Chapter 297 Jinjiang
After confirming the relationship between Ye Li and Yan Shixun, Li Chengyun suddenly realized what the horoscope he had calculated for Yan Shixun meant.
And he finally realized that perhaps Yan Shixun was able to survive because of the Lord of Fengdu in front of him.
The ghost god bestowed his power on Yan Shixun, allowing his life, which should have been gradually weakened by the ghost energy, to be injected with vitality and vigor again, allowing him to grow smoothly.
Because of this, Yan Shixun had a causal relationship with ghosts and gods.
When Li Chengyun thought about all this, he couldn't help but marvel at the consequences of committing crimes against ghosts and gods.
——In the end, he actually paid with his own body?
Li Chengyun didn't expect that when he heard news about his Xiaoxun again, Xiaoxun had actually been with ghosts and gods.
However, seeing Ye Li's attitude, he felt relieved a little.
What the ghosts and gods say is witnessed by heaven and earth, and the oath cannot be broken.
Even Li Chengyun could see the seriousness and solemnity of the Lord of Fengdu's attitude towards Xiaoxun, which made him feel disappointed but also happy that Xiaoxun was no longer single.
Because of his love for Yan Shixun, Li Chengyun did not hide anything when he told Ye Li about his experiences in the past few years.
In addition to his own judgment on Yeli, he also trusted Xiaoxun's judgment.
He believed that since Xiaoxun had been able to successfully find the old Fengdu, during the years when he was away, Xiaoxun must have grown to a level capable of supporting the world.
Even though Xiaoxun is not good at emotions, he will never misjudge a person's heart. The Lord of Fengdu is trustworthy.
Li Chengyun walked slowly on the battlefield that had been cleared. He lifted his long gown and sat down casually on a boulder. He chuckled and told Ye Li about what he had seen before and after his death.
Yan Shixun has always felt guilty towards Li Chengyun. He thought that if he had not studied at Binhai University that year, he would have gone to the southwest with Li Chengyun as usual and went to Baizhi Lake to resolve the evil spirit.
If that were the case, perhaps Li Chengyun would not have died.
At least, I won't die alone in a strange mountain.
But what Yan Shixun didn't know was that even if he was with Li Chengyun at that time, Li Chengyun would not bring him here.
Some roads can only be walked alone.
For example, death.
During the Lantern Festival that year, wintersweets were slanting outside the courtyard and snow was falling on the palace lanterns.
Li Chengyun stood at the gate of the courtyard with his sleeves gathered, quietly watching Yan Shixun's figure disappear into the distance.
Until the young man's tall back could no longer be seen in his field of vision, the gentle and warm smile on his face gradually disappeared, and he sighed dejectedly.
It was at that time that an old friend called him and told him that the southwestern method of exorcising ghosts that he had been looking for had been found.
Li Chengyun immediately set out from Binhai City, knowing that the method of exorcism that the southwestern exorcists had chosen out of desperation had already been leaked.
It's called the bone-replacing method.
The ghosts in the southwest are unable to reincarnate, and after thousands of years of accumulation, they have seriously squeezed the living space of ordinary people.
Although the exorcists had no choice but to lead the ghosts into the wooden sculptures with live mouths and eyes and then exorcise them, they had already anticipated their own fate before doing so.
——Destroying a person’s soul will eventually have consequences.
The exorcists knew it in their hearts, but for the sake of peace for ordinary people, they still made up their minds and chose to clear out the ghosts.
They are heading for a known death.
What happened later proved that the exorcists were right.
Exorcists know that destroying a person's soul through bone-replacing techniques is beyond the scope of their power.
Therefore, after the ghost was successfully exorcised, several sects that participated in the incident quietly sealed up the magic skills and destroyed all records. Even the wooden sculpture with living mouth and eyes that was used as a carrier at the time, they earnestly instructed the carpenter not to spread it to others, forget about it, and pretend it never happened.
In the years that followed, all the participants died in accidents.
Only some young disciples in the sect who were not directly involved in the incident managed to escape and survive.
However, the secret that should have been forgotten by everyone has resurfaced.
Near Baizhi Lake, some tourists saw wood carvings with living mouths and eyes.
