It has been more than ten days since the people returned to Fucheng and regained stability. The government has not announced the specific casualties of this flood, only saying that there are thousands of casualties.
On the contrary, the incense of Bailong Temple has ushered in its most prosperous period in the past hundred years. The Buddha's apparition when the flood poured into the city that day was seen by almost all the people in the city. It is conceivable that the incense of Bailong Temple has reached unprecedented prosperity, and the people of the whole city, Everyone from storytellers in taverns and teahouses to urchins on the roadside spread word of mouth that there is a real Buddha in Bailong Temple and that the Buddha has appeared in Bailong Temple.
Bailong Temple became the savior of the people in Fucheng.
The incense of Buddha is at its peak.
People seeking children, marriage, and fortune tellers all go to Bailong Temple. Every day there is an endless stream of incense believers. The incense burning during the day is still burning at night, illuminating the entire Bailong Temple all night long.
The steps up the mountain from Bailong Temple are almost worn out by people.
Although Bailong Temple stood up and explained that the master who really subdued the dragon was a mysterious person, but because Bailong Temple could not tell who the mysterious person was, the people would only think that Bailong Temple was humble and not arrogant, but instead became more Praise for Bailong Temple.
Under the deliberate guidance of the government, the mountain god suffered a catastrophic disaster ten days ago. In compliance with the publicity of the people, the Dragon King came ashore, and was then jointly killed by several major monasteries and Taoist temples in the Yinyi River. The truth was not announced.
However, the matter about the mountain god's calamity can be hidden from ordinary people, but it cannot be hidden from the central court and the Yujing Golden Tower, Zhenguo Temple, and Tianshi Mansion in the capital. In the past few days, a large number of Taoist priests and monks with unfamiliar faces have begun to appear in the capital. , an extraordinary court official.
The three major power agencies under the direct jurisdiction of the central court, Dali Temple, Yushifu, and Criminal Investigation Department, all came to Fucheng.
There is a folk slang saying.
There are many little bastards in the pool.
So Li Que, that big fat man, has been running around recently to entertain colleagues from the capital and report on the work he is doing. Except for hurriedly coming to see Jin An in the middle, he really doesn't even have time to drink tea.
The Tianshi Mansion has the largest number of people settled in Fucheng. In the past few days, there have been a large number of Feng Shui masters hanging Feng Shui bells on the streets of Fucheng. They are asking about things among the people, but it seems that the progress is not going well. These Feng Shui masters are showing off every day. Even the people in the city began to hate these arrogant Feng Shui masters due to their stinky face, and were too lazy to answer their questions.
On the other hand, the remote Wu Zang Taoist Temple seems sparse compared to the unprecedentedly prosperous Bailong Temple.
Because he was about to leave Kangding and travel to the Western Regions. This trip would be a long way and it might not be possible to come back in a short time. Jin'an had been busy saying goodbye to old acquaintances in the city these past few days.
He family, Xue family, Jia family.
Mr. Fu Yin.
Captain.
The big fat man Li Que has been busy for several days and I haven't seen him for several days. According to the lady of Dahe Mansion, it seems that the Dali Temple and the Yushi Mansion were unfavorable to the Criminal Investigation Department's intelligence collection this time. He wanted to impeach the Criminal Investigation Department, and wanted to take the opportunity to beat the Criminal Investigation Department to death.
This kind of partisanship involves too many interests. Once you get the handle, everyone will be eager to step on you.
If it weren’t for the identities of the antique dealers and the gang, all the foreign spies in Wuzhou Prefecture’s Yamen who had liaised with foreigners and gained official positions by stealing the sky and exchanging nobles’ lives would have been wiped out. , I'm afraid that the Criminal Investigation Division will have to shed eight layers of skin this time even if he doesn't die.
During this period, Jin'an also went to Changchang County, retrieved the bones of Taoist priest Wu Zang, cremated them, and stored them together with the ashes of Yu Youzi in the Gongde Hall, where they returned to their roots.
