Chapter 246 Dust of History
Before Liu Zilin's head hit the ground, it seemed as if he was facing the empty underground palace and said some words with great emotion.
He said... the sword belonged to the Liu family, and asked why his family's three generations of hard work and struggle were no match for him, a county magistrate who had only studied for ten years.
They said that the three Liu brothers had sacrificed so much to obtain the Dingjian sword, but it was easily taken by an outsider like him, which was so frustrating and unfair.
He was also accused of harming women's needlework. This was even more painful for him than if Ouyang Rong had killed him outright.
Liu Zilin felt regret, pain, and fear.
Ouyang Rong ignored him.
Finally, Liu Zilin raised his head and roared angrily.
The head, bearing these distorted expressions, landed heavily on the floor, rolled twice, and came to rest at the foot of a lotus-shaped pedestal resembling a red lotus.
Ouyang Rong lay limp on the ground like a dead man.
All around him lay headless corpses, silently keeping him company.
An "arc" floated in mid-air above Ouyang Rong's head.
It remained completely still.
Not a trace of blood was found.
A faint, clear blue halo softly fell upon Ouyang Rong's hair below.
The one-sided massacre just now seemed to have nothing to do with it.
Well, just like the smile of a certain newly appointed first sword master, harmless.
The man, the sword, and the headless corpses scattered on the ground created a bizarre scene.
The Pure Land Palace fell into a deathly silence.
Not far away, a moonlit longsword lies quietly beneath a lotus pedestal, beside the four-character stone inscription "Return Home".
Its hazy moonlight merged with the dazzling moonlight emanating from the stone carving at this moment.
On the four walls of the underground palace, the moonlight emanating from the lines of calligraphy belonging to "The Return" grew stronger and stronger. The moonlight was cold and clear, and its light enveloped every corner of the underground palace.
Just then, an unusual phenomenon occurred.
In the empty underground palace, a strange figure suddenly appeared—the moonlight on the lotus pedestal condensed into a single point, slowly and methodically converging, finally outlining the shadow of a monk wearing a kasaya.
The shadow of the monk in the kasaya is so lifelike that even his long eyebrows, like those of a fishing rod, are realistically depicted, making him incredibly vivid.
He was sitting cross-legged on the lotus platform, just like Ouyang Rong had been sitting on the lotus seat.
He seemed oblivious to Ouyang Rong beside him, amidst the chaotic scene of corpses scattered on the ground.
The monk in the kasaya held one hand up in front of his chest, his head bowed and his eyes downcast, intently writing something on the floor in front of him.
The tips of his two raised fingers seemed to be entwined with a speck of light.
The monk in his kasaya used this as a pen, and the place where he left the words is exactly where the four dazzling characters "归去来兮" (Return Home) are located at this moment.
Their positions completely overlap.
The monk in his robes, outlined by the moonlight, had a serene expression on his withered face, tinged with a hint of sorrow.
As if he had finished writing the four characters "Return Home" on the stone slab, he slowly raised his head and looked up at the cave entrance above him.
At this moment, "thick smoke," outlined by the gray moonlight, was continuously pouring into the underground palace from outside the cave entrance.
The monk in the kasaya seemed to have seen a similar scene.
From an outsider's perspective, the moonlight in the entire underground palace now appears much darker and more somber, a true reflection of reality.
Ouyang Rong had been silently watching this scene for some time now.
He knelt on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood, clutching his stomach, turning over, and sitting on the ground, looking up at the strange light and shadow playing out inside the underground palace:
On the lotus pedestal, the monk in the kasaya coughed incessantly, just like Ouyang Rong, but it was because the thick black smoke from the fire outside the lotus pagoda was pouring in.
The pungent black smoke gradually drove away the last remaining fresh air in the underground palace.
The monk in the kasaya did not move at all; he clasped his hands together and his lips moved as he chanted sutras.
The monk looked up at the well opening.
Outside the well, faint sounds of a mad emperor ransacking temples and beheading people could be heard, along with the crackling of Buddhist scriptures and pagodas burning in the flames, and the wailing and pleading of monks... echoing across a century.
A famous temple from the Southern Dynasties, which had stood for four hundred years, was destroyed overnight.
But he can't go out.
The monk, who had drawn a circle on the ground as a prison, slowly lowered his head.
A tiny speck of light, inscribed with characters, continued to fly out from the fingertip, carving lines of hurried cursive script onto the four walls of the underground palace.
A poem titled "Returning Home," and a lonely last message.
The monk in his kasaya sat serenely on a lotus platform amidst billowing smoke, his eyelids slowly drooping until he finally bowed his head.
Inside the underground palace, the strange moonlight, inexplicably activated, is silently recreating the light and shadow of a hundred years ago.
Outlining it again and again in a loop.
The dust of history was briefly swept away, and everything became brand new.
The strange moonlight that filled the underground palace seemed to possess a spirit, still unable to forget the scene it witnessed a hundred years ago, and tirelessly telling it to future generations.
The light and shadow inside the underground palace were like a dream.
It's unclear how long this scene lasted.