The tourist who was being chased by the wood sculpture in the mountains and forests fled in panic. Finally, before the wood sculpture killed him, the sun rose and a rooster crowed three times. The wood sculpture turned into a motionless dead object again, allowing the tourist to save his life.
After he left Baizhi Lake, he immediately went to find the master, cried and told him all his experiences, and begged the master to save him.
The master happened to be an old friend of Li Chengyun. After realizing the seriousness of the matter, he immediately called Li Chengyun to inform him.
After learning the whole story of that year, Li Chengyun discovered that one of his old friends happened to be a descendant disciple of one of the sects.
The sect has long since withered, and the once young disciples have grown gray hair, but they still keep this secret silently, wanting to remain silent until they die.
Li Chengyun found this old friend and solemnly told him everything he knew. He asked him to go with him to Baizhi Lake, where the evil spirits were most concentrated, to jointly suppress the evil spirits in Baizhi Lake.
The exorcist never expected that despite all the precautions, the secret was still leaked because of the carpenter.
Although he was shocked, he agreed to Li Chengyun's request without any hesitation.
But when he turned to leave, the exorcist held the door frame and looked back at his disciple who was still sleeping with complicated eyes.
He knew that once he left...he might never come back.
The only disciple who depended on him was still too young and had not yet grown up to the point where he could stand on his own.
The child has to walk the future path alone.
Even though he was young, even though life was difficult, the child was the only one left.
Li Chengyun also saw this scene.
He suddenly thought of his own son Xiaoxun, who was also as young as his old friend's disciple. But the difference was that he believed that Xiaoxun would one day grow up to a level that would be able to protect all living things and support the crumbling world after his death.
He picked up the boy at the market ten years ago, but it was not him who gave the boy a home.
But it was the child who gave him a home.
From then on, the leisurely Youyun had a place he wanted to stay, and the Yunhe, who made the world his home, also had someone he cared about, so no matter how far he went, he would come back.
But, finally, it's time to say goodbye.
Li Chengyun sighed and closed his eyes, hiding all the worries and memories in his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, he was still the monk in white with a calm and relaxed smile.
Li Chengyun did not urge them, but just stood quietly outside the door, waiting for his old friend and disciple to say goodbye.
But the old friend just shook his head, sighed, turned around and closed the door.
"The wind is cold, and the child is sleeping soundly. Don't let him get cold."
He did not look back, and took firm and powerful steps: "Let's go to Baizhi Lake."
"Don't worry, your disciple is a good boy."
Li Chengyun sighed and comforted him softly: "Even if we are not here, he will grow into an excellent ghost exorcist. He will continue what we have not finished and turn this dead end..."
"Flatten it into a road to heaven."
The old friend couldn't help but look at Li Chengyun, and the expression of the white-robed Buddhist was extremely serious and solemn.
He was wondering, was the disciple that Mr. Chengyun was talking about his disciple, or the disciple with the appearance of an evil spirit possessed by him?
Old friends can't tell the difference.
But he knew that Li Chengyun was right.
One day, his disciples will find him.
Maybe only a handful of bones will be left, or maybe even no bones will be left, only a handful of ashes... But his disciples will take him home, and then continue what he has not finished.
The inheritance of the great way has never been cut off.
Before heading to Baizhi Lake, Li Chengyun had already figured out that the lake was filled with negative energy and that there were wronged souls lingering around.
But when they actually saw the White Paper Lake with their own eyes, they were still shocked.
It was more than just a heavy yin energy... It was clear that the entire lake was like a yin energy. Others saw a lake, but what the two saw was a pool of stagnant water filled with resentment.
It was as if all the ghosts that had been driven out from the southwest had returned to this lake, and the evil spirits howled day and night.
In the deserted village beside Baizhi Lake that had been uninhabited for a long time, all the belongings were there. It didn't look like someone had moved, but rather like the owner of the house had an accident and never came back.
Based on the remaining objects, Li Chengyun used divination to deduce the cause and effect of Baizhi Lake.
He clearly saw what those people who once lived in the village had done to bring about the massacre of the village.
But at the same time, Li Chengyun was also shocked to find that the ghosts of the villagers were neither taken away by the underworld to be reincarnated, nor left this place.
Instead, he was still left in the deserted village.
