Chapter 42 Chapter 42 (Two Updates in One)
But it was a bit strange that the golden beads appeared there, Lin Xinghuo thought.
Put aside the things you don’t understand for now and maybe you can figure it out by going directly to Liangshan.
From the moment she confirmed her guess, Lin Xinghuo didn't want to wait even a minute. She found a reason to say goodbye to everyone and quickly left Grandma Wei's house.
Zhaodi's mother, who still wanted to be closer to her, felt reluctant to let her go: "Why are you leaving?" Let's talk for a while.
Wei Layue looked thoughtfully at the door curtain that was lifted and lowered. In the brigade library, Sister Chunfeng collected and recorded old news from various places, many of which were related to avalanches. Perhaps she was looking for them for the little fairy?
Aunt Huang slapped her lips and stretched her neck to look at Lin Xinghuo's back outside the window: "My mouth, why did I forget to close the door today? Why did you say this for no reason?" Bringing up such a tragic thing on such a happy day not only disturbed the twelfth lunar month, but also caused the little fairy to worry.
"Auntie, what's the big deal? I was the one who started it." Layue didn't care about this. She was not a young girl with a delicate face: "What can't we women say?" Auntie Huang looked like she knew something. Just when she was about to ask, she looked at Jin Zhaodi's mother again and swallowed her words.
Zhao Di Niang didn't consider herself an outsider. She was quick to react to such gossip. She asked, "Why is Doctor Lin so concerned about avalanches? Why is he asking so much? I noticed her expression turned pale the moment you mentioned it, and she left in such a hurry. What's going on?"
Aunt Huang waved her hand, saying with some distress, "Xiao Lin was found by an old benefactor from Buxian Temple. She's originally from Beijing! I heard her parents were archaeological trainees at the Capital Cultural Relics Bureau. Back then, they were compiling mountain and local chronicles, and they sent many educated young people down there... People from the south couldn't imagine what winters are like here. Anyway, she never returned after visiting, and we haven't found her in all these years. Everyone speculates she's buried in the snow in some ravine."
Younger people might not remember this incident, but middle-aged women like Zhao Di Niang, who are good at doing things, still remember it. When Aunt Huang mentioned it, she remembered it immediately: "Yes, yes, yes, at that time, each commune had a task to find three or four young people with Beijing accents. At that time, the year was bad, and we didn't know where the next meal would come from. Who would have the leisure to find outsiders..."
Zhao Di Niang accidentally blurted out the truth and quickly changed the subject, "Then how did Doctor Lin survive? Didn't the one on Lotus Peak find her parents?"
"The mother wolf must have taken the child away as a cub. After all, the old benefactor found the child in a wolf den. But wolves can't talk, and it was a lone wolf that had lost its cub. Who knows where it dug up the baby?" Aunt Huang speculated, automatically completing the story that Master Zu of Buxian Temple had given Lin Xinghuo, and even connected it to Lin Xinghuo's concern for avalanches. "Looking at Xiaolin's behavior, I think it's almost certain that he was buried in the snow den."
The old fairy from Buxian Temple spent three years to cure Aunt Huang's illness. She has never been shy about it, and her whole family is very close to the old fairy. These words coming from her mouth are much more credible than those from others.
"'Wolf Boy'? I've only heard of it before, but I've finally met one!" Zhao Diniang was very excited. "No wonder Doctor Lin is so different!" Who knows, maybe it was because she was carried away by a wolf that her parents chased her into the mountains and died? Isn't it said that such a capable person is born with something missing? Doctor Lin might be lacking in kinship. Zhao Diniang's mind suddenly popped up many speculations, each of which she thought was reasonable. After returning home, she had so many new things to talk about that she felt that this trip was worthwhile!
Lin Xinghuo, whose story had been changed to include "wolf boy," stood at the back door of her mountain retreat, gazing at the mist-shrouded Lotus Peak. The caracal wrapped its tail around her ankle and asked, "Are you leaving now?"
Lin Xinghuo retracted his gaze, stroked the heads of the fox cubs that were begging to follow him, and pushed them towards the big tiger: "Be obedient and help us guard the house."
