It's late at night, and the ancient streets that have been noisy all day have returned to silence.
Rows of small ancient buildings are bathed in a thin mist. In the distance, melodious bells are heard, and the dull sound of wooden fish knocking is faintly heard from Baitan Temple.
Tianjiu rolled over on the slightly dilapidated wooden bed, and the creaking sound made him feel uneasy.
This was his ninth job a year after graduation. After working for only half a month, he had a premonition that he would be unemployed again.
Because at this time, his boss, Xu Yichuan, the manager of Jibaozhai, had been missing for more than ten days.
Suddenly, there were several gentle knocks on the door downstairs. At first, Tianjiu thought he heard it wrong, but after waiting for a while, the knock on the door continued.
"who?!"
Tianjiu quietly went downstairs and smashed a broken copper stove.
"Xiaotian, lower your voice! I'm Xu Yichuan, open the door quickly!"
"Boss Xu? What's wrong with you?"
Tianjiu heard that it was indeed the boss's voice, hurriedly threw away the stove in his hand, opened the door, and asked in confusion.
Xu Yichuan ducked into the room and quickly closed the door, holding a bulging and broken briefcase in his right hand.
"Xiaotian, something big happened!"
“Something big happened?!?”
Tianjiu's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition hit him again.
"Oh, I was cheated and lost more than 20 million. I have to leave right away!"
"More than 20 million...?" Tianjiu swallowed hard and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.
"If you leave, what will I do? Boss, I haven't even gotten a cent of my salary! This is my ninth job in Zhongdu. You don't want me to squeeze into the talent market again, do you?" Tianjiu cried sadly.
"The ninth job? Damn it! This is the only job that my ancestors of the 18th generation of the Xu family had?! My grandson thinks it's a shame!!"
Xu Yichuan's old face trembled and he roared angrily.
"What's going on? You have to give me an explanation, right?"
"Alas! That 'ding' is a scam! Someone defrauded me of more than 20 million yuan, including 10 million loan sharks. It's over, it's over... I, Xu Yichuan, am completely over! The Xu family is also over!"
Xu Yichuan felt like he was mourning for his heir. Suddenly, he threw the broken bag in his hand to the ground and stamped on it several times.
There were several metal collision sounds from inside the broken bag, and a small purple-black cauldron the size of a palm rolled out from the inside and rolled to Tianjiu's feet.
"Is this the tripod you bought?"
Tianjiu picked it up and held it lightly, not like copper.
With the faint moonlight coming in, Tianjiu could clearly see that it was a small tripod with two ears and three legs. The paint was as black as new and glowed with a faint blue light.
"Oh, that's it, I shouldn't regret it! Why am I so obsessed with it?" Xu Yichuan lamented.
"Didn't you see that it was fake at the time? You are an expert in counterfeiting."
"I looked at it over and over again, and it was real. From the style, to the material, to the coating, and to the inscriptions, there was no flaw. The experts we brought had also used it, and they all said there was no problem. But we brought it to Beijing.
, everything has changed, changed... You see, the batter on this is as new as new, as if it was freshly baked. The inscription is also gone, and the material is actually titanium alloy... titanium alloy!!
"
Tianjiu opened his mouth in shock. The ancients really couldn't make such high-tech gadgets as titanium alloy.
Suddenly, Xu Yichuan raised his head: "Xiaotian, is there any income in the store these days?"
"Yes, a total of 51,300 yuan, six paintings sold, eleven..."
"Don't forget it. Come on, give me the money. I'm going to hide out and find a way to find someone to raise money."
"Okay, I'll get it to you right away."
Tianjiu returned to the second floor and took the money from under his pillow. This was the result of more than ten days of hard work, and he had not touched a penny. If it were not for guarding this "huge sum of money", he would definitely not stay here overnight. He
I packed it in a plastic bag and hurried downstairs.
"They're all here, boss!"
"Well, okay! Xiaotian, you can stay here for a few more days. Everything here is yours. You can sell as much as you can, and the money you make is yours. You are still young, and you have a lot of money outside.
The opportunity, I left..."
After saying that, without waiting for any indication from Tianjiu, he immediately opened the door, stepped out, and quickly disappeared into the night.
Tianjiu was carrying the unlucky little tripod and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.
"Ah! Why is my life so miserable...!"
※※
At midnight, the clear moonlight shines on the bed, Tianjiu leans against the wall, groping for the unlucky little tripod.
He only packed a backpack, which contained his few clothes. He carried the bag with him, ready to run away anytime and anywhere.
Tianjiu looked at this small cauldron glowing with purple-blue light, and always felt something strange that he couldn't explain.
"Is this a high-tech product from aliens?" He suddenly came up with this ridiculous idea.
"Let me try to see what it is!"
With this idea in mind, he found a diamond drill and an alloy file, which are available in tool stores.
