After a night's rest, Yun Kong slept well without any unexpected night dreams.
This used to be his home, it had been burned down, and he had been away from it for decades, so it was natural that it would feel strange.
This sense of strangeness made Yunkong feel a little resistant to the rebuilt house. He imagined that the ghosts of his parents were still lingering in the house, and might meet his old son who had returned home after a long separation in his dreams.
But none of this happened, and I slept as peacefully as I had ever slept that night.
Yun Kong got up from the bed and looked around, but saw neither his senior brother nor his voice.
He stepped out of the house, raised his chest and inhaled the morning mist, then lowered his body and licked some of the sweet dew on the grass blades.
Yunkong intuitively walked towards the direction of the Five Tombs, and sure enough, he found his senior brother Yankong in the woods of the Five Tombs.
"Senior brother!" he called from afar.
Yankong turned his head and continued to look down at the tomb.
Yun Kong felt something was wrong, so he stepped up his steps.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
Yankong pointed to the ground, and Yunkong realized that there were only four wooden boards left on the ground.
Yun Kong speeded up again and rushed to his senior brother. Only then did he see the wooden board with the word "Duan" written on it lying on the ground. The soil in front of the tomb was turned over, revealing a long pit.
If there had been anything buried here, something was missing.
"what happened?"
Iwakong shook his head in annoyance: "You were fine last night, weren't you?"
Yun Kong slowly circled the tomb, hoping to see some clues.
There was not even a fragment of bones in the tomb, only the morning mist moistened the soil.
Yun Kong pointed to the ground: "Footprints."
Two lines of footprints were clearly printed on the soil moistened by the morning mist. Next to the footprints, there was a row of stiff palm prints, extending from the tomb until they disappeared at the edge of the grass.
Yankong was a little absent-minded, the muscles under his eye bags were shaking, and in an instant, bloodshot eyes occupied his eyes.
"This isn't the first time," he murmured.
The first time Iwakora knew about it happened more than twenty years ago.
At that time, Duan Zong glanced at Chai Xiang's palm, and the blood on his face instantly faded, and his skin color quickly turned deathly white, which is the characteristic of a person who has lost his life.
But not long after Duan Zong fell to the ground, he woke up again.
"I've seen this kind of person before." Yun Kong said.
He first thought of Mr. Huang Cong, a man who would not die but constantly begged for death. Even if his body was shattered, he would still slowly regenerate.
The five disciples of Five Flavors and Wusheng also seemed to have lived for thousands or hundreds of years.
These undead people are all the masterpieces of Donghai Wusheng. No, it should be said that they are experiments, or that he satisfies these people's desire to seek immortality.
Although immortality is more painful than death, things that have not yet been obtained are always beautiful. After they truly obtain immortality, those who regret it have no room to make a new choice.
After listening to his junior brother's narration, Yankong showed a serious expression: "I dare say that this is not the first time for Zici."
"Zi" is the "word" of Duan Zong.
At that time, Yankong had already noticed that there was a strange mark on Duan Zong's neck, like a belt around his neck. If you look carefully, you will find that it is a ring of raised granulation.
Duan Zong usually deliberately hides the foreign object on his neck, but the master and the apprentice get up and lie down together every day, so there is no reason why they should not reveal their presence.
What worried Yankong even more at that time was that Duan Zong seemed, no, it should be said that he really liked Chai Xiang.
Whenever the three masters and disciples walked together, Duan Zong would always lean closer to Chai Xiang intentionally or unintentionally.
Duan Zong would also deliberately approach her when she got up and rested on weekdays.
Yankong also knew that Duan Zong would quietly wake up Chai Xiang when staying at the old house in Huangmiao on weekdays, and then the two would go outside to talk.
Yankong saw this and felt mixed emotions in his heart. This was something he had never felt in his entire life.
When he was young, he was trapped in hardship and hatred, and he had no extra thoughts to spend here.
When he was in his prime, he happened to meet his master's broken shoes, so he vowed to pursue the Tao wholeheartedly and never leave the ascetic life. The poor life in the world also made him unintentional here.
He didn't expect that he would meet Chai Xiang at this young age, and he would be in a state of confusion. Sometimes he didn't even understand what he was thinking, but his habit of practicing Taoism made him vigilant, and he began to realize that his thoughts would lead to danger. situation.
Danger is danger!