The caracal stamped its front paw on the ground, and a dragon of earth quickly rose from the ground, carrying all four to a newly built wooden house by Mirror Lake in the valley. A brilliant spiritual light surrounded the house, clearly a formation had been set up. Lin Xinghuo stood at the edge of the cliff and took out a dozen wooden talismans inscribed with cloud scrolls. He tossed them, and they flew like meteors into the sea, each flying in different directions and wedging into the rocks. Suddenly, the valley above was illuminated, as if a net of light enveloped the entire valley.
Only then did Lin Xinghuo feel relieved: "Let's go." The mountain retreat was well-defended, but not as spacious as the valley. Lin Xinghuo had previously worried that the animals would be uncomfortable living in the retreat, so he had painstakingly built a wooden house beside Mirror Lake, also to protect the spirit lotus. Now that the mountain valley had been sealed with a defensive formation, the safety of the children at home should be assured.
The leaves of the stinking orchid, curled up in the weeds and bushes, twitched, unable to maintain the flower-like pose facing the spiritual lotus. Ever since that pesky cat had advanced first, the orchid had been constantly worried about being discovered. Later, when humans built a house, it was forced to move again, damaging and breaking a root, further away from its dream lotus. It had originally planned to return to its old nest and slip back out once it had reached the next level. But the orchid was reluctant to leave, so it moved a little slowly. Who would have thought it would be trapped there?
Relying on its cultivation, which surpassed all the spirit beasts in the valley, the stinking orchid boldly stretched out its thin leaves and touched the spot at the valley entrance where the light had shone. "Ziz!" A sudden burst of lightning erupted, and a burning stench wafted out. Guilty and visibly sullen, the stinking orchid tossed the charred tip of its leaf into a cluster of blooming echinacea.
"Hoo-hoo!" the fox cubs, hearing the noise, came over, but couldn't find what was making the sound. But the little foxes clearly didn't care. This valley, with its water, flowers, rocks, and animals, was never quiet. They had come here, following the sound, purely for fun.
Dingbao, the predatory fox, plucked a long leaf from the grass and hopped back and forth in amazement. Big Fox slapped his sister into the wildflowers and, sifting through the leaves himself, soon pulled a fluffy ball of grass from the weeds. Second and Third Foxes ran after the ball of grass, patting it with their claws as it rolled forward. Big Fox licked his paw disdainfully and pounced on the end of the leaf that followed the ball of grass. The ball of grass was pulled away, and the two cubs fell into a heap. Second and Third Foxes, with their teeth bared, bit the ball of grass and started playing tug-of-war with their big sister...
*
Liangshan is about dozens of miles away from Bushiantun, which is nothing to Lin Xinghuo, but the mountain range where Liangshan is located does not belong to Bushiantun. It is to the north of Bushiantun and is a branch of Dongjinshan. This mountain forest is unfamiliar to Lin Xinghuo and the caracal, so the two of them move a little slower.
Not to mention that Lin Xinghuo walked almost in a straight line over the mountains and hills, even if he was more cautious, it only took him about an hour to reach this distance. When he found the way to Liangshan, it was the warmest time of the afternoon.
The top of Liangshan was covered with snow. If it weren't for a few burnt and charred trees still standing halfway up, they wouldn't have been sure if this was the place.
"The mountain air is not right." said the caracal, which is more sensitive to the environment.
Lin Xinghuo flipped his hand and took out a talisman to ward off evil. The talisman paper shook slightly, and suddenly it combusted without fire: "The yin energy is too strong." Yin is strong and yang is weak, and a mountain has actually lost the balance of yin and yang.
"Stay away, I'll find the source!" said the caracal as he was about to jump onto the snow.
Lin Xinghuo grabbed it back and slammed dozens of talismans for concentrating the mind, protecting the body, and exorcising evil spirits at it. The caracal had no choice but to wrap its tail around the most powerful wooden talisman and struggled to jump to the ground.
"Plop!" The caracal, which was born with short legs, fell headfirst into the snow den without even its head showing.
"..." Lin Xinghuo, who was originally in a heavy mood, and the originally solemn atmosphere.
The caracal buried in the snow froze for a moment, and suddenly a pillar of earth emerged from the snow, lifting the caracal, which was pressed behind its ears, onto the platform.
