Chapter 63 Chapter 63 First Update
Qingji? Seeing the struggling yellow figure, Lin Xinghuo suddenly remembered that Qingji was a legendary ancient water spirit dressed in yellow clothes and a yellow hat, riding in a yellow carriage. This little yellow figure, barely a foot long, certainly looked like Qingji, but who was Anian?
When the caracal heard Qingji's crying, the thunder on the thunder net subsided a little. It always felt that the thin, cracked voice sounded a little familiar.
The lightning net that was flashing with thunder just now was like a bed of nails, and Qingji had no choice but to struggle. He was so small and so fast, and rolling back and forth like that made people dizzy. Only when he calmed down could people see his dignity clearly.
It was indeed a humanoid figure, resembling a young man in his twenties, not bad looking in fact. But wasn't the wearer's attire a bit shabby? The yellow coat was patched up with patches, and the yellow hat on his head was probably made of yellow paper, charred black by the caracal's lightning. And the thing he was clutching tightly in his hand was no use calling a taxi; it looked like something a mouse had gnashed out with its teeth... That was the sound just now, right, from the broken thing hitting the gravel.
Wasn't it said that Qingji's car was a small one with a yellow canopy? He even had a pony to pull it. How come the one that got stuck in their net looked so shabby?
When Lin Xinghuo came over, Qingji shuddered and let out a loud sob.
"Why are you following us?" Faced with such a pitiful villain, even Lin Xinghuo couldn't help but soften his voice.
Only then did Qingji dare to look the terrifying human in front of him in the face. He first glanced at Lin Xinghuo, then his eyes fixed on the caracal with its head sticking out above Lin Xinghuo's head. The yellow-robed figure screamed, "Anian! It's really Anian! Wuuwuwu, Anian, why are you slashing me?"
That strange feeling of familiarity came again. Uncle Maomao scratched his ears, flew down on the small thundercloud, and gently pulled the lightning net with his claws. The lightning net instantly turned into a birdcage, hanging in the air at the end of Lin Xinghuo's spiritual vine.
"A-Nian, how come you're cuckolded?" Qingji wiped his tears, but he didn't seem to want to escape from the cage. On the contrary, he seemed relieved and tucked up his short legs to sit in the car that was high on one side and low on the other. "Your eggs were clearly purple back then, right?"
So the "Anian" that Qingji mentioned was the caracal? Lin Xinghuo and Mr. Caracal exchanged a glance and listened carefully to what the villain muttered:
"When Yumin hatched you, he guessed that you either had purple fur or had thunder-attributed magical powers..." But why did you end up being a green cat?
This guy's eyesight isn't very good, is it?
Lin Xinghuo gently helped the caracal take off the tightly wrapped green scarf. The caracal leaned closer to the cage with its forehead. Qingji touched the bars formed by the lightning column and found that it did not shock him. He quickly stretched his neck to sniff and said happily after a while, "That's the smell! It really is Ah Nian!"
It seemed like he wasn't sure at all just now!
After confirming A Nian's identity, Qingji was obviously not so scared anymore. He even stretched out his little hand and touched the caracal's fur.
"Anian?" The inheritance deep in the caracal's sea of consciousness was in turmoil, and purple thunder surrounded it in an instant. The shining thunder balls pierced people's eyes so much that they couldn't open their eyes. Even the cage that held Qingji couldn't be maintained and dissipated in an instant.
The spiritual vine spontaneously wrapped around Qingji. Lin Xinghuo nervously looked inward at the projection of the caracal that was rolling and wailing in her purple palace. The layer of lightning surrounding the projection seemed to be trying to break free from its restraints, but the dirty black air was like a silk net and a thorn in the side of the lightning. She raised her eyes again to look at the thunder ball that was bulging in the air... Lin Xinghuo seemed to feel something. She sat cross-legged with her eyes closed. The frequency of her heartbeat gradually synchronized with the thunder ball. A strong vitality overflowed from her body, and the strands of vitality were like streams merging into rivers, and like thousands of rivers flowing into the sea, gradually condensed into a light green dragon. The dragon soared around the thunder ball, and the thunder ball suddenly turned into the shape of a rabbit head, opening its purple-black mouth to suck noodles while quickly swallowing the green dragon into its stomach.
