Mr. Xu struggled to stand up from his chair and asked sharply: "Did you kill my wife?"
"No, we didn't kill her."
"Then what happened to the big walnut that pinched her to death?"
"We got the walnut, but we didn't pinch her to death..."
"This... this..." Mr. Xu's mind was full of confusion. He couldn't figure out the meaning of these two tree demons. "Since she is your walnut... she obviously killed her..."
"She is already dead!"
"ah?"
"When I clamped her head, she had been dead for many days!"
"Ah?" Mr. Xu still didn't understand.
"She has died a long time ago. I just reminded her to prevent her from wandering around in the world!"
Yun Kong hurriedly stepped forward and waved his hand to appease the tree demon: "Please elaborate."
The tree demon couldn't stand it any longer, so he loudly said to everyone: "I have things I should say and things I shouldn't say, and I will ignore them today... Let me tell you, there are only two living people in this house, one is you, a Taoist priest, and the other One is the head of the family! I always wanted to remind you kindly, lest you be afraid!"
All the family members screamed in fear, as if they were waking up from a nightmare, they couldn't help but scream in fear.
In the panic, some people shouted: "How can you believe what the goblin said!" Before he finished speaking, several people around him screamed in realization, and in the blink of an eye, they collapsed into a pile of rotten flesh and bones.
Some people ran away in panic, peeling off skin and flesh as they ran, and kept splashing corpse water, making the whole court stink.
Yun Kong seized the opportunity and walked quickly to lift the manhole cover.
The stench was overwhelming.
The violent corpse odor rushed out, causing Yun Kong to sit down on the ground and cough violently.
He quickly covered his mouth with his sleeves, stood at the edge of the well, and looked around.
The well was filled with corpses, piled up in random directions, all in a high state of decay.
"Master Xu," Yun Kong sighed miserably and turned to ask Master Xu, "Are these all your family members?"
※※※
The strange tree is called Zhe.
Most wood monsters are hidden inside trees, and a tree may not have only one wood monster.
The two dryads, one old and one young, standing under the walnut tree, roughly told Yunkong and Mr. Xu what had happened.
It turned out that on the night when Mr. Xu went to the city to attend a banquet, a group of robbers came outside.
Everyone had gone to bed at that time, so no one noticed anything strange.
When they discovered something was wrong, the cold blade had already passed through their necks, and some even had their entire heads flying off.
Most people died in a daze in their sleep, or died when they woke up. When they were dying, they thought it was just a nightmare.
The robbers gathered the bodies in the courtyard, threw them all into the well, and then walked away.
The two dryads saw it clearly, but they were helpless.
But to their surprise, the next morning, all the activities in the house went on as usual, and all the people who were supposed to be dead appeared again.
These people apparently forgot about their own mortality.
But they should actually know something about it.
Because from that day on, they all avoided that well.
After Mr. Xu returned home, it happened to be dark. The tree spirit didn't want him to find out, so as not to be mentally unbearable for a while, he came up with a trick and tried to remind him slowly.
"Now that I have spoken out..." the old man and the child sighed together.
Mr. Xu hung his head dejectedly, and slumped down on the chair with all his strength.
The heavy blow emptied his body and mind in an instant, which was what the tree demons originally wanted to avoid.
The family members who were still around just now were left with only the messy wreckage on the ground, and none of them existed anymore.
"Master Xu." Yun Kong called softly.
Mr. Xu did not respond, but buried his head deeply between his hands.
When the golden crow fell in the west and the sky gradually turned clear and yellow, Yun Kong went to cook some porridge to eat, and also handed a bowl to Mr. Xu.
Mr. Xu hasn’t eaten yet.
He just sat there blankly, his eyes dull and unable to find focus.
The wood monster disappeared at some point, and Yun Kong ignored it. He just accompanied Mr. Xu and breathed in the rotten stench that filled the courtyard.
Yunkong had no choice but to stay one more day to prevent Mr. Xu from looking for trouble.
Until the next day when they said goodbye, Yunkong still saw Mr. Xu sitting there blankly.
Yun Kong walked to the walnut tree and said to the tree: "I can't stay here. Master Xu will leave it to you two. I know you are determined to do good deeds. We are a host and a guest, and I hope you will take care of him until his son comes back. Okay?" ?”
The branches and leaves of the walnut tree shook, and five strings of copper coins fell, falling heavily to the ground.
