Chapter 119 Moonlit Night An ancient saying goes, "Small ones are called clams, large ones are called mirages."
Zhou Yaren was in excruciating pain in her lungs and could hardly breathe.
The boys were terrified and hurriedly placed him gently on the ground.
Li Liuyun and Lian Zhao took the pulses of Zhou Yaren's left and right wrists respectively and came to the same diagnosis: "Qi and blood attack the heart, and the meridians are flowing backward."
Upon hearing this, Yu Heqi quickly poured out the pills and fed them to Zhou Yaren. Wen Yi immediately unfolded the acupuncture kit and handed it over, making it easier for Li Liuyun and Lian Zhao to take the needles.
Lin Mu then took a bamboo scroll and carefully lifted Zhou Yaren's head, placing it under the back of her head: "How could you suddenly have a sudden attack of qi and blood to your heart?"
Li Liuyun pinpointed the acupoint and inserted the needle: "It's probably because it was stimulated by these bamboo slips for alchemy."
"That's too cruel. To refine the elixir of immortality," Lin Mu helped Ting Fengzhi loosen his belt so his senior brother could insert the needles, "they actually threw people alive into the furnace. So is this true? Are there really immortals?"
Li Liuyun glanced at Ting Fengzhi's face, and suddenly Guan Lan, whom he had seen in the Jingguan statue, flashed through his mind.
This sudden thought made Li Liuyun pause in inserting the acupuncture needles. Then, recalling Tingfengzhi's intense reaction to the bamboo slips, could it be…
"Liuyun," Lian Zhao saw him holding the silver needles and lost in thought, and worried that something was wrong, so he asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Mu asked nervously, "Is there something wrong with Ting Fengzhi's situation?"
Li Liuyun inserted the needle into the acupoint, and after a moment of consideration, he spoke: "Do you still remember Guanlan in the Jingguan statue?"
He summed it up in one sentence, and Lian Zhao was the first to react.
The other fellow disciples were initially puzzled, but then one after another they realized what was happening.
"I remember, it's the one who looks exactly like Tingfengzhi..." Lin Mu's almond-shaped eyes suddenly widened as he stared at Li Liuyun in disbelief. He was stunned for a long time, his thoughts seemingly reconnecting after a break, and he looked down at the unconscious Tingfengzhi. "No, senior brother, what do you mean?"
Lin Mu looked incredulous: "Is it what I think it means?"
Yu Heqi asked, "What do you mean?"
Lin Mu finally understood: "It's... Guanlan, Tingfengzhi, the Undying People...?"
The other senior brothers nodded in unison, clearly indicating that they had all thought of the same thing.
Wen Yi suddenly said, "Back when we were at Jingguan, I felt that Guanlan and Tingfengzhi were practically the same person."
Yu Heqi added in hindsight: "Moreover, Tingfengzhi was acting very strangely when he saw Guanlan."
Lian Zhao: "I noticed it too. I even paid special attention to the two of them. You can't just say they look alike, they're practically the same person."
Lin Mu: "When Tingfeng saw Guanlan hanged under the bridge, his eyes turned red."
Wen Yi: "And when I heard about the Undead just now, I almost lost control..."
"That's right," Yu Heqi nodded repeatedly, "The table was overturned, it gave me quite a fright."
Lin Mu: "It startled me too. And his sudden outburst of anger, if it had nothing to do with the Undead, could it have been so serious that he vomited blood?"
Several teenagers surrounded the unconscious Tingfengzhi, and the more they discussed it, the more plausible it seemed, which was truly terrifying to think about.
Zhou Yaren's consciousness completely sank into the Death Umbrella, and everything became clear.
He didn't consider himself stupid; he was unjustly imprisoned and sealed within the Taiyin/Dao Body. That array's foundation had once been a prison of the Qin Dynasty, where a group of sorcerers who helped Qin Shi Huang seek immortality and elixirs were imprisoned.
"The ones who threw the Undead into the furnace to refine elixirs were those sorcerers who died in Qin prison, right?" Zhou Yaren asked Bai Yuan hoarsely. "Or rather, it wasn't just them."