Of course, he also stopped by Chang County to say goodbye to his natal family.
For this long journey, Jin An prepared a lot. He told his ancestor that no one should be missing from Wu Zang Taoist Temple. He must find the lost old Taoist priest and the sharp sword.
After the visit, Jin An carried a roasted whole lamb and took advantage of the night curfew and the coffin shop was closed at night to find Uncle Lin.
"Master Jin'an, what are you doing?" The coffin shop was closed at night, and when Uncle Lin was about to close the door, he saw Jin An walking towards him, carrying a roasted lamb with his head in his hands, his eyes full of confusion.
Ahem, Uncle Lin's face is more sallow than before, and he has to cough even after saying a few words.
Jin An smiled and said, "Uncle Lin, do you have time tonight? How about we have a few drinks? I plan to go on a long trip to the Western Regions to find clues about sword sharpening, so I wanted to come over and say goodbye to Uncle Lin for the last time. I also specially brought Jixianlou’s roasted whole lamb and Jixianlou’s most famous deer blood wine.”
Speaking of this, Jin An also specially raised the wine jar and roasted whole lamb in his hand.
Hearing that Jin An was going on a long trip, Uncle Lin was silent for a moment, and then invited Jin An into the house, saying that he had nothing to do tonight.
Although there were only two people, there were four dishes and chopsticks on the table, one for the old Taoist priest and one for the sword sharpener. Jin An still remembers that when the old Taoist priest was still there, he was most active as soon as there was something to eat. His lively voice is indispensable to the president.
Now that the talkative old Taoist priest was suddenly gone, the dinner table suddenly became much deserted, and he still couldn't get used to it.
He once promised to sharpen his sword and treat him to a roasted whole lamb after leaving the Paradise of Cave Heaven. But now that he had bought a roasted whole lamb, he was the only one left in the Five Zang Taoist Temple.
This roasted whole lamb was bought for sword sharpening.
But things have changed.
When there are old Taoist priests and sharp swords around, the three of them like to go out with goats on their backs to eat haggis noodles and mutton chop rice. They enjoy the delicious food only when there are people competing to eat together. Now he is the only one who can eat the roasted whole lamb alone. Instead, it lost its taste... That's why he found Uncle Lin tonight. Uncle Lin was the person most familiar with Wu Zang Taoist Temple. It was thanks to Uncle Lin's help that the three of them quickly established themselves in the unfamiliar city. , so he brought the roasted whole lamb to Uncle Lin to eat together tonight.
Jin'an has been in a low mood these past few days, and the atmosphere was a bit dull at first. They said that men's friendship comes from eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and smoking. After a few sips of deer blood wine, the two slowly started talking.
Jin An poured a bowl of yellow wine for the owner of the coffin shop, and then asked: "Uncle Lin, you have met many people in Fucheng. Wuzhou Prefecture is located in the southwest of Kangding Kingdom, bordering the northwest prefectures, plus Wuzhou Prefecture The waterways are developed, and many merchants from the Western Regions regard Wuzhou Prefecture as an important stopover. Uncle Lin must have come into contact with some merchants from the Western Regions. How much do you know about the Western Regions and the Kingdom of the Immortal God?"
Uncle Lin was silent, then picked up the wine bowl and took a sip of wine: "Leaving the Western Regions? Are you going so far?"
It seems that he is reluctant to say goodbye to Jin An.
Jin An raised his head and glanced at the Wu Zang Taoist Temple opposite the door. The Wu Zang Taoist Temple was now much deserted after nightfall. It was no longer noisy and lively as before. He was in a trance for a moment, then came back to his senses and nodded to Uncle Lin: "I cut it before. Jian recovered a small amount of memory and said that the Kingdom of the Immortal God appeared in his memory, so... I plan to go to the Western Regions to search for the Kingdom of the Immortal God and try my luck. Maybe Chi Jian and the Water Goddess are in the Kingdom of the Immortal God."
