Cai Zhao nodded repeatedly, "Yes, I have seen the big ones since I was a child, so I can't be wrong."
Mu Qingyan couldn't help but raise his head and asked, "May I ask the old lady, did you know we were coming?"
"I don't know." The old woman smiled, "If anyone comes, they will come. If no one comes, no one will come. Those who can touch here are our guests, and those who can touch other places are fertilizers for the vines in the swamp."
The words were spoken in a gentle and slow tone, but the meaning behind them made Cai Zhao couldn't help but tremble.
"The man with the iris brand on the side of his neck said his surname was Yang?" Mu Qingyan took Fu Ying back.
The old woman said yes. Mu Qingyan wanted to ask more questions, but Cai Zhao quickly interrupted him, "Stop talking now, I have something important to do!"
She put on a lovely smile and begged: "Old lady, can you send someone to report to the outer jungle in the south? If we don't go back before sunset, someone will set fire to the forest!"
The old woman was stunned for a moment, and then she and the people behind her burst into laughter.
"You brothers and sisters are really the same as your parents!" The old woman laughed and leaned back and forth. "At that time, Young Master Yang also buried a lot of gunpowder in the surrounding woods and lit a long fuse. Miss Xiao Shu found us, The first thing is to ask us to quickly extinguish the fuse, hahahaha...Okay, brother, please take two people there..."
Cai Zhao originally wanted to lead the way, but was stopped by the old woman, "Don't worry, we know every corner of this forest and swamp as if we know our own fingers and toes."
The old woman added, "I know you have a lot to ask, so go inside first and drink some licorice dew."
"well……"
"It's not urgent." This time it was Mu Qingyan's turn to push Cai Zhao away, "There is something that needs to be made clear first."
"She and I are not brother and sister."
"Has the sun set?"
"No."
"It seems to be getting darker."
"The golden crow is hanging in the west. The sun is not bright enough, but there is still no sunset."
"What do you think, little brother?"
"...I'm going to see if Third Senior Brother needs to go to the toilet."
"I want to eat roasted pig."
"The sun hasn't set yet."
Chapter 126
About a hundred years ago, Lijiao and the Six Beichen Sects had another dispute. For some reason, they fought particularly fiercely this time. The two sides fought for five or six years...
(Mu Qingyan: Granny Ajiang, you don’t need to start talking about it so early, just say twenty years ago.
Cai Zhao: Oh, don’t interrupt, I want to hear. Grandma Ajaan, what was the reason for the dispute at that time?
Mu Qingyan: Don’t you know how to count days? A hundred years ago, it was natural that the leader of Mu Song died suddenly, and it was time for the sons and sons-in-law to compete for the throne. It is impossible to say that they suspected Beichen for the death of leader Mu Song.
Cai Zhao: Just forget it and pretend I can't guess it. Because of the restrictions of the canon, they cannot openly kill each other and then come to establish their authority over the six Beichen sects so that they can compete for the position of leader, right? Hum hum.
Granny Ajaan: How about I go get some water first and you guys can chat slowly.
Cai Zhao: Grandma Ajaan, you tell me. )
Our village has been skilled in raising mulberry and weaving hemp for generations, and it has nothing to do with the disputes in the world. It's just that people who leave the religion come to collect mulberry and hemp every year, and we lose both money and goods. However, at that time, the two sides were jealous, and the small sects affiliated with Beichen Six Sect came to take out our anger, humiliated and enslaved us, and we were forced to survive, so we had to escape into this dense forest...
(Mu Qingyan: Hum hum.
Cai Zhao: What do you mean by hum?
Mu Qingyan: It means hum.
Granny Ajaan: How about I go get some water first?
Mu Qingyan: Grandma Ajaan, please ignore her interruption and continue. )
The pursuers followed us as closely as vicious dogs. We ran and ran, and finally escaped into this swamp deep in the forest. Although it is dangerous here, it is better than the evil people outside who want to bully you to death. The ancestors originally wanted to hide here for a while and then go back after avoiding the limelight. Unexpectedly, everyone soon found that they could not get out.
Alas, it turns out that the native vines in this blood swamp exude a strange and addictive juice. Wherever the vines touch, wild vegetables, mushrooms, and even spring water and air are all affected by it. Our ancestors only lived here for two or three years before they found that they could no longer adapt to the outside world - we had to drink the water here, breathe the air here, and eat the fruits and vegetables grown here, otherwise our whole bodies would suffer like insect bites.
The ancestors originally wanted to send the newborn babies out, but they did not know that they were also harmed in the mother's womb, and they could not survive once they came out of the swamp. But this is not a place to live permanently. There is humidity, miasma, and poisonous snakes, scorpions, insects, and ants. The children are thin and stooped, and the adults do not live long. The adults are not like humans, and the ghosts are not like ghosts. But what can we do? We can only suffer here from generation to generation, begging the gods to save us one day.
