Chapter 86: Retreating from the Circle Chapter 86: Tian Yunsheng...isn't he dead? ...
The young police officer who reported the situation to the Mingwu and Mingxin brothers was also witnessing a Taoist brawl for the first time. The scene reshaped his worldview and left him deeply shocked. He had initially thought the netizens' comment about Beiqing Village boss Dai Jianhua's suicide, "Taoists have many ways to kill," was a joke. But after watching Qingyang, Yunsheng, and the others fight, and seeing the talisman paper tossed into the air transform into a fireball, he realized his ignorance.
He tried hard to describe to Mingxin what Qingyang had experienced at that time.
"The new spell the young Taoist priest had developed seems to cause people to lose self-awareness and control, like being possessed by an evil spirit. Taoist Qingyang was very close to the evil spirit when the spell was cast, and presumably he was affected. He was fine until he suddenly went berserk and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the evil spirit. The two men behind him inexplicably stabbed themselves, but the evil spirit was stabbed in the heart and died instantly. Taoist Qingyang was stabbed in the lower abdomen, the wound wasn't very deep, and he's receiving emergency treatment, so it shouldn't be a serious problem."
Mingwu: "..."
Mingxin: “…”
Mingxin had never heard of anything so outrageous in his entire life. He couldn't help but whisper in his senior brother's ear, "Who is this newly recruited young Taoist priest and what's his brain behind him, to come up with such a strange and bizarre spell? It seems fortunate that Senior Uncle Qingyang was only implicated, otherwise wouldn't that knife have gone straight to his heart like the evil Taoist priest?"
Mingwu also frowned, subconsciously feeling that this method was strangely familiar.
He rubbed his swollen brows and warned his fellow apprentice, "No matter what, if it weren't for the help of those two fellow Daoists, this fight today would have ended with Yunsheng dead and the evil Daoist escaping. Although Uncle Qingyang was injured, it wasn't intentional. Even if you're angry, be polite to him when you meet him later. Don't complain. Do you understand?"
Mingxin agreed obediently, but he still felt a little unhappy in his heart.
When he and Senior Brother Mingwu were young, Taiwei Sanren was busy managing the Taoist temple, and Senior Brother Xuanchanzi was in seclusion year-round. Only Senior Brother Qingyang had a little free time. His gentle temper always led them to play and study. Mingxin's favorite person was Senior Brother Qingyang. When he grew up, he left the Taoist temple and went to Jingbei to become an internet-famous Taoist priest. Senior Brother Qingyang also supported him as always.
He left his name online for the first time. Back at the Taoist temple, Yunsheng mocked him for not doing his job and only caring about making money, trampling on the reputation of Liuyun Temple. This was overheard by Uncle Qingyang, who happened to be passing by. He patted Yunsheng on the shoulder and said sternly, "How can you say that, Yunsheng? Mingxin has made a name for himself now, which is good for both him and our Liuyun Temple."
"How can this be good news? The Taoist priests from Shouxinyuan next door are mocking our Taoist temple for having an internet celebrity every time they see us."
"Do they look down on internet celebrities? But Uncle Shi thinks Mingxin is a good internet celebrity. Many people encounter problems and want to find a legitimate Taoist priest but don't know where to start. Wasn't that old man who came to the temple deceived several times by some quacks? If he knew Mingxin, he might go to Mingxin first. With Mingxin's help, the problem can be solved quickly, saving both worry and effort."
Mingxin couldn't quite remember Yunsheng's expression at the time, but he certainly looked unhappy.
But he was very happy. He hugged Uncle Qingyang's arm, his eyes lit up, and he said excitedly: "Uncle, Uncle, how did you know my original wish for making the video? This is what I thought!"
When Mingxin entered the secular world and left Liuyun Temple, he encountered a mother and her daughter on the road. The mother and daughter wore washed-out clothes with patched cuffs, carried worn backpacks, and walked with one foot deep and the other shallow. Seeing Mingxin, dressed in a bright yellow Taoist robe, setting up a stall at the intersection, the mother stopped and asked tentatively, "Master, how much do you charge?"
