Zhu Yunluo lives in Fishui Town, and she often receives all kinds of rare things from Qiong Yi from afar. Sometimes they are golden live crickets, sometimes they are silk ribbons that can protect her body. This time, she sent a A small package of extremely beautiful shells and corals, with a letter attached. It said that she and Sheng Xuanyuan had arrived near the East China Sea, and it happened that the shark demon was causing trouble. After taking action to solve the trouble, they got a lot of shellfish, and picked some beautiful ones to send back to A Luo. .
Zhu Yunluo kept her autographed letter in the cabinet, cut holes in the shells and strung them into wind chimes, hanging them by the window. As long as the wind blew, the room would ring with a crisp sound, and she would feel happy in her heart.
Life here is leisurely, not as busy as in the past in the Lu family's mansion. Zhu Yunluo often feels that there is nothing to do. She can't take any time off. She always feels that she has wasted these days, so she tries to learn another craft.
Although Zhu Yunluo never went to school, when she was a child, she and Qiong Yi took turns eavesdropping on classes in the school and taught each other how to read. She was literate and had read many books. She has a smart mind and can learn anything quickly even though she has no training skills. She has learned knitting, women's work, and cooking skills. She is good at everything. I heard that there is no medical clinic in the small town of Fishui, only two neighboring villages. There was a barefoot doctor and a small drug store in the country, so he looked for medical books and started studying on his own.
After several months of self-study, Zhu Yunluo realized that she could not be stuck with pen and paper, so she went to a pharmacy in a neighboring village to seek apprenticeship. It happened that this small pharmacy was also recruiting apprentices, and she was able to touch medicinal materials and patients, step by step. Learn from scratch.
*
Qiong Yi and Sheng Xuanyuan, who were traveling far away from home, lived a happy life. Although they often encountered ghosts and private cases, it was hardly any trouble based on their cultivation and experience.
So most of the time, they walked while playing, rushing in front with their tails raised, Xiao Zaoer lazily following behind, Qiong Yi walking briskly and humming a song, Sheng Xuanyuan rubbing the baby in her arms. The flute wanted to accompany her, but the sound was good and bad, not as rhythmic as the bark of the tail.
On this day, they received a secret letter. The bamboo tube tied to the pigeon's feet was engraved with Xie's secret pattern. They flew away immediately after delivering the letter. When they opened it and read it, they learned about Kun Zhai's "Gu Dan". The secret was finally solved.
Qiong Yi sat by the lake and looked at the letter in his hand. It wrote on it: The reason why the Gu pill made by the Kunzhai tribe can allow ordinary people to have the strength of a monk in a short period of time is because of the ancient secret technique "Borrowing Life".
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth, after being absorbed and refined, can be introduced into the human body's Dantian and turned into true energy. This is the right way. Ghost energy and evil energy can also be introduced into the body, travel against the meridians, and turn into true energy. This is an evil method. The qi of living beings, including their essence, blood, and flesh marrow, can also be transformed into true qi using secret techniques. However, this technique is extremely harmful to Yin virtue and is unethical. It is also called "borrowing life."
This kind of secret technique had been widely abused in ancient times. Later, it was resisted by righteous people and has long been lost. Things that should not exist in the world have reappeared in the hands of the Kunzhai tribe. They used the poison as a guide, used the extremely long-lived "eternal insects" as the main medicine, and refined a large amount of living creatures' energy into elixirs, which are called "gu pills". Taking advantage of this to create momentum, an astonishing number of fake cultivator soldiers emerged.
"...It's actually like this." Qiong Yi murmured.
Sheng Xuanyuan thought deeply: "Based on the pseudo-cultivators we have in Western Xinjiang, that level of cultivation is probably not something that can be achieved with a small amount of living things' energy. Using constant insects as medicine does not have such a strong effect. In addition, the Rong people ate a large number of corpses and living people on the battlefield. Perhaps those powerful pills had attracted people."
Qiong also felt a little nauseous, held her forehead and said, "This kind of evil magic should disappear forever."
The ancient secret technique of "borrowing life" was originally a method invented by alchemists in pursuit of immortality. Now King Kunzhai seems to be pursuing the method of immortality.
It is well known among monks that monks live longer but not live forever. Unless they become immortals in the Mahayana, they will eventually grow old and pass away. However, this process is delayed compared to ordinary people. However, in ancient times, there seemed to be methods of reviving corpses, or borrowing objects to extend life, to gain a lifespan that should not have been achieved. Qiong also thought that Gu Dan might be just an attempt by King Kunzhai to gain immortality and expand his territory. .
