Chapter 194 Even in the deepest hell, there is righteous spirit.
There were fewer and fewer people at the sluice gate.
More and more people are getting into the water below the sluice gate.
Young and strong men kept stepping forward from the crowd, silently following the backs of those in front, and jumping off the dam.
The semi-circular piping, which had been destroyed by the previous waves, was gradually filled again.
On the dam, only women, children, the elderly, and officials and villagers who couldn't swim remained.
Below the dam, the crowd who had jumped into the water huddled together to resist the surging waves.
Some men clung to the wooden stakes and bamboo poles that hadn't yet been washed away by the water, while others clung to the dam wall to prevent themselves from being swept away by the wind and waves.
Finally, the people floating on the water formed human walls that resembled barriers, layer upon layer, seemingly creating a relatively stable balance.
Ouyang Rong, who jumped into the water first, floated at the very front of the human wall.
The purpose of this human wall is not to block the water, but to slow down the impact of the water flow.
The crowd used their bodies as sandbags to suppress the water flow and block the seepage in the gaps of the dam wall.
This is to buy time for the dam to survive disintegration and collapse.
There were still a few Dragon King Temple priests on the gate, their nerves shattered by the sight of Ouyang Rong beheading the middle-aged priest in public.
However, Ouyang Rong did not have time to deal with them.
But at that moment, the villagers who remained on the dam spontaneously and angrily surrounded them, lifted up the priests who were pretending to be gods and ghosts, and threw them into the water, regardless of whether they could swim or not.
Since you keep claiming to have a Dragon King, then go down and find him, and see if he'll appear and save you. It can't be that only the brave warriors stand at the forefront, filling the water with their own bodies, while you shamefully cower in the back…
Ouyang Rong was unaware of the simple emotions of these people. Like most of the people present, he was on edge, constantly watching the situation at the dam.
The phenomenon of water churning and churning between cracks in the dam wall disappeared.
The water flow seemed to be slowed down by the wall of people in front of it.
The piping has been contained.
With the gates raised and lowered, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Ouyang Rong, who was floating on the water, knew in his heart that this was only a temporary relief from the crisis. As long as the heavy rain in Yunmeng Marsh continued, the crisis was not over...
Time passed second by second.
Below the dam, the "human wall" formed by Ouyang Rong and his group had been submerged in the water for most of the day.
During this period, torrential rains continued, and the waves of Yunmengze were sometimes surging and sometimes gentle.
Each surging wave crashed heavily against the "human wall" in front of the crack in the wall.
Occasionally, some brave men would lose their footing, fall off the human wall, and nearly sink to the bottom of the water, or be swept away by a wave. However, they were all eventually rescued and brought ashore to be cared for by the villagers.
Those who remained in the water had their bodies soaked in the water until they were white and wrinkled, like the white bread that Ouyang Rong had eaten in his previous life.
“My love.”
On the dam, Ye Weilai knelt on the edge of the water, clutching her sword tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Every now and then, she would anxiously call out Ouyang Rong's name to make sure he was still there.
Behind her, among the villagers delivering food and caring for the wounded, stood a slender and pretty young girl.
The embroiderer stared blankly at the patch of sky above the wall of people led by Ouyang Rong.
At this very moment, the sky above Yunmengze, including Digongzha, was covered with dark clouds that blocked out the sun, making it difficult to distinguish between day and night.
But the embroiderer kept her eyes fixed on the sky above, her small face blank, as if she had seen some magnificent sight.
The pretty mute girl from Yunmengze opened her mouth and couldn't help but let out two soft "ahs"... Aside from her congenital defects, who says my beloved husband is not suitable for practicing Qi?
However, the next second, the embroiderer, who was looking up, suddenly frowned.
She looked around, and her figure suddenly disappeared from the spot, only to return to the same spot three breaths later.
The movements were completely obscured throughout the entire process.
This junior sister, who was known for her quiet and gentle nature and good temper among the senior sisters of the sect, showed some confusion and doubt on her delicate face.
There seemed to be a hint of life in her beautiful, clear, dark eyes.
In an instant, all the waves higher than half a foot around Ouyang Rong, who was floating on the water below with a pale face, were shattered.
It exploded into a cloud of mist that filled the sky.
The pieces of wood and debris swept up by the waves were all shaved into thin paper by some invisible, sharp object, thus losing their harm to her beloved.
However, all these strange sights were obscured by the thick fog over Yunmeng Marsh, which had extremely low visibility.
Ouyang Rong and the others, who formed a human wall at the piping point, could only see that the fog in the distance seemed to be stirred up by some kind of gale, but it still could not be blown away.
In addition, Ouyang Rong and the others were tense for a while, thinking it was another sign of an approaching storm. However, the waves that rolled in from the thick fog in the distance were surprisingly calm, with white foam and harmless wood chips and fragments, which surprised them.
What the public didn't know was...
A mute cook nicknamed "Embroiderer" was unusually angry... She wouldn't be this angry even if Ouyang Rong had a secret rendezvous with that junior sister surnamed Xie at night and were intimate in front of everyone.
Who is secretly stealing Tanlang's "qi"?!
...
Longcheng County.
