However, within half a day, the entire royal city was under the control of the rebels. It can be said that the battle ended with almost no casualties from the rebels.
Ling Ning and others were admiring the beautiful scenery of hundreds of flowers in the back garden of the Zhao Kingdom Palace. At this time, Qin Fei, who had been missing, came over excitedly: "So you are here! I just searched the royal city, and there is no such thing." There are no traces of the demon monk, I’m afraid he is no longer in the royal city.”
Ling Ning saw him coming and said happily: "Brother Qin is very high-spirited. Has the 'Empress' been caught?"
Qin Fei smiled bitterly and said: "Don't laugh at me. If you weren't here, how could I be so high-spirited? I just caught three handsome young men, and they all personally admitted that they killed the empress together, but the jade in the Huangji Palace There is only a pool of blood on the steps, but the empress’ body has disappeared, which is really strange.”
Qian Meier asked: "Was she rescued by other subordinates? Are you sure she is really dead?"
Qin Fei muttered: "It's impossible for those three teenagers to lie. They are indeed stained with a lot of blood. Judging from the amount of blood at the scene, they must be dead. But when we came in, the palace was in chaos. If someone took advantage of the chaos, It is not impossible to remove the body.”
Ling Ning said: "I always feel that this matter has something to do with the demon monk. Have you investigated the background of this empress?"
Qin Feidao: "I am sending people to investigate carefully, and I believe there will be results soon. By the way, although the royal city has been pacified this time, the forces loyal to Zhao still cannot be underestimated. I am trying to take advantage of the situation to regain the three princes. As a result, the territory will leave immediately, Xier, I have to take good care of you while I'm away."
Qin Xidao: "Brother, you must be careful here! I'll wait for you to come back."
Fan Ji looked Qin Fei up and down, and then joked: "You are quite a person. Most people would be eager to ascend the throne and proclaim themselves emperor after taking the royal city, but you can keep your composure. It's rare! It's rare!"
Qin Fei's old face turned red and said: "It would be a lie to say that you don't want to be emperor, but the Zhao Kingdom has not been completely pacified, and many forces are still eyeing it. It is not the time to claim emperor yet. Although Qin is not a hero, I also know how to take the overall situation into consideration.”
The next day, Qin Fei led the rebel army and began to conquer the east and west again, while Qin Xi took charge of the royal city in place of his brother. With Ling Ning and others in the royal city, they were naturally as safe as a rock. In the past few days, several forces also wanted to take the opportunity to capture the royal city, but they were easily defeated by Ling Ning and others. In fact, many of the incoming generals were frightened and surrendered to the rebels.
The results of the investigation about the empress have also come out. The empress's real name is "Zhao Ying", and she is the eldest daughter of the emperor and empress of Zhao. It is said that the eldest princess was born with a strange congenital disease - progeria. Her skin was aging rapidly for no reason. She should have died young, but fortunately, a mysterious old woman came to the palace on the second day after she was born. I don't know what this old woman did. I only know that the child His life was saved.
By the time Zhao Ying was twelve years old, her skin had aged like that of a fifty-year-old woman, but her hands were as delicate as a girl's. It was also in this year that the mysterious old woman came again. This time she took Zhao Ying away to practice. This practice lasted five years. Five years later, the eldest princess returned, but she was even older. Empress Zhao felt sorry for her precious daughter and always said good things to her. The emperor doted on the empress and she obeyed them one by one.
From then on, Princess Zhao became more and more powerful. As she grew older, her behavior became more and more unrestrained. She actually collected hundreds of handsome young men aged 13 or 14 and brought them into the mansion to enjoy themselves day and night. Many of them were "high-quality products" that she bought. Sent to the palace... Yesterday, he was a small gangster in the market, and today he has been promoted to a highly respected minister. There are countless such examples. Some officials even took the opportunity to recommend their sons in order to achieve success. In addition, she boldly allocated huge sums of money from the treasury to build a magnificent palace. For a time, her princess mansion was even more gorgeous than the palace!
Under the leadership of the Princess Zhao, the entire royal family and even the entire court officials began to live a dissolute life, but the lives of the common people became increasingly sad. The most true portrayal is that "the bones in the Zhumen's wine-meat-smelling roads are frozen to death", and the royal city is still In this way, the lives of local people are not to mention.
The rebels searched the princess's mansion and found a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry as well as thousands of densely packed skeletons of young people in the mansion of this romantic and extravagant eldest princess, which was really shocking. A secret room was also discovered. This room was hidden in the rockery in the back garden. If the servant hadn't revealed that the eldest princess often stayed nearby, she wouldn't have been able to find it anyway.
This secret small room is surrounded by stone walls. The stone door at the entrance is so heavy that it took five or six sergeants to push open a gap. I thought it contained gold and silver jewelry, but I didn't expect it to be a shrine. There was a black jade-hand statue enshrined in the shrine. The jade hands were in the shape of a flower, and an eye was painted in gold on the palm. This jade-hand statue was neither gold nor jade. What material was it made of? Several sergeants got greedy and stepped forward to carry it away. Unexpectedly, all of them died tragically under the shrine. Everyone was so frightened that they quickly came to ask Ling Ning and others to check it out.
