Folklore and Strange Tales: At the Start, You Retrieve the Sea-Suppressing Black Iron

The giant rice dumpling hasn't fallen over yet.

As soon as the protective iron scales left its body, a section of its chest collapsed, but its body leaned forward along the edge of the pit. The black mud at the bottom of the pit climbed up its two legs and soon sealed the gap again.

Tieguai Li retreated to the wooden box, shook the mud off his hands, and began to curse.

"Does this thing come with refills?"

Zhou Banxian stared at the bottom of the pit, his compass needle trembling incessantly in the Heavenly Pool.

"The corpse mud is still attached to the resentment of the roots. The iron scales only pried off a breath of it, but the roots are still there."

Tang Wanqing retracted the red thread, and the first layer of copper coin array was disrupted by it, with three coins still dripping with black liquid from their holes.

"It remembers the formation and specifically chooses to walk through the gaps in the red lines."

Cheng Xiaojin looked down at the muddy marks at the feet of the giant rice dumpling and nodded.

"Back then, the foundation stone protectors knew the formations better than we did; they knew where we could go and where we couldn't."

Tang Wanqing turned to look at him.

"That makes it even more difficult; ordinary methods of suppressing corpses won't work."

"Don't use the same methods as treating a corpse to deal with it."

Cheng Xiaojin shifted his gaze to the iron scales protecting the stake.

"It's a gatekeeper who's been blinded by the evil spirits of Yin Water, guarding the same pit for six hundred years. The pit has gone astray, and it doesn't even know it."

Tieguai Li cursed, "How do we let it know? Hold a meeting with it?"

Cheng Xiaojin raised his chin.

"Dinner is served."

Zhou Banxian slapped his thigh.

"You've really invited the patriarch into the restaurant."

Cheng Xiaojin looked into the car.

How much soup is left?

Tieguai Li picked up the thermos and shook it; the bottom of the thermos made a clanging sound.

"The base, oil, bits of lung, and half a piece of tofu puff."

"That's enough. Take out an old cotton quilt, dried ginger slices, mugwort ash, and stove ash. Do you have any nails left?"

"have."

"Make hot pile nails."

Tang Wanqing frowned.

"Hot pile nail?"

Cheng Xiaojin said, "The local name is made up on the spot. Miss Tang, don't look through the classics. Wrap the earthly smoke and fire of the living world around the iron nail and stick it into the corpse mud, so that it can not only listen to the yin water evil counts, but also listen to the sounds of human cooking stoves."

Master Ma looked at the large rice dumpling, and tapped the lid of his teacup between his fingers.

"You can try."

Tang Wanqing pursed her lips.

"I'll hold for three breaths, three breaths at most."

Tieguai Li had already torn open the old cotton quilt, and the yellowish cotton wadding was scattered all over the ground.

He laid the nails out one by one on the dry cloth, and Cheng Xiaojin pointed them out through the towel.

"Don't make the cotton wadding too thick, or it won't fit in. Apply a layer of soup oil, cover the outside with stove ash, and stick dried ginger slices to the nail ends."

Tieguai Li cursed as he worked.

"I, Li Tiezhu, have made bronzeware, repaired clocks, and even counterfeited three-layered, concealed briefcases. This is the first time I've ever pickled nails for a rice dumpling."

Zhou Banxian handed over the wine pot.

"Sprinkle some wine."

Cheng Xiaojin said, "Don't use too much. Alcohol can cause internal heat, and too much of it will just be a side dish with the alcohol."

Zhou Banxian snorted.

"You're even telling this old man how much he can drink now."

The three hot stakes were quickly made.

The nails were covered in ash and oil, and smelled both pungent and fragrant.

The wasteland was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere, and the few nails stuck in the ground gave off the smell of a night market stall near Huguosi Temple, making the scene rather unseemly.

The giant rice dumpling has stood up again.

It was half a head taller than before, its body bulging with corpse mud, and the rusty chains were stretched taut.

It bypassed the copper coin line, took a step to the side, and headed straight for the side of the wooden box.

The red thread on the wooden box turned black, and the Zhenhai iron made a low clanging sound inside the box.

Tang Wanqing threw out the red thread.

"It's looking for an empty spot in the formation."

Master Ma pressed down on the wooden box.

"Xiao Jin, step back."

Cheng Xiaojin did not withdraw.

"Brother Li, the back of the knee. It walks by dragging its legs with the mud from its corpse. Nailing it in the back of the knee will break its leverage."

Tieguai Li swept over the edge of the pit and then stared at the back of the big zongzi's legs.

"I'll go."

Tang Wanqing said, "I'll give you three breaths. After three breaths, come back on your own."

Tieguai Li grinned.

"Miss Tang, your way of encouraging us is really inspiring."

Zhou Banxian took a sip of wine and spat it onto the copper coin line on the ground.

"Walk!"

Tang Wanqing pulled the red thread, and the copper coins all flipped over, the moonlight shining through their holes.

Tieguai Li slid along the edge of the pit, his prosthetic leg getting stuck on the embankment, and he lowered his body as the first hot nail pierced the back of Da Zongzi's left knee.

The giant rice dumpling turned around and flung the muddy corpse at his face.

Tang Wanqing pressed it down with a copper coin.

"one."

The second nail was driven into the right knee.

