"You're right!" Li Yang smiled, stretched out his big hand, and pressed the glazed jade-white hand firmly on the lotus platform.
The two collided and made a "dong" sound.
Liuli's stunningly beautiful face was covered with frost: "How dare you..."
"Why don't I dare to be a 'traitor'? Don't all the righteous people call me 'Demon Lord'? I really won't be angry if I take the Demon Lord?" Li Yang sneered.
The fists and palms of the two sides clashed, and circles of dust spread out, and air waves rolled up.
But without the blessing of spiritual elements, both sides were purely fighting for physical strength, and one side had his eyes closed, Liuli was quickly defeated.
Just as she was about to scold sternly, Li Yang's big hand suddenly clamped down on her sharp white lower jaw like an iron bar.
With just one break, he stuffed the fish meat into her mouth with his right hand, then patted her back, making his Adam's apple roll.
The dust has settled.
Li Yang turned around and left, leaving Liuli sitting blankly on the stone lotus platform. After a moment, he leaned down and pounced on the platform:
"vomit……"
…
The first night passed like this.
In the end, Liuli couldn't spit out much. She just sat there blankly, clasping her hands together and reciting an unknown scripture, which probably meant a confession.
Li Yang sneered, he didn't care about any rules, he only knew that people would die if they didn't eat.
The next day, he woke up from a light sleep and found that the woman meditating on the lotus platform had returned to her previous appearance.
"Hey, I thought you would seek death and survival." Li Yang said in surprise.
Liuli opened her almost transparent eyes, without any emotion at all, and restored her solemn posture:
"If you want to destroy my Buddha mind, then you are doomed to be disappointed. Forcing me to break the precepts is not my original intention, so it does not mean that I have broken my practice."
He is quite good at deceiving himself and others... Li Yang was amazed and said with a smile:
"What if I continue to force you to kill and eat meat today?"
Liuli clasped her hands together and remained silent.
For the next four days, the two rarely communicated with each other, and their life was monotonous and boring.
The heavy rain outside the wellhead is still falling, and I don't know when it will stop.
The two spent most of their time in the underground palace sitting cross-legged and meditating to recover from their injuries. However, as previously judged, there was a lack of medicine to heal the injuries and they relied solely on self-healing... The progress was really slow.
The advantage is that as the river spreads, many fish swim in the water.
Li Yang went out to "hunt" from time to time, and always gained something. After roasting the river fish, he would first feed himself, and then force Liuli to eat some too.
The first few times, there were fights.
It often takes a physical fight to force-feed them. The next few times, Liuli would probably lie flat, feeling that resistance was in vain, or he might have convinced himself that he had to "cooperate" more.
This situation lasted until the fifth day.
The rain finally stopped and the flood gradually receded.
…
"Boom!"
A piece of bloody livestock meat fell into the well mouth first, and then Li Yang jumped in.
"What is this?" Liuli opened her eyes and frowned.
"Beef." Li Yang put the sword back into its sheath, looking a little tired:
"The floods gradually receded, but it was still a miserable scene outside. I couldn't catch any fish, but I was lucky. I walked down the mountain for a long time and found a farm cow tied to a tree. The owner probably didn't have time to take it with him when he ran for his life. He couldn't pull the rope anymore, and he was already dying."
Liuli was stunned for a moment and suddenly said:
"Is it a cow with an owner in the village?"
Li Yang smiled and said:
"Isn't it the property of the Buddhist temple this time? If you and I eat it later, it will be considered a violation of the 'theft precept'."
Liuli's pretty face turned pale, she stood up and said:
"Now that the flood has receded, I will leave."
Li Yang said coldly:
"I forgot to tell you. When I came down the mountain, I saw a large group of bandits from a distance, robbing and killing refugees and robbing women. If you don't believe it, I can take you to see it."
Liuli was startled, and then she noticed that the latter had murderous intent, and the scabbard was not entirely covered with cow's blood.
"There are no bandits near Qiantang. Where is the government?" she asked quietly.
Li Yang sneered and said:
"Do you think someone is born a bandit? After the disaster, all the people who still have strength will be bandits. As for the government, they were probably washed away by the water."
Liuli was silent.
In the end, she didn't leave.
