Qimenzhuang outside Wuzhou City has always been a famous village of longevity within a hundred miles. Recently, it has become even more auspicious.
First, the century-old towering trees outside the village bloomed, and the aroma filled the whole village. Later, a hundred or ten white cranes flew to the small lake outside the village. At sunrise and sunset, they flew in groups under the sun, and the scene was breathtaking.
People with good deeds wanted to explore why Seven Doors Manor had such mysterious power, but they never found anything strange.
Although this Zhuangzi was located in a remote area, with a lake in front of it and a mountain behind it, it was only 16 or 7 miles away from the nearby Zhuangzi. The environment was not unique, and feng shui could not be called a strong spiritual aura. Although there were people in the village who also read scriptures, they were not generally called poetry and book families, and there were few people who could go out and make achievements.
Li Shan from Linxian County also joined the team of good people this time, wanting to go and investigate.
The day they entered the village, there happened to be a sacrificial ceremony in the village, which was held in the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village. After the sacrifice was completed, the villagers placed a running water mat at the entrance of the village, and everyone, whether in the village or outside the village, could participate. When Li Shan arrived, it was already evening. He looked at the white cranes flying in groups outside the village, smelled the rich fragrance of flowers, and then came to the ancestral hall to be warmly received.
Li Shan looked at the wine and food on the table and felt that it was quite ordinary. After eating some, he looked around. Li Shan saw that in the ancestral hall, there was a god statue that he had never seen before.
Li Shan was quite puzzled and asked the villagers next to him, who is this sacred statue? The villagers smiled mysteriously and only said that he was the ancestor in the villagers' mouth, similar to a mythical figure.
Li Shan had also seen many gods who believed in remote places, so it was not surprising. Just as he was eating the banquet, he suddenly saw a somewhat familiar figure walking by, and couldn't help but be surprised.
Li Shan quickly stepped forward and took a closer look at the person just now. It was his friend Wei Fang from his hometown who had been missing for a few years. Li Shan asked in surprise, "Brother Wei, I heard you have been missing for a few years. Why did I see you here?"
Wei Fang was a villager at this time, and he had been helping to greet the banquet just now, but he was suddenly recognized by Li Shan. He was stunned and said, "Ah, so it's you, long time no see, I, I have actually been working in this village."
Li Shan said angrily, "Your mother, wife, and children are looking forward to your return day and night. You'd better go to Changshou Village to enjoy the happiness yourself, and leave them alone!"
Li Shan pulled Wei Fang and was about to leave, but Wei Fang suddenly sat on the ground and cried, crying and saying, "I am unfilial, hiding here alone and ignoring my mother. But the only thing I want is to be able to settle down in the village, and then pick up my family to enjoy family happiness. Seeing that I am about to be qualified to stay, I really don't want to give up all my efforts."
He had never heard of Wei Fang. Why did this village still have such rules? The village chief walked over and coughed twice, saying, "This guest, dare to ask your surname? Why did you come to the village this time? Why did you make things difficult for the people in the village?"
Li Shan was a little embarrassed, so he had to talk about his identity, his relationship with Wei Fang, and why he wanted to go home. Wei Fang still cried while listening. After listening, the village chief confirmed Li Shan's words to Wei Fang, then turned to Li Shan and said, "This Wei Fang has been in the village for two or three years, and after today, he can get a piece of land and a simple house. If the guest insists on taking him away, won't it hurt him? What's more, it's getting late today, so the guest might as well stay here for one night and make plans tomorrow."
Li Shan saw that the surrounding area was full of people, including people from the village and many guests from outside. If there was a commotion this time, wouldn't he become everyone's enemy? So he had to calm down and agreed to stay.
In the middle of the night, Li Shan couldn't sleep, always feeling that something was wrong.
Suddenly Li Shan heard a rustling sound outside the window and sat up. Then he saw Wei Fang climb through the window. Wei Fang motioned Li Shan not to make a sound.
