Yunkong was panicking when the thunderous sound of horse hooves came from behind, mixed with fierce shouts.
Without hesitation, he fled into the forest as fast as he could fly.
After running deep into the forest, he crouched down and stayed close to the ground, waiting for those people to pass.
I don’t know if those people are bandits, Song soldiers or Jin soldiers? In short, the team was very strong. They passed the official road outside the forest for two quarters of an hour and still had not finished walking.
Yunkong felt that just lying down like this was not the solution, so he lowered his head and counted his breathing, looked at his nose with his eyes, his nose at his heart, and quietly observed his thoughts.
Just as he was thinking about it, a drop of rainwater hit the tip of Yunkong's nose impartially.
It wasn't heavy rain, just a sudden strange wind.
This strange wind carried some light rain, blowing unceremoniously close to the ground, as if there were some invisible ghosts scurrying on the ground.
The screams of horses came from the road. The horses were so panicked that even the sound of their hooves was in disorder. The people on the horses kept shouting and shouting, but the horses' panic could not be stopped.
"The wind is blowing strangely..." Yun Kong thought to himself, pulling down the brim of his straw hat with one hand to prevent it from being snatched away by the wind and letting the strongman discover the trace.
A few strands of rain fell like cow hair, but after the sound of horses and people faded away, it stopped mindlessly.
In an instant, the surroundings were as quiet as a ghost land.
Yun Kong waited for a while, then slowly raised his head to look around. After confirming that the soldiers and horses were gone, he immediately jumped up and pushed away the sand and soil on his body, thinking about his next step.
"What tense is this? Why are the Imperial Guards everywhere?"
Yun Kong was taken aback.
Because this sentence is not what he said.
He looked around and couldn't see half a person, but the voice was still in his ears.
The strange feeling brought to him by the strange gust of wind just now has not faded away, and now it is surrounding him again.
"Taoist priest, that Taoist priest, what year is it now?"
Yunkong still couldn't find anyone, so he had to answer: "It's the first year of Jingkang!"
"Jingkang...what? Has the year changed?" The voice was a little hoarse and had a weathered feel, like that of an older man.
Yun Kong became bolder: "I wonder which era name you have heard of, sir?"
The "sir" was silent for a while and said, "Xuan He Nian... do you know Xuan He?"
"Last year was the seventh year of peace."
"Oh..." the voice muttered, "It's been four or five years..."
"Sir!" Yun Kong asked abruptly, "I wonder if he is a human or a ghost?"
The voice was not angry, and said slowly: "I'm not a ghost, and it's not right to call me a human... yes, what am I?" After that, he fell silent, as if he was thinking.
Yun Kong waited for a while, but received no answer, so he raised his hands and bowed in all directions: "I am just passing by, so I don't want to disturb you, so I say goodbye."
"Oh, wait a minute." After saying that, the gentleman stopped talking again.
"Is something wrong, sir?"
"...I haven't talked to anyone in years. Can you stay with me?"
"But, where is sir? How can I accompany you?"
"Taoist Priest, you can't see me, but I've been looking at you."
When Yun Kong heard this, he was even more horrified.
The surroundings returned to normal, the wind was blowing gently, and the big trees were flapping their leaves in a hurry.
"Taoist Master, I'm on the tree...the one on your left."
Looking through the clouds, there was indeed a tree, but still no one could be seen.
He walked over cautiously, holding the mahogany sword in one hand, ready to use it at any time.
He finally saw it, saw the gentleman.
Only the lower half of the gentleman's body was exposed, and his tattered clothes were already gray and yellow. His feet were hanging quietly, as if they were frozen in mid-air.
Since his upper body was completely covered by the leaves, Yun Kong walked under the tree and looked up, only to see a dark patch.
Yun Kong took courage and climbed up the tree to see what was going on.
He climbed onto the thick branch and moved slowly over.
He saw the man's upper body with a rope tied around his neck.
Yunkong stretched out his hand to push aside the leaves, letting the sunlight shine in.
The man turned to look at him. Somehow, one or two dead leaves were stuck in his wide-open eyes. There were still many yellow-brown particles in them. The original eyeballs had shrunk into small balls.
He opened his lips slightly and stuck out a small piece of dry tongue.
