Chapter 916: Jiuhe Lower Reach, Red Building Ghost Ship

Jiuhe Lower Reach Dagukou, Three Floating Bridges and Two Passes!

This refers to Dagukou being located at the lower reach of the Haihe where the nine rivers converge. The water system is rich, and there is the Grand Canal communicating with the north to the capital. The place where the north-south canal and the Haihe water system converge, called Sanchahe Mouth, is the ancient land known as Zhigu. Upstream and downstream, there are three floating bridges: Xigu, Chaoguan, and Yanguan.

Chaoguan checks the banknote, Yanguan checks the salt, two ghost gates...

Masts and oars are like a forest, sails are like white clouds on the river, and ships flow day and night. Goods here either go straight to the capital, go out to the port to the ocean, or are sold to Hebei. Sanchahe Mouth is essentially a place where canal goods gather, and there are more than 100,000 people who rely on the waterway to eat, and the number of gangs and sects is countless.

Demons, ghosts, monsters, north-south evil spirits, and evil strange events passing by are endless.

Those who sail are most likely to provoke trouble, and the taboos and rules are countless. With the importance of Zhigu, connecting north and south, the Yellow River entering the sea, and overseas heavy ports, it can be said that all demons, ghosts, and monsters from the south, north, Yellow River, and overseas have gathered!

Since the Second Epoch, this place has had endless strange events. A thousand years ago, at Sanchahe Mouth, a Tianhou Palace was built, which gradually suppressed these strange events.

Therefore, there is a saying: "Drifting guests from south and north, nothing is more evil than Tianhou Palace!"

This sentence has two meanings. One is that the demons, ghosts, and monsters from the south, north, Yellow River, and overseas, no matter how evil, cannot pass Tianhou Palace. The Yellow River great demons must retreat when they reach here, and overseas evil gods cannot enter the interior through Dagukou; the Yin gods and demon insects of the south, and the great demon immortals of the north, cannot cross Tianhou Palace...

But the other meaning is known to very few—no matter how evil the demons, ghosts, and monsters from the south, north, Yellow River, and overseas are, they are not as evil as the thing worshipped in Tianhou Palace!

And Brother Qian Chen came alone to the Tianhou Palace at Sanchahe Mouth.

Tianhou Palace faces east and west, with the Opera House, Flagpole, Mountain Gate, Archway, Front Hall, Main Hall, Phoenix Tail Hall, Scripture Library, and Enlightenment Hall arranged from east to west along the central axis.

Brother Qian Chen looked out from the Main Hall, the seven-purlin single-eave hip-and-gable roof, connected to the front with a scroll-shed roof, and connected to the back with the Phoenix Tail Hall of the hanging mountain roof. A spiritual object was hidden in the ridge, illuminating Brother Qian Chen.

An old Daoist priest, using the guise of physiognomy, slept with his legs crossed in the small garden inside Tianhou Palace.

His eyes were half-closed, looking at a bright moon in the ancestral hall, but there was a person's shadow in the moon.

"What is he doing here?" The old Daoist priest was a little puzzled, and casually pinched a hexagram, thinking: "This Profound Truth Sect saved the Li family and fulfilled the two-hundred-year dream of this sect's Profound Lord secret scriptures. The luck of the Profound Truth Sect has changed! But this new Sect Master came north to Dagukou and stopped here, as if he has the intention of peeking at the capital... The Emperor is refining pills in the capital, and most of the great medicine needed has to pass through here. Could it be that he is eyeing those 'Immortal Elixirs'?"

"Troubled times!"

"If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. As long as the treasure mirror of Tianhou Palace is still there, it's not my turn, Cui Bu'er, to worry about so much... Sleep, sleep! Disturbing people's dreams in the middle of the night!"

Before the old Daoist priest closed his eyes, he squinted and looked at the moon in the ancestral hall again. This time, the figure in the spiritual light of the treasure mirror suddenly disappeared.

He stared wide-eyed and looked up, only to see Brother Qian Chen's figure on the Wanghai Tower high above, standing on the third floor overlooking the entire Sanchahe Mouth and Tianhou Palace.

