"Kneel down!" Master Zi's voice was cold.
Yang Zhen didn't say a word, didn't try to resist, and allowed the pressure to push her down to her knees.
"Grandpa—" Zhao Yue'er screamed and was about to rush over, but was held back by her grandma.
"Beiqing——" Mammy called softly, and there seemed to be something else in her voice.
Zhao Beiqing understood what he heard and suddenly felt discouraged. He flicked his sleeves:
"That's it, get up!"
Yang Zhen felt that the invisible pressure suddenly disappeared. She stood up and stood aside silently.
No one spoke in the courtyard for a while, and the atmosphere was eerily silent. Zhao Yue'er looked at her grandpa for a while and her grandma for a while. Even though she was still confused, she suddenly realized that something had happened.
She looked at Yang Zhen with a little frightened face, wanting to get comfort from him.
"Ajing, tell me." Zhao Beiqing ordered.
Zhang Hejing looked at the two children lovingly, with a gentle smile on his face:
"Yue'er, Xiao Shitou, your grandfather and I will go to the demon battlefield tomorrow."
"Ah?" Zhao Yue'er was a little confused: "What are you doing there? Didn't grandpa transfer him long ago?"
"Of course we are fighting against the demons," Mammy said softly, "The sect issued a recall order, and your grandfather and I were recalled."
"Why?" Zhao Yuer's face changed drastically. She is not an ignorant child, of course she is aware of the dangers of the demon battlefield.
"There's something going on in the Demon Cloud Crack." Grandma's voice was still so soft.
"But why do you need to go? Mom, you have already retired from the sect."
"In the recall order issued by the sect this time, the requirements for the foundation-building monks are that they must be younger than four years old, less than one year old after leaving the Demon Control Hall, and have no serious health problems. My dear, you meet these three requirements. "
"No -" Zhao Yue'er couldn't bear it any longer, and immediately threw herself into her grandma's arms, crying:
"Mommy, Yue'er doesn't allow you to go. You left the sect a long time ago and were injured on the demon battlefield. Why are those people so bad? They will bully you, wuwu——"
Mammy patted her back gently and said nothing. There was a slight smile on her lips, but as she smiled, tears flowed from the corners of her eyes and fell to the ground silently.
Zhao Beiqing looked at the two women who were crying together, let out a long sigh, turned around and looked at Yang Zhen, his eyes suddenly turned cold.
Yang Zhen was overwhelmed by his momentum and almost lowered her head. Then she took a deep breath, raised her head again, and faced the other person's direct gaze, her eyes clear and firm.
Zhao Beiqing's eyes were like sharp knives, staring at the young man without concealing his murderous intention.
I don't know how long it took, but he suddenly smiled, with a trace of imperceptible appreciation flashing in his eyes.
"Let's go out for a walk."
After saying that, the Master of the Purple Mansion rolled up the young man with a wave of his sleeve and flew towards a mountain peak not far away.
Yang Zhen felt her eyes go dark, and there was a whistling in her ears. When everything quieted down, she was already on the top of a cliff.
"When did it happen between you and Yue'er?" Zhao Beiqing asked with his hands behind his hands.
Although he didn't say it clearly, Yang Zhen knew what he was asking about, and she answered honestly:
"On the twenty-third of the first lunar month, that is the night when I came back from Yunzhou. Yue'er said that she would take me to see the colorful epiphyllums, and then, in the sea of flowers, we couldn't help ourselves..."
"Sea of flowers, I can't help myself, haha!" Zhao Beiqing raised his head and laughed. It was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry.
Yang Zhen remained silent and stood on one side.
"What are your future plans for Yue'er?" the ancestor then asked.
"I, I am willing to marry Yue'er and stay with her for the rest of our lives. We will protect her through life and death and never let each other down!" Yang Zhen said loudly. This was what he was thinking, coming from the bottom of his heart, so he answered extremely firmly.
"Marry as a wife? Never let each other down?" Zhao Beiqing sneered: "Look at these real people in the sect, how many of them have Taoist companions who will accompany them for life? The road is bumpy and long, and if you are not careful, you will die. Daoxiao. If you still want to be together for a lifetime, do you think this is a mortal world with only a few decades of life? "
"Furthermore, if Yue'er has a single spiritual root qualification, if her path goes smoothly, it will not be difficult to cultivate to the golden elixir, which will give her a thousand years of life. You have a residual spiritual root, and at best you can only have three spiritual root qualifications. Zifu is already your limit. When the time comes, you sit down and pass away, leaving these hundreds of years behind. Do you still want Yue'er to guard the green lantern for you for half your life?"
"Old Ancestor!" Yang Zhen said loudly: "Since the road to immortality is bumpy and you are in danger of falling at any time, you should cherish the present even more. Yue'er and I truly love each other and live happily every day and every year. If it is delicious, then it means you have lived up to this time, so why worry about what will happen hundreds or tens of thousands of years later?"
"If you don't think about things that happened hundreds of thousands of years ago, then what else are you doing with your cultivation? What a child!" Zhao Beiqing said disdainfully, but said nothing more.
After a long time, the Master asked again: "Yang Zhen, let me ask you, why do you practice Taoism?"
"For what?" Yang Zhen was stunned. This question was too vague. He wanted many things: immortality, freedom, family love, exploration...
All these are the goals of his cultivation.
So, what does he want most?
Scenes flashed before Yang Zhen's eyes. There are bits and pieces of how he got along with his parents and classmates in his previous life; there is the scene of the Jin family being buried in front of the old grave of the Yang family; there is Xiaocao angrily scaring him with lightning; there is also him and Yue'er, the two of them fought with bruises and swollen faces from the beginning to Later, we fell in love with each other and were inseparable...
If a person's life is a long river, these pictures are the waves surging in the river; if life is a picture scroll that lasts for tens or even longer, these are the most simple and touching works among them.
This painting finally formed the existence of "me". Without them, "I" would be just a lonely soul born out of a shell. What's the point of living?
If the water droplets dissipate and the waves are annihilated; time flies and the paintings turn to dust, and when all the characters that make up these paintings disappear, even if I am still alive, what difference does it make to the walking dead?
It's just the cliff below that has been lonely for thousands of years.
I want to protect them, even if I can't protect everyone, I still want to protect those who are most important to me, closest to me, and whom I care about...
Yue'er, Yiyi, Caiyun, Nanny, Tiezhu and the others.
Do my best to protect them.
…
He remained silent for a long time, and Zhao Beiqing did not urge him, just letting him think.
Finally, the young man raised his head and looked at the Master with firm eyes: "Ancestor, Yang Zhen's life is to protect, to protect my relatives and friends, to protect those lovely and respectable people, to protect those who make my life... Things that exist!”
"My Dao Heart is to protect!"
