, but the hair growing on the corpse. Damn, it's a fake corpse!" The third fat man was so frightened that his whole body became cold, and he couldn't help cursing. "It's hard to say whether it's a lie or not, but since the green hair grows, it means that something must have happened to the corpse?"

"This place is a corpse cave. I don't know how many years it has existed. These corpses have been placed in this kind of place for a long time, and the yin is so heavy. It is normal if there are some things like corpse changes..." Looking at the green-haired mummy in front of them, everyone felt a sense of foreboding. "Let's get out of here quickly. The hair, teeth, and nails on the corpse can continue to grow. I'm afraid this is a 'corpse breeding ground'? Everyone, get out of here quickly, and don't touch that long-haired corpse." Lame Wang is very experienced, obviously this is not the first time he has seen such a wicked situation.

After hearing the old cripple's words, I was actually a little worried, so I nodded and prepared to ask the third fat man to throw the green-haired mummy into the river, so that the group of people could continue to move forward. How did I know that no one answered after I said it twice, I was startled, thinking that something happened, I hurriedly turned my head.Who knew that the boy, the third fat man, was standing there, methodically wrapping the thick hemp rope he carried around the neck of the green-haired mummy, lifting it up, raising his hand, and opening his bow left and right, "Crackling" slapped the mummy five or six times.

Except that the dead face was still there, as cold as ever.Old Lame Wang and I were both stunned when we saw this, thinking that the third fat man had gone mad with epilepsy again.Could it be that Gou Ri's was possessed by something, and he was dazed?Otherwise, which game is this playing?Immediately stopped him and asked what the kid wanted to do. I hurriedly stopped the third fat man, and hearing what he was still muttering, I cursed: "Have you gone crazy, it's nothing, why are you slapping it? Could it be that you are looking at the dead and easy to bully? Do you want to practice in this cave?" As I was talking, my heart suddenly jumped, and I thought, this fat man is not really bewitched.Could it be that something had a grudge against this green-haired rice dumpling, so it attached itself to the third fat man and beat him on the ear to vent his hatred?

The third fat man was stopped by me, turned around and said: "You are the **** crazy, fat man, this is... this is using local methods to exorcise evil spirits and suppress corpses. When we were in Liulichang a few years ago, didn't you Have you heard from Big Head Liu, who runs a street stall, that when the craftsmen in the Taodou shop open coffins, when they encounter those weird corpses, they first tie them up with corpse ropes, and then they bow left and right, ruthlessly Give it a few mouthfuls. It's so cowardly. No matter what, you must not lose in momentum, so that you can deter these things and prevent it from cheating and turning into big rice dumplings. These things, We all listened together, you kid won't forget it so quickly."

I laughed and scolded: "Fuck you, these things are all nonsense and fooling people with Big Liu's head. You really took it seriously. If he really has the ability to fight against feudal superstition and break the four olds, this old man will I won’t be caught by the Red Guards on the street and squatted in the cowshed, and the duck will be floating in the water.” The three fat guys chuckled: "Don't care if it's true or not, let's talk about it first, it's good to get vaccinated." It was a few big ear scrapers that "snapped" past. I watched from the side inexplicably, the three fat guys were complacent, and just halfway through speaking, they slapped them again.Who knows if the slap was too hard or something.The head of the ancient corpse slammed and shook three times on the neck, "ba da" fell to the ground, along the ground, "gululu" rolled, and just landed at the feet of the crippled old man.

At this moment, several people were taken aback. The three fatty hands trembled, and the torso of the ancient corpse fell to the ground with a dull sound.Everyone felt strange, although the third fat man struck harder, he still restrained most of his strength. This ancient corpse looks fine, why is his head so weak that he was knocked off the ground with a single slap? The third fat man himself felt puzzled, and scolded: "Damn, this is too hard to help. I didn't even use three points of strength, and the seeds of this head just fell off." I said to him: "Damn, you bastard, your strikes are never light or heavy... The head of this green hairy rice dumpling is not a piece of paper. If you didn't use too much force, you could be beaten Slap it off? Besides, they didn't recruit you or provoke you, even if you die, you still want to leave a whole body for them, right? This is good, because you directly made the body incomplete, and the head was separated. If you ask me, even if this zongzi comes back to life, the first thing to look for is you."

The third fat man rolled his eyes and wanted to defend himself again, but at this moment he heard Mr. Wang squatting down and looking at the head of the ancient corpse, cursing: "His grandma, stop arguing, you two, come and have a look. This human head is weird..." As he said that, he didn't think it was dirty, so he picked up the fallen ancient corpse's head for us to see. I looked over with the torch, and found that the ancient corpse's head had been smashed in half.This corpse cave was originally cold and damp, and the mummy had been dead for an unknown amount of time, and its bones had become deformed and brittle. It was knocked apart by such a fall, exposing the hollow cranial cavity inside.

