??

  One knife was inserted, with half an inch to spare. Old Wan stared at the big tree with some expectation in his heart, "You'd better come out with some blood." Half a cigarette had passed, and everyone was watching. Even Ye Qiu, who usually didn't join in on the excitement, was staring over there too.

  "Haha, I told you so, it's just a rumor, an absolute rumor! The best way to dispel rumors is to prove it yourself!" Old Wan pulled out his dagger and began pacing back and forth, facing his good friends and a group of younger generation. Old Wan felt that he had given them a good lesson tonight not to believe in feudal superstitions. How did this country come about? It was built on the blood and sacrifice of countless brave warriors like himself who fought on the battlefield. If there were ghosts, wouldn't they have torn apart the Japanese devils who killed 300,000 people in Nanjing overnight? In the end, what was it that relied on? Wasn't it still the People's Army?

  But when he took three steps forward, the expressions of the people opposite him changed. The fat man's mouth opened into an "O" shape, Xia Lao Liu kept sighing, Cha Wenbin was tense all over his face, and even Ye Qiu's eyebrows jumped involuntarily.

  "What's wrong with you guys? Haha, it's nothing, I've already told you it was a rumor."

  As Xia Lao Liu said: "You've brought trouble upon yourself, take a look back!" Old Wan turned around and couldn't believe his own eyes.

  The small hole on the tree that had just been pricked was slowly oozing out a red liquid, one drop, two drops, and those red things were like human blood, slowly gathering into a line in the wrinkled tree bark. "Plop", "plop", one drop after another fell to the ground. Old Wan bent down and wiped some with his hand, putting it under his nose for a sniff. This old detective who had been doing this job for a lifetime felt a sudden jolt in his heart at that moment.

  "This is really blood! The smell of gore can't be wrong!"

  Xia Lao Liu said: "I told you so, I didn't believe in evil before, now you see it, next time I'll teach you to be more careful, there's still something inside!"

  "Never mind, let's just forget about it." Old Wan was getting a bit cold feet now, probably because the wine had worn off. After all, at his age, if this got out, he'd be the laughing stock of everyone.

  But then he thought about it again and felt that something was off, "Wait a minute, how could this tree possibly bleed?"

  Fatty snorted: "You've become a spirit, what's there to ask?"

  "It's a tree spirit, but how come it smells like human blood?!" Old Wan was now completely sober. Due to his professional sensitivity, he immediately felt that there was something wrong here. He looked up and scanned the giant tree that seemed to have no end, with several people surrounding it. From the outside, except for its large size and old age, there was nothing special about it. Could it be true that trees could also become spirits? How could a spirit tree let itself get pierced so easily?

  At this time, Cha Wenbin also sensed that something was wrong. In fact, when he first heard Xia Laoliu describe the three knives, he had doubts. Trees can become spirits, but most of the bleeding is exaggerated. When he saw Lao Wan stab with one knife, Cha Wenbin would rather it be just a rumor, but to his surprise, blood really gushed out. He also dabbed a drop on his nose and sniffed it, then retreated and let Ye Qiu smell it too. The two nodded at each other in unison. Cha Wenbin said: "It's human blood! There's something wrong with this tree!"

  This tree was planted by someone in some year, and it is said that the White Lotus Society came to plant it at the temple gate. However, others say that this is too late, as the age of the tree is much older than the White Lotus Society. Anyway, when we were young, what we heard most often was that it was at least three thousand years old. The tree was originally planted on the roadside, with a cliff on one side and a small river below.

  From the front, the bark is intact and undamaged, everything looks normal, but the three cuts are clearly visible, just a few centimeters away from where Lao Wan stabbed. From bottom to top, about ten meters or so, there are no branches, the straight trunk extends into the air before branching out and spreading leaves. Lao Wan walked along the left side of the tree, couldn't see anything special, so he went over and stabbed another knife at the lowest root, after this knife, waited for over ten minutes, not a single change, let alone blood, not even half a drop of sap flowed out.

  This is really strange, if it's said that the tree can bleed, then it should be able to do so anywhere on its body. Why does it only happen at that particular position? Suddenly, he and Cha Wenbin almost simultaneously went around to the back of the tree. The tree itself was slanted towards the small river and overhanging the cliff. Because the tree was too thick, they couldn't see what its back looked like even after looking for half a day.

  Lao Wan suggested bluntly: "Why don't we just do it this way, Lao Liu you go back and find an axe, tonight we'll split it open from here."