After all, with her current weak strength, once she leaves the protection of this ancient well, she will be like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth.
This made her realize that she was not as fearless as she thought.
When she lost her powerful strength and became a powerless woman, "fear" that she had never felt before came one after another.
She was worried about being captured by those gangsters, worried about what this vulgar "human traitor" said: first that, then that.
What was most difficult for her to accept was that in a difficult situation, the only person she could rely on was a "traitor".
On the fifth day, she was forced to eat stolen beef, breaking the second commandment.
Liuli convinced herself: This was still not what she wanted, but she was forced to do it, and it did not mean that her practice was broken.
…
Time continues to pass, and the day after the floods recede, the temperature begins to drop and the seasons are disrupted.
Overnight, the water that had not fully receded outside began to freeze.
When the two woke up, they found crystal snowflakes starting to fall from the well above their heads.
Li Yang's expression changed:
"It seems that the demon tribe is more ruthless than I thought. The flood tide recedes and it snows heavily again. They don't want to give people any chance of survival."
The other party didn't just want to kill the people of Qiantang to drain the energy of the court and the Taoist League.
He also wanted to turn this land into a desperate situation to indirectly kill the two of them.
Yes, the demon clan cannot stay for a long time, and they cannot be searched for in a short period of time, but if it is bitterly cold outside, there is no food and drink, and bandits are everywhere, how can the two men and women who have lost their cultivation level live?
"This well has a magic circle that can withstand the cold." Liuli said.
Li Yang looked at her seriously and said:
"This is not just a matter of keeping out the cold, but also a matter of where we can find food if it snows and freezes. You wait in the well while I go out."
Liuli didn't object.
Compared to her opponent who has rich "experience in the world of martial arts", apart from her profound cultivation of Buddhism, she is not as good as anything else, not to mention she is a beautiful woman.
If you follow, you will easily be held back.
"Yes." She nodded, sat down on the lotus platform, watched Li Yang get out of the well above her head, and began to wait.
But this time, after waiting for a long time, he didn't come back.
It wasn't until night fell outside that Liuli's stomach began to growl, and she woke up from her meditation in a daze. A trace of worry appeared in her eyes that should have been solemn and solemn, as impersonal as a god.
She did not realize that after breaking the law twice, she became more and more like a "person".
And just when she decided to crawl out to look for Li Yang, the sound of footsteps came.
Then a figure slammed in with a thud.
Li Yang was covered in blood and his breath was disordered. He was holding the cloth bag in his left hand and clutching the hilt of the sword with his right hand.
"What’s wrong with you?"
Liuli was stunned, then bent her knees and stepped down the lotus platform with her white and tender feet for the first time in several days.
She walked to the latter's side, picked up the red crystal stone on the ground, rubbed the sword blade with a slightly unfamiliar touch, and ignited the sword fire.
The dim yellow light spread, her pupils shrank suddenly, and she found a ferocious knife edge on her back, and the blood dyed the Taoist robe red.
"Yelling...what, you can't die."
Li Yang gritted his teeth and inhaled, lying on the ground motionless, just breathing heavily:
"I'm just tired, let me take a rest."
Liuli was a little at a loss, suddenly remembered something, got up and returned to the lotus platform, clutching the bottles of golden sore medicine.
Biting her lip, as if she had made a lot of determination, she chanted:
"Saving one life is better than building a seven-level pagoda."
Then, he carefully tore off a piece of the Taoist robe at the wound site with his fingers, poured water from the jade bottle, rinsed it, applied medicine, hesitated, and tore off a section from the hem of the white robe. Bandage him.
During the process, Li Yang lay motionless and just muttered:
"Haha, if the world knew that the Buddhist Liuli Bodhisattva bandaged the wounds of a traitor like me, I wonder how funny it would be. Hiss... why are your hands so cold?"
Liuli paused after hearing this, withdrew her hand, her face regained its emotionless expression, and said calmly:
"It's full of anger. It seems like it's just a superficial injury."
Turned around and returned to the lotus platform.
Li Yang got up, exhaled, and said:
"After all, I've been struggling all the way. Can a sword cultivator who crawled out of a mountain of corpses and sea of blood really fall into the hands of a few thieves?"
