Later, in the side hall where many statues of judges, classics, and officials with different postures were enshrined, Jiang Tian sneered again: "So, on this huge Maoshan, there are at least more than 2,000 Taoist priests. Right now Only a few hundred of you are left working hard to maintain this?"
"Taoists dare not tell lies. This is absolutely true at the moment." Yuan Mingzi, with a frown on his face, immediately said: "Taoists are not originally responsible for knowing guests, but circumstances dictate that they have to temporarily take over their responsibilities. And all this All the changes come from the closure of the mountain and the erection of the wall more than half a year ago."
It turned out that according to his words, just after the mountain wall was erected, which cost a lot of manpower and material resources, Xiu Yuanzi and other high-level officials, headed by the master of Taiping Temple, announced that they would enter the monastery of the first patriarch and seek retreat. That faint hint of heavenly revelation.
But then he was ordered to temporarily take charge of the general affairs of the mountain, and he was also the host/master of Huayang Palace; he ordered Master Zhenxuan to cultivate the factors, but he could not convince the public; There were many disputes between Master Chang Yingzi and Master De Rong, Master Xiu Yunzi of Taipingguan.
This kind of constant dispute not only damaged the authority of the Huayang Palace master factor who was responsible for guarding the mountain; it even spread to the disciples of the various branches of Huayang Sanguan. Therefore, during the last meeting in Heliang Hall, Xiu Yunzi, the deputy of Taipingguan, angrily and publicly broke his face in front of the statue of the Patriarch.
He immediately announced that he would lead the disciples who he closely supported and followed, and set out to find a way out that could help the world and be more effective. When he left, he almost took away a group of young and middle-aged disciples from Maoshan who had the most radical mentality or were dissatisfied with the closure of the mountain. But the situation is not over.
Almost a month later, the director of the Huayang Palace, Yingzi, also publicly accused the Huayang Palace major who was assigned to guard the mountain, saying that he was mediocre and incompetent, nepotistic, and had no independent opinion in everything. He immediately announced that he would go to the capital to join the real master, the contemporary master Xuanming Jiang Yuanji.
Therefore, when he left, he followed a large number of middle and high-level mages and Taoist priests; it can be said that Maoshan was emptied by more than half. But when things got to this point, the original policy of closing the mountain to defend themselves and cultivating in order to respect heaven, which Yuanzi, the chief cultivator of Taipingguan, had actually ceased to exist in name only.
"No, if everyone is so shameless and runs away one after another. Isn't there anyone who can stop it?" Jiang Tian heard this, but couldn't help but interrupt him: "Your Taiping Temple master who is practicing in seclusion , you can intervene in the dispute before it intensifies."
"Having said that, the Grand Palace Master naturally sent people to ask for instructions on the mountain master's retreat." However, Yuan Mingzi said with a helpless face: "It's just that there was never a response from the stone gate. Only regular messages were sent through the stone hole. Food and drink were obtained, and occasionally a half-sentence of handwriting was sent.”
But in the following days, Huayang Palace, who insisted on staying on the mountain to study factors, was not able to stay clean for long. Some of the remaining Maoshan disciples began to disappear. At first, it only happened sporadically. It was thought that they could not bear the monotony and hardship of the mountains and fled privately.
However, when some of the handymen who have lived in the mountains for generations and have been serving the temple for a long time began to find that their companions disappeared from time to time, they could not help but feel faint panic and restlessness. Therefore, as the guardian of the mountain, he ordered the seal to be forcibly opened after many submissions but no response.
"However, the mountain owner has disappeared in the seclusion." At this point, Yuan Mingzi also showed an unbelievable expression and said: "The other seals that were opened subsequently also disappeared, including all the high-ranking practitioners and senior leaders. , Jianzhai, accompanying the internal disciples and Master Shengxuan."
"The only thing left in the cache is a suit of clothes, shoes and socks, a waist belt, and some gold medals, jade pendants, and lamps and magic tools to assist in practice... Although Shoushan summoned all the magicians, Taoists, and disciples to claim that this was a transformation into immortality. For this reason, some people will continue to flee."
The high-level officials of the Maoshan Sect who became immortals one after another basically happened during closed retreats, so they were relatively easy to deal with. But the servants and Taoist boys who were the daily service tools were also disappearing one after another. This inevitably caused panic and led to the situation getting out of control and collapsing.
"No, where is your Mountain Guard Palace Master? Are you doing nothing and letting people on the mountain escape at will? Neither asking for help from outside nor taking any countermeasures!" Jiang Tian interrupted him again: "What's more? When such a big thing happened, why didn’t he dare to come out to meet me?”
"Because...because, just a few days ago, the Lord of Shoushan Palace was recuperating in Huang Tingju, and he became an immortal without any warning." Yuan Mingzi fell down and said as if he was mourning for his heir: "The gatekeeper boy heard Shoushan suddenly singing, When I opened the door, I saw white smoke dispersing from the scattered clothes."
"But then, no one in the mountain could convince the crowd, and no one made the decision. The remaining masters in the temples all did their own thing. In addition to the continued emergence of people, strange phenomena inevitably occurred... Some people saw the self-portraits of all the ancestors walking out at night. , wandering around the palace halls with a cunning smile."
"Among the rest of the Taoists, some have become crazy and crazy one after another, exposing their naked bodies and flaunting the altar, trampling on the incense table of the shrine; claiming to have been inspired by the sacred mountain; some even jumped into the waterfall and were washed away... Therefore, the Taoist was subjected to Recommended by fellow disciples, he retreated to the Shanguan Palace to wait."