The back of the letter also recorded the method of cracking the Gu Pill: just hit the Jianzhen, Chengfu and Zhongxin points, and the life's blood and energy will overflow from the Baihui point of the person who took the Gu Pill, rendering it useless.
Sheng Xuanyuan lowered his eyes and thought: Since the Gu Pill is no longer a mystery and there is a way to solve it, Kunzhai will not be able to cause any trouble in the future, and the border war will not repeat the same mistakes.
The two of them were reading the letter, with their tails lying at Sheng Xuanyuan's feet and staring at the sparkling lake. They wanted to go play in the water and have a good swim, but Sheng Xuanyuan didn't let him go, so he could only stare at the flying bird in the low sky. There were two little birds flying back and forth. The little bird stopped on the grass. When it saw the opportunity, it suddenly jumped forward and frightened the little birds away with a sound of "Woof!" and wagged its tail happily.
Xiao Zao'er was also frightened by the tail, humming and coquettishly, and shrank into Qiong Yi's arms. Qiong Yi burned the secret letter after reading it, hugged Xiao Zao'er and coaxed: "It's okay, it's okay, the tail is scared again." You? Bad dog, ignore it. Xiao Zaoer, the grass grows well here, are you full?"
Xiao Zao'er hummed and pouted her mouth, licking her hand. Qiong Yi patted the horse's head and listened to her words. He bared his teeth and showed his dissatisfaction with her "bad dog". He turned around and ran to Sheng Xuanyuan's hand to express his goodwill. From the bottom of his heart, he couldn't stand the lazy horse that carried nothing and had to be groomed by Sheng Xuanyuan every day.
Sheng Xuanyuan touched his tail and smiled: "Tail, go play in the water. We will leave in a while."
Taiwei barked twice excitedly and jumped into the water to cool off. Xiao Zaoer stepped on her hooves to watch Taili swim. Sheng Xuanyuan hugged Qiong Yi and leaned into his arms. She smiled and said: " The townships and counties ahead are quite lively. It seems that a stage has been set up and there are plays at night. Passers-by say that the signature braised noodles at the county inn are also delicious."
"Well, is there anything else you want to eat?"
"Buy some melon seeds and listen to the show, Sheng Jing, I want to drink fruit juice."
"good."
After playing in the shallow water, the tail was wet and ran ashore. Qiong Yi went to wipe it with a towel, but was thrown all over the water. Sheng Xuanyuan inevitably got wet all over, so he had no choice but to twist the fire trick and bake it for everyone. Then we walked slowly along the mountain road.
*
Qiong Yi's fear of ghosts has not completely disappeared. She will still be afraid when she encounters someone sneaky.
The two wandered for several months and passed through a deep mountain. They encountered an old ghost sneaking out of the tomb to harm people. The villagers asked them to help. On the night of getting rid of the ghost, the old ghost was cunning and seemed to realize that Qiong was also very scared, so he After catching her and scaring her, Qiong Yi wanted to kill her with her sword, but she didn't hit her for a long time and just slipped away.
After Sheng Xuanyuan captured the ghost's breath, he got rid of the evil ghost that had plagued the mountain village for many years like chopping vegetables. He found Qiong Yi, who was still in shock, and taught her a spell the next morning.
"This technique is called Burning Flame." He adjusted the finger technique in her hand and said: "It is a technique used by our clan to eliminate ghosts and restrain evil spirits. As long as the strength of evil objects cannot suppress the burning fire, they will be burned out. "
Qiong Yi learned very quickly, but she mastered this technique in just half a stick of incense. She looked at him: "Then from now on, if the evil ghost still chooses to attack me first, I will use this fire to light it, and then escape far away." I'll let you deal with it everywhere."
"Yeah. That's what I thought too."
*
During the trip, Sheng Xuanyuan began to practice the martial arts skills borrowed from the Zangwen Hall, the Eighteen Styles of Ling Qiang. Qiong also auctioned a treasured gun for him and named it Pingjue. When he saw him dancing with the gun among the reed flowers, the sharp wind from the gun would bring up a glow, which was particularly dazzling under the light.
Qiong was also good at swordsmanship and did not learn any other weapons. Besides practicing swordsmanship, she also learned many techniques. She wanted to compile a formula for her unique wind-controlling skills, and it would be best if she could write them into talisman paper.