The bleak north wind blowing towards Liangshan seemed to have stopped for a moment, and then it roared and howled in anger as the embarrassed and angry Mr. Mao used his extraordinary earth dragon technique.
The rumbling earth dragon collapsed the snow, rolling over the old blood debt that had been hastily buried many years ago and brought it back to the light of day.
The decayed and dilapidated corpse still had clothes that hadn't completely rotted away. Lin Xinghuo picked up a rusty chisel wrapped in talisman paper and asked, "A carpenter's tool?"
After a careful inspection, Lin Xinghuo discovered that at least a dozen of these corpses had cracks on their skulls that matched the marks made by the chisel. They had actually been killed by someone chiseling their heads alive!
Qu Xiangjin's mother once mentioned that the seven families that killed Xuan Hu were headed by an old carpenter who knew how to win. So this is really the place where Xuan Hu and the man died.
Lin Xinghuo exhaled a breath of foul air and searched for clues again, then heard the caracal say, "What is this?"
A thin earth dragon used its head to lift up a black wooden object. When Lin Xinghuo got closer, the talisman on her body spontaneously combusted and turned into ashes.
Lin Xinghuo calmly drew two more yellow talismans on his body and said, "Inkstone." Inkstones are often a display of skill by craftsmen, personally carved and crafted. They are one of the most important tools of carpenters. Using them can help track down the carpenter's whereabouts.
It's better than that chisel that's stained with too much human blood.
Revenge must be taken, and the five organs of the black fox must be recovered. Even if that old man Jin killed the old carpenter when he tried to steal the gem made of the heart from his hand, unless the old carpenter's bloodline is cut off, the comfortable life they cheated out of blood debt must be repaid by his descendants!
Furthermore, the only enemies Lin Xinghuo knew of were the Jin family and the old carpenter. Since Old Master Jin was able to find the old carpenter, and the eldest grandson of the Jin family had somehow obtained the black fox skull, it meant that these seven families must still have some connection. By following the clues, they might be able to find all of their enemies!
After putting the inkstone into the wooden box, Lin Xinghuo and the caracal sifted through almost all the snow and soil, and finally found a piece of red rope as long as a finger joint - the red ginseng thread that had trapped the black fox and was soaked in the black fox's blood!
After closing the two wooden boxes, Lin Xinghuo carefully removed two pale red wooden talismans and forcibly pressed them into the wooden lid. These talismans were crafted from the heartwood of the yew tree, which had been infused with her spiritual energy. They were called "Tracing Talismans," and as the name suggests, they were meant to trace the source and trace the origin. If anyone or anything related to the items in the box appeared, the talismans would react: firstly, the deeper the connection, the greater the reaction; secondly, the effect would be more pronounced with living objects than with inanimate objects.
This type of talisman, capable of retracing cause and effect, was more difficult than all the talisman techniques Lin Xinghuo had previously mastered combined. From the inherited wooden tablet to the pages of a book, Lin Xinghuo had spent months studying and only managed to successfully create two wooden talismans, with the third still unfinished. Therefore, Lin Xinghuo had to use them with caution; once the spiritual power of these two talismans was depleted, there would be no backup.
The boxes containing the inkwell, red thread and inlaid wooden talismans are also made of wood from the same yew tree. Not to mention the talismans, just these few wooden boxes took a lot of effort: when they are not opened, they are a whole, and the endless circulation of spiritual energy from the wood is both a protection and a shackle, which can keep the contents of the box intact for many years.
As soon as the traceability symbol was embedded in the wooden box, the runes moved about as if alive, emitting bursts of dazzling red light. However, the runes on the wooden box containing the ink fountain reacted much weaker than those on the red ginseng thread.
Caracal and Lin Xinghuo said at the same time: "It's you." "It's me."
The tracing talisman wasn't just triggered by Lin Xinghuo and the wronged bones; the caracal, due to their contract with Lin Xinghuo, would also trigger a slight reaction when approached. However, the tracing talisman's reaction to the bones and caracal was much weaker than that to Lin Xinghuo.