"Then? Don't say that you got this injury from fighting a practitioner." Liuli said sarcastically.
She had seen it, and the wound was clearly from an ordinary sword.
Li Yang choked and sighed helplessly:
"There is nothing I can do. It's freezing cold. In order to fight for some meat and cotton-padded clothes, I fought with a group of bandits. My cultivation is too slow to recover. It's hard for me to defeat four people."
Liuli was silent for a moment and said:
"Next time I go out, I will go with you. These days, I have also accumulated a little spiritual energy. Although it is not much, it should be enough to deal with a few mortals. I can also wrap myself in cotton clothes to hide my appearance."
Li Yang looked at her in surprise, smiled, and did not refuse:
"Let's talk about it. Fortunately, I got a lot of meat this time. I can hold on for a few more days while I recover from my injuries."
Liuli sat cross-legged and meditated, closing her eyes, her black hair reflecting the luster in the firelight.
…
The fifteenth day.
Heavy snow sealed the wellhead and food was exhausted.
This time the two decided to travel together. Wrapped in cotton-padded clothes, the two climbed out of the well on a lotus platform. They were greeted by a cold wind as sharp as a knife.
"Woooo..."
The cold wind was howling, and Liuli's hair and lower half of her face were wrapped in cloth, with only a pair of eyes exposed. This was the first time she climbed out of the well in half a month.
What you see is the apse of the temple covered with white snow, with collapsed walls and trees everywhere.
Many plants were still green, but they were buried by the heavy snow.
"Let's go, change the direction this time and walk down to Zhuangzi. In order to resist the disaster years, some landowners will dig cellars in their homes to store grain. I hope they haven't been plundered yet." Li Yang said in a muffled voice.
Holding the hilt of the sword and walking in front, Liuli pursed her lips and stepped to follow.
The two of them walked down the mountain and trudged along the mountain road that was washed away by the flood. Fortunately, they were lucky this time and did not encounter any bandits.
In other words, the heavy snowfall that lasted for more than ten days made her feel relieved.
However, along the way, the corpses of some common people were found in the snow pits from time to time. Liuli became more and more silent after seeing them, but Li Yang was not surprised.
Finally, when the two arrived at the villa, they were disappointed to find that it had been ransacked.
More than a dozen members of the landlord's family died tragically, and the fleshy parts of the body were cut open. Liuli was shocked by what he saw. She finally understood that "when people are hungry, people eat each other" is not just a few words in a book, but also a cruel reality. .
"Stop looking and let's go. We have to find something to eat and go back before dark. It's even colder at night and cotton clothes can't stop us." Li Yang said to her.
The two of them walked in another direction in silence, and this time, perhaps with the help of heaven, two "Heaven-observing Realm" monks unexpectedly discovered a frozen donkey under a collapsed building.
"It's good luck, and thanks to the snow, otherwise the meat would have been eaten by the wolves even if it wasn't rotten." Li Yang said with a smile.
The two of them worked together to drag the donkey out from under the masonry, cut it into several pieces with a sword, put it in a bag, and dragged it with a hemp rope to slide on the snow, which was more labor-saving.
On the way back, Liuli suddenly said:
"I came out this time and couldn't help. I'm going to barbecue today."
Li Yang glanced at her in surprise: "Doesn't it count as breaking the precept?"
Liuli's voice was indifferent: "I stole and I ate, but I still have three precepts that haven't been broken."
Li Yang looked at her and suddenly asked: "Is the beef delicious?"
"It's not delicious." Liuli replied.
Li Yang stared at her with a smile: "I remember that Buddhism prohibits lying. It is said that monks do not lie. Do you really think it is not good? Or are you lying?"
Under the thick cotton-padded clothes of Liuli, his face suddenly turned pale, as if he heard a crack in his Zen heart.
She turned away silently and did not answer.
On the fifteenth day, the precept of lying was broken.
…
Time continued to pass, and like this, another half month passed.
Halfway through, the two went out to "hunt" again. After a day, they found a cellar that had not been looted and brought back a lot of food. This was a rare comfort in boring days.
It wasn't until the early morning of the 36th day that Li Yang woke up and was stunned when he looked at the lotus platform.
Liuli raised her hand to smooth out the black hair on her cheeks and looked at him:
"What are you looking at?"
