Chapter 126 Earth Dragon Earth Dragon Sleeps Better
As they walked out, they saw the old man Shunian had mentioned. He was dressed in a white Tai Chi suit, his hands clasped behind his back, looking around as he entered.
Chang Xile felt that he looked familiar for some reason, but when she looked at him carefully, she really didn't recognize this face.
Anping was just leaning casually against the door frame, looking at the old man who was staggering a little, not knowing what he was thinking.
Tang You narrowed her eyes, walked up first, and asked, "Old man, may I ask what brings you to Changleguan?"
The old man smiled, bowed to her, and said, "I just happened to be passing by and wanted to come in and ask for a bowl of water."
Tang You was silent for two seconds, then turned and told Shunian to get some water. But the alertness between her brows didn't diminish in the slightest—to put it bluntly, there was no such thing as "passing by and feeling optimistic" here.
Chang Le Kuang never opened his door to ordinary people, and after Tang You deliberately hid, he was even more reluctant to enter. The strange gates and fogs along the way hadn't stopped this old man. This man was no ordinary person.
Shunian quickly returned with the water, but he was so hasty that he nearly tripped and spilled the entire bowl as he crossed the threshold. Luckily, Anping righted the nearly tipped bowl in an instant. With a flick of his wrist, he held the bowl firmly in his palm, preventing a single drop from spilling.
He slowly walked towards the old man with the bowl in his hand, handed it to him and smiled: "Drink slowly."
"Thank you." Without even looking at him, the old man took the bowl and drank it all in one gulp. Then he poured the noodles down and said with a hint of satisfaction, "One more bowl, please."
Shu Nian glanced at Tang You, and after getting the hint from her eyes, he obediently took the bowl and went back to running errands. This time, he took Jun Yi with him as well.
After the old man drank three bowls of water, he sighed contentedly and said to Tang You, "Thank you."
"Want to drink more?" Tang You asked, "If it's not enough, there's more."
The old man shook his head and said, "If you swallow this water whole, it will only quench your thirst temporarily. If you really want to drink it to your heart's content, I'm afraid even if you empty your bladder, it still won't be enough."
Chang Xile was listening to their back-and-forth conversation, stunned by the old man's heroic drinking. Then, Yang Guisi quietly tugged at his sleeve. Pointing at the old man's shadow, she mouthed to Chang Xile, "Look."
The grass beneath the old man's feet was completely soaked. Chang Xile looked up in confusion. The sky was clearly sunny, and it hadn't even rained in the past few days.
"Is it a water ghost?" Shunian, being short and with low eyesight, easily noticed something was amiss on the ground. He muttered to himself after noticing it, and only fell silent when Tang You glanced at him.
Yang Guisi shook his head. While a water ghost's presence would leave a lot of water stains, since it died in the water, its body would also be soaking wet—especially its clothes and hair. However, the old man's clothes were perfectly dry. A fallen leaf in the yard drifted slowly onto his collar and the top of his head, then fell to the ground in an instant, indicating that there was not a single trace of water on his body.
Yang Junyi uttered an "eh," as if she found it amusing. This time, she wasn't afraid of the distance or the fatigue. She ran to the small kitchen, fetched a large bowl, filled it with water, and handed it to the old man, saying, "Drink, all you can eat."
The old man looked at her with a smile for a while, took the water, touched her head and said, "What a good child."
Yang Guisi blinked—he actually managed to meet Junyi.
As he tilted his head back and began to gulp down the water, Chang Xile saw clearly this time - none of the water he drank entered his stomach; it all fell onto the grass and was absorbed by the soil.
Who on earth is this person...
After the old man finished his drink, he handed the bowl back to Yang Junyi. He didn't rush to leave, but instead began to look around the temple.
Yang Guisi, Shunian and Yang Junyi all looked at Tang You in surprise. She patiently let the old man visit the Taoist temple - under normal circumstances, she would have sent him away long ago after giving him water.
"Why don't you worship gods in your Taoist temple?" asked the old man.
Tang You said calmly, "I've done something that the gods don't approve of, so I won't bother her anymore."
Chang Xile thought to himself: Is this referring to the incident of him helping (holding hostage) over 300 souls to escape from the cycle of reincarnation? Is this something you can casually tell outsiders?
"Well, how about you come and worship our Lady of Laughter? She's a kind deity, and no matter what you do, she'll forgive you." The old man finally finished his rather long "Map of Yan State" and suddenly began soliciting followers. "But if you convert to Lady of Laughter, you'll have to move. You can't stay in Changle Mountain anymore, and in fact, you shouldn't stay in Shancheng either. To be honest, we have a branch temple in the far south. Would you consider it?"
Chang Xile suddenly understood where the vague sense of familiarity with this man came from. She pointed at him in shock and said incoherently: "You, you, you are that..."
The old Taoist priest from Xiaoyu Temple! That day, when she first came to Changle Mountain and got separated from Yang Guisi and Anping, it was this old Taoist priest who showed her the way to Changle Mountain.
Although no one knew why his appearance had changed so much, the familiar lines, the solicitous expression, and the nagging speaking style finally allowed Chang Xile to recognize him.
