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Songfengling is located more than 20 miles northwest of Guyang County, with a radius of only five or six miles. It is divided into front ridge, middle ridge and back ridge, sandwiched by two ravines. Although the ridge is not big, it is far away from the official road and has dense forests.
, has always been inaccessible.
It was already late at night when Zhao Ran and others arrived. After entering the mountains, they lit up lanterns and torches. Under the guidance of the Zuo brothers, they soon arrived at the entrance of the ravine between Zhongling and Houling.
The first thing I saw was a carriage. The horse had been dead for a long time, and the driver's body was resting on the shaft of the carriage. It looked like the clothes were the daily clothes worn by Taoist fire workers.
In the open space next to a few bushes, five people were killed. Four of them had the same short-sleeved Taoist uniforms as Fangtang's inspectors. This is the martial uniform that Taoism equips Fangtang and other martial arts practitioners.
There was an old Taoist priest lying in the middle. Zhao Ran held his breath and stepped forward to turn the body over. He saw that this old Taoist was indeed as the Zuo brothers said. He looked seventy or eighty years old, but after a second look, he seemed to be fifty or sixty years old.
When they first saw it, Zhao Ran and Zhao Zhixing were shocked. The old man's face was pale, with many wrinkles and wrinkles. His body was curled up softly, as if all the energy and spirit of the person had been sucked out of the body. He lay there.
What's here is just an empty shell.
Zhao Ran's heart was pounding. He stared at the old Tao's wrinkled and folded face under the firelight. His heart suddenly sank, and he felt weak. His mind was empty, and he sat down next to the corpse in a daze.
daze.
After a long time, Zhao Zhixing on the side just recovered from the fright and said to Zhao Ran: "It seems to be Zhang Supervisor..."
Zhao Ran nodded subconsciously, looking straight at the corpse, and his mind was instantly confused.
Zhao Zhixing added: "I met him once in December last year... but why is Zhang Jianyuan so old?"
Zhao Ran nodded and shook his head. After a long time, as if he woke up from a dream, he stood up and strode towards the Zuo brothers. He grabbed the Zuo brothers by their clothes and shouted in a low voice: "What on earth happened?"
, you say it again, don’t make any omissions!” He roared at Guan Er again: “Why are you still dazed? Hurry up and search separately, look carefully! Don’t let go of any clues!”
Counting from the incident, three or four hours had passed by the time Zhao Ran and others arrived at the scene. Guan Er and others dispersed to look for the "bald monk". Where was the trace of the "bald monk"? Zhao Ran was unwilling and rode on his own.
The donkey circled around, but still found nothing, so he had no choice but to turn around temporarily and guard the scene where Zhang Jianyuan was stabbed.
The Song Supervisor and Magistrate Kong arrived as the sky was getting brighter. At the same time, senior officials from various Taoist monasteries and county government officials who had heard the news came. Seeing the scene in front of them, everyone was shocked, and many
People still can't believe that such a thing can happen in broad daylight.
Accompanying Magistrate Kong were the prison guards of Guyang County Prison. After carefully examining the body of Zhang Jianyuan, two extremely experienced officers shook their heads in unison and immediately appealed to Magistrate Kong and Song Jianyuan.
, saying that the cause of Zhang Jianyuan's death should be caused by some kind of magic, so the monks from the pavilion still need to send someone to verify it before confirming it.
The crime scene was covered by Taoist sects and government officials. The inner circle was inspected and supervised by Wujiyuan, and the outside was surrounded by the county government's third class officers. In addition to being on guard, people were also organized to search for traces of the case, and at the same time, Songfengling was investigated.
Pedestrians passing by.
When such an appalling case occurred, the on-site meeting on Qingmiao Qian reform planned to be held at Charity Hall was of course unable to proceed. The meeting was postponed indefinitely, and all Taoist sects and officials in Long'an Prefecture began to fully investigate the case.
After the inquiry, the Taoist sect responded immediately. Three monks sent by Huayun Pavilion rushed to Songfengling the next afternoon. When Zhao Ran saw the three people who came, two of them actually knew each other. The leader was
Master Liang Tengxian was the one who went to Wuji Courtyard to pick up Zhu Zhimeng at the end of the previous year. Naturally, he was accompanied by two disciples of Master Liang. One was Zhu Zhimeng, an old acquaintance, and the other was named Gan Zhilu.
All in all, it has been almost two years since I saw Zhu Zhimeng. Zhao Ran met Zhu Zhimeng for the first time two years ago at the Bijia Mountain Yazhu. At that time, Zhu Zhimeng was rejected again because he was pursuing Zhou Yumo.
I was depressed. Afterwards, the two of them entered the Sutra Hall of Wuji Academy in the same period. During their one-year classmates, they studied together because of Zhou Yumo and competed with each other in the monthly and annual examinations. Then they were interrupted when Zhu Zhimeng entered the Huayun Hall to practice Taoism.
Contacted.
