Daze country, Dingzhou.
Outside Heyang City, fifty miles north.
On an unknown hill, there are abundant trees, luxuriant flowers and plants, and many jagged and strange-shaped rocks can be seen on the hillside.
It was early summer, above the sky, a blazing dark red light fell on the hill for two days, and the choking hot wind blew away all the birds and animals.
The only building located on the hill is a Taoist temple.
The Taoist temple is not too small.
Three in and three out, the entrance is the spacious front courtyard, then the inner courtyard, and finally the main courtyard where Taoists hold morning and evening classes and worship the ancestors.
Although it is not small, it is really dilapidated.
The spacious front yard is covered with fallen leaves and the walls are mottled in color. Although the inner yard is cleaner, it is also in a state of disrepair.
Only the main courtyard still has some smoke and smoke, and it doesn't seem so deserted.
At this time, in a room near the inner courtyard, the smell of cooking medicinal herbs wafted out. Along with this smell, along the open doors and windows, billowing black smoke continued to pour out of the house.
"Senior brother...Senior brother, this medicine is so dark. Master and the old man will not be poisoned to death after drinking it, right?"
A timid girl's voice came from the room.
"This... shouldn't be possible, right? This is our last medicine. The boss of the village, Zhang, knew that our master was beaten into a half-dead cripple, but he scolded his mother and said he would never take credit again..." A A somewhat uncertain boy's voice responded.
"Wuwu... Master, Xiaodie doesn't want Master to die... Senior brother, you said so... Wuwuwu..."
The girl's voice has become much better.
"Junior sister, don't be miserable. Master has practiced boy's skills for so many years, and his body is very strong. Maybe he can survive this time. If you cry again, you might cry him to death..." Then The boy's voice was a little unreliable, trying to stop the girl from crying.
"Senior brother, you are lying. How can you cry to death by crying?" The girl stopped crying and said seriously.
The boy's voice was silent for a while.
Immediately, he said in a soft voice: "Junior sister, actually when you were asleep, the old man Zhang at the head of the village said that Master probably won't be able to survive tonight, but don't worry, when Master leaves, I will If you are the master of the temple, I will also protect you..."
"No! Wuwu...Senior Brother is bad...Smelly Senior Brother...I don't want Master to die..." The girl's cry suddenly increased several degrees.
"You! I'm so annoying! Junior sister, if you cry again, when the master dies, senior brother will sell you to someone else to be their little wife!" The boy seemed to be overwhelmed by the quarrel and threatened angrily.
"Master... Wuwu... Senior brother started bullying me before you left... Wuwu..." Who would have thought that the girl cried louder, and ran towards the back room while crying.
"Hey! Junior sister! Don't bother Master. It's Senior Brother who is wrong. I won't sell you, I won't sell you!" Seeing this, the male child became anxious and hurriedly chased after him.
…
The noisy sound made Gu Qing a little impatient.
Disturbing one's dreams...
Who's making the noise?
The hazy consciousness gradually rose. Gu Qing listened to the clear children's voices in his ears, saying words he couldn't understand, crying and fussing, as if waking up from a very deep dream.
He could no longer sleep and was completely conscious.
A strange feeling spread in his heart.
This feeling is slightly confusing and overwhelming.
He tried to get up, but he felt that his body was empty, scattered and numb, and he couldn't even use the strength to get up.
It was as if a huge boulder was pressing on his chest, his face was pressed down by some force, and he couldn't open his eyes. It was even difficult to even move his eyes.
'what happened……'
'The cultivation base is completely lost...the power of the soul has been weakened to the extreme...'
'What's going on in this world in Fangding? '
Gu Qing was shocked.
He used all his strength and tried more than a dozen times before he opened his eyes through a gap. His vision was blurry, as if separated by a layer of water. He had never experienced this kind of lack of clarity.
Everything he saw seemed to be covered with a halo, whether it was this old dilapidated house or the two little dolls dangling in front of his eyes.
Gu Qing's eyes froze for a moment before he took in the whole room.