It wasn't until more than fifty years ago that the great benefactor of our village finally came. That year, I was eight years old.
The elders called her Fairy Girl, but she said that she was just a mortal, her surname was Cai, her name was Cai Anning, and she came from Luoying Valley.
(Cai Zhao: Ah!
Mu Qingyan's lips curled up: ...Well, it's on again, that's good. )
The great benefactor came to the dense forest to collect medicine. She was not yet twenty years old at the time. She was born thin, small, and extremely sick. She said that her pregnancy was deficient and there was no cure for it, so she visited remote and rare places in the world to see if she could find a way to cure herself.
She walked deeper and deeper into the jungle, accidentally met us, and left quickly after learning what we had experienced. Originally we thought this was another person who was afraid of becoming addicted and wanted to escape from this place. Unexpectedly, two years later, the great benefactor came back again.
This time, she brought a strange orchid that only bloomed at night. She moved the live plant of this orchid into the blood swamp, waited for it to pull out new branches, and then grafted it with several other weird flowers and plants, and grew a variant with blood-red petals, stamens, cores, and even branches and leaves. orchid.
(Cai Zhao: Are they the little blood-red orchids we saw in the swamp outside? But I think they bloom during the day too.
Granny Ajaan: Those are the modified daughter plants. The one that only blooms at night is the mother plant brought by the great benefactor.
Mu Qingyan did not interrupt this time and was thoughtful. )
The great benefactor asked us to plant this small blood-red orchid all over the swamp, especially at the roots of the vines. She said this would make the vine highly poisonous but stop it from exuding its addictive sap. The adults in the village may not recover, but the newborn babies will be just like normal people.
Our great benefactor lived in the swamp for five years. She taught us how to avoid poison ivy and poisonous weeds and how to plant crops in clean water and soil. She also gave away several babies born in the next few years and asked her personal servants to find a residence outside to raise them. Sure enough, those babies can live well outside.
Later, the great benefactor's body became weaker and weaker. She wanted to go home and see her elderly parents.
However, she can't go back.
Although the vines in the swamp were addictive in the past, they were not extremely poisonous. People who occasionally came to pick medicine or strayed into the swamp could at least escape unscathed. However, due to the changes of the great benefactor, those who had entered the blood swamp were all poisoned and died miserably when they returned.
Their family and friends went to Guangtianmen to complain. Guangtianmen and others sent a large number of disciples to the blood swamp to investigate. As a result, more people were poisoned to death and the matter became a big deal.
My great benefactor knew that she could not go back. She did not want to continue to trouble Luoying Valley, so she taught us to set up formations to confine the blood swamp, and released all kinds of sinister and terrifying rumors. No outsiders were allowed to enter, and the Six Beichen Sects did not pursue any further investigations. Go down.
Not long after, the great benefactor died of illness.
Several of our parents died young, and I was raised by a great benefactor. I cried my heart out in front of her bedside, wishing that she had never been here, so that she would not have suffered such great notoriety and injustice. However, the great benefactor said that she did not regret it at all.
She was told from birth that she would not live to be three years old, and after she was three years old, she was told that she would not live to be an adult. Every year after she became an adult, she had to listen to various miracle doctors overtly and covertly telling her parents to prepare for the funeral as soon as possible.
She was struggling in the endless bitter soup, struggling in everyone's worried and pitiful eyes. In order to live longer, she searched for strange medicines in the world, but what was the purpose of living longer? Is it just to make parents worry longer?
She said that she never thought that in her barren and meager life, she would be able to save so many people, and she felt it was worth it.
Fifty years have passed since then.
Hundreds of children left the swamp when they became adults, started families, and started farming and doing business outside. Now, they can get sunshine every day and are as strong and tall as big trees.
And we are the last remnants of the Blood Swamp.
The air was silent, the past was sad, and the three people in the room were silent for a long time.
Mu Qingyan reminded: "...can we talk about what happened twenty years ago now?"
Cai Zhao glanced at him, annoyed that he was ruining the atmosphere.
Grandma Ajiang laughed: "Okay - so you are really not brother and sister? We all thought that Miss Xiao Shu would marry Young Master Yang. But, well, it's okay not to."
Cai Zhao was embarrassed. She found that all the elderly aunts in the world had the same temperament. They loved to push for marriage when they saw young men and women, so she quickly said: "Mother-in-law, you should talk about my aunt."
Granny Ajiang said: "About twenty years ago, a young man and woman suddenly broke into our village. We were all shocked and thought that the formation outside was not working. The two of them came to inquire about Mother Yelan. It was said that Mr. Yang’s friend was sick and needed the mother plant of Ye Lan to be used as medicine. We naturally agreed, so they took a few branches and left."
