Chapter 15 One-Eyed Mike In the dark swamp, a stream called Azalea River flows quietly. The stream is very narrow, only about five or six meters wide, but the scenery on both sides of the stream is completely different. The south bank of the Dujuan River is close to Aixel. Although it is covered with mangroves, the land is at least flat. Children usually go to the woods to catch tree frogs and insects, and many beekeepers also place a lot of beehives in the woods. However, the north bank of the Dujuan River is full of swamps, and the wasteland beside the dirt road is covered with a layer of dark green moss. If passers-by accidentally deviate from the road and walk on it, they may fall into some unknown swamp. No one would step into here, as this was the territory of the Imei family, who were said to have lived here for hundreds of years. At this time, on the dirt road on the north bank, a group of people were walking towards the Dujuan River. The leader was holding a torch, and the reflection of the torch revealed a thin face covered with rust spots. The most noteworthy thing was that he had only one eye, and he wore a leather eye patch over the blind eye on his left eye. The eye mask was dark yellow and wrinkled. No one knew what creature's skin it was made of, but one could see a depression shaped like a mammal's belly button. Behind him were seven or eight people, each pushing a wheelbarrow with a wine barrel on it. The wheels had been specially treated, not only were they extra large in size but they were also covered with a layer of rivets on the outside. The soil of the Dead Bone Flats is soft and horses cannot run fast. They will sink into the mud after just three or two steps. Local people mostly use this special wheelbarrow to transport goods. Several people were wrapped in gray linen robes. It seemed that the robes only came in one size, and were extra wide so that even the fattest person could fit into them.
The hems of the robes of the shorter people in the team were dragging on the ground, but he didn't care. Their footprints were left on the muddy ground. The footprints were deep and small, not like human footprints, but more like the traces left by some kind of arthropod crawling. One of them walked across the dirt road and gently stroked the iron chain on the wooden frame on the side of the road. There were many such wooden frames on the dirt road of the Dead Bone Marsh. They were more than two meters high and had metal rings and chains on them for fixing. "Mike, when will the next serving of...meat come? The oracle in my stomach can't wait any longer." The man stroking the chain swallowed and said. "It's no use coming early next Sunday. The time for Holy Communion cannot be changed." One-Eyed Mike's voice was very low, but he spoke very quickly, with some "da da da" tongue-clicking sounds in between. "Well, I hope the tribute this time is better. The oracle likes tender meat, and the oracle doesn't like old and hard bones." The man replied. "You won't care so much when you can drink the holy wine." said One-Eyed Mike. "Holy wine... When can I drink holy wine? I'm really looking forward to that day." The person who was speaking narrowed his eyes as if he was imagining some kind of nectar going down his throat. "stop." Old Mike waved his hand and everyone stopped. It turned out that there were several crabs crossing the dirt road under Mike's feet. The patterns of those crabs were the same as those that Liu Yonglu's carriage had run over that night, but the last one was a little different. This is a hermit crab. His body is much larger than those of his peers. At this moment, he is crawling behind with a huge shell on his back. Under the light of the torch, the shell was also stained with an orange halo. It was a skull with a few pieces of rotten meat hanging on it. This hermit crab actually lived in a human skull. There was a rustling sound in the empty eye sockets and nasal bones, as if the claws of a hermit crab were stirring inside, or as if something else was hidden inside. One-Eyed Mike opened the cloth bag tied around his waist, took out two fingers and threw them into the grass beside the dirt road. The crabs were led away by the fingers, and everyone started on their way again. Ten minutes later they arrived at the Dujuan River. The man pushing the wheelbarrow put the wine barrel on the wheelbarrow into the small boat beside the river bank, and then untied the cable on the pile next to it and pulled the small boat from the other side of the river over. This is how they have been trading goods with Zeus for a long time. Everyone puts their goods into their own ships and waits for the other party to pick them up.
