The mountains are vast and dense, the trees are dense and the fog is thick, making it difficult to see the true face.
The pastoral countryside at the foot of the mountain is also shrouded in light smoke, and the wind and smoke are intertwined, like ink smeared by a letter pen.
Zhu An likes the smoke-filled sky.
For more than 10,000 years, the blurry cloud and smoke scenery has changed day by day, never repeating itself, bringing a touch of change and beauty to his monotonous life.
In the mountains, deep in the clouds, a slender bamboo shadow quietly emerged.
The bamboo body is tall and tall, the bamboo branches are scattered at random, and the slender green bamboo leaves are densely arranged, with staggered pieces sticking out, and the petioles are slightly drooping, pointing to the world below the mountain.
Zhu An was a human in his previous life, and in this life, he is this mysterious arrow bamboo.
Human spirituality, coupled with the long lifespan of vegetation, creates this unique variable.
Spend a long time watching the sky, the earth, the sun and the moon.
For Zhu An, living is a kind of practice.
Every year's wind, frost, rain and snow will leave subtle traces on his body surface. Countless traces are superimposed layer by layer, forming a vicissitudes of bamboo pattern, like a painting or amulet, containing infinite mystery.
As the bamboo patterns become more and more dense, Zhu An masters more and more abilities.
Finally, he no longer had to stand still, he could "walk".
Whistle, rustle.
The ground is slightly arched, and countless forked roots move underground, pushing aside the soil and driving the tall bamboo body forward smoothly.
Zhuzi's life is occasionally boring, so Zhu An would "take a walk" like this and wander around quietly.
The scope is limited to this remote mountain - Beishan.
As for the world outside the mountain, there are human monks, demons and monsters, all living beings are in conflict, and there are all kinds of strange things.
After successfully practicing, Zhu An once planned to leave the mountains, and even leave the world.
However, after calculation, it was found that there are still risks in being born. The colorful world outside may seem wonderful, but in fact it hides murderous intent.
Therefore, he has maintained a secluded life and never left Beishan.
At the same time, he was silently preparing, waiting for the opportunity to go out.
As for what he will do after going out - Zhu An plans to see the world freely and go home if he has the chance.
After traveling for more than 10,000 years, returning home seems unrealistic. But here, as long as the realm is high enough, the constraints of time and space are expected to be broken.
It was cold in the mountains. Zhu An shook the top few clusters of leaves and recalled the long past. In another world far away, there are still some people worth caring about.
While he was meditating, the entire Beishan became a little quiet.
The villagers in the fields at the foot of the mountain put down their hoes, raised their heads in confusion, and murmured:
"The wind has stopped."
…
The advantage of keeping a low profile all year round is that in the outside world, few people have heard of the "Bamboo of the North Mountain". No one knows its true realm.
Even Zhu An himself is not sure what his peak strength is because he has not yet tried his best.
I have nothing to do on weekdays, just practice silently, and don't care about worldly disputes.
More than 10,000 years have passed in peace like this.
Throughout the long years, he was accompanied by Beishan and the small village at the foot of the mountain.
While walking through a woodland, Zhu An looked up at a few clusters of branches and leaves and vaguely heard something.
The sound comes with the wind, melancholy and frustrated, accompanied by the ancient tune played by Tao Xun:
"There are no clumps of sacred bamboo, and there is no trace of it. The leaves of the bamboo are fragrant, and you will understand if you feel it. The great virtue is like a green face..."
This is a sacrificial poem. Zhu An has heard it tens of thousands of times and is very familiar with it.
The object of sacrifice is his "sacred bamboo". The sacrificers were the villagers at the foot of the mountain who had been protected by him for generations.
Then, the green leaves stretched out, like eyes, exploring the pastoral village at the foot of the mountain——
In the old but spotless sacrificial hall, hundreds of villagers gathered with pious faces, offering fruits, vegetables, chickens and ducks, offering incense, kowtowing, kneeling on the ground, and praying in a low voice:
"Blessed by the sacred bamboo..."
A white-haired old man knelt in the first row and loudly sang the ancestral sacrificial poem "The Divine Bamboo Without Cong".
On the incense table in front, there are no statues or spiritual tablets.
What the villagers worship is a yellowed bamboo leaf.
Amid the desolate sound of the xun, a strange wind rose from bottom to top, rising from the sacrificial hall into the mountains and forests, bringing a faint scent of sandalwood to Zhu An.
Human incense contains the belief of all living beings, which is very magical.
Zhu An felt that the fragrance was very pleasant, so he spread out the leaves and absorbed it all.
A wonderful sense of fulfillment permeated the whole body, activating the accumulation of practice in recent years and promoting a small qualitative change.
With a clicking sound, the bamboo pole suddenly lifted up, forming a new bamboo joint.
"I've grown taller again." Zhu An shook the bamboo leaves all over his body, feeling happy.
For ordinary arrow bamboo, the number of joints in young bamboo shoots and the number of joints in mature bamboo poles are exactly the same.
But Zhu An is different. Practice can help him break through his limits and continue to grow step by step, as if there is no end.
Accepting sacrifices from villagers and absorbing the scent of incense is also a way of cultivation. Although it is not his major, doing it occasionally can be the icing on the cake.
After the new bamboo section was fully grown, Zhu An began to compress the stem again.
The wood in the body is further solidified, and the bamboo pole becomes shorter and returns to its original height of one foot.
The taller the bamboo, the more it attracts the wind.
Therefore, Zhu An never showed his true body. Every time he grew a little taller, he would shrink a little, always keeping it about one foot.
After practicing for more than 10,000 years, how tall is the fully stretched bamboo body now?
Zhu An himself didn’t know.