A bedding with a rotten smell was covering his body. In front of the low bed, two little children wearing haphazardly sewn monk robes and dark faces were arguing about something in front of his bed. The one with slightly longer hair It must be a girl, hugging him and shedding tears.
This girl should be only seven or eight years old.
The one who wanted to pull the girl away and cast concerned eyes on him was a thin boy who looked to be eleven or twelve years old.
As Gu Qing opened his eyes, the two little babies were overjoyed.
"Master, you finally woke up!" The girl was so surprised that her tears fell faster. The boy was also excited and hurriedly came to the bedside to carefully check the condition of his master.
"No... Master is... having a flashback at this time! Junior sister, please stop pressing Master..." The boy seemed to know some medical knowledge. After checking, he suddenly felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He took a few steps back and fell with a crackle. She shed tears and ran out of the back room in a rage.
Due to the difference in language, Gu Qing couldn't understand at all what the two little babies were saying or what he wanted to do. His body was as heavy as a mountain and he wanted to open his mouth, but his mouth seemed to be sewn shut.
All parts of the body could barely move, but only one pair of eyes remained. Even the eyelids could only be opened halfway and could not be fully opened!
Gu Qing did not feel panic.
As a journey to immortality that will never end, and as a monk who is the only pursuit in his life, he has a strong enough Taoist heart.
Even if he really loses all his cultivation, he will not waver.
'This person must be an experienced Taoist. He died before I came. The biggest question at the moment is where my body went...'
Gu Qing turned his eyes sideways and glanced at the withered black and yellow shoulders, observing the empty and powerless old body.
'I remember very clearly what happened before. I threw my body into the Fantasy Thunder Cauldron, not just my soul or consciousness. '
'Unlike entering other cave worlds in the past, spiritual power may be banned and soul power may be suppressed, but there will be no confrontation and no reaction at all...'
Gu Qing did not reject this unfamiliar old body, as if this body belonged to him.
He wanted to grit his teeth to wake himself up and build up some strength - teeth are bones, and gritting teeth can increase his strength and spirit. This is what he heard from a doctor friend before he entered the immortal road.
But this body was too old, and only three or four teeth were missing. When he bit hard, he bit into the flesh. Immediately, there was a bit of fishy smell in his mouth, but he felt no pain. His heart sank and he sighed secretly.
This body, all over the body, from hands to feet, whether it is the tendons, meridians, blood vessels, or the internal organs...
They are all in a state of near collapse!
The so-called deadline must have arrived.
It's just that his arrival has resurrected this body and added a little life. If he comes in the future, this body will most likely be a dead corpse.
This should be considered a corpse.
A corpse that has lost its sense of pain and most of its sensory abilities.
The only difference from the real corpse is that he is in this corpse - he can move his eyes at least, but it is different from the real corpse.
Now that things have come to this, Gu Qing's heart is still calm.
'If this body really dies, will my consciousness dissipate with it? Or will it return to its original form...'
He was thinking this.
At this moment, the door to the back room was opened, and the boy walked in carrying a bowl of dark paste.
"Junior sister, help Master up quickly..." the boy said, and then he realized that with the girl's strength, she couldn't help her Master up, so she changed her words and said, "Uh... there's no need to help him up." , Junior Sister, please open Master’s mouth quickly.”
"Master, open your mouth." The girl's little dark face came up, stretched out her little hands, and opened Gu Qing's mouth with difficulty.
Gulu!
The boy took a step forward, and because he was too anxious, he held Wan and poured the black paste into his master's mouth. Gu Qing was so choked that he rolled his eyes and was already a little out of breath.
Strangely enough, after running out of breath, Gu Qing was able to mobilize some of the strength of this old body to struggle.
He did not struggle, but stirred his tongue, tried hard to control his body, and swallowed the black paste that was poured into his mouth bit by bit - according to his guess, this stuff should have been boiled. The decoction of the paste should be of some benefit to his current situation.
In fact, without Gu Qing's full cooperation in controlling this old body, these two little babies would not be able to drink the medicine at all.
This is also the reason why the boy thought that his master was already dead - if he is so weak that he can't even take the medicine, is that not death?
After taking the medicine, the two little ones were very tired and covered in sweat.
