Chapter 10 Chapter 9: The Snake Emperor's Haunted Palace

Seeing his terrified and serious expression, I don't think he is trying to scare us into a prank. Er Xia looked around nervously. Guy says there's a boa constrictor!" Several people swam to the bank quickly, the river was very narrow, the young man obviously heard what I said, stretched out his hand and pulled us up and said: "It's not a python, it's a toothpick fish. There used to be tourists swimming here and were attacked by a school of toothpick fish. They were killed and eaten alive!" When we heard this, we immediately felt scared for a while, secretly glad that we met him today, and raised our eyes to look at the person in front of us gratefully: This person is dark-skinned, rather sturdy, with a cut-cut head, simple and honest appearance, and he calls himself Heizi. A local, at first glance, we think he is more like a stocky man in the north, not like a person from the southwestern border.

Heizi told us that he lives in a nearby village and mainly does some traditional Chinese medicine and jade business in the local area on weekdays. Because of its remote location, there are very few outsiders in his village on weekdays, and occasionally tourists come to see this river. , I couldn't help but want to go down to cool off, and some of them turned into tragedies.But today he just happened to see us in his bamboo building, so he immediately came to stop us. Heizi told us that this small river is a small tributary of the Salween River, and it is rich in fish and other products. The toothpick fish is a very ferocious social fish that lives in this river, because it has two rows of sharp teeth like toothpicks, so So named, the toothpick fish is extremely fierce and aggressive. A few toothpick fish can eat a falling dog into a skeleton in an instant. After listening to his description, I think it is more similar to the Amazon piranha.

In fact, there is indeed a fish species called toothpick fish in the Amazon River, known as "Brazilian vampire fish". It is said that their bodies are so small that they can even swim into the victim's urethra.Once established, they extend a small spine and feed on the blood and body tissue of their victims.Terrifyingly, they will survive and multiply within the victim until they drain the victim's blood, and only surgery can remove them. After listening to Heizi's description, I was sure that the local toothpick fish is not the same as the Amazon toothpick fish. After hearing this, Er Xia said in a terrified voice: "Hey! If you want to raise such a group of this thing in Guanyue Lake, let's never think about it again. Fishing!"

During the conversation, we learned that we are now in the China-Myanmar border area. Although it is not a short distance from Tengchong County, it is not very far from our destination, Shehuan Mountain. She winked, but she didn't expect to blind this guy in the right place.I thought that when I arrived at the border of Yunnan, there were all ethnic minorities, but Heizi told us that he was a Han, and this place is a hodgepodge where Han and other ethnic minorities live together, including some local minority autonomous counties, where the majority are also Han. It is probably because it is rare to meet outsiders in this deep mountain, and they are all of the same age, so we talked very speculatively. The people deep in the mountain have enthusiasm that we do not have. Heizi invited us to his home , the kindness is hard to turn down, and we really have to find a place to rest now, so we went happily.

The place where Heizi is located is called a stockade rather than a village. Several bamboo buildings are sparsely surrounded by dense forests, arranged very irregularly, but the environment is absolutely quiet. It's a good place for anyone who wants to live in seclusion. Just after cooling off in the river for a while, now we will enter the bamboo building, sit on the cool bamboo stool, and eat the fruits brought by Heizi, which makes people feel very comfortable. The climate here determines the abundance of fruits here. Not to be too polite, Er Xia said while eating: "Heizi! Your place is really nice, why, do you live alone?"

Heizi replied with a smile: "I usually do business in jade and traditional Chinese medicine. This season just prepares to collect Chinese medicinal materials. These bamboo buildings are all temporary, and the transportation in the mountains is inconvenient. I have to build such a temporary one during the medicinal season. It is convenient for her to live and collect herbs, and there are many bamboo houses like this in the mountains.” Mao Jindao did not speak at the side, and after a while he took out his mobile phone and started calling. Maybe the signal was not good, so he got up and went outside.

Er Xia continued: "Your place is really nice, it's cool and clean, much better than the dilapidated building we lived in last night!" Then he shook his head and waved his hands to describe the bamboo building we lived in last night. I listened on the sidelines, reached out to take an apple, turned my head inadvertently, and suddenly found that the expression on Heizi's face gradually became stiff, and then he seemed to feel very scared.Er Xia was startled when he saw it, he scratched his head and looked at me puzzled, and was about to ask Heizi what was going on, but he heard Heizi say, "You really lived in that bamboo building for one night?"

