Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Zhang Puppet

Liu Shisan was quite surprised. When he took a closer look, he saw that the dancing flames illuminated the mouth of the blue stone snake head, and thin white smoke was coming out slightly. easy to detect. Suspicious of poisonous gas, Liu Shisan immediately became vigilant and hurriedly informed Zhang Puppet beside him.Seeing this, Zhang Puppet first frowned, extremely worried, but gradually relaxed his brows, showing joy on his face.He asked Liu Shisan to hide aside, took out a sulfur bullet (the kind used for Maojin swords) from his sleeve, and threw it in along the snake's mouth. After a while, there was a choking sulfur smell. spread all around.Suddenly, a big snake jumped out of the snake's mouth, it was red all over, slender and terrifying, the big snake crawled out along the snake's mouth, lingered in the same place for a few times, and jumped at them with its big mouth open. past.Although Liu Shisan said that he had countless fights, he dealt with the dead a lot after all. Where did he encounter such a situation?Looking at this posture this time, it is uncertain how many such big snakes there will be here. At that time, I couldn't stop feeling terrified, and raised the shovel in my hand to fight.

But when he thought of the local legend, the hand holding the shovel trembled again. When he wanted to hit him, he couldn't. When he was in trouble, Zhang Puppet grabbed him, pointed at the snake and said excitedly: "Don't move! It is very possible to follow it. You can find the coffin!" After speaking, he took out another brimstone bomb, which exploded next to the snake with a "bang". Snakes, big or small, venomous and non-venomous, are all taboo against sulfur without exception. When the sulfur bomb exploded, sulfur powder filled the snake and surrounded it. Escape to a deep hole.Zhang Puppet said and followed it, and the two followed the big snake all the way forward, and they found a strange palace-like hall.

It is said to be a hall, but in fact it is just a modified base of a cave. At a glance, it is obvious that this place is made by artificial force. The many buildings and snake sculptures can never be carved by snakes themselves.Judging from the degree of corrosion of the utensils and statues, this palace seems to have a long history. The two walked around the hall, trying their best to find the coffin.Due to the internal structure of the cave, this hall is not as regular as a normal hall. After searching for it, the two found a side hall in the southeast corner of the hall with a sarcophagus inside. Zhang Puppet was not sure if it was the Snake Palace at the time, but When he saw the sarcophagus, he pinched his fingers and determined that it was the inner and outer coffins. He immediately picked up the thing, and the two of them pried open the coffin lid without saying a word.

The situation inside the coffin was completely exposed. Inside the gray and cold sarcophagus, there was only one folded silver-white object stacked on one side. It was as thin as a cicada's wing and seemed to be a translucent silk fabric.The two were quite disappointed. Seeing that there was nothing in the coffin except the "silk fabric", Liu Shisan picked up the "silk fabric" casually. When I put it in front of my eyes and took a closer look, I was shocked again: what kind of silk fabric is this, it is clearly a giant snake skin, my God!Judging from the size of the snake's skin, the size of this snake has completely exceeded his imagination.

Liu Shisan looked around nervously, then handed the snake skin to Zhang Puppet tremblingly. Zhang Puppet frowned, and said, "No! Impossible!" Then he picked up the snake skin and unfolded it carefully. watch. "Is this some kind of snake emperor shedding its skin? Could it be that there really is such a big snake? This is the first time I've seen it!" Liu Shisan asked nervously. Zhang Puppet did not speak, still frowning tightly, and kept saying: "No! Impossible!" Liu Shisan didn't understand what this meant, and was about to ask, but Zhang Puppet said: "I came here before I came here!" I made some preparations in the past few days, and checked a lot of relevant historical materials about snake totem worship. This snake palace has also existed in other places, and they are all tombs of people with snakes as totems. This is really special. It seems that We oversimplified the matter. The local legend is not unfounded, and I thought it was a human tomb at first, but now it seems that things are definitely not that simple!"

As soon as Liu Shisan heard it, cold sweat broke out: "What? Is this really the Snake Emperor Snake Palace?" Zhang Puppet didn't answer, and continued to pull the horribly thick snake skin in his hand. Gradually, his face became more and more ugly, and cold sweat began to ooze from his forehead, which had always been calm. Suddenly, he pulled up the skin of the snake's tail, stretched his brows, and stared straight at the bottom of the sarcophagus. Liu Shisan followed his gaze: but there was a huge snake head pattern at the bottom of the sarcophagus, bared. Holding its fangs, revealing incomparable ferocity, just now this pattern was being covered by this large piece of snake skin.

Zhang Puppet carefully stretched out his hand to touch it, and found that the snake's head was three-dimensional. He was shocked, then took out the iron hook thoughtfully, hooked the two sharp fangs on the left and right of the snake's mouth, and signaled Liu Shisan, The two lifted it up vigorously.With a soft sound, the snake head pattern was divided into two from the middle to the two sides, and a hole was opened at the bottom of the sarcophagus, which was bottomless.Hold up the torch and take a look, except for the vaguely visible stone steps leading to the bottom, nothing else can be seen.

Liu Shisan was shocked, looked at Master in puzzlement, and asked what was going on.Zhang Puppet had no expression on his face. Holding a torch, he stared at the inside of the dark hole for a long time, and then slowly said: "You don't move around on it! I'll go down and have a look, there is something famous here!" Liu Shisan didn't dare to say anything, so he could only follow his will and watched Zhang Puppet walk down the stone steps slowly, only to see the light of the torches in the cave gradually weaken until it disappeared.He didn't dare to slack off, followed into the sarcophagus and stuck his head into the hole, trying hard to see what he wanted to see, but he couldn't feel anything except the boundless darkness.