Originally, they had nothing to satisfy their hunger during this period, and they even went to the point of eating leaves and roots. After struggling for a while, their vision turned black, and they sat down next to the bed and fell asleep.
"Master..." the girl shouted in a daze.
Gu Qing manipulated this old body, coordinated the movements of the two little dolls, and drank a bowl of medicinal paste. He was also very tired, his eyesight turned black, and he was almost dizzy, but he still managed to keep his spirits up and did not let this body sink into In a coma, he knew that in that case, this body would die.
Memories gradually came back to Gu Qing's mind.
Several methods of refueling and extending life that he had learned more about when he first entered the path of immortality appeared in his mind.
The so-called method of replenishing energy and extending life is a necessary method for the elderly to enter Taoism. This type of method aims to strengthen the declining energy, adjust the physical condition, and thus achieve the basic requirements of introducing Qi into the body.
Soon, Gu Qing chose one of the simplest ones and started practicing it.
For him, a monk who has practiced even the Great Five Elements Condensing Magic and extremely complex techniques.
Practicing a method of guiding essence is as simple as eating and drinking water. Almost as soon as he had the idea of practicing, he successfully guided the remaining qi in the meridians in the body with his mind, and circulated it along a simple route for several times. Circle, and then focus on the Jiaji point on the back of the spine.
Jiaji acupoint can enter the kidneys from the lower part and lead to the roots of mountains and entrances from the upper part.
After guarding this acupoint, not long after, there were bursts of dull pain and congestion in Gu Qing's back. At the same time, some hot decoction had entered the abdomen, and a little heat flow rose up and poured into Gu Qing. The whole body was thrown back and pinched by him.
'This medicine is somewhat useful...'
Gu Qing looked at the broken beams on top and closed his eyes.
When the heat flow in the Jiaji area reached an extreme level, Gu Qing immediately carried it and transferred all the heat to his kidneys.
Both kidneys were scalded by this hot current and started to beat slightly.
There seemed to be a flame capable of burning all things, igniting between Gu Qing's vital gate and kidneys, burning the medicinal power of the previous bowl of medicine and the acquired energy gathered in the body, and then fell into the yin. It rose up again and spread throughout his meridians.
'Huh...hiss...huh...hiss...'
As the heat spread throughout his body, Gu Qing's mouth was finally able to move. He opened his mouth slightly, inhaled and exhaled at the same time through his nose and mouth, and his thoughts fell on the entrance, as if he had forgotten about foreign objects, and he breathed in and out like this for a long time.
Four or five hours passed in the blink of an eye.
The sky is already misty and dark.
Gu Qing finally restored some energy to this old and withered body through the guidance technique that added fuel to his life.
This mainly relies on the bowl of medicinal paste from before - although the bowl of medicinal paste does not use any precious medicinal materials and does not contain strong medicinal power, for this body, it is like giving timely help.
Gu Qing turned over on the bed and managed to sit up.
He raised a pair of arms that looked like dry tree trunks, glanced at the loose fleshy skin and densely covered yellow or black patches, and touched the face of the body, which was covered with ravines.
"With such an old body, even if there is spiritual energy in this world, I'm afraid it will be difficult to cultivate to the point of introducing the energy into the body..."
Gu Qing murmured to himself dryly, glanced at the two weak-breathing little babies beside him, and sighed secretly again.
He tried to sit cross-legged, but this time he was able to sit cross-legged very smoothly - it seems that this old Taoist should have been a diligent person during his lifetime.
"Memory...this time, I have not integrated the memory of this veteran. This is also a big trouble..."
After Gu Qing sat cross-legged, he continued to practice the guidance technique, but his eyes were fixed on the rolled-up sleeves, and his heart moved.
I could see that the rolled-up sleeve of his left arm was embroidered with a ball of gold thread, but the rolled-up sleeve of his right arm was not embroidered with gold thread. The other parts of the Taoist robe he was wearing were not embroidered with gold thread either.
Gu Qing squinted his eyes, took off his sleeves, and pulled apart the ball of gold thread, and got a complex and mysterious pattern.