Watching Sheng Xuanyuan's marksmanship improve by leaps and bounds, Qiong Yi knew that even a talented person could not compete with a true genius. However, she never felt that she had lost to him.
To hone their martial arts, the two need to compete and give each other pointers. They often fight without drawing their swords, holding the sheath. Five of the ten rounds were tied, with Sheng Xuanyuan accounting for the remaining 20% and Qiong also accounting for 30%. Whoever loses will be responsible. Prepare meals, bathe the tail, and comb Zaoer's mane.
When it comes to fighting with bare hands and close body skills, it will be difficult for Qiong Yi to get an advantage from him, although she feels that the close combat is just a matter of hooking his chin to win, and there is nothing to worry about.
But when he pinned her down in the grass and couldn't move, and the competition changed its meaning, Qiong also thought to herself that it was actually quite necessary to care.
*
At the beginning of winter, Zhu Yunluo, who was working as an apprentice in a drug store, received another strange thing from Qiong Yi.
This time it was a seed the size of the tip of a thumb. The letter asked for help, saying that everything was going well for him and Sheng Xuanyuan recently, that he had seen many beautiful sights, and that he had helped many people. As for the seed, it was a tree species full of spiritual energy. It was said that rare spiritual trees could be grown. They had no fixed place to live, so they gave it to her to try planting.
Zhu Yunluo was doubtful, so she dug a shallow hole outside the yard, planted the seeds, watered them, and then left the house carrying a basket.
Life in the drug store was not easy. In name, I was an apprentice, but in fact I just found a job that paid for me. When the clerk in the store saw that she was a single girl, he harassed her from time to time. Zhu Yunluo endured it again and again, which only made him push her further.
Zhu Yunluo thought: When the New Year is over, she will give the two kilograms of bacon dried at home to the owner of the medicine shop, and she will no longer be an apprentice there.
She opened the yellow paper in her hand. There were various medicinal materials written on it, which was a prescription.
Today, a poor family in Fengshui Town went to a drug store to see a doctor. The old man fell down while working in the farm and was dying. He saw that he had only a few days to live. His son and his daughter-in-law begged each other hard, but they couldn't get any money, so they were taken away. The clerk from the drug store swept out of the store and knelt on the street for half a day. The sound of banging and kowtowing could be heard all afternoon, which attracted passers-by to watch and point.
Zhu Yunluo couldn't see this, so she called a few people away under the guise of going to the toilet, checked the patient's pulse, and wrote a prescription. All the medicinal materials in it could be bought in the store, except for two missing medicines, tiger bone and half ginseng. .
Tiger bones are rare and hard to find for a lot of money. Naturally, there are no small drug stores in the town. Zhu Yunluo doesn't know if they can be purchased at the big medical halls in the city.
She now has no shortage of money, and Qiong often sends her money checks. In addition, she is good at embroidery, and her embroidery is a hot commodity when sold on the street, so she lives a very prosperous life. She thought to herself: If the Chinese medicine hall in the city had the goods, she could just go to a distant place and buy them.
As for the semi-ginseng incense, most medical clinics no longer use this side medicine. She thought to herself: I am afraid she will have to go to the mountains to pick it.
So, she found a carriage and horse and went to the most prosperous city in Luoyao to buy medicine.
The city was bustling with cars and horses. The first thing Zhu Yunluo saw when she got off the sedan was not a street with people coming and going, but the high peaks reaching into the clouds in the sky in the distance. The mountains were green and stretching, truly magnificent.
She stared at it blankly and thought to herself: That is Bai Feng Mountain.
It is an elusive and unattainable peak, and it is also the fairy mountain that ordinary people like them look up to.
Zhu Yunluo withdrew her gaze, inquired about the famous medical clinic in the city, and went into the store to look for medicine.
As expected, several large medicine halls were out of stock. The kind-hearted doctor told her: "Rare medicinal materials such as tiger bones are not available in the ordinary market. If you have to go shopping in the black market, you will inevitably encounter fakes. Or. , please ask the warriors to go up the mountain to kill the tiger, take the bones and send them to us, and we can refine the medicinal materials for you, free of charge. But girl, I see that you look a little anxious. Are you in a hurry to use this medicine? But it’s troublesome, even if we have the materials, it’s hard to make a medicine right away.”
