Chapter 25: Snake Skin Exorcism, Qingdou

  According to common sense, Qin Feng thought that this incident was probably a case of feigning death, and the fact that Dongtou Village was accustomed to using coffins to collect corpses was good evidence. However, at the dinner table, Zhou Qin shook his head, apparently feeling that Qin Feng's answer was too hasty.

  Is there anything more troublesome than this?

  "Yes, I'm afraid it's more troublesome than that." Zhou Qin put down his wine cup, exuding a strong aroma of Fenghuang white wine as he worried: "This afternoon, I specifically followed Old Xie's instructions and went to Zhenyao Mountain, but the entire mountain was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere."

  Qin Feng blinked his eyes, "Gas? What gas?"

  "Essence. Every object has essence, usually people's bodies have very little, so it's hard to detect, even mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, flowers, grass and beasts are the same. But if under certain circumstances the essence on their body bursts out, then it will produce spiritual power." Zhou Qin continued: "This Town Demon Mountain is one of them, the essence on the mountain has made the Feng Shui compass needle shake, so I think something that shouldn't appear may have appeared on Town Demon Mountain."

  Listening to Zhou Qin's explanation, Qin Feng felt that what he said made him guess that it might be true that the big snake had obtained the Tao and came out to harm people. But how could the corpse move? He asked Zhou Qin again in confusion: "Is what you said because of the unfavorable feng shui of Zhenyao Mountain?"

  "This still requires further observation, but even if the Feng Shui is not right, it won't cause a corpse to move and wander in the deep mountains. Who knows, it might be like what I encountered when I was doing archaeological work in a small mountain village in Hunan."

  "Lao Zhou, what happened to you in Hunan? Did you also encounter a moving corpse?" At this time, Professor Xie asked Zhou Qin with great curiosity.

  Zhou Qin was indeed a straightforward person, and after drinking, he spoke the truth without any falsehood. So, he told his friends about his past experience in Bangzi Village, Hunan Province. "I remember it was during the New Year's Day of 1967 or 1968. At that time, I was still the team leader of a production team in Changsha, Hunan Province. Friends knew that I liked to study ancient artifacts, so someone told me that there was an antique collector in Bangzi Village, Longping County, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, who collected a painting called 'Xuanzong's Horse Riding' by the Tang Dynasty court painter Han Gan. This painting is extremely rare, and I wanted to verify its authenticity, so I crossed the mountains and entered Bangzi Village. However, when I was passing through the hills, I coincidentally met a Taoist priest who was performing a ritual. Out of curiosity, I discovered that the Taoist priest was actually driving corpses, also known as 'hunting for corpses'."

  "Xiangxi corpse driving?" Qin Feng understood the experience that Zhou Qin had mentioned, and it turned out to be Xiangxi corpse driving. "Yes, it's Xiangxi corpse driving." Zhou Qin looked at Qin Feng with admiring eyes. Then he exclaimed in surprise: "At that time, I was very scared, didn't expect there would actually be such a thing. But later on, after coming into contact with more things, it wasn't surprising anymore."

  "So you're saying you suspect it's a Corpse Driver?" Fang Yu guessed at this time.

  Zhou Qin shook his head as usual, denying Fang Yu's speculation: "It can't be determined yet, at least none of us have seen it, just hearsay. To know the truth, we need to investigate on the mountain tomorrow." Zhou Qin seemed to remember something else and said after drinking a sip of wine with his head down: "This afternoon I inquired in Dongtou Village and found the villager who rescued people. According to him, this mountain was a secret command center of the Fengtian clique during the Republic of China period. Later, when Zhang Zuolin's general Guo Songling defected, the command center was also withdrawn for unknown reasons."

  Upon hearing this, Qin Feng muttered to himself that Guo Songling's betrayal had nothing to do with this matter. Zhou Qin's words always sounded so evasive. At this point, no matter how much he guessed, it was useless. It would be better to investigate personally and perhaps find a turning point.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, just as Qin Feng had thought, on the second day early in the morning, Zhou Qin called Qin Feng and said he wanted to take him together to investigate Zhenyao Mountain.