Yun Kong was stunned for a moment before he understood the intention of the tree demon: "Thank you, but the five guans are too heavy to be used on the road. For poor people, just take the three guans."
In fact, the three strings are quite heavy, but considering that there are no opportunities to increase income along the way, Yunkong still needs them.
※※※
Many years later, the world situation changed drastically. The Song Dynasty moved south, and the north became the domain of the barbarians.
One year, Yun Kong passed by this place again before his fate was over.
He walked into the desolate house and found the walnut tree.
Of course the chair under the tree was no longer there, but there was still a pile of rotten bones in the well.
Yun Kong inspected the dilapidated empty house and saw nothing meaningful.
He returned to the walnut tree.
The walnut tree looked haggard, its leaves seemed to be sparse, and it looked very lethargic, standing alone in the yard.
"Tree, tree." Yun Kong shouted.
The tree didn't respond to him.
He stayed for a while longer before leaving sadly, leaving this memory behind.
He is just a passerby after all.
This mountain is very majestic, and the mountain road is even more rugged. I don’t know who opened a path among the rocks and weeds, so that visitors can have a basis for going up the mountain.
This path up the mountain can no longer be regarded as a road. The ancients renovated the mud floor into the shape of stairs, or laid wooden planks or covered it with stone chips. However, after years of rain, it has long since lost its trapezoidal shape. If one accidentally steps off, it will roll down the mountain.
Yun Kong used a bamboo pole to support his body and climbed the mountain carefully step by step.
He had worn out four pairs of straw sandals, and had blisters on the soles of his feet. The blisters were broken again, and bursts of stinging pain continued to penetrate his heart. In addition, he had been traveling for days and had not eaten much food. It was difficult for him to walk. Breaking into a cold sweat.
Although mountaineering is so difficult, because I want to complete the goal wholeheartedly and spend all my energy on every step of the mountaineering, I can concentrate on it.
Finally, Yun Kong felt that the pain in his calf was unbearable, so he went to the roadside to rest, carefully massaging the hard calf to relax the tight muscles.
He knew that if he climbed down any further, his calves would get cramps and it would be even more difficult to move.
However, he cannot rest for too long, otherwise he will lose the motivation to climb mountains.
So Yun Kong only rested for a while before continuing up the mountain.
Yinshan Temple should not be far away.
The two mentors, Deng Xin and Deng Huo, probably haven’t passed away yet, right?
He went up the mountain this time because his master reminded him to go up the mountain to see his two mentors for the last time.
Polu is Yunkong's master who teaches and teaches, while Dengxin and Denghuo are Yunkong's mentors who implement his philosophy.
Back then, Polu took the young Yunkong to Yinshan Temple in order to seek help from the magical power of Deng Xin Denghuo, hoping to understand Yunkong's past life, and also because Yinshan Temple's large collection of books facilitated Yunkong's study.
Back then, Dengxin Denghuang had already told Po Lu the year they would pass away, and that was the "starting point" for Yun Kong to unravel the mystery of his past life.
It was difficult to explain the mystery directly, so Po Lu gave Yun Kong a riddle: "Spread ashes in the mountains."
The heart of a lamp burns to create a lamp, but once the heart burns out and the fire goes out, only ashes remain.
The fire in my heart is extinguished.
No matter whether it is the heart or the fire that disappears, the ashes will eventually return to dust, and everything will be empty.
Yunkong knew that the master was telling him that the two masters were about to pass away.
So he rushed to the mountain to see his two mentors one last time.
What Yunkong didn't know was that the two masters had actually prepared the key to unlocking the mystery, guiding Yunkong to gradually solve his own mysteries.
Finally, Yun Kong arrived at the mountain gate before dark.
There was a monk sitting cross-legged at the foot of the mountain gate. When he saw Yun Kong coming, he frowned and came forward with a gloomy face to salute: "Donor, why do you come to this temple?"
Is it intentional or unintentional to call the donor but not the Taoist? Yunkong didn't think too much: "I am here to meet the abbot."
Seeing that the monk was very young, Yun Kong knew that the monk did not recognize him. When he was young, he lived in Yinshan Temple for four or five years. The monks in the temple were as close as family members.
"There has been something going on in our temple recently, so I'm afraid it's inconvenient. I hope the donor can forgive me..."