…
Different from the formal annual sacrifice in the past, this time the sacrifice was more sudden, and the villagers had urgent requests -
A child sneaked up the mountain to play and disappeared.
Beishan covers a large area and consists of several high and low peaks. It contains deep valleys, deep ravines, and dangerous cliffs. The terrain is complex. If a person falls into it, it will be like sinking into the sea without a trace.
The villagers discovered it too late. The sun was setting westward and they had no time to search the whole mountain. It was going to be dark soon.
In desperation, the sacred bamboo that has protected them for generations became the target of help.
Finding a missing child in the vast mountains is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, but it was easy for Zhu An.
If you spread your spiritual thoughts a little, you can control the entire mountain.
In an instant, countless green leaves lifted up and stretched out in all directions, like layers of green round curtains, collecting all the subtle fluctuations and breaths.
Within a radius of dozens of miles, among the ravines, peaks and valleys, every plant and tree came into Zhu An's field of vision. Not even the sound of water flowing or the chirping of cicadas could escape his ear.
Soon, a vague human scent led him to a cliff.
At the bottom of the cliff, a child in ragged clothes was hanging on a branch, dangling.
The forearm-thick branches were overwhelmed by the load, and their skin was cracked and cracked, making a "clicking" sound. They might break at any time, causing the person and the tree to fall together.
The child was hit on the back of his head and his consciousness was blurred, but he still held a broken bundle tightly in his hand. His eyes were barely open, and his mouth was mumbling, as if he wanted to say something.
When encountering danger in the mountains, call for the sacred bamboo immediately - this is a survival rule passed down from generation to generation.
The teachings of the elders came to mind, and the child tried to call for help from the mysterious existence.
But I was so dizzy that I could no longer speak complete words.
"God God--"
When he was desperate, the child heard a rustling sound.
In the blurred field of vision, green shadows all over the sky suddenly appeared, like green rain curtains falling, and the faint fragrance of bamboo leaves lingered in the wind.
A gentle force enveloped him.
The child was startled and wanted to see what happened, but couldn't open his eyes.
The body became light and airy, as if flying.
After a period of trance, the child had reached the foot of the mountain, his head was no longer dizzy, and his body had regained strength.
The child raised the tattered bundle in his hand, opened it, grinned excitedly, then knelt down and kowtowed heavily towards the mountain.
The small village stirred, with bursts of footsteps, sobs, scoldings, and crisp crackling sounds.
"The baby is so naughty, your parents are so worried."
"Be gentle, be gentle, Master Shenzhu, save me..."
After the beating, the child sobbed as he took out a few wrinkled coptis grass from the tattered bundle.
"Dad, I have really grown up and can help you go to the mountains to collect medicine."
The father holding the wicker suddenly fell silent.
At the entrance of the ancestral hall, the white-haired old man who had been chanting sacrificial poems walked out slowly, leaning on a cane and hunched over.
Listening to the children narrating the magical experience just now, the white-haired old man couldn't help but be moved. He turned around and looked into the mountains, sighing in a hoarse voice:
"It is indeed Master Shenzhu. The last time he appeared was fifty years ago."
When the older villagers around heard this, they all showed lingering fears as they recalled the past.
On that summer day fifty years ago, black clouds suddenly enveloped the mountains, and the continuous heavy rain formed an upside-down hanging river, washing down from high altitude. The violent sound of raindrops filled the entire world.
That day, the villagers gathered and began to discuss whether to evacuate the entire village.
I heard a roar outside, the ground cracked and the mountains collapsed, and there was continuous tremor.
The old man, who was still young at the time, hurried out and was stunned for a moment, staring at the mountain in despair——
The rushing torrents converged into a flood, violently knocking down rows of trees, carrying a huge amount of sand, gravel and soil, rolling down, the sound of the waves was like thunder, making the mountains tremble.
The sudden flash flood engulfed everything in its path, and the huge turbid waves were dyed deep yellow and turned into terrifying mudslides.
The mudslide came so fast and suddenly that the villagers at the foot of the mountain had no time to evacuate. They could only stretch out their trembling hands and slowly cover the children's eyes.
That day, the old man saw with his own eyes that all the older generation came out tremblingly, stood in front of the whole village, knelt down on the ground, kowtowed hard, and shouted sadly:
"Bless the Bamboo God!"
Faced with the irresistible power of heaven and earth, can Shenzhu really protect them? The old man at that time was still doubtful.
The next moment, the sky was filled with wind and rain.
Between the dim sky and the earth, a figure rose from the ground, growing taller and taller, instantly piercing the rain curtain and reaching into the sky.
Zhu An stood at the foot of the mountain, but he was already higher than the top.
Glancing at the mountains of dark clouds beside him, Zhu An did not push them away, but buried his branches and leaves deep into the black clouds, actively hiding his figure.
At the same time, tens of thousands of roots extend, spread, and penetrate deeply into the soil, locking everything in place.
The large loose rocks immediately stabilized, and the impact of the debris flow was greatly slowed down.
It is the natural power of bamboo to stick to the green mountains and not relax.
In the village, because it was too dark, no one saw the green bamboo that reached the sky and the ground, but they found that the mudslide was obviously coming slowly.
"The Divine Bamboo appears!"
The villagers were so excited that they cried and laughed. They turned around one after another, thanked Shenzhu repeatedly, and ran towards higher places.
The old man grabbed his wife and children and climbed up a high slope out of breath, but he still couldn't forget in his heart, where is the legendary sacred bamboo?
He couldn't help but be curious and looked back quietly.
At just the right time, a pale electric light flashed through, illuminating the dim Beishan in an instant, allowing the old man to see an unforgettable scene -
Under the dark clouds in the sky, in the vast wind and rain.
There is a vague lonely bamboo shadow, standing on the ground and reaching the sky.
