057. Regret
The bewitching incense went out, and the souls on the second floor collapsed after realizing that they were dead, with cries and howls rising one after another.
Qingling listened to their cries. Some shouted that they still had old mothers to support, some cried that their wives and children were left unattended, some were sad and angry that they had not yet achieved success and they still had things to worry about, and some even begged desperately to be able to return to the world.
Song Cheng on the first floor slumped on the ground, listening to the cries of the dead souls, and suddenly laughed out loud.
"Don't think I don't know. You dare to be so arrogant only because there is a fierce ghost following you." Song Cheng's eyes were cold, like an evil ghost. "I don't know how many years the old man Jiu Ling has lived, but he is the best at controlling ghosts, and his endless methods are specially designed to defeat fierce ghosts!"
Qingling had never seen anyone who could compete with Shang Changheng, not even Wang Nujie and the corpse couple, but he really wanted to see who this Jiu Ling was.
Miao Yuan and Zhu Lezhi both said that they had not seen a ghost walker who could control ghosts for a long time, but Qingling had just seen one some time ago. Shang Changheng said that they were a pair of senior brothers and sisters, and the one who controlled the evil ghost to harm him was his senior brother Ma Shou.
Seeing that Qingling and Shang Changheng were unmoved, Song Cheng said again: "If you destroy this inn, you will destroy the livelihood of Yuzhou Yinxing and become the enemy of the entire Yuzhou Yinxing!"
"So..." Qing Ling finally spoke, "This inn is opened here, killing people wantonly but no one is in charge. Is it because all the shady people in Yuzhou are in cahoots with each other?"
He kept thinking that the inn was placed here, wasn't it clearly intended to block the road? Why is no one doing anything and allowing this inn to take advantage of innocent people's lives?
It turned out that all the shady people in Yuzhou relied on this inn at the foot of the mountain to survive. This made sense. If there really were shady practitioners, they would rather avoid getting involved. Even if they knew about it, they also knew the seriousness of the matter and would not interfere anymore.
Song Cheng sneered, "Who isn't afraid of death? Practitioners are most afraid of death. They have stolen the creation of heaven and earth to gain a lot of abilities, but they are burdened with the debt of karma. How many people who do evil things can have a good end? There is a Buddhist temple in Yuzhou that never comes to the inn. The masters who save all living beings don't dare to meddle in the affairs of the inn. If you dare to cut off their lives, you will never be able to leave Yuzhou safely!"
The Chai Yao also took the opportunity to apologize and said with a smile: "Why are you doing this, gentlemen? We are all people of the same path. Meeting is fate. Let's do each other a favor so that we can meet again in the future. Those people entered the inn and lost their lives. That was their own fate. Why do you worry about these ants? Especially - this young master, the young master was born with a bad fate, right? You, the little demon, also know a little about his fate. How about you try the dishes in our restaurant? Yin vegetables can not only prolong life, but also cure diseases and save lives. It is a good medicine!"
The man plays the good cop and the demon plays the bad cop, and the words go quite smoothly. This must not be the first time.
"absurd!!"
Suddenly a loud rebuke came from the second floor.
Qing Ling turned around and saw a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar. He was wearing a long robe and looked gentle. There was a righteous look in his eyes, but there was a big hole on his chest, revealing white broken bones and scarlet flesh. There was nothing inside as his heart had been taken away.
Just like when he was alive, he lifted his robe slightly and walked down the stairs quickly.
"So what if they are ants? Ants are born to die?" the man said angrily, his lips trembling with anger. "Born as human beings, they learn etiquette and rules, so they are different from animals. They are ordinary people, but they live their own lives. Why should you want to live and they should die?"
The soul in front of him was nothing more than a meal to Song Cheng. He sneered and said, "Of course it's because ants are weak and incompetent that they have to be eaten by others. What's wrong with that?!"
"How is your behavior different from that of the beasts in the forest?" The man sneered back, "In ancient times, there were wise and sage kings, loyal ministers and generals who were willing to die for their country or fight for their country. Even if they died young, their reputations will be passed down through the ages. But you, ha! You are just rats in the gutter. Do you dare to live uprightly? Even if you are alive, you are beasts in human clothing and will be cursed by people for all eternity!"
"You!" Song Cheng was about to stand up with his eyes bloodshot, but was pushed back by the cold and yin energy. His back felt heavy and he knelt on the ground.
"Just keep talking, why are you standing up?" Shang Changheng mocked.
The direction where Song Cheng was kneeling was exactly facing the person who had scolded him.
The man did not show any fear, but bowed to Qingling and Shang Changheng and saluted like a scholar. "Greetings, my name is Zhou Zizhong, from Changde, Tongzhou. I am the magistrate of Hegu County, Yuzhou. I have heard about the disappearance of Yuzhou people before, and officials have disappeared here for no reason for decades. It has also been common for outsiders to enter Yuzhou and never return. It was about three days ago... When I saw this inn, I felt it was strange, and wanted to come in to investigate. I never thought... Alas."
He sighed, shook his head, and then bowed again.
"It is thanks to you that I was able to regain consciousness. Otherwise, with my confused state, I would have become someone's food without even knowing it."
He spoke sincerely, without any resentment on his face.
Qingling knew that this was because he had a righteous heart and no evil intentions.
"Don't you hate them?" Qing Ling asked, "They killed you, and now all the affairs of the living world have nothing to do with you."
