Doudouzi explained: "Let me tell you, poisons also have territorial awareness, and the more advanced poisons are, the more so. Poisons that have reached the poison king level will not want to see anyone of the same kind within a certain range unless they allow it. .”
Doudongzi’s words are easy to understand. This is just like how other snakes rarely appear in the territory of a king cobra. Those that appear either become food for the king cobra, or they are frightened and run away.
In a sense, the king cobra is the "poison king" of its own territory.
Doudouzi continued: "The Poison King doesn't just stay in one place all its life. Sometimes it also moves its territory. If it goes to another Poison King's territory, it is called a Double King Meeting. It will never give up until one of them fights to the death."
Douduzi pointed at Yaowang Temple and said: "The poison kings I'm talking about are all spiritual insects. They are the real kings among poisonous insects because they can summon their own kind. Just like the golden snake, it can command the group of snakes wherever it goes. A group of snakes follow each other like a prince."
I asked in surprise: "You mean, if the eldest brother fights, the younger brother has to go first?"
"Not only does he call me little brother, he also has to rush up first!" Doudouzi said, "When two poisonous kings meet, the poisonous creatures follow each other and devour each other. I saw that scene once. Two groups of snakes were on the mountain. The struggle at the foot of the mountain was so intense that the whole thing was finally over when all of them were dead."
Douduzi looked at the temple and said: "If you ask me, it is not unreasonable for those people to snatch the snake. If the second Medicine King statue also contains the Poison King, just throw the golden snake nearby and the two sides will be able to pinch it. It will be much easier to find the Medicine King Statue."
I pondered for a moment and then said: "If there is another poisonous statue in Yaowang Temple, what do you think it could be?"
Douduzi affirmed: "Toad, it must be a toad. There is no decent poison in Hebei."
The five poisons that people call are snakes, toads, centipedes, scorpions and geckos (geckos), but there are no spiders. Domestic spiders are relatively small and not very poisonous. Even spiders in the south are not very poisonous. The fearsome tarantula, the black widow, is native to Africa and South America.
Although the burrowing wolf spider is distributed in Xinjiang and its toxicity can cause death, it is not included in the five poisons. In addition to its remote location, there is another important reason, that is, most things in Chinese culture are named after " "German" sorting.
For example: Among the four major regular scripts of "Yan Liu Ou Zhao", Zhao Mengfu's regular script is outstanding. However, as an official of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu went to the court of the Yuan Dynasty to become an official after the Song Dynasty was destroyed, so he Can only be ranked fourth.
Not to mention "Beige Su Cai". Cai, who should have been Cai Jing, was directly kicked out of the four major families of the Northern Song Dynasty by his descendants because of his bad reputation, and was replaced by Cai Xiang.
The ancients sorted calligraphy in this way, and they sorted other things in the same way. Although the five poisons are ferocious and terrifying, they can all be used as medicine. The term "five poisons" first appeared in classics as a good medicine, and was gradually extended later. Snakes are ranked first among the five poisons, not because they are the most poisonous, but because they are the most widely used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Although spiders can also be used as medicine, they are not widely used and can easily be replaced by other medicines, so they are not included in the five poisons.
Douduzi said that there could only be toads in Yaowang Temple because Hebei is not a province rich in poisons. Even the varieties of venomous snakes cannot be compared with Yunnan and Sichuan, let alone other poisons. The only thing the Poison King in the temple can summon is probably toads.
I was silent for a while and then said: "Doudu, contact Lao Chen and ask him to find a way to stop the fire brigade for a day. Let's go into the temple and see what they want to do."
I waited for the fire brigade to evacuate, and then we hid in the deserted Yaowang Temple and stayed on the roof until nightfall. As expected, there were rustling sounds outside the door of Yaowang Temple, and not long after, snake shadows appeared one after another. They swam into the temple gate and gathered in the open space in the middle of Yaowang Temple.
For nearly half an hour, hundreds of snakes were arranged in a formation, bounded by an incense burner, occupying half of the open space of Yaowang Temple.
I asked Douduzi in a low voice: "Do you see anything?"
Doudouzi whispered: "It looks like the Golden Snake is going to lose! Look carefully, there are only a few poisonous snakes at the head, and although the long worms at the back are big, they are all vegetable snakes, and they can't defeat the toads."
I don't know the species of snakes, and I can't tell whether they are poisonous or not, but I can tell that those poisonous snakes dare not cross the incense burner. If there is really a poisonous king in the temple, he must be hiding near the incense burner.
I lay on the eaves and signaled to Ye Xun opposite, who gently broke off a piece of tile and flicked it towards the poisonous snake. After the small stone hit the snake's tail without any deviation, the poisonous snake suddenly jumped up and suddenly crossed the incense burner more than one meter away.
By the time it realized that it had mistakenly entered the Poison King's territory, it was already too late to escape back. The panicked venomous snake was not unsatisfactory, but it only turned one direction before its belly turned over and it lay motionless on the ground.