"Even if you are not in the Kingdom of the Immortal God, you may be able to find out Xi Jian's identity before he lost his memory."
Uncle Lin looked at Jin An solemnly: "The Western Region is vast. You will be thousands of miles away. Do you really want to travel so far?"
Jin An nodded firmly.
Seeing Jin An nodding, Uncle Lin looked at Jin An with complicated eyes. He knew that Jin An had decided to go and he could no longer stop him, so he told Jin An all the clues he knew about the Kingdom of the Immortal God in the Western Regions.
"In that place in the Western Region, there are many small countries. They often fight against each other in order to compete for a well of water in the desert. There are also businessmen who discover new water sources in the desert and recruit hundreds of people to call themselves a kingdom, and then attract refugees in the desert to come to the water source. But it often happens that after a sandstorm passes, a small country is completely buried by piles of yellow sand and never sees the light of day. The river even dies, resulting in a large country with a population of one or two million people that has relied on this river for thousands of years to survive. Destroyed overnight.”
"In the past few thousand years, countless large and small countries in the Western Region have perished due to sandstorms or man-made disasters. The Kingdom of the Immortal God is the most mysterious and least known among these perished countries."
"About ten years ago, for some unknown reason, a lot of news about the Kingdom of the Immortal God spread throughout the city overnight. It was said that the Kingdom of the Immortal God was filled with gold and women. It was said that the Kingdom of the Immortal God was a kingdom of immortal daughters. Women don’t have men.”
"The real name of the Kingdom of the Immortal God is actually the Kingdom of Women. At its peak, it had a population of hundreds of thousands. It was one of the few powerful civilizations in the history of the Western Regions. Later, the country was destroyed overnight and mysteriously disappeared from the desert overnight, so this The Daughter's Kingdom began to become mysterious. Later, some people said that the Daughter's Kingdom had found the legendary Eternal Life River and the Eternal Life Sky. Otherwise, how else could it be explained that the Daughter's Kingdom was filled with women but could thrive for thousands of years without being subjugated... because There are too many mysterious legends circulating in the Daughter Kingdom, so it was later named the Kingdom of the Immortal God.”
Well.
Jin An had a surprised expression on his face.
When he talks about the Kingdom of Women, the first thing that comes to his mind is the Scorpion Spirit.
Lin Shuxiao looked at Jin An's reaction: "Are you surprised?"
Then he continued: "Although this kind of thing is quite illusory, most people listen to it as a story after dinner, and not many people take it seriously, but when faced with gold everywhere, facing the hidden treasure of immortality, The mysterious Eternal Life River and Eternal Life Sky, there are still many people pursuing the illusory Kingdom of the Immortal God."
"But without exception, none of these people can come back alive." When he said this, the expression on Uncle Lin's face was unusually solemn and serious.
Jin An was startled: "No one came back alive?"
This news surprised him even more than what he had heard about the Immortal God's Kingdom being a daughter's kingdom with all women. Anyone who tries to find the Immortal God's Kingdom will definitely die!
Uncle Lin nodded firmly. No one came back alive.
No one can be seen in life, no corpse in death.
Some people say that anyone who seeks the Kingdom of the Immortal God will die in the sandstorms of the desert.
Some people also say that there is nothing but yellow sand in the desert. People will lose their way in the vast ocean and eventually die of water and thirst. People in the endless sea of sand can also easily lose their way and die of water and thirst.
Some people also say that the Kingdom of the Immortal God is in the deepest part of the desert, where there are only perennial sandstorms and no water source can be found. No one and desert camels can go to the depths of the desert without water sources. In the end, they all died before they found the Kingdom of the Immortal God. Dead of thirst.
Anyway, ten years ago, this incident was a hot topic for two years. No one came back alive, so the incident gradually faded away and was gradually forgotten by people.
Uncle Lin's sickly sallow face looked at Jin An with a very serious expression, and confirmed again: "The Kingdom of the Immortal God is so mysterious and unpredictable. All those who look for it are cursed and die in the desert. How do you plan to do it even if you know it is so dangerous?" Keep looking for it?"
