"Such a good girl, why do you look at me with disgust?"

"Because she's silly and a little self-indulgent."

"She has eyes full of you. She will definitely cry when she hears you say that."

"Senior, have you ever loved someone?"

This question was a bit abrupt, but no matter how he asked it, Master Xuyun just shook his head. How could he have loved anyone? He was a monk!

“What does it feel like to fall in love with someone?”

Xuyun suddenly felt curious. In this life, he had never loved anything, only the supreme faith in Buddha. Now seeing Xia Xiao like this, Xuyun always felt that love was not simple. It was similar to the relationship between a teacher and a student, and the friendship between companions, but it was also above them and difficult to surpass.

"It's like... a very lonely whale that has been swimming in the sea for a long time, even for two lifetimes. It has never had a companion, and the sea is vast, with only strangeness and fear of the unknown. This whale also wants to find another fish, which can be a shark or a starfish, but everything goes against it. But finally one day, he met a whale like himself. They swam in the sea together, played together, and when they parted, they thought about meeting again, and when they met again, they never wanted to part."

"This kind of feeling is a bit like attachment. When they are separated occasionally, they are the motivation for each other to get through the big waves. They want to spend the rest of their lives together, want to sacrifice themselves for each other, and are even willing to do things for each other that they don't want to do. Senior, my understanding is superficial. The feeling of loving someone is really good, and it is really painful to lose it."

"Can I understand this as imposing beliefs on a real object?"

Xia Xiao nodded and listened to Xu Yun:

"If that's the case, love is above liking, because liking means wanting something, while love can be obtained or not. Because you said before that love can make sacrifices for the other person, and even do things for the other person that you don't want to do."

"Then I may not be considered to love Buddha. This word is not serious when applied to Buddha. Besides, I will not do something I don't want to do because of Buddha."

"Slaying demons and eliminating evil is a matter of responsibility. Aren't the precepts and rules what Buddha asks you to do?"

When Master Xuyun heard this, he shook his head disapprovingly.

"The precepts and rules are rules, and they are also a kind of thought. Since they are clearly stated thoughts, they are constantly changing. This kind of thing should be called old rules. Old rules cannot control newcomers. At most, they are just a spiritual inheritance, just like monks don't eat meat. In fact, it is not a rule, because if you really don't eat meat for more than ten or twenty years, your body can't bear it, especially for warriors. Therefore, some monks who are practitioners eat meat even in Tanghua Temple."

"So, the Buddha didn't tell the monks to do exactly what they did?"

"Maybe there really is a Buddha in the world, but if there is, why doesn't he come to the wilderness to save all living beings? I believe in Buddha because it brings us together, but behind this belief, perhaps it is not true belief in God or a higher being, but the ability and role of a spiritual leader."

Master Xuyun had unknowingly raised the topic of love to a very high level, and Xia Xiao was having trouble comprehending it. Perhaps it was certain that there were still many things in this world that were difficult to understand, and those who could truly see through them, not to mention Master Xuyun, even his master could not see clearly. Therefore, Xia Xiao did not worry about trivial matters, but just relaxed his mind.

The fat monk sighed. He didn't want to talk about something anymore. He seemed to be thinking of the teachings of his predecessors and master, and also seemed to be recalling some past events that ordinary people could not understand. He sighed and said:

"I'm off topic. I won't say more."

Xia Xiaozheng didn't know what to say, but if the senior wanted to continue, he would listen attentively.

"Let's talk about this necklace. This is the first time I've explored its origin, but it always feels like a conspiracy."

Monk Xuyun touched the flesh on his belly and told the story as if he was telling a very ancient story.

"Longgu knows very little about the necklace, but the princess knows everything about it. The princess said that three hundred years ago, a mysterious woman appeared on the grassland outside the royal court of the imperial capital, killed a very powerful beast demon, and left a stone. It is rumored that this stone will protect the safety of the Goulongbang clan. And because of gender reasons, this stone was passed on to the women of the Goulongbang clan."

"For so long, only the royal women who stayed in the Goulongbang clan could control it. Princesses who married to other places, no matter how noble their status was, had to hand it over and keep it in the Goulongbang clan. Over time, this became a tradition. But as time went by, people forgot many things, and the meaning of the necklace was also forgotten in the long river of history."

Xia Xiao looked at the green grass swaying in the wind at his feet and felt sad for these newly grown creatures.

"Perhaps it's because the Gou Longbang family has been so disappointing in recent years that people have forgotten that sentence."

"That's what the princess said."

Monk Xuyun sighed. When the princess talked about those things, although she coughed very little, her voice was a little weak, and she was extremely sad. As a princess, it was really a very sad thing to see her country gradually decline.

"This necklace was passed down to the princess by her mother. Although she was a concubine, she was deeply loved by the king. However, the power contained in this necklace is enough to blow up half of the Goulongbang clan."

Master Xuyun got to the point with these words, and Xia Xiao asked:

"Senior, is the woman who left the necklace still alive?"

