OBS Chapter 297: Hanxu Hun Taiqing
Chapter 297: Hanxu Hun Taiqing
Chapter 297: Hanxu Hun Taiqing
In Zhanlu Mountain in Songxi County, Jiang Wen had been fighting against the zombies alone for who knows how many hours, but there was no sign of exhaustion or decline.
A huge divination formation that has been operating for many years and with great difficulty is unfolding at Jiang Wen's feet as if it were real. It is illuminated by the special light of the Mani Pearl, which is invisible to ordinary people but can illuminate everything and penetrate deep into the nine springs. It makes the mountaintops full of strange wavy patterns, as if the entire mountaintop is made up of a huge meteorite from outer space.
But this is clearly something even more impossible.
You should know that this large formation is extremely vast. In the sky, it relies on the Niu constellation among the seven constellations of Xuanwu, and on the ground, it is surrounded by ten mountain peaks in Songxi County. Even if it is spread out with Zhanlu Mountain as the center, it is still dozens of miles in radius.
If such a huge meteorite fell to the earth, what Jiang Wen was standing on would only be a meteorite crater sunken into the surface.
But even though there were all kinds of discord in Jiang Wen's mind, he no longer had time to think too much about it.
Because what was pressing in front of him at this moment were countless blackened and charred corpses, surrounding him in layers with blurred faces, and low roars turned into a ferocious wave that spanned for miles, as if a piece of silk was covered with dense lice, which were chasing the smell of blood with chaotic and orderly steps, following the guidance of human hands, ready to pounce on it and devour it to death.
"These charred corpses are behaving very strangely. They seem to be unaffected by my internal forces and fists and kicks. Only the sword in my hand can injure and force them to retreat... But it seems that they are not that afraid?"
Jiang Wen quickly thought of a way to multitask. On the one hand, he used the Jade Girl Pure Heart Sword Technique to perform the Left and Right Fighting Technique, and with both swords he swung out in unison, cutting and shuttling among the charred corpses without any escape. On the other hand, he was still thinking about a way to break the impasse, so he could only speak out as he thought, to make sure that his train of thought did not make any jumps or mistakes.
Jiang Wen remembered that in "Yue Jue Shu·Yue Jue Wai Chuan Ji Precious Sword Chapter Thirteen" there was a record that in the pre-Qin period there was a sword appraiser named Xue Zhu who once evaluated the five precious swords forged by Ou Yezi, namely Zhanlu, Chunjun, Shengxie, Yuchang and Juque.
Gou Jian, King of Yue, invited Xue Zhu to come. He first took out the Haocao Sword and the Juque Sword, saying that the Haocao Sword could cut through autumn water and was extremely sharp, while the Juque Sword was indestructible and could not be stopped by gold or bronze. They were the two extremes of sword forging and both were famous swords that were difficult for mortals in the world to reach.
However, Xue Zhu only glanced at it for a second before saying in a tone of disinterest and even boredom, "The brilliance of the Hao Cao has faded, and the texture of the Ju Que has become increasingly rough. Neither of the two swords can be considered precious swords."
Jiang Wen now believes that Xue Zhu is not lying, and among these predecessors who were active in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and led to the thousand-year glory of swordsmanship, there must be a special method to distinguish the quality of swords.
Because the sharp Haocao sword in the hands of King Gou Jian of Yue was ultimately unable to cut through the long river of time. Not long after, the sword edge faded and the sword energy dissipated, leaving only the name that appeared briefly in the "Yue Jue Shu". Not to mention the Juque sword, although the texture of the sword body is still extremely hard, its sharpness is no longer as good as before -
Previously, Chief Leader Chen Jinnan was superstitious about the power of famous swords, and his unsuccessful battle with Ma Ning'er with the Juque Sword was irrefutable evidence. If Jiang Wen and others had not intervened at that time, Chief Leader Chen would have left the stage at the speed of light to the background music.
You have to know that the Xuezhu Sword was forged less than a hundred years ago. Now, two thousand years have passed, and even though the remaining swords still have their power, they are inevitably going the same way as the Juque Sword, gradually losing a certain "brilliance" that only exists in the dark.
This kind of "brilliance" is probably the "purple dragon light" that allows the sword to shine through the sword box no matter where it is hidden...
The charred corpses surged towards Jiang Wen like a wave, but were forced back layer by layer by his sword energy. It seemed that the rivers in this land were constantly flowing backwards, and the mountains and rivers were shaped differently, creating a sinister and hideous scene. But Jiang Wen was always in a trance, and even had time to look up at the sky above his head that was leaning to one side, as if the entire galaxy was squeezed and crumpled by a huge hand, and refracted into an unrecognizable appearance.