This mysterious pattern embroidered on the sleeves has a total of 128 tiny yellow raised dots. These 128 yellow dots are connected one by one by golden thin threads. , when you touch it, you can feel a fairly subtle airflow flowing on it.
'This pattern...'
Gu Qing stared at this pattern with a strange look in his eyes.
Just by looking at this pattern, sporadic memory fragments appeared in his mind. These memory fragments were like turbulent flow at first, but soon they gathered together and turned into complete pictures. He was quite curious. Feeling like he was punched in the face, he shook his head.
As the discomfort became more intense, more and more images appeared in Gu Qing's mind, and soon they were as dense as a torrent.
After a moment, this veteran's memory was completely understood by Gu Qing.
This old Taoist's name was Gu Yunqing. He not only had the same surname as Gu Qing, but also had a slightly similar name. He lived to be ninety-seven years old. He finally died because he went down the mountain to attend a banquet and was robbed of the true energy he had cultivated through hard work.
From the memory of the old Taoist, Gu Qing was able to know about this world, which was called "Yunfu". The old Taoist did not know how big the Yunfu world was. The old Taoist only knew about the country it was in, which was called Daze Country. There were thirty-seven people in Daze Country. Prefecture, Dingzhou at the foot is one of the thirty-seven prefectures.
Dingzhou has thousands of counties, and the nameless hill where the Taoist temple is located is about fifty miles away from the nearest city of Heyang.
There are three or four villages nearby with names such as "Wangjiacun" and "Zhaojiacun". Each village has hundreds of households with the same surname. The incense in the Taoist temple is not very popular on weekdays because there is a big monk nearby. The temple is one of the most famous temples in Dingzhou.
The old Taoist knew little about the affairs of the Daze Kingdom. He only learned from a bystander during a trip down the mountain that the governor of Dingzhou was the consort of the previous dynasty, named Cui Jian.
The old Taoist knows a lot about the practice system and major forces in Yunfu World. He knows that Yunfu World has four large-scale Taoist systems such as 'Wu Liang Guan', 'Great Brahma Sect', 'Nine Heavens Sect', and 'Shen'en Hall'. He knows that there are two major forces in Dingzhou, the 'Sword Worshiping Mountain' and the 'Bodhi Temple', and he also has a deeper understanding of the world's practice system, True Form Refining Tao.
The so-called True Shape Refining is a method of practicing with the help of the 'True Shape of the Great Sun', 'True Shape of Heavenly Fire', and 'True Shape of Ten Thousand Demons'. What this veteran Taoist has embroidered on his sleeves is the True Shape of Flowing Flames.
The True Shape Diagram of Flowing Flames is the most basic true shape diagram of the movement of fire.
Gu Qing sorted out the memories in his mind, looked at the pattern on the cuffs, and said with a thoughtful look in his eyes: "Cultivation of this True Shape Diagram of Flowing Flames can create true energy, but true energy can only increase strength and extend life, and cannot be used." Instead of facing the enemy directly, you can use your true energy either in your palm or on the talisman paper to condense the talisman in the true shape of the flowing flames, and use it to attack and kill the enemy. '
'This talisman of the true shape of the flowing flame seems to be difficult to condense. '
'This old Taoist had spent seventy-three years cultivating the True Shape of Flowing Flames with the body of a boy. His true energy had been accumulated to a very strong level, but he was still unable to condense the True Shape of Flowing Flames. Just a few days ago, he bowed to the sword. The invitation from the mountain went down the mountain to attend the banquet, but due to lack of strength on the way, someone took away all the energy for nothing, and he was dying. He struggled until he died miserably yesterday, and then, my borrowed body came...'
'The person who took away the true energy of this seventy-three-year-old Taoist was a disciple of Baijian Mountain who practiced evil methods, named Xu Su. '
'Xu Su... this person took away the cultivation of the old Taoist Gu Yunqing. He should know that at Gu Yunqing's age, he can't live long if he loses his cultivation. If he hears that Gu Yunqing is still alive in the future, he may be in trouble. Gu Qing's expression changed slightly, and he glanced at the true shape of the flowing flames a few more times.
