The God and Buddha are actually me

"Old man, are you going to Yangzhou City?"

Zhang Jiuyang and others walked to the ferry and finally found a boatman. They quickly pulled him to ask.

The boatman shook his head and said, "No, no!"

Zhang Jiuyang was a little confused. Why was there no boat willing to take them across such a large ferry? These boatmen seemed to be avoiding them.

He raised the price and could clearly see a hint of excitement in the boatman's eyes, but then he didn't know what he thought of and shook his head again and again.

"Sir, it's not that I don't want to do your business, but we have a rule here. We don't sail at sunset."

"Why is there such a rule?"

Zhang Jiuyang vaguely realized that it might be related to the demon dragon.

Sure enough, the boatman showed a trace of awe in his eyes and said, "This is the rule of Grandpa Zong San. Sailing at night will disturb his sleep."

He sighed.

"Those of us who make a living from Dongyang Lake have to worship Uncle Zong San every day and offer three animals as sacrifices every month to bless the smooth sailing."

"Uncle Zong San has a bad temper recently. The wind and waves in Dongyang Lake are very strong at night. Even if you find all the ferrymen and offer a high price, no one dares to go out!"

Su Lingshan snorted and said, "This is too overbearing. What Uncle Zong San? I think he is a monster!"

She followed Zhang Jiuyang and killed tiger monsters, entered the Dragon Palace, and rode crocodiles along the way. Naturally, she was not very respectful of this Zong San.

The boatman's face changed drastically when he heard this, and said, "Little girl, don't say this! Uncle Zong San is the Dragon King of Dongyang Lake!"

As he spoke, he bowed in the direction of Dongyang Lake, as if he was afraid that Uncle Zong San would blame him too.

Liu Zifeng stepped forward, stuffed a piece of silver, and asked, "Old man, we have to rush to Yangzhou City for urgent matters. We must cross Dongyang Lake tonight. Is there really no other way?"

Tomorrow is the birthday banquet of Old Lady Shen. If they don't set out tonight, they may not be able to catch up.

The boatman quickly put away the silver and whispered, "If you are not afraid of bad luck, you can try to find someone."

"Who?"

"We all call him Lao Daobazi. He is a famous corpse retriever in this area. Only he dares to sail at night. It is said that even Grandpa Zongsan will give him some face..."

Zhang Jiuyang's heart moved. Corpse retriever is a very unconventional business with many taboos.

It is said that to become a corpse retriever, one must be male, and his numerology must be yin and the five elements must be water. Only by meeting these two conditions can one not be dragged into the water by the dead souls in the river.

Under the guidance of the boatman, Zhang Jiuyang and others came to the home of the old knife handle.

Before he even stepped into the door, he smelled a strong smell of corpses. His eye between his eyebrows opened and he saw that although the house was filled with extremely yin energy, there were no resentful spirits.

Pushing open the door, in the cool and dark room, there was a large pool with more than a dozen swollen corpses floating.

The strangest thing was that among these corpses, there was a figure swimming, and it looked like a child.

He surfaced, ignored the corpses around him, and shouted loudly: "Master, someone is coming!"

Then, an old man with a thin figure, a goatee, and a scar on his face walked out of the inner room. He glanced at Zhang Jiuyang and others and smiled: "Don't be afraid, this is my apprentice, who is practicing courage in the corpse pool."

He explained aloud.

The so-called corpse pool is where the corpse collector temporarily stores those floating corpses that no one wants to claim. There is a special preservative in the water that can ensure that the corpse will not continue to rot.

In this way, when the relatives of the corpse come to claim it, the original appearance can be preserved to the greatest extent, making it easier to identify.

As for the little boy swimming in the pool, he is his apprentice.

This business often involves contact with corpses, and only people with great courage can be competent. The corpse pool is used to train the apprentices' courage.

"Are you here to identify the corpse or to retrieve the corpse?"

"Neither, we are here to take a boat, and we want to leave tonight and arrive in Yangzhou City early."

Hearing this, the old knife handle laughed immediately, thinking it was very strange.

"It's not impossible, but don't you think the boat of the corpse retriever is unlucky?"

Zhang Jiuyang smiled faintly and said, "Retrieving the corpse from the water, returning the corpse to the relatives, and burying the deceased is accumulating good deeds, how can it be unlucky?"

The old knife handle's eyes lit up, laughed, and looked at Zhang Jiuyang very well, saying, "Not bad, you are not very old, but you have some knowledge. I will take this business, but the price..."

Before Zhang Jiuyang spoke, Liu Zifeng took out a silver ingot.

"Haha, wait a moment, I'll get ready and start the boat right away!"

The old knife handle first respectfully held out a statue, worshiped devoutly, kowtowed three times, and muttered something.

Zhang Jiuyang noticed that this statue was very similar to the demon dragon, except that the dragon horn was broken.

As if he noticed Zhang Jiuyang's gaze, the old knife handle said in a deep voice: "Guest, don't stare at that, be careful not to anger Grandpa Zong San!"