Until the moonlight longsword lying on the ground was picked up by a blurry, bloody hand.
The four characters "归去来兮" (Return Home) carved on the stone beneath the lotus pedestal were slowly dimmed by the moonlight.
On the four walls, a radiant copy of "The Return" gradually faded away, word by word, returning to darkness.
Ouyang Rong picked up the sword, got up, and staggered toward the mural wall on the east side.
In the beam of sunlight above his head, there was a solitary "arc" hanging there, which he did not even glance at.
Standing in front of the mural, Ouyang Rong swayed unsteadily, barely managing to stand by supporting himself on the wall with both hands.
My fingers touched a crack in the mural and then touched the dark gray old wall beneath the crack.
He looked down at his fingertips, which were stained with black ash.
If I'm not mistaken, this old wall inside should be the original wall of the original Lotus Tower underground palace.
The murals on the walls today were later added by the monks of Donglin Temple.
From the dying words following the sword manual, we know that Master Zhongma was actually the last Qi cultivator of Donglin Temple, or rather... the last swordsman to master the "Hanshi" sword manual.
Back then, during the struggle between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, facing the southward advance of the Northern Dynasty's Sui army, the Southern royal family placed their last hope on the sword.
The royal family of the Southern Kingdom acted as a matchmaker, enabling Donglin Temple of the Lotus Sect, the Mei family of Longcheng, and Yunmeng Jianze to swear an oath in the Lotus Pagoda of this temple, establishing the Lotus Pagoda Alliance and committing to sincere cooperation.
As fate would have it, the Southern Kingdom's royal family, as fragile as paper, perished early on, also due to the harm done to women's needlework. The half-finished cauldron sword fell into the hands of the Mad Emperor, who ordered the Mei family of Longcheng to continue forging the sword.
The monks of Donglin Temple and the swordsmiths of the Mei family were worried that many of the Ding swords would fall into the hands of a tyrant. In order to abide by the Lotus Pagoda Covenant, they returned a new Ding sword from Yunmeng Sword Marsh, which had originally been used to make the Ding sword.
Thus, the two sides cooperated from within and without, and in a tacit agreement, risked stealing the newly forged cauldron sword that the Mad Emperor had set up by Butterfly Creek.
The reason why Ouyang Rong suddenly realized not long ago that the object containing the Dingjian sword was not a fixed physical object like a sword box, but the entire Longcheng County.
It was precisely because Master Zhongma's method of stealing the sword that he received a wake-up call:
Back then, on the day the Mad Emperor completed forging the sword, the Mei family swordsmiths, just like their predecessors today, deliberately concealed the truth about the "empty vessel"—in fact, the entire Longcheng County was a sword furnace, not only giving the newly born Ding sword its first cleansing, but also serving as its empty vessel.
Thus, Master Zhongma sat in seclusion in the secret underground palace beneath the Lotus Pagoda of Donglin Temple. Using only three conditions—ninth rank, sword technique, and true name—he directly manifested the newly forged Ding Sword and hid it in the underground palace.
The reason why Master Zhongma, a highly accomplished monk, was able to meet the stringent requirements of the ninth rank of cultivation is because the Lotus Sect Qi Refining Technique possessed by Donglin Temple is very special. It can naturally dissipate spiritual energy cultivation and smoothly fall to any rank.
This is also why Donglin Temple was qualified to participate in the Lotus Pagoda Alliance.
With its possession of both the Swordsman's Manual and a unique Buddhist Qi cultivation technique, Donglin Temple is more likely than other sects to maintain a continuous lineage of the legendary Swordsman's bloodline...
After the newly forged Ding Sword was stolen, the Mad Emperor was naturally furious. A large number of swordsmiths involved in the incident were beheaded along Butterfly Creek. The nearby Donglin Temple also became a suspect, and the Mad Emperor slaughtered most of its inhabitants and set the temple on fire.
Outside the underground palace, almost all the eminent monks of Donglin Temple who had concealed and protected Master Zhongma were dead, and the ancient buildings of Donglin Temple, including the Lotus Pagoda, were reduced to ashes.
Master Zhongma also drew a circle around himself, confining himself to an oxygen-deprived underground palace.
All for the sake of hiding this one cauldron sword.
The few orthodox Qi practitioners of Donglin Temple were all killed, and the Lotus Tower Archives, which housed the sword manuals and sect Qi cultivation techniques, was also reduced to ashes.
This explains why Ouyang Rong saw Master Zhongma carving words on the wall in front of the lotus seat, leaving behind sword techniques and last words, as he did in the strange light and shadow.
only……
Standing before the murals on the east side of the underground palace, Ouyang Rong stared at the dirty, dark old wall behind the cracks in the murals and shook his head.
If it weren't for this strange moonlight, he wouldn't have been able to see the remaining stone carvings beneath the black soot today.
Master Zhongma, who left behind a legacy, was unaware that the Lotus Pagoda outside the underground palace had been burning for a very long time, with billowing black smoke continuously filling the underground palace and the inscriptions on the walls being thickly covered by black ash.
