At about seven o'clock that night, the golden sun set in the western mountains. Toba and Long Ji accompanied Yona to the center of Cherry Crossing and helped the astrologer climb onto Dad's roof.
This small wooden house was rebuilt by the house owner in two days after the last unfortunate accident that destroyed the house. In line with the principle of repairing it as old as it was, no matter the mottled wooden door, the pitted roof or the peeling varnish on the exterior,
The walls remain in the same dilapidated appearance for decades, and I don’t know where Toba found these broken building materials. In short, Dad is very satisfied with Toba’s workmanship, and personally promised that the Pitchfork Team has unlimited capabilities to destroy the cabin.
Rights, provided that the head of the house can rebuild it as perfectly as this time.
But as we all know, Dad’s personal promise has no effect. Cherry Crossing is a town that operates on the 55 additional clauses of the room rental agreement, and the protector himself has not made any revisions to the additional clauses in twenty years.
Jonah raised the staff, skillfully captured the star lines, and lit up the illuminating star array in the red crystal on the top of the staff. The light gradually increased, the darkness receded like the tide, and a brilliant light lit up in the center of the Cherry Crossing.
"Have you had dinner, boy?" Dad greeted from the hole in the tin roof.
"Eat it, Dad." Yona waved his hand to the blind old man. He had no fear of the undefeated legend and the protector of Cherry Crossing, Dad. He felt that he was just like Mr. Keshava.
A serious old man who loves to chat.
"It's been a hard journey, was Sukasa Canyon fun? Did you see the beautiful Archon?" Dad raised his eyebrows.
Jonah coughed twice and shook Miss Rose's honor out of his mind. "It's very interesting. I hope I can have a chance to go shopping. I met the Archon, uh... I was very impressed." He was honest.
answer.
Long Ji burst into laughter behind her.
"Rose is a very smart little girl, and I like her. If she comes here to help, that guy in Eight Eyes will be able to relax a lot." Dad chirped and stretched out his hand: "Here, St. Bolun's maltose,
Come on, come on, and you won't be afraid of gumming your teeth off, at least for the next forty years until you're half my age."
Jonah hesitantly bent down, took a small piece of candy from his hometown from the hole, and put it into his mouth. It was cold and sweet.
Dad took off his white four-cornered hat, lay down comfortably on the bed, and lit his pipe. The smell of smoke rose from the hole and disappeared into the light blue air.
"I'll take a nap, don't wake me up when I get off work." The old man finished smoking a pack of cigarettes, covered himself with a brown felt cloak, and said to the three members of the Pitchfork Team.
"Yes, Dad." Toba, who was standing by the house and a head taller than the house, rubbed his hands uneasily, trying to shrink his huge body to an inconspicuous size.
Except for the sound of rushing water on the other side of the Holy River, Cherry Crossing seemed bright and quiet.
Yona was tired from standing, so he changed his posture and saw Long Ji staring at him thoughtfully. Yona felt a little embarrassed and pretended not to look at her, but kept stealing glances. Every time he looked back, he
The eyes of Long Ji collided. Gradually, the astrologer's apprentice blushed, and he kept adjusting his robe and hood with his free left hand, rubbing the corners of his clothes.
"You spend a lot of time reading that book." Without any warning, Long Ji spoke.
"Uh...what?" Jonah became nervous, turned around, and couldn't help but reach out to touch the remains of an unknown book hidden in his underwear pocket.
"What's the name of that big book?" Long Ji gestured.
"Oh. Yes. I... want to learn more." Jonah breathed a sigh of relief quietly. The oriental woman was talking about one of the two astrology textbooks he brought, "The Thirty Stars in the First House."
"The Elementary Practical Application of Star Lines" with "Bear" and the "Sky Boat" of the Seventh House and the Opposite Star No. 7. He did spend a lot of time on it, especially the offensive star formation chapter, but without a mentor by his side, the progress was very slow.
"In my country, there is an astrology tower that is too high to be seen. At night, the top of the tower emits beautiful red and green lights, which can be seen no matter how far away it is." Long Ji looked at it in ecstasy.
The little sun in Jonah's hand reflected Jonah's bewildered face in the dark pupils.
She rarely talked about her past, hiding her experiences so deeply that Jonah didn't know how to continue the topic.
The young man moved his lips, uttering many meaningless syllables, and finally spelled out a complete sentence: "I... uh, I used to live in a tower like this."
"I know. Do you also emit red and green lights at night?" Long Ji stared at him.
"Sometimes, when Mr. Ke...Keshava opens the zodiac star chart." Jonah felt that his tongue was clumsier than ever before.
"Tell me about it?" Long Ji approached him with great interest. The silver bells in her hair made a pleasant sound. A subtle smell blew into Jonah's nostrils with the wind. An elegant fragrance. A woman's.
smell.
"Okay, okay, of course." Jonah avoided the black-haired woman's gaze and turned his eyes to the mottled iron roof.
"Well, the zodiac star chart is a very huge device. Teacher Keshava said that there is a star chart on the top of each astrology tower, and only the owner of the tower can open it.
When an astrologer with a star chart needs to perform measurement work, he drives the energy star array and the zodiac star chart will rise from the center of the platform on the top of the tower, suspended in the air, projecting all the main stars of the zodiac on the transparent top of the tower.
Dome.
You know, the stars in the sky all appear in pairs. One star in each pair is the main star, represented by red; the other is the secondary star, represented by green, so the entire star map is composed of red and green stars.
