the last priest

Cha Wenbin looked at the child beside him, and asked thoughtfully, "Hetu, do you know why grandpa gave you this name?"

Xiao Hetu immediately stood up from Cha Wenbin's side, and walked up to him respectfully: "Grandpa said that according to legend, Fuxi drew gossip through the pattern on the dragon and horse, and the pattern on the dragon and horse is called Hetu. Grandpa also said that the river map is the root of gossip, the origin of yin and yang, and the ancestor of Tao."

Touching Hetu's small head, Zha Wenbin asked with a smile: "Then do you like to learn from me?"

Only a nine-year-old child, what he said was innocence without consideration, Xiao Hetu shook his head and said, "I don't like it." You learn." He Tu added.

Cha Wenbin didn't blame this child, everyone has the right to choose their own life: "Can you tell me why you don't like learning Taoism?"

Hetu lowered his head and looked at his toes. The two shoes kept rubbing against each other, and his little face began to flush slightly.

Seeing that the child had something on his mind, Cha Wenbin naturally stopped asking: "It's okay, it doesn't matter if you don't tell me."

"I'm afraid." Hetu finally choked out these two words.

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid of the portrait of the old man hanging on the wall."

Cha Wenbin finally understood that the kids his age were exposed to cartoon characters, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse that became popular in that era, while he faced an old man with some majesty and solemnity.Although Cha Wenbin also believed that this child did have the talent to be a Taoist priest, he was still a child after all.

Learning to be a Taoist priest is not like slaying demons and demons, drawing amulets and chanting mantras to kill all directions as ordinary people think.Taoism, as a local religion that has been passed down for thousands of years, pays most attention to the word "enlightenment".Starting from learning the basic Taoist etiquette, and then transcribing and reciting various Taoist classics, not everyone can adapt to the monotonous and boring life.

Cha Wenbin patted Hetu's little head: "Until you think it over, you can call Uncle Cha. If one day you want to learn the Tao, just call me Master."

A tall, thin man with a sword slung across his back, straddled a broken bag with gossip patterns embroidered on it.A **-year-old child was jumping up and down in front, holding a glass in his hand with a golden tadpole in it. These two people could easily be mistaken for father and son.

Walking without a direction, you meet all kinds of people.Some people joked that they were in what era, did they dress like this because they wanted to make a TV series?Some people would stop the man and ask him if he knew how to tell fortunes; some regarded them as a pair of father and son cheating on food and drink, and some people offered a high price to buy the tadpoles in the child's hands.

Hetu had never left the village since he was born. The farthest he could go was the infirmary at the east end of the village to fetch medicine for his grandfather. He had never studied or worn new clothes.All this outside gave the child a sense of freshness. For the first time, he knew that there was a bigger village outside.

Cha Wenbin originally wanted to take him to visit some Taoist temples among famous mountains and rivers, but every time he went to the foot of the mountain to see the tourists flocking, he would shake his head and leave.The Taoist method pays attention to pure cultivation, so in the past, those masters who have attained the Tao will choose those towering mountain tops to build Taoist temples, or those cliffs that are difficult for ordinary people to reach.In addition to feng shui, what is more important is that these places are far away from the fireworks in the world and can be quiet.Now, these ancient Taoist temples have all become lively tourist attractions, and there are more mountain roads poured with steel and concrete between the cliffs that only apes could climb in the past.

People who were busy selling all kinds of souvenirs waved all kinds of amulets wholesaled from other places, euphemistically saying: This is blessed by a certain master.In fact, this kind of thing from the wholesale market in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, in Cha Wenbin's opinion, is not as common as a bubble of boy's urine.

He is a wild Taoist priest in the countryside, so it doesn't matter if he doesn't go to the fairy mountains and famous rivers.

Three years later, Cha Wenbin took Hetu to Sichuan, and he wanted to see the place where it all started.

The foot of Qifeng Mountain is already in a mess, there is no longer a towering mountain peak, and there is no longer a magnificent fairy bridge.Desolation and dilapidation are the only things left here. The original village was also destroyed in that landslide. The mudslide mixed with endless secrets destroyed everything here.

Those weird Yizhuang are gone, and the original ancient well is gone, and there is no trace of the village anymore.The locals said that bones often appeared in the river, and some people found incomplete bronzes from the river.

Standing by the river that once rushed out of him, Cha Wenbin took the glass from He Tu and gently put the tadpole into the water. "Come on, you're not that old man after all."

The tadpole stayed in the palm of Cha Wenbin's hand and kept circling back and forth. It didn't think at all that it could run to the free river as long as it swung its tail.

"Uncle, it doesn't seem to want to leave us." For Cha Wenbin's decision to release the tadpole, Xiaohetu was very reluctant.

As soon as Zha Wenbin retracted his palm, the tadpole fell completely into the water. He stood up. His back seemed to be a little bent than a year ago. Looking at Qifeng Mountain, which had collapsed in half, Zha Wenbin sighed. Said: "After all, you still don't want to call me master."

When Zha Wenbin turned around to look again, the child had already jumped into the river, and when he came up again, he was holding the tadpole in his palm and shouting: "Master, master, I caught it back again!"

"What did you call me?"

"Master, master..."

At this moment, Cha Wenbin had a real disciple, and he thought that Tianzhengdao finally had a successor.

That night, they slept at the foot of the mountain. For more than a year, Hetu and Cha Wenbin have gotten used to this kind of life of eating and sleeping in the open.

That night, Cha Wenbin had a dream. He dreamed that three people were sitting at the foot of the mountain drinking happily and talking loudly, and he knew and had seen all three of them.Cha Wenbin has forgotten the specific dream, he only remembers that at the end, the three walked shoulder to shoulder into Qifeng Mountain before it collapsed.

The copper bell 3000 years ago was played again, and tens of thousands of people prostrated themselves at the foot of the mountain, respectfully welcoming their king.The high priest holding a golden scepter did not wear a golden mask, and he sang ancient and mysterious songs.A huge three-legged golden toad has long been squatting beside the throne. It has been waiting for its master for 3000 years.

The three distant figures became more and more blurred and closer together, and at the end, only one person was left who turned around and sat down.Dressed in gorgeous cyan silk, the majesty from the emperor made his subjects stick their heads to the ground. Amidst the rumble of singing, Cha Wenbin seemed to see the prosperity of that dynasty.

Human beings are divided into three souls, separated and independent, the three souls reunited, and heaven and man are one!

This is the end of an era and the end of a past.