That was Mingxin’s first business deal. He was very happy and waved his hand and said it was free.
The middle-aged woman was happier than Mingxin, and immediately began her plea with a trembling voice: "Master, my daughter and I come from a small mountain village. The phenomenon of favoring boys over girls is serious in the village. The child's father and grandmother are even more excessive. A year ago, they sent my daughter to a ghost marriage for 3,000 yuan."
The cause was the village chief's youngest son, who spent his days idle and unemployed, being caught peeping at a village woman bathing. The woman's husband, a sturdy 5'8" man, heard his wife's screams and grabbed a nearby hoe to chase the son. The son was young and quick, and disappeared in a matter of seconds. The man, though upset, could do nothing but grit his teeth, thinking that if the jerk dared to come again, he would definitely teach him a lesson!
At that time, he could never have imagined that he would hear the news of the death of the village chief's youngest son the next day.
It was said that the man, unwilling to give up, returned to the village in the middle of the night, intending to do something bad to the village widow. However, he somehow stumbled in the open space behind the widow's house, hitting the back of his head on a gravel. No one noticed the man had fallen on the stone that night, but when someone passed by at dawn and saw the man lying on the ground, the village chief's youngest son had bled to death.
"He's dead anyway, and many people in the village think it's a good thing. After all, the other party always does some sneaky things, which makes the villagers complain. But because of their status as the village chief, they dare not say much. But the village chief heard from somewhere that he should arrange a ghost marriage for his dead son. If his son is satisfied, he will bless their family in the afterlife. He also said that there is a village next door that does the same thing, and now the family who arranged the ghost marriage is living a prosperous life. It's so good."
"They searched for a long time, but no one was willing. There were no girls who had just died in the village, so they kept dragging it out until the village chief offered 3,000 yuan, saying he would give the money to anyone willing to give their daughter to his son as a wife. You wouldn't believe how many people rushed to the village chief's house that night with their daughters just for that one offer."
As the middle-aged woman spoke, her already exhausted, hunched body grew heavier. She rubbed her eyes with her rough hands and then tightly embraced her silent daughter, as if she had been stimulated by something and was using this action to maintain her daughter's sense of security.
"My husband and my mother-in-law took advantage of me being out working in the fields and sent my daughter to the village chief's house. They even told him, in a mad way, that my daughter was young, so if they liked her, they wouldn't need to pay 3,000 yuan, but 2,000 yuan would be enough. It's ridiculous! After all the haggling, they just sent my daughter to be the wife of a dead man! But my daughter is only 13 years old, she's still just a child!"
Her words were filled with extreme anger, her eyeballs bulged with excitement, and her face looked like a devil, wishing she could eat her man and mother-in-law alive.
"By the time I got home and realized something was wrong, those bastards had already sealed my daughter in a coffin and buried her in the cemetery." Tears streamed down the middle-aged woman's rough, wrinkled face. She looked down at her daughter, her voice choked with sobs. "I pretended to accept my fate, but in the middle of the night I knocked the man and the old woman unconscious. Then I carried a shovel to the cemetery, dug out the coffin, and took great pains to break it apart before carrying my daughter out."
She knew very well that her actions would anger her family and the village chief's family. Without any hesitation, she took the money from home, packed a few clothes, and fled the mountains with her daughter on her back overnight.
After finally leaving the village and arriving in town, the middle-aged woman finally breathed a sigh of relief. But she soon noticed something was amiss. Her sweet, well-behaved daughter seemed to be deeply disturbed. She stared blankly at her, unable to smile or speak, and occasionally uttered a word or two, which was "ghost."
This terrified the middle-aged woman, but she didn't dare stay in the city. She took a train to another province and city before she began to make arrangements for her daughter's medical treatment. Strangely, no matter how many hospitals she visited or doctors she consulted, nothing worked. She had spent most of her savings on medical treatment, but her daughter showed no improvement at all.
