While I was silent, Ito Zhen said: "Mr. Wang Huan, these are the only clues I know. I don't know if they will be helpful to you."
I raised my head and said, "Have you ever been to the cottage in front of me?"
"No." Ito Zhen shook his head and said, "We arrived at the outskirts of the mountain stronghold three days ago. My original intention was to bypass the stronghold and continue forward. According to the family ancestor's narrative, the place where they encountered the shaman's curse should be on a mountain without vegetation. . This is obviously not the place described by our ancestors."
Ito Zhen paused and said: "However, we have been walking around for three days and still can't leave the cottage. No matter what means we use, we will be sent to the door of the cottage in the end, as if the cottage wants to force us to go in."
I looked at the cottage from a distance and said, "Did you encounter ghosts or encounter a reminder of the monument along the way?"
"No." Ito said, "I don't know what the reminder monument you are talking about is. We didn't encounter any ghosts along the way. However, my ancestor once said, don't trust the people you meet in Pingtianhai. They may not still be alive.”
What Ito really said was the same as what Old Man Sun said. Is Pingtianhai really a place where the dead can be resurrected
I stared at the cottage for a long time before saying, "Enter the cottage."
"No!" The ninja standing behind Ito Makoto said in pure Chinese, "It is too dangerous to enter the cottage casually. If you must enter, young master, please allow your subordinates to investigate first."
Ito shook his head and said: "Since we have decided to cooperate with Mr. Wang Huan, I should personally participate in every step of the plan. This is the basis of cooperation. Let's enter the cottage with Mr. Wang Huan."
After Lu Xinyao translated the words, I couldn't help but look at Ito Zhen. Why should he listen to me? Treating the other party as the leader from the beginning of cooperation is definitely not what a superior should do.
Ito Makoto ignored his subordinate's suggestion and gave me a "please first" gesture. When Ye Xun and I walked towards the cottage at the same time, we kept paying attention to Ito Zhen's men. There are more than thirty people on the other side, and every ten people are led by one person. Three teams of people march alternately, which is quite organized. You can tell at a glance that this is a team that has been cooperating for a long time.
It wasn't until all Ito's men appeared in my sight that I turned my attention to the cottage. Although the cottage was in disrepair, the Juyi Hall in the middle was extremely well preserved.
I walked around the Juyi Hall and said, "Ito Zhen, spread your people out and see if you can find any clues."
Ito Zhen nodded and dispersed his hands, but I walked towards the back of the stronghold. In my memory, Liuzi should have run in that direction. But there is nothing behind the cottage except a cliff that is difficult to climb. Even if Liuzi is not crazy, it will be difficult to get out from here.
Just when I was about to turn around, I caught sight of a strip of cloth in the crevice of the rock out of the corner of my eye. I took two steps and slowly pulled out the strip of cloth, but I couldn't help but be stunned. Wasn't the strip of cloth the same as the clothes Liu Zi was wearing? Did he get into the crack of the stone
I couldn't help looking up along the cracks in the rocks. Above my head was only the sun on the rocks. The white sun was so bright that I couldn't open my eyes, and I couldn't see clearly what was above the rock, so I could only retreat into the distance step by step. But no matter how far I retreated, the only scenery I could see was the mountain peaks facing the sun.
The sun in the sky seemed to be forced to stay on the sword-shaped peak, and the white sunlight covered it like flowing water from the peak, blocking half of the mountain range.
When I was staring at the mountain peak, Ye Xun walked up behind me quietly: "What are you looking at?"
I handed the strip of cloth to Ye Xun: "Have you found Liu Zi over there?"
"No." Ye Xun lowered his voice and said, "I always feel that the little Japs are unreliable. I think not all of those people are soldiers."
I whispered: "We still have to cooperate with them for the time being..."
While I was talking, I heard footsteps approaching and quickly closed my mouth. Lu Xinyao came from behind me and said, "Mr. Wang, Mr. Ito, please come over and see something."
When I followed Lu Xinyao into the Juyi Hall, I saw Ito Makoto and that ninja looking at something around the only table in the Juyi Hall. When he saw me coming, he quickly stepped aside: "Mr. Wang Huan , look here."
Ito Zhen was referring to a series of extremely weird symbols carved on the table. At first glance, they looked like Taoist runes, but upon closer inspection, they were completely different from runes. I turned to look at Ye Xun, and he shook his head slightly.
Ye Xun is a Taoist disciple. Since he shakes his head, it means that the things on the table have nothing to do with Taoism.
Ito Zhen said: "This is a rune commonly used by Japanese onmyoji. If I read correctly, there should have been a very clever onmyoji here. The meaning of this secret text is that the gate to hell will open at midnight."