Although it was bright in the day, the house was still pitch dark because of the ivy plants that climbed along the walls and wrapped around the doors and windows of the house.
Those ghosts stood quietly behind the windows of the house, looking out silently with their empty eyes, staring at Li Chengyun and the ghost exorcist.
Like a jackal waiting for its opportunity.
The exorcist sighed upon seeing this, and said that the southwest was rumored to be a ghost town, but in this ghost area, not even the figure of the ghost messenger could be seen, and all the dead souls were trapped here.
But Li Chengyun could tell at a glance that there was something wrong with the ghosts of those villagers.
——They are not wandering here because there is no Yincha to guide them. They are being controlled by some existence that does not allow them to leave.
From the divination results, Li Chengyun saw that these villagers had directly or indirectly caused the deaths of others, and therefore bore the sin.
But it’s more than that.
The evil consequences borne by the villagers' ghosts far exceeded the limit of killing one or two people. Instead, it was so serious that it seemed like the death of an entire village and city.
After a brief moment of confusion, Li Chengyun immediately realized that it was not the villagers who killed everyone in the city.
Instead, the villagers killed someone, and that person turned into a ghost because of hatred, and eventually killed countless lives.
The heaven and earth attributed this cause and effect to the villagers, and the sins weighed down their souls to the point of suffocation.
The place where they once lived and committed evil has now become a cage that imprisons them after their death, forcing them to wander there day and night, gradually becoming confused and forgetting who they are but still remembering their sins, suffering from painful torture with no end in sight.
But the village was not really empty.
When he saw the man named Zheng Shuli, Li Chengyun noticed that the ghosts were trembling and scrambling to retreat into the darkness, as if they were afraid of being discovered by Zheng Shuli and bringing new torture upon themselves.
But the next moment, Li Chengyun saw a subtle gap.
Those ghosts were indeed afraid of Zheng Shuli, but not to the point of fear. The emotions that were clearly directed at them seemed more like they were resenting Zheng Shuli for killing them.
What ghosts really fear...
It was the cute little girl held by Zheng Shumu.
The little girl was wearing a beautiful dress. She held Zheng Shumu's hand with one hand, calling him brother with a smile, and held a lifelike little puppet in the other hand.
The puppet moved its thin arms and legs as she skipped and hopped. Its exposed wooden joints made it easy to tell it was a wood sculpture, but the face...
However, it is the pinnacle of wood carving techniques with live mouths and eyes.
At first glance, it looks just like a real person.
The ghost exorcist followed Li Chengyun's gaze and when he saw the wood carving with a living mouth and eyes, he was so astonished that he immediately wanted to go forward and ask.
But he was stopped by Li Chengyun.
He chuckled and slowly shook his head towards his old friend, forming seals with his hands so as not to let the slightly weird brother and sister discover them.
Zheng Shumu and his sister walked past Li Chengyun without noticing the two strangers.
But when the sister walked over, the little puppet in her arms moved its hands and feet, raised its hand and grabbed her hair.
"Um?"
The younger sister asked in confusion, paused, slowly turned around and looked directly at where Li Chengyun and the other were hiding.
When the exorcist saw the little girl's eyes clearly, he was shocked and quickly raised his hands to cover his mouth and nose to prevent himself from making any sound.
This time, without Li Chengyun's reminder, he tried to reduce his presence as much as possible, for fear that the little girl would discover their presence.
Compared with his old friend's nervousness, Li Chengyun seemed so calm. Through an invisible formation, he even looked down at the little girl with a smile and recognized her true identity in just a few glances.
This child... is a ghost baby.
He died before he was born with full of resentment, but was unwilling to lose the chance to be reborn, so he tore open his mother's belly and crawled out.
Yet, he was raised as a human being and grew up to an innocent age.
Then, the ghost baby awakened, remembered its past resentment, and became an extremely ferocious ghost.
Even, controlled the entire village.
That's why the ghosts are so afraid of her.
Li Chengyun raised his eyebrows and looked at the little girl with deep and inquiring eyes.
Not all dead fetuses can become ghost babies.
The right time, the right place and the right people are all essential.
The most important thing is the power that supports the fetus's tender soul to become a ghost baby.
