Thirty-six old places revisited
After Liu Dazhu finished speaking, he turned around and swam out the door as if possessed by a ghost. He was a mermaid, and with a flick of his tail, Lu Yinche couldn't catch up even with ten paddles. He didn't have time to say anything more to Yan Yanshu and chased after him.
Leaving the Turtle Palace, they were greeted by the endless expanse of the ocean floor. Strangely, wherever Liu Dazhu passed, small, round, lantern-like flowers lit up on the water's surface. They lit up when he passed and faded away when he left, like fleeting footprints. Yet, the two humans who followed him showed no reaction, perhaps a merman trait.
Yan Yanshu's expression was serious: "Are you sure you want to follow him?"
Lu Yinche didn't know what was going to happen next. He thought of the strange scales in the pot: "It can't really be the Dragon God's summons. What am I telling you? Was there a second mermaid in that room just now? Or do I actually have some dragon bloodline that I don't even know about? Hey, awesome."
He suddenly remembered the words he heard in his dizziness.
From the depths of the sea, human bones are taken, soaked in dragon blood, and used as a sacrifice to the souls of the world to create the [Guan Sheng Flute].
That was the voice of his master Xiaoyao Sanren.
The Anling Lamp, the Tracing World Mirror, the Questioning Heart Bell, and the Observing Life Flute—these are the names of four magical artifact blueprints left behind by an ancient Taoist ancestor. The Anling Lamp was personally crafted by Xiaoyao Sanren. Upon its creation, it was recognized by the Heavenly Dao, bestowed with the brilliance only a saint could bestow. For a mere object to achieve such status, one can only imagine its preciousness.
The Tracing World Mirror is a treasure passed down through generations in the Xuanji Pavilion, and it's unclear which immortal master forged it. Wei Qi previously said that Lu Yinche had carelessly smashed it into pieces, taking most of the fragments with him, leaving only a small amount, which is still on display in the Xuanji Pavilion. Last time at the auction, when Lu Yinche's identity was revealed, this group surprisingly didn't attack him directly, a prime example of someone who runs away immediately when they see the situation is bad.
As for the Heart-Searching Bell and the Reincarnation Flute, Lu Yinche had only heard of them before and had no memory of actually seeing them.
What is the relationship between Long Lin, Guan Sheng Di, and the master?
Lu Yinche's mind raced, and then he pretended to ask casually, "Was that really the Heart-Searching Bell you were holding that day?"
Yan Yanshu stared at the mermaid rushing forward in front of him, holding the water-repellent beads in his hand, and said "hmm".
"How did you get it?" Lu Yinche laughed. "Can you tell me? Wei Qi said I used it to blow up Tianmen. I still don't know what the Heart-Questioning Bell can be used for. You came against the light that day, so cool. The sound of the bell was enough to dissolve the sword formation. It's amazing."
Yan Yanshu gave a vague answer: "An old friend asked me to do it." He then said: "The Heart-Searching Bell has the effect of clearing the mind and brightening the spirit. My sword skills are so sharp that they can stop killing by killing. The sound of the bell can amplify this effect."
Lu Yinche wanted to ask him about the origins of this old friend and whether he knew him, but at this time Liu Dazhui in front of him had stopped. A circle of fluorescent grass around him illuminated the surrounding wreckage - countless bones, huge bones, gray-black, washed by the eddies in the sea.
Lu Yinche narrowed his eyes: "Is this, a dragon tomb?"
When he was young, he visited the Turtle Palace and met the mermaids. He also knew some of the surrounding conditions, such as the fact that a tribe of dragons had also inhabited the area thousands of years ago. However, dragons' personalities were difficult to judge. They were lazy in cultivation and extremely aggressive. Their reproduction was even more difficult than that of mermaids, making it difficult for them to live in groups in one place, let alone build their own homes like mermaids. As a result, the area had long been desolate.
He had been to this place once and seen the dragon bones, but it didn't feel so eerie and terrifying at that time.
It may be a problem with the light source. In the past, mermaids would carry lanterns to pick a kind of seaweed growing beside the dragon bones.
Liu Dazhu was standing in front of them, looking up at the dragon bones, blankly like a statue.
Lu Yinche walked over and saw that there was a mermaid about three or four meters away from him. He looked closely and saw that there was another mermaid in front of him, maintaining the same posture. It was Liu Yixia, the owner of the pot.
He thought the situation of these two people was strange and it seemed that they should not be woken up easily, so he and Yan Yanshu went around to the front and walked into the shadow covered by the dragon bones.
The feeling of being attacked by the picture did not appear again.
Walking forward, the light of the water-repellent beads swept across forty-two ribs. The dragon's spine seemed to have pierced into the seabed, leaving a huge gap. The broken tail was poorly preserved and only a vague outline could be seen.
There is a huge black stone there.
There are faint scratches on it.
Lu Yinche performed the Mingguang technique and leaned forward.
A golden lotus was painted on it. Paint of an unknown substance flowed through the inscribed marks, moving without force, yet never stagnating. A faint sword energy clung to it, its power never fully dissipated, even after being submerged in seawater for an incalculable amount of time.
Lu Yinche was shocked.
Yan Yanshu also saw that: "Your lotus sword intent?" He frowned.
Lu Yinche naturally recognized it, with its twenty-two overlapping petals. The question was, was he in the habit of doing something like this, a fancy version of "I've been here"?
He nodded and walked around to the back of the stone. Sure enough, there was a line of words written on it:
Today I meet Brother Long and am very happy. I made a lotus to commemorate it.