"A patient heard about my daughter's situation and said that doctors couldn't cure her and she needed a professional. He said there was someone in their village who seemed to have lost his soul, sitting around all day, not knowing what to do. Later, a traveling Taoist priest came to the village and cured her."
After that, the middle-aged woman turned her attention to the Taoist priest.
"Before you, I've sought help from many Taoist priests, but it was all useless. They were all scammers. They stole my money and made my daughter drink strange talisman water, which caused her to be hospitalized for gastroenteritis."
She looked at Mingxin with eyes full of pain and helplessness, and said weakly: "I don't know if I can trust you, but I really have no other choice. I want my daughter to get better, so I can only take her and try again and again."
In the twenty years before he met the middle-aged woman, although he practiced Taoism every day and was always prepared to share the world's worries, he had never truly encountered such a terrifying thing. His heart was pounding, and looking at his mother, who was almost bent over by the pressure, Mingxin still said to her word by word with great sincerity: "Don't worry, leave your daughter's matter to me. I will definitely cure her. If I can't, I will take you to my senior brothers and my master. They are both very powerful Taoists and will definitely bring back your daughter from before."
Mingxin carefully examined the girl's condition and found it to be similar to the patient the middle-aged woman had described. She was probably frightened by being forced to sleep with the dead, and the evil spirits that had wandered into the cemetery had taken advantage of the situation and seduced the girl's soul away.
If you want to cure the little girl, you have to bring her soul back.
So, Mingxin used his own money to book a hotel for the mother and daughter, and he personally went to the small mountain village to bring back the little girl's lost soul. At the same time, he took advantage of the night to cause lightning to strike the village chief's house, just to scare them, but he didn't expect that the village chief, perhaps because he had done too many bad things, was actually scared to death by the lightning in his sleep!
Mingxin didn't pay too much attention to the village chief, but used talismans to tell the villagers that there would be retribution for arranging ghost marriages.
After that, he went to the city to report the case before hurriedly embarking on his journey back.
After the girl recovered, the middle-aged woman took her to settle down in the local area and rented a very small house. Although she had no money left, she still found Mingxin with fruit and milk. While thanking him, she said with emotion, "I wish I had met a Taoist priest as capable as you earlier."
From that day on, Mingxin registered an account on the Li Zi live streaming platform.
As time went by, his account became famous on the Internet. Many people would send him private messages for help as soon as they encountered trouble, and he would do his best to help.
It prevented many people from being deceived and many people from dying unnecessarily.
-
Upon arriving at the hospital, Mingwu and Mingxin were informed that Qingyang had already undergone surgery and was being taken to the ward. As for Yunsheng, his condition was more serious than Qingyang's. In addition to being stabbed in the chest, he also seemed to have suffered some internal injuries, so the doctors were still trying their best to save him.
Mingwu nodded repeatedly, saying he understood, and thanked the police officers for sending the man to the hospital promptly. The leading officer waved his hand, his face full of emotion, "We should be thanking you. After witnessing your Taoist magic battles, we know that ordinary bullets are useless against this group of evil Taoists. If it weren't for your willingness to help, let alone catching these evil Taoists, I can't imagine how much loss our police force would have suffered."
He sighed twice and then reassured Mingwu and Mingxin, "Among the police team that went to Shouhe Village, there was a young man who knew first aid. He was there to help Taoist Yunsheng from the time he was in trouble until we arrived at the hospital. He said Taoist Yunsheng could be saved, so don't worry. Oh, and by the way, those two young Taoist priests who suddenly showed up to help are now accompanying Taoist Qingyang in his ward."
Although the two Taoists did not intend to injure Taoist Qingyang, they obviously felt sorry. Therefore, as soon as Taoist Qingyang was pushed out of the operating room, the two followed him and asked the attending doctor in detail what precautions he should take.
"Okay, we got it. Leave the hospital to us and you guys go about your business." Mingwu politely said goodbye to the police, and then took Mingxin and followed the building and floor numbers of the inpatient department all the way to Qingyang's ward.