  "That won't do, this tree has been wanted by many people to cut it down, from before liberation to after liberation, countless batches of people have come to want to cut it down, how good is this material, how hard to get. Every time the village was guarded and no one succeeded, this tree is our ancestor in Hong Village, it's our root, I don't care if you bleed or sap inside, anyway, you can't move it."

  "Even if it can't be moved, that's okay. Tomorrow I'll send this blood back for testing, and if it's really human blood, then there will be enough reason to take further action."

  Xia Lao Liu also said fiercely: "You dare!"

  The two comrades were about to start a fight, and Cha Wenbin hurried over to mediate: "Two uncles, don't be in a hurry, this matter is suspicious. I'll go around to the back to take a closer look." He took out a roll of hemp rope from his bag, which was prepared for catching ghosts for Lao Wan tonight. He tied it around his waist and asked Pangzi to pull the rope tight and wrap it around his arm.

  Several attempts were made, but he couldn't grasp the thick tree root, and his hands and feet had no leverage. Finally, Ye Qiu thought of a solution, letting Pangzi stand on the cliff to lower Zhang Wenbin down first, then switching to the other side where Ye Qiu would use another rope to pull him up. With both sides exerting force together, Zhang Wenbin's position when he came up was just right at the back of the tree.

  This group of people not only ran out, but also played with heartbeats. If Ma Suifeng knew, he would definitely beat him up. Zha Wenbin vaguely felt that the secret was hidden behind the tree, and the answer almost came out of his throat, but before it was confirmed, he didn't dare to say it.

  After several attempts, Cha Wenbin felt that the skin on his waist was almost rubbed off, and he was finally barely hung behind the tree. This is extremely dangerous, as long as the rope breaks, he may fall off the cliff at any time. The heavens do not disappoint those who are determined, and indeed there is a story on the back of this tree. Two rows of eight-character nails were neatly nailed to it, about 2.5 meters high and 1 meter wide. There were countless nails in this area. The color of these nails was very similar to that of the tree bark, and many nails had been embedded into the bark over the years. Without touching or careful observation, just looking from the front, you can't see anything unusual.

  "The possibility of tree burial is very great." This is the judgment given by Cha Wenbin. According to records, in ancient times in the southwestern region, there was a special funeral custom where people would hollow out half of a tree trunk, place the corpse inside, and then reseal it. Some trees, due to their strong vitality, continued to grow without withering, and ancient people believed that the deceased person's soul merged with the tree, allowing them to continue living in the mortal world.

  However, this burial method had already ceased to be passed down in the southwestern border about 2,000 years ago. The emergence of hanging coffins and earth burials gradually replaced this cumbersome funeral ritual. Because the mortality rate of trees after being hollowed out is extremely high, those who hope to still get longevity have turned to other better ways to deal with their bodies.

  But now another problem has arisen, Lao Wan asked first: "If the tree burial is so many years old, won't the corpse inside have rotted?" The blood I smelled earlier was exceptionally fresh, no different from that of a living person. After a person dies, their blood will coagulate after a period of time. Could it be that this tree burial has preservative properties?

  This is another big case, and Lao Wan has to decide to go back and notify the meeting immediately. He wants to report today's discovery to his superiors. A few years ago, Lao Wan had handled a similar case, but the body was cemented into the wall by someone, and it wasn't discovered until many years later when the house owner found it while renovating the house. The case was highly publicized at the time, and Lao Wan personally led the investigation for half a year before solving it. The victim was the house owner's wife who had been missing for three years, and the perpetrator was one of the workers who built their house.

  The next day, a large number of police cars appeared in the village, and the successive murder cases suddenly plunged this small mountain village into a whirlpool of public opinion. Liu Danni was even more frightened when she heard that someone was buried under the tree, and her son was also taken away by Lao Wan as the first witness to contact the bleeding phenomenon.

  The villagers of Hongcun are concerned not only about the trees, but more importantly, they care about that particular tree, which is a symbol of Hongcun, just like Xia Laoliu said, it's their root. Considering the villagers' emotions, the task force decided to handle it carefully and try their best to preserve the tree.

  Twenty years have passed, and the big tree still stands tall in front of the temple. Now it has been marked with an iron plaque that reads "Ancient Tree Protected by Law" and has even been selected as one of the top 100 ancient trees in the province. People who come to Hongcun Village will definitely go see the tree, but after that year, it gradually weakened, with nearly a third of its trunk now dead, and the eight-character nails and cement fence used to reinforce it are protecting its last bit of life...

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  High-speed premiere of the last Taoist 2 latest chapter, this chapter is Chapter 52 Proof (II) Blood address in the tree If you think this chapter is not bad, please don't forget to recommend it to your QQ group and Weibo friends!