Far away from Shiting, among the many hills, there is an old man with a hunchback and an old monk who looks like a haggard man with scars all over his head.
The two faced each other, one in front and one behind, one sitting and one standing.
Compared with the old monk who stood quietly on one side holding the Buddha's rites and stroking one hundred and eight Buddhist relics of various sizes in his hands, the hunchbacked old man looked at ease.
I leaned on an old locust tree that had turned green, and in front of me was a burning firewood. On top of it were two bunches of four swans and pigeons that were already burning and fragrant.
Although the old monk who does not abide by the rules and precepts is not taboo against meat and fish, he is naturally not interested in it as he has already escaped from the world. He looks at his eyes, his nose and his mind, and whispers a Mahayana Buddhist sutra that is very uncommon in China. Lanka.
Naturally, he was the only prince with a different surname in the Zhou Dynasty. He was the patron king of Nightfall, He, the teacher of the founding emperor and the saint, and the Taoist priest of the saint temple.
Seeing the king of a different surname who was so brave and fierce in his youth feasting on the food and smacking his lips from time to time, Monk Daoji, who was absolutely restless at this moment, turned his head with an expressionless expression. Naturally, he was not blaming. Said: "Have you ever heard of a sentence, Your Majesty?"
The patron king, who ignored him at all, spit out the bones carefully. Naturally, it was not related to etiquette and principles such as eating without saying a word. He chased me around Gyeonggi Province for more than half a month, and night fell. I just simply hate this old monk.
The old monk talked to himself.
"Fortunately, cats eat fish and dogs eat meat, and they just smash their mouths when eating."
The prince who has been in power for forty years only focuses on roasted pigeons.
It stands to reason that this place is at least a hundred miles away from the Pigeon Cliff. It has long since lost the unique advantage of that place. Even now, it is impossible to see or hear a few pigeons chirping. The main reason is that the prince is good at it. No matter he traveled in all directions when he was young. Whether he was eating one meal and not caring about the next, or whether he was leading the army in his prime and not caring about the next meal, he had developed a good skill in grilling and eating food using local ingredients.
After all, when he went to the Western Regions, he held the title of prince that had been vacant for ten years, roasted sand scorpions with one hand at night, but saved the lives of six hundred Qingqi.
At that time, there were huge pits in the sea of sand with a radius of hundreds of miles. It can be recorded in the history books of later generations: There are stones from the sky that can smash countless pits. This is the luck of the dynasty. It will definitely clear the obstacles and kill countless people.
Happiness and misfortune in past and future lives have nothing to do with this moment.
At this time, the backer Wang Yemulin, who had followed the twelve horsemen all the way to the westward expedition, felt very lucky to have eight lone doves to satisfy his craving.
After driving around for half a month, I used up a lot of oil and water.
Therefore, at nightfall, the patron king lowered another branch to the ground and gnawed on the pigeons on the other branch to show his earnestness.
I'm afraid that others will see it, this is a great blessing.
But the old monk, the bystander, closed his eyes slightly and said slowly: "These are the exact words that the second young lady said to the old monk."
Apparently the prince with a different surname who had been listening was holding two branches with only half a dove left in the air, and expressed his agreement loudly, "That makes sense!"
The old monk, who was really startled by the sudden voice, couldn't help but lose his composure. He took a long breath, then looked at this junior who could make him unable to do anything, and said: "What is the truth?"
This time, I carefully selected the roasted pheasant and pigeon meat with my hands, which was not much in the mouth. It was tender and tender in the mouth, and the bottom of the tongue was filled with saliva.
Just for a moment, the backer king, who outnumbered ten thousand people by one person, raised his head and smiled, "Will you give me a chance?"
The standing old monk was rubbing the string of rosary beads of different sizes. Although he didn't look as out of breath as the hunchbacked old man opposite him, he was also more haggard and obviously not as hale and hearty as before.
He looked around and said, "Your Highness, you still won't let go?"
Opposite me, the hunchbacked old man was sitting on a huge rock, exhaling a long breath, shaking the doves that suddenly bulged on the long tree branches, and humming a country tune to himself, but he didn't Talk to the old monk.
The old monk didn't care and said: "At this age, why is the prince still so obsessed?"
The only prince with a different surname in that dynasty lightly beat his legs. This action really gave him a feeling of surrendering to his old age. It is normal for him to be in his sixties and not be able to do what he wants.
The old man glanced at the monk, sneered, and asked, "Isn't it that you, a bald thief who has been a monk for a long time, are also so obsessed?"
