Fu Changling calmed himself down and headed towards the restaurant. Since he was already there, he decided to have a drink first.
He walked towards the restaurant, lifted the curtain and went in. The restaurant was bustling with people coming and going. Fu Changling then remembered that the Samsara Bridge was deserted, so why was there a restaurant built here, and why were there so many people in the restaurant all the time?
He was a little curious, but kept silent. He walked through the crowd with his sword in hand and found a seat near the window.
The window position allows you to see the Samsara Bridge not far away. It is not winter now, and the Samsara Bridge is half covered with ice and half clear. The same is true for the water under the bridge, half frozen and half flowing, which looks quite strange.
Fu Changling placed the compass and sword on the table, rested his hand on the edge of the sword, supported his chin with one hand, and looked up at the Samsara Bridge not far away.
The waiter, carrying a rag on his shoulder and a teapot and bowls and chopsticks in his hands, swiftly made his way through the crowd and came to Fu Changling's side. He put down the teapot and bowls and chopsticks and asked enthusiastically, "What would you like to order, sir?"
Fu Changling listened to the waiter's greeting, turned around, and looked at the waiter carefully for a moment. He recognized that this person had some similarities in features with the man he saw when he came here in his previous life. After thinking about it, he remembered that this was the shopkeeper who gave him the umbrella.
Now he is still working as a waiter, but he never expected that forty years later, he would become the owner of this store.
"Sir?" The waiter was puzzled when he saw Fu Changling staring at him in a daze. Fu Changling came to his senses and said with a smile, "Bring out your signature dishes, especially the wine."
Upon hearing Fu Changling's bold words, the waiter beamed and said happily, "Don't worry, sir. Our rice wine is mellow and famous far and wide. Countless immortals have come here to drink it. We will not let you down!"
"Okay." Fu Changling nodded with a smile and patted Xiaoer on the shoulder. "You work hard, you have a future."
The waiter was stunned for a moment, then smiled a little embarrassedly: "Sir, you are an immortal. Now that you mention it, I feel embarrassed not to give you something. I will give you an extra plate of peanuts. Listen to the book, drink wine and eat peanuts. It's so comfortable!"
Having said that, the waiter turned around. Fu Changling heard sparse applause coming from the surroundings. He looked up and found that a young man was walking onto the stage.
The young man, dressed in a green shirt, bowed to everyone and expressed his gratitude. Fu Changling took a moment to identify him and realized that this man was the old man who had been telling stories back then. He was still in his prime and looked very energetic.
"Thank you all for your support. You should all know that I have received a recruitment order from Hongmeng Heavenly Palace. I will leave tomorrow to take the exam. I may not come back, so please don't worry about me."
"Sir, if you don't come back, who will tell us stories?"
Someone asked loudly from the audience, and the young man laughed: "I've pretty much said everything I can say. What else do you want to hear?"
"Tell me something big!" someone shouted. "I've never heard of it!"
While everyone was talking, the child brought wine, food and peanuts to Fu Changling. Fu Changling leaned on the table, picked up the peanuts, and became curious about what this young man would say.
The young man thought for a moment and said, "Speaking of big things...why don't you just ask? I know everything you want to hear."
As he spoke, the young man sat down and opened his fan, looking quite unrestrained.
"Tell me about the deserted village next door."
Fu Changling spoke loudly. Everyone looked over when they heard this. The storyteller waved his fan and said with a smile, "This young man is from another place, right?"
"How do you know?" Fu Changling propped up his chin and said lazily, "My accent is no different from yours."
"Because everyone here knows that it's not that there are no people in this area, but that there are no people in any village except the one near the wheel bridge."
Hearing this, Fu Changling was slightly stunned. The storyteller said slowly, "Why, don't the immortals know? Ever since Yue Sinan built the Blood Pond, the spiritual energy around here has dried up. Apart from the area around the Samsara Bridge, plants, birds, and animals can still survive. It's no longer habitable."
"Planted plants will die, and humans and animals that stay for a while will quickly age and die. The young people who should leave will leave, and only those who cannot leave will remain here."
"Why can't you leave?"
Fu Changling was a little confused, and the storyteller laughed: "If we stay here, we still have some land. What can we do outside?"
"Yes," the person next to him echoed, "I heard that many people outside are unable to farm their fields, and they are all running to the big sects, wanting to go to places with rich spiritual energy. It would be better for them to stay here than to compete with so many people outside for food."
Fu Changling listened and frowned. Only then did he realize that the depletion of spiritual energy had already become such a serious problem among ordinary people so long ago.
He thought about it, then paid attention and asked, "Did Yue Sinan build the blood-transforming pool near here?"
"Yes," the storyteller raised his hand and pointed in the direction Fu Changling had come from. "It's nearby. It happened almost fifteen years ago."
"I still remember this." One of the middle-aged men sighed and turned to look in the direction Fu Changling came from. "There was a city over there back then. They captured a lot of people and built a huge pool. At that time, we were wondering why she built such a big pool."
"Were you present?"
Fu Changling straightened his back, looking quite serious.
The speaker sighed. "Yes, I was the one she captured back then. She made us build a circular pool and carved many patterns into it. Then she made us stand inside it. Then she released many puppets, which killed us one by one, then hung us up and poured our blood into the pool."
"Then how did you escape?"
Others were puzzled.
"She was halfway there when other immortal masters came to stop him. The sky was full of cultivators at the time, so I took the opportunity to escape. Later I heard that she had killed all those cultivators."