Wei Fang said, "Brother Li, don't be surprised. Today, brother, I really have something unspeakable to hide, so I lost my temper like this. Don't say much, Brother Li, run away, otherwise there will be danger!"
Hearing this, Li Shan's face changed greatly: "What does Brother Wei mean by this?
Wei Fang said, "Brother Li, I'm just saying the same thing. Did you see those long-lived elderly people in the village today? Didn't you notice that their eyes were a little different?"
Li Shan recalled, it seemed a bit strange, but he couldn't tell.
Wei Fang added: "The pupils of their eyes are all pointed, because they are not actually human."
Wei Fang told him not to make a sound, then lowered his voice and said, "You must have seen the statue of the god worshipped in the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village. It was actually an ancient monster.
Hearing this, Li Shan could not help but hold Wei Fang's hand and say, "Since that's the case, let's quickly escape from the village and report to the official."
Wei Fang shook his head and said, "Brother Li, they have been hiding it well for thousands of years. I came to the village a few years ago and accidentally discovered this secret, and then it was controlled by the people in the village. They thought I had some special identity and never poisoned me, but they kept an eye on me and wouldn't let me leave the village. Today, Brother Li came to the village and told me all about my background. I guess my life is not long, and Brother Li will definitely be implicated, even our family members."
When Li Shan heard that he had caused great trouble, his face turned pale with fright, and he quickly apologized: "It's my ignorance, I hurt you now, what can I do now?"
Wei Fang said, "Brother Li, don't worry. I've been in the village all these years, and I know that there is a secret way out of the village, so Brother Li will go first and settle our families. I will continue to stay in the village to deal with them.
Li Shan was scared to death. Hearing Wei Fang's words, he did not dare to hesitate. He followed her secretly out of the village and followed a secret path up the mountain.
The road was extremely rough, with mountains on one side and cliffs on the other, and he was about to reach the top of the mountain. Li Shan suddenly saw a few white cranes flying under the moonlight, and his thoughts suddenly began to wander. He thought of today's danger, the strangeness of the village, and the scene where he and Wei Fang grew up together when they were young.
Suddenly, Li Shan understood why he felt so abnormal all the time. Because he knew Wei Fang best, he knew that he was a stupid stupid person. Today, Wei Fang showed a completely different person from the beginning to the end.
Thinking of this, he suddenly turned back and saw Wei Fang attacking him with a fierce face, wanting to push him off the cliff. And it was this turn that saved Li Shan's life and gave him the opportunity to avoid Wei Fang's sneak attack, and Wei Fang couldn't hold back his actions and fell down the cliff.
Li Shan was so scared that he was in cold sweat all over. He stood on the edge of the cliff and fought with his legs. After a while, he dared to look down, but only saw the dark cliff. Wei Fang had already fallen, and there were no bones left.
Li Shan sat on the edge of the cliff for a long time before he could stand up. But he did not expect that this escape from death would stimulate Li Shan's blood. He began to become angry in his heart.
Li Shan went down the mountain along the path, but he didn't want to get lost. He accidentally came to the bottom of the cliff. He thought Wei Fang's body was still below, so why not find the body first?
There was a small stream under the cliff, and the stream flowed from a high place to a low place, forming a small lake. Li Shan judged the location of the bodies on the mountain based on the location of the two people, but he didn't expect to see anything.
Li Shan was searching when he suddenly heard something flying over his head. He looked up and saw that it was a few white cranes, but although the white crane looked like a crane from a distance, it was much larger than a crane from a close up, and its appearance seemed a little strange.
Li Shan was terrified and hid behind a pile of rocks.
Before Li Shan could stand still, he heard a sound on the mountain, and then he heard the sound of something falling into the lake. Li Shan vaguely saw a figure swaying on the top of the mountain, and thought that he didn't go to the top of the mountain just now, but came down, escaped the disaster, and couldn't help but sweat for himself.
What was that thing that fell into the lake? Li Shan thought to himself, and the next moment he knew the answer.
A few white cranes jumped out of the lake, and it seemed they were hiding in the lake. At that time, a white crane was holding a person in its mouth.