Monk Daoji didn't feel any objection to Ye Mulin's address. The old monk had no intention of answering this rhetorical question. Instead, he asked: "If the prince is tired, just let me know. I will wait for the prince."
Obviously, the hunchbacked old man was very disgusted with others looking down on him like this. He threw away the extremely delicious pigeon in his hand, stood up directly, and said in a loud voice: "Don't talk too much. I have lived for so many years, and I can't fight." I’m never tired.”
The old monk's eyebrows were curved, and his biphasic face turned into a look of joy, "Your Majesty, I am very lucky to have a strong body."
In response to the old monk's flattery, the patron king just snorted coldly.
The old monk naturally understood that the prince with a different surname was not in a good position at this moment, so he changed his mind and asked, "Then I dare to ask if the prince is planning to keep spending time with me?"
The hunchbacked old man did not retort or ignore the old monk's words this time. He looked at him thoughtfully and said meaningfully: "What do you think?"
The old monk still smiled, shook his head and said: "Your Majesty has a delicate heart, how could I know your thoughts?"
The hunchbacked old man put his hands behind his back and straightened his slightly hunched back. He snorted again and said: "Don't wear such a high hat on me. I am now sixty-nine years old. I have worn it all these years." The official title can also crush a person to death. What you say, you bastard, is like tofu tied with hemp rope, and firewood soaked by ants."
The old monk smiled sternly, causing the birds in the surrounding trees to flutter away. He shook his head in frustration and said: "The words of Lord Ye are rough and rude. I am indeed not as good as those sycophants in the court." Then the conversation changed and he asked again, "How long will the prince plan to spend time with me?"
This time the hunchbacked old man still did not give a direct answer, but asked again: "How long has Emperor Wen Sheng been on the throne?"
Obviously he did not expect this question. The old monk smiled slightly. Although he was puzzled, he still answered: "According to the Yellow Emperor's calendar, it has been eight years since 2018."
The hunchbacked old man nodded and smiled, and said no more.
The old monk was surprised and looked at the other party very puzzled. He didn't understand why he asked this question. After asking, he didn't explain it. He didn't understand what kind of medicine was sold in the gourd.
After kicking away the firewood in front of him, the hunchbacked old man looked directly at him. Although he did not speak, the old monk opposite him suddenly understood.
Both of them have become spiritual figures, especially the old monk. He has lived for a lifetime in this world, and he understood the meaning in the eyes of the hunchbacked old man with just a second thought.
The hunchbacked old man sighed, "Should I call you Zen Master Daoji, or should I call you Master Qianyang, or Master Yiji, or that lay name that most people don't know, Yao Xianxian?"
The old monk's two white eyebrows flying diagonally into his forehead suddenly seemed to be standing on his head. With just such an action, the Bodhisattva's happy look turned into a vajra angry look, which was hard to see and touch, but it was tangible and tangible. The coercion instantly filled the surroundings, even the robes of the hunchbacked old man, which had not been taken care of for more than half a month, were agitated.
"Why, you won't let me tell you?" The hunchbacked old man was unmoved and looked towards the old monk in amusement, "Since you have done it, are you afraid to tell me?"
The old monk's eyelids that were drooping due to old age twitched slightly, and the fierceness in his cloudy eyes gradually dissipated. However, his undulating skinny chest clearly showed that he was emotionally unstable.
The hunchbacked old man smiled and said: "Do you think that with the death of the founding emperor Tianwendi, no one will know the secret of your immortality? Do you think that I have been working hard for a long time, and it is just aimless and indiscriminate? You were trying to keep it. This secret led Emperor Tian Wen to launch a literary prison, burn books to entrap martial arts, and secretly instigated Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to fight for several years, preventing my martial arts lineage from making any progress for fifty years. Yao Xianxian, you are so ruthless, What a big appetite!”
The corners of the eyes of the old monk who was consecrated as a holy master by the Great Zhou Dynasty tightened. He obviously didn't care about the so-called greed, anger, and ignorance, but he immediately let out a breath and said slowly: "I thought you would be the best in this life." Such a layout is just nonsense based on hearsay, I never imagined it..." The old monk's voice changed, and he was confused, "It's just how do you know the secret?"
The hunchbacked old man did not answer directly, but said: "I have been in the world for more than ten years, fighting all over the world, and I just want to find a powerful wife. Then I moved to the court, and I have been up and down for more than ten years. Is it possible that I am just trying to gain fame, or maybe I am? For that useless official rank?"
