The night was hazy, and the thin clouds dispersed, revealing the crescent moon. The blue-white moonlight illuminated the ground, which was covered with weeds and rocks, as if it were covered with a layer of silver frost.
swish swish...
The mountain breeze gently swayed the forest under the moonlight. Chen Yuan stared blankly at the crazy old man in front of him and subconsciously took a step back. The old man suddenly covered his head and buried it. When he raised his face again, he had a serious expression.
The moment he collapsed and his figure blurred, he came to Chen Yuan in the blink of an eye and pinched his arms.
"Lin Yuan, it's nothing. My cultivation is gone. I just need to re-cultivate. Come on, let's teach again..." The old man put Chen Yuan's wrist on his wrist, his gray brows tightened, and he pressed his fingertips between his eyebrows.
, Renzhong, Dantian, "Good disciple...your method has also been broken?"
Chen Yuan pursed her lips and couldn't say a word, or didn't know how to answer. This crazy old man must have mistaken him for someone.
If he answered the wrong call and the other party found out, would they kill him?
At this moment, he was still frightened by the fact that he had flown directly from the town to this side. His legs were still a little weak and he couldn't make any sound. When the old man opposite became more serious, he shook his gray hair and kept talking.
Asked him, Chen Yuan finally recovered from the shock just now.
"Old...old man...I..." Chen Yuan pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "I am not your apprentice..."
"No, you are. You call me master, how can you not be my disciple!"
The old man narrowed his eyes, suddenly pointed at Chen Yuan, put his hands in his sleeves and circled, "hehe" and laughed.
"Disciple, do you want to play tricks on your master? As a master, I won't let you fool me."
"I'm really not..."
However, before Chen Yuan could finish speaking, the old man who was circling around stopped, grabbed his arm, clasped his wrist with his fingertips, pushed and pulled him forward, and lifted Chen Yuan up in mid-air.
Turned a big circle.
When it fell, the old man stabbed Chen Yuan's back with his fingers, and a line of blue light stretched out through the fabric and extended to the tail vertebrae.
For a moment, the old man picked it up in his hand.
Chen Yuan stood straight up. Before he could stand still, the old man waved his fingers in the air and touched his eyebrows. A wave of air flowed from top to bottom, and the weeds around their feet spread out in a circle.
go.
After half a cup of tea, Chen Yuan was sweating profusely, his limbs were weak and unable to stand still, and he sat down on the ground.
"Come here and I will teach you the secrets, but be sure to remember them well."
The old man used a voice that only Chen Yuan could hear, and the few dozen words were so obscure and difficult to understand that it was difficult to remember them. He had to read them after the old man and asked them word for word, and then he managed to write them down.
"Remember to refine your soul and condense your magic power by first breathing in and out, and then supplementing it with food of flesh and blood!"
After saying this, the old man jumped up and rushed into the forest.
After a while, he turned back and found two more birds in his hand. He grabbed them from the air with his other hand. One of the birds was in Chen Yuan's field of vision. All its feathers had faded. During the struggle, its flesh and blood quickly decomposed, leaving only some bones, and
Blood stains remain.
As if enjoying a delicious meal, the old man licked his lips, threw the bird's bones to the ground, smacked his lips, and shook his head with regret.
"This bird is not as good as that person's chickens and ducks."
"That person's chickens and ducks?" Chen Yuan looked at the bird carcass with fear, and suddenly thought that the house was haunted before, and it might be the old man who was behind it. He couldn't help but ask: "That house in the town was haunted just now."
Is it Master?"
The old man quickly waved his hands and shook his head, defending like a child.
"It's not me, it's not me. I just want to have something to eat at his house so I can continue to look for you. Haunting is a matter for their own family. I just thought it was fun to help the ghost..."
Here, the old man raised his brows and touched his chin: "Oh, it turns out that's a ghost. No wonder he didn't eat it when he was given something to eat...it fell apart when touched and flew everywhere. Leave him alone.