This was not the first time that Li Chengyun had seen a ghost baby. In the books he had collected, there were many records of the evil techniques of "creating" ghost babies.
In order to increase their own strength and make up for their own lack of talent, some unconventional exorcists will set their sights on vulnerable pregnant women.
By controlling the time, place and ghost energy, killing the pregnant woman at the most evil moment, then performing a cesarean section to take out the fetus that was suffocated to death in the womb, and transferring power to the dead fetus, it is possible to artificially create a ghost baby.
Because they die at the moment before they are born and fail at the last moment of successful reincarnation, ghost babies often have extraordinary resentment and the power that comes with it.
Those exorcists who use evil magic carry ghost babies with them and manipulate them for their own use. They can then scare away groups of ghosts and even plunder other people's luck to serve the big money sponsors.
However, Li Chengyun has never seen a ghost exorcist who used this method and had a good ending.
Although many people do not believe in cause and effect, it has always existed, invisible but omnipresent. Even small good and small evil can accumulate into a mountain.
What’s more, this method of using ghost babies to rob people.
Anyone who steals from others will be given back double. Anyone who harms others will eventually die.
Whether it was the resentment of the ghost baby itself, or the cause and effect of stealing other people's property, in the end most of the ghost exorcists died from the backlash of the awakening ghost baby.
Although many people don’t know this.
Including those big moneybags who pay for luck, many of them actually don’t know the specific operation methods, but they are tempted to pay after hearing the exorcist’s promise.
But Li Chengyun was obviously not among those people.
Li Chengyun has seen and even personally dealt with situations where a ghost baby turned against its exorcist and the situation became hopeless.
Therefore, he could easily distinguish the subtle differences between the ghost babies. With a little identification, he could tell the specific reason for the formation of the ghost babies, whether it was a man-made disaster, or...
It's a ghost.
But one thing that is very obvious is that the little girl in front of him is not an artificially created ghost baby.
The black energy that surrounded her almost swallowed her whole.
Even if she stood in the sun, in Li Chengyun's eyes, she was just a ghost that the sun could not penetrate.
The only reason why such a strong and powerful ghost aura reminded Li Chengyun of the old Fengdu.
——Another important reason why he came to the Bai clan village was the southwestern shadow puppetry that originated here.
According to legend, the location of Fengdu, which no one can find, is hidden in the drama of southwestern shadow puppetry.
Because the predecessor of Southwestern shadow puppetry was ghost play.
Although Li Chengyun came here for this purpose, he remained on the sidelines towards this statement.
It was not until he saw the ghost baby that he suddenly realized that the rumors were most likely true.
Otherwise, it is impossible to explain where the ghost energy that forms the ghost baby comes from.
The little girl was like a cat that had set its sights on a fish, staring at the empty darkness but refusing to leave.
Her beautiful eyes were wide open, but they did not have the beauty and innocence of a child. Instead, they were terrifyingly empty and dead, like two inorganic black glass beads.
The ghost exorcist hiding behind the formation was also frightened by the look of the little girl who lowered her head and looked up. His heart was pounding and the fear of being discovered followed him like a shadow.
Li Chengyun gathered his sleeves and lowered his eyes. The smile that had been hanging on his lips had long since faded away, leaving only calm brows as he stared at the little girl across the formation.
“Sweet.”
Just then, Zheng Shumu saw his sister who refused to leave, and he spoke out in confusion, calling her to go home.
The little girl curled her lips, took a last deep look at the air in front of her, then skipped away with Zheng Shumu.
But Li Chengyun noticed that when Zheng Shumu took his sister away, his eyes glanced at him vaguely, and then quickly retracted their gazes.
It seemed like just a coincidence in a casual glance.
But it was still captured by Li Chengyun's keenness.
Zheng Shumu’s eyes are different from the ghost baby’s.
The ghost baby could only feel that there seemed to be something unusual about the place where they were hiding because of the existence of ghost energy.
But her sight was swaying without a focus. She knew there was something here, something was wrong, but she couldn't see what it was.
But Zheng Shumu had already found the target when he looked over.
——Zheng Shumu saw them, but did not tell the ghost baby. He even took the initiative to help them lead away the ghost baby who would soon discover them.
He didn't know their exact identities, but wanted to leave them a chance to survive.