"The Ten Mountains Formation seems to have a big flaw..."
"I don't believe it's such a coincidence that a picture of a man riding a dragon appears on the day of the Spring Equinox..."
"And on the day of the Spring Equinox, the Ten Mountains Formation that had been forgotten by the world for many years suddenly activated, trapping me in it..."
But at this moment, a voice suddenly blew in Jiang Wen's ears without any warning, as natural as a breeze or a bright moon, making it difficult for people to be on guard at all. Jiang Wen's hair stood on end when he heard it in the first second, and he suddenly smiled in the next second.
[Yes. Taoist priest, don’t you think the most coincidental thing is why you always appear in front of me every time when your whereabouts are strange...]
........................
Jiang Wen swung out a sword in response, and the dazzling sword light instantly looked like a dragon among the stars, ready to ascend to the sky on the day of the vernal equinox.
"Hey, it's really hard for me to explain to you about the difficulty of having a woman. I can only say that you are surrounded by ten mountains, and I am surrounded by ten women when I go out. Maybe we are destined to collide with each other."
Jiang Wen didn't need to imagine to detect that the source of the voice was a man with a perpetual smile on his face, with a look of hysteria and extreme calmness that only a madman could have. Although his face remained youthful, clear white streaks suddenly appeared on his temples.
"I should have thought of this earlier. Although the Red Lotus Mother claimed that she had 'completely eliminated' the remaining Qingyang poison in the sect, she is still alive. How could she know whether the answer of 'completely eliminated' was deliberately passed back to her by you, the Qingyang Sect Leader?"
Jiang Wen knew that there would be a battle between him and Zhao Wuji, but he did not expect that the two would meet at this time, in this place, and in this way. He was too lazy to guess whether he had exposed his whereabouts in Jizu Mountain or leaked the news after returning to Wuyi Mountain. After all, if any news about him appeared in Fujian, he would most likely be captured by Zhao Wuji's Qingyang Sect.
However, the voice that answered him suddenly sounded lonely.
[Master, you are overthinking. Although I have been paying attention to your whereabouts before, what happened today was truly beyond my expectations...]
Silence, deadly silence.
For a moment, the only sounds in Zhanlu Mountain except for the sharp sound of wind and swords were the silence of two people who had not yet met.
Jiang Wen continued to ask, "Master Zhao is still so humorous. If you didn't come to plot against me, why did you come to Jianning Mansion in your busy schedule and show up in this desolate mountain for no reason?"
Zhao Wuji's voice emerged from nowhere, still smiling.
[Master Jiang, don't worry. I'm here to look for immortals.]
Jiang Wen's mind tensed up instantly, and a cold and terrifying light flashed in his eyes. The sword intent that the charred corpses faced was pushed up and transformed again. It seemed that there were many glittering multi-core crystals between the sword moves. Everything was shattered wherever it went, and could no longer be glued together.
The 20% internal force brought Jiang Wen not only the convenience of Qi circulation, but also the space to support him to display his supreme martial arts. Even if the internal force was not released at all at this time, the scorched corpse was not afraid of the impact of the internal force bombardment, but for a master like Jiang Wen, it was enough to display martial arts to the realm of divine enlightenment.
At this moment, it seemed that they understood that the army of charred corpses could not threaten Jiang Wen, and that their own estimation of Jiang Wen was also wrong. The originally surging horde of aliens like a tide gradually became relaxed, and some of the charred corpses even looked up at the sky in a daze, staring blankly at the purple dragon light that was rushing straight towards the Niu and Dou constellations.
"The immortal that Master Zhao is looking for is not in Wuyi Mountain. Please go back."
Jiang Wen's tone changed, as if he had returned to the tense moment of confrontation deep in the Fuzhou Prison.
The ancient disaster snail hidden in Manting Peak and the giant Buddhist elephant buried in the ancient city of Minyue are both rare things that can cause terrible disasters in this world. If Zhao Wuji wants to take action against these two things this time, even if Jiang Wen was deliberately plotted today and was in a disadvantageous situation from the beginning, he will kill him here at all costs.
"........."
Jiang Wen slowly sheathed his sword. Although the bloody battle for several hours had made his clothes soaked with sweat, it had not damaged his spirit at all. This swordsman was like a perfectly polished sword that could be unsheathed again at any time.
And when it was unsheathed again, it was an earth-shattering moment.
