pdf-ebookys Chapter 227: The River Demon, Appears
Chapter 227: The River Demon, Appears
This temple is the Hemu Temple.
As far as this village is concerned, the Hemu Temple is the first temple. The Hemu Temple has been popular for hundreds of years. It is mainly for the safety of water transportation. Later, it has evolved into many other meanings such as attracting wealth, ensuring safety, and giving birth to children.
There are Hemu temples all over Lingtianzhou. Some of them worship golden bodies, some worship bronze bodies, and some worship clay bodies. There are not many particular requirements for Hemu temples, and sincerity is the key to success.
Of course, this "spiritual" really does mean "effective", and it is still circulating today. Some people have met the real River Mother, who helped them solve their problems... and so on.
The legend of the River Mother has been passed down orally for hundreds of years. Some of the miraculous events are recorded in the local county annals and are true and well-documented. Nowadays, in the vast Lingtian Continent, officials have changed several times, but when good things such as promotion, wealth, having children, etc. happen to them, most people will go to the River Mother to fulfill their vows and burn some incense sticks as soon as possible.
It has become a culture.
Interestingly, the Lingtian Dynasty split into the Chitian Dynasty. In the early days of the Litian Dynasty, the two dynasties, Chitian and Litian, threatened the Mother of the River, wanting her to serve as the orthodox god of their own dynasty to help them stabilize their dynasty. At that time, Mu Qin refused, on the grounds that he would not participate in such a meaningless dispute. The two dynasties were very unhappy and did not recognize the legitimacy of "Mother of the River" in the temple. Later, that is, now, the two dynasties have listed the "Mother of the River Temple" as the orthodox one after another, and kept silent about the previous disputes.
The river in this village is not big and often dries up, which brings great trouble to the village. The villagers have been engaged in farming for generations and are very dependent on water resources.
Someone said that the reason why the river often dries up is because people do not respect the Mother River. So they gathered all the surplus grain in the village and built a temple to worship the Mother River.
The process is complicated and requires a professional team. We also have to go to the nearby town to get approval, body shaping, praying gods, setting up banquets, and starting construction...
It took nearly a year to build the temple. The villagers then continued to worship there for three consecutive years, on every major and minor festival. A custom also emerged: offering sacrifices to the river mother on the eve of the Spring Festival.
The so-called Hemu idea is to take the Hemu statue out of the temple and go to every household to bring a boy to the family and bless the children to grow up healthily.
only…
Three years in a row.
The river still dried up frequently. The river mother that we had invited with great effort was of no use at all. And then...
Li Changxiao walked into the abandoned Hemu Temple.
There are more than twenty temples in this village, but only this one is abandoned. As soon as he stepped into it, dust was everywhere. No one has been here for a long time. He blew a breeze gently to press down the dust.
His eyes fell on the bronze statue of the river mother. He walked closer to take a look and saw a big hole in the belly of the statue.
It seemed like something was coming out of the body from the abdomen.
Li Changxiao reached his hand into the hole, but didn't find anything. Instead, the tips of his fingers were stained a little red and had a bit of a rotten smell.
He withdrew his gaze and looked at the back of the bronze statue, then he showed a look of understanding.
There is only one statue of Hemu in this Hemu Temple.
There was only the statue of Mu Qin, but not the one of Si Nian. Moreover, the statue of Mu Qin only had some similarities in eyebrows and eyes. The reason why Li Changxiao did not notice this at the beginning was that he had been to many Hemu temples along the way. Although they were all Hemu temples and the same person was worshipped, the customs in different places were different, and the statues in the temples were also similar, with differences in clothing, facial features, expressions, and hair accessories.
Combined with what happened in this village, it is not difficult to guess that this Hemu Temple is actually fake.
Li Changxiao was thinking about that.
Suddenly there was a noise outside the village.
At the entrance of the village, a man covered in blood ran towards the village, shouting, "Hezi... We were attacked by Hezi!"
he shouted.
In an instant, the villagers swarmed out, chattering about something.
Soon, a large group of villagers, some holding shovels and some holding sticks, left the village and headed straight for the mountain.
Sure enough, a villager was found lying in a pool of blood on the mountain path. He was wailing in pain and unconscious. The horrifying thing was that his abdomen was empty and his intestines were missing.
Li Changxiao saw from a distance that this person was already powerless to save the situation. He heard the villagers curse: "It must be that river child. That river child feeds on human intestines. I really don't know what kind of evil spirit that river mother is. She enjoys our incense, but gave birth to such an evil spirit! It harms us, how despicable!"