Li Chengyun watched Zheng Shumu's gradually receding back with great interest, and took note of this carpenter who inherited the tradition of wood carving with living mouths and eyes.
The old friend was also frightened to the point of limpness all over. It took him a long time to finally recover from the look in the ghost baby's eyes, but he still couldn't help but feel weak in the legs.
When Li Chengyun asked with concern, his old friend smiled bitterly and said that in his decades of career as an exorcist, he had never seen such a terrifying existence. Just a look from it was far superior to that of an ordinary evil ghost.
No, rather than being a ghost, the child was more like a collection of all ghosts.
It was as if all the ghosts in the entire southwest had gathered their resentment and gathered in her eyes.
After hearing what his old friend said, Li Chengyun became more certain of his guess.
He explained his guess to his old friend, and then decided to postpone the search for the successor of the ghost play and instead verify the relationship between Fengdu and the ghost baby.
The old friend immediately agreed and reached into his arms to take out the compass.
But the compass exploded in the old friend's hand just after the cloth strips were untied.
The ghostly aura in the village was far beyond the range that the compass could withstand.
Fortunately, at the moment the compass exploded, Li Chengyun saw with his sharp eyes that the source of the power that detonated the compass was pointing outside the village.
And the place with the heaviest yin energy there is... Baizhi Lake.
In the past, when villagers died in an "accident", they would leave the village along the road near the lake and go to the ancestral tomb on the mountain for burial. During the funeral procession, paper money would fly into the sky and then cover the lake.
The layers of paper money covered the lake water completely, just like the ghosts of the villagers, never leaving the lake to see the light of day.
Li Chengyun was confused about the center of Baizhi Lake and decided to check out the entire abandoned village before sunset.
For an ordinary exorcist, knowing that all the villagers in the village are dead and even that there is a strong ghost aura everywhere, but still staying here is tantamount to seeking death.
But whether it is Li Chengyun or the exorcist, both of them are experienced people and are not afraid of death. Therefore, they are particularly open and frank when walking in the village.
When turning around the village road, he suddenly came face to face with a ghost standing silently in the dark corner. Li Chengyun calmly took two steps back and put some distance between himself and the ghost.
He even smiled and gently asked the ghost if he knew anything about the ghost baby.
The ghost was so frightened when he heard Li Chengyun say the three words "little girl" that he turned around and tried to run away.
But Li Chengyun dragged the head back and said to the ghost with a smile: "If you refuse to tell me, I will go and tell the ghost baby that you told me everything. On the contrary, if you tell me, I will keep it a secret for you."
The ghost looked at Li Chengyun with eyes full of hurt and disbelief. He never expected that a living person could be more like a ghost than a ghost.
If the ghost baby knew that it was the one who leaked the secret, the ghost already imprisoned here by the ghost baby would only face even more horrific torture.
Li Chengyun borrowed the power of the ghost baby and scared the ghost baby's minions. It didn't take much effort for him to learn from the ghost everything that had happened in the Bai village.
But he did not feel the joy of the plan going smoothly. He was only left with the feeling of "as expected". With compassion for the ghost baby's experience, he picked up the ghost and threw it into the White Paper Lake.
The ghost screamed and cursed, and tried desperately to struggle away from the White Paper Lake out of fear, but an invisible force pulled it back, gradually dragging it under the water and gradually submerging it.
Li Chengyun stood on the shore with his sleeves folded, watching everything happen calmly.
When the ghost scolded him, he was still in the mood to smile and replied: "How did I lie to you? Didn't we agree that I would keep it a secret for you after you told me? You see, this method of keeping secrets is absolutely foolproof. Even if the ghost baby knows, it can't find you."
Li Chengyun chuckled and said to his old friend: "Young people nowadays, how can they believe what people say? When we teach our disciples, don't we also remind them not to believe in nonsense?"
He spread his hands, looking calm and composed, not even hinting that he had just made an evil ghost dizzy.
The evil ghost thrown into Baizhi Lake by Li Chengyun further confirmed his guess about Baizhi Lake.
The evil ghost is like the raw meat that is thrown into the crocodile pond first to explore the way, so that people on the shore can fully see the danger under the pond.