The old Taoist laughed heartily, stroked his nonexistent beard, and greeted her: "Little girl, long time no see."
Tang You's patience suddenly ran out, and she unceremoniously ordered him to leave: "Forget about the preaching. Once you've had enough water, please go back. If you're not satisfied, turn right and walk about 200 meters. There's a stream there, you can have as much as you want."
The old Taoist didn't get angry or move. He smiled and said, "Young man, you are still too impatient."
"If you have anything you want to tell me, just get straight to the point." An Ping finally spoke up. "You're old, and you still like to keep things in suspense."
The old Taoist, suddenly frustrated, pointed his index finger at Anping as a warning. He glanced at Tang You, who was about to chase him away himself, then cleared his throat and said, "Honestly, since you can travel with such a large Guanyu, you must be incredibly powerful. But no matter how powerful you are, or how well you hide your optimism, you are still part of the universe. Standing on a mountaintop, you can't help but be affected by it."
Tang You looked at him thoughtfully and didn't respond.
"Grandpa, you said a lot, but I didn't quite understand." Yang Junyi bravely asked, "Can you please stop talking in such a roundabout way?"
She had just learned to sing "The mountains here! The roads! The eighteen bends! --" some time ago, and now she was using the lyrics of the song, but she couldn't express it normally, so she could only sing it in the original tune of the song.
"The earth's dragon is turning over - that means an earthquake is coming. The best thing for you to do is to leave the mountain city as soon as possible, otherwise your life will be in danger." The old Taoist priest was amused by her and gasped for breath several times. In the end, he really changed to the simplest way of expression.
After he finished speaking, he turned around and prepared to leave without caring about the reactions of the people in the temple. Tang You hadn't finished her question yet, so she reached out to grab his arm, but missed.
Tang You looked at her hand in surprise - her fingertips had just gone straight through the old Taoist's arm.
It turned out that his physical body was not real, and now it was just a wisp of soul talking to them.
"Has the news of this natural disaster leaked to you?" An Ping raised his eyebrows, with a hint of imperceptible surprise in his tone.
"Who told you this was a natural disaster?" The old Taoist looked at him and couldn't help but raised his hand to slap him on the head. "This is what I usually teach you!"
Anping lowered his head and silently received the beating. He scratched his head, his face expressionless.
"This is clearly a man-made disaster." The old Taoist squatted down, pressing his palms firmly against the soil. He said, "The earth dragon has been sleeping, perhaps not waking for hundreds or even thousands of years. I observed the stars at night and calculated very carefully. It was clearly due to awaken again in thirty-two years. How could it suddenly awaken earlier than expected?"
Chang Xile imitated him and placed her hands on the ground, but she didn't feel anything. She remembered that Anping had done the same thing just half a day ago, and then they met Chen Moxin and his gang.
She asked, "What do you want us to hear? The sounds of the construction work done by the people hired by Chen Moxin?"
The old Taoist smiled and shook his head: "Yes and no."
Seeing everyone suddenly start playing the hand-to-the-ground game, Yang Junyi excitedly squatted down to follow suit. But after a while, she let go of her hands as if she'd been burned, and burst into tears.
"What's wrong with you?" Shu Nian was startled by her. He never thought that the fearless Yang Junyi would have such a moment.
"Crying... so many people are crying... screaming... it's so scary..." Junyi seemed to have suffered a great shock. She squatted down, buried her head in her knees, and refused to let anyone touch her again.
"Chen Moxin and his men started construction on Changle Mountain and started cutting down trees on a large scale. This was one reason why the earth dragon was disturbed," the old Taoist said, "but the biggest reason was the treacherous fox behind him."
Chang Xile watched Yang Guisi and Tang You, who remained unresponsive. Seeing Shunian try to touch the ground with his palm, feeling the ground, but suddenly withdraw his hand as if irritated, a sudden inspiration struck him. He asked, "Is this a sound only spirits can hear?"
The old Taoist nodded. "They have committed too many sins. Countless souls have been imprisoned or even consumed by them. They wail and cry every day on this land. It is too painful and too heavy. If the earth dragon hears such sounds, how can it sleep well? It is not doing well. Even the smallest disturbance of the earth can destroy an area of land."
Chang Xile looked up and asked, "You just said that the best solution is for us to move away. What's the second best solution?"
The old Taoist looked at her for a while and smiled: "Very attentive."
"It's actually very simple. Just don't wake up the earth dragon again."
This conclusion sounds simple. Theoretically, as long as Chen Moxin and Ninghu are dealt with, the earth dragon will not be awakened.
"That's it?" Chang Xile had originally prepared herself mentally for the separation of life and death after taking the risk, but she didn't expect that the conditions to be met would be much simpler than she imagined.
"Do you think this is an easy task?" The old Taoist glanced at Chang Xile and said, "That rotten fox has advanced so far. You might not even be able to find it, let alone deal with it."
"Whether we can find it or not, let's look for it first." Chang Xile stood up with great enthusiasm - to be honest, this is much easier than persuading everyone in the city to move out of the mountain city.
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