Chapter 85 Sudden Sacrifice

If what I see is not real, how can I completely trust my own judgment about some things in this world? Looking at this scene in front of me, I smiled bitterly, but I had to admit this reality!

This should not be a kind of so-called “superstition” of idealism, even science also admits that human vision has blind spots, the structure of the eye is exquisite, but it is also limited, and cannot see the world infinitely. Many environments, coincidences and even objects can play visual games with humans.

So, I sometimes wonder if Taoism, which seems to be “backward” and “old,” has actually reached a very advanced position. Because human cognition and ability are limited, we can only interpret the mysteries about it as idealism, feudal superstition, legends, or even myths.

There was once a great era of great turmoil, the great battle of the primeval chaos, and later the battle of the gods. Does it exist? What does the gap of more than 100,000 years in human evolutionary history really mean? Is a far-fetched explanation really reasonable?

I admit that I have been thinking too much!

The boat swayed a bit, and it turned out that Ji Feng had jumped onto the boat over there. While I was in a daze, the boat over there had already caught up.

“Hui Gen, I’ve given you the map. Follow the markings on the map and you’ll be able to enter the natural formation smoothly. I believe you’ll be able to come out alive! Take care!” Ji Feng stood on the bow of the boat and said to us, “The boat over there has already started to move. They’re going to start checking the formation one by one and repairing it!

Fortunately, someone had already surveyed the area before, and they knew roughly which parts of the formation were damaged. I hope that the repair of the formation will alleviate the plight of the village. After all, once the formation is in effect, the ghosts will be naturally attracted back, just as Mr. Zheng said.

“You take care too!” I shouted at the head of the boat to the monsoon. At this time, the boat of the monsoon and his friends had already sailed far away. The monsoon waved his hand at me. I was a little uneasy inside. I always felt that the monsoon and his friends would not be so smooth this time!

I looked at them as they sailed away, and then I turned around and put my arm around Huigen’s shoulder and said, “Kid, why are you so quiet this time?”

“Brother, I don’t know. I always feel a bit nervous.” Hui Gen began to row our boat, and then spoke to me in his familiar Shaanxi accent again. I guess it’s only when there are no outsiders that he will speak in Shaanxi dialect like when he was a child. It feels very intimate, but also very distant.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m here.” I didn’t know how to comfort Huigen, and I didn’t know where his nervousness came from. After all, he wasn’t a child anymore. If he could explain the problem clearly, he would naturally explain it to me. He couldn’t explain the reason, so it was useless for me to ask.

I couldn’t even hug him like I did when he was little, pinch his cheeks and say, “It’s okay, I’ll buy you a cake when this is over.”

For a moment, we were both silent. Hui Gen’er looked down at the boat and suddenly said to me, “Brother, it’s because you’re here that I’m not so nervous. I just feel… I can’t explain it!”

“It’s okay!” I squeezed Hui Gen’er’s shoulders tightly, as if only this could convey strength to him. He had grown up, and this was the way of a man.

Comparing the map, the boat was moving smoothly in the water. Hui Gen told me that the large island in front was the entrance to the natural formation. Passing around the island was the real Lake of a Thousand Ghosts.

“Brother, that island looks dark,” Hui Gen said in a low voice.

I frowned slightly. In fact, as Hui Gen said, although the island was shrouded in clouds, it was dark from afar. There was vegetation on the island, but I don’t know if it was so dense that it formed such a scene.

Or is there another reason?

I didn’t want to think about it too much, so I simply sat down at the head of the bed. Very few people enter the lake here, and the water is very clear. If you look closely, you can see the shadows of fish darting around under the water. Is it that the fish here are already inedible? I tried hard to distract myself. After looking at them for a long time, I noticed that there was something wrong with these fish. One of the fish jumped out of the water, and I noticed that the scales of this fish had a pale color!

This reminded me of the incident in the deserted village. The surrounding villages were affected by the evil spirits and the insects. Could these fish be affected as well? Of course, with the protection of the great formation, these fish can only stay in this area of water. And if they leave this area of water, these fish will not be able to live. Just like freshwater fish that are used to freshwater, how can they live in seawater? They will not leave this area of water on their own.

