Chapter 16: Exorcism
"Woof woof woof!"
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
The sound of barking dogs intertwined with the screams of monkeys, echoing on the Great Bamboo Peak of Qing Yun Mountain, breaking the tranquility of the place. Zhang Xiaofan rushed out of the kitchen door with the black burning stick in his hand, furious: "Dead dog! Dead monkeys! Don't run away if you have the guts!"
Monkey little gray whooshing jumped to the back of the big yellow dog, has long been storing momentum of the big yellow spread four feet to run, Zhang Xiaofan chased too late, watched the little gray make a face, put a piece of fragrant meat bones into the mouth of the big yellow.
Big yellow excited dog face great joy, if not two rows of teeth to bite the meat bone, I'm afraid to have long laughed to the dog teeth also fell down.
"Hoo! ⋯"
Zhang Xiaofan walked back to the kitchen with a frustrated and indignant face. Since he was fourteen years old, he was in charge of the kitchen, and his skills impressed everyone, and Big Yellow, with his "old dog" Taoism, couldn't help but salivate at the delicious food in Zhang Xiaofan's hands, especially the meat bones used by Zhang Xiaofan to make the soup, which was fragrant and delicious, and even more so, it was the meal Big Yellow could only dream of.
However, Zhang Xiaofan soup is for people to drink, rhubarb "age" (Tian not easy to raise from childhood), qualification is even older, but do not get the proper treatment, often salivating but can not get.
Until it and the monkey small gray familiar, big bamboo peak will often appear above the scene, has lasted for two years, let Zhang Xiaofan meat bones hidden how secret, as long as there is a big yellow nose coupled with a small gray flexible, the meat bones of the fight will often end in Zhang Xiaofan's loss.
Two years, rush by, in fact, is also a year and a half time, Zhang Xiaofan has grown into a sixteen-year-old boy, body taller, now has than sister Tian Ling'er half a head taller.
During this period of time, because of Tian not easy to the original strict order, all the disciples on the big bamboo peak are closed door hard cultivation, in addition to the old six Du Bishu who went down the mountain travel, then only Zhang Xiaofan this cook is the most leisure.
For the past two years, without anyone noticing, Zhang Xiaofan had been practicing alone, only to make himself not believe that, according to the method taught to him by Eldest Brother Song Daren, it seemed that he had completed the second layer of the Jade Clear Realm - Qi Refining - after only one year of practicing.
He had doubts in his heart, but in the end he didn't ask Tian Yanyi, while Song Daren, Tian Ling'er and the others had been concentrating on closed-door cultivation and had no time to care about him, and Du Bishu, who was the closest to him, had gone down to the mountain, so he only hid this question in his heart.
However, the next thing is a great difficulty in front of him, Tian Ling'er privately gave him the third layer of the spell, he is very clear that this is a big violation of the rules of the door, however, whenever the night is late, he is alone, standing in the small courtyard looking up at the night sky, will remember a sentence - you practice again is not compared to the Qi Hao senior brother!
Ten nights later, he began practicing the third layer of the dharma!
In the Taiji Xuanqing Dao, the first to third levels of the Yuqing realm are the foundation of all techniques, and the difficulty is also progressively deeper, unlike the first two levels of "drawing qi" and "refining qi", the third level of the technique, "yuan qi", has focused on cultivating qi. Unlike the first two levels of "Introducing Qi" and "Refining Qi", the third level of the method "Yuan Qi" focuses on the cultivation of Taiji Yuan Qi.
The recipe reads: "Taiji Yuan Qi, the three letters are one. Pole, the center; Yuan, the beginning, in the twelve eons... This yin and yang are in harmony, the gas bell in the son, the birth of all things." (Note: from the Han Book - Rituals and Calendars)
Qingyun disciples, practicing to this realm, will clearly show a watershed, qualifications at a glance.
Intelligent people tend to break through into the higher realm of "driving things", and henceforth lay a solid foundation for the cultivation of immortality, while the slightly worse disciples tend to stagnate and waste their lives.