We opened our eyes and nodded lightly, and asked cautiously: "Is... what's wrong with this?" I thought of the dilapidated condition of the bamboo building and the strange nightmare at night, and suddenly felt nervous. "That...that's the local ghost building!" "Ghost building?" We looked at each other. Heizi told us: "The bamboo building was also built by a herb picker several years ago. This person suddenly disappeared one day. The local people didn't take him seriously when he went to other places. But later they found something wrong. Even the family of this person could not find him, as if this person disappeared suddenly. Only then did people realize the seriousness of the problem, and began to search everywhere, and reported the case, and the police were dispatched, but there was still no result. Unexpectedly, after several years, people have forgotten about this matter. Suddenly, one day, this person came back, but he became weird, lacking energy all day long, living alone in that bamboo building, and did not get along with anyone. People come and go."

I interjected, "What's the matter with this man, what happened to him, and where has he been these past few years?" Heizi continued: "In this way, others will start to suspect what's wrong with this person. Some people even suspect that he went abroad to mix with drug addicts and took drugs, which is why his spirit is so poor. He A few friends of mine planned to report the crime again, and one of them said to follow him quietly first, and it would not be too late to report the crime after seeing him taking drugs with his own eyes, so they sneaked around his room at night. This person is still depressed , sat there blankly, holding a white mask in his hands, and there was no movement for a long time."

As soon as Heizi mentioned the white mask, my heart skipped a beat, and I couldn't help but look at my backpack, and I heard Heizi continue: "These people were bitten by mosquitoes all over their bags outside, and they couldn't bear it any longer. At that time, I suddenly saw the man put on the mask, got up and walked towards the door. Several people followed carefully, and saw the man go to the bottom of the bamboo building, picked up the shovel and started digging on the ground. After a long time, people had already reached the pit and couldn't see it. Suddenly there was no sound inside. A few people bravely moved over and saw a dark hole dug by him on the ground. The stone steps seemed to lead to somewhere below. These people immediately understood that this person had discovered the treasure, and now he wanted to take it all for himself, so he didn't do anything else, and simply followed. No one knew what happened next Because these people have never appeared since then, the dug hole disappeared somehow, and then the big Gu master from the clan was invited to look at it from the mountain, and said that there was a hole under the bamboo building. It is an altar set up by the Snake Emperor, anyone who collides with it will be in danger!"

After Heizi finished speaking, his face was serious, and he became sad. I asked softly, only to hear Heizi reply softly: "Oh! If my brother hadn't been so curious, nothing would have happened. The idea of ​​following that person was suggested by my brother! I haven't seen him since then, he disappeared like those people!" I sighed regretfully, comforted him, and then asked curiously, "What is this Snake Emperor? Are there many legends about it in your local area?" Although this is the south, the residents deep in the mountains still retain the simple folk customs. At least that's how Heizi gave me the feeling. Let's start with the legend of the Snake Emperor. It is no different from what we have learned before. According to the local legend, there is a very strange dynasty in the deep mountains. This dynasty has gone through hundreds of years and still exists today, but it has sneaked into the ground.It is said that the emperor of this dynasty is not a human, but a monster with a human face and a snake body, and the face of the human head is also different from other people, which is extremely peculiar.Underneath the vast area surrounded by high mountains, there is a huge snake palace, which is said to be the palace of this dynasty. The ruler of this dynasty, the Snake Emperor, has extremely superb and cruel sorcery, which can turn people into monsters with human faces and snake bodies. People often disappear in this deep mountain for no reason, and it is said that they were captured by the Snake Emperor and turned into snakes. Man became a slave.A few years ago, a group of medicine farmers came together to collect Chinese herbal medicines near Shehuan Mountain, and suddenly found a group of people in strange clothes entering and leaving a cave. The Man Cave is gone.Since then, the Snake Palace has been rumored to be even more mysterious, saying that the Snake Palace is connected to hell, and evil spirits can come and go freely through it. During the counterattack in western Yunnan, a Japanese army of more than 500 people, equipped with modern guns at the time, fought against the precipitous terrain in Tengchong. deeds.The Chinese soldiers and civilians sharpened their guns and vowed to wipe out this enemy army and avenge the dead compatriots. They pursued all the way and drove this Japanese army deep into the mountains.Because the terrain is too complicated, the dense jungle, and the harsh natural environment, although our army is eager to wipe out the enemy, in order to prevent the ambush of the Chinese and Japanese troops, we immediately decided to stop the pursuit and deploy troops to cooperate with the Burmese Chinese and British troops to surround the Japanese army. At the same time, strict deployments were made in all directions where the Japanese troops might escape, so as not to allow them to slip through the net. Unexpectedly, there was no news of this unit after this. Even when the Japanese army surrendered, it was reported that this unit was missing from the army stationed in Burma, as if they had evaporated from the world. , were all turned into ghosts by the Snake Emperor as his slaves.For a while, the local people became even more awed by the Snake Emperor, and even built a temple to enshrine it.