Originally, the size of the white crane was not clear, but now it can be seen by comparison that the white crane is huge, and a person is held by it, like a fish caught by a duck from the water.
Li Shan was stunned by this scene, but he still saw clearly that the person being carried was a guest who had come to the village. He drank a lot of wine offered by the villagers at the banquet at night, and now he still looks drunk, not knowing that he will become the mouth of the white crane.
The white crane held the guest and was not in a hurry to eat, but when it saw a few more white cranes surrounding it, it swallowed the man in one bite, but did not swallow it into its stomach. It stayed in the crop for a while, spit out another ball of food, and then swallowed the ball of food completely.
After the white crane swallowed the man, it spread its wings and sang loudly, and Li Shan couldn't help but cover his ears. Suddenly Li Shan saw that the white crane was shedding all its feathers, and a crack was made in its back. Then a humanoid monster jumped out of the crack, leaving only the feathered skin bag to fall to the ground.
Li Shan was surprised to see that this newly transformed monster was exactly the same as the evil god worshiped in the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village.
The monster was still not stable, staggering to the ball of things he had just spit out, shaking his body, and wearing that thing on his body. It turned out to be the skin of the man just now, but at this time, the monster turned into a person eaten by himself, and was toddling there.
Li Shan suddenly realized that all evil seemed to come from this white crane. They were monsters in body of the crane first. After eating people, they could transform into humanoid monsters, and then put on human skins, and they became living people.
At this time, there was another sound from the mountain, and several guests were thrown down the mountain one after another. Several white cranes couldn't wait and actually competed. Whenever a white crane could not compete, it heard a roar coming from the direction of the stream, and the white crane would put down the dispute and let a white crane enjoy it.
Seeing this scene, Li Shan knew that there must be some monsters on the stream. Li Shan followed the stream and under the cover of the stones, slowly climbed to the top of the stream, which was an extremely hidden cave.
Li Shan was a little timid and excited at the same time. He simply got up his courage and walked into the cave.
The space in the cave was huge, and Li Shan looked very weak. This instead facilitated Li Shan's concealment. He crept in and gradually came to the depths of the cave.
Li Shan saw that a familiar figure appeared in front of him. It was Wei Fang who fell down the mountain and was incomplete.
Although Wei Fang's bones were rotten, he could still crawl. He crawled to a stone bed in the cave, squirming while taking off Wei Fang's skin, revealing the bloody monster body.
Li Shan saw again that the body was still squirming, screaming in pain, and gradually shrinking into a ball, and finally turned into a bird egg-like thing, but there was no eggshell on the surface, only a layer of green transparent film.
Just as the scene before him was ending, he heard shouts from inside the cave. Under the dim light, Li Shan saw that there were dozens of centenarians in the village, all lying on that kind of stone bed, molting their skin, and finally turning into green and transparent bird eggs.
At this moment, he took off the lamp in the cave, guided the clothes and firewood into the cave, burned the whole cave, and then quickly escaped from the cave.
As soon as he escaped from the cave, Li Shan saw those white cranes flying towards the cave desperately, but they couldn't put out the fire, burying themselves in the fire in vain. The people on the mountain also wailed, but they were also helpless against the fire.
Li Shan had not run far when he heard a loud noise from the cave behind him. He turned around and saw that the cave had turned into a big mouth, and the whole mountain was moving!
Someone on the mountain shouted loudly, "It's over, we're all done!"
How did Li Shan know that his fire had awakened the ancient monster that had been sleeping for thousands of years? After the monster fell asleep, he laid a strange egg and hatched into the white crane. After eating the human, it replaced human identity to survive in the human world.
This time, Li Shan was crooked, and a fire forced the monster to wake up, but it was a monster that could not be completely liberated. Once it turned into a physical body and moved, the power that bound its body suppressed it again, and with the fire that ignited, its body was completely burned, and the entire mountain became a sea of fire.
The fire burned all night, and the village was swept in flames. After the fire was extinguished, all the people in the village disappeared, and only Li Shan knew the truth of the whole thing.