Jin An's answer was without hesitation: "I know Uncle Lin is concerned about my safety, but I have a reason to go."
Uncle Lin did not continue to persuade, but used wine as ink and finger tips to draw a map on the square wooden table.
Although no one who went to the desert to search for the Kingdom of the Immortal God could come back alive, some of the merchants from the Western Regions who have traveled all over the desert have been doing business in the desert for several generations, and some have been doing reselling business in two places for more than ten generations, so They are the most knowledgeable about the desert. They have explored the desert for generations and encountered many ancient ruins or tombs of ancient Western countries. Occasionally, some clues about the Kingdom of the Immortal God will appear in those ruins or tombs, so they can roughly summarize a route.
Although this route cannot directly find the Kingdom of the Immortal God deep in the desert, it at least has a direction and will not lead to searching blindly in the vast sea of sand.
To put it nicely, they are merchants from the Western Regions, but in fact they are just a bunch of tomb robbers disguised as merchants! Jin An felt happy, he finally understood the meaning of Uncle Lin's words.
Uncle Lin continued: "If you want to find the Kingdom of the Immortal God, you must first find a place called the Holy Mountain deep in the desert. Only after you find the Holy Mountain can you find the Che Kingdom. The Che Kingdom is the last subsidiary of the Kingdom of the Immortal God to disappear. country, so only by finding the Che Country can we truly embark on the starting point of searching for the Kingdom of the Immortal God."
"But it is precisely this place called the Holy Mountain that even the merchants from the Western Regions who have traveled all over the desert have never seen it. Because the Che Kingdom has been destroyed for too long, even the last subordinate country to perish, the Che Kingdom, has been swallowed up by a sandstorm. It has been many years, so no one can tell exactly what this holy mountain looks like... I only know that this holy mountain is the holy mountain for the people of the Che Kingdom during the day. On the day of the Che Kingdom’s annual sacrifice to the gods, it will turn into the sea in the desert, so it is also People call the Holy Mountain of Che Kingdom the Holy Mountain of Huahai.”
According to Uncle Lin, only by finding the Che Kingdom can we find the Wuer clan, Baizu and other tributary countries of the Undead Kingdom. In the ruins of these ancient countries, we will definitely be able to find clues about the Undead Kingdom, thereby locating thousands of people who have died. The true location of the Kingdom of the Immortal God.
The map that Uncle Lin drew with wine was not that secret. Jin An could buy it from any merchant in the Western Regions.
Those merchants from the Western Regions really dare to do any business.
Not shy at all.
The real difficulty is how to find the Holy Mountain of Huahai and Che Country, which are not even marked on the map. The map drawn by Uncle Lin only pointed out a general direction.
It is precisely because the countries in the Western Regions are like a plate of loose sand, coupled with the serious lack of water in the desert, that the population has been unable to grow. The largest empire only has a population of one or two million, which is not as large as the population of Wuzhou Prefecture in Kangding State, so it is difficult to A powerful empire was born that could rule the entire desert.
No country in the Western Regions can control those Western Regions merchants who buy and sell Western Regions maps privately.
Kangding was also happy to enjoy the success, and encouraged merchants from the Western Regions to come to Kangding for business, and also helped Kangding explore the Western Regions.
There have been rumors among the people that Kangding State was eyeing the vast territory of the Western Regions and was preparing to conquer the Western Regions. Kangding State had water, food, population, sufficient soldiers, and rich materials. Once Kangding State really got the complete map of the Western Regions, It was the time to launch a thunderous conquest of the Western Regions.
Therefore, this time the Cave Heaven Paradise is opened, the grassland tribes outside the pass contact the countries in the Western Region to reach an alliance so smoothly. At the same time, Chen Bing's northern border pass and the Western Region Border Pass did not want the already powerful Kangding Kingdom to add another pair of wings.
