Chapter 2 Volume A: Polygonum flowers bloom, old friends in mountains and rivers
Chen Huaisheng knew long ago that he could not hide from the other party's eyes and ears.
The people on the other side are all cultivators and Qigong masters. They have sharp ears and eyesight. No matter how calmly I try, I can't avoid the perception of these people.
He had no intention of hiding anything.
However, the pain on his body still made it difficult for him to move. Although it seemed that the other party did not seem to be such a vicious person, he still did not dare to be careless as he sailed the ten thousand year ship carefully.
"Chen Huaisheng of Liao County has met you all. This girl is right. This is indeed a statue of Wuzhiqi. We occasionally see it in the remote countryside here, and the government cannot prohibit it."
Chen Huaisheng limped and walked out of the left side hall, clasped his fists and saluted.
At this time, Chen Huaisheng noticed that there were nine people on the other side, four women and five men, but the leaders should be the two women in the middle. No, they should be a woman in her early twenties and a girl of twelve or thirteen years old.
Nine eyes fell on Chen Huaisheng's face. Some were surprised, some surprised, some regretful, and some indifferent.
"Brother Huaisheng?!" There was a bit of surprise and joy in the clear tone, "Brother Huaisheng, is it really you?"
Chen Huaisheng was stunned and his eyes fell on the girl who walked out of the crowd.
He is about twelve or thirteen years old, with a small face and a dimple on his left cheek, handsome and slim.
Wearing a Yuebai Luo shirt, a tight black bun, a jade hairpin inserted horizontally, and a pair of purple printed talisman patterns on her feet.
There was still a bit of disbelief in his eyes. He took a few steps and finally confirmed: "Brother Huaisheng, don't you recognize me? I am Chi Mei, Xuan Chi Mei from Heimuya."
Chen Huaisheng now had some vague memories, and he was quite surprised and said: "Ah, Chi Mei, five or six years have passed, you have changed so much, I really can't recognize you anymore, what is this..."
Luohamburger, Heimuya, Yuanbaozhai, Guzhenyi and Fengtongling are the five largest villages in Guzhen, each with a population of about three to five thousand.
There are only a dozen small villages left, with no more than three to five hundred people and no more than a hundred people, all scattered in the southeastern corner of Yushan Mountain, three thousand miles away.
The people around her looked at the girl in surprise. Although most of them were young men of thirteen or fourteen years old, they had a look of respect for this girl who was younger than them.
It is difficult to say whether this young girl will be called Senior Sister or Senior Uncle in the future, but everyone knows that she is a rare genius in Jiulian Sect who breaks through to the second level of Qi training within four years of joining. What is even more rare is that this woman is also
Less than thirteen years old.
Along the way, several people tried their best to attract each other's attention, but all they needed was one cold look from the other party, and all their little tricks came to an abrupt end.
It's just that the attraction is too great, and after a while, some uninterested people will look for opportunities to show themselves, and of course they all come back bored.
Fortunately, this person didn't care too much for himself, he just ignored him.
I never expected to see this guy in his early twenties but not yet a Taoist being so close to him, which was really annoying.
Are they relatives?
"My little sister became a disciple of the Jiulian Sect four years ago. This time I accompanied my senior sister Yu to Yi County to introduce a few disciples. I also went home to have a look..."
The girl smiled, and her dimples, as dignified as a white lotus, began to bloom. Chen Huaisheng was also suffocated when he saw it. He quickly calmed down and screamed "sin, sin, sin" in his heart.
"Nine Lotus Sect?"
Chen Huaisheng has been away from his hometown for six years. He didn't expect that not long after he left, the little girl whose life he saved from the water would actually become a member of the Jiulian Sect.
An unreasonable feeling of envy and jealousy arose in my heart. Is this the distance between heaven and man?
He has also visited these big sects. To be precise, they are not big sects, but side branches, affiliates or subordinate sects of these big sects.
But they were either rejected or sent directly to do the hardest, most tiring and dangerous work, euphemistically called training.
Do it if you want to, or get out if you don't. The key is that no matter how hard you try during this period, you will have no chance to come into contact with Taoism.
Thousands of Taoist cultivators pour in every year, and these large sects have no shortage of people who come to seek Taoism. Naturally, they have to choose from thousands of people.
Generally, large sects do not accept direct admissions. Either the sect selects, selects, digs, and leads by itself, or the sects stand out from the affiliated sects and are recommended.
People like Chen Huaisheng who don't have many connections can only look for opportunities in side branches, but those opportunities are really slim.
In the past few years, he worshiped the branches of two major sects.
After two years of farming in the same family, I got nothing but fatigue. If learning how to grow jade and wheat, Jiahe is considered a skill, then it is barely enough.