Ignore him. Disciple, come on, kill this bird first. Only after a blood sacrifice can this method be considered a success."
"I...I won't."
"Nothing, just follow my teacher!"
The old man stretched out his palm, and his eyes signaled Chen Yuan to follow suit. His lips trembled and he muttered words, and his palm changed and curved into a claw shape. On the side, Chen Yuan also extended his palm into a claw shape, and followed the old man's movements and slowly unfolded it. There seemed to be a wave of energy in his body.
A slight coldness was drawn, spreading through the limbs and bones, relying on the palm of the hand, the five fingers bloomed with a light cyan light.
Looking at the struggling bird in the old man's hand, all the feathers visible to the naked eye fell off, and the flesh and blood slowly withered. A scarlet air snaked into Chen Yuan's palm, extended to the whole body, and fell into the warm Dantian to settle.
In an instant, the chirping insects in the surrounding grass disappeared without a trace, but you could still feel the things around you keenly.
The sound of blood flowing in the blood vessels, night insects slowly crawling across the grass, spreading their wings and flying into the darkness, the old man squatted aside and tilted his head, blinking and looking at him curiously...
For a moment, the darkness and blood faded from his mind like a tide. Chen Yuan opened his eyes and saw bright sunshine embracing the world.
The dew hangs precariously on the leaf tips, the mountain wind slowly blows the forest fields up and down in the field of vision, and in the fields in the distance, smoke is rising from the farmers' huts.
The crazy and eccentric old man lay on the ground with his head propped up on his side, mumbling in his sleep. From time to time he smiled naively in his sleep and scratched his neck.
In just a short moment, a whole night passed.
Thinking of last night's experience, Chen Yuan felt like he was in a dream, but everything was real.
He thought he had traveled to an unknown time and space, but he didn't expect that there were still gods and ghosts in this place. Chen Yuan looked at the sleeping old man and thought a lot in his mind. Although the old man was crazy, he could still teach him the secrets.
It's Master.
He softly called "Master...Father?" The sleeping figure over there suddenly opened his eyes and sat up straight, looking around with a fierce look. When his eyes fell on Chen Yuan, his tense expression suddenly
He turned away and smiled, revealing a row of big yellow teeth: "Good disciple... how was last night?"
The old man came over and squatted down, pointing his hands at himself: "Are you feeling comfortable?"
Chen Yuan nodded subconsciously, and the crazy old man laughed.
"That's when you join my dharma. It's very good. Once you practice it well, your disciples will hurry up and start a family so that they can have a lot of children. You can also teach them as a teacher. Then there will be a lot of noisy children and it will be very lively."
"Ah?" Chen Yuan felt a little unable to keep up with the old man, but now that it was getting bright, he wanted to go back and see the troupe. "Master, why don't you follow me down the mountain, so that I can take care of you. But first, follow the troupe.
Say hello over there."
"Okay...but my teacher doesn't like the sun. Come find me again when it gets dark."
The old man pointed to the sun climbing up into the clouds, walked to the shade of a tree and sat down, yawned and lay down on his side, casually waving his sleeves: "Go back quickly and bring food in the evening!"
Chen Yuan smiled. This old man was crazy, but he was still coherent. He left and walked down the mountain. After a few steps, he turned around and said, "Master, I...my name is Chen Yuan."
"You also changed your name?" The old man opened his eyes, full of doubts, but he still nodded and let Chen Yuan go.
The white clouds are like catkins, birds are chirping and flying over the mountains. The old man lying on his side under the shade of the tree is smacking his lips beautifully and smiling innocently.
"Why did you change your name? Chen Yuan, what a good name. My disciple looks great and looks like me. Hehe...hiss!"
The old man suddenly frowned, took a breath, turned over and sat up cross-legged.
"Apprentices all have names, but what about me? What's my name...hiss...why can't I remember my last name?"
The old man's head suddenly hurt, his chest felt tight, and he couldn't remember his name anyway. He growled "Ahhhhhhhhhh-" and waved his sleeves to sweep it away. The big tree behind him exploded, and its branches trembled and trembled.