Regarding the term mysterious woman, Xia Xiao only had one similar existence in his mind. In the darkness, the woman was perfectly hidden, but the sound she made echoed around for a long time. She came with despair and destruction, taking away the hope of life and Xia Xiao's beloved Shu Shuang. Xia Xiao's first reaction was her, but after so many years, is she really still alive?

This kind of thing is a bit unbelievable, but Qing Xunzi lived for more than 30,000 years, so what's the big deal if someone lives for more than 300 years?

The fat monk could probably guess what Xia Xiao was thinking and said with a smile:

"I don't know about this kind of thing. She may still be alive, or she may be dead. But no matter whether she is dead or alive, this seems to be the beginning and foreshadowing of something great. It seems that someone is secretly manipulating it."

The power that was enough to blow up half of the Goulongbang clan was hidden in such a small round stone. The fat monk repeatedly lifted the necklace to look at it, but he still couldn't understand what kind of magical skills were used to hide such a strong power inside without being discovered by ordinary people? This was probably something that only a magic talisman master could do, but there was no trace of a talisman array on it.

"Senior, do you mean to say that someone has bad intentions towards Gou Longbang, no! towards Dahuang?"

"Yes! It is definitely not a coincidence that such a powerful weapon is placed in the Goulong Bang clan. It will explode sooner or later, causing ripples that will affect the entire wilderness. By then, the world above and below the lake will be affected."

"This conspiracy has lasted for a hundred years..."

Conspiracy theory is to see the world from the worst perspective, but only in that way can it be explained. A bomb, the black energy from the South China Sea that impacted the Deep Sea, the accomplices of the black energy from the Great Wilderness, and the magic. Xia Xiao vaguely connected them together and came up with a very bold idea.

"Senior, the defeated god in the South Sea turned into black gas. Is he going to break free from the seal?"

"With Tanghua Temple here, it has been impossible for them to rush in for a hundred years."

"Then if Goulongbang was blown up, and the Great Wilderness was immediately thrown into chaos, with internal and external forces responding, is it possible?"

"As long as the Zou Shou Church, Ningshen Academy, Adventurer's Guild and Qingtian Sect are still there, this kind of internal and external resonance will be impossible. Even if the old senior with evil intentions has his own believers in the Great Wilderness, they cannot give him any help. Strength cannot be transmitted by mind, and his believers are not enough to break through Tanghua Temple."

Although Master Xuyun said so, in Xia Xiao's mind, the woman in the dark who attacked him and Shu Shuang, as well as the magic sacrificial array he had seen, all seemed to be playing a game of chess. This game of chess lasted too long, so many people gradually forgot about it, because those chess pieces were just dropped and placed on the vertical and horizontal lines of the chessboard, and never moved.

Yugu of the Southern Kingdom, the East Sea, the royal court of the Goulong Bang clan, the imperial capital of the Southern Shang Kingdom, and the imperial capital of the Tianmeng Kingdom, although the location of the black gas is not enough to form a complete talisman array circle, the entire Great Wilderness can be included in it. If there is a problem with these five points, the Great Wilderness will be doomed.

At first, Xia Xiao didn't think too much about it when he found the magic sacrificial array in Yu Valley. After all, no one was guarding it, no one was using it, and there was no secret activity. There was only a trace of black air in the East China Sea, but Gou Longbang's clan hid such a powerful time bomb, which made his cautious nature feel that it was not simple.

"There are many things left over from history, and there are more than just these mysteries in the world. For example, the Qingtian Sect has never appeared, and the records of them in the world are only vague, but they always contribute to the Great Wilderness. These things left behind may be previous conspiracies, or things that have not yet succeeded or been carried out. As bystanders, it is difficult for us to participate and predict. We can only contain them when they really surface."

"Senior, can we do it now..."

Xia Xiao wanted to discuss some countermeasures with his seniors, or find a way to take the bead away, but his hand holding the bead began to tremble suddenly.

"Give it to the guards and have it returned."

Xia Xiao wanted Hu Bugui to see it, so he didn't agree immediately. However, the aura released by Monk Xuyun gave Xia Xiao a sense of awe. This was not the majesty of Buddha, nor was it the oppression of pure energy. Instead, it was an uncontrollable murderous aura that made Xia Xiao stand there in a daze.

Although Monk Xuyun was usually careless, he was also a person who had obtained the five elements of candles and lanterns, and he always had a compassionate heart. But now he released such murderous aura that Xia Xiao had to take the necklace and return it.

Xia Xiao walked back quickly, because the senior's reaction was too abnormal, and he wanted to ask the reason. There were so many things, so he had to get to the bottom of it. Otherwise, if he hadn't dealt with anything, what was the point of going to so much trouble to get the necklace?

Walking to the stone table, Monk Xuyun was still sitting there. His back was slumped over the table, as if he had encountered something frustrating. Xia Xiao walked behind him, but could not see the dark eyes in his eye sockets.

"Senior, what's wrong?"