  These days, Ye Cheng and Jiang Dong from the same dormitory as Qin Feng have gone who-knows-where, leaving only Qin Feng alone. However, this also makes things more peaceful, and he doesn't need to worry about disturbing others when doing his own thing. Before long, a screeching sound of brakes outside the dormitory stopped Qin Feng's train of thought. He opened the door to take a look, and it turned out to be Zhou Qin.

  Like this, Qin Feng sat in Zhou Qin's old Beijing Jeep and headed to Dongtou Village. Along the way, this old jeep's load-bearing capacity truly gave Qin Feng a sense of experiencing an antique that wasn't ancient, swaying back and forth until they finally arrived at Dongtou Village.

  At the village entrance, Qin Feng had just gotten off the car when he met an old man with a slightly hunched back. Zhou Qin told him that it was this old man who saved the couple and today he was waiting for them on purpose to take them up the mountain to investigate the situation.

  "You've finally arrived, let's hurry up." The old man with a mouthful of Northeastern flavor turned around and led Qin Feng and Zhou Qin to head towards the mountain.

  Dongtou Village is a well-known professional chicken breeding village in Jingjiang City, with almost every household having a relatively large-scale chicken farm. That's why the old man looked down and depressed on the road. When asked by Zhouqin, the old man said: "I don't know what to do now, there are fewer and fewer chickens in the chicken farm every day, I really don't know how to deal with it."

  "Are you missing some every day? Old Zhang, is it that your family's wall has a hole in it, the chicken ran away, or was eaten by a weasel?" Zhou Qin asked with concern.

  Old Zhang shook his head dejectedly, his hunched back seeming even more depressed: "It's not a weasel, weasels don't eat chickens every day, and they wouldn't eat two or three at once."

  "Two or three? You have fewer chickens every day?" Qin Feng subconsciously noticed this question, he thought that Zhang Lao Han's chickens were not eaten by the weasel, but were likely to be eaten by the big snake mentioned by Xiao Chen.

  "Every day, there are fewer, at least three less each time, and sometimes as many as five." Zhang Lao Han replied, "Originally, the chicken farm had nearly a hundred chickens, but now every day there are fewer, and almost half have disappeared."

  Upon hearing this, Zhou Qin became curious. This didn't seem like the work of a thief or a weasel. If things continued like this, it would be truly inexplicable. At this time, Qin Feng suggested going to Zhang Lao Han's house to take a look. As they walked towards the chicken farm with Zhang Lao Han, he sighed and said: "I've already reported this case, but after investigating, the police didn't find anything. What's even more puzzling is that in order to prevent the loss of chickens, I had my eldest son set up iron wire mesh around the farm, yet every day there are still fewer chickens." "Ah, it's going to be the death of me..."

  After a sigh, Qin Feng and Zhou Qin had arrived at Zhang Lao Han's chicken farm. The chicken farm was built next to Zhang Lao Han's tile-roofed house, so it was relatively convenient. As they walked into the chicken farm, for some reason, the remaining hens suddenly became well-behaved, clucking softly as they ran back to their nests.

  This scene looks like it has been shocked.

  Qin Feng carefully searched for clues around, following the instructions of Zhang Lao Han, Qin Feng came to the iron wire mesh hole that was repaired and broken again. After a careful search, Qin Feng finally found the clue.

  "Old Zhou, take a look at this!" Qin Feng picked up a blood-red, fish-scale-like thing the size of a fingernail from the ground and handed it to Zhou Qin. Zhou Qin examined it carefully, furrowing his brow, but he didn't know exactly what it was. However, he thought: "This might be snake skin."

  "Snake skin?" At this time, Old Zhang excitedly stepped forward and hastily asked.

  "It's just like shedding snake skin." Qin Feng echoed.

  It seems that Qin Feng's guess is not far off, and what Xiao Chen said was also correct. There may indeed be a very large snake on Zhenyao Mountain.