[I didn't expect that after not seeing you for a few months, Master Jiang has recovered from the hidden dangers of reversed meridians and mixed internal energy, and his martial arts have improved again.]
Obviously, Zhao Wuji had studied Jiang Wen's martial arts foundation before and saw his weakness of not being able to endure long battles, but Jiang Wen is no longer the same person now.
"Master Zhao, you are too kind. Your martial arts skills are unfathomable and so high that I don't know where they are. At most, Jiang can only be regarded as a racer."
"It's a pity that there are no immortals here. Please go back, sir."
[There is a fairy, right here. 】
"I told you, there's none here."
Zhao Wuji's statement was very firm, and Jiang Wen's answer was also unquestionable. In the tense tone of the two, there was a strange insistence on doing their own thing. If there was an eye contact at this moment, it would definitely be filled with something extremely dangerous.
Just when the atmosphere was tense and about to explode, Zhao Wuji's voice suddenly chose to calm things down.
[Master Jiang, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not interested in the things in Manying Peak and Minyue King City——]
[If I had intended to take it, why would I have delayed until you took action? ]
Jiang Wen almost lost his temper when he took a breath. It seemed that Zhao Wuji said this on purpose to tease him, fearing that he would do something wrong.
The reasons Zhao Wuji gave were too sufficient. For example, when they were in the ancient city of Minyue, he had sent Feng Daode, the head of Wudang, to come; the Jiahe Immortality Banquet was most likely leaked to the Hongyang Holy Child by him on purpose, and the various incidents in Fuzhou City and Guangzhou City afterwards were even directly planned by him.
However, Zhao Wuji, who knew the inside story, seemed to be just a behind-the-scenes chess player stirring up the situation in all these matters, and had no intention of taking Xiyi's things into his pocket.
But Jiang Wen thought about it again, this is even more wrong -
If he was really as indifferent and lofty as he said, he would never have come to this desolate wilderness to waste his time.
[…There are immortals hidden in the Zhanlu Mountain in Songxi. This is what my Wudang ancestor Zhang Zhenren said, so there is no mistake.]
Just as Jiang Wen was thinking of this, Zhao Wuji added a sentence just right, causing countless questions in his mind to suddenly appear like bubbles.
"Immortal? What ancestors? Yamamoto's ancestors?"
Jiang Wen asked the question seemingly casually, but Zhao Wuji's tone added a hint of appreciation.
[You are indeed a man of great wisdom. According to Master Jiang, what is an immortal? ]
According to ancient books, immortals either rise into the clouds and fly without wings; or ride dragons on clouds and ascend to the heavens; or transform into birds and beasts and float in the blue clouds; or sneak across the rivers and seas; or soar over famous mountains; or eat vital energy; or eat herbs; or enter and leave the human world without being recognized; or hide themselves and no one can see them. They all possess strange abilities that are difficult to describe or imagine in the world. They wander beyond the world every day, and have Taoist magic to cast spells on ghosts and gods, and to transform into various forms.
But a rebellious and unconventional person like Zao Wou-Ki would never be bewitched by such rhetoric of escaping from the world and escaping into Zen. Instead, it was he himself who was clearly using such rhetoric to deceive others every day.
For example, Li Xinghe in Guangzhou City was deceived by him and learned some kind of crazy "method of becoming immortal", which is why he sneered when he was tortured and cut into pieces, and even acted like he enjoyed it.
When talking about Li Xinghe, we have to mention Song Xiance and the Fangxiandao from which he came.
This group of people, starting from their ancestors Song Wuji and Xu Fu, have used the means of dissolving the physical form and relying on ghosts and gods to deceive the princes and kings, but they have not yet been able to draw a beautiful blueprint like becoming immortals in later generations.
For example, the protagonist in the fairy tales before the Tang Dynasty hid in the forest and valley and became an immortal. After becoming an immortal, his body only changed and his body became immortal, but no magical powers or magic were seen. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, becoming an immortal and attaining the Tao were regarded as two different ways of longevity. There was a big difference between immortals and those who attained the Tao. Immortals were more likely to remain healthy and live longer.
In earlier times, the image of immortals was even simpler.
Most of the immortals in the early Han Dynasty were ugly in appearance, especially with green hair on their bodies and wings on their backs. For example, the record in "Ruo Shi" in "Huainanzi" called him an ancient immortal. Some people had seen him in the deep valleys of mountains and forests. He had a strange and haggard body and would flee behind a tombstone when he saw people. He fed on turtles, crabs, clams, grass roots, tree bark, pine nuts and other things. He did not have the graceful and elegant appearance of an immortal at all.