After listening to him explain the cause and effect, Jiang Tian stared at Yuan Mingzi and slowly said: "Why did you pretend to be indifferent to me when we met, and even tried to cover up the relationship? Could it be that there are so many people on the mountain? Aren’t there enough victims?”
"This is a shocking thing in the mountain sect, and it also involves the sect's reputation and reputation." Yuan Mingzi was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but he quickly explained with a look of shame: "The old Taoist was temporarily blinded by utilitarianism, and just wanted to keep it. The mountain sect will do its best to deal with this mountain after the sect leader gains trust."
"It seems that you just asked me to catch up?" Jiang Tian took a deep look at the dejected Yuan Mingzi; he knew that he still had something to say, but he did not go into it further: "In this case, as a After you have made up for your mistakes, you will be responsible for leading the way up the mountain to find out what happened?"
With the subsequent arrival of the Suzhou United Army, they successively blocked and controlled various places and entrances and exits at the foot of the mountain. The amateur sergeants, who were re-armed and equipped with equipment, began to advance up the mountain along the deep-cut Chuwang Valley, a wide stone avenue and dozens of archways.
And when Jiang Tian followed him, surrounded by people, and arrived at the mountainside platform where the Taiping Temple is located, he saw that there were many more people tied up and held down in the front courtyard square where the incense burner, altar, and altar were placed. There were figures on the ground; they just looked ragged and delirious.
Even after being restrained on the ground, they were still struggling unconsciously; they were described as skinny or skinny, their eyes were white and their mouths were drooling. Obviously, these are the Taoist priests that Yuan Mingzi said were crazy. But there were still some people shouting back and forth at the top of their lungs:
"Guiyuan is one..."
"Everything is unified..."
"One dollar is all returned..."
"Finally one..."
Many combat teams composed of hundreds of amateur sergeants searched the huge Taiping Temple, which covered several acres; they also found some survivors from every corner who had not gone completely crazy. It's just that some of them are in an abnormal mental state, and when asked, they just repeat "the tiger is angry."
When Yuan Mingzi saw this scene, his expression became more and more sad; he couldn't help but explain: "Those who were still conscious at the beginning have already gone down the mountain to avoid disaster; now, I am afraid they will not recover later. But I don’t know why I didn’t go down the mountain to ask for help.”
The Taiping Temple is also in a mess. Even among the shrines and altars, various dried and blackened filth are scattered; among the exquisitely painted fairy troupes, murals, reliefs, and silks Against the backdrop of the Lanpao statue, it looks absurd and particularly blasphemous.
There are even defects on some statues and wood carvings that may have been gnawed by teeth marks; we don’t know what happened in the first place. In contrast, the valuable gold and silver instruments, tribute tools, and sacrifices inlaid with beads and jade on the altar were pushed down and scattered on the ground without any cherishment.
However, Jiang Tian's attention was no longer on these treasures; he went straight to the "Huangtingju" villa in the back mountain of Taipingguan, where the Lord of the Palace of Shoushan was training. It has been carefully arranged into a small courtyard with flowers, rocks and mountains and rivers; even in late autumn, it is still densely covered with flowers and vines.
However, the flowers and trees surrounding the exit of the main house were withered and withered in a large area in a fan-shaped manner, making them appear to be somewhat out of tune with the surrounding environment. However, the room where the palace master cultivated Yuanzi was still open, but there was an obvious layer of dust from the inside to the outside.
The next moment, Jiang Tian once again secretly activated the "Induction/Transmission" module in the vision panel; in an instant, an invisible ring wave spread like water ripples. Like lightning, it swept across the interior and exterior, as well as the purple and yellow-brown crowns scattered on the scene.
Although several days had passed, an abnormal prompt was still displayed among the pile of "feathered" clothes: "Weak biological contamination was found." Jiang Tian suddenly understood in his heart; this may be Clues to a series of events that lead to immortality.
"Take me directly to Huayang Cave Heaven. I want to personally investigate the retreat place where the mountain masters who became immortals and other high-level practitioners went into retreat." Jiang Tian then spoke meaningfully: "I believe there will be more traces and clues. I’m afraid that the inside story of this transformation into immortality is not simple!”
The so-called Huayang Cave Sky, as the name suggests, is a large cave complex located deep in Maoshan Mountain, covering an area of dozens of miles, and connected internally. It has five entrances from east to west, south to north, and 3 visible and 2 hidden corresponds to the five directions, five elements, and the number of yin and yang. Among them, The West Cave is Tao Jinghong’s retreat.
As a retreat, it is located next to the Patriarch Cave where the founder Tao Jinghong lived in seclusion, and its affiliated sacrificial hall, shrine, and altar. Along a deep cave passage, a series of large and small stone caves were re-excavated by later generations. . There is also a reversible thick stone slab at the entrance of the cave.
Therefore, once the corresponding practitioners enter the seal, they can only use baskets to drop in food and basic supplies through the naturally formed light-transmitting stone gaps on the ceiling, and at the same time, the generated filth and garbage are hoisted out regularly. However, these door panels have now been violently smashed open.
The large and small holes that reveal the dark interior are like the mouths of animals that choose to devour people; and with the faint sound of wind flowing in the caves and fissures, they make a creepy and vague whining sound. I don’t know how such a ghost place was chosen to become a retreat?
In comparison, the inner cave of the Patriarch Cave is much more normal; there are various artificially polished stone buildings, stone beds, stone stoves, stone tables, stone platforms, stone pools, and stone pills distributed according to the terrain. The furnace, the stone niche, and the stone are all shining faintly under the light from the ceiling.
At this time, Jiang Tian heard the vague noises and shouts of the sergeants coming from outside.