Zhang Xiaofan had been initiated for five years, so he had naturally heard these things countless times during his conversations with his senior brothers, but it was obvious that all of them had categorized him in the "slightly inferior" category.
He walked back into the kitchen, came to the stove, filled it with water, and then added more firewood to the stove, preparing to boil some water.
As the bright yellow flames grew strong again, Zhang Xiaofan took his poor black "burning stick", which had been used for two years, and fiddled with the firewood between the stoves, and after the fire had stabilized and burned, his eyes slowly fell onto the burning stick in his hand.
But this is not what he found, but a very common thing - he was staring.
The entire body of the metaphysical black fire stick in addition to the head of the bead, only a foot long, the only somewhat abnormal is in the fire stick under the black, vaguely have such as blood like veins, especially in the short stick and the bead at the interface is more obvious, sometimes it looks almost let a person think that these two things seem to be fused together with human blood.
Zhang Xiaofan's whole body suddenly shivered, just now the thought of human blood fusion flashed through his mind which made him feel nauseous.
Over the years, he had slowly forgotten about the trip to the Valley of Secrets back then, only occasionally dreaming late at night, he would suddenly dream of that strange experience and wake up in a sweat.
At that time, he felt very lonely, facing the hideousness of the unknown all by himself, facing the darkness of death all by himself. Every time he came to this time, it was always hard for him to suppress his inexplicable emotional excitement, with a hint of frenzied impulse, unable to resist the feeling of actually killing.
Even as he was in the darkness, he relived the strange fervor in Monk Pu Zhi's eyes as he looked at him by that broken grass temple all those years ago!
Zhang Xiaofan had no idea why he even had such strange feelings, but fortunately, he had another method to calm his creepy heart - Da Fan Prajna!
This supreme Buddhist technique had the wonderful ability to deter evil spirits and cleanse the mind, and he had practiced it for five years, and its greatest use was to suppress the strange emotions that had inexplicably appeared over the past two years.
"Pah!"
Zhang Xiaofan head a pain, a thing fell to the ground, but a pine cone, Zhang Xiaofan anger, back to the body angry: "dead monkey, you do not let me catch... Huh, you are... ah! Sixth Brother!"
Zhang Xiaofan jumped up, only to see in the doorway stood a person, medium stature, dry face, smiling, on the back of a small bag, not a long time to see the old six Du Bishu and who is it?
Du Bishu looked Zhang Xiaofan up and down, and tsked under his breath, "Impressive! It's only been a few years, you kid has grown as tall as me."
Zhang Xiaofan quickly walked up and grabbed Du Bishu's shoulder with force, laughing, "Sixth Senior Brother, why have you been gone for such a long time, all of us have missed you!"
Du Bishu laughed, "Didn't I come back?"
Zhang Xiaofan then asked, "Do Master and Mother know that you are back?"
Du Bishu said, "No, I just came back and saw smoke in the kitchen here, so I came over to take a look first, huh, I knew you kids were working here. Haven't seen you for a few years, did you miss me?"
Zhang Xiaofan was happy in his heart and nodded repeatedly. Du Bishu touched his head and suddenly said quietly, "Go, accompany me to see master."
Zhang Xiaofan froze for a moment and said, "Why do you still need me to accompany you?"
Du Bishu grimaced bitterly and said, "When Master first asked me to go down the mountain, he said that it was limited to one year, but I played around more, uh! No, I searched for half a year more before I found good materials to refine the magic treasure, I'm only afraid that I'll be scolded by Master. You accompany me!"
Zhang Xiaofan glared at him and said, "Then you still said you came to see me first, right, Sixth Senior Brother, what kind of magic treasure did you refine?"
Du Bishu laughed dryly, "Hehe, of course I came to see you first, Junior Brother, let's go! Go!" Said Zhang Xiaofan as he pulled him away.
After a while, Big Yellow, who was hiding in a corner gnawing on a meaty bone, and Little Gray, who was leaning on its back catching lice, both simultaneously heard a roar coming from the Hall of Silence Keeping, "Undesirable person, pissed me off!"
※※※
At dinnertime, for the first time in these two years, all the people of Great Bamboo Peak had a big reunion and sat down at a table to eat.