Even before the Qin Dynasty unified China, there were alchemists in the Qi and Yan regions who believed in immortals and went out to sea one after another to search for the immortal mountains.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he also sent various alchemists to the sea to search for immortal mountains and elixirs of immortality. Did they not find the immortal mountains and immortals, but instead find the realm of immortal people?
Bai Yuan was imprisoned in the Taiyin/Dao Body after the Qin Dynasty unified the world, which coincides with the timing. Before that, Bai Yuan had been investigating the whereabouts of the Undying People, and he and He Yan found them. However, the Undying People had already been thrown into a furnace and refined into pills.
So what about those elixirs of immortality?
Qin Shi Huang died young during a tour, clearly having never taken any elixirs. In fact, during his reign, the First Emperor was so enraged that he burned books and buried scholars alive, including those alchemists who practiced alchemy and spread heresies.
“Bai Yuan, back in Bei Qu, you didn’t tell me the truth at all, did you?” Zhou Yaren asked. “You were trapped in the Taiyin/Dao Body when you were investigating these sorcerers, right?”
Bai Yuan did not deny it, because the Undying People died in vain, and A Zhao Su died with her eyes wide open in disgrace. She had indeed been working hard for this from the very beginning.
"The sorcerers spread heretical rumors and misled the emperor, creating chaos and disorder. When the First Emperor woke up, he wanted to kill these sorcerers." Bai Yuan slowly spoke, "But they clearly devoted themselves to refining elixirs day and night, using those immortal people who enjoy eternal life to create the elixir of immortality. Why would the First Emperor still punish these sorcerers for spreading heretical rumors, deceiving the emperor, and criticizing and insulting the emperor? This doesn't make sense. They are so wronged."
Bai Yuan had always wanted to settle scores with these sorcerers, but before she could even confront them, she was summoned by the vengeful spirits of those who had sacrificed their lives, which bound her to their power!
What? They've been wronged? And they want her to clear their names and exonerate them?
Isn't this retribution? Shouldn't they pay with their lives?
The injustice is so absurd that even thinking about it makes one feel ridiculous. How can these sorcerers still have the nerve to seek the way to clear one's name?
That's ridiculous.
Those sorcerers harmed themselves and others, and their deaths were not a pity. They spent their days studying and figuring out crooked and evil ways, and even after they died, they still dragged her down with them.
How could these people have stumbled upon such a lucky coincidence, managing to draw a blood array and summon her over?
In addition to summoning her, it also transformed the wronged dead into shackles, becoming the chains that bound her.
Later, the truth about the white injustice began to emerge.
She walks the line between life and death, summoned by the vengeful spirits of those who died unjustly. She travels back and forth to various places countless times, and no matter how low-key she tries to be, she inevitably attracts attention.
Besides, she was traveling around searching for the whereabouts of the Undead people for the sake of the undead who died with their eyes wide open. She would travel long distances to find even the slightest clue, which should have alerted them long ago.
Fang Xiandao had probably been aware of her presence in secret for a long time and had figured out some details about her. That's why, when these sorcerers were facing certain death, they tried to "seek justice through death" in their desperate situation. As a result, they inadvertently summoned Bai Yuan with their half-baked skills and scribbled randomly. And because they were half-witted, the blood array used to seek justice also became a shackle that bound Bai Yuan.
It would be more accurate to call it imprisonment than a summons, because Bai Yuan was never able to break free of those shackles again.
It may be a coincidence, but it is not entirely a coincidence. At least Fang Xiandao was not completely ignorant of Bai Yuan. Therefore, when Bai Yuan was trapped by a series of shackles that meant she was innocent, that person would come up with so many ways to imprison her.
If the sorcerer who died unjustly in Qin Prison really did concoct the elixir of immortality, Zhou Yaren felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave: "Someone has embezzled the elixir of immortality and concealed everything."