Wang Chong clearly stated in Lun Heng: The Formless: "The appearance of an immortal is that of a person with hair growing on his body and wings turning into arms. He grows older when he walks on the clouds and lives a thousand years without dying." This indeed shows that people in the Han Dynasty regarded the growth of green hair on the body as proof of becoming an immortal, and believed that those with strange bones on their faces, strange hair on their bodies, and living in seclusion were immortals.
Jiang Wen shook his head.
"I have never seen a fairy, and I don't know what a fairy is."
[But our sect's founder, Master Zhang, has seen it before, and in these rolling mountains of northern Fujian, and once in this Zhanlu Mountain where you are standing! ]
"...So this Ten Mountains Formation was created by Master Zhang?"
Zhao Wuji's voice paused, as if he was considering whether to give Jiang Wen an accurate answer, but after a moment he spoke slowly.
[Although the founder Zhang Zhenren saw the traces of the immortals, he did not set up the formation. It was later that Wudang Zhang Songxi discovered something strange during the fight against the Japanese invaders. He then used the remaining formation and the formation drawings of Zhenren Sanfeng hidden in Jinluntai to set up this large formation based on the ten mountains in the county to continue to block the strange phenomenon of Qi Chong Niu Dou.]
Jiang Wen was no wonder that Zhao Wuji had to think for a moment. The amount of information in this passage was too huge, and the intentions of everyone in it were obscure and inexplicable. The fleeting hints from the Cloud Dragon Dance made the atmosphere even more mysterious. No wonder Zhao Wuji came in person.
"Since Master Zhang only mentioned this matter, why is Master Zhao so sad?"
Jiang Wen is like a cunning and unreasonable prey. He knows that there is a patient and cruel hunter following him, but he still wanders and jumps between the traps set by the hunter, repeatedly asking questions in an unconventional way, trying to lure the other party into the trap.
[Master Jiang, since you were able to come out alive from Huashou Rock in Jiuzu Mountain, and have also experienced the Baiyang Sect's methods of calculating even the smallest moments, you should naturally know many of the deeds of the former head of state, King Luo.]
Zhao Wuji's voice transmission was so light and graceful, yet it made Jiang Wen's heart tremble again.
Obviously, only he and the Dharma King Miaobao, who was possessed by the King of Shura, knew what happened to him in Huashou Rock in Jiuzu Mountain. Even the others, including Master Anren, the young monk Pinzhao and Luo Shuang'er, could not know the details. However, Zhao Wuji's tone just now seemed to indicate that he knew something, which made him feel a little uneasy.
But on the surface, Jiang Wen still pretended to be laughing and talking to Zhao Wuji who was nowhere to be found.
"King Shura was a major villain in the pre-Yuan Dynasty. He was the one who destroyed the Mingjian Villa in Zhanlu Mountain. Could this place be related to him?"
[That's right. After defeating King Shura, the founder of Wudang, Zhang Zhenren, began to travel around the world, just to eliminate the various evil laws and defeats left by King Shura and restore peace and order to the world.]
[At the beginning, the founder followed the Chong'an Ancient Road deep into Fujian, first stepped into the ancient city of Minyue, then went to the Manting Immortal Peak. When he visited Zhanlu Mountain, he found traces of the battle between King Shura and a group of people called "Zhi Fu Jiu Xing". It was because of this that he encountered the immortal in the mountain and had a quick glimpse. ]
Jiang Wen chewed on the nutrition in his words again and again, and said without thinking: "It seems that Master Zhang is quite free. Could it be that he has also been to Jizu Mountain?"
[A place in Yunnan, where the master had lingered for several years. But he went to Jizu Mountain not to find anything unusual, but to hunt down an evil master...]
Zhao Wuji seemed very interested as well. He talked about an extremely evil, strange and sinister internal skill that was circulating in the martial arts world at that time. Once the internal skill entered the body, it would stay in the dantian and make it bone-chilling. When the cold poison entered the body, it would cause unbearable pain and a near-death experience.
Zhang Sanfeng thought that this was the influence of King Shura, so after much investigation in Yunnan, he locked onto a martial arts master named Baisun Taoist. The two fought for three days and three nights before he killed him in the shade of Jiuzu Mountain. However, he found that this incident did not seem to have much to do with King Shura.
Jiang Wen was originally listening with great interest, nodding his head in approval from time to time, but he didn't expect that the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong.