"Is this the end?" Cai Zhao said.
"It's over. Miss Xiao Shu is the descendant of our great benefactor. We are willing to risk our lives in return, let alone a few branches of night orchid."
Cai Zhao was speechless for a while, then Mu Qingyan said, "Grandma Ajiang, can we take a look at the mother night orchid plant?"
Granny Ajaan readily agreed and stood up to lead the way.
The mother plant of night orchid is planted in the backyard of this house, protected by a circle of white stones. After more than fifty years of being nourished by the secluded forest, its roots have become stronger and taller, its branches and leaves are bright and green, and its white buds poke out.
Grandma Ajaan sighed: "Wait until midnight, and all these buds will open. They are so beautiful. You should take a few more looks, because they will be burned tomorrow."
Mu and Cai were surprised, and Cai Zhao hurriedly asked why.
"This is Miss Xiao Shu's order," Granny Ajaan said. "More than a year after she and Mr. Yang left, she suddenly came back. She asked me if Mr. Yang had come back again. I said yes, Not long before she arrived, Mr. Yang took away a few branches of night orchid, and I asked him if his friend's illness was not cured yet."
"Then Miss Xiao Shu cried. She cried so sadly that no matter how hard we tried to persuade her, it was useless. Before Miss Xiao Shu left, she solemnly entrusted us that if anyone comes to inquire about the mother plant of night orchid in the future, no matter who it is, even if it is Luoying The people in the valley must also burn Yelan immediately.”
Cai Zhao was confused: "Why did Young Master Yang come here a second time? Couldn't he have taken a few more branches the first time?"
Granny Ajaan said: "Miss Zhaozhao, I don't know that this night orchid is very delicate. It can only be stored for half a year after the branches are removed from the soil. No matter how you put it in a crystal box or keep it in an earthen pot, it will surely dry up like firewood after half a year. All its medicinal properties will be lost." lose."
"What if we uproot it and raise it outside?"
"Unless you are someone who is extremely skilled in planting like the Great Benefactor... Even the Great Benefactor only managed to grow this one of the dozens of varieties of night orchids he brought back then."
Mu and Cai looked at each other and understood in their hearts - the first time Mu Zhengyang took the mother plant of night orchid, he secretly gave it to Chen Shu in order to lure Nie Hengcheng to practice the "Purple Heart Sutra". The second time I came to pick up the mother plant of night orchid, I'm afraid it was for myself.
When Cai Pingshu found out, he guessed the cause and effect and cried.
Mu Qingyan pondered for a moment: "Zhaozhao's aunt is right, it is better to burn it to avoid future troubles." He added, "Why not burn it now?"
Granny Ajaan said: "Burning the night orchids when they are blooming will release toxic smells, so you can only burn them during the day. Alas, in fact, Miss Xiao Shu wanted to burn them when she came for the second time, but we couldn't bear to part with them. After all, this is the last thing of our great benefactor." It’s a relic.”
Cai Zhao was in a daze for a while. She felt that they had taken great risks to enter the blood swamp and seemed to know a lot, but they didn't seem to know anything. "Is there anything else? What did my aunt and Mr. Yang say? "
Granny Ajaan's eyes were naughty, "Do you really want to listen? Do you really want to listen to what a girl and a boy you like are saying together?"
"It's not that kind of thing." Cai Zhao's face turned red. "I mean, is there anything else, something unusual?"
Granny Ajiang thought about it for a long time but didn't remember it. Old man Alin came to ask them to have dinner and reminded them, "Sister, why did you forget about the quarrel between Miss Xiao Shu and Mr. Yang at the spring."
"Oh, I almost forgot." Granny Ajiang exclaimed, "Miss Xiao Shu and Mr. Yang have been very affectionate. That night, they watched the night orchids blooming for a while, and suddenly they got into a quarrel while walking by the spring. Come."
Mu Qingyan looked solemn: "Why are they quarreling?"
Granny Ajiang said: "At that time, my brother and I were drawing water across the street and vaguely heard a few words. It seemed that Mr. Yang was planning to kill someone. Miss Xiao Shu noticed it and asked him why, and the two of them kept talking. You mean 'pinch and pinch'."
"Pinch?" Cai Zhao's thoughts suddenly changed, "Nie Zhe?!"
Mu Qingyan asked closely: "What happened next?"
Granny Ajiang said: "Young Master Yang explained a few words, and Miss Xiao Shu raised her voice and said, 'Since he has not done any evil yet, he should not be killed for no reason.'" Afterwards, Young Master Yang seemed to have given in, and the two of them went back to rest. .”
