Seeing us waiting in the bamboo house, Xu Jiayin walked over slowly, supporting his fiancée.
“Jiaojiao, it was these three masters, and Sister Li from Longtan Inn, who helped us get rid of the corpse worms in your stomach.” Xu Jiayin said excitedly.
On the other hand, Chen Jiaojiao's face was a little flushed.
"Thank you, masters, and Sister Li!"
Chen Jiaojiao said very politely.
I stood aside and asked, "Brother Xu, is your fiancée's health okay?"
Xu Jiayin nodded repeatedly and said, "It's okay, it's okay. Her stomach has returned to normal, but her body is still very weak."
My master stood aside and continued, "Although the corpse worms in her stomach have been expelled, her stomach and intestines may still be affected. So during this period, you'd better not eat anything careless and try to eat light food."
Xu Jiayin replied: "Yes, yes, Master Zhang, we will listen to you."
Seeing that Chen Jiaojiao was fine, I exchanged glances with my master, then I turned to Xu Jiayin and asked, "Brother Xu, we still have something we need your help with. Is it convenient for you?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Jiayin hurriedly said, "It's convenient, why not? Now that my fiancée Jiaojiao is healthy, I can finally put my mind at ease. Master Yang, what do you want me to do?"
I directly stated my purpose and said, "Brother Xu, it's like this. The corpse worms have been expelled. But we haven't solved its source yet. So I just discussed it with my master and prepared to find the source of the corpse worms."
"And the place where you caught the snakehead may be the source, so we want you to take us there to have a look."
Xu Jiayin smiled and said, "That's it. No problem. Don't worry, masters. I'll take you to the place where the black fish was caught after I've arranged for my fiancée. You are really kind-hearted. Not only did you help us, but you also solved the problem of corpse worms. No wonder Boss Li said you are masters. I really admire you!"
After that, without any polite words, Xu Jiayin helped Chen Jiaojiao back into the bamboo house.
The stench in the bamboo house had almost dissipated by this time.
Boss Li knew that we were going to find the source of the corpse worms, so she took the initiative to agree to help take care of Xu Jiayin's wife Chen Jiaojiao.
Then, my master, Yuquan and I left the bamboo house under the leadership of Xu Jiayin.
According to Xu Jiayin, the place where he and his fiancée Chen Jiaojiao found the black fish was beside a stream west of Longtan Town. The terrain there was not very complicated, so Xu Jiayin remembered it very clearly.
After leaving Longtan Town, we walked on the road for about half an incense stick of time and arrived at a dense forest.
The dense forest was full of green grass and there were bright and colorful flowers blooming near the trees whose names I couldn't tell.
After walking through the woods for another ten minutes, a small stream, not too wide, appeared in front of us.
The water of the creek is very clear. It flows down from the upstream and hits the rocks, making a "rustling" sound.
Pointing in front of the stream, Xu Jiayin said, "Masters, this is it. My fiancé Jiaojiao and I came here because we thought the flowers here were beautiful. I didn't expect to find the black fish behind a rock."
"You all know what happened next. I wanted to eat fish, so I caught the fish and brought it back."
"The black fish was very obedient at the time and hid behind a rock."
At this time, Xu Jiayin had already come to a stone.
I looked at the stone. There was nothing unusual about it. It was gray and had a lot of wet stream water on it.
"It is this stone. This is where we found the black fish. When we caught the black fish, it was very obedient and I caught it easily."
When Xu Jiayin mentioned the black fish, his expression looked a little ugly, and he seemed a little scared.
My master Zhang Chu looked upstream and said, "Let's go. The black fish should be swimming down from upstream."
As for me, I was preparing to send Xu Jiayin, who brought us here, back.
"Brother Xu, since we have found the location, we don't need you to lead the way. My sister-in-law is still very weak, so you should go back first."
Xu Jiayin thought about it, nodded and said, "Well, masters, I won't continue to follow you. I'm really worried about my fiancée Jiaojiao. Thank you so much this time, you are all good people."
Xu Jiayin waved goodbye to us and left in a hurry.
My master looked at the stream and said, "Let's go and take a look upstream. Where there are corpse worms, it means there are a lot of corpses. I'm afraid we may be in danger this time, so you two little guys should be careful."
Yuquan and I nodded and followed my master Zhang Chu.
After walking for about twenty minutes, Yuquan discovered something unusual in the gap between two stones.
"Come and see! Brother Yang, Master Zhang, it's a black fish. There's a black fish here."
Yuquan, who was walking in front, shouted in a slightly excited voice.
There were only three of us by the stream, so his voice seemed particularly loud.
My master Zhang Chu glared at Yuquan and said in a deep voice, "Why are you shouting? We are not deaf. It's not a big deal."
Yuquan blushed, but felt a little unhappy in her heart.