Decades later, the new generation of monks who reopened the underground palace beneath the ruins probably did not discover these inscriptions hidden in the black ash, and even misunderstood Master Chung Ma's death by suffocation, thinking that he had attained Buddhahood in his physical body.
So they excitedly renovated the underground palace, covering the old walls with new walls and paintings, and spread the miracle of ascension from the Pure Land everywhere, ignoring the truly precious legacy left by Master Zhongma.
According to Master Zhongma's last words, this "Humble Scholar" sword technique was given by Tao Yuanming of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to his friend, the abbot of Donglin Temple, before he resigned from his official post and went into seclusion. Its transmission spanned the entire Southern Dynasties, during which the Humble Scholar sword technique was passed down directly among the abbots of Donglin Temple.
As for why Tao Yuanming was the swordsman of the "poor scholar" four hundred years ago, and what kind of fate led to this, we do not know for the time being.
Ouyang Rong leaned against the wall, turned his head indifferently, and looked around the Pure Land Palace.
This is not Master Zhongma's Pure Land, but rather the place of his passing away.
This was also Ouyang Lianghan's death trap.
But the deaths of those who came before have brought life to those who come after.
He also became... the wielder of a new cauldron sword.
"There is no such thing as a Pure Land of Rebirth..."
The young man, his face stained with blood, forced a bitter smile, tilted his head back, and pointed to the blue sky and white clouds beyond the well:
"All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, dew, and lightning; thus should they be viewed."
Ouyang Rong murmured, his hunched body swaying precariously as he clutched his stomach. Suddenly, he saw several wellheads swaying before his eyes, a dizzying sensation from excessive blood loss.
In mid-air, the "arc" that had been still for so long moved.
It seemed to want to get closer.
"roll."
Ouyang Rong sat down against the wall and wiped his mouth.
The little guy named "Craftsman" paused.
The next second, the rope ladder that was hanging down at the wellhead suddenly snapped and fell down innocently.
The last remaining spiritual energy in Ouyang Rong's body was completely drained in an instant.
With a loud thud, the young magistrate fell headfirst into the ground.
He frowned and turned his head sharply, and the "arc" in the air disappeared without a trace.
It seems they left to play around and didn't want to talk to someone.
Ouyang Rong silently got up.
The bond that runs deep in my heart, thick as blood, remains firmly there, impossible to shake off.
However, the silent slaughter just now had temporarily depleted his spiritual energy, making it impossible for him to force it to appear.
Currently, the entire Longcheng County remains a "sword furnace" for craftsmen, capable of transforming into nothingness and hiding at will.
Suddenly, I discovered that this cauldron sword actually had a bit of a temper.
Ouyang Rong lowered his head and remained silent...
After an incense stick has burned.
The backyard of the Beitian Salon.
Suddenly, a sword sheath with a rope attached flew out of a well that was protected by a stone fence and landed outside the well with a "clunk," wetting itself in a gap in the stone fence.
A moment later, a bloody hand suddenly reached up towards the sky from the well opening and grabbed the edge.
A short-haired young man covered in blood struggled to climb out of the well.
This scene seems somewhat familiar.
Ouyang Rong once again climbed out of the underground palace alone.
This time, a group of people went down, and one person climbed out.
Ouyang Rong rolled over and fell, his back against the well opening. He gasped for breath, bent down to tear a cloth to treat his wounds, and squinted as the sunlight overhead made him dizzy. He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
Outside the well, it was still Donglin Temple in Longcheng County, Jiangzhou, under the jurisdiction of Jiangzhou, Jiangnan Circuit of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
It wasn't the spot where he slipped and fell while praying to Buddha during his postgraduate entrance exam in his previous life, where the manhole cover was missing.
Ouyang Rong lowered his head, his expression a mixture of sorrow and joy. Beside him lay a moonlit longsword and a new bronze beast mask on the ground.
He was still clutching a bloody severed head in his hand.
Ouyang Rong's hands trembled as he picked up the bronze beast mask.
These were items he found on Liu Zilin's body, belonging to Liu Zian.
The moment his fingers touched the mask, Ouyang Rong's eyes flashed with a purple aura.
He licked his dry lips, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. The purple aura vanished instantly, and the sound of bells rang in his ears.
It consumed the same amount of merit as last time, 1,500.
Inside the Merit Tower, there are still over 4,500 merit points remaining.
Purple mist surged from his palm, wrapping around the mask.
At a certain moment, the mask suddenly stopped trembling and was completely refined.
Ouyang Rong lowered his head and slowly put on the mask.
Then……
He saw the solitary figure of that incredibly familiar, taciturn man behind the mask.
"Hahaha……"
The young magistrate laughed, tears streaming down his bloodied face. He lifted Liu Zilin's head in his hand and said:
“Ah Shan, you’ve seen it all… Liu Zi’an is dead, Liu Zilin is dead too, now all that’s left are the accomplices Wei Shaoxuan, Qiu Shenji, and Liu Fu. No rush, we’ll take them one by one…”
He slowly removed the bronze mask, revealing a pair of vacant eyes:
(End of this chapter)
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