During the shake, the entire tree broke and fell down.
"Who am I...Whose last name is this old man?!"
The old man looked ferocious, holding his head and muttering.
........
At the foot of the mountain, Chen Yuan walked briskly to the official road. He vaguely seemed to hear thunder rolling across the mountainside. He looked back, but he didn't care. Thinking about his experience last night, it seemed like a dream and made him feel unreal, and
He also had an extra master and learned spells.
This place is not far from Funiu Town, and it won't take long to get back to the town. After entering the long street, people were still coming and going, and vendors were shouting along the street, but Chen Yuan still felt something strange. It turned out that what happened to the Wang family early in the morning
Word spread in the town, and mysterious things have always attracted people. For a while, small groups of people gathered in tea shops and streets, talking about last night's events in an embellished manner.
"You don't know what happened last night. I was there at the time. The ghost was Lao Wangtou. He didn't want to live even after he died. He scared his son and his family very much."
Beside the well in the street, a stout woman held her struggling young son, holding a wooden basin in her other hand and whispering lively to her familiar neighbors. When Chen Yuan walked past them, there were also people coming back from outside, anxiously.
He hurriedly told the new news he had learned.
"Hey, it's a big deal. The Wang family and his son were taken away by the Yamen people and put in shackles."
"Isn't it haunted? What's going on?"
Chen Yuan stopped and stood aside to listen. The man who came back took a breath, pushed the child away, and continued to talk to these women: "I heard it from Li Zheng, the Taoist priest last night
They said that there was something fishy about the ghost, so he couldn't surrender. Later, the Yamen officials took Lao Wang's family to Li Zheng's house for interrogation, and only then did they find out the truth.
It turned out that Lao Wangtou had been ill for many years and was always taken care of by Lao Wang's mother-in-law. Later, when his mother-in-law died, it fell on him and his son. Over the past few years, the two of them hoped that Lao Wangtou would die soon, so they simply...
... He gave Lao Wangtou some medicine and pretended to hang himself."
"The relatives who have just died wish to keep their family safe and sound. No wonder Old Wang Tou Touqi made such a big fuss when he came back today. The father and son deserve it!"
After learning the truth, a group of women spat in the direction of Lao Wang's house.
There is no filial son in bed for a long time... Chen Yuan sighed, this matter should be over now. When he returned to the troupe, everyone in the class was talking about it. When he saw Chen Yuan coming back,
One by one, they came over and asked him where he had been last night. They were so tired that they had to look for him.
"It was too chaotic at the time. People were squeezing them to other places to hide. It was so haunted that I didn't dare to come back alone." Chen Yuan said perfunctorily. Hearing the word "ghost" over there, everyone had some fear on their faces. Speaking of the old man,
Wang Tou came back to take revenge, which was another sigh of relief.
"What are you still discussing? Let's get to work."
Old man Zhao came over to disperse them, then looked at Chen Yuan, "Just come back. Think about what show to perform tonight, but if it's good, let's make up for last night's losses first."
Regarding what happened last night, he still felt sorry for the loss and asked Chen Yuan to quickly come up with a good show to make up for it. He didn't mention where Chen Yuan was hiding last night or whether he was injured.
Chen Yuan just smiled. Seeing that Leader Zhao was in a bad mood, he had to put his master's affairs aside and go there in the afternoon to buy some meat.
I returned to my own table and chair in the back hall, lit the oil lamp, spread out the paper, and wrote a few words, but I couldn't write. My mind was full of Taoist matters. I was so upset that I simply took the
Look at the "Miscellaneous Mysteries of Huangchuan" next to it.
"Twenty miles northeast of Huangchuan there is a black valley, thirty feet wide, deep and with a bottom. There is a pool in the bottom, and black fish swim in it. During the famine years, some villagers ate by mistake due to hunger, turned into tigers, ran into the mountains and forests, and killed deer and deer.