I looked at Ito Makoto: "Are you an Onmyoji?"
"No." Ito said, "My ancestors have been in contact with Onmyoji for a long time, and I have also learned some secret texts on Onmyoji's contact, so I can understand the meaning."
I walked up and touched the table twice: "Mr. Ito, are you interested in seeing the door to hell that opens at midnight?"
"This..." Ito Zhen hesitated before saying, "Since Mr. Wang Huan thinks this is a clue, we might as well stay and take a look."
With the wave of the ninja, the Ito family samurai quickly surrounded the Juyi Hall. Even after manpower was deployed on the roof, they closed the door of the Juyi Hall. Only a few of us were left in the room. .
I sat casually on the ground: "Ito Makoto, I want to ask you a question. As far as I know, the Kwantung Army once had the idea of Jin Daxian Temple and even moved the statue of Jin Daxian. Why did they finally remove the statue? Did you send it back?"
Ito shook his head and said: "I don't know about this matter, and my ancestor has never mentioned it."
Just when I was feeling disappointed, the ninja said: "I have heard people say something about this matter. The old master did take away the statue of the god in the temple, but he quickly returned it, but... He changed the sitting position of the statue to a kneeling position. The head of the family once asked the old lord about the reason, and the old lord only said that he wanted to verify something. "
The status of ninjas in Japan is not as high as it was in later movies and comics. If samurai are called the retainers of the Japanese master, then ninjas can only be called domestic slaves. The ninja in front of me is probably the slave of the Ito family.
I asked in a deep voice: "Didn't Ito Aikawa say that he wanted to verify something?"
"No." Ninja shook his head and said, "The only thing I know is that the statue that was sent back was actually a corpse. As for the original owner of the corpse, the old master never mentioned it."
"Corpse? Japanese corpse?" I suddenly realized after seeing the ninja nodding. No wonder the statue was changed to a kneeling position. It turned out that Ito Akikawa had tampered with it.
The ninja opposite suddenly raised his head, and the arm that was originally hanging by his side suddenly grabbed the long knife behind him.
I suddenly raised my head and saw a stream of red liquid falling from the beams.
Blood? My first reaction was human blood.
I pulled out my pistol and pointed it at the roof and fired two shots. The blood on the roof dripped down like water, but Samurai Ito who was guarding outside did not react at all.
When Ye Xun and Ito Zhen drew their swords at the same time, the door of Juyi Hall burst open in an instant, and the starlight spread from outside the door into the room.
Ye Xun and I couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. It was clearly noon before we entered, and the conversation between Ito Makoto and I would not have lasted more than ten minutes at most, but why did the sun and moon suddenly change outside the door and turned into midnight
When I looked out in the direction of the gate, Ito's real men all gathered in the open space in the middle of the village at some point, sitting motionless on the ground around a bonfire.
The blazing fire should have illuminated all the people, but all I saw were half-dark figures. All the warriors sitting around the fire seemed to be divided into two parts by the firelight. One half was covered in blood-red color by the fire, while the other half was in the shadow of the night.
Ye Xun suddenly whispered: "Look at their clothes."
"Clothes?" I cast my gaze between the samurai facing me. The half of the man's clothes in the dark shadow not only turned into a Japanese military uniform from World War II, but also slowly moved to the other half, and the other person's face also darkened. Under the influence of the shadow, it slowly changed into something else. At first glance, it seems that the samurai is being slowly eroded and replaced by another person. I believe that it won't be long before he will be replaced by a Japanese soldier who has already died in Pingtianhai.
I couldn't help but raise my gun and aim at the opponent, but suddenly there was a sound of pulling the bolt from behind me.
The ninja snatched the Sanba Gai from Li Yong's hand at some point, raised his gun, aimed at the samurai who was facing us, and pulled the trigger. After the red light from the bullet passed through the opponent's eyebrows, it turned into a cloud of blood and flew up from the back of the opponent's head. The warrior whose head was hit by the bullet turned his eyes and looked at us.
At this moment, the ninja pushed the gun bolt again and hit the opponent in the heart. The bullet passed through the opponent's body again, and the person fell to the ground. At the same time, all the warriors gathered around the fire turned their heads to look at the Juyi Hall, and more than thirty yin and yang faces filled my sight in an instant.
"Shoot!" As Ye Xun and I raised our guns at the same time, the door of the Juyi Hall suddenly closed in front of our eyes, and all the bullets fired from our guns fell on the door.
Ye Xun and I only fired two shots and then released the trigger at the same time. Li Yong and Li Ran seemed to be crazy, pointing their pistols at the door and shooting wildly. In just a moment, the door was hit by thousands of people. Full of holes.
I yelled angrily: "You two, stop!"