When the crowd is seated, Tian Yi is still angry, the disciples can't help but ask him quietly after greeting Du Bishu, "Old Six, how come Master is so angry when he sees you?"
Du Bishu's face was embarrassed, looking around, while Zhang Xiaofan, who was sitting beside him, was smiling, but just didn't dare to laugh out loud, looking rather odd.
At this time, Tian Ling'er sitting across the table finally couldn't help herself, and was the first to ask Tian Yiqi, "Father, it's not easy for Sixth Senior Brother to come back, why are you still so angry?"
Du Bishu quietly raised his eyes to look at Tian Yiqi, Tian Yiqi glared at him, frightening Du Bishu to quickly lower his head. Tian Yi easily grunted and said, "Old Six, lay out your own magic treasure for everyone to see!"
Du Bishu opened his mouth, nah couldn't say anything, and raised his eyes towards his master's mother, Su Ru, but saw Su Ru smiling, "Bishu, just take it out and show it to everyone! And also let everyone know how your master got angry?"
Seeing that he couldn't postpone it, Du Bishu dilly-dallied and took his own small bundle, shook it twice, took out a few things from the center, and put them on the table.
The crowd one by one eyes also do not blink, straight staring, afraid to miss something like, dining hall, a moment of quiet.
Only see on top of the dining table, put three seems to be made of what hard wood, half a fist-sized things, into a six-sided square, body white, on the side of the carving with a variety of points, but three dice.
The crowd was dumbfounded, dumbfounded, a moment later clamored and laughed.
Du Bishu's face was red, Tian Yanyu looked at him with a furious face and said angrily under his breath, "Decaying wood can't be carved!"
Su Ru, however, laughed at this time and shook her head, saying, "Forget it, it's not a big deal, dice is dice! This magic treasure is for his own use anyway."
Tian Yanyu glared at his disciple and said to Su Ru, "How do you know he's not using this to cheat?"
Du Bishu was startled and hurriedly said, "Master, Mother, my disciple would never dare to do this nasty and shameless thing. Just a year ago in the south of the Red Water, found a thousand years of three beads tree (Note 1), very spiritual, take the essence of the carving of the three dice, completely on the spur of the moment, never thought of other..."
Tian not easy to anger more than, said: "You are happy, hum, you practice the other is not so bad, now refining a gambling device out, wait until a month after the Seven Veins Martial Arts Competition, you this on the stage a debut, I still have the face of it?"
Du Bishu did not dare to say more, Su Ru shook his head, whispered: "not easy, this is his own favorite things, do not force him. You still remember Senior Brother Wan..."
Tian did not easily suddenly shocked, turned his head to look at Su Ru, Su Ru sighed softly, said to Du Bishu: "Bishu, you know, your master and I have never forced you to cultivate immortal swords like the other veins of the brothers, but the magic treasure is often related to the great, you should be careful to engage in your own."
Du Bishu sneaked a glance at Tian Yiqi, but saw that his master's face was unpleasant and he was sulking, how could he dare to say more, he nodded his head and said, "Yes, yes."
Su Ru glanced at her husband again, then said to the crowd, "Time flies, next month will be the Seven Veins Martial Arts Grand Trials. At that time, we will go together to Tongtian Peak where the Long Sect is located, so you guys should make your preparations early!" Speaking here, her beautiful and gentle face suddenly became solemn as she blurted out, "Don't let me and your master down again this time, got it?"
The hearts of the disciples jumped and said in unison, "Yes!"
"Master, Master." Sandwiched between the loud replies of the crowd, a disjointed faint voice emerged, Su Ru looked and saw that it was Zhang Xiaofan, the oldest seventh at the very end, frowned and said, "What's wrong, Xiaofan?"
Zhang Xiaofan carefully said, "Then did you mean just now that I should go too?"
Su Ru was stunned and glanced at Tian Yiqi, a smile floated up on her face and she smiled, "Yes! Aren't you also a disciple of the Great Bamboo Peak lineage?"