Where is life not dangerous, when is not dangerous, and who is not dangerous?
He began to pay attention to the conversation between the two apprentices.
First, he had to figure something out.
"Xiao Xiang," he asked directly, "do you know what kind of power you have?"
Chai Xiang shook his head blankly: "Xiao Xiang only knows that after looking at my hands, they will die happily."
Yankong asked Duan Zong for confirmation: "Zici, you may be the only survivor who has seen it. Tell Master, what exactly did you see?"
Duan Zong did not answer immediately. He smiled silently at first, then looked at Chai Xiang affectionately and said: "It is paradise, the beautiful scenery I yearn for most. It will appear in Xiaoxiang's hands, and then it will enlarge and enlarge..."
Duan Zong waved his hands in a semicircle and gestured, "Until I am completely surrounded and overflowing with it... It feels like I can go inside, and as long as I take one step, I can reach heaven directly."
"Have you stepped out?"
Duan Zong nodded: "That's why I died."
"But you're back again." Iwakong hung on to the end of the sentence.
"Yes, Master."
"Before you died, you were already confident that you would come back," Iwakora added, "so you don't have to worry."
Duan Zong was silent for a longer time this time. He stared into Master Yankong's eyes, as if he wanted to see something, and then quickly smiled with relief: "Yes, Master."
"Why?"
"You understand."
"Master hopes to hear you tell me personally."
"Everything is as Master sees it."
The two of them were just stuck there.
Duan Zong smiled relaxedly, but his neck became tense and thick.
Yankong pursed his lips tightly with a solemn expression, and pressed his right thumb hard against his little finger to strengthen his will.
Finally, it was Chai Xiang who broke the deadlock: "Just tell Master."
She gave Duan Zong a gentle push.
Sure enough, Chai Xiang already knew it!
Although Yan Kong had expected it, the unpleasant feeling in his heart still couldn't be shaken off.
Duan Zong licked the corner of his mouth.
This action made Yan Kong shudder suddenly.
While Duan Zong was licking the corner of his mouth, he suddenly revealed a fierce look, as if he was about to unsheath his sword at any moment. At that moment, Yankong completely believed in his intuition: Duan Zong did not worship him as his disciple just to worship him as his disciple. , but for Chai Xiang.
Why for Chai Xiang?
For Chai Xiang?
His eyes were like a beast that had been hungry for many days, its sharp claws fully exposed from the fingers, ready to be stained with bright and warm blood.
"I'm sorry, Master. I'm offended." Duan Zong suddenly knelt down. "If I don't tell you, I have to do it out of necessity. If Master wants to know, I have no choice but to tell you."
Iwakong didn't dare to relax yet: "Just tell me."
"This disciple is from Dali."
Yankong confirmed one more thing: Duan Zong spoke with a Yunnan accent, and Duan was a popular surname in Dali, so his guess was indeed good.
"The disciple was far away from his hometown, looking for gods and immortals everywhere to seek enlightenment," Duan Zong paused, "and the disciple indeed found it."
Iwakong asked calmly: "Where?"
"On the ground."
That is, the Shandong Peninsula area.
"Then what?"
"My disciple asked the gods for immortality. Seeing that I was pious, the gods granted me immortality."
Although Yankong is a Taoist priest, he has always had doubts about the theory of gods. The disciple in front of him claimed to have seen gods and seemed to be immortal. For a moment, Yankong's belief was shaken.
"Are you immortal?"
"Didn't Master expect it a long time ago?"
"Zi Temple."
Iwakong finally couldn't help it and stared at him with stern eyes.
"I'm not immortal."
There was a sudden silence all around, like the wilderness after a wind disaster, where everything was suffocated and silent.
"you are not?"
Iwakora thought he heard wrongly.
"The Immortal made a joke to his disciples. He only gave me a limited amount of immortality." Duan Zong bit his lower lip, "How many times can I avoid death? How many times exactly?
The disciples didn't know. "
Yankong thought about it carefully, which immortal in history was so fond of pranks.
He couldn't think of it.
"What is the immortal's name? Have you asked him?"
"Yes," Duan Zong bit his lower lip tighter, "He said his name is Wu Sheng."
"No life?" This exclamation came from Yun Kong.
The morning fog had evaporated in the sunshine, and the cold air was gradually getting warmer. The old Yankong seemed unable to bear the change in temperature and sneezed.