Half an hour later, Tianjiu was so exhausted that he was sweating profusely.
He was surprised to find that after more than ten minutes of drilling with a diamond drill, not a single trace was left; and even after a long time of filing with an alloy file, there was not even a single spark.
This thing is hard, so damn hard! Who would make a fake and play with such a hard thing? Isn’t that looking for sex?
Tianjiu sat down on the ground, panting from exhaustion.
"Mom, 20 million, I will treat you like a lamplighter!"
Tianjiu cursed fiercely. He picked up a bottle of Erguotou placed under the bed, poured half a cup of liquor into it, and lit it with a click of the lighter.
The blue flames fluttered with the soft moonlight.
Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of "Bang!", and a ray of multicolored rays of light shot out from the cauldron. Immediately, a multicolored vortex was formed above Tianjiu's head. The moonlight that penetrated the window seemed to be twisted, falling into the multicolored vortex and spinning continuously.
In the midst of the electric light and flint, Tianjiu felt a huge force pulling him into the colorful whirlpool. He lost consciousness before he could even say "ah".
※※
Feeling a little dizzy and in pain, as if he couldn't breathe, he fell to the bluestone ground.
"Where is this?" Tianjiu muttered, climbed up, and found that he had fallen into a five-foot-square stone chamber, with white light shining through the walls.
The stone chamber was empty, with the walls, floor, and top all made of cold bluestone. There was no light, but the white light of the bluestone illuminated the stone chamber brightly.
In a corner of the stone room, there was a little frog lying alone, about the size of a broad bean, with a pair of big eyes, almost occupying the entire head. There was a circle of black lines around the eyes. When I opened my eyes, I thought it was
Wearing a pair of glasses, its chin twitched from time to time, indicating that it was a living creature. It stared listlessly at this sudden uninvited guest.
This all seems so weird!
"I've gone too far this time. Playing with fire will kill people!" Tianjiu cried.
"Little guy, you're here!"
Suddenly, a faint sound came from the stone room.
"Who?" Tianjiu was shocked.
With a sound of "Buzz~!", a large purple-black cauldron with three legs, two ears, and more than two meters high sprang out from the stone wall behind him.
"Oh, it's been another hundred years, and finally we've been waiting for someone to come!"
"..."
Tianjiu's liver and gallbladder were shattered. He turned around and found an old man with a white beard and a blue shirt emerging from the cauldron. There was a big mole under his right mouth. He wore an Eguan on his head and stood with his hands behind his back. He had an air of immortality and two slits.
The sharp gaze was directed at Tianjiu.
"Oh, what a pity, the Five Elements Mixed Spiritual Root is so bad! It's still a waste that has not reached the Qi refining stage!"
The white-bearded old man's eyes became colder and colder, as if he would kill Tianjiu at any time.
"Old man, I'm a good person! I've never done anything wrong, so don't look for me!" Tianjiu was about to cry.
This old man is most likely a legendary ghost.
"Little guy, why are you crying? If you keep croaking, I will really chop you up. Since the Time Cauldron has chosen you, it is also your opportunity, so let's do it!" The old man with a white beard stared at Tianjiubanxiang, his eyes slowly softened.
stand up.
"Aren't you some...which...ghost?" Tianjiu felt cold all over.
"Ghost? Hmph, no ghost can hold a finger in front of me. Hmph! Not only do you have poor qualifications, but you are also timid. I really don't know how the Time Cauldron chose a waste like you?!"
The old man with a white beard said displeasedly, and there seemed to be a hint of murderous intent in his eyes.
"Old man, don't call me a waste, I'm a genuine college student."
Tianjiu's temper got so bad that he was nicknamed "Madman" in the university. This was a blessing, not a curse, but he couldn't avoid it, so he took the risk.
"What is a college student?" The old man with a white beard was stunned.
"First tell me what you do? What's your intention? I'll tell you later." Tianjiu wanted to be clever.
"Oh? I can also bargain, which is a bit interesting. That's okay. Let me tell you, I am Tiandaozi. No, to be precise, I am a clone refined from a split soul of Tiandaozi."
"You...you...you still said that you are not a ghost, you have already separated your soul!"
"You don't understand this. If you can cultivate immortality, you will understand that ghosts are different from me. It's your turn to tell me."
"My name is Tianjiu, I'm twenty years old. What does Tian Daozi do?"
"Tiandaozi was the supreme emperor of heaven one hundred thousand years ago. He traveled across time and space ten thousand years ago and went to the heaven. It was he who left this fragment of my soul here to guide the destined people to pursue him."
"Wannian? Then how do you understand what I say and speak Chinese?"
"Joke! How many civilizations have been created by Tiandaozi's twelve clones? The civilization of Yalong Continent was created by Tiandaozi's body. Do you think I understand?"
"Wow! You are still an ancestor, so disrespectful!";