Under the stunned gaze of his old friend, Li Chengyun turned around and re-entered the village, and thoroughly checked all the families mentioned by the ghost who were related to the death of Carpenter Zheng's family.
In addition to the traces of burns in the house, Li Chengyun also saw wood carvings hidden in the darkness.
Each family’s wood carvings with living mouths and eyes look exactly like the former owner of the family.
Old friends concluded that Zheng Shumu must have done this for revenge, so after the villagers died, he stuffed the villagers' ghosts into the wood carvings in an attempt to completely get rid of the ghosts.
But Li Chengyun has another guess.
"It's not Zheng Shumu."
Li Chengyun recalled that Zheng Shumu was willing to help them out even though he had clearly seen them, and said calmly, "It was the ghost baby who did it."
The old friend was astonished: "But, can a ghost baby be a wooden sculpture with a living mouth and eyes?"
“Guilt.”
Li Chengyun slowly gave his answer: "The guilt towards others will become a hell that binds oneself."
Li Chengyun saw clearly that from the divination results, it was not the ghost baby but Zheng Shumu who killed the villagers.
But many years ago, when the young man massacred the entire village to avenge the death of his parents and sister, he did not return to the human world.
Instead, he fell into a deeper hell.
Zheng Shumu was clearly smiling, and his sister was right next to him.
But he was in hell and suffering all the time.
Li Chengyun therefore speculated that the villager wood carvings were carved by Zheng Shumu and then controlled by the ghost baby.
——Out of guilt towards his sister, Zheng Shumu would not refuse any of her requests.
For him, being used by his sister is also a way to alleviate his guilt, it is his atonement.
Li Chengyun sighed: "He is also a pitiful person."
However, the wood carvings found in every household also aroused Li Chengyun's vigilance.
He immediately set off for the ancestral tomb in the Bai village with his old friend.
The Buddhist in white rolled up his sleeves, broke off a branch nearby, chanted an incantation, and began to dig up someone's ancestral grave.
The old friend was so shocked by Li Chengyun's actions that his mouth opened wide and he was stunned for a long time.
"It's not a good idea to dig up other people's graves." The old friend hesitated.
But Li Chengyun moved swiftly and skillfully. While his old friend was hesitating, he had already dug up all the graves whose death times on the tombstones matched the time of the village massacre.
The coffin is opened.
The old friend widened his eyes in astonishment, rushed over in disbelief, leaned over the coffin and looked inside, confirming several times.
——The coffin is empty.
There were no rotting corpses, no bones, and not even any pus stains left over from the decay of flesh and blood.
From the beginning, the body was not buried in a coffin.
"The siblings hated the villagers and didn't even want to give their souls peace after death. How could they allow their bodies to be buried peacefully?"
Li Chengyun was not surprised by this result.
He kicked his feet and jumped up from the grave, landed lightly on the ground, brushed off the dust on his body, and was still the carefree hermit.
It was as if the person who had just dug the grave and opened the coffin decisively and quickly was not him.
Before his old friend could recover from his shock, Li Chengyun had already raised his head and looked at the woods behind the ancestral grave.
He asked his old friend if these trees looked familiar to him.
"Acacia tree."
“The wood carvings we saw in the village just now were also carved from locust trees.”
Li Chengyun lowered his eyes slightly and figured everything out in an instant.
Sophora japonica is the most vulnerable tree species to ghosts, and the wood carvings with moving mouths and eyes were created to allow ghosts to parasitize...
In this unknown little village beside Baizhi Lake, a huge ghost energy is brewing. If it is not stopped, it will eventually erupt and affect the entire southwest region.
On their way back from the mountain, the two saw the same abandoned temple.
The statues inside had long disappeared, leaving only the ritual vessels that were toppled over and covered with thick dust.
The murals depict not the gods that were once worshipped here, but the faces of the villagers who funded the construction of this place. They are all beaming with joy and high spirits.
The old friend bent down to pick up the ritual objects one by one, placed them on the altar, wiped off the dust, and then bowed respectfully and solemnly towards the altar without the statue.
"They are all made of gold and silver. This village was once rich and prosperous, but unfortunately, people have no moral integrity and cannot keep their wealth."
"There is no statue in the temple, or it may have been broken into pieces when the ghost baby appeared."