At this point, there was no need to seek confirmation from the master of Buxian Temple. Lin Xinghuo must be the spiritual fetus of Xuanhu and a man. It was just unknown why it took so many years for her to be born.
Lin Xinghuo pondered, feeling a bit worried. "This tracing talisman's effect is even wider than a compass. Using it to pinpoint an enemy is a pipe dream." After all, her original enemies were long dead, and the only ones she could find were their descendants. Perhaps the red light the tracing talisman would trigger wouldn't be as strong as her own.
Then, as expected, the ancient trees on the nearby hillside could also trigger the tracing talisman reaction. Fearing that the wood talisman's spiritual energy would be exhausted soon, Lin Xinghuo had no choice but to put the things into the storage bag.
I originally wanted to use this thing to find the location of the victory coffin, but I didn't expect that the effect of this talisman was too general. It would be better for them to calculate it directly.
The seven families had blasted a cliff to conceal the burial site, but Master Jin later reactivated the victory coffin and, at great expense, cleared the ancestral tomb. It didn't take Lin Xinghuo and the caracal long to find a gaping cliff face on the northwest side of Mount Liang. This peak not only sloped toward Mount Liang, but also lay lightly covered in snow, which had accumulated to a certain point before sliding down the slope toward Mount Liang.
Once you find the right place, it will be easy to open the victory coffin.
Especially since the realm of one man and one macaque is far beyond the reach of the half-baked old man Jin.
With Lin Xinghuo's vine entanglement combined with the caracal's earth dragon technique, digging up people's ancestral graves is just a matter of minutes.
"Heh!" Lin Xinghuo looked at the victory coffin, which was much heavier and more imposing than the other coffins, and laughed disdainfully: "What a filial son and grandson."
When the victory coffin was opened, nine nails as long as arms, swirling with blood, shot towards Lin Xinghuo. The caracal swung its long tail, and crackling thunder swept across the area. Lin Xinghuo swung the thorns in his hand, and the heavy coffin lid shattered into pieces as if it had been hit by a cannon.
Lin Xinghuo had repeatedly thought about what was inside the coffin, but he could not have imagined such a scene: the coffin was covered with dense red ginseng lines, and there were five long black nails standing in the coffin. The so-called "living person holding the heart" of the old master Jin's biological daughter had long since turned into ashes, and the fine powder had dissipated the moment the coffin lid exploded. But what was particularly strange was that there was a fat white ginseng on the top of the coffin, part of its roots were deep in the coffin, and the other part was exposed to the air.
"That is..." Lin Xinghuo took a breath of cold air. Could it be that Old Master Jin not only nailed his own daughter in the coffin, but also planted a ginseng on her head?
The fox skull, embracing the demon pill, flew out from Lin Xinghuo's heart and hovered above the coffin. Lin Xinghuo's head was buzzing, and he felt a mixture of hatred and disgust as well as longing for intimacy.
At the same time, at the place where the red lines were densest in the coffin, something kept trying to rush out, and the sound of banging against the bottom of the coffin continued.
As the red line was pulled, the plump and fresh ginseng emitted a rich ginseng fragrance, which spread to the pine tree next to the coffin. The pine needles became visibly green, the bark became oily and shiny, and even green buds appeared under the tree, just like the god of spring descending to the earth.
Lin Xinghuo and the caracal had already erected a barrier using spiritual energy and talismans. Lin Xinghuo held the fox skull in his arms and said decisively, "Chop it!"
The caracal was a little hesitant. It was not because it was reluctant to part with the disgusting ginseng, but because it was afraid of hitting the black fox's heart. The caracal glanced at the snow-white fox head with its little eyes. This was its human mother!
"hack!"
The caracal rubbed its furry tail against its back, summoning a fist-sized dark purple lightning ball. After thinking for a while, it plucked off a little and threw it directly at the ginseng. The ginseng that had been quietly pretending to be a supreme treasure suddenly erupted, wrapped around the lightning ball and broke off at the root - the caracal's special trick, which had always been invincible against monsters, was actually blocked by a ginseng.
The caracal's fur stood on end. Lin Xinghuo quickly tapped out several talismans, surrounding himself and the caracal with dense defenses, even stepping on the evil-breaking and exorcising talismans.