The police arranged a double ward for Qingyang, but Qingyang was the only patient in the ward for the time being.
Mingxin quickened his pace and pushed open the door of the ward. At a glance, he saw two slender figures standing by the bed with their backs to him. But in comparison, it was the middle-aged man lying on the bed that caught Mingxin's attention more.
Uncle Qingyang is about fifty years old this year, and there are wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He is lying on the bed, his face is very pale, and his brows are furrowed as if in pain. He does not look well, but the body monitor on one side shows that he is in good condition.
Mingxin breathed a sigh of relief, then subconsciously turned his head to look at the two people standing beside the bed. As a result, when he raised his head, his eyes met with one of them. He took a deep breath and almost couldn't control his voice: "Pengqiu?!"
Pengqiu: “…”
The police had been cracking down on Taoist priests recently, so to avoid unnecessary trouble, he hadn't worn a Taoist robe when traveling. He was now dressed in casual clothes similar to Mingxin's, a black T-shirt with a sweaty head painted on it. Pengqiu thought this outfit was perfect. Wasn't this head portrait the reaction he should have at this moment?
Nodding slightly awkwardly at Mingxin, he responded, "Daoist Mingxin."
Mingxin: “…”
Mingxin was speechless for a moment, but his gaze gradually moved to the man next to Pengqiu.
If he remembered correctly, when they said goodbye at Sang Qiqi's funeral that day, Peng Qiu had said that the Dragon Platform was unsafe, so he would go find his senior brother Su Shi. So, the man standing next to Peng Qiu now—
I looked at Su Shi intently. After seeing him again after three years, this face still emerged clearly from my memory.
To be honest, Su Shi looked like a bandit. Although he had handsome features, he had a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, which gave him a bit of a fierce aura and made him look very difficult to deal with. But what shocked Mingxin even more was that a Taoist priest would actually dye his hair red.
Red, crew cut.
Mingxin: “…”
Too advanced.
I don't understand.
As he sighed with shock, Mingwu, who had also noticed Su Shi and whose eyes met, rubbed his brows, feeling quite amused. Indeed, apart from the young Taoist priest Huanlongtai, there seemed to be no one else who could cast such bizarre spells that could affect someone and nearly kill them.
Surprised that Mingxin, who had always held a grudge against Sushi, didn't rush forward and bite like a howling puppy, Mingwu sighed at his child's understanding. He stepped forward and bowed to the Sushi Pengqiu brothers, "It's been a long time since I last saw you, Daoist Sushi. You seem to be living... well, very fashionable."
Su Shi touched his short, prickly hair and sneered, "This is the punishment for losing a fight. I don't like that kind of aesthetic."
After he finished speaking, he folded his arms and nodded at Ming Wu. "Is this the Taoist priest from your temple? I accidentally affected him when I cast my curse. It wasn't my intention to get him hurt, but it happened anyway. I want to apologize to you all. I'll cover the Taoist priest's medical expenses, nursing care, and mental damages. I'll also apologize when he wakes up."
Mingxin: “…”
I don't know why, but even though it was an apology, it sounded like he was just swearing.
Some people are born to deserve a beating.
Standing behind Mingwu, he curled his lips quietly but said nothing.
While waiting for Taoist Master Qingyang to wake up, the four Taoists stood or sat. Mingxin glanced at his senior brother, then at Sushi, and noticed that despite their deep hatred, the two were surprisingly chatting harmoniously. His senior brother's smile showed that he was clearly very pleased with Sushi. Just as Mingxin had this thought, he heard his senior brother ask, "Since Daoist Fellow Sushi has left Huanlongtai, would you be interested in joining us at Liuyun Temple?"
Mingxin: “?”
Pengqiu: “?”
Back in time: “?”