Unfortunately, neither Lin Xinghuo nor the caracal saw this scene. Instead, Qingji, who was tied up, became the only person who witnessed it at the scene.
After a while, the thunderball suddenly quieted down. Lin Xinghuo, who had closed his eyes, also let out a long sigh. He took out a piece of Jinglian lotus petal from his storage bag and swallowed it, regulating his breathing for a moment to recover his spiritual power. Then he opened his eyes and stood up, only to see that the natal spirit vine on his wrist had bound Qingji like a dumpling. The Candle Dragon Gallbladder hung above Qingji's head, and the flame tail turned into a knife tip and pressed against him, clearly threatening Qingji not to move.
The caracal is fine now, the thunder ball has not dissipated, but it still needs to digest some of it.
Lin Xinghuo clenched her palms, feeling a sense of wonder. The contract she had made with the caracal was vastly different from the one in her inheritance, ten times more complex. She had pondered this when she was learning the talisman, believing it must have many magical uses. But before, aside from being able to vaguely sense the other person's emotions when they were experiencing significant mood swings, this was the first time it had truly been used—to truly complement each other! When Lin Xinghuo had just assisted the caracal, she had almost touched upon the caracal's tangled and chaotic bloodline memories. The wondrous sensation of walking through the cracks of space and the long river of time suddenly gave Lin Xinghuo a host of profound insights. With time to settle, she would surely solidify her foundation, a sharp sword that would help her break through the barriers of high-level Qi Refining.
She thought about it, and the spiritual vine that bound Qingji loosened a little. Qingji rubbed his face on the big patch on his sleeve, and dared to look into Lin Xinghuo's eyes.
This person not only helped A Nian, but also had such a strong vitality that these monsters could get close to him and like him. Qingji spoke hesitantly.
"...So it was you who sent Anian to the Gobi Desert back then?" Lin Xinghuo glanced at Lei Tuan and called him Anian, knowing that the caracal had long wanted a name. But he hadn't been able to find a true name from his bloodline, and if he kept delaying, he'd probably ask his less-than-name-conscious friend to come up with one for him.
Qingji nodded and said, "A-Nian needs too much spiritual energy, and we simply cannot afford it. If this continues, he will miss the chance to be born. We have no choice but to send him back to the Sunrise Valley." The Sunrise Valley is a place of ice and fire. Qingji clutched the bicycle ropes sadly, as his two-wheeled frame was destroyed there.
"Anian, is that the name you gave him?"
"How dare we name him Anian!" Qingji looked at Lin Xinghuo strangely: "Of course he's called that!"
Monsters with bloodline inheritance are born with real names, and there are ways to know their real names. Some are from the first cry when they are born, and some are from the pattern on their fur or eggshell... The pattern on the caracal's eggshell is twisted into the word "year".
"My name is Nian." A clear voice that seemed a little more mature sounded. The caracal retracted his thunderbolt and stepped down on the thundercloud.
Qingji was so excited that he was about to pounce on it to worship it, but Lin Xinghuo was quick to grab the caracal's skin by the back of its neck and pulled the cat into his arms.
Holding the cat, which had grown bigger and looked like a little tiger, in her arms, Lin Xinghuo came to her senses. She didn't understand why she subconsciously didn't want Qingji to pounce on the cat... Maybe it was because the tattered Qingji looked unhygienic?
Uncle Caracal's solemn and majestic declaration hadn't been completed when Lin Xinghuo suddenly destroyed it. The caracal licked his paw and calmly continued to tell Lin Xinghuo that his bloodline had awakened a little more and that "Nian" was indeed his name.
Qingji retreated back to his cart, fearing the caracal might get angry. Even when Ah Nian was an egg, he had a bad temper, and he'd been hit by eggs many times while delivering them back to Sunrise Valley.
Lin Xinghuo poked the catfish and asked him to explain in detail.