Months of accumulation and preparation were not in vain. This ginseng was indeed very strange. After its beard was cut off, all the plants that had turned green and sprouted due to the ginseng scent turned into charcoal in an instant. Strands of vitality like water plants climbed up the coffin and gradually gathered where the ginseng was, causing it to grow another section where the beard was bald.
"Like the yellow fox's tricks?" But compared to the yellow fox's ability to absorb human essence, it was much cruder. As Lin Xinghuo was thinking about this, she saw her cat seemed to have found a new toy. It bared its teeth, arched its back, and shot egg-sized lightning balls to the ginseng, making sure that every ginseng whisker was hit.
In a moment, the ginseng became like a radish eaten by insects. It was not only bald, but also full of potholes and looked extremely miserable.
The claws of the old man were shining. He rolled the thunder ball over the hair that had just exploded and was not very docile. He said sarcastically, "This is so ugly that even pigs wouldn't eat it."
Bald ginseng shook twice.
Lin Xinghuo narrowed his eyes: "It really is alive."
Bald Ginseng pulled out the last ginseng beard that fixed it in the coffin. Only then did Lin Xinghuo and Caracal discover that the ginseng beard that was stuck in the coffin was actually red.
"Destroy the evil!"
"boom!"
Inheriting and carrying forward the fine tradition of killing the yellow-skinned monster, the man and the macaque didn't give the thing any chance to struggle. One used nine full talismans to break evil, and the other suddenly picked up a thunder ball as big as a head. The simple talisman formation formed by the talismans wrapped around the thunder ball and the bald ginseng, not giving even a drop of ginseng residue a chance to escape.
The sable that had been following quietly finally straightened up and started to cluck incessantly.
Watching the evil ginseng dashing left and right in the lightning until it finally turned into black smoke, Lin Xinghuo took the time to ask the macaque, "What did it say?"
The caracal cast a sidelong glance at the excited sable and reluctantly translated, "It said, 'Why are you pretending to be such a big garlic clove? You're just a stinky carrot!'"
Once the evil ginseng was dead, the bright red ginseng thread inside the coffin faded instantly, and the mountain wind blew it away, turning it into a handful of ashes. The thick and sturdy coffin also quickly decayed and rotted.
The fiery red gem-shaped heart that was as quiet as a chicken when struck by lightning suddenly flew out of the coffin. Lin Xinghuo hurriedly released the fox skull from the protective shield. Unexpectedly, the gem heart that was purer than pigeon blood stone and was about to rush into the fox skull cave to successfully meet the demon pill suddenly fell down and fell straight to the ground.
Lin Xinghuo was startled and quickly reached out to take it.
Before she could react, the gem heart had already rolled several times in her palm. If Lin Xinghuo's palm was not so small, it would have been spinning like a top.
It seems to be more lively than the skull and the demon pill?
Lin Xinghuo was afraid of dropping it, so he clasped his hands together, held the heart in his palms, and looked at it carefully.
The heart rubbed against her palm again and again, and the caracal glanced at it again and again. After a long while, he said, "The heart is where all emotions gather. It recognizes you."
So you are closer to me than to your own skull and inner elixir?
The scarlet gem shone brightly, and it seemed that it had not suffered any damage. Just as Lin Xinghuo thought so, the black fox's heart carefully turned half of its side. Lin Xinghuo looked carefully and found that the exposed part was much darker.
Touching the little gem, Lin Xinghuo gently pinched it and turned the heart over - the part hidden on the back was not only dull in color, but also dotted with black lines, completely different from the shiny front.
It turns out that the heart has always been facing itself with its good side.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Xinghuo gently wrapped his palm with spiritual energy and stroked it gently. The little gem trembled and seemed to like it very much.
The fox skull, which had already grown larger, flew over angrily, clasped Lin Xinghuo's palm, and successfully locked the heart gem into the skull.
The fox head shrank rapidly, still trying to attach itself to Lin Xinghuo's inheritance plaque.
"Ding-dang! Clang!"
"Bang! Clang clang!"
The fox skull swayed in the air, like a drunk. It would light up and grow, then dim and shrink, then grow again, then shrink again… and the little heart gem would jostle inside.