The middle-aged man gnashed his teeth and said, "Devil."
The storyteller listened to the middle-aged man's words and sighed: "Indeed, I was there too."
"Is the gentleman here too?"
Fu Changling was a little curious: "Master, you must have been very young then, right?"
The storyteller nodded. "This gentleman and I are from the same hometown. I was only six years old at the time, and my family was in the city. When Yue Sinan came to capture people to build the blood pond, my parents hid me in a box in the alley. It's funny, because many people at that time would hide their children. When my parents put me in the box, I met a strange man."
"I can still meet someone like this," Fu Changling laughed, "Isn't it a friend for life and death?"
"If he's still alive... never mind. I never cared about him, and we probably didn't have much of a relationship." The storyteller sighed, as if feeling a bit regretful. Fu Changling asked curiously, "Why? Did something unexpected happen?"
"This man is said to be a strange man, but he was actually very young, two years younger than me at the time." As the storyteller spoke, Fu Changling subconsciously thought of Qin Yan.
Fifteen years ago, when he was four years old, he was the same age as Qin Yan.
"He was a well-known figure in the city back then. He was born from the Qin family, the only immortal sect in the city. He was born with natural spiritual roots. I heard that his parents planned to send him to Hongmeng Heavenly Palace to study, but who knew that he would be born without a soul."
Fu Changling couldn't help but feel sensitive when he heard the surname "Qin". He then asked, "What happened next?"
"After the incident, his parents hid him in a wooden box, and he managed to escape. I was young at the time, and I was only concerned with my own escape. After the city was stabilized and the adults were captured, I secretly crawled out and ignored him. I wandered around the city, searching for food at home. Then I heard that an immortal had arrived, so I hurried out of the city to find my parents. That's when I met this Young Master Qin again."
The storyteller recalled, a look of pity on his face. "He was a fool, his soul missing. He was starving to the point of being skin and bones, and he had obviously not eaten. No one knows how he survived for more than ten days without food. Maybe it was his natural spiritual roots. At that time, all the children rushed to the city gate, and he did too, but he was slower than the others, like..."
The storyteller frowned as he spoke, finally finding the right words: "Like being dragged along by a silken thread, many children have reached the city gate, and he's still walking slowly. I went up to him to answer him, but he remained silent. I didn't have time to deal with him, and he ran off on his own."
"When I ran to the city gate, I saw the monks in the sky explode one by one, and their flesh and blood fell into the huge circular pool. Many children were frightened and cried loudly. I was also scared and stupid. I stood at the city gate and watched those monks fall into the bloody water. There was a girl in purple standing by the pool, calling them dirty."
"And the child?"
For some reason, Fu Changling became extremely concerned about the child.
The intuition of a cultivator is all a hint from Heaven. Although this idea came out of nowhere, Fu Changling did not restrain himself and kept asking.
The storyteller was a talkative person, so he didn't hide anything. He recalled, "All the children were scared, but Young Master Qin wasn't afraid at all. He walked towards the blood pool step by step, with an unusually determined attitude. I called him several times, but he didn't answer me. Sword lights flashed everywhere from the sky, and the purple-robed witches fought fiercely with them below. Young Master Qin was lucky; no one could hit him. I saw him walk into the blood pool and, with a plop, he jumped in."
"Then he must be dead."
The middle-aged man who had spoken earlier frowned and said, "That blood pool is very deep."
"That's what I thought."
The storyteller showed a serious look: "But in fact, it is not like that."
"Is he still alive?"
The others were surprised and asked, and the storyteller's face showed a bit of fear. He nodded and said, "I was so scared at the time that my legs were weak and I couldn't run. Then a rock fell and hit me next to me. I curled up and got stuck between the rocks. Then I saw the monks fighting outside."
"Finally, all the monks were killed, and the blood pool was full of blood. Then, I saw Yue Sinan stumbling to the edge of the blood pool, chanting and jumping. I don't know what he was doing. Then the whole blood pool was boiling, and then that Young Master Qin was sent up!"
The storyteller was shocked. "Not only is he not dead, he even opened his eyes and asked Yue Sinan clearly, 'Is this Yunze?' Isn't that strange? Before, he was soulless and couldn't speak at all."
Fu Changling was shocked when he heard this: "Are you serious?"
"It's absolutely true." The storyteller raised his hand and swore, "I can only say that I may not remember some things clearly, but this is definitely not fabricated."
"And then?"
Fu Changling asked hurriedly.
He suddenly realized that he had been overthinking it. Since Yue Sinan had witnessed Lin Chen's death in Taiping Town, and since Yue Sinan had become a demon, was her resistance simply to go against the immortals and kill a few ordinary people?
Why did she build the Blood Transformation Pool? Who broke the Qi channel seal in Taiping Town?
Could it be that so many Karma Hell monks rushed out from that one meridian seal?
This is the key.
What was the purpose of Yue Sinan frantically building the blood-transforming pool after Lin Chen's death? This is the key!
"Then, I fainted."
The storyteller smiled a little sheepishly: "He was too young, hungry, and frightened."
When Fu Changling heard this, he almost wanted to hit someone.
He controlled his emotions and asked the question he wanted to ask the most: "What is the name of that Young Master Qin?"
If the spiritual root is really still alive, it is impossible for it to be unknown.
The storyteller thought about it and finally remembered the child's name.
"Qin Yan."
When Fu Changling heard this, his eyes suddenly widened. The man clapped his folding fan in his hands, then pointed at Fu Changling and said affirmatively, "His name is Qin Yan."
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