In the eyes of some alchemists, the Undead were nothing more than "non-humans," merely ingredients to be used in the refining of elixirs. Of course, the deeds of killing the Undead to refine elixirs could not be publicized everywhere. Although they were not of their own kind, it was not like killing chickens or cattle. The alchemists involved kept it a secret better than anyone else, probably knowing in their hearts that they were committing a sin and should not publicize it.
Bai Yuan said, "Immortality is such a huge temptation; who could remain unmoved?"
"Is it that person?" The one who set up the execution platform in Fengling and attacked Bai Yuan with the Autumn Execution Blade.
Bai Yuan wasn't initially sure if these alchemists had concocted the elixir of immortality, until yesterday when the blood array concocted based on her wrongful conviction reappeared. It was exactly the same blood array that had inadvertently imprisoned her, mimicking the sacrifices of those cultivators before. Coupled with the White Tiger's impending execution and the starlight illuminating her sins... each event seemed tailor-made for her.
Bai Yuan has been trapped in the Taiyin Dao Body for a thousand years. In this world today, who else is so familiar with her and knows so clearly how to restrain her?
Perhaps only the person who once built an office in the Qin prison and then cast a hexagram on the blood-soaked array of prisoners and innocent people.
All the wronged souls who died under the judgment of the Bei Qu Yamen will sink into the Taiyin/Taoist body, becoming shackles that bind the innocent.
Zhou Yaren still remembers that the hexagram array, which was arranged in Qin coins in the Northern Qu Ghost Office, was discovered by Lu Bing.
At that time, they were new to the Taiyin Dao Body and had deciphered the meaning of the hexagrams: "Bound by a cord, placed in a thicket of thorns, never to emerge."
The "huimo" refers to the ropes used to bind criminals, and "congji" means prison. Because nine kinds of thorns grow outside the prison, it is called "congji".
However, this hexagram should correspond to the following: the thicket of thorns represents the laws and punishments of the Dao, while the silk cords represent the shackles that bind the innocent. These shackles are made from the shackles of all those who died unjustly.
The way this person fabricated the wrongful conviction and built the execution platform at Fenglingdu shows that he was a very experienced veteran. He had a 70-80% chance of finding out the truth without even needing to confirm it, not to mention that this person finally appeared with the Autumn Execution Blade.
Even if they wear masks to cover themselves up, perhaps because they have done too many bad things and are too ashamed to face others, the smell of dead rats on their bodies remains unchanged for thousands of years.
"Who else could it be but him?" Bai Yuan said. "What other old ghost could have lived to this day? It must be that immortal old man who has been taking elixirs to prolong his life."
But his longevity of a thousand years was stolen from him; it was obtained by burning one immortal being after another.
That's why people always say that evil deeds can last for a thousand years.
Bai Yuan didn't want to recall that person's face; just thinking about it made him feel disgusted, but the memory wouldn't stop.
This man emerged while Bai Yuan was suffering from bad luck and unable to break free of his shackles, holding a scepter. He wore a long brown robe with wide sleeves and a narrow body, and was very thin and slender. He was about forty years old, had a short beard, a bluish complexion, and unusually deep eyes.
This person holds a fire torch, filled with water drawn from the moon, like holding a bright mirror, reflecting one's image.
In ancient times, people used water as a mirror to see their reflections; this was the earliest form of mirror.
The moon's shadow, high in the clouds, fell into the yinsui (a type of ancient Chinese firework), and he held it steadily in his palm. As it rippled, it overflowed with dazzling silver moonlight, coating his entire body with a layer of cold radiance.
The sun illuminates the day and the moon illuminates the night.
As he murmured a string of fluent incantations, the moonlight in the yin-sui (a type of divination device) suddenly intensified, illuminating the mountains and rivers.
He gently raised his eyelids, his incantation still flowing, and calmly gazed at the floating light and shadow in the void, like a flying mirror cast down from the heavens, encompassing stars, clouds, peaks, mountains, rivers, and plains.
This scene is just like a flying mirror under the moon, with clouds rising and forming a tower on the sea.