Zhang Xiaofan was overjoyed and jumped up with a cheer, high-fiving Du Bishu next to him, oblivious to the fact that Tian Yanyan was coldly saying from afar, "Anyway, there are nine slots, even if we give one to an idiot, it's still a waste of one, so it's useless to use it for nothing."
※※※
At night, Zhang Xiaofan returned to the house and saw Big Yellow and Little Gray running to their beds to rest.
From a year and a half ago, big yellow because and small gray to be good, also moved to Zhang Xiaofan room to sleep, at first also scared Tian not easy to jump, everywhere to find the love of the dog, and finally know the original reason, grunted, do not say anything and walked away.
Zhang Xiaofan see master did not blame, also did not drive rhubarb out (in fact, can not drive to go, a bed rhubarb occupies half, small gray occupies half of half of half, you can know the mood of the master of this house).
However, after a long time, probably crowded used to or mixed, Zhang Xiaofan also no longer on the big yellow and small gray with their own sleep whining.
This night, he was in a very good mood, walked into the house and sat down at the table, his eyes glanced, but saw the big yellow lazily lying down, but the little gray at some point went to the kitchen again, stole his black fire stick again, rubbing on the big yellow body.
In his heart, he vaguely felt that Little Ash seemed to be very interested in this burning stick, but he was not in the mood to think that much right now, his heart was completely filled with the joy of his master unexpectedly allowing him to participate in the Seven Veins Martial Arts.
If Big Yellow and Little Gray looked at Zhang Xiaofan at this time, they would see a human with glowing eyes.
Zhang Xiaofan's eyes looked at this monkey and dog, but his mouth seemed to be speaking to the air, "Look, it's really great that I actually have the chance to go to the Seven Veins Martial Arts. Master, his old man is really magnanimous, even if I'm stupid he still brought me to see more, uh, I might be able to meet Shocking Feather then."
Speaking here, as if he remembered something, he whispered to himself again, "But really going on the stage to compete, I'm afraid that it will bring shame to master him! Forget it, let it be what it is! Big Yellow, Little Gray, don't you think so?"
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
Zhang Xiaofan raised his eyes to look, but he saw that Little Grey's mind was all in Big Yellow's fur, carefully scratching for ticks and only barking a few times to deal with him, while Big Yellow was even drier, even hitching down both of his doggy ears, not even looking at him.
"Dead dog!" Zhang Xiaofan angrily cursed, suddenly his eyes went black, but it was Little Ash who suddenly smashed the burning stick in his hand.
He was startled and hastily dodged away, the burning stick smashed into the table, jumped twice and fell to the ground.
"Squeak squeak, woof woof!" This time the voices of the big yellow dog and the little gray monkey became a symphony, Zhang Xiaofan made a face at those two beasts and sat down with hatred, somehow, Qi Hao's gallantry on the Big Bamboo Peak two years ago suddenly surfaced in his mind again.
"Condensing ice into a wall ah!" Zhang Xiaofan recited lowly, it was fine when he didn't cultivate, but these days, as he cultivated deeper and deeper, he experienced even more deeply how difficult and unreachable it was to reach Qi Hao's realm.
He remembered that night again, Tian Ling'er's gentle but blazing eyes by the lamplight in this room!
His heart felt like it had been stabbed by a sharp needle at that moment.
The burning stick on the ground was lying there quietly, and the playful sounds of monkeys and yellow dogs came from the side, Zhang Xiaofan suddenly felt that he and this burning stick were so much alike that even when the burning stick fell on the ground, it seemed as if it carried a bit of loneliness in his eyes.
"Alas!" He sighed, trying to imagine himself reaching that kind of realm, and then with a completely relaxed and unconcerned posture, for the first time in his life, he made the "repelling" gesture that the disciples of the Green Cloud Sect had done countless times - beckoning to the burning stick on the ground, and waving his hand. He beckoned to the burning stick on the ground.
That one moment seemed like an eternity.
Zhang Xiaofan was very normal, not even a little sad, and rightfully prepared to accept his defeat, and then, he saw the burning stick on the ground move a little.
Just that gently, slightly, as if it had been dormant for a long time before waking up, it moved a little!