"What a damn river mother! I think it's more like a river demon!"
"Correct!"
The villagers denounced angrily.
At this time, the village chief stood up, his face cold, and said: "This river has done many evil things. It has killed nearly ten of our people this year!"
"I don't believe it. We can't cure him!"
This time, the village chief was really angry. The man lying on the ground was very close to him. He was his second cousin, who had just given him a chicken and three eggs yesterday.
The village chief ordered: "Zhang Dali, go and ask for the City God's sword, Zhang Cun, go and ask for Wu'an Shenjun's evil-beating whip, Zhang Yu, go and ask for the seven mountain gods!"
"Tonight at midnight, we will leave the village and seek revenge on Hezi! With the protection of the immortals, we will surely succeed!"
……
The time has come.
Everyone in the village gathered together, and after a ritual, they brought out the statues of gods that were sitting high in the temple. They were each carried by four men and walked towards the mountains.
Night falls.
It has a bit of the style of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons... no, the Night Parade of a Hundred Gods.
Under the moonlight, the golden statues flashed with golden light and were very charming. The city god in the lead looked straight ahead, majestic and extraordinary. The villagers felt confident under his protection.
The strongest man in the village holds the City God's sword, the second strongest man holds the evil-beating whip, and other magical weapons.
Before departure.
The village chief suddenly had an idea, and ordered people to go to the He Mother Temple, take out the bronze statue of He Mother, and use the City God's sword to chop off the head of the He Mother statue. At that time, blood flowed from the neck of the bronze statue, which scared everyone in the village. They were immediately more certain that this He Mother was undoubtedly the river demon!
The village chief ordered his men to take the head into the mountains to divert the river.
A group of people entered the mountains.
According to rumors, Hezi is mostly active at night.
I don't know if it's because of the mountain god, but the mountain road is much easier to walk on. Normally, there will be poisonous miasma in the mountains and forests at night, but with the protection of the mountain god, the poisonous miasma cannot approach within a radius of several miles.
When the village chief was young, he learned some magic outside. This so-called "magic" is not the magic of immortals, but the magic of folk customs. However, it can exert some mysterious power. If you look into the root cause, it is also related to "Reform".
The village chief has mastered the art of talisman water, which can allow a person to burst out with twice the strength.
He used magic to increase the power of several young men who were holding "magic weapons"
walking.
At midnight.
As expected, Hezi appeared. He was a humanoid creature half his height, hairless, and without gills on his face. He looked extremely strange.
When the boy came to kill him, the man holding the City God's sword shouted loudly, suppressed his fear, and chopped him with the sword. Then another man holding a whip came to chop at him.
The two of them launched a series of attacks and actually fought against "He Zi" on equal terms. Unfortunately, the effect of the "Talisman Water Technique" wore off.
Hezi immediately gained the upper hand and scratched one of the men's abdomen with his hand. If it was half an inch deeper, his intestines would have flowed out.
It is this critical moment.
The golden body of the City God actually appeared. There was a spirit in its eyes, as if it had come alive. Hezi seemed to have seen something terrible and fled in a hurry.
"The City God has appeared! The City God has appeared!"
The villagers prostrated themselves and bowed.
I feel happy in my heart.
The apparitions don’t stop there.
Everyone only heard a mysterious voice, no one knew where it came from, but it sounded in everyone's ears, "You are too reckless, return to the village quickly."
"That ghost is the River Demon, it is extremely powerful and feeds on human intestines. Even if I take action myself, I can only repel it."
"You all should return to the village quickly. As long as you keep burning incense, I can ensure your safety. Don't even think about looking for the river demon anymore!"
The voice of the City God's admonition was heard in the mountains.
The village chief was terrified, his face pale, "Lord City God, this is my fault. When I return, I will make sure every household has incense."
"Well," the City God said, "Let's go back quickly, otherwise if the River Demon comes looking for us, I may not be able to protect everyone..."
The words have not yet fallen.
far away.
But then a swordsman in white came towards them.
With a sarcastic look on his face.
He was holding a monster in his left hand. Everyone looked at it intently. Wasn't this the "River Demon" that the City God mentioned?
At this moment, the river demon had no breath left, and there was a long bloodstain on his neck.
In the words of the old City God, this was an extremely powerful monster, but at this moment, it was easily killed by the swordsman and held in his hands like a chicken or a duck.
This……
Everyone was shocked.
Could this person be a deity who is hundreds of times more powerful than the City God?
Li Changxiao threw the River Demon under the golden body of the City God.
"How could this mere corpse-born child become a river demon?" Li Changxiao asked with a faint smile.