He stayed at home to feed his women and children for three years. One night, at dusk, he turned into a human and knocked on the door of his house. The neighbors heard the sound and came out. Seeing this, his body and head looked like that of a tiger. He died of fear. The villagers drove away the tiger with sticks.
I ran into the mountains and forests with tears in my eyes, and the tigers howled again and again during the night, and they did not stop until dawn."
Um?
When turning over a page, the paper flickered under the light, and Chen Yuan vaguely saw that the handwriting on it had changed in the folded light. The lines of more than ten words were a lot thicker, as if they were specially marked.
'It's strange...it didn't change like this in the past.'
He turned the book to the first page, and sure enough, among the original slender and complicated fonts, there were also a dozen words that were emphasized under the light.
Could it be that I have the power to see it?
Chen Yuan suddenly took the brush beside him and copied down the emphasized words in the story "Paper Horse" one by one in order. After reading it carefully, he found that it was coherent, like a rhyme.
He wrote down the formula, looked around and saw that no one was paying attention, found a piece of discarded paper and folded it back and forth. After a moment, a small and exquisite paper frog suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand, and then he gently put it on the table.
Chen Yuan followed the formula of the spell, followed the instructions taught by her master, and gently touched the frog's head.
Green light blooms slightly.
The light spread along the frog head made of paper, revealing the green skin, and a pair of round eyes rolled up their eye masks. However, when the blue light spread halfway, Chen Yuan felt dizzy, and the traces of magic power accumulated in his body
Empty and clean.
When he looked at the table, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he saw a green and shiny frog on the table. The lower half was still paper. He called out "quack" towards Chen Yuan, pulled the table with his forelimbs, climbed to the edge of the table and dropped it to the ground.
, a small cloud of smoke rose up with a bang, and turned into a paper frog again.
Chen Yuan looked at his hands excitedly, and tried a few more times without getting tired of it. Only once was he successful, and he transformed into a complete little frog, jumping back and forth between his palms and the table, and doing somersaults according to his instructions.
As soon as the spell was withdrawn, it turned into a paper frog again in his hand.
'If it were replaced by wood or metal, wouldn't it mean that we wouldn't be afraid of water and fire? We can put it away after use. Why would we just make it into a horse? Can't I carve a beautiful woman out of wood? Carve a Gatling...
..'
As soon as he thought of this idea, Chen Yuan's eyes fell on the wooden sculptures piled up in the background. After finishing what Old Man Zhao had ordered, he went to the street to buy pastries and cooked meat and quickly left Funiu Town and headed towards the mountain.
Following the footprints he had made before, he came to the grassy slope. Pieces of green grass rippled in the wind. There was no trace of the old man on the unobstructed hillside.
Looking around, Chen Yuan shouted with all her strength: "Master——"
All around, except for the voice drifting away in the wind, no old man responded at all. After waiting for half an hour, Chen Yuan had to return to the town at the foot of the mountain with regret.
In the next few days, in addition to buying live birds for practice according to the teachings, Chen Yuan ran to the mountains whenever he had time, but unfortunately he did not wait until the old man showed up.
On the evening of the fifth day after arriving, after performing a wood carving play "Drinking Down the Dangyang Bridge", Chen Yuan and three senior brothers were summoned together. They thought they were going to arrange another drama, but they saw that Old Man Zhao asked the helpers in the class to
The stage was dismantled and everything in the back hall was packed away.
"In the afternoon, I took on a big job. Liu Yuanwai in the city was going to put on a big show. He heard about our reputation in Funiu Town and invited a troupe to come over and sing a few songs. After everything was sorted out, we went there overnight. Anyway,
Not far."
The troupe's belongings were complicated, but they were quickly packed up. Three donkey carts were put away, and a group of more than ten people left Funiu Town and headed for Qingshan County. They traveled dozens of miles and it was already dark when they arrived.
They were all a bunch of rough people who were not so particular. They built bunks around the donkey cart all night, and when the sky was bright and the city gate opened, they went into the city to look for Liu's house.