Li Chengyun said calmly: "If we want to suppress the evil spirit in Baizhi Lake, we can only find another talisman."
"Can you subdue that kind of ghost baby?"
The old friend smiled bitterly: "It's easier said than done."
The old friend was still racking his brains to think of a solution, but Li Chengyun remembered this sentence.
He couldn't help but wonder, if Fengdu was indeed here, then why has no one been able to find it in the past thousand years, no matter how powerful the monk was?
Maybe... it's because Fengdu was also suppressed by the talisman?
It's not that no one can find Fengdu, but that Fengdu is simply no longer accessible to the human world, so apart from rumors spreading, no one has ever seen Fengdu.
With such speculation, Li Chengyun went to find Zheng Shumu early the next morning.
He stood in front of Zheng Shumu, his figure as tall as a pine tree, the corners of his snow-white gown fluttering, and he said to Zheng Shumu with a smile: "You have the ability to save more people."
"You are very aware of your sister's situation, so you must also know what the consequences will be if she loses control."
Li Chengyun sighed softly: "Why don't you let yourself go? You have been imprisoned for long enough. Now that you have avenged yourself, you should live a few days of quiet and happy life like an ordinary person."
From the moment Zheng Shumu took the initiative to rescue him, in Li Chengyun's mind, there was one more thing about Zheng Shumu besides being the inheritor of wood carving with living mouths and eyes and the son who avenged his parents.
——Someone who still has a bit of kindness towards the world.
Although Zheng Shumu had hatred, it was directed at the villagers of Bai village.
When he left Bai's village to seek survival, many kind people helped him. Zheng Shumu had no intention of killing those people.
But on one side is my sister, and on the other side is a stranger.
Zheng Shumu hesitated on both sides of the scale.
Only Li Chengyun saw the kindness hidden in Zheng Shumu's heart and was willing to take the initiative to add weight to one side of the scale.
Li Chengyun stayed in the Bai village temporarily.
In addition to Zheng Shumu, he also found another person living here.
He is Master Bai who inherited the Southwestern ghost show.
From Master Bai, Li Chengyun heard the complete inheritance, vaguely glimpsed the truth of a thousand years ago, and also learned about the changes in Fengdu.
At that moment, Li Chengyun suddenly understood everything.
He was also more certain that the old Fengdu was probably under the Baizhi Lake, and that there was a talisman guarding the old Fengdu that would not allow the old Fengdu to reappear.
After getting the answer he wanted, Li Chengyun said goodbye to Zheng Shumu.
Although they had only been together for a few short days, Zheng Shumu was truly impressed by this lay Buddhist. He not only regarded Li Chengyun as a close friend, but also as his mentor, who solved his doubts of many years and relieved his pain.
Zheng Shumu was very worried when he learned that Li Chengyun was leaving.
He knew Li Chengyun's purpose, and therefore knew that once Li Chengyun left, he might never come back.
“Some people live for a hundred years, but they are depressed every day, just like pigs and dogs.”
Li Chengyun looked at Zheng Shumu gently and advised him for the last time: "No matter what your past and cause and effect are, no matter what your identity is, as long as you stick to your own path and protect all living things, you are qualified to be a cultivator."
“To die for one’s cause is also a kind of happiness.”
Li Chengyun nodded slightly to Zheng Shumu and said, "After I leave, the safety of the southwest will be in your hands."
"Brother Tree."
Zheng Shumu watched Li Chengyun leave the Bai village.
But what Zheng Shumu didn't know was that Li Chengyun jumped into Baizhi Lake after leaving the village.
He allowed himself to sink to the bottom of the lake.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, Li Chengyun saw the scene at the bottom of the lake clearly.
——There, there is an abandoned city.
The city was shrouded in a thick ghostly aura, with corpses that had turned into bones scattered around, but not a single fish.
Some of them were rotten corpses that followed the smell and swam towards Li Chengyun.
But Li Chengyun laughed.
A series of bubbles rose up, and the white gown floated in the water, beautiful like a dream.
At the bottom of the dark lake, Li Chengyun's eyes were calm. He calmly stretched out his arms and allowed the rotten corpses to surround him.
On his lips was a smile of success.
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