"Mike, the cargo this time is a bit heavy. Maybe that idiot made a mistake in remembering the list." The person pulling the boat called another person to help, and the two of them took a lot of effort to pull the boat closer to the river bank. The boat was not big, only about 2 meters long, and it was covered with a layer of black canvas. The boatman waited until the boat reached the shore and then tried to lift the cloth, but as soon as he lifted the cloth, he saw a man sitting upright from the boat! The man was wearing a strange black robe. He was in his twenties, tall and thin. His exposed skin was covered with tattoos, and there were even a few black lines and patterns extending to his jaw. He had an inexplicable strange smile on his face. It was none other than Liu Yonglu! Half an hour ago, after he met up with Hughes and learned about the transaction method between the two parties, he cleverly hid inside the ship. What he was thinking was, what if the other person ignored him when they were talking across the river? Should he swim over to talk? By the time he swam over, the other person would have already left, so he might as well hide in the river, and then he would have to talk even if he didn't want to. Xius didn't care how Liu Yonglu planned to commit suicide. He had already made up his mind to escape from Excel after returning today. Neither One-Eyed Mike nor the guardian of the devil's son in front of him was someone he could afford to offend. When the two of them parted, Liu Yonglu also wanted to take away Xius's small pistol. He didn't know how to use it, but at least holding it in his hand gave him an extra layer of security. At this time, Liu Yonglu suddenly resurrected from the boat and scared several people from the Yimei family. The man who pulled the canvas retreated four or five steps away before taking out a dagger from his pocket. The other people pushing the wheelbarrows also drew their knives. "Mike, since when did Hughes start delivering meat?" The man who pulled out the dagger laughed. His smile was strange. It didn't seem like a laugh that came from his heart. Instead, it seemed like some other organ in his body was giving a command to his face. It was stiff and awkward. "Brothers, I am a gangster, and I want to talk to you about bootleg liquor business!" Liu Yonglu thought that he would first announce his name and purpose, and whether the other party believed it or not, he could continue the conversation. However, he did not expect that the seven or eight people standing opposite him had no intention of talking, but just slowly walked towards him. "So, you want to search me? I'm telling you, don't bother with me. I'm not afraid of you guys. Do you want to fight me one by one? Or one by one?" When Liu Yonglu saw that the person on the other side had ill intentions, he also retreated step by step. However, after two steps back, he reached the river, and if he retreated any further, he would fall into the river. As he spoke, he acted ruthlessly and pulled off his robe by the buttons, revealing his thin ribs. He rolled up the black robe and threw it on the ground, as if he was ready to fight the person in front of him to the death. "slow!" Just when everyone was about to attack Liu Yonglu, One-Eyed Mike waved a torch to block their way. In the light of the fire, he carefully looked at the "tattoo" on Liu Yonglu's body. "Turn around...let me take a look." One-Eyed Mike said. "Damn, are you scared now? I'm from the northwest corner! Have you heard of me? I'm the flag bearer of Lingdangge Middle School!" Liu Yonglu didn't dare to really turn his back. The guys opposite him were all glaring at him, and he was afraid that if he turned around, he would be stabbed in the kidney again. So he turned slightly sideways and remained alert at all times, but even so, the large piece of "flower embroidery" behind him was still presented to everyone without reservation. "oracle……" The man who first pulled the canvas couldn't help but drop his knife. One-Eyed Mike stopped talking. He couldn't recognize all the symbols on Liu Yonglu's back, but he had seen some of them. Those were symbols that were only found in the ancient books of the family. The ancient books recorded the rituals and contracts that the clan members used to contact the gods.
Some of the fragments in the pattern on the back are dream scenes that he was fortunate enough to glimpse after drinking the holy wine. No, it should be said that he had only secretly peeked at a very small part of it. Although the posture and structure were different, the shudder that the picture brought to him when it entered his mind was the same, and he would never forget it. There was one symbol that particularly caught his attention, which was a rectangle superimposed on a cross, and it meant "tribute." Could it be that the person in front of me is a tribute selected by some unknown god? Liu Yonglu was calm, because things were going exactly as he expected! Otherwise, he would have two hairtail tattoos on his body. This thing is just a bluff. He stood there for a while and when he felt that everything was fine, he bent down and picked up the robe that had fallen on the ground. There was something wrapped in the robe: a pistol and a black stone. He has been carrying the black stone with him these past few days. After all, it is something he will use for transactions in the future and it is related to his promotion and salary increase. He is worried about leaving it in the monastery. At this time, Liu Yonglu felt that the situation had stabilized, and he was ready to show his force to intimidate the "gang members" on the opposite side. So he opened his robe and put it on, then casually threw the black stone into his pocket. Finally, he picked up the revolver, emptied the bullets from it, turned the idle cylinder like in the movies, filled it with bullets and put it back in his pocket. Looking up, the fear in everyone's eyes became even stronger! Especially the leader, One-Eyed Mike, who stared at Liu Yonglu's pocket, tilted his head slightly, unable to hide his confusion. I was scared by these old idiots who had never seen a gun. Liu Yonglu smiled, patted his pocket and said: "What's up, let's have a chat. Let's just chat here, or let's go to another place." One-Eyed Mike didn't understand what Pandao meant. But he could also understand that the person in front of him was also a god's favorite. Many of the words used by the god's favorite came from ancient books. The words in the ancient books were not meant for the world to hear. They were words used to communicate with ancient gods. The other party meant... that he wanted to talk to him, One-Eyed Mike guessed. Coincidentally, he had just seen the ancient relic on Liu Yonglu's body. His family once had that thing, but it was taken to Excel Town a hundred years ago. Could this be some kind of oracle? Did this person send another ancient relic to repay his tribe? Thinking of this, One-Eyed Mike sneered and replied in his unique voice: "Speak to us as we enter the village... honored guest." Please read my novel, please read my novel very much, muah. (End of this chapter)