"...Zhang Zhenren is a great figure of the righteous path. How can he be so cruel? It is not good to fight and kill at every turn."
Jiang Wen finally understood. Taoist Baisun was supposed to be the master of the two Xuanming Elders in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. He seemed to have died at the hands of Zhang Sanfeng. But according to Zhao Wuji's description, what kind of Xuanming Divine Palm was this? It was clearly the Cold Mountain Strength that was now entrenched in his body!
No wonder there are rumors in the martial arts world that Zhang Sanfeng's skin is black when cut open, and he hates monks the most. He is clearly targeting Hanshan's inner strength, a pure and outrageous Buddhist inner strength, and intends to take the opportunity to wipe out the backup plan left by Hanshan and Shide, that is, the two Bodhisattvas Manjusri and Samantabhadra in the human world.
This is clearly the truth of the matter!
Although this cannot be entirely blamed on Master Zhang.
After all, even Jiang Wen, who had experienced two worlds, saw for the first time Hanshan's internal energy, a hexagonal martial art that reached the pinnacle in terms of being weird, insidious, evil, bizarre, disgusting, and inappropriate, which harmed others and oneself and brought suffering upon oneself.
But it’s not Jiang Wen’s fault for being so indignant.
After all, he now possesses the most powerful and profound Hanshan internal energy in the world, and also has the hidden identity of the honorary future Buddha of the Baiyang Sect. He is afraid that if the elusive Zhang Zhenren has not yet passed away and runs out to hit him, he will be in trouble.
[Master Jiang, haven't you heard of the story of our ancestor 'Jia Zi exorcised the devil'? ]
After hearing this, Jiang Wen was struck by lightning, and thought to himself, okay, okay, “Jia Zi Dang Mo” can be understood in this way, right?
The so-called "Jia Zi Sweeping Demons" is said to be a period of sixty years when Zhang Sanfeng, after achieving great success in martial arts in his middle age, wiped out the evil forces in the martial arts world. During this period, Zhang Sanfeng almost eradicated all the evil people in the martial arts world, including those sects and masters who had been bought by the Mongols. It was precisely because of this action of Zhang Sanfeng that there was a generational gap among masters in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.
But according to Zhao Wuji, the so-called "Jia Zi to Eliminate Demons" is not just a metaphor. He has clearly been traveling around the world dealing with mysterious creatures for a whole Jia Zi, and those evil masters were just killed by him!
Thinking of this, Jiang Wen suddenly felt that he was not that dangerous. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said.
"Master Zhang is still too impulsive... Speaking of which, Master Zhang suppressed Xi Yi when he met him, and wiped out the evil masters when he met them. But he just ignored this immortal? Isn't the immortal of Zhanlu Mountain too shameless?"
[The immortals will live forever...]
Jiang Wen thought he could naturally get more information out of him, but he didn't expect that Zhao Wuji was even more cunning than he thought. He suddenly changed the subject and wasted Jiang Wen's time.
A strange wind was raging deep in the forest. Even under the support of ten colors of divine aura, the dome of the sky was becoming increasingly dim. The sky outside the barrier was burning fiercely, and the sky fire was raging wildly on the dark scroll. It was a crazy scene that could only be seen by mortals through the art of stargazing, or by the light of a rare treasure like the Mani Pearl.
The Dragon Feather Man appeared in the sky as promised on the day of the Spring Equinox. What was left behind this time was no longer a remnant of scenes from thousands of years ago, but a strange scene that actually happened before their eyes. It was as if the position of the sky and the earth had suddenly turned upside down, and an endless supply of brilliant fireworks were set off from the depths of the earth veins...
At that time, the purple dragon light that continuously emerged from the ground pierced through the barrier and rushed towards the direction of Niudou and Liangsu in the field without reservation.
The dragon light originates from the center of the seven Canglong constellations, Mars, but it rushes back to the Niu constellation of the seven Xuanwu constellations! The numbers of heaven and earth, the sun, the moon and the five planets, all originate from the Cowherd!
The "Astronomy Records" of the "Book of Han" mentioned: "Qianniu is where the sun, moon, and five stars rise from. It is the origin of the calendar and the beginning of the three regular months." It is obvious that in this dynasty that was most fanatical about the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man based on astronomical phenomena, there was already a very deep and secret understanding of the Niu constellation.
Jiang Wen couldn't guess whether this formation had reversed the position where the Purple Qi Dragon Light was going to return to, or whether what he saw now was the true destination of the Purple Qi Dragon Light. Because the division of the twenty-eight constellations that had been believed in by astrological prophecies for thousands of years might also contain some fallacies that could not be understood by low-dimensional people.