The poisonous snakes guarding behind the boundary line couldn't help but let out bursts of screams, and all moved back a little.
When I looked down again, about two or three meters in front of the incense burner, a layer of misty white smoke suddenly floated out. The green bricks on the ground seemed to be pushed up a little from the bottom by something, but It quickly fell back to its original position.
I whispered: "There is something under the ground."
"It must be a toad! That thing is good at digging holes. It can lie down in the hole for a year and a half without any problem." Doudouzi said, "That toad didn't call its ally. It seems that it has eaten all the toads nearby. .”
While Doudouzi was talking, the blue bricks on the ground rose up a few inches again. This time, I clearly saw a piece of dark red frog skin exposed under the blue bricks.
The toad hiding under the stone slab seems to be unable to stand the provocation of the poisonous snake and wants to burst out of the ground to kill everyone. However, it seems that it does not bother to deal with ordinary snakes. It feels that it will lose its identity as the Poison King, so it keeps resisting. The stone slabs rise and fall, waiting for the snake king to appear.
I stared at the stone slab for a long time, then suddenly pulled out the gun, aimed at the gap between the two blue bricks, and pulled the trigger. Although I was squatting on the eaves, I was only ten or twenty meters away from the stone slab, which was just within the effective range of the Magnum.
The bullet that drew a red light in the night exploded between two blue bricks, and the two bricks were lifted up from the ground together with a piece of colorfully dyed rubber.
"Fake?" Douduzi couldn't help but exclaimed and stood up from the eaves.
"Get down!" The moment I pulled Dou Donkey down to the roof, two crossbow arrows flew over our heads.
Before the two of us had time to raise our heads, a tile not far from me slid down towards me along the slope of the eaves. When I instinctively avoided the falling tiles, I saw a snake body covered with green scales swimming quickly under the tiles.
"There are snakes under the tiles." I just called Doudonizi, and I saw the glazed tiles on the roof falling off one after another. Dozens of venomous snakes seemed to have crawled onto the roof from under the falling tiles. , the silk threads of the snake swam towards us quickly.
Douduzi suddenly grabbed my arm and pushed me off the roof: "You go first, I will kill him!"
After I was lifted up by the bean donkey, I spun around twice in the air. Before I landed, I sprinkled a handful of realgar. The snakes gathered on the ground retreated in panic the moment the realgar powder fell, leaving an open space for me. .
Before my feet hit the ground, Douduzi, who was still in the room, had already raised his voice and shouted: "Lv Yifei, a disciple of Yaowang Valley, is there a drug-playing friend nearby? How about he come out and meet him?"
"Yaowang Valley?" A sneer suddenly came from the hall at Douduzi's feet, "They are just a bunch of innocent ghosts. They can't do anything to me when they are alive, how can they be so cruel when they are dead? You can see me if you want, just crush them to pieces yourself. Come down with the roof tiles!"
As soon as the man finished speaking, there was a sound of broken tiles on the roof. After the bean donkeys on the house followed the broken tiles and fell into the hall one after another, they immediately shouted: "Wang Huan, there is a poisonous formation here, don't come in!"
Doudu just shouted once, and there was no movement in the room, and my heart suddenly lifted.
At this moment, the sound of knives and wind piercing the air came from the roof where Ye Xun was hiding.
Ye Xun also started fighting with someone over there
As soon as I turned my head and looked in Ye Xun's direction, I heard Ye Xun shouting from the rooftop: "Stop!"
"Ye Xun, don't chase!" I wanted to stop Ye Xun but it was already too late. I watched Ye Xun's figure jump up from the roof and fall towards the main hall of Medicine King opposite. But as soon as Ye Xun stepped on the roof with one foot, the glazed tiles under his feet flew up in an instant, and the rubble ejected and collapsed in all directions. Ye Xun fell into the hall without any accident.
"Ye Xun!" Just as I was about to go over for reinforcements, the snake formation that had retreated to a distance suddenly surrounded me. My steps stopped instinctively, and the doors and windows of the main hall that were originally wide open closed at the same time in an instant, completely cutting off my sight.
The sound of swords erupted in the main hall, and Ye Xun shouted at the same time: "Wang Huan, don't come over, there is an ambush here!"
"Ye Xun, Ye Xun..." I shouted twice, but the only response I received was the sound of cracking the knife with a maniacal laugh.
I quickly pulled my backpack and grabbed a handful of realgar powder from it. But before I could spread the realgar to the snakes, I heard a childish voice saying near me: "Don't bother, my snakes are not afraid of realgar. They usually bathe in realgar water. If you insist on trying it, I don’t mind if you give my babies a bath if you try.”
When I followed the sound and looked over, the little girl who gave me the note at the station had already walked out of the shadow of Yaowang Palace.
I glanced at the other party and scattered the realgar powder in my hand. Not only did the poisonous snake on the ground not take a step back, but it swam towards me against the realgar powder falling all over the sky.
The child couldn't help but shook his head and said, "Why doesn't anyone believe me when I tell the truth?"