He said: "Taoist Priest, please forgive me for not being able to greet you."
Yun Kong didn't know how to react.
※※※
The man didn't speak, but Yun Kong could still hear his voice.
He said his name was Luo Wenkui.
Then I'll call him Luo Wenkui.
Luo Wenkui was not an elegant scholar, but a cold Confucian who buried his head in scriptures. It is probably more appropriate to say that he was a sour Confucian.
But hanging in this empty land over the years has washed away a lot of the acidity.
Because he no longer needs to study hard for fame, and everything in the world no longer has anything to do with him.
The moment he threw the ring, his weight caused the string to forcefully sink into his chin, immediately causing his cervical vertebrae to fracture.
There is a cavity in the middle of the cervical vertebrae for the spinal nerves to pass through.
Once the cervical vertebrae are fractured, the spinal nerves are immediately broken, cutting off the connection between the upper and lower parts of the body, just like a person who has been beheaded.
But at this moment, people will lose consciousness.
But the second before Luo Wenkui died, a thought quickly passed through his mind.
The thought was one of deep resentment.
In this way, there seemed to be a trace of resentment left in his mind, and he was not completely and completely dead.
His body gradually became dehydrated and withered, and his skin and muscles slowly wrinkled into a pile.
He is still conscious.
His half-open mouth could no longer be closed, allowing the wind to blow in. The wind would swirl in his mouth and then slip into his dry belly.
When the cold night came, dew would gather on his cold skin, sometimes on his protruding tongue, and flow into his body along the indentations of his tongue.
This is called dining with wind and drinking dew.
His eyeballs have shrunk into balls that look like yellowish-white things.
But this does not hinder his vision.
On the contrary, he saw the world more clearly.
Because he has no eyes.
Without eyes, he saw the energy of heaven and earth communicating, and the wandering souls wandering around.
His eardrums had long since rotted, but he heard the richer sounds of the earth and the sounds of growing vegetation.
He said: "I woke up."
Yun Kong did not stay in the tree anymore. He sat next to the tree and played with a piece of grass in his hand.
Yun Kong asked him: "Mr. Luo, do you still remember the books you read before?"
"……Gone."
"Did you forget?"
"No...my brain is corrupting faster than anything else."
"Oh," Yun Kong threw away the grass, "It's empty."
"My mind is empty."
"Wouldn't it be boring if you just...hang there?"
"No," Luo Wenkui said leisurely, "I regret not appreciating this beauty of heaven and earth a few years earlier."
After hanging on the tree for a long time, he gradually felt a little inconvenient.
The hands and feet I usually use have become dry and hard and can no longer be used.
In fact, his whole body was as dry as a piece of wood, so dry that even insects wouldn't want to eat it.
At this point, he discovered that he had regained his natural abilities.
It is a kind of ability that a person has before he comes out of the mother's womb and falls into the mortal world, that is, after abandoning the five senses.
He can make the wind.
Sometimes he wanted to hear the sound of leaves, so he made a small breeze stir them.
He wanted to see the birds, so he created a strong wind and forced the birds to come.
He saw soldiers passing by today, and a dark wind blew, accompanied by a light rain.
"I'm still a civil servant," he said dryly. "It's not surprising that there are many civil servants. Now I'm a king."
Yun Kong talked with him for a long time and felt it was time to leave. He didn't want to miss Sutou, but he still responded: "What king?"
"Your Majesty in this area, if there are any disputes between demons and ghosts nearby, please come and ask me to resolve them."
"They trust you so much?"
"Hey, you still call me King and Queen."
Yun Kong felt interesting and asked, "Do all the fairies and ghosts appear at night?"
"Maybe there will be some during the day."
"Why would they ask you to resolve disputes? If you are not them, how can you understand their affairs?"
"Hey," Luo Wenkui said, "They said it's because I'm a scholar. I've been reading for decades."
"But your head is already empty!"
"The Taoist master is ignorant of something, his head is empty, and right and wrong are clearly clear."
Yun Kong became more and more confused as he listened.
Suddenly, Luo Wenkui became quiet again, as quiet as a wooden monument.
Just when Yun Kong thought he no longer wanted to talk and was about to leave, he spoke again: "Someone is looking for you."
Yun Kong was stunned for a moment: "Looking for me?"