When Zhou Banxian sprayed wine, the alcohol fumes hit the stove ash, and the corpse mud receded by half an inch.

"two."

Tieguai Li was about to make the third prosthetic leg when his foot sank into the mud and water, causing his prosthetic leg to get stuck.

Cheng Xiaojin shouted, "Don't pull out the prosthesis! Position the nails upwards, and the waist tag three inches below!"

Without asking any questions, Tieguai Li twisted his waist and nailed the third one into the bottom of the large rice dumpling's waist tag.

"three!"

Tang Wanqing tightened the red thread, and Tieguai Li used the force to roll back, his shoulder hitting the side of the wooden box, his face contorted in pain.

"Damn it, my back almost died here."

The giant rice dumpling stood still in place.

The ashes and oil from the three hot stakes seeped into the corpse's mud.

The black mud on its body began to fall off, and a shadow gradually appeared on the collapsed part of its chest.

It was a person curled up.

He wore a short jacket from the Ming Dynasty, with half a wooden ruler hanging from his waist and a piece of iron in his hand.

His face was obscured; only his mouth could be seen moving.

It no longer counts the water.

It is calling out a horn.

"One, two, three, drop."

Zhou Banxian lowered his voice.

"The afterimage of the stake protector."

Tang Wanqing looked at Cheng Xiaojin.

"It woke up a little."

Cheng Xiaojin picked up the ashtray, held it with a towel over it, and slowly placed it next to the iron scales on the protective post.

The old marks on the bottom of the ashtray were revealed in the moonlight, and the Cheng family's vertical hook mark was pressing down on the edge of the iron scale.

Cheng Xiaojin said in a low voice, "Cheng Xiaojin, a descendant of the Cheng family, I'm borrowing your Iron Scale Protector for a while. The stake is off-center, the pit is wrong. What you're guarding isn't the root, but a false door drawn for you by the Yin Water Sha."

The iron scales made a soft crackling sound.

The afterimage of the giant rice dumpling on its chest raised its head.

Tieguai Li asked in a low voice, "Can he understand?"

Zhou Banxian said, "Craftsmen from six hundred years ago valued skill, not nonsense."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the afterimage.

"I won't take away your merits or ruin your reputation. Zhenhai Iron will go back, and you'll still guard the third stake. But you have to tell me which way the underwater root is veering."

The afterimage slowly turned its head and looked at him.

At that moment, the light blue line on the back of Cheng Xiaojin's hand bulged out half an inch, and the old wound on the tip of his tongue also tasted blood.

Tang Wanqing immediately reached out and pressed down on the top of his wrist, avoiding his hand.

"That's enough, stop going too deep."

Cheng Xiaojin gritted his teeth.

"One more sentence."

A clearer metallic sound emanated from the iron scales.

This time, no words were heard, only the echo of the iron stake entering the water when it was driven into the ground.

Zhou Banxian couldn't hear anything, but he saw Cheng Xiaojin's face gradually turn pale.

Tang Wanqing said, "Cheng Xiaojin."

Master Ma spoke.

"Xiao Jin, receive it."

Cheng Xiaojin gently pressed the ashtray against the metal scale.

The sound of metal scales stopped.

At the edge of the pit, layers of mud from the corpse on the giant zongzi collapsed.

The chain broke into several pieces and fell back into the pit.

The remaining image of the stake protector looked down at his hands, then at the Zhenhai ironwood box.

He bent down.

Afterwards, the entire body was scattered back to the bottom of the pit, leaving only half of the rusted waist tag.

The wasteland fell silent again.

Tieguai Li pushed himself up from the ground.

"So, they're gone?"

Zhou Banxian shook his head.

"They haven't been sent away yet; their resentment is still in the pit. They're just not stopping us for now."

Master Ma walked to the edge of the pit, picked up the waist tag, and wrapped it in cloth.

"The man who maintained the piles has a name; we'll have to check that later."

Cheng Xiaojin sat beside the wooden box, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

Tang Wanqing squatted down to look at his hands.

"The blue line has grown longer again."

Cheng Xiaojin pulled his hands into his sleeves.

"It wasn't a wasted life."

Zhou Banxian approached, carrying a compass.

"What did you hear?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the iron scales protecting the stake.

"This thing can amplify the roar of the Zhenhai Iron Dragon. When the stake is being repositioned, I can hear the underwater roots up to three inches deep using it."

Tieguai Li's eyes lit up.

"This is good stuff."

Cheng Xiaojin did not respond to him.

The iron scales protecting the stake lay on the dry cloth, the rust at the edges gradually receding, revealing a thin ripple of water.

Tang Wanqing looked down.

"Does it recognize you?"

Cheng Xiaojin twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Don't be so polite. It probably saw that I was half disabled and thought that since we were both craftsmen, it wouldn't be a loss to lend a hand."

Zhou Banxian placed the compass back on the north side of the original pit.

"Then let's not delay, the moon will be there soon."

Master Ma glanced at the sky.

"The ionization time is less than half an hour."

Tang Wanqing put away the first layer of copper coins and rearranged the array.

"Next, we'll set the pace at seven steps and three inches."

Cheng Xiaojin stood up, his legs wobbled, and Tieguai Li supported him on the shoulder.

"Can it still hold on?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the old pit.

"We have to keep going even if we can't. The people who protect the posts have been working for six hundred years. It's not shameful for me to take a night shift."