Chapter 95: The Mountain Guardian Ghost She had believed in that man for at least a thousand years.
Hu Aqing woke up.
It took her a while to figure out the current time, and it took her a lot of effort to get her rusty brain working again.
Ruan Mengxiu was busy for a while, tapping several large points on her body, asking if it hurt and if she had any feeling there.
Hu Aqing let him fiddle with her, sat up with a frown, and muttered that it hurt. Ruan Mengxiu asked nervously what the pain was. Hu Aqing said that the air conditioner temperature was too high and it was causing her head a headache.
The body temperature of a person who lacks a soul or spirit will be lower than that of a normal person. In order not to affect the health of the body, a fixed higher temperature environment must be maintained at all times, so the room was hot before.
Finally, Ruan Meng turned the air conditioner straight down to 18 degrees. Wang Fengxu, who was quite sensitive to cold, shivered under this roller-coaster adjustment, hugging his arms. Even so, he didn't forget to hold down Meng Caiyun's eager hand to prevent him from proposing a fully automatic Yin Qi circulation refrigeration system.
"My mind's a mess," Hu Aqing said, her pronunciation still a little awkward at first. But after a few minutes, she gradually regained control of her body. "Let me think about how to tell you."
Ruan Mengxiu had calmed down. He turned back and briefly translated, "Sister Qing said her spirit has traveled to many places over the years. She has something to say, and I hope you can listen."
When Hu Aqing's soul came out from the bottom of Luhua River, it happened to possess Meilan's body. Strangely enough, Meilan had been turned into a submissive general, but she still retained some consciousness. The two souls coexisted in one body, with the dominant power sometimes in her hands and sometimes handed over to the other person.
"Although I don't know who she is, I know she has a wish that has not been fulfilled," Hu Aqing sighed, and said mid-sentence to drink a sip of water, otherwise the sore throat would always feel. "At that time, my residual soul lacked memory and common sense, and I didn't quite understand those things. It was only after my soul left and returned to its original state that I realized... She was the one who had made a deal with the Three Death Gates."
Wang Fengxu and Wang Tianfu sat in a corner and listened quietly to each other's story.
Hu Aqing guessed that the reason why the woman was turned into a listener but still retained some of her memories was because of her strong obsession. She wanted to return to Room 501, Cuihu Community and kill someone with her own hands.
"We shared the same body, and I can see her memories," Hu Aqing said with a melancholy look. "Every time that beast beat her, he would tie her to that chair. Later, the people from the Three Death Gate used weapon refining techniques to fuse the chair and her into one. If she could stab the middle of the chair back with a knife, she could easily get her revenge."
Wang Tianfu lowered his head and held the teacup tightly in his hand.
"She told me that she initially just wanted to kill him, but when she realized she had complete control over this man, she didn't want to kill him so quickly."
She wanted to imprison this beast, to make him live in darkness and fear, and every day he lived would be a luck and a struggle. She wanted him to see his own death certificate with his own eyes and hear the news of his parents' death with his own ears.
But she was also caught in a dilemma and fear. She was afraid that if the revenge exceeded the victim's level, she would become the new perpetrator.
Just as she was about to settle the feud, the God of Wealth appeared and took her life.
The man who was trapped in a chair because of the weapon refining technique began to experience the real despair of being imprisoned. After Lin Zhou accidentally uncovered the long-sealed curtain, he was already hungry, so he devoured Hu Aqing who was possessed by Lin Lao Er.
"That woman was too obsessed and didn't want to leave Hulu Town, so I attached myself to a man instead," Hu Aqing murmured. "I did something wrong, and that man pointed a finger at me. I was scared."
When Lao Zhong saw that the button on Lin Lao Er's collar had fallen off, he kindly wanted to use needle and thread to mend it for him. However, he didn't know that the soul in the other person's body had suffered a lot at the hands of the Hu family's needlework. When he saw the cold needle tip, he reflexively thought that the other person was also a member of the Hu family, which led to the tragedy.
Ruan Mengxiu said: "This is not Sister Qing's fault. I will compensate that family."
Hu Aqing's face turned a little ugly. She shook her head and said, "It's me who has left the soul. The karma is on me. I can't escape it. The debt of life is hard to repay."
Long Zhu, who had been distracted nearby, suddenly spoke up: "You said your soul emerged from the bottom of Luhua River. Why is it underwater? Where have you been for the past few decades?"
Hu Aqing then slowly turned his head towards her and sighed with emotion: "This is what I really want to tell you."
"Before that, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Where do you think people go after they die and become ghosts? And where do they go after they become immortals?"
Meng Caiyun answered without hesitation, "When people die, they become ghosts and go to the underworld. They ascend to the thirty-six heavens after they are transformed into immortals—although that's what the books say, but in reality, none of us have ever seen ghost messengers or ghost soldiers, let alone anyone who actually ascends to heaven."
"Yes," Hu Aqing smiled meaningfully. "Ghosts, resentment, and spiritual power do exist, but what about those heavenly soldiers and generals who sent the King of Hell? The rules are set by someone, but who are the people who uphold them? For thousands of years, apart from the records in mythological texts, none of us have seen them with our own eyes. This is not normal."
"Maybe it's just a nickname," Wang Fengxu said. "I used to wonder what the Ten Kings of Hell actually looked like, and where the Yellow Springs were. Now I think it's probably just rhetoric used by the ancients. They used personified images to describe the natural laws of heaven and earth, so that future generations could understand them without being overly mysterious."
The people in the Xuanmen sect have many magical instruments and techniques to purify demons and ghosts, but they don’t know where the purified souls go after they dissipate, nor do they know whether the souls really pass through a Naihe Bridge after people die and become ghosts.