It is the so-called "Qi Chong Niu Dou" that makes people look towards the direction of the Seven Stars of Xuanwu. However, all this may be a maze set up by the instigator in Zhanlu Mountain, which makes them ignore the real danger, which actually comes from the direction of the Seven Stars of Canglong.
At this time, the Zhanlu sword behind Jiang Wen was humming, as if there was an inexplicable force in the sword that was being pulled by the sky, trying to break out of the body, but was ultimately locked by the hard, thousand-year-old undefeated alloy sword body.
Those who know dare not speak, and those who speak dare not write, and everything remains unchanged until today.
Jiang Wen murmured, "This is too crazy. Who would set up such a big scam just to do something so boring?"
Zhao Wuji seemed to be gazing at the endless visions in the sky, and uttered an incomprehensible sigh.
[Ancient books say that the knives of Zheng, the axes of Song, the chisels of Lu, and the swords of Wu and Yue are no longer as good when moved to other places, because of the local climate. However, even the Yue people who worshipped the Kunwu God with white horses and white cows here could not have imagined such a bizarre coincidence...]
Jiang Wen was slightly stunned after hearing this, looked at the Zhanlu Sword, then suddenly raised his head to the sky and said.
"I understand... In the sky it is the purple dragon light, on the ground it is the divine sharp weapon... Then, what about people?"
What Jiang Wen realized instantly seemed to shock Zhao Wuji as well. It took him a long time to lower his voice, and at the same time he seemed to be fighting against some extremely dangerous force.
[Master Jiang, what have you understood now? ]
Jiang Wen was too disdainful to share more with this stingy man, because he was not the only one who understood Qianlin Jiyu.
In fact, a long time ago, as early as when he walked out of the sword cave where Yi Yun was buried, Jiang Wen suspected that there was a special substance in this land that could quietly replace the carbon element in the material and then present it in a harder and weirder state.
It's just that he was annoyed by the existence of the "charcoal man" at that time, and did not immediately associate it with the fact that humans, as carbon-based creatures, are something that can be replaced. It was not until he was surrounded by the charred corpses all over the mountains that he gradually realized the mystery. Thinking about it this way, he still has to thank Zhao Wuji for his arrangement.
Sometimes, Jiang Wen thought that he was superior to the ancients in imagination, but sometimes, he would be frightened by the ancients' experimental attitude that transcended moral boundaries and allowed everything.
Jiang Wen was trying to convince himself that he was temporarily abandoning his humanity to think - what if some people did not turn into "human charcoal" or "charred corpses"?
At this moment, a roaring noise from the forest suddenly sounded, and on a distant hilltop stood a faint and incomplete figure, indistinguishable from a human or an animal. Its body was mottled like an ancient pine tree, and its hair was fluffy like feathers. At this moment, it was facing north, making bursts of ghostly howls to the sky and earth.
"...I understand, but I don't think you're right anyway."
Jiang Wen was stunned for a moment, then shook his head.
There was a hint of mockery in Zhao Wuji's voice.
[Master Jiang, why are you doubting even the words of Wudang founder Zhang Zhenren?]
[The one in front of you right now is clearly the 'immortal'. 】
Jiang Wen was very suspicious that the so-called all-rounder, Qingyang Sect leader Zhao Wuji, who was known for his ability to conquer the world and make moves as easily as a mountain, was actually the product of the interaction of multiple diseases including depression, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.
Because of his next words, Jiang Wen was amazed at the Wudang lineage's wild imagination.
[Er Ya: Explanation of Names and Explanation of Elders and Youngsters says, "An old man who does not die is called an immortal." This is an immortal who has lived for who knows how many years. Why do you look down on him so much? The ancestor once speculated that this thing would be a golden elixir in humans...]
Jiang Wen covered his face.
Crazy, everyone is crazy.
The method of refining "golden liquid" comes from the "Taiqing Jinye Shendan Jing" in the "Daoist Canon·Dongshen Section". The so-called golden liquid is actually a chemical extract obtained by grinding cinnabar, realgar, orpiment and other minerals, sealing them in an earthen pot, and heating and oxidizing them for a long time. It is called golden liquid because of its "diverse light, and its aura is like the purple sun", and it emits purple light. It is even regarded as having the effect of immortality.
However, even though the book records it in such detail, for thousands of years this item has been like the philosopher's stone in Western alchemy, existing only in legends, and no one has been able to replicate it in external elixir.