The three of them had bewildered faces, but Mingwu was the only one who smiled and said, "I've always believed what Daoist Fellow Sushi said back then, and I admire Daoist Fellow Sushi's abilities. Not to mention that you two also saved my uncle and fellow apprentice from Liuyun Temple this time. It would be an honor for us if you two could join us."
Upon hearing this, Su Shi's fierce face turned into something indescribable. He then flatly refused, "My junior brother and I are fine now, and your Liuyun Temple might not allow me to study the evil curse, not to mention that I hurt you before, and now I'm hurting your senior uncle. But then again, isn't your senior uncle's ability quite ordinary? He stabbed himself in the kidney after being affected by the evil curse a little bit."
"How can you say that?" Mingxin finally couldn't help himself this time. "Master Qingyang's talisman technique is outstanding! Which of the younger Taoist priests in our Liuyun Temple has not been taught by him?"
"Outstanding?" Su Shi repeated these two words, feeling that Ming Xin's statement was unreliable. He then shifted his gaze to Ming Wu. Seeing Ming Wu nodded, he slowly frowned and muttered to himself uncertainly, "So this new evil curse I researched is so powerful?"
"Senior Brother's evil curse mainly targets the consciousness of the person who is cursed, causing them to fall into hallucinations and delusions. Perhaps it's not a problem with Taoist Qingyang's ability, but Taoist Qingyang was flustered by Taoist Yunsheng's accident, so he gave the curse an opportunity to take advantage."
Pengqiu's explanation made Sushi nod repeatedly: "That makes perfect sense."
As they were talking, there was a commotion outside the door. The four of them looked up and saw several nurses pushing Yunsheng into the ward. Yunsheng lay quietly on the bed, with an IV drip on the back of his hand. His face was even paler and weaker than Qingyang's. Mingwu immediately stood up and walked over to inquire about the situation.
"The operation went smoothly, and the patient's will to live is very strong. He will definitely wake up within the next day or two. Your family members should pay attention to the duration of the IV drip."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work."
After sending the nurse and doctor away, Su Shi glanced at Yun Sheng and said, "That's perfect. My junior apprentice and I will look after your Senior Uncle Qing Yang, and you two can look after this little Taoist priest."
Mingxin was not very willing, but when Mingwu looked at him, he finally moved a stool and sat next to Yunsheng's bed.
That night, when Mingxin was chatting with Sang Qiqi about the misunderstanding between Liuyun Temple and Sushi, Qingyang woke up.
He opened his eyes weakly, his vision going from blurry to focused. When he saw Su Shi's conspicuous red crew cut clearly, he was stunned for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, Ming Xin pushed Su Shi aside and squeezed in with Peng Qiu to the bedside. He asked impatiently, "Master Qingyang, how are you now? Does your wound still hurt? Are you hungry? Do you want some water?"
A series of questions came out of Mingxin's mouth. Qingyang felt his head was buzzing and he couldn't hear anything.
In the end, Mingwu carried the person behind him and asked Qingyang in a gentle voice, "Uncle Master, are you feeling unwell?"
Without Mingxin's nagging beside him, Qingyang's mind gradually cleared up. Enduring the pain in his lower abdomen, he shook his head at Mingwu and uttered two words with difficulty: "Not bad."
Then he asked, "Where's Yunsheng?"
"Oh," Mingxin squeezed in again, rolled his eyes, and muttered, "Uncle Master, why do you care about him? He doesn't have the ability to catch the evildoer——"
Pop.
Mingwu slapped Mingxin on the head and pulled him back again, his eyes tinged with warning: "Even if Yunsheng and you didn't have a good relationship in the past, this is a matter of life and death. Watch your words."
Mingxin took a slap and didn't dare to make a sound. Mingwu turned his gaze back and nodded to Qingyang, "Master, don't worry. Although Yunsheng's condition is serious, the doctors are very dedicated and have saved him. I think he will wake up soon."
After saying that, he moved his body to the side, leaving a gap so that Qingyang could see Yunsheng lying on the bed next to him.
Qingyang was slightly stunned.
Yunsheng...isn’t dead?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
