After a sleepless night, Xu Milu got up very early the next day. As soon as it was light, she left her room and headed towards the weapon-refining room.
According to legend, Zhenyuan Daxian was a figure from the primordial era. Therefore, the temple does not worship the Three Pure Ones or any other gods or Buddhas, but only Heaven and Earth. This is also reflected in the weapon-refining garden.
The garden's furnishings are arranged haphazardly, and the architectural style seems to be a random, haphazard creation. Rare and exotic animals can be found everywhere in the garden, such as white jade lions, green qilin, red-haired hou beasts, and blue-eyed bifang, all of which are ferocious beasts rarely seen in the outside world.
There were also cranes and monkeys playing and frolicking in the tall trees of the park, or huddling together and playing, or flapping their wings and soaring into the clouds, or lying lazily in the grass and sunbathing, looking very happy.
Someone was already waiting in the garden; it was a beautiful woman in a feathered robe shrouded in mist, her hair half-hidden. Unlike the Hu family uncle and nephew, who were obsessed with achieving a perfect human form, this fairy could be recognized at a glance as "a demon."
Adorned with jade and floral ornaments, a patch of fine blue feathers sprouted from near the center of her forehead. These shimmering blue feathers, reflecting the sunlight, extended to behind her ears, forming a pair of long, slender flight feathers. Her dark red eyelashes were exaggerated yet stunning, and her large, black pupils blinked rapidly, carrying a hint of inhuman horror.
"I am Aqing, the little demon who guards this weapon-refining garden. Senior Sister Mingyue instructed me that Fairy Xu will be starting to refine weapons in the next few days, so I have prepared everything that is needed. Please come with me, Fairy."
Her head would twitch occasionally as she spoke, revealing a hint of avian instinct.
Xu Milu understood.
The Qing in front of her was the same poisonous bird she had seen yesterday.
Legend has it that this monster lives in Jambudvipa (the southern continent of the Southern Continent). It is gentle by nature and has brightly colored feathers. Jambudvipa is full of insect fog and poisonous insects, and the poisonous bird feeds on these highly venomous insects. Over time, these toxins have permeated the bird's entire body.
Dipping a poisonous bird in wine turns it into a deadly poison called "poison wine." If a poisonous bird dies in a certain place, a plague will break out there. Therefore, most people avoid it like the plague. Xu Milu rarely saw poisonous birds in the Tang Dynasty, let alone poisonous demons that had become spirits.
“Sister Aqing, there’s no need for that. I’m still young, not even a hundred years old, and my knowledge is far less than yours. I’ll be bothering you a lot these next few days. If you don’t mind, just call me Mi Lu.”
Xu Milu found that although A Qing was beautiful, she had a gentle and kind personality, which made her feel even more fond of her. After the two became a little more familiar, she asked the question that had been bothering her:
"Sister Aqing, I've heard that there are many different demons in the Southern Continent than in the other continents, but why are they so rarely seen traveling around the continents within the Tang Dynasty?"
“There is a natural chasm between the Southern Jambudvipa and the other continents. Mortals and immortals can cross it, but demons cannot. Therefore, the Southern Jambudvipa is the only continent in the Tang Kingdom with few demons.”
As Aqing led the way, he turned his head at an extremely dangerous angle, 180 degrees, and smiled as he answered her:
“I was born on Mount Meiguang in the Southern Continent. I was captured by local farmers and brought back to Chengyang to be presented to the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. The Emperor of the Later Han Dynasty used my feathers to poison Lady Gouyi and then imprisoned my original body in the deep palace.”
After the Northern Wei dynasty was founded by the Tuoba clan, I fell into their hands. The Tuoba clan was even more troublesome. Emperor Wen Tuoba Hong was poisoned by Empress Dowager Feng, Emperor Xiaoming Yuan Xu was poisoned by his birth mother Hu Chonghua, Emperor Jiemin Yuan Gong was poisoned by the powerful minister Gao Huan, and Emperor Xiaowu Yuan Xiu was poisoned by Yuwen Tai...
The mother killed her son, the son killed his minister, the minister killed his ruler, and so on and so forth. The Tuoba family has almost plucked all the hair off my body!
Later, I don't know how, during the palace turmoil, someone accidentally opened the cage that imprisoned me, which gave me the opportunity to escape.
"Thanks to the kindness of the master of the temple, I was taken in to live as a practitioner in this weapon-refining garden. My daily tasks include sweeping, watering, guarding the storeroom, burning incense, and planting tea..."
As Aqing narrated, Xu Milu's expression gradually became strange.
Good heavens!
From Emperor Wu of Han to the present day, nearly eight hundred years have passed. Aqing's former "clients" range from Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, to Tuoba Gui, the founding emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Looking at their "achievements," from Lady Gouyi to several emperors of the Tuoba clan, one or two of them, all with names and surnames, died after drinking the same poisoned wine.
—They even specifically kill members of the royal family. I see, it's for the exclusive use of the royal family, right?
It has a kind of dark humor that's both funny and absurd.
This is definitely a hellish joke.
However, Aqing herself didn't care about this past and angrily told Xu Milu about it.
"They are really strange. They feed me delicious food (poisonous snakes and insects) and drink good wine (poisonous herbs and juices) every day, and they even rinse my feathers in smelly water (wine)."
As she spoke, the small patch of blue feathers on Aqing's forehead stood on end, as if she was so angry that her fur stood on end.
"Killing someone is just a matter of stabbing them with a knife versus chopping them with an axe. Yet people insist on tearing off my feathers. The most poisonous part of a poisonous bird is clearly its droppings, but everyone in the world only knows that my poisonous feathers killed someone. It's unbelievable!"
Put yourself in Xu Milu's shoes; if someone plucked her hair every day, she definitely wouldn't be happy.
Oh, extra money is another matter.
...
...
Right behind the weapon-refining garden is a main hall. Outside the hall, there is plenty of moisture, and droplets of water float in the air, turning into mist. When people walk on the steps, this mist will envelop them like a tide, making their skirts hazy and blurry as they move, as if they are walking on clouds.
Stepping into the main hall, one gets a completely different feeling. The entire hall is several tens of feet high, with clusters of silver mercury floating overhead, arranged in the direction of stars, changing unpredictably. Upon closer inspection, one can see that the ceiling of the hall has no end in sight, layer upon layer reaching to the heavens, with no end in sight.
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