The caracal gazed deep into the water vein, then pointed at Qingji. "There's a village here, filled with all sorts of spirits born and raised by nature..." But he was still in his egg, only vaguely aware of the outside world. Qingji and Yumin were probably the two spirits he knew best; one had once dragged him across thousands of miles, the other had incubated him for years. If Yumin hadn't plucked his own wing feathers to weave a fire-proof cloth, wrapped the caracal's egg, and placed it in the crater to absorb its spiritual energy, the caracal might have died quietly in its egg.
The Yu Min, a native of the legendary Yu Min nation, are born with human heads and bird bodies. They are the chief of the Spirit Village. They have collected spirits like Qingji and the caracal from various parts of Shenzhou. Caracal remembers the Yu Min as responsible and caring. During periods of spiritual energy depletion, spirits withered and died, and the few that were born often died young. The Yu Min would constantly pick them up and raise them, gradually forming a small village. Although he possesses wings, he is naturally unable to fly far. Yet, he was able to find Qingji in the southern marshes and retrieve a nearly petrified caracal egg from the far west's Sunrise Valley... This demonstrates his perseverance. So, did the Yu Min ask Qingji to lead the way this time?
When the caracal asked, Qingji sobbed again, sobbing, "Yumin is dead, exhausted and old..."
"Yumin." The caracal was a little sad. Lin Xinghuo hugged him in his arms and smoothed his fur.
Now the chief of the Monster Village, Qingji hadn't come specifically to greet them. Instead, Lin Xinghuo and Tuxun's descent into the well had triggered a warning placed by the Feather People on the ice cake—a feather hidden in the ice. Initially, Qingji had assumed they were ordinary people descending the well, so he wanted to make a noise to scare them off. In previous years, courageous groups of humans had ventured down the well, but the Monster Village was deeper, too far for ordinary people to find. Qingji didn't need to show up. His main purpose was to activate the fire-washing threads on the stone teeth, using the same method of herding sheep to guide those people back to the surface by the correct path, thus preventing a major human disturbance caused by their disappearance.
But Lin Xinghuo summoned a talisman, conjuring a multitude of ancient vines that entwined the stone wall, binding the extremely thin and tough fire-cleaning wire mechanism. Qingji's twirling of the silk thread failed to produce the "stone falling to startle the birds" effect. He hid behind the stone fangs, not daring to emerge. However, Lin Xinghuo and the caracal not only found the correct path, but also penetrated too deep, forcing Qingji to personally intervene...
So, circling around them was Qingji's way of trying to scare them away? It was a bit futile, wasn't it?
Qingji felt both aggrieved and relieved. The moment he was tied up by the lightning net, he saw the caracal on the human's shoulder and suddenly remembered A Nian, the only person who might have the talent for lightning. He shouted loudly, but he didn't expect it was really A Nian.
…
"Anian, Anian, are you here to find us?" Qingji forgot the pain as soon as his wound healed, and in a moment he couldn't even remember how the caracal had chopped him.
Qingji tried hard to pull the yellow robe that was torn in many places. He felt a little embarrassed and thought that it was because his clothes were too torn that Anian didn't recognize him. He had no idea that the caracal's bloodline was impure. If it weren't for Lin Xinghuo's help just now, he might not have remembered them now.
But it's not just the caracal whose bloodline is impure. Qingji himself is far inferior to the legendary water god who can travel a thousand miles a day. The caracal quietly conveyed a message to Lin Xinghuo, asking her not to be too surprised when she saw other monsters in the Monster Village later - in the era of exhausted spiritual energy, it is extremely difficult for monsters to be born between heaven and earth, so the monsters in the Monster Village are either weak or have low bloodline and magical powers, and most of them are both.
The powerful companion had returned. Qingji stared at the caracal's bright vest with wide eyes, which seemed to be quite wealthy. Qingji happily pulled the cart and ran away again, turning into a yellow light, talking non-stop as he led the way.