Ling Ning and others came to this small secret room. There were already four or five corpses lying inside. They were all dead with black blood vomiting from the mouth and their faces were ferocious. They obviously suffered great pain before death.
The general in charge said angrily: "Master, you are finally here! My brothers died innocently... I wish I could burn this house down, but I'm afraid it will cause other bigger disasters... Please see what happens, Master." what's going on!"
Ling Ning and others carefully inspected the condition of the body. There were no wounds on the body and it was not poisoning. It seemed that he had been mentally attacked.
Fan Ji frowned and said, "Fortunately, you didn't set fire rashly. I think the statues enshrined here should be some kind of cult statue. If you set fire rashly, I'm afraid you will all die from the curse."
The general looked embarrassed and said, "Then... what should we do? Will the rest of us be affected?"
Fan Ji shook her head and said: "Move the body away and don't touch the jade hands. Then you all can disperse and we will deal with it."
The general sent people to remove the body and then evacuated with the sergeants. Qin Xi said with a worried face: "How should I deal with it? Please give me instructions from my uncle."
Fan Ji said: "I'm sorry, I don't know either. There are so many evil things like this in Fairy Dust Continent, just leave it alone and just ask people to seal the house later."
Qianmei'er said: "It turns out you don't know too well. I thought you were confident!"
Fan Ji curled her lips and said: "I guess there must be some expert advice behind Princess Zhao. Judging from the corpse of the young man in her house, she probably used the method of harvesting yang and replenishing yin to prolong her life. The idol of this cult has its own curse. The best policy is not to move!"
Ling Ning examined the jade hand carefully and felt that the jade hand was so beautifully carved and the details were lifelike. Even every fingerprint was engraved in minute detail, and the golden eye in the palm of the hand looked like it could really blink.
He used the pupil technique and true vision, and under the pupil technique, the jade hand exuded a faint dark aura... What surprised him was that this hand was actually alive! Through a layer of pitch-black skin, you can clearly see the muscles and bones on your hands, and even the blood flowing in the blood vessels. The eye drawn on the palm of your hand is actually real. After sensing his sight, you suddenly looked towards he!
Ling Ning quickly put away her eye skills and told what she had just seen. Everyone was amazed.
Ling Ning said: "Although I don't know what the function of this hand is, I think if Zhao Ying hadn't died, he would have taken it back..."
Qian Meier understood what he meant: "You mean to wait and see?"
Ling Ning nodded: "It's not an option to just wait and see. Why not spread the news about the discovery of this jade hand? I believe someone will take the bait in the next few nights..."
Under the instructions of Ling Ning and others, the news that there was a secret room hidden in the eldest princess's mansion and a strange jade hand was found in the secret room was "accidentally" leaked, and it soon spread throughout the royal city.
…
Zhao Ying slowly opened her eyes. At this moment, she was lying naked on the cold altar.
"you're awake?"
Hearing this familiar voice, Zhao Ying sat up slowly. She looked around and saw a familiar face.
"Yan...Senior Sister Yan...did you save me?"
Standing in the darkness was a girl with a good figure and a beautiful face. Her chubby little face was very cute with baby fat on it, but the expression on her face was extremely cold.
"It is the Buddha Mother who saves you."
"Buddha Mother... Thank you very much, Buddha Mother... Brother... I will never forget your great kindness..."
Suddenly, a strange voice that was neither male nor female echoed in the cave: "Zhao Ying, your mortal life is over, and there will be no more eldest princess in this world. Do you understand?"
Zhao Ying knelt on the altar and kowtowed to the void: "Brother... I understand... Zhao Ying is dead. Please give the disciple a new name by the Buddha Mother!"
"Whether it's a surname or a given name, it's just a code name. Why bother to be persistent? You will still be called Zhao Ying from now on."
"Zhao Ying understands! Please ask Mother Buddha for advice on what the disciples should do next!"
"You are pregnant with the 'Holy Son', so don't wander around. Just give birth in the cave. Leave the rest to Akko."
Zhao Ying was stunned. She murmured: "I...when did I get pregnant? Why didn't I know...how could it be..."
Yan Ke slowly walked up to Zhao Ying, handed her the clothes and said, "Buddha Mother has left, please put on your clothes quickly."
Zhao Ying grabbed her arm: "Sister Yan, this is not true! How could I be pregnant... vomit..."
She felt dizzy and wanted to vomit without saying a word, but she still murmured in disbelief: "It's impossible...absolutely impossible...how could it happen that my body has become so old..."
Yan Ke patted her back and said, "It's impossible for Mother Buddha to be wrong. Junior Sister Ying, just stay here and take good care of your fetus."
She paused and then said: "By the way, did you leave your right hand in your house? Recently there were rumors that a jade hand was found in your house."