The caracal's paws curled up and stretched out, unfolding into five-petaled flowers that curled back into lollipops, its eyes fixed on the flying fox skull. Lin Xinghuo's eyes were dazzled, and she was afraid that the caracal would not be able to resist rushing forward to pounce on this "mom-branded" cat toy ball, so she simply grabbed the fox skull with both hands and held it in her arms.
A small corner of the heart gem peeked out from the eye hole in the skull, conveying a feeling of grievance.
The emotions were indeed much clearer than the fox skull. Lin Xinghuo touched it and whispered to comfort it: "You should recuperate well first. I will let you out when you feel better, okay?"
Ever since the demon pill moved into the fox skull, it has become much better and has become more lustrous. In the sunlight, you can see that its purple color has become a little darker. The caracal said that this is because the demon pill has recovered a little. As long as she nurtures it patiently, she will be able to restore the demon pill sooner or later.
The little heart gem is much better staying in the fox skull than outside: perhaps because it has been used as a tool to collect moon essence for many years, the fox skull has developed a special ability. When Lin Xinghuo warms the skull, the spiritual energy can enter the heart and demon pill more gently and slowly, thus avoiding the danger brought by the spiritual energy to the two precarious things.
After finally convincing Little Baozhi, Lin Xinghuo still placed the fox skull lying on the inheritance plaque in front of his heart, and only then did he have the mind to deal with the messy Jin family ancestral tomb in front of him.
He glanced at the other side of Liangshan from afar. There were two sides of the mountain. Caracal and Tulongshu had dug out some coarse pottery and ironware fragments closer to the foot of the mountain. It was obvious that the small mountain village where the seven enemies lived was originally built on a flat valley between two mountains.
"As expected of a ginseng picker like him, his ancestral graves are weighing down the village." Lin Xinghuo sneered and asked the caracal, "Can we bury the bones of the twenty or so families who died unjustly here?"
The old man's eyes lit up, and before Lin Xinghuo could say anything, the old coffins began to jump as if they had come back to life, pushed forward by the earth dragon. Rubbing the old man's head, Lin Xinghuo used thorns to lift the lids of all the coffins and pull out the dead bones.
The macaque's earth dragon rumbled and transported all the bones from halfway up the mountain, and buried them neatly in the coffins one by one. There were not enough intact coffins, so Lin Xinghuo wrapped them with thorns until he had enough.
The caracal's earth dragon turned the ground into an extremely soft place, and the coffins slowly sank into the black soil like water.
Lin Xinghuo took out a handful of yellow paper without any talismans drawn on it, and with a burst of spiritual power, it broke into pieces like paper money, which flew into the wind. The burial that had been delayed for more than a hundred years was finally realized.
"Let's go." Lin Xinghuo turned around, and the caracal stomped its paws, and the old bones of the 'Jin Gaixue' family sank deeper one by one until they were stepped on by the coffin.
The man, the cat and the marten had just reached the halfway point of the mountain when suddenly a roar was heard from the top of the mountain. They saw the snow cap of the neighboring mountain suddenly fall down, completely covering the black soil that had just been exposed.
"Is there any sound underground?" Lin Xinghuo picked up the sable and said to the caracal lying on his shoulder.
The caracal's ears are more sensitive than humans', especially since its earth dragon has not been retracted yet, so the caracal can see more clearly - the place where the coffin was buried was originally flat, but just now, the coffin stood up in the soil as if one end was heavy and the other end was light. The moment the snow pressed down, dozens of small graves suddenly appeared on the ground - and the dry bones of the ancestors of the Jingaixue family were impacted deeper by the coffin. After all, this is on the top of a mountain, and no matter how thick the soil layer is, it is limited. The caracal clearly saw with the help of the earth dragon that many dry bones hit the rocks and shattered completely.
The avalanche next door was actually caused by those standing coffins!
After they got down the mountain, Lin Xinghuo suddenly said, "No, there's no gold or silver buried in the victory coffin. So where did the gold beads come from?"
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The author has something to say: I guessed it~~
See you tomorrow, I will write more tomorrow~ The caracal rubs its paws, treasure, here I come!
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