It turns out that this strange and special place is the remains of the "Peach House", which is the "tomb of the monk" mentioned by the master. The monk here does not refer to a human cultivator, but a monster - the Peach House is an ancient wood monster that looks like a rabbit. It is a companion of Yu Min. After death, its body turned into a shelter. Yu Min took the monster he found and hid in the Peach House.
Lin Xinghuo just felt that the stone cliff that looked like a huge mouth was indeed the mouth of Taowu. The yellow light from Qingji's escape circled around the interlaced stone teeth and said, "If there is an external enemy, we can drive the bones of Taowu to resist, but Taowu will not harm plants."
This means that Tao Wu's body recognized Lin Xinghuo as its own kind.
At this time, Lin Xinghuo touched the small vest on Mr. Mao's body, and suddenly understood why her master asked them to come here only after she gave them the new clothes made of stinky orchid leaves. So that's it.
So did the master have contact with the Monster Village long ago? But Qingji didn't seem to know the master.
Qingji didn't recognize him, but Yumin probably did, because Qingji said, "In the past, Yumin could get food, and the village was fine. But after Yumin died, I was too weak and useless, and everyone else was too frail... A human urn? Yumin left behind quite a few things, you can go look for them."
Lin Xinghuo immediately thought of the old fairy who would exchange herbs for food with the villages at the foot of the mountain after the autumn harvest every year. All the villages in the surrounding area believed in the old fairy, so that was indeed a considerable sum of money. Previously, there were only the two of them in Buxian Village, and they definitely could not finish eating it all. But when she cleaned the cellar before going down the mountain two years ago, she did not find much old food. The old branch secretary once said that the old fairy would help the villagers during the spring famine in recent years. Lin Xinghuo thought that the old fairy distributed the remaining food to the villagers. Now she thought about it and found a loophole: "help in recent years", then where did the even larger amount of food go in the early years when the movement had not yet started?
The approximate time of death of a pair of feathered people does match. It turns out that the disappeared food was provided to this village.
*
When Lin Xinghuo actually saw the so-called "Ghost Village", she really didn't expect it to be such a poor place. She really couldn't imagine why the ghosts had ended up in such a situation?
Calling this place a village is really flattering. Before my eyes are dugouts made of dry grass, and inside them are skinny monsters—actually, they can hardly be identified as monsters.
"This is Linghu." Qingji pointed to a skinny cow that looked like it had goiter and introduced it.
The caracal transmitted a message: "The collared beard looks like a cow, with a tumor on its neck and a red tail. Its bloodline is incomplete." Lin Xinghuo looked at the cow, whose color was so pale that the redness could not be seen, and nodded slightly.
The skinny cow raised its head and said a faint greeting: "Ling Hu!"
The sound of the collared bark is exactly like their name.
"This is Fang Hui." Qingji greeted the musk deer with two copper rings on one ear.
The caracal sent another message: "Fang Hui, the hair on your head looks like the hair of a musk deer on a woman's head with all the hairpins and rings in ancient times. This..." He didn't need to say anything. Lin Xinghuo looked at the two pitiful copper rings. The difference between his head full of pearls and jade and Fang Hui in ancient times was really indescribable.
We greeted people as we walked along. There were very few monsters in the monster village. Not only were they few, they looked no different from ordinary animals. The only ones that could be distinguished at a glance were Qingji and a white calf busy in the center of the dugout.
The white calf was not even as big as a caracal, and looked about the same size as a fox cub. It was busy holding a piece of grass in its mouth and roasting it on the reddish ashes.
The Zhulongdan that had been quiet on Lin Xinghuo's wrist whistled, suddenly rushed out of her sleeve, and moved towards the ashes with the spiritual vine that bound it.
The calf jumped, its four hooves flying, and the grass in its mouth fell onto the ashes and instantly turned to ash.
"Moo!" The white bull let out a cry, and his big eyes were filled with tears.
With a flick of the spiritual vine, Lin Xinghuo forcibly retracted the carefree Zhulongdan and looked at Xiaoniu apologetically, "What kind of grass is this? I'll compensate you."