He said solemnly: "I don't know why, Grandpa Zong San's statue has a broken horn recently. The old man got very angry. The wind and waves in Dongyang Lake were particularly strong some time ago!"

Zhang Jiuyang showed a playful look.

Of course he knew that the dragon horn was broken by him, and he asked Yue Ling to take it to a weapon refining master to refine a magic weapon, but he didn't know if it was successful.

The corpse-recoverer's boat was not very big, and the crowd was a little crowded in it. I don't know if it was an illusion, but there was always a faint smell of corpses.

It was completely dark, and the previously beautiful Dongyang Lake seemed to become mysterious in an instant. The dark water surface seemed like an abyss that was difficult to see the bottom.

The sound of water was crisp, and there was a faint smell of water in the night wind.

The corpse-recoverer moved the statue of Zong San to the boat and took a big red rooster. He didn't kill it first, but planned to wait until the boat was closed before slicing off its neck with a knife and throwing it into the lake for sacrifice.

This is also the practice of corpse-recoverers.

The boat finally moved forward, following the river wind, the speed was not slow, and soon disappeared into the night.

...

The journey on the boat was very boring. The place was small, and there were similar scenery all around, swaying.

Zhang Jiuyang chatted with the old knife handle. He was very interested in the life of corpse-recoverers.

The old knife-holder was also very talkative. He said, "In our line of work, we don't dare to retrieve any corpse. There are three rules that we don't retrieve."

"What are the three rules?"

"The first one is that you can't go out to retrieve corpses in thunderstorms."

Zhang Jiuyang nodded. This was reasonable.

"Second, if the same corpse is not successfully retrieved on the boat three times, you can't retrieve it again. That kind of corpse is too resentful and doesn't want to leave..."

He pointed to the scar on his face and laughed at himself. He said, "When I was young, I didn't believe in evil. I was impulsive and retrieved it for the fourth time. As a result, I got this scar. If it weren't for the ancestral amulet, I'm afraid I would have become a water ghost in Dongyang Lake."

Su Lingshan took a breath of cold air when she heard it. Although she was a little scared, she couldn't help asking, "What about the third one?"

The old knife-holder's face changed slightly when he heard it, and his voice unconsciously lowered a few points.

"This third type is also the most dangerous and terrifying one. I have been a corpse retriever for so many years, and I have only encountered it twice. Every time I turned around and left without looking at it for more than a second!"

After a pause, he whispered: "This third type is a corpse that walks upright in the water..."

Huh!

There seemed to be a gloomy wind blowing around, and as the night deepened, the chill became more and more creepy.

Su Lingshan shuddered. A corpse that walks upright underwater?

"Generally speaking, corpses will float in the water, men leaning forward and women lying on their backs, but this type of corpse is an exception. They will maintain an upright posture and slowly float with the water flow, looking like they are walking underwater!"

"The weirdest thing is that this type of corpse can understand what people say. If you feel sorry for him and say you want to retrieve him, he will follow your boat all the time..."

"In the end, those boats often disappeared mysteriously."

Zhang Jiuyang looked at the unfathomable Dongyang Lake, his eyes fixed.

As the saying goes, the water is not deep, but the dragon is magical.

Where a real dragon lives, there must be abundant spiritual energy and auspicious signs, but this Dongyang Lake is full of evil spirits, which shows that the Brown Three is indeed a demon dragon.

These strange corpses may be bred because of its evil spirit.

Just as he was thinking, A Li's voice suddenly sounded.

"Huh? Brother Jiu, is it this kind of corpse?"

She leaned out her head and looked, and saw that a corpse was floating at the stern of the boat. The black hair was floating on the water, like a group of black water plants, and the pale face was vaguely visible.

It was a female corpse!

What made everyone gasp was that the female corpse was standing upright in the water, just as the old knife handle said, and was quietly following the boat.

It seemed to be eavesdropping on their conversation.

The old knife handle was startled and his face changed drastically. He said, "No, let's go quickly. Don't talk anymore. She can hear you!"

He rowed hard and the speed increased a lot. But the scary thing was that the female corpse was still following the boat closely, and one of her hands had even touched the boat wall.

Her hands were swollen and her skin was pale. She exuded a foul smell. After she touched the boat wall, it quickly decomposed and began to seep into the lake water.

"It's bad!"

The old knife handle's face was pale. He picked up the bamboo pole used for corpse fishing and prepared to poke the female corpse.

Although the rule passed down by our ancestors is to run when you see such a corpse, when you can't run, you can only fight hard.

He had black dog hair sewn on his corpse fishing pole to ward off evil spirits, hoping it would be effective.

However, there was a crisp sound.

The corpse fishing pole landed on the female corpse and also decomposed quickly. Finally, it broke into two pieces with a snap.

A trace of despair appeared in the old knife handle's eyes.

But at this moment, a small hand reached out and pressed on the head of the floating female corpse.

Pressed, floated up, pressed again, floated up again...

Ali chuckled and said, "It's really fun."

...