After all, they had lived together under the same roof, and there was no hatred between them. After meeting, they both felt as if they had met old friends. They looked at each other and smiled, and they started chatting.
"Junior brothers..."
"Junior Brother Zhao..."
Smiling again, Zhu Zhimeng said: "I heard that you were promoted to Fang Master? It has been less than two years, and you have gone from being a Taoist boy in the scripture hall to being a Jing Master, and then to being a deacon. Junior Brother Zhao is really amazing. Well,
What did Junior Brother say about me back then? A 'learning expert', well, no matter how I look at it, I think that Junior Brother Zhao, you are a 'Promotion Expert'!"
"Junior brothers, please don't laugh at me. How can we, ordinary people, be as free as you monks? No matter how fast we are promoted, we are still just ordinary people... By the way, how is your practice, junior brothers?"
Zhu Zhimeng shook his head: "I have not yet entered the level of a Taoist priest."
"So, you have been conferred the rank of Taoist priest? When did it happen?"
"Late spring this year."
"In just a few months of the year, I have entered the right path of cultivation. All the junior disciples are really very talented! I wonder when can I become a Taoist priest?"
"I have just become a Taoist priest, and my realm has not yet been stabilized. I dare not expect to be a Taoist priest yet. Master said that if there is no chance, I will have to wait for two years at the earliest."
Zhao Ran comforted him: "It's already very fast. I heard from Zhuo Tengyun and Zhuo Tengyi that it took them more than two years to enter the realm of Taoist priests, and three years to become a Taoist priest..."
Zhu Zhimeng's eyes jumped: "Do you know Uncle Da Zhuo and Xiao Zhuo?"
Zhao Ran explained: "After you left, you met two Master Zhuo uncles by chance and played a role in them catching monsters. Now that I am in the position of Fang Leader, I am in charge of detecting monsters, so I
I have had more interactions with the two of them. By the way, why are you the ones here to investigate this case? Shouldn’t Dao Sect walk in on this kind of thing?”
"The two master uncles of the Zhuo family went to Songfanwei to look for medicinal materials for the Huayun Pavilion, and the matter was not trivial, so the pavilion asked the master to come down."
"I see."
The two chatted for a while. Over there, Master Liang had already finished greeting everyone. Zhu Zhimeng quickly greeted Zhao Ran and followed him.
Master Liang led two disciples, Zhu Zhimeng and Gan Zhilu, into the scene of the crime. Zhao Ran followed the crowd and watched. Master Liang first carefully inspected the body, and then ordered Zhu Zhimeng to play a talisman. The talisman was in the air.
After shaking for a few weeks, it exploded and turned into flying ash. Others could not see the doorway, but Zhao Ran could see it very clearly. An invisible wave of air swept past, sweeping the entire scene, and among the several corpses
A fleeting white light collides with the body. This white light is the essence of Buddhist magic power. Buddhism calls it "light" or "nature", just like the "qi" absorbed in the Taoist practice.
This finally confirmed Zhao Ran’s inference, it was indeed a Buddhist monk!
When Zhao Ran first saw the corpses of Zhang Jianyuan and others, he was distracted because their faces after death looked very familiar. The appearance of their energy and spirit being exhausted and their appearance aging instantly made Zhao Ran feel dazed for a while.
Zhao Ran once fought with Monk Zhishen from Gaorichang Temple in the small temple outside Bayan Hara Mountain. At that time, Monk Zhishen was corroded by the terrifying Buddha statue, and his face was the same as that of Zhang Jianyuan, but he had great magical power.
, forced himself to escape and avoid bad luck, but Zhang Jianyuan obviously did not have this ability, so he died.
Master Liang did not take any follow-up actions. He just asked people to maintain the scene, and then he took two disciples to choose a quiet place nearby, meditated and waited. It was said that they were waiting for someone else. So everyone had to continue to wait patiently.
Zhu Zhimeng sat quietly beside Master Liang for an hour, then stood up and walked towards Zhao Ran. Zhao Ran joked: "Juniors are still the same as before, skipping class again."
Zhu Zhimeng laughed and said: "What are you skipping class? Master has said that the most important thing in practice is the mind and nature. Whenever you feel like it, one hour should be treated as ten hours. If the mind is not there, ten hours will be no less than one hour. I am not in the mood to practice today.
Of course, there is no need to force yourself into meditation.”
"What? Are you in a bad mood?"
"It's not... Well, Junior Brother Zhao, let me ask you a question."
"Speaking."
"I wonder... have you still contacted Senior Sister Zhou? Has she written to you?"
"Don't you always call her 'Wenxiu girl'? Why did you change your name?"
Zhu Zhimeng scratched his forehead: "She didn't allow me to call him Senior Sister Zhou, otherwise she would ignore me from now on..."
Zhao Ran was helpless. He had been practicing for two years and was still so persistent. He was really admirable in terms of love. Now Zhao Ran had no intention of quarreling with him, so he didn't hide it and told Zhu Zhi directly.
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