I laughed and said, "Hehe, Yuquan, don't be sad. My master is like this. He does have a bad temper."
When my master Zhang Chu heard me say that he had a bad temper, he became unhappy and glared at me fiercely again.
We came to the middle of the two rocks and found a black fish with its head stuck in the crevice, with its tail exposed and swaying.
I took out a dagger from my cloth bag and stabbed him directly.
The dagger went straight through Black Fish's body. Feeling the pain, Black Fish shook a few times.
I swung the dagger in my hand, and the black fish broke away from the blade and was thrown into the grass on the side.
The three of us walked over quickly.
Looking at the black fish, my master Zhang Chu said to me, "Tianyi, come here and cut off the head of this black fish with a dagger."
I followed the instructions of my master Zhang Chu, stepped on the body of the black fish, and cut it hard with the dagger in my hand.
It didn't take much effort to cut off the head of the black fish.
Its body thumped a few times, and then it became motionless.
The black fish's head was cut off. My master Zhang Chu took the dagger from my hand and slowly squatted down.
His legs were not good, so I wanted to help him, but my master refused. He was really stubborn.
The head of the black fish was slowly split in the middle by the dagger in the hand of my master Zhang Chu. Blood flowed out of the wet head. However, the color of the blood was not red, but black.
And from the small head of the black fish, my master used a knife to pick out several needle-sized **-shaped things.
The thing was black and smelled like a corpse.
I can't tell its head and tail now. When it saw the sunlight outside, it moved a few times like a shrimp about to be cooked, and then it quickly became dry. Soon it looked like a squid that had been exposed to the sun.
It dried up like a thread and turned into a black line.
One after another, my master actually picked out more than a dozen **-shaped things from the black fish's head.
"This is the larvae of the corpse worm!"
My master handed me the dagger, asked me to look at what was on it, and then said.
Although I was mentally prepared, I was still a little surprised when I saw the corpse worm larvae.
Yuquan on the side felt a little nauseous in his stomach and covered his mouth and nose.
Seeing the change in our expressions, my master stood up and said, "Let's go, we have found the right place. The source of the corpse worms should be not far upstream."
Yuquan and I both stood up, and I rubbed the dagger in my hand on the grass leaves a few times.
As we went upstream, we encountered several more black fish, most of which were discovered by Yuquan, who had good eyesight. But he didn't dare to catch them, so I caught them all.
In order to prevent those fish from swimming downstream, I also brought them to the shore, cut off their heads, and exposed them to the sun. It won't be long before the maggots in their heads will die.
Corpse worms cannot stand the light of day. This is what my master Zhang Chu told me.
Slowly we came to the end of the upstream.
What surprised me was that the streams actually flowed out from a stone cave. The opening of the stone cave was not big, and it was lucky that one person could pass through it. There were also many bright green trees nearby, so it was not easy to be discovered.
"That's it. The bodies should be inside."
After saying this, my master Zhang Chu bent down and went into the wet stone cave.
I wanted to catch him and have a good talk with him about whether he could go in or not.
But my master had already gone in, so I stopped talking.
Yuquan looked at me hesitantly and asked, "Brother Yang, can I come in?"
When I saw that Yuquan's face was still a little pale, I understood the reason.
It seems that the corpse worm incident had a significant impact on him. The most important thing is that Yuquan's favorite thing to do when he was in Xiangyun Temple, besides chanting sutras, was to go fishing. He caught a lot of fish and ate a lot of fish heads, and now corpse worms appeared in the fish's brain. This made him very uneasy.
I smiled and said, "Yuquan, you are not a child anymore. Don't be so cautious. Don't worry, the fish you ate before are fine."
After thinking for a while, I said, "How about this, since you are afraid of encountering corpse worms again, then you can wait for us outside this cave first. After we check what is going on inside, we will return."
When Yuquan heard what I said, he said awkwardly: "I'm sorry, Brother Yang, I held you back this time!"
I patted Yuquan on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, it's just a small matter... Well, I'm going in, take care of yourself."
Without saying anything more, I bent down and followed my master into the cave.
“Clatter, clatter!”
“Tick-tick-tick!”
The sound of flowing water and dripping water in the cave mixed together, but the sound was not too loud.
There was a shallow layer of water at the entrance of the cave, just above the ankles.
Our shoes were not waterproof, so they were soaked through. Every time we took a step, there was a "clack, clack!" sound.
The further you go inside, the deeper the water becomes, and the space slowly becomes larger.
My master Zhang Chu, who was walking in front, had a powerful flashlight in his hand. The beam shone inside the cave, reflecting the dark water surface and the stalactites hanging upside down above his head.
After walking for a few minutes, my master Zhang Chu in front of me suddenly said, "Come on! Tianyi, look what's here!"
(to be continued)
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)