Li Yang frowned and said:
"Why is your face so pale? It seems like there is a layer of cold air hanging over you."
Liuli froze for a moment, walked back to the lotus platform, and resumed her posture of sitting cross-legged and meditating:
"nothing."
Li Yang frowned and said:
"I don't know how long the cold winter will last. You and I are still recovering slowly from our injuries. We have to work together to survive. The most taboo thing at this time is concealment."
On the lotus platform, the female Bodhisattva in white clothes was fluttering and her feet were as bare as snow. She was silent for a moment and said:
"I have been poisoned."
"What poison?"
"The venom of the snake demon king." Liuli said calmly, "They attacked me that day, and the spirit snake released by the snake demon king broke through my vajra shield and bit me."
The Demon King of the Snake Clan...Li Yang's face darkened and he said seriously:
"If I remember correctly, the other party's poison is called the 'Ice and Fire Tribulation'. When the poison breaks out, it will first go through the Cold Tribulation for half a month, and then the Fire Tribulation for half a month, and the cycle goes back and forth. During this period, the pain is excruciating. But if the poison is poisoned, why does it not last for half a month? attack?"
Liuli looked indifferent:
"I have taken Buddhist lotus seeds to resist the poison. I wanted to resolve it, but my cultivation has been unable to recover. The suppression has finally come today. However, with the lotus seeds around, I shouldn't be poisoned to death. It will be more uncomfortable at most. Tonight I will start to retreat to suppress the toxicity."
Li Yang let out a deep breath and said:
"Okay. I'll protect you."
Neither of them noticed anything wrong with this conversation. It was clear that half a month ago there was a life-and-death struggle between a strong man of righteousness and a human traitor, but now they seemed to have forgotten about it.
That night.
Li Yang cut a lot of firewood from the monastery, threw it around the lotus platform, lit it, and heated the stone platform.
And covered Liuli with all the cotton clothes.
But when the "cold poison" broke out, the originally resolute and indifferent female Bodhisattva was still trembling with pain. The biting cold was like needles, piercing every inch of her skin and flesh.
Even her soul was about to be frozen, and her entire beautiful face was so white that it was almost transparent, as if every light cyan blood vessel under the skin could be seen clearly.
"If my cultivation is still there, I should be able to use Lihuo's true meaning to help you resist."
Li Yang stood by the lotus platform, staring at Liuli who was curled up in a thick quilt and said a little tiredly.
The meaning of the Taoist name "Li Yang" lies in the fact that the sword technique he cultivates is called "Li Huo Zhenyi", which can absorb the brilliance of the sun and ignite the sword fire. It is the spiritual element of Zhi Yang.
Liuli shook her head in pain, unable to speak.
Li Yang sighed, there was nothing he could do. For practitioners, some disasters can only be resisted by oneself.
He could only meditate by the wall, trying to recover from his injuries as soon as possible, and add new firewood when the flames near the lotus platform were about to go out.
The next morning.
Because during the day, the cold poison temporarily weakened, Liuli, who struggled in pain all night, fell asleep, and Li Yang put on cotton clothes and climbed out of the well.
He came back only after dark, but instead of looking for food, he brought back a pile of wine from the cellar and used a snow sledge to pull it back to the monastery.
He put a wine jar down to the mouth of the well. When night came and the cold poison broke out again, he opened the mud seal of the wine jar and walked to the lotus platform.
Liuli's face turned pale in pain, and she shook her head as if she understood what he meant.
"Strong alcohol can suppress cold poison. I know that Buddhist precepts prohibit drinking, but I have broken three of them. I don't care if I break another one." Li Yang said.
As if he was forcing her for the first time, he opened her mouth with his hands and poured the crystal wine in.
Until Liuli was choked and coughed violently, she was stunned, and as if she gave up on herself, she picked up the wine jar and drank.
The crystal wine flowed down the snow-white neck and sprinkled on the white clothes, making it wet and greasy.
In the next half month, Li Yang collected all the wine within a day's journey nearby.
Finally managed to survive.
…
Day 52.
The coldness on Liuli's body began to subside, but this was not a good thing, because her fair skin began to turn red, and heat and poison came one after another.