"Jiuhe Lower Reach Dagukou, Three Floating Bridges and Two Passes!"

Brother Qian Chen said gloomily: "Drifting guests from south and north, riding a boat but not passing Tianhou Palace!"

"A thousand years ago, it was during the Northern Song Dynasty. The Yellow River burst its banks at Puyang and walked the old Yu river channel, entering the sea through the Wei River, a tributary of the Haihe at Dagukou! Very few people know that during that Yellow River diversion, something was washed out of the ancient Yu river channel. Chen Tuan True Person ordered his disciples to intercept that thing at the current Sanchahe Mouth and built this Tianhou Palace to suppress it. Since then, Dagukou has had the legend of 'nothing is more evil than Tianhou Palace'!"

He didn't look back, staring from Wanghai Tower at the strange scenery of the Sanchahe Mouth, where the north-south canal converged and multiple water systems surrounded it.

The reflection of Wanghai Tower swayed in the water. Cui Bu'er's face was solemn, and he slowly turned out from the stairwell.

He sucked his teeth, looking like a rogue, and said loudly: "I've heard that legend too. What a Huang Di treasure mirror! It is said that it was used by the Huang Di to give to Great Yu to control the floods, but because of the interception of the Yellow River river demons, Great Yu mistakenly dropped the treasure mirror into the Yellow River. Later, the river diverted and gradually buried it. It wasn't until the Northern Song Dynasty that a flood burst the banks of the Yellow River and flowed through the ancient Yu river channel again, washing out the treasure mirror."

"Chen Jin Chuan ancestor could calculate, and sent disciples to Sanchahe Mouth to salvage the treasure mirror. The people of Zhigu Village knew about this and knelt and begged the True Person to leave the treasure mirror behind. After a lot of crying and trouble, they built this Tianhou Palace to worship the treasure mirror! Dagukou has since become a water transport hub, with the treasure mirror suppressing the water ghosts and river demons from south and north, protecting one side of peace!"

"What kind of person is the Sect Master? You wouldn't be plotting against the treasure mirror that the people of Dagukou rely on for survival, would you?"

Cui Bu'er was dangling, stained with one-third of the rogue spirit of the Dagukou Jianghu, and asked Brother Qian Chen with a smile.

"Treasure mirror..." Brother Qian Chen smiled: "If that thing were really a treasure mirror, why not worship the Mirror Master, but name it Tianhou Palace? Tianhou is the response body of the Cauldron Mother to save suffering!"

Cui Bu'er shouted: "Then I don't know! The treasure mirror of Tianhou Palace is hanging high, and no one can move it. No demon, ghost, or monster passing through Sanchahe Mouth can hide its true form under it. If the Sect Master moves it, it will be a disaster. In this world, there is no place more suitable for it to stay than Tianhou Palace!"

"There are nine dragons in the nine rivers upstream! There is also a river demon in the old Yellow River channel that has been waiting for more than a thousand years. The fleet of foreign ships transporting Immortal Elixirs has entered the Bohai Sea."

"The immortals outside the Great Wall in the north are being driven south by the old gods, while the Daoist priests in the south are escorting the Corpse King to the capital."

"River demons, corpse demons, dragon demons, and a sea demon from overseas are all blocked by that thing at this Sanchahe Mouth... Cui old Daoist, little disaster god! Either you find that thing and collect all four demons! Or, you wait for the demons to gather in Dagukou and the people to be plunged into misery and suffering!"

Brother Qian Chen said leisurely: "I can tell you, it is a Wu Yue Jue... a bone Wu Yue Jue. A wine vessel evolved from a cauldron, made of dragon bones, sunk in... this Sanchahe!"

Cui Bu'er's heart shook violently for a moment. By the time he came back to his senses, the Wanghai Tower was empty, and there was no sign of Brother Qian Chen. But he was blocking the only way downstairs, not knowing how Brother Qian Chen had left.

Coming to the railing, Cui Bu'er looked down at the Sanchahe Mouth below, only to see the reflection of Wanghai Tower swaying slightly in the water. Because the moonlight was excellent tonight, it could almost reflect his Cui Bu'er's shadow.