The calf couldn't speak, so Qingji said, "It's a medicine beast that can carry herbs to cure diseases - but you are not sick, you are just too hungry and too cold." The herbs the medicine beast found were better than nothing.
Lin Xinghuo crouched down, ignoring the "Wutong Branch" consciousness that Zhu Longdan desperately tried to convey. He picked up the herb, which had only a few roots left, passed a little wood spirit energy through it, and used the Quanyu technique. The remaining roots instantly sprouted, and in a moment, they became a lush mugwort plant. Mugwort is hot in nature, and the saying "sun in the sky, mugwort on the ground" is indeed suitable for this cold and gloomy place.
Handing the mugwort to Xiao Niu, Lin Xinghuo did not miss Qingji's sparkling eyes - in fact, not only Qingji, but even those in the grass nests with weak breaths and who had not even poked their heads out to greet them just now had burning gazes sent out.
This expression was even more fiery than that of a candle dragon's gall, and Lin Xinghuo suddenly felt something was not right.
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The author has something to say: See you around midnight~
Note:
Qingji: According to the "Guan Zi Shui Di" it is recorded that "when a lake has dried up for hundreds of years, and the valley has not been drained and the water has not dried up, Qingji will be born. Qingji looks like a human, four inches tall, wearing yellow clothes, a yellow crown, a yellow canopy, riding a pony, and likes to gallop fast. If you call him by his name, he can make it return a thousand miles in a day. This is the spirit of the dried-up lake."
The Yumin Kingdom is one of the thirty-six overseas states mentioned in the Huainanzi. Its people had narrow heads and cheeks, white hair, red eyes, and bird-like beaks. They laid eggs and had a pair of wings on their backs, capable of flying, but not far. Wu Renchen's extensive annotations to the Haiwai Nanjing (Overseas Southern Classic) quote the Jinlouzi (not available in current editions) as saying, "During the time of Shun, the Yumin presented fire-washing cloth." Fire-washing cloth was non-flammable and could remove dirt in fire.
Taowu: An ancient wood spirit, like a rabbit, that disappears when its name is called. Some say eating it can make one live a hundred years. — From the Song Dynasty book "Li Wei Han Wen Jia"
Linghu: According to "Classic of Mountains and Seas·Classic of Northern Mountains", there is a wild beast in the mountains, which looks like an ordinary cow but has a red tail and a tumor on its neck, shaped like a bucket. Its name is Linghu, and the sound it makes is the pronunciation of its own name. People can cure insanity by eating its meat.
Fang Hui: From the Three Kingdoms book "Gezhi Jingyuan", Xian Chao encountered a thing that looked like a musk deer in Mount Tai, but with a woman's head, a bun, hairpins and earrings. He went back and told Zhi Qiong, who said that this thing appears once every five hundred years, and anyone who sees it will live a long life.
Medicinal Beasts: According to "Yun Chuang Si Zhi" (Yun Chuang Si Zhi), during the reign of Shennong, the common people presented medicinal beasts. When a person fell ill, they would pat the beasts and teach them a language, which was as the common people had taught them. The language was unknown. After the beasts finished speaking, they would go out into the wild and bring back a herb. The person would then mash it and drink its juice, which would cure the disease. Later, the Yellow Emperor ordered Feng Hou to record the herb and the ailment it caused. Over time, the formulas proved to be effective. Ancient legends claim that the Yellow Emperor tasted hundreds of herbs, but this is not true. Therefore, Yu Qing said that the Yellow Emperor learned medicine from the medicinal beasts. During the reign of Shennong, the common people presented medicinal beasts. When a person fell ill, they would tell the beasts in an unknown language, which the common people had taught them. The beasts would then go out into the wild and bring back a herb. The person would drink the juice, and the disease would be cured.
The "Bowuzhi" (Records of Natural History) states, "Cut ice into a round shape, hold it up to the sun, and place mugwort behind it to support its shadow, and you will get fire." This means that mugwort can draw out the sun's true fire, which is why the folk saying "the sun is in the sky, and mugwort is on the ground" is a testament to the traditional Chinese medicine "mugwort."
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