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 water transportation safety. Later, it derived many meanings such as attracting wealth, ensuring safety, and giving birth.

There are Hemu Temples all over Lingtianzhou. Some worship golden bodies, some worship bronze bodies, and some worship clay bodies. Hemu Temples are not too particular. If you are sincere, you will be effective.

Of course, this "spiritual" really refers to "efficacy". It is still circulated today. Some people have met the Hemu deity and helped them solve their problems... and so on.

The legend of Hemu has been passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years. Some miraculous events will be recorded in the local county annals. It is truly well-documented. Now Lingtianzhou is so large that officials have changed several times, but when good things such as promotion, wealth, and having children fall on their heads, most people will go to the Hemu to fulfill their wishes and worship a few incense sticks at the first time.

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 Hemu deity, wanting her to serve as the orthodox god of their own dynasty to help them stabilize their dynasty. At that time, Muqin refused, on the grounds that she would not participate in such a meaningless dispute. The two dynasties were very unhappy. In the temple, they once did not recognize the orthodoxy of "Hemu". Later, that is, now, the two dynasties have listed the "Hemu Temple" as orthodox, and kept silent about the previous disputes.

The river in this village is not big and often dries up, which has brought great trouble to the village. The village has been farming for generations and is very dependent on water sources.

I don’t know who said that the reason why the river often dries up is because they did not pay tribute to the Hemu, so they gathered all the surplus grain for a year with the power of the village and built such a Hemu Temple.

The process is complicated and requires a professional team. It is also necessary to go to the nearby town for approval, body shaping, inviting gods, banquets, and construction...

It took nearly a year to build this temple. The villagers have been worshipping for three consecutive years, and they have never neglected major festivals or minor festivals. A custom has also emerged: the River Mother Point on the eve of the Spring Festival.

The so-called River Mother Point is to invite the River Mother statue out of the temple and go to each household to send a boy to the family and bless the children to grow up healthily.

But...

For three consecutive years.

The river still dries up frequently, and the River Mother that was invited with great effort has no effect at all. After that...

Li Changxiao walked into the abandoned River Mother Temple.

There are more than 20 temples in this village, and only this temple 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 to suppress the dust.

His eyes fell on the bronze statue of the River Mother. He walked closer to look and saw that there was a big hole in the belly of the River Mother statue.

It seemed that something was coming out from the belly.

Li Changxiao reached into the hole and found nothing. Instead, the tip of his finger was stained with a little red and a little smelly.

He retracted his gaze and looked at the back of the bronze statue, and then he showed a look of understanding.

There was only one statue of the River Mother in this River Mother Temple.

There was only Mu Qin's statue, not Si Nian's, and Mu Qin's statue was only somewhat similar in eyebrows and eyes. The reason why Li Changxiao didn't notice this at the beginning was that he had entered many River Mother temples along the way. Although they were all River Mother 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, face, expression, and hair accessories.

Combined with what happened in this village, it is not difficult to guess that this River Mother Temple is actually fake.

Li Changxiao was thinking.

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 loudly.

In an instant, the villagers swarmed out, chattering about something.

Soon, a large group of villagers, some holding shovels and some holding wooden sticks, left the village together and headed straight for the mountain.

Sure enough, on the mountain road, a villager was found lying in a pool of blood. He was wailing in pain and unconscious. The terrifying 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 gives birth to such evil spirits! It harms us, it's really hateful!"

"Damn river mother, I think it's more like a river demon!"

"Yes!"

The villagers shouted angrily.

At this time, the village chief stood up, his face was cold, and he said: "This river child has done many evil things. He has killed nearly ten of our lives 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 had a close relationship with 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 succeed!"

...

At midnight.

The villagers gathered, and after a ritual, they invited out the statues of gods sitting high in the temple, each of which was carried by four men and walked into the mountains.

The night was shrouded.

It was quite like a hundred ghosts parading at night... no, a hundred gods parading at night.

Under the moonlight, the golden statues flashed with golden light, which was very charming. The leading city god looked forward with extraordinary majesty. The villagers were confident under his protection.

The strongest man in the village held the city god's sword, and the second man held the evil whip... and other magical instruments.

Before departure.

The village chief had an idea and ordered people to go to the Hemu Temple to take out the bronze statue of Hemu. He used the city god's sword to cut off the head of the Hemu statue. At that time, blood flowed from the neck of the bronze statue, which scared everyone in the village. They were more certain that this Hemu was the river demon!

The village chief ordered people to take the head into the mountain to lead out the river.

A group of people entered the mountain.

According to rumors, Hezi is mostly active at night.

I don't know if it's because of the invitation of the mountain god, the mountain road is much easier to walk. Logically, there will be poisonous miasma in the forest at night, but with the protection of the mountain god, the poisonous miasma cannot be approached within a few miles.

When the village chief was young, he learned some magic outside. This so-called "magic" is not the magic of the immortals, but the folk magic, but it can also exert some mysterious power. If you look into the root cause, it is also related to "reform".

The village chief mastered the magic of talisman water that can make people burst out twice the power.

He cast magic on the young people holding the "immortal magic tools" to increase their power.

Walking.

In the middle of the night.

The river really appeared, a humanoid creature with half the height, no hair on the body, and no cheeks on the face, weird and indescribable.

The boy came to kill, and the man holding the City God's sword shouted, suppressed his fear, and chopped with a knife. Then another man, holding a whip, chopped at him.

The two of them attacked continuously, and they were evenly matched with "Hezi", but unfortunately, the effect of the "Talisman Water Technique" wore off.

Hezi immediately gained the upper hand and scratched a man's abdomen with his hand. If it was half an inch deeper, the intestines would have flowed out.

It was at this critical moment.

The golden body of the City God actually appeared, and his eyes showed a charm, as if he had come alive. Hezi seemed to have seen something terrible and hurriedly fled.

"The City God has appeared, the City God has appeared!"

The villagers knelt down and worshiped.

They were glad in their hearts.

The appearance of the image was not limited to this.

Everyone only heard a mysterious voice, no one knew where it came from, but it sounded in everyone's ears, "You are too reckless, hurry back to the village."

"That ghost is the River Demon, with extraordinary power, feeding on human intestines. Even if I take action myself, I can repel it."

"You hurry back to the village, as long as you keep burning incense, I can keep you safe, don't think about looking for the River Demon again!"

The voice of the old man of the city god sounded in the mountains.

The village chief was terrified, his face pale, "Lord City God, this is my dereliction of duty. After I go back, every household must not dare to be less incense."

"Well." The old man of the city god said, "Go back quickly, otherwise the River Demon will come, I may not be able to protect everyone..."

The voice has not fallen yet.

In the distance.

But a swordsman in white came.

With a sarcastic look on his face.

He held a monster in his left hand. Everyone looked at it intently. Wasn't this the "River Demon" mentioned by the old City God?

At this moment, the River Demon had no breath, and there was a thin blood mark on its neck.

This was also an extremely powerful monster in the mouth of the old City God. At this moment, the swordsman easily killed it and held it in his hand like a chicken or a duck.

This...

Everyone was shocked.

Could this person be a god who is hundreds of times more powerful than the old City God?

Li Changxiao threw the River Demon under the golden body of the City God.

"How did this corpse-born child become a River Demon?" Li Changxiao asked with a faint smile.