Liu Shisan waited for a long time in the sarcophagus holding a torch, but he still didn't see any movement underneath, nor did Zhang Puppet return, so he secretly became nervous.It stands to reason that he shouldn't have any worries about Zhang Puppet's skill, but today's situation really made him feel uncertain. This is the first time I have encountered it.Human beings are born with fear, especially of the unknown world.Liu Shisan thought about it and didn't dare to think about it anymore, waiting for the torment with an uneasy heart. After waiting for a long time, there was still no movement. He really couldn't wait any longer, so he boldly put his whole body into the cave, and cautiously went down the stone steps.The light from the torch could only illuminate the area around his body, and the boundless darkness instantly swallowed up the weak light. Apart from seeing his body moving down the stone steps under his feet, he could not feel any objects at all. Day walked aimlessly like a walking dead, and the stone steps seemed to have no end, no matter how you walked, you couldn't finish it.

Liu Shisan turned around, but saw that the entrance of the cave he had just entered was already submerged in darkness, and the light beam of the torch was also shaking and gradually weakened. He felt a little frightened, so he turned around quickly and prepared to return.At this moment, a slender light ahead entered his line of sight.He was startled at first, then regained his composure, and confirmed that he was wrong. The surrounding area was so dark that even the slightest light could be easily caught, not to mention what he saw was a long strip of extremely bright yellow-green light. He felt very incomprehensible to the appearance of such a long line of light here, so he moved towards the bright light curiously. Before he got closer, he realized that there were two semi-circular bronze doors in front of him, which were also carved into the shape of snake heads. The door was ajar and was opened a crack, and the bright light from just now came out through this crack.The end of the bronze door was brightly lit.Accompanied by the trembling and flickering shadow projected in the crack of the door, there seemed to be an inexplicable sound that was faintly present, but it didn't sound like a human voice.

Liu Shisan gained courage, looked around, and tiptoed close to the bronze door. He could hear the weird sound more clearly. He couldn't describe what kind of sound it was, but he felt it was very weird. People feel very uncomfortable.He covered his ears, put his face close to the crack of the door, and was about to peek inside through the crack of the door. Suddenly, a powerful big hand stretched out from the darkness and tore him away. Liu Shisan was so frightened that he almost got out of his body, screamed involuntarily, and dropped the torch to the ground and extinguished it.The flickering light of the torch revealed the figure of a person and a face ashen ashes. It was none other than his master Zhang Puppet who pulled him. "Don't look! Go!" Zhang Puppet said to him sternly. When Liu Shisan saw his expression just now, an ominous premonition surged up in an instant, and he was at a loss for what to do, and stood there blankly. "Run! Are you still standing there waiting to die?" Zhang Puppet shouted loudly, Liu Shisan woke up like a dream, slapped himself, and ran back with big strides from memory.Suddenly, all the surrounding sounds suddenly stopped, and the two stopped involuntarily.There was a suffocating silence all around, only the rapid heartbeats of the two remained. "Squeak..." An incomprehensible strange sound came from the bronze round door not far behind in the darkness.Without any rhythm, it was like a gust of cold wind blowing from behind, instantly raising Liu Shisan's heartbeat to the limit, damn it!The door was slowly opening, could it be that something inside found them?Thinking of this, Liu Shisan's clothes were instantly soaked in cold sweat, and he couldn't help but look back. "Can't look! Run!" Zhang Puppet grabbed his ear, and abruptly turned his head back which had been turned half a circle. Liu Shisan's ear was almost pulled off, and he yelled in pain. , the fear in my heart prevailed over curiosity, so I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, and ran out of the hole along the same path... This inversion ended fruitlessly, and the two returned to their places. Liu Shisan asked his master more than once about the Snake Hoop Mountain, but Zhang Puppet either kept silent or avoided the topic every time. , and suddenly announced on a certain day that he would end his fighting career and sever the master-student relationship with Liu Shisan. Liu Shisan must have been very puzzled and reluctant, but Zhang Puppet's attitude was extremely firm, and he even started to fight Liu Shisan in a hurry.Liu Shisan had no choice but to lament that the fate of master and apprentice was over, and the two parted ways from then on. Zhang Puppet chose another residence and lived a life of seclusion. One day a year later, Liu Shisan suddenly received news that Zhang Puppet was seriously ill and wanted to see him for the last time.Zhang Puppet has no family and no heirs. Liu Shisan is his only apprentice and the person he has the closest relationship with. Master was seriously ill, so he rushed to Master's bed without hesitation. Zhang Puppet said something to persuade Liu Shisan to retreat bravely and end his fighting career, but he didn't mention a word about what happened to Shehoushan Mountain more than a year ago, and only said two words in Liu Shisan's ear :conspiracy! After speaking, he died. According to the account, Zhang Puppet died of a strange disease. A long sore appeared on his waist inexplicably.It is said that if this kind of "snake hoop sore" is not treated in time, it will grow longer and longer. If it wraps around the body from head to tail and joints, a person's life will be confessed. Zhang Puppet treated himself according to the folk prescription of "snake hoop sore", but instead of getting better, it became more and more serious.What's even more bizarre is that the sores on this body are getting thicker and longer, and within a few days, they coiled around the body several times, from the waist to the chest, like a snake wrapped around a person's body. The pain was overwhelming, and it became difficult to breathe.In the end, when I arrived at the hospital, no such bizarre cause could be found, and the treatment was ineffective, until I died. Liu Shisan believed that the sickness on Master's body must be related to the experience of the Snake-Hoop Mountain last time, and Master was unwilling to reveal what he saw that day until his death.