And this pollution can only be slowly resolved in the future.

The sound of the oar sliding across the water, the gently rocking boat, the quiet environment, I was so engrossed in thinking about the fish that I didn’t expect a piercing gunshot to come at this time. I looked up and saw a red flare cut through the sky, like a blooming firework, so conspicuous!

I suddenly came back from my reverie, and all I could see was that bright red “firework.” Then my back involuntarily tightened. I knew what it meant, and I tried to calm down and said to Huigen, “Row that way!”

Without my order, Huigen had already been trying to row our boat in that direction. We were all familiar with this kind of signal flare, a unique way of communication in Hucun. Judging from the color and direction, there was only one possibility: something had happened to Jifeng and the others.

The boat rowed hard in the direction of the signal fire. Fortunately, we had not been apart for too long, probably only fifteen minutes. They were exploring, so they were stopping and going, and they had not gone too far.

But even so, the sweat on the palms of my hands in my trouser pockets was dripping. Ji Feng is a simple and honest person, and I absolutely don’t want anything to happen to him. If something happens to them, I absolutely won’t be able to explain to Mr. Zheng…

Huigen rowed the boat with extraordinary effort. At this moment, the boat, under Huigen’s strange and powerful force, was like an arrow flying towards that direction. Everyone knew that something had happened. Lushan stood next to me and said, “Let Tao Bai come. If there is nothing to worry about rowing here, he has more strength and can row faster!”

Hui Gen’er snorted in disagreement, but I shook my head and said to Lushan, “No, he’s not familiar with it, and he’s not necessarily faster than Hui Gen’er.”

In the meantime, I could see a vague boat shadow over there. I recognized it at a glance as the boat that belonged to Ji Feng and his friends. It seemed that they had heard the sound of the water and were also rowing towards us. If they could row like that, they should be fine.

I stared at the boat, slightly relieved, but then my heart started to race again. Could it be that there was a monster chasing them?

Any speculation is useless. I can only see Jifeng to know what the problem is. With this in mind, I tried hard to calm myself down. Since both parties were trying to get closer, in less than five minutes, the two boats finally came together, less than a meter apart!

This distance finally allowed me to see some things clearly. I saw that both the man rowing the boat and the monsoon standing at the bow were teary-eyed, with tears still hanging on their faces…

As for the reason, I knew it clearly the next moment. There were two bodies neatly arranged on the bow of the boat, their faces pale, and there were many small wounds on their bodies, and the blood that was oozing out had already coagulated a little.

“They were alive just a dozen minutes ago,” said Ji Feng, his voice a little wooden. Then big tears rolled down his cheeks. He pointed to one of the bodies and said to me, “This is Xu Liangyong. He’s only been in the village for three years. Three years ago, he was dissatisfied with the sect’s arrangement, but in the past three years, he has been more active than anyone else. He has come to this lake the most, and he is a brave and good young man.”

I listened in silence, looking at the pale young face, and my heart began to ache as well.

Ji Feng pointed to another corpse and said, “This is Wei Xiaowa, the youngest child in our village. We all called him Xiaowa and treated him like a younger brother! This kid was talented and learned Taoism better than any of us. I never thought he would die here.”

As he spoke, Ji Feng knelt down and cried, unable to continue. In response to Ji Feng’s sad face, there were two corpses that had already fallen silent and would never speak again.

Xiao Chengqian jumped over and helped Ji Feng up. He was also very depressed. He then entered the great formation, which was the outer great formation. Within ten minutes, two young lives had already been lost. No one felt good about it, and everyone would regret the lives of these two young people.

Because just a few minutes ago, they were all alive and well!

“The dead are gone, and the living can’t have any more accidents. Let’s talk about what happened first,” Xiao Chengqian said to Ji Feng.

Ji Feng was crying so hard that he could hardly breathe. After all, he was the guardian of the village, and they had a deep bond with each other. After a while, Ji Feng said to us in a broken voice, “It’s underwater. The problem is underwater!”