The streets were deserted.
Penglang Ferry was also in a state of chaos, with not a single boat in sight.
Looking out, on the west bank of Butterfly Creek, the rows of sword furnaces that once stood there have been extinguished, and the craftsmen have all left.
Compared to the bustling Liu family mansion on Xiaogushan Mountain, a secluded lawn halfway up the mountain is exceptionally quiet.
An old swordsmith, carrying a wine jar, stood alone on the lawn.
The raindrops soaked his gray linen clothes, turning them a darker color.
The old man ignored him, tilted his head back, drank his wine, and occasionally glanced south.
His eyes ignored the deserted Longcheng County and the distant, shadowy Dagushan Mountain, and instead turned toward the Yue Nu Gorge upstream of Butterfly Creek.
Behind the old swordsmith drinking wine in the rain, there was a sword furnace that had been dormant for many years, with its door wide open.
The mountain wind, mixed with rain, poured into the sword-making room.
Inside the furnace room was a sword-casting furnace, its round iron door wide open, creaking and swaying in the howling wind and rain that rushed into the furnace room.
It emitted a series of sharp, grating sounds as the iron bolts rubbed against the rust.
The sword-forging furnace, with its door open, was completely empty, just like the previous times.
On the lawn outside the house, the old swordsmith looked south and occasionally sipped his wine.
At a certain moment, the old man put down his wine pot and nodded slightly in the direction of Di Gong Gate:
"Little fellow, you drank your fill, and you're even more greedy than I am."
"Ha, this is the first time someone who has broken his vows after being a monk all his life and eating vegetarian food has ever eaten meat and fish with oil on it."
"Speaking of which, since you enjoy consuming this energy so much, what name should I give you...? Our sect has to be a bit particular... hiccup... The first sword was called the Elixir of Immortality... The second sword was called Deer's Lu, later renamed Crimson Emperor... The third sword will be the opposite of the second one..."
The old swordsmith, reciting the names with great familiarity, lowered his head and murmured softly:
"These are all good names, but they are all too elegant, too elegant. They look like they were meant for kings and generals."
"There was once a sword named 'Humble Scholar,' but in the end, 'Humble Scholar' was not 'Humble Scholar' enough... The Humble Scholar eventually became a king, nobleman, and general..."
What should I call you?
The old swordsmith, with a little wine in his mouth, mumbled like a drunkard.
For a moment, I was quite troubled.
Even the attempts to sow discord among the three Liu brothers had never caused him such headaches.
That's true. In folk tradition, older people who have children late in life are overjoyed and will rack their brains to come up with a good name, even if it takes all their life's effort.
What's more, this is the work of an old craftsman who has waited most of his life for a sword.
...
The other end of Longcheng County.
Dagushan Mountain is teeming with people from its foot to its summit, brimming with the vibrant energy of everyday life.
However, a certain underground palace on the mountain, just as its name suggests, is indeed a pure land on this bustling and chaotic Da Gushan Mountain.
Although this sacred earth palace has been abandoned, a well-shaped exit has been opened in the ceiling in the center of the palace.
Even though it's raining outside right now, no rain or water will seep in.
The well opening outside the underground palace was built inside a pavilion, surrounded by stone railings.
But at this moment, inside the underground palace, there was a young monk with a withered face standing directly below the well, looking up.
The young monk wore a tattered robe, his body was dirty, and there were crumbs of pastry at the corners of his mouth. These pastries were a gift from a pretty mute girl who had visited the underground palace that night and was revisiting the place.
The young monk, hiding in the Pure Land, would only take one piece each day and savor it carefully.
They managed to live quite frugally.
As for the vegetarian meals that his fellow disciples, such as Xiufa and Xiudu, brought down from the temple every day, the young monk didn't really like them. He preferred the pastries made by the mute girl, who was full of mythical spirituality.
Now that we've come to the Pure Land, we should at least eat something good, right? It's not like we're still trapped in that wretched Avici Hell.
Oh, I forgot to mention, his Buddhist name was Xiuzhen, and a young county magistrate once mistakenly called him "Master Buzhi".
Although he was laughed at by everyone, only "Master Bu Zhi" knew that the outside world was truly an inescapable hell.
This is the true Pure Land of Lotus.
At this moment, even though no rain was falling from the well above, Xiuzhen, who was standing below the well and in front of the lotus pedestal in the center of the underground palace, leaned back slightly and took a step away, as if she was hiding from something that she couldn't avoid.
He tilted his head back and looked out over the well.
The young monk seemed to be staring intently at something, somewhat lost in thought.
"Huh, this is clearly the Avici Hell, so why is there 'qi' here, like a sword piercing the sky? How strange, how strange..."
Xiuzhen shook her head, clicking her tongue in amazement.
He stood there looking around for a while, and then, suddenly, the expression on his dirty face changed from bewilderment to surprise.
Xiuzhen, her body thin as a rake, twisted and jogged toward the edge of the underground palace, arriving at the mural "King of Quick Eyes" on the west side.
The bald head leaned in to examine the mural.
"This is not it."
Xiuzhen shook his head in disappointment, but without stopping, he ran around the edge of the underground palace wall to another mural and went up to examine it closely.