"How can I not hate you?" Zhou Zizhong sighed again, "What can I do if I hate you? I have no father, no mother, no wife, no children, no worries, and I am all alone. It's a pity that I passed the imperial examination and got an official position, but I haven't been able to do anything for the people. My ambitions and aspirations have become empty talk. Now that things have come to this, it's useless to hate you. I can only sigh that I, Zhou Zizhong, died here. It was a cowardly death. If it weren't for those heroes... my death would have been too useless!"
From his words, we can tell that Zhou Zizhong is a scholar with lofty ambitions. He regards the censors who died for their advice and the military generals who died in battle as worthy deaths, and praises them for their immortal reputation.
It was really not his destiny to die early, but his luck was a little bad, and he died just three days later.
Whether Qingling had arrived three days earlier or Zhou Zizhong had arrived three days later, he would not have died. But as fate would have it, Zhou Zizhong's life ended here.
Qing Ling felt an inexplicable emotion because of this, a little melancholy and helpless. After thinking about it for a while, he realized that this was regret.
He regretted that Zhou Zizhong's luck was only three days short.
"Fighting to the death doesn't necessarily mean you will be remembered for eternity." Shang Changheng suddenly spoke, his expression calm and somewhat sarcastic, "How can history books remember the deaths of thousands of years? The predecessors are nothing more than a lesson for the later generations, but the later generations seem to have never learned the lesson. Whether to live or die depends on one's own heart."
Zhou Zizhong was stunned at first, then he lowered his head and thought for a long time before he leaned over to Shang Changheng and said solemnly, "Thank you for your advice. May I ask your name?"
He died here to solve the case and follow his heart.
And after that, no matter what others say about the dead person, it has little to do with him. Whether it is praise or criticism, the dead will never come back to life.
Shang Changheng looked away and did not answer.
So what if you know his name? In the Great Zhou Dynasty a thousand years ago, his name was known to everyone. The God of War King Xiang was famous throughout the world, but what happened in the end?
He was dismembered and buried, suffering for a thousand years, and no one in later generations knew about Shang Changheng.
He is not King Xiang Chongxiao, but just an evil ghost who is incompatible with the real world.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Zhou Zizhong raised his head somewhat helplessly and looked at the two people in front of him.
For a moment, everything around seemed to become quiet.
"His name is Shang Changheng." Qing Ling's voice was very abrupt, as clear as jade. He said to Zhou Zizhong, "He was the last heir of the Great Zhou Dynasty a thousand years ago. He was given the title Xiang and posthumously named Lie. He died in battle to protect the Great Zhou Dynasty, but there is no record of him in the history books."
Zhou Zizhong slowly opened his mouth and showed a shocked expression.
Even the jackal demon and Song Chengdu, who dared not say a word, looked over in surprise.
A thousand years is too long. Even though the Yin activities were at their peak a thousand years ago, it has never been heard of that a ghost could survive from a thousand years ago to now.
"Ancient... Ancient Zhou, no wonder, no wonder." Zhou Zizhong murmured a few words, and then he came back to his senses, "I often read history books. When the ancient Zhou Dynasty was destroyed, the Dongyi invaded, the country was torn apart, and the people were living in misery, so many history books were lost. However, there are many different opinions about the demise of the Zhou Dynasty. We scholars all know about the Great Zhou Dynasty!"
"The demise of Zhou is such a pity!"
Qingling had read a lot of unofficial histories. Although there was no record of how the Great Zhou Dynasty fell, he was mostly filled with lamentations about its demise.
The fall of the Great Zhou was not due to the incompetence of later kings, but because the Great Zhou was really unlucky. Natural disasters continued to occur, from earthquakes, floods, droughts to plagues, which forced the huge country to the point where it could not afford to pay. Wars cost money, and the Great Zhou at that time really seemed to be suffering from some kind of divine punishment.
External threats continued and internal worries gradually arose.
After the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains suffered devastated. The human sacrifice, which had been extinct, flourished again for several decades before it was eliminated again due to the internal strife among the Dongyi tribes.
If Zhou had not perished, the world would not have come to this point.
Although Zhou Zizhong was a minister of the time, and a civil official at that, he was filled with respect when he heard Shang Changheng's identity, and immediately performed the salute of a junior.
"Please accept my greeting, senior." He bowed his head humbly, then stood up and spoke again, "A thousand years ago, you protected the people of the Central Plains. A thousand years later, you are here again to save the people of Daxia. I respect you."
Shang Changheng remained silent.
His name comes from the saying "The wind blows for thousands of miles, and it hangs on a jade pendant." Now the wind has blown for a thousand years, and only evil spirits full of resentment are left in the world of the living. Looking around, even the mountains and rivers are unfamiliar.
The whipping ground has long been gone, and his glorious achievements and tragic and heartbreaking deeds are all old stories that no one knows about. Yuzhou of Daxia is not the whipping ground of Dazhou. Shang Changheng wants to look back at the familiar mountains and rivers, but it seems as if he is standing at the crossroads of the past and the present. He wants to look back step by step, but he is moving forward step by step, trapped between the troubled times and the prosperous times, unable to go back, and difficult to move forward.
He no longer belongs to this world.
"What should we do with them?" Shang Changheng turned to look at Qingling, showing a sinister and cold smile, and then said: "I'm hungry."
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