In the light array, between each pair of red and green stars, there is a faint white line representing the interstellar line suspended.
I secretly watched Teacher Keshava open the zodiac star chart. I don’t understand the complicated star chart, but it is beautiful, so beautiful. It’s like a dream where fireworks and fireflies dance together. I, I never know from the outside
Let’s see what it should look like. I guess, it’s also beautiful.”
"Yes, it is very beautiful, as you said, just like fireworks and fireflies - we would say, fireworks and fireflies flying in the night sky." Long Ji cast her lonely eyes towards the endless starry sky.
Jonah didn't know what to say, but fortunately the oriental woman didn't ask him to say anything else. The two of them quietly shared a tacit silence.
"I want to take a look. Take a look with my wife and baby in the sky. Just look at it from a distance. It sounds so good." Toba said.
He rested his head on the eaves, with a look of longing on his face. "There is nothing in the Mushroom Farm except mushrooms. They have never seen the sea, the holy river, nothing. It's quite a loss."
"They...they can see it." Jonah quickly comforted him.
"Really, Lord Astrologer? Is this what the Star God told you?" Toba opened his eyes wide and clenched the iron roof with his fingers.
Jonah patted his forehead.
After a painful decision, he decided to tell a lie. "Yes," he nodded and said, Star God said to me, all the people in the sky can see the beautiful scenery on the earth, everything we can see, they can see from it.
Seen from the stars. In fact, right now, they are looking at us from a certain star. Maybe here, maybe there."
Jonah's fingers traced the vast starry sky.
Toba was silent. He took off his hat and looked up at the stars with an expression of awe and joy.
At this moment, he is the most pious astrologer, Jonah thought.
He turned his head, looked at Long Ji and exchanged a knowing smile.
Time seems to have frozen.
I don’t know how much time passed, but Jonah lowered his head to look at the hourglass on his father’s desk through the hole in the roof. Most of the sand had flowed away, and the four-hour work was almost over. Jonah moved his stiff neck and exchanged the staff.
To the left hand, the star array fluctuated due to this movement, and the light dimmed for a moment.
Long Ji, who was in a trance, seemed to be awakened. She sighed softly. Through the endless sound of water on the other side of the holy river, Jonah heard the sigh and tasted the bitterness in the sigh.
"That...Long Ji." He mustered up the courage to speak, and mustered up the courage to call out the woman's name.
"Huh?" The woman looked at him.
"I don't understand what a telekinesis is. Well, I'm not curious about your past, but about your profession... You know, my teacher won't teach me this. I asked Eli this morning, but he didn't explain...
” Jonah hesitated, searching for the right words.
"It doesn't matter." Long Ji didn't seem to dislike such a conversation, "Nian warlock is your name for people with special abilities in the East. In my country, there is no such term.
My country is made up of countless families. Each family has a long history, strict hierarchy, huge scale and unique abilities passed down from generation to generation. Abilities are passed down according to ancestry, and the 'clan' follows the father's bloodline.
Inherited abilities, the 'clan branch' that introduces foreign bloodline usually does not have family abilities. The abilities of each family member are different variations based on the same trait (i.e. bloodline ability). Do you understand?"
"I probably understand..." Jonah replied with a blushing face.
Long Ji smiled and said: "For you people in the Western Continent, the concept of clan is difficult to explain. Let's put it this way, there are many families in my country, some of them have bloodline abilities, and some of the families with bloodline abilities have combat effectiveness.
Yes, some members of the family with fighting ability have the ability to inherit the clan, and some of the clan members who inherit the ability will lose their fighting ability due to mutation of their abilities. The remaining people are what you call 'Nian Warlocks'. Put it this way, understand
Is it ready?"
"I understand better." Jonah nodded. He also noticed that Long Ji kept using the phrase "my country". Very few people would describe the motherland in this way. Although it was strange, he did not ask about it.
"For example, my surname is Long, and I inherit the surname of the Long family and my father's bloodline, so I have the bloodline ability of the Long family, 'Dark Marriage'.
To put it simply, when the Long family clan is 49 days old, they will marry the bones of a baby boy or baby girl who have been dead for more than 49 years in a ceremony hosted by the clan leader. The 'ghost marriage' ability is triggered, and the Long family and the souls of the deceased
United through invisible ties.
From this day on, the Long family uses their own life force to provide nourishment for the growth of the undead. When the Long family reaches adulthood, the undead have also grown into adults and have the power to travel between the Yin and Yang worlds - what you call hell and the human world.
Ability, the Long family fights by summoning the undead. As for my mutant ability... I can't say to others, I'm sorry." Long Ji covered her red lips.
Yona shuddered as he stared at the gentle and peaceful people. He spoke of Long Ji, the evil and terrifying ritual of an ancient family in the Eastern Continent, in a gentle tone that sounded like a bedtime story. He replied with a slightly trembling voice: "No, it doesn't matter. Of course. Everyone has some secrets."
"And please don't misunderstand!" Long Ji remembered something and explained urgently: "'Ghost marriage' is a contract and does not represent a real marriage. The Long family can get married and have children."
"Of course, of course." Jonah nodded so hard that his neck bones made a clicking sound.
Looking at Long Ji again, although she has the same black hair and watery eyes, she has an extra layer of black aura that exudes the strange smell of oriental medicine, which makes people want to get closer... like a moth throwing fire.