"This isn't...this isn't either...wait! It's this!"
Xiuzhen passed by three Jataka tales in succession: "King Kuai Mu gave up his eye," "King Sibi cut off his flesh to trade for a dove," and "King Moonlight gave up his head." He shook his head in disappointment at each one. But in the end, he stopped in front of the last Jataka tale on the east side!
Prince Sattva sacrificed himself to feed a tiger.
The young monk suddenly reached out and pointed directly at the faded, painted image of a sorrowful Buddha on the dimly lit wall, depicted as having jumped off a cliff and now lying on the ground feeding a tiger. He laughed loudly.
"That's it! Exactly the same, interesting, very interesting!"
Inside the empty underground palace, a mad monk danced wildly, sometimes running to the lotus pedestal in the center of the palace, and sometimes running to the Jataka mural on the east side of the palace.
He ran back and forth between the two.
Sometimes he would look up at the well opening, and sometimes he would lean closer to examine the murals, as if he had discovered something, compared something, or confirmed something.
"Amitabha."
Until a certain moment, Xiuzhen's ecstatic expression vanished.
He stood solemnly in the center of the underground palace, his hands clasped together, head tilted back to observe the qi, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.
"But that's the Avici Hell above, how could there be such 'qi' there? Where exactly is the Lotus Pure Land..."
The monk who observes the qi looks around.
Unfortunately, the questioning voice only echoed in the underground palace, and no one answered.
Ultimately, it's just a question I ask myself.
Inside the abandoned underground palace, this eerie scene remained unknown to anyone.
...
The torrential rain continues in Yunmengze.
Somewhere below the Digong Sluice Gate, on the surface of the water where waves surge endlessly.
The human wall remains.
Ouyang Rong, Liu Ashan, and the others had lost track of what time it was and how much time had passed since they jumped into the water.
I only remember fragments of the time. It seemed like the people around me kept changing. Some were knocked unconscious by the waves, some were exhausted and starving, and some were sick from overwork. One by one, they were pulled up onto the dam by the villagers. Then, they woke up, recovered, and went back into the water to take turns.
At the very front, Ouyang Rong was only wearing his underwear, soaking in dirty water filled with debris and crumbs.
He occasionally seemed a little dazed, feeling as if the entire world around him was filled with water, as if he were surrounded by water.
Above the dam, the crowds of people moved about, and faces peered down.
Ouyang Rong could not see clearly at all; his vision was obscured by light, water droplets, sand, and wood chips.
Among them, there seems to be Ye Weilai's white-haired little head... It's quite recognizable.
Until a certain moment.
Rumble—
Another muffled, loud noise came from the thick fog in the distance.
The familiar sound... just like the raging torrents just now, must be from the mountains along the Yunmengze Lake not far away. Amid the continuous torrential rain, another mudslide has occurred, cascading into the lake.
Judging from the sound, it's not too far away, so another raging wave is coming.
A desperate cry of alarm rang out from the dam.
Ouyang Rong, who was at the very front of the human wall, was suddenly jolted awake from his daze.
Facing the thick fog that was churning violently in front of him like a prelude, he felt a tightness in his chest.
However, in the thick fog, the first surge of raging lake water that swept in with tree debris had not even reached within a hundred meters of the wall of men led by Ouyang Rong.
In the next instant, a streak of snow-white sword light flew towards the dam directly above Ouyang Rong's head.
The first wave of raging water was cleaved open, exploding into towering spray and fragments.
The second raging wave was like this.
The third raging wave was the same...
If they dare to come, I'll chop them down.
On the dam, a woman's sword was constantly drawn.
A Qi cultivator?
Is this... Junior Sister back?
Ouyang Rong's bloodless face froze for a moment, and he thought to himself.
In a daze, he swallowed hard, wiped his face, regained his balance, and tried to look up at the dam above.
However, the view remained blurry, and all that could be heard were the same exclamations from above.
This effort to tilt his head back seemed to have exhausted the last of Ouyang Rong's strength, which was already weakened by the cold.
Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit me, and I couldn't tell where I was for a moment.
It's hard to keep going.
As Ouyang Rong's consciousness gradually faded, he began to hear the calls of many people echoing in his ears.
"The magistrate has fainted! Someone, quickly take him upstairs!"
"Someone come quick!"
“My love…”
"Ah...ah..."
Ouyang Rong vaguely heard two voices calling out from different women.
One was a white-haired maidservant belonging to his own family, and the one behind it... was a little unfamiliar, yet also a little familiar, as if he had heard of it in a dream from his youth deep in his memory, as if it were a memory from this life, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall it.
It's like you've forgotten the name of a childhood friend, and one night you recall her figure from your memory, but you just can't bring yourself to say that name that you should be able to say so fluently.
It's that feeling of being just one step away from victory.
As Ouyang Rong's consciousness faded, he was too weak to think... Wait, could it be a hallucination from a final burst of lucidity before death?
He couldn't resist adding a final comment.
Ouyang Rong felt the sounds around him gradually fading into the distance.
Until a gentle, cotton candy-like dream enveloped him.
(End of this chapter)
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