Yin Sui was originally a large clam, belonging to the clam family. An ancient saying goes, "Small ones are called clams, large ones are called sea clams."
The Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) records that for all sacrifices, clam shells were used to represent mountains, rivers, and the four directions.
The breath exhaled by the mirage can conjure up cities in the sky and mirages on the sea.
Just as Yin Sui "exhaled mirage gas" at this moment, the nebulae and mountains and rivers illuminated by the moonlight were reflected in the void.
However, this is not a fleeting illusion or a mirage, but rather the "Dao" contained within the Yin Sui. The Dao merges and harmonizes with the mirage, thus giving rise to all things and forming the Five Elements.
This person used the essence of the moon extracted from the Yin Sui to construct a Taiyin/Dao body.
As the incantation came to an end, the light swallowed all things, and the shadows of mountains and rivers gradually shrank into a ball. The Daoist body that illuminated the mountains and rivers swallowed all the spirits and demons here and entered the land of Beiqu, sinking to the bottom of the water along with Bai Yuan!
In that instant, stars hung low over the mountains and fields, and the moon surged over the rivers.
Suddenly, a dark figure pounced on the sorcerer with lightning speed, roaring hoarsely, "Stop!"
Even though the sorcerer was knowledgeable and fearless, he was still terrified by the monster that pounced on him.
This thing was completely unrecognizable, its appearance terrifying beyond belief; even its nose and eyes were indistinguishable, like a twisted demon crawling out of a sea of lava and fire. The sorcerer's eyes widened in shock, and in that moment of stunned disbelief, the darting demon snatched the yin flint from his hand!
Unfortunately, the Taiyin/Dao Body sank from then on, and Bai Yuan was unable to witness what happened next. She only saw He Yan bravely taking away the Yin Sui.
The only certainty about Bai Yuan is that He Yan died soon afterward. He had already ruined himself beyond recognition, and was seriously injured. He was swept downstream by the river to the mudflats, where he woke up next to a corpse. Because his appearance was too terrifying, the villagers mistook him for a murderous monster and beat him to death. His body was swept away by the rapid current and buried in the mud and sand.
When He Yan came back to life, he had already assumed a new identity and forgotten his past. Only Yin Sui remained by his side until he was born into a chaotic world and Puzhou was massacred. Guan Lan used Yin Sui to exchange for the seal of the sword with the Prince of Jing'an.
Life between heaven and earth is like a fleeting moment, gone in an instant. Like him, he is but an ant in this mortal world, living and dying as it comes.
This is the life and death that Bai Yuan witnessed with his death umbrella: cruelty, disaster, bloodshed, pain... and endless despair, despair to the point of death, a fate vastly different from that of those who can live peacefully and die of old age in the world.
The wronged souls who died in the Beiqu Yamen transformed into shackles and pages of ghostly lawsuits, accumulating into countless unjust crimes that weighed down the law, just like the black book of sins in the hands of Yama, the King of Hell. This perfectly echoed what Taihang Dao told Zhou Yaren: "The Taiyin Black Book imprisons ghosts and spirits."
Perhaps many cultivators who came and went to the North had seen the clues of the government office, but because of many concerns and worries, they dared not act rashly. Thus, the ghost government office imprisoned the innocent for thousands of years.
At this moment, no, not just at this moment, from the beginning of the Fengling punishment to the revelation of the truth about the deaths of the Undying People, He Yan's self-destruction, and Bai's wrongful imprisonment... all these persecutions and experiences weighed heavily on Zhou Yaren, making him taste what it means to experience excruciating pain, and even breathing felt like being pierced by a thousand arrows.
Why didn't he come sooner? Why was he so late?
When everything vanished from sight, only the bright moon hung alone in the sky above Beiqu, illuminating the earth, and the wind and waves were calm, as if nothing had ever happened.
However, the sorcerer's face was deeply imprinted on Zhou Yaren's blind eyes, making him feel a chill run through his body, a coldness that seeped into his bones, as if he had fallen into an icy pool or cave.
Zhou Yaren never expected it: "It was him."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