——Naruno
It really is his handwriting.
Lu Yinche explained: "When I was young, I couldn't come up with a name, so I used this as a pen name or pseudonym."
Yan Yanshu nodded: "I know."
He'd already lost so many memories that this one wasn't too hard to accept. But what concerned Lu Yinche more was the date: September of the twelfth year of Xiazhu.
What era was Xiazhu? Lu Yinche was familiar with it; he had broken through to the Spiritual Transformation stage during this era. The next era was the Qiuwo era, and Lu Yinche's memories dated back to the forty-seventh year of Qiuwo, when he had retreated to attempt a breakthrough to the Guixu realm, but to no avail. When he opened his eyes, it was five hundred years later.
It was precisely because the era name Qiuwo had not yet ended that the 64th year of Qiuwo was also known as the first year of Tianmu.
"Twelve years of Xiazhu... I'm here?" Lu Yinche was very confused.
He must have come to the bottom of the sea to live with the mermaids earlier, or even much earlier.
Yan Yanshu said calmly, "In the twelfth year of Xiazhu, in March, the Immortal Alliance gathered, and you were there. In September, there was a sect competition, and your sect didn't participate, but you were a judge, so you were there too."
After hearing what he said, Lu Yinche didn't immediately think about how this person could remember it so clearly. He began to murmur, "Sect Competition? It seems like there was such a thing. Was it that person, ah, Gong Jue, Gong Jin's younger brother, who took first place that time?"
Yan Yanshu shook his head: "I don't remember."
Lu Yinche didn't take it seriously. The sect competition only happened every fifty years, and it had been so many years. Yan Yanshu's brain was too precious to be memorizing such things. He was very sure, "I remember now. Yes, it was that time when Gong Jin asked me to look after his brother and make sure he didn't get his brains beaten out."
He looked at the familiar words on the stone, extremely confused. "Could it be that I was too bored at the time, so I set up a substitute and ran out to play? No way, I don't remember that. I am still a very responsible person, right? I promised Gong Jin..."
At this moment, Yan Yanshu stretched out his hand, and a ray of green light shot out from his heart, reaching the top of the stone. He then retracted his hand, and in his palm appeared something new, something Lu Yinche had never seen before: dragon scales.
This piece of luster is much darker than the one that was soaked in the soup before, but it is also gray-black, and the edges are polished neatly, like the shape of a peach heart.
Yan Yanshu took a look at it and handed it to Lu Yinche.
"How do you know there's this thing on it?" He took it, not expecting Yan Yanshu to answer. He rubbed his fingers on the scales a few times, and it felt like jade.
Salty, he thought suddenly.
Why do I think so? Have I licked it?
He opened his mouth and was about to speak when he heard the deep voice again, "You're back—"
It was not emitted by Liu Dazhu, but came from the huge dragon bone beside him.
Lu Yinche put away his relaxed expression and asked, "Who?"
A bright white light suddenly appeared around, and then countless such lights lit up like stars. Looking closely, they all came from the dragon bones, layer after layer, instantly forming a circular circle around the surrounding space.
“You’re back—”
The sound came from all directions.
"Is this world good?"
The overlapping pronunciations made the sentence very unclear, and Lu Yinche had a hard time making it out.
How should I answer this? Okay, that's good. It's just that the Heavenly Gate blew a hole in my body, but on the bright side, everyone can live a life of immortality, with plenty of Gangqi.
Lu Yinche thought so in his heart, but his mouth was out of control.
He heard his own voice, which sounded no different from usual. He laughed first, then said, "Very good, this is what we wanted. Very good, you can rest in peace."
"good."
The voice is heavy and you can hear some satisfaction.
Then, those spots of light seemed to have run out of lamp oil and dimmed one after another. The surroundings returned to darkness. The dragon skeleton was even more lifeless than before, and everything was terrifyingly silent.
Lu Yinche turned around and asked, "What possessed me just now?"
Yan Yanshu shook his head. He had been paying attention.
Lu Yinche frowned. He looked up at the huge skeleton and gently placed his hand on the dragon bone. He didn't feel anything because of the thin film that repelled water beads.
Was the person who just talked to him the "Brother Long" written on the stone?
Do I really know him?
Who is talking to the dragon? Is it really me?
Is the person I think I am really living inside my body?
Yan Yanshu took a step forward and raised his hand to press down his frowning brow: "Don't think about it."
"What do you know?"
Yan Yanshu shook his head: "I can't say."
He pointed upwards, and beyond the gap in the keel, he could see the dark ocean. But Lu Yinche knew that further up, beyond the sea, was the sky of this world, and the vast and traceless way of heaven.
Lu Yinche couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in his heart.
Could it be that he had done something so important that he had to hide it from the Heavenly Dao, so that even someone at Yan Yanshu's level would have so many concerns?
Without time to think, Liu Dazhu howled: "I didn't eat your fish!"
Lu Yinche looked back and saw that the two mermaids had already left their previous state. One of them was grabbing the collar of the other. "I can smell it all. The smell of pickled cabbage on you! My pickled cabbage smell!"
"We don't have any on us, right? We haven't eaten this yet. It's such a shame..." Lu Yinche lowered his head and sniffed his collar, then wanted to sniff Yan Yanshu's. The latter paused, then he realized that this action was a bit inappropriate, and quickly stepped back.
Yan Yanshu's expression was regretful.
Lu Yinche pretended not to see it, turned around and waved to the mermaids, as if he was very busy: "Hold on, here."
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