Lame Wang held it in his hand, and by the light of the torch, we could see that inside this deformed head, the cranial cavity was covered with densely packed things that looked like insect eggs.Big lumps stuck together, all attached to the inner wall of the skull.The color of these insect eggs is white, and each one is distinct, just like the wrapped pomegranate seeds. Some of them have dried up, and some seem to be alive. After being cracked, a translucent sticky Liquid, it looks disgusting. Everyone felt their scalps go numb, but they were also aroused at this moment, and they were not afraid, so they got together and guessed what these things were. Under the light of the torch, the worm eggs in the cranial cavity became more transparent, and the outside was covered with a layer of translucent white worm membrane.Lame Wang squatted down and pierced a few of the eggs with the dagger he carried with him, only to find that only some of them were still alive.What the hell are these things?Everyone's hearts sank. There are so many insect eggs attached to the skull cavity of the ancient corpse in the corpse cave. Could it be some kind of parasite? It's just that the general parasites are parasitic on the human body, and rarely enter the brain.What's more, these insect eggs almost covered the entire cranial cavity of the ancient corpse, which is too scary.What kind of bug is it? It's so powerful, and the way it lays eggs is really creepy... Although the third fat man, Chen Jianguo, was careless on weekdays, he couldn't help frowning when facing the scene in front of him.The worm eggs in the brain cavity of these people are really scary. It would be fine if they parasitized on the corpse after death. The most feared thing is that when the person is alive, the brain cavity will be covered with these white worm eggs. Just thinking about it is enough to send chills down the spine. With the light of the torch, I leaned over to take another look. The skull cavity of the ancient corpse was completely exposed, and there seemed to be a circle of man-made scratches on the edge of the eye sockets, as if the eyes had been gouged out before death. Speaking of which, although I had heard many stories about the coffins of the ancient tombs near Liulichang when I was a child, I had never seen many evil things like rice dumplings with corpses.Only the iron coffin in the underground tomb in Qinglong Mountain is still thrilling. So seeing the head of this ancient corpse at this moment, looking left and right, apart from knowing that the eyes of the ancient corpse were gouged out during his lifetime, he couldn't see any difference.So he tried to ask Old Lame Wang: "Could these eggs be the eggs of some decaying insects, but what's the matter with this person's eyes being gouged out?" Old Lame Wang said: "It is still uncertain what these insect eggs are, but the image of this ancient corpse is very similar to how the ancient Wu clan in the old Yangtze River valley before the pre-Qin Dynasty treated prisoners of war or slaves, and the Rolling Dragon Bazi itself It is one of its birthplaces. As you can see, there are traces of being tortured in the eye sockets of this head. The people of the Guwu clan will use this trick when dealing with death row prisoners or slaves who violate taboos. It is called heavenly punishment. They have a torture tool , shaped like a wine cup, with a sharp blade on the inner edge, which can be cut out by turning it around the human eye." Hearing what the old lame man said, the three fat man and I couldn't help but look at each other. We had only heard that the pre-Qin laws were harsh and the people were in dire straits, but we didn't expect that the punishment of ancient minorities was so terrible and cruel.I couldn't help but said to the old cripple: "Anyway, there is something weird everywhere in this corpse cave. But, I still don't understand, where did the eggs in the cranial cavity come from?" Old Lame Wang waved his hand, meaning he didn't know. He held the ancient corpse's head and observed it for a long time, then sniffed it lightly with his nose, as if he remembered something, his face suddenly changed.Just as we were wondering, at this moment, Dead Face, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "These eggs are not formed naturally." "What do you mean?" The third fat man wondered, "Brother, don't stop talking all the time. It's not formed naturally, so is it artificial?" I thought of Xiaomei and Shuanzi's lure of the golden chrysalis, my heart skipped a beat, and I said to the dead face: "So, these eggs are raised by living people? Maybe this corpse cave is a In a large burial pit." Dead Face didn't answer me immediately, but just stirred the ancient corpse's head with the iron rod in his hand, revealing the dense white insect eggs inside, couldn't help frowning, and became more and more silent. On the contrary, it was Wang Laozi who said to me and the third fat man: "It's hard to say whether this is a sacrificial pit, but one thing is certain, the eggs in the cranial cavity of this ancient corpse are all excreted, and they must have disappeared with the old Yangtze River basin." It is related to the ancient Wu clan. The most likely is the ancient Wu clan, the oldest and evil sacrifice in the Hunan-Hubei area. This ancient corpse should be the victim and sacrifice of this notorious corpse figurine ceremony." Hearing what Wang Laizi said, everyone was terrified. In addition, the cave was full of weird stone milk with jagged protrusions, and the terrain was complicated. Except for this green-haired mummy, we found no other abnormal things.So at the suggestion of the old cripple, everyone returned to the bamboo raft again, followed the dark river flowing quietly in the water hole, and continued to move deeper into the river. In this way, Chen Jianguo and I took turns to control the driving of the bamboo raft.Taking advantage of this gap, I also took the opportunity to ask Mr. Wang Lame, what exactly is this so-called corpse figurine, and how can I be sure that all of this is related to the ancient Wu family's obliteration technique? Before I came to Gunlongbazi, I felt strange that Old Cripple Wang seemed to know the history of the ancient Wu clan in the Yangtze River Valley in western Hubei, as if he had entered this place a long time ago.I always feel that the old cripple