But even so, there are still many people who believe that as long as they can use the golden medicine to refine the elixir, and the master can enter the Huangting to give orders, so that the innate qi that is increasingly consumed can increase instead of decrease, they can achieve the path to immortality.
"So, a lot of these messes in the mountains are your doing, right? Just to find some golden elixir of immortality or something?"
Now, there was a sufficient reason for Zhao Wuji to appear here. He had obviously discovered a long time ago that there was some kind of mystery here, and he might even have found the secret of the immortality of the "ancient immortals".
However, when Jiang Wen looked at the monster with mottled skin like an ancient pine tree and fluffy hair like feathers, he felt a natural disgust brought about by the uncanny valley effect. This was just another "way to immortality" that was difficult for people to accept.
The next second, he decided to do something unconventional, as he always did.
"Master Zhao, you've said so much, but have you ever thought about the origin of the immortal in front of you?"
[Could it be that Daoist Master Jiang has already figured out something in such a short period of time?]
Jiang Wen laughed.
"Don't test me. I don't need to hide this. I just suddenly remembered it and wanted to tell you."
"The first people to discover this place were not the Wu or Yue people, but the Kunwu people who drifted here from the Central Plains. Master Zhao should have noticed this to some extent, right?"
Guessing that Zhao Wuji was listening attentively and didn't answer, Jiang Wen spoke immediately.
"The Yue people's killing of white horses and white cows for sacrifice here is just a poor imitation of the Kunwu people's slaughter of slaves - but the final effect is the same, because as early as the ancient Emperor Zhuanxu's 'ordered Chongli to close the earth and connect the sky', he had already sensed the danger from the sea of stars and tried to isolate it."
"I once heard a saying that the star axis between Antares and Aldebaran and the star axis between Regulus and Fomalhaut have a very high status in the interstellar space and can be regarded as a highway that leads in all directions."
"If this road is at the right time and position, such as when the sun reaches the ecliptic longitude of 0°, that is, when the spring equinox arrives, it can easily be disturbed and fall into a dead point."
"The so-called dead point is a general term for a special position point in a mechanical movement that is in balance. There is a kind of dead point where the movement around it is so slow that it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. It will slowly resolve itself after a period of time. Perhaps the place where the Dragon Feathered Man fell recorded in Zhanlu Mountain was simply an interstellar car accident caused by a group of small ants?"
"Don't ask me. I don't know what's hidden in Beiluo Shimen either. But no matter what the reason is, it just so happens that Emperor Zhuanxu established the position of 'Fire Master', who was actually responsible for observing Antares, the brightest star among the seven stars of the Azure Dragon. And the Records of the Grand Historian records that until the time of Emperor Ku, Chongli, who had the great merit of 'Jie Di Tian Tong', continued to serve as Fire Master, monitoring this star, which they considered the most dangerous."
"Next, please don't think I'm making far-fetched claims, just keep listening."
"The historical records are very clear. After Chongli, his brother Wuhui continued to serve as the chief fire officer. Later, Wuhui's son Luzhong also served as the chief fire officer. Later, Luzhong married Guifang and had six sons. The eldest was named Kunwu. Do you understand? This is the origin of the Kunwu clan, and it is also the track of their secrets about the Seven Azure Dragons, Mars, and the Winged Man who Crosses the Dragon!"
[…Even if you figure out the origins of the Kunwu clan, then what? ]
Jiang Wen laughed loudly, as if mocking his self-deception.
"Master Zhao, let me ask you, if the person in front of you is really an immortal who has taken the golden elixir and has become immortal, why would your ancestor pass by and ignore him and treat him like a piece of trash? Is it because he is a cultivator who has achieved the four elements of emptiness of Buddhism, or is there some reason why even he is not interested and cannot take action?"
【……】
"I don't need to tell you. The "Historical Records - Family of Chu" records it very clearly. Wu Hui gave birth to Lu Zhong, who gave birth to six sons, all of whom were born by caesarean section. The eldest was Kunwu, the second was Canhu, the third was Pengzu, the fourth was Huiren, the fifth was Caoxing, and the sixth was Jilian. Among them, Jilian was the ancestor of the Chu State."
"In this ancient family, only the youngest brother has managed to survive and develop. Unlike the Kunwu clan, which was exterminated at the end of the Xia Dynasty due to the tyranny of King Jie, the descendants of the clan were scattered because of 'disobedience to the Zhou Dynasty'. The others are similar. The only place worth relying on at this time is the descendants of Ji Lian, who are from the same clan, and the Chu State."