No one has ever actually seen the existence of the underworld, but everyone believes that such a place exists.
Hu Aqing smiled and dropped a bombshell: "Now I can tell you, these two are going to the same place."
She extended a finger, pointing vertically downward.
Everyone was surprised. Ruan Meng stepped forward and asked, "No, Grandma, according to you, becoming an immortal is real?"
The authorities have been refuting the immortality scam for decades, yet people are still fighting for the "Taiyin Immortal Law" every day. Now that his grandmother has returned, she actually says that there is really such a thing as becoming an immortal?
He must be dreaming!
Hu Aqing shook his head with a complicated expression: "I can't come to a definitive conclusion on this, but I am sure that all the answers are below."
"Since ancient times, gods and immortals have come from outside the sky, such as the flying fairies from the sky, the heavenly palace, the gods and heavenly gates... Why do you say that everything comes from below? Does this below refer to underground?" Ruan Meng still didn't understand.
Hu Aqing asked in return, "Are you sure that what you call heaven is not the underground on another level?"
She added pointedly, "Don't we always learn in elementary school science classes that the Earth is a sphere, and we only live on its surface? But have you ever considered that there's actually a much larger world surrounding us, and that we're at 'their' core?"
Ruan Meng opened his mouth in astonishment and scratched his head: "Grandma, now that you put it that way, I completely don't understand."
"In the past few decades, I've traveled to many places, from mountains and rivers to seas and clouds and fields. I can say I've explored them all," Hu Aqing said, closing his eyes wearily. "I discovered that the source of spiritual power for all things in the world comes from the center of the earth, and beneath the center of the earth lies the so-called Immortal Gate."
Lao Tzu wrote in the Tao Te Ching: "The Valley Spirit is immortal; it is called the Mysterious Female. The gate of the Mysterious Female is the root of heaven and earth."
The so-called Valley God is mostly interpreted as referring to the "Tao" that is invisible and intangible and encompasses all things. Tao is neither born nor destroyed, but can multiply all things. Tao is like the source of all things and the door to all wonders.
But Hu Aqing believes that the valley god here has a better symbol, which is the valley.
The long valley is the core wrapped around the earth, like the seed in the fruit, the starting point for all germination.
Valleys store wind and gather energy. Birds, beasts, insects and fish all return to the valleys to lay eggs and reproduce. The magnetic field here is most suitable for the generation of life. So why can't it be considered the source of all things and the foundation of heaven and earth?
Everyone was still trying to understand what Hu Aqing said, only Long Zhu had a thoughtful expression.
She thought of her earliest memories, in which the group of Taiyin monks said, "She appeared in the mountains and forests for no reason."
Hu Aqing took another sip of the tea that Ruan Mengxiu handed her. She waved her hand and said, "If you think I've been away from my soul for several years and am getting confused, then there's something I think should support my guess."
"That's where Xiao comes from."
Wang Fengxu was startled and looked up at Long Zhu's expression, only to see that the other party was still immersed in some memories and had no special reaction.
Seeing that Hu Aqing was becoming increasingly exhausted after talking too much, he took the initiative to take over the conversation: "My master's wife told me a little about this. When the world was first created, it was divided into nine immortal mountains. The nine mountains then evolved into mountains, rivers and hills of various sizes, slowly forming the current universe. And it was Xiao who was responsible for guarding these nine mountains."
Hu Aqing nodded. "Although later generations often say that the Nine Xiaos are nine great ghosts that bring disaster to heaven and earth, in the earliest official texts, 'guarding the mountain' is the true origin of the Xiao. There have been legends about the Xiao in every dynasty, but most of the time, they are combined with the word 'mountain'."
Meng Caiyun slowly revealed an expression of disbelief. She looked at the elderly woman on the bed in surprise, "Grandma Ah Qing, you're not trying to say... Xiao is what people call an immortal?"
All things are born from the Nine Mountains, the valleys are the source of spiritual energy, and Xiao is the ghost guarding the mountains. So, does this mean that Xiao is the immortal that people in the world dream of becoming?
Hu Aqing lay down contentedly, his voice leisurely: "This is what I want to tell you."
Long Zhu took a long time to come back to his senses: "Then the 'home' I've always wanted to return to is not in the sky, but right under our feet, where the Nine Mountains are?"
No wonder the Taoist in the wide-sleeved robe told her that death is the way home.
The Nine Mountains are the beginning of Taoism and the beginning of chaos. They are the origin and destination of the souls of all things.
But if she and Tianjiu were really both mountain guardians, why did they leave Jiushan and appear in the human world?
Since he was what people called an immortal, how could he die? If he couldn't die, wouldn't he never be able to return to the Nine Mountains?
Could it be that the Taoist priest was deceiving her?
Long Zhu was a little speechless.
She had believed in that man for at least a thousand years.
"Grandma, I've been wanting to ask you this for a while now," Ruan Meng's eyes widened as he scratched his head and asked, "What on earth has happened to you that made you think of all this?"
Everyone pricked up their ears and looked at the old man with bated breath.
Hu Aqing's eyes were closed, and he no longer had the lively and talkative spirit he had just had. At this moment, he was no different from those elderly and frail people lying on the hospital bed.
Her old voice sounded a little unclear: "I met a man down there, and he told me a lot of things."
"Oh no, he's not really human now."
"I think he really has become an immortal."
Everyone quickly moved closer: "Who is that person?"
Hu Aqing lifted one eyelid and looked at Meng Caiyun, who was closest to him. The corner of his mouth curled up slowly, his eyes complicated. "Your great-grandfather... Lingxuan Taoist, Meng Bujiu."
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