The other family goes to work as "hunters", which is the so-called handymen who specialize in hunting and killing low-level monsters in the gang, specializing in hunting assistance.
I can learn some fighting experience, but it's too dangerous.
Among the nine people who started the business together, seven went to work as hunter-gatherers. As a result, in more than two years, three died, one was disabled, and he and the other one quit the business, while the other one is still persisting. I don’t know what the final outcome will be.
He also went to a small sect, but within three months, the small sect had a conflict with a neighboring sect.
These disciples who had never entered Taoism were of no use at all, so they quickly scattered and fled to avoid becoming fish in the pond.
"Jiulian Sect, I haven't congratulated Sister Chi Mei yet. This is a first-class sect in the Zhao Dynasty. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity..."
Seeing Chen Huaisheng's strange face and muttering to himself, the girl smiled and said: "Thanks to the sect for accepting the immortal master's mercy, I stood on the door wall. I remember that Brother Huaisheng was also a Taoist scholar at the beginning, better than my little sister.
But even better, in the past few years..."
In the girl's impression, this savior is also a rare Taoist in Yuanbao Village, and he went out to travel as soon as his spiritual root was revealed. He has been away from home for the past few years, but he doesn't know what his situation is.
The woman on the side has experienced many hardships and knows that although this little junior sister has outstanding talents in monasticism, she is still too young and is still a child in terms of human relations. She cannot see the awkward and awkward look of the young man in front of her.
She hurriedly said: "Chi Mei, everyone's situation may not be the same. Your brother should be returning home after traveling, and he must have ambitions..."
Chen Huaisheng also knew that the woman in front of him was looking for a way to smooth things over for him, and he was secretly grateful in his heart.
Among this group of people, he could see that the other party and Xuan Chimei were already at the level of Qi training, and the other boys and girls should be the preferred disciples mentioned by Xuan Chimei.
Most sects have their own channels for recruiting disciples. Generally, they do not accept people who come directly to the sect, but screen and recommend them through their recruiters in various places.
This kind of attractor usually has a special relationship with a large sect.
Either he is a direct disciple of a large sect who is too old and has no hope of advancement and has returned to his hometown to enjoy his old age, or he is a member of a local wealthy family who is related to important figures in a large sect, or he is an important member of the local government.
Being a recruiter certainly has some privileges, but it also has considerable responsibilities and obligations, which is to select and find the best Taoist talents for the sect. There will be fierce competition in every place.
The Jiulian Sect was once the leading sect in Da Zhao, but it has declined due to internal strife in recent decades and has been surpassed by several newly rising sects.
But a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, not to mention that the Jiulian Sect has not yet reached the point of being skinny. It has just declined more than when it was the only one in the world, but it is still one of the top five sects in Da Zhao.
After coughing twice, Chen Huaisheng was about to explain a few words, but saw the girl raising her eyebrows in surprise: "Does Brother Huaisheng also know about the changes in the village?"
Chen Huaisheng was stunned and asked quickly: "What happened?"
Seeing Chen Huaisheng's confused look, the girl quickly asked: "Brother Huaisheng is traveling abroad and has no contact with his family?"
Chen Huaisheng said nonchalantly: "I have been traveling in Jijun, Qiaojun, and Suijun in the past few years and have never returned home. In addition, my parents died early and I have been wandering away. I have not had much contact with the countryside..."
"Is that so..." Before the girl could say anything else, the woman in purple clothes on the side changed the subject: "Brother Shi, it seems that he is in poor health, and when I first entered the courtyard, I found that there seemed to be spirits in the courtyard.
There is still a little bit of aura left in the force agitation, I wonder if Brother Shi knows what happened here before?"
Feeling that the other party seemed to be deliberately avoiding the question he just asked, Chen Huaisheng was a little confused.
But the other party was obviously the leader of this group of people, so he couldn't ignore it and had no choice but to tell the truth.
"I don't know either. I originally rested in this ruined temple for the night and planned to go home early tomorrow morning, but there seemed to be monsters from the mountains breaking in to fight with each other. I suffered the disaster of pond fish in the side hall, and my internal organs
He was also injured and fell into a coma. I don't know exactly how long he was in the coma, but he was awakened by the sound of your horses' hooves..."
In front of the other party, Chen Huaisheng did not hide anything.
He has no grudges with the Jiulian Sect and has nothing to do with it. He also has a relationship with Xuan Chimei, so he is not in danger.
This is also true.
He only saw the bearded man transforming into a tiger out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't see the other figure clearly and had no idea what it was.
But being able to fight with a tiger that transforms into a human form, although I don't know what the final result will be, I can imagine that it must be an extraordinary monster.
"Monster?!" Everyone was startled, and several boys and girls couldn't help but draw their swords and look around.