led us into Gunlong Bazi this time not only to find the so-called Laoshan Gulong, but also to hide some ulterior purpose in his heart. It's just that under the current circumstances, it's impossible for me to ask him directly, and I can only inquire about other situations around the corner. In the field of Tufuzi, the four boards in Western Hubei have been well-known. This is not only reflected in the craftsmanship of Taodou, but also because these masters of tomb robbers have great knowledge of the tombs, mounds, mounds, Cultural dating, and even all kinds of secrets that are not obvious to the world are well known.Putting them outside, each of them can be regarded as an old scholar who knows the past and the present, and these are all determined by the particularity of the Tao Dou technique.The secrets, obscurities and stories hidden in it are really not enough for outsiders to understand. According to the old cripple, this so-called ancient Wu clan was actually a mysterious clan in the old Yangtze River Valley during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, or even earlier.At that time, the hinterland of the Central Plains was still at the beginning of ceremonial education and wars, and in the ancient land boundary of western Hubei, where ethnic minorities gathered, it was a mysterious era that did not even have written records. Counting the hidden secrets of posterity.Just like many ancient civilizations that suddenly appeared in history and then disappeared like a flash in the pan, the corpse cave we entered is the remains of the ancient Wu clan at the junction of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty.At that time, they dominated the fertile Yangtze River Basin in western Hubei, and they were good at using this technique of change, which is a technique of using natural geomantic omen, terrain, psychics, and even certain insects to put people to death Evil magic, once prevalent in Southeast Asia, is the most terrifying sorcery in southern Yunnan. The corpse figurines we saw in the water cave before were the victims of this terrible sorcery.According to some sayings that are still circulated in the witchcraft sacrifices in Southeast Asia, there are no more than two kinds of people who have been made into corpse figurines.One is a prisoner who has committed a felony, and the other is a slave or a prisoner of war. People of the Guwu clan believe that this is the greatest punishment for life, and they will not be freed after death, and will not be reborn forever. The weird death process and the mutation after the mutation are actually a cruel punishment.When the subject was alive, someone forcibly poured a special lure full of insect eggs along the ears, nose, and throat. After the worms are poured into the human body, the insect eggs inside will hatch under the action of the human body temperature, and then crazily eat away the nutrients in the human brain, and will multiply in a large number in a short period of time, repeating the cycle, and eventually killing the human body. The brain cavity eats away at the void.When the nutrients in the human brain and cranial cavity are exhausted, the last batch of eggs will fall into a dormant state, waiting for the next recovery. It is conceivable that a living person whose seven orifices were sealed for life, endured the pain of thousands of insects devouring his heart in this gloomy water cave, and finally died in the dying struggle and despair.This kind of punishment, even in the society at that time, was extremely cruel and creepy. Therefore, the production of corpse figurines is mostly performed in secret and remote places, which also confirms Wang Laozi's conjecture from another aspect. This corpse cave should be an ancient place where prisoners of war or slaves were mutilated. secret place.That's why the expression of the green-haired figurine we saw at that time was so ferocious and painful. Obviously, before this person died, he must have endured despair and pain unimaginable to ordinary people. The next topic became very serious.Listening to Mr. Wang's deduction, the third fat man and I felt a chill creep up our backs. In the almost ignorant society at that time, the productivity was low, tribes fought each other, and the dead were undoubtedly the most common thing. People who live under the red flag and grew up in peaceful times can't help feeling terrified. Everyone stopped talking, and the bamboo raft continued to travel in the dark waterway. There was silence all around, but I didn't know why in my heart, and I always felt that something was wrong with the development of things.If, as we have judged, this ancient water cave, which has long since disappeared in the historical fault, is really the place where the ancient Wu clan in the Yangtze River Basin in western Hubei held sacrifices and practiced transformation, then the water in this cave It's weird, it's definitely not just as simple as the corpse figurine we saw before. After all, according to the productivity and labor force of ethnic minorities at that time, it was extremely difficult to build such a large project.Even though this water hole was formed naturally a long time ago, the planning and transformation of it alone cannot be done in a day or two. And this is exactly what I'm wondering about. Why did the members of the Guwu Clan at that time use the power of the whole clan to spend such a high price to communicate with the entire dark river?What does this mean to them?Is it just to demonstrate the supremacy of theocracy?There is also the strange iron-masked man on the mural, the huge mysterious black nest like a canopy, the man-eating mullet... everything seems to be hidden in the mist, only a slight gap is opened, and some kind of mystery is revealed from it. The message is already so creepy and horrifying. If everything is really as I imagined, then the secret hidden deep in the underground river is definitely not as simple as it appears on the surface.Because in the era when the labor force was relatively backward at that time, using water transportation was undoubtedly the easiest and fastest way.And this, perhaps, is the core of the whole thing. It's just that what's weird in the depths of this dark river, and where its final destination is, I'm afraid only a few of us will be able to find out after we reach the destination with our lives!