But at this moment, he actually saw a shadow walking slowly down the stairs from the reflection on the river, but when he turned to look, the stairs were empty.

It was as if Brother Qian Chen had walked into the shadow in the river.

Or perhaps at that moment, the Wanghai Tower in the river and the Wanghai Tower where Cui Bu'er was located were reversed, changing the scene!

In front of the Chaoguan floating bridge not far from Sanchahe Mouth, even though it was night, there were many ships coming and going. The tax clerks had to check the tax banknotes one by one before letting the ships pass through the pass.

There are two major tax passes in the world: one is Chongwenmen in the capital, and the other is the canal tax pass in Dagukou.

Although it was past midnight, the eyes of the tax clerk Zhang Lao Si were as bright as light bulbs, just because passing the tax was like passing a ghost gate. The tax clerks at Chongwenmen in the capital are the most majestic errand in the world. Officials below the third rank, no matter if they are a hundred-mile marquis or a giver, have no one who is not harassed when passing Chongwenmen. Even a small piece of luggage must be searched three times.

If they are impatient to wait, or have female relatives passing the pass, they must spend enough silver.

The Dagukou tax pass is the same. During the day, there are many official ships and military ships passing the pass, and merchant ships cannot be blocked, otherwise those waiting behind will be impatient and can tear him, a small tax clerk, apart!

But if it is at night, there are few ships passing the pass, and most of them are small merchants, and many of them carry private goods.

It is a good time to extort money.

Just at this time, a large red ship drifted from afar on the shipping lane. It looked like a building ship in the south, carved and painted, extremely gorgeous, and the ship was covered with big red lanterns, connected by red gauze between the lanterns.

Zhang Lao Si's eyes were straight!

He had seen many merchant ships coming and going, but when had he seen this? This is the Grand Canal! It's not the Qin Huai River in Nanjing...

By the time the ship drifted close, the tax clerk felt something was wrong. Painting boats were not built for sailing, so there were no sails or oars, all relying on towing. But at this time, the ship was close, and Zhang Lao Si discovered that there was not a single shadow on the ship, and it just drifted down like this.

Cold river ghost ship, empty ship, but the ship was painted with red lacquer, hung with red lanterns, and surrounded by red curtains and gauze.

Small boats and merchant ships on both sides found something wrong, and many bypassed from afar, or sailed toward the South Canal again. The large ships at the tax pass also found something wrong. The officer on the ship gave a loud shout, driving the soldiers to sail forward to intercept the red ship.

Zhang Lao Si heard a gentle female voice singing gloomily on the empty canal: "I have a period of love, singing to the gentlemen, gentlemen, please be quiet, be quiet..."

"Let me come, sing a Wuxi scene, singing to the gentlemen in detail."

At both ends of the floating bridge, two big fireballs floated up, swaying slowly with the quiet singing...

Zhang Lao Si felt his hair stand on end. Looking closely, those fireballs were not firelight at all, but rows of big red lanterns, floating at both ends of the floating bridge, lining up and walking slowly along the floating bridge.

At this time, white hands stretched out from behind the lanterns of the red ship.

Women in white, holding lanterns, lined up in two rows, standing on the side of the red ship...

Cui Bu'er took a small boat from the place where Brother Qian Chen disappeared and sailed slowly toward the center of the river.

He looked at the tax pass from afar, and saw red lanterns hanging all over the tax pass, hanging all over the warships, reflecting the entire tax pass floating bridge like a lantern building and fire market...

Countless women laughed charmingly, shuttling under the favorite lanterns. The sound of selling, shouting, and noise, children playing and fighting at the bridgehead, peddlers carrying poles, scholars in long gowns, and wealthy families in silk and satin.

It was like a noisy night market...

But Cui Bu'er just felt cold in his bones, and said in a low voice: "Red lanterns shine, Bai Lian arrives! Red lanterns shine, Bai Lian arrives..." ===== CHAPTER 917 =====

It was as if it were a bustling night market...

But Cui Bu'er only felt a chill deep in his bones, whispering, "Red Lanterns shine, the Bai Lian arrives! Red Lanterns shine, the Bai Lian arrives..."