Speaking of the border crisis, Jin An then remembered that the border gates were now blocked, and merchants from the two places were unable to conduct normal business. The people had not heard news from the border gates for a long time, and they did not know whether there was really a fight.
And Fatty Li has been too busy recently, so he never sees anyone.
If there is a war going on at the northwest border, he may not be able to leave the Western Region in a short time.
Thinking of this, Jin An frowned.
That night, Jin An held candles and talked with Uncle Lin late into the night. He asked a lot about the customs and customs of the Western Regions. Combined with some knowledge of desert survival that he had always liked to learn about self-driving tours, This trip to the Western Regions gradually became fully prepared.
Jin An looked at the sky and saw that it was getting late. He already understood everything he needed to know. Seeing that Uncle Lin looked bad, he said goodbye and left in order not to disturb Uncle Lin's rest.
As for the roasted whole lamb on the table, Uncle Lin looked bad and had no appetite, so Jin An almost destroyed it all by himself.
Before stepping out of the coffin shop, Jin An paused and turned to look at Uncle Lin who was walking him to the door: "Uncle Lin, I have one last question for you."
"What?"
"Uncle Lin, those people you just mentioned who went to find the Kingdom of the Immortal God and then died in the desert without ever returning, are they all men?"
Uncle Lin looked at Jin An in surprise: "How do you know?"
Because only men understand men, Jin An already understood. He asked Uncle Lin to rest early, take care of himself, and returned to the Five Zang Taoist Temple opposite.
It was not until he watched Jin An return to the Taoist temple and the Taoist temple door was closed that Uncle Lin closed the door. When he walked to the table and saw the long bench where Jin An was sitting, he saw that Jin An was sitting on the bench at some point. Leave a wooden box behind.
There is still a letter on the wooden box.
The envelope was written with the words "Uncle Lin's personal greetings".
Uncle Lin opened the envelope with a surprised expression. There were only a few words in the envelope——
Last time when Yuanshen was hunting the coffin-carrying stone bull, Xia Lei was in shock and thanked senior for saving my life. This ginseng fruit should be helpful to senior's injuries.
Uncle Lin opened the wooden box, and the majestic life essence that had been suppressed in the wooden box suddenly overflowed. Just one smell made Uncle Lin's face appear healthy and rosy.
In that wooden box was the lifelike ginseng fruit that Jin An had grabbed after killing Queen Xiaoling.
King Xiao Ling was so seriously injured that his leg was almost blown off by Jin An's bow and arrow, but he recovered quickly in the end, so Jin An felt that this ginseng fruit should be able to repay Uncle Lin for saving his life last time.
At the same time, it was also a way to repay Uncle Lin for taking care of them all the way over the past six months.
He didn't like owing favors to others, so he planned to completely settle all the causes and consequences of staying in Wuzhou Mansion before leaving Wuzhou Mansion.
In the coffin shop, Uncle Lin looked at the envelope and the ginseng fruit in his hand, and looked towards the door with complicated eyes, as if he could see the Wu Zang Taoist Temple opposite the door.
There was surprise, surprise, and emotion in his eyes.
When did he reveal his identity?
The complex gaze finally turned into a slight nod and a smile: "Thank you, Taoist Priest Jin'an."
This night in Fucheng was destined to be a restless night. The masters from Yujing Golden Tower, Zhenguo Temple, and Tianshi Mansion all walked out of the room with shocked expressions, and looked up in one direction of Fucheng.
Someone has broken through to the third realm!
Jin An also felt that Uncle Lin had broken through the realm in the Five Zang Taoist Temple, which meant that Uncle Lin had recovered from his injuries and returned to the third realm of powerhouses. It seemed that the vitality of the ginseng fruit was so majestic that even the injuries of the third realm powerhouses were injured. Can heal.
In fact, he had thought about giving the ginseng fruit to the senior vicious corpse in the white coffin for healing, but Mr. Yi said that the life essence in the ginseng fruit would only be effective if swallowed by a living person, so he specially kept it. Gave it to Uncle Lin.