The woman in purple was also startled for a moment, then she calmly and deeply breathed, searching within a radius of ten feet, and found nothing unusual, so she felt relieved.
"Brother, are you sure it's a monster? What is that thing?" The woman in purple didn't wait for the girl to ask questions, and asked a series of questions: "Where did that monster come from?"
Chen Huaisheng briefly described what he saw and heard.
It was half truth and half false, it didn't say that the other party had transformed into another person, only the image of a fierce tiger.
Those who haven't seen it, or those who feel that telling it will cause more trouble, just don't bother to say it.
The woman in purple took several disciples to carefully investigate the inside and outside of the courtyard, and the information obtained proved that what Chen Huaisheng said was true.
The small pavilion in the well was overturned, the courtyard wall was knocked down, and even the stone wall of the side hall was knocked into a dent by Chen Huaisheng. There were even blood stains on the ground, which was very consistent with what Chen Huaisheng said.
"Tiger demon or demon tiger?" The woman in purple murmured to herself: "Why did it appear here? What kind of monster is it fighting with?"
Tiger demon and demon tiger are two completely different concepts.
The tiger demon is a tiger beast that has attained enlightenment and has become a spirit, possessing spiritual wisdom and the power of transformation. In a sense, it is equivalent to the attainment of enlightenment by mortals today.
The demon tiger is an alienated tiger beast. To be precise, the beasts that have grown up in a specific environment and have special abilities are collectively called demon beasts. They may have no intelligence or may be semi-intelligent.
This is not uncommon in Sanqianli Yu Mountain, especially in the forbidden areas deep in the mountains.
The woman in purple tends to be the latter, which is consistent with some of the information she has obtained.
If it is the former, it is somewhat unimaginable.
The transformed tiger demon can completely disappear and travel to the places where mortals live to practice. As long as you are careful, it will be difficult for even monks to detect it.
Why go to this mountain slut to fight with monsters? It doesn't feel like it at all.
Although this place is still some distance away from the forbidden area in Yushan Mountain, it is not uncommon for such monsters to come out due to the influence of certain unexpected factors, and the number has increased day by day in recent years.
But as Chen Huaisheng said, just the agitation of the spiritual power from the battle between the monsters and beasts was so shocking that he was injured in the side hall across a small courtyard.
The types of monsters are complex and hierarchical, and there are several types of tiger monsters with different levels.
According to what he said, this power is at least that of a third-level monster or above.
Not to mention that a character like her, who is at the third level of Qi training, has no power to fight against such a third-level monster. Even at the first stage of foundation building, she may not be able to escape the poisonous hand.
Thinking of this, the woman in purple was a little nervous and even wanted to leave quickly.
But here we are, if there really is a monster watching, and even if we try to escape at this time, we will not be able to escape. If we go out and be ambushed by the monster, we will even die.
Moreover, monsters have always liked to devour monks with Taoist spiritual power.
Although Chen Huaisheng has not yet entered Taoism, he is also an innate Taoist seed. Why didn't he eat the other person?
This is also an unsolved mystery.
Could it be that two monsters were fighting each other and both were injured, so they each escaped?
The woman in purple didn't dare to neglect.
"Ling Fan, Yao Wenzhong, Zhang Zhiruo, Xu Beihuai, the four of you go out with me and set up a warning..."
The boys and girls whose names were called by the woman in purple followed them out in high spirits, but the woman in purple had a heavy face, "Take out the sacred wood talisman from the bag,..."
Several people were surprised.
When they left home, a sacred wooden talisman was specially given to them at their door, just to protect their lives in case of any mishaps on the road.
Although everyone thinks it is unnecessary, Jiulian Sect is also one of the top sects among the Taoist sects in Da Zhao, and is particularly strong in the eastern counties. Although it is already in Yushan Mountain, it still belongs to Yi County after all.
In this world, are there really blind people who want to provoke us?
However, when thinking of the demon tiger mentioned by Chen Huaisheng, several people felt chills running down their spines. This is a demon beast. Who cares where you belong here?
Seeing how many of these obscene rituals dare to worship evil gods like Wuzhiqi, you can imagine that the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and it is really uneasy here.
Seeing that several people were in shock, the woman in purple said in a deep voice: "Don't make a fuss, always be cautious when going out. I have set up a formation outside the temple. Even if a monster comes in, it can make it come back."
, but you need your sacred wood talisman to use it."
When the woman in purple said this, the others naturally had nothing to say and all took out the sacred wood talismans and handed them to each other.
Chen Huaisheng looked at the so-called sacred wood talisman from a distance and it looked very ordinary, but there was a faint flame on the talisman, which must have been infused with spiritual power.
But he saw the woman in purple walking straight out, followed by several people.
Chapter completed!