Zhao Ying nodded numbly: "Yes, I hid my right hand in the secret room in the rockery in the back garden."
Yan Ke nodded and said: "That's it. First, I need to help you get your right hand back..."
The moon was high in the sky, and Ling Ning was sitting cross-legged alone in the secret room of the princess's mansion, "waiting for the rabbit."
He looked at the jade hand in front of him and thought to himself: "I don't know what this jade hand is used for..."
Suddenly the Palace Master's voice came to my ears: "This thing should be related to the 'Forty Second Eyes Technique'... It's probably a sect derived from it, there's nothing weird about it."
Ling Ning saw the palace master talking and asked quickly: "What kind of sect is the 'Forty Second Eyes Technique'? Why have I never heard of it?"
The palace owner explained: "This method comes from the 'Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara' in Buddhism, which is also the 'Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva'. Legend has it that Avalokitesvara once vowed to save all living beings, but there are so many living beings that Avalokitesvara feels incompetent. So, Avalokitesvara transformed into forty-two Bodhisattvas of great mercy and compassion, intending to benefit all sentient beings. Seeing this, Avalokitesvara's master Wuliang Buddha advised him not to be impatient, otherwise haste will lead to waste. Wuliang Buddha brought the forty-two individuals together. Only forty-two arms were left, and an eye grew on each palm to represent an incarnation."
Ling Ning said: "I see, does each of these forty-two hands and eyes mean a different meaning?"
The Palace Master said: "Well, but the hands and eyes of the statue in front of me should be a variant, and it is no longer in the category of forty-two eyes. Maybe there are other gods enshrined behind it... In short, there are good and evil people who practice this way. It's so complicated that it can't be explained clearly in one or two sentences. This hand and eye should be a practitioner who cut off his right hand and then enshrined it with secret techniques, so that he can eventually cultivate his own magic weapon."
Ling Ning asked: "What are the benefits of using one's own body to refine magic weapons?"
The Palace Master said: "Of course, it is quite common to use one's body to refining magic weapons. The biggest advantage is that the magic weapon can communicate with the master's mind without having to recognize the owner, and it is even more beneficial when used. The disadvantage is that if it is damaged, it will be damaged. Even if you mutilate your limbs, you will still suffer a certain degree of backlash. The closer the connection, the greater the backlash..."
Ling Ning said: "Does this mean that if this jade hand is destroyed, its owner will also be harmed?"
The palace owner said: "Well, this jade hand is entangled with a lot of cursed power. You must not touch it without my help, otherwise it may be very troublesome."
Ling Ning nodded to show that she knew.
The palace owner added: "Why don't I help you devour it? Maybe there will be some unexpected gains."
Ling Ning rolled his eyes and said, "This is your real purpose, right? By the way, aren't you afraid of curses? Could it be that you can swallow anything?"
The palace owner said proudly: "Who do you think I am?"
Ling Ning sighed: "When can I be like you?"
He said it casually, but the palace owner pondered slightly: "All things in the world are from the same source, and they are all from the 'Tao'. Whether it is good or evil, it is just that the direction of practice is different, but the origin is the same. If one day you If you can understand what 'the unity of heaven and man' means, you may be able to reach the state where 'heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things are one with me'."
Ling Ning said thoughtfully: "How long will it take to practice to reach the state you mentioned..."
The palace owner stopped talking.
In the source space, she was floating in mid-air and looked down at her palms, with a little confusion in her eyes.
"Time?"
She moved her fingers slightly and seemed to be able to feel time passing through her fingers. Perhaps time had become meaningless to her. Instead, she had some vitality after losing her memory. This was a feeling that could not be described in words. a feeling of.
Ling Ning still wanted to ask her for advice, but then the stone door opened with a buzzing sound. He looked for the sound and saw that it was Qian Meier.
"Mei'er? Why are you here?"
When Qianmei'er saw him there, her face seemed a little unnatural. She gently stroked her hair on her temples: "I...I came to see you. I heard that this little Maha...no, this one's hands and eyes It has the power of a curse. If you stay alone with it for too long, it may be corroded without you realizing it. Let me replace it for you. You go back to rest and come back to replace me tomorrow morning."
Ling Ning said happily: "That's very good."
As he said that, he stood up and walked out. Qian Meier walked slowly to the shrine. Ling Ning turned his back to her and suddenly turned around and grabbed Qian Meier's wrist, but her fingers were only a few inches away from the jade hand.
Qianmeier's face condensed and she looked at him in confusion.
Ling Ning smiled and said: "Mei'er, you just said it has the power of a curse. How can you touch it easily? It's better to stay away."
Qianmeier forced a smile and was about to retract her arm, but found that her wrist was clamped by pliers and she couldn't move.
She stared into Ling Ning's eyes, and the smile disappeared from her face: "What does this mean?"
Ling Ning still smiled and said: "It's not interesting, it's just strange, Mei'er... why... your wrist... doesn't have a pulse?"