“The poison of cold comes at night, and the poison of heat comes at day.”
Liuli sat on the lotus platform with a haggard expression, raised her head, looked at the wellhead above her head, and smiled:
"The good news is, in the middle of winter, the sun isn't too strong."
Li Yang shook his head and said:
"But Heat Poison doesn't care about this. We have to use new countermeasures."
He stood up, threw the wine jar and cotton clothes out, and then threw the prepared and cut large ice cubes into the Gujing Underground Palace.
It has been cold for more than a month, and all the water that has not receded has frozen into solid ice, making it inexhaustible.
Soon, the entire cellar was filled with ice, and the formation that insulated from the cold naturally failed, making the entire underground palace even colder than the outside.
After getting ready, Li Yang sat at the mouth of the well, watching the sun slowly rise above the horizon in the east.
Meanwhile, underground.
Lying on the lotus platform, Liuli felt as if she was wrapped in magma, and the burning sensation was burning through every trace of her flesh and blood and every remaining thought.
"Ah..." The great cultivator of Guantian couldn't help but cry out in pain.
Then, the ice cubes on the lotus platform began to melt into water, evaporated and spread downwards along the stone platform.
Her skin turned red, like cooked shrimps, and her two delicate hands began to tear at the white clothes on her body, but she was still sweating profusely.
Li Yang felt the heat wave rising from the mouth of the well, and his heart sank.
He realized that the cold poison for half a month had consumed the power of the "lotus seeds" in Liuli's body, so the fire poison was stronger. Without the assistance of the lotus seeds, she might not be able to withstand it with her current cultivation level.
"I have an idea, please listen to it," Li Yang said across the well mouth:
"I practice the true meaning of Lihuo. Not only is the heat poison harmless to me, it may also help me recover from my injuries. If the heat poison can be transferred to me, maybe this disaster can be solved."
Liuli lay on the lotus platform, raised her neck, sweat beads rolling down her delicate skin, and tried her best to ask:
"How...how to do..."
Then she heard Li Yang's voice coming from above her head:
"When a mortal is exposed to snake venom, it is nothing more than sucking out the venom. The snake demon must be the same way. Where is your wound, I can help you suck it out. Maybe it will work."
"no!"
With a sharp voice, Liuli's voice was hoarse, and her brain was confused due to the heat, and she said:
"Four of the five calamities have been broken...cannot..."
"What nonsense! People are going to die! Why do you care about the commandments?"
Li Yang was furious and simply turned around and jumped into the well.
"Boom!"
His feet landed on the ground, and he was stunned for a moment when he saw the torn white clothes scattered on the lotus platform, and then he saw the location of the wound clearly.
After being forcibly suppressed for nearly two months, Liuli's wound was completely black, with ferocious "lines" like spider webs spreading along the wound to all sides.
Li Yang took a deep breath, feeling the heat in the air. There was a moment of hesitation on his angular face, then he sighed deeply and slowly walked closer.
His right hand reached out, tightly wrapped around the latter's slender and white ankle, and pulled hard.
On the lotus platform.
There are glass bodhisattvas with green hair like waterfalls and bare feet like snow.
He looked up at the skylight seeping into the well above his head, feeling himself being pulled down little by little. A sigh came out of his eyes, which were like two colorless glass beads, and he closed his eyes.
On the fifty-second day, all five precepts were broken, and there was no more pure glass in the world.
…
I actually finished writing in advance, thinking I would have to stay up until twelve o'clock. Well, the inspiration for the plot in these two chapters actually comes from the scene in "Dragon" where Xu Zhu and Meng Gu are in the ice cellar.
When I was a child, I watched a TV series and I was deeply impressed by this episode. I felt it had a hazy beauty. Years later, I can no longer remember the details of the plot. The plot I wrote is definitely completely different from that of Mr. Jin, let alone incomparable, but what I want to express is The feeling is similar.
Because it is an interlude, it is a bit disconnected from the current main plot, but I really wanted to write it, so I finished it in one go. I don’t know if readers will like it, but I was very happy when I wrote it... Even if the data drops, I don’t care anymore. In short, today I have eleven thousand words. As is the old rule, typos should be corrected first and then corrected. Please help catch bugs.
(End of chapter)