The monk was naturally puzzled as to why the prince, who was at the forefront of the Zhou Dynasty, was so nostalgic and full of doubts.
The prince with a different surname conferred by the late emperor changed the topic again at nightfall, "Ninety years ago, you instigated Emperor Tianwen to burn books, which only blocked the inheritance of martial arts, but it could not block the public's mouth."
Although he didn't say it directly, the old monk understood the meaning very well. Somehow he let out a long sigh, and the right hand that had been rubbing a rosary bead the size of a baby's fist stopped, and the face with joy and anger seemed to collapse. Generally, I lose my energy instantly.
"Haha." The old monk was helpless and indescribably lonely. "At that time, Emperor Tian Wen only wanted to ascend to the three realms and live forever like the people who practiced in heaven and earth five hundred years ago. He was looking for me to live forever. It's an unreasonable method, but he doesn't think about the fact that there is not much energy left in the world. Seventy-eight percent of it belongs to the three sects and one family, and the remaining two or three have been divided up by the royal family. How can the grand scene at that time still be there? I just picked up this The wisdom of the predecessors, in the end, the existence of humans and ghosts in this world was regarded as a good thing by Emperor Tian Wen, but how did he know the twists and turns of the laws inside? In the end..."
"I'm not here to listen to you talk about these things. I know everything you said, so I don't need you to say it again." The hunchbacked old man interrupted the old monk shamelessly, causing the old monk to give another wry smile, "The past is past. Yunyan, such a secret past will pass away, and it has been hard for you to think about it these past few years."
The hunchbacked old man was quite open-minded, and presumably, as he had been so carefree for decades, he would not dwell too much on the past, "I'm not here to help others seek revenge. There’s no need to tell me whether these things exist or not.”
"The world admires immortality and seeks to prove it, but they don't know that it is meaningless. They watch their old friends around them grow old one by one, and then die one by one. They watch those who have practiced hard for decades to prove immortality, but then they are punished by heaven. The old monk vanished into thin air and there was no body left. I have been there for a while, another one. It’s really... it’s so lonely.” The old monk didn’t have any of his usual dignity, and his mood was waning, which made him look even more desolate. Floating clouds, it seems that I have understood everything, but in fact, I have lived enough."
"No hurry, no hurry." The hunchbacked old man waved his hand, "I know that you can't die easily. Just like these months, you have suffered so many blows from me, but you are still alive."
The old monk shook his head and smiled bitterly, thinking back on the past twenty days, it was really pleasant.
Saint Master Daoji said: "I have already found Guan Zizai from Yichan Temple, and then I will..."
The hunchbacked old man interrupted with disdain: "That monk Mi Tai, he only cares about women and protects them."
The old monk pondered, and wanted to defend the free monk he invited after traveling thousands of miles away, but suddenly he frowned, and his eyebrows seemed to be knitted together, and turned into a Rakshasa look of fear, "I don't understand , Why did the prince mention this?"
"You really don't understand?" The hunchbacked old man did not hide the confusion in his eyes. In his opinion, this monster who has lived for nearly two decades has probably crossed more bridges than he has walked. How can he be like this? Sometimes you can't understand the inner meaning?
The frown between the old monk's brows deepened, causing grooves on his forehead like withered tree bark.
"Do you think I am the only one who has understood the meaning of your immortality? Emperor Wen Sheng has not established the East Palace yet. Do you think it is because he said that the establishment of the East Palace will easily lead to party strife? Isn't there some other ulterior purpose?" This young man who was all-powerful? A knight-errant in the world, he became famous in the world and then moved to the officialdom. With the coveted opportunity, he became a prime minister and became a marquis and stood in the court for more than thirty years. Although he lived almost half the age of the old monk, he was probably a few lifetimes away from ordinary people. Wonderful experience that I have never experienced.
He has been melancholy and unrestrained, depressed and glorious, but now the prince with a different surname is looking through the world of mortals at night, seeming to murmur or sigh, "What does he want to do? Can the world of his family become his own?"
The old monk was speechless. .
The two old men, who had been watching the situation for half their lives, just looked at each other, and the fear in their hearts was clear.
The hunchbacked old man's back slumped a little further, and he said slowly: "If you don't participate in national affairs, you don't understand the hidden dangers. When we see the truth on March 3 this year, the matter of the country's destiny will be clear. "
The old monk didn't say anything, but he understood now.
"March 3, appeal to the ancestors."