"Among them, the third son Peng Zu deserves special mention. Although his state Peng was at its peak during the Xia Dynasty and participated in the Battle of Muye as one of the eight states of Mushi in the early Zhou Dynasty, it still could not escape the fate of decline and was eventually incorporated into the State of Chu."
"——Guess now, will the secret of Kunwu clan be passed down to the ears of Pengzu clan of the same family?"
Jiang Wen did not deliberately use any alarmist content regarding these things, because the truly alarmist content was still to come. He was just unraveling a secret that was not really a secret to Zhao Wuji, reasoning from a more macroscopic perspective over the long river of time, and gradually approaching the conclusion he was looking for.
Then, he only needed to throw out an anecdote that had been circulating in Wuyi Mountain for a very long time.
In the early years of the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, General Peng of the Left Thousand Oxen Guard moved to Fujian and supervised the military affairs of Jianzhou. After retiring, he led his relatives to donate money and hire people to reclaim the northern township of Jianyang, dig lakes and build dams, reclaim more than 3,000 hectares of land, build more than 90 villages, build houses on the hills and live there. He gathered about 10,000 people and named it "Xinfeng Township", which became the earliest prototype of Chong'an County.
Emperor Taizong of Tang once asked him why he was so fond of Fujian, a place with its towering mountains and dangerous roads, when he was clearly from Danyang County, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, and the ancestral home of the Dapeng Kingdom was also in Jiangsu.
Peng Qian simply took out the family tree, which said that Peng Zu came to Fujian "because he admired the immortal country of Fujian". So Peng Qian only claimed that he came because he "admired Peng Zu's former residence". However, when Emperor Taizong of Tang heard the news, he found that in addition to admiration, there was also a hint of fear in Peng Qian's eyes.
[Because of admiration for the Immortal Country in Fujian...? ]
Zhao Wuji had indeed not thought of this, and he was not able to connect a bunch of seemingly unrelated historical materials together as imaginatively as Jiang Wen.
Jiang Wen may not be as flexible as Zhao Wuji in terms of bottom line, but that does not mean he cannot take a pure academic attitude. In any case, many studies in modern historiography have shown that among primitive people who can hardly protect themselves, killing non-productive members is a moral responsibility for society - since they are in conditions of extreme material scarcity, they often value the young and despise the old, mothers worship their sons, and sons are arrogant to their fathers, so they have to kill excess children and exhausted old people.
At least in the local legend of Wuyi Mountain, after Peng Zu led his people from their rich homeland to the precarious land of Fujian, the leaders became his sons named Peng Wu and Peng Yi. Peng Zu himself was missing, and it was said to the outside world that he had gone into the mountains and become an immortal.
Since then, Peng Zu has become what they call an "immortal".
People say that although he has immortality, he deliberately avoids the ways of the world and stays away from worldly honors, disgrace and joys. He is like a bird turning into a clam or a pheasant turning into a mirage. He has lost his human nature and become an alien. People often meet him in the corners of the valleys and streams in Fujian, but he disappears in the blink of an eye.
According to people who have seen Peng Zu, his appearance after becoming an immortal was "deep eyes and dark eyes, high shoulders and a slender neck, plump upper body and fierce lower body". However, in Jiang Wen's opinion, his appearance was quite similar to the so-called hyponatremia caused by lack of salt, such as dark skin, gray hair, thin limbs, sunken eye sockets and anterior fontanelles, etc.
Just like the "White-haired Girl" in folklore whose hair turned white due to lack of salt, it should be a reflection of similar human survival status in the wild. The appearance not only conforms to the ancient concept of immortals before the Han Dynasty, but also extremely conforms to the image of old people surviving in the wild in current research.
Zhao Wuji and Jiang Wen were silent for a long time, and it seemed that they understood in some way why Zhang Sanfeng turned a blind eye to this "immortal".
They let the monster, whose body was mottled like an ancient pine tree and whose hair was fluffy like feathers, stand there trying his best but unable to make a roar in human language. Perhaps he had really taken the golden liquid medicine from outer space when he was extremely hungry, but none of this mattered anymore.
Because from the Zhou Dynasty to the present, more than two thousand years of time have washed away his will. He no longer remembers that he is Peng Zu, nor that he is a human being. The resentment of being abandoned and expelled, the loneliness and desolation of sleeping on trees and rocks, have all turned into a pool of muddy water. Only the footprints that have been deeply stepped into it will remain for a short time, but they will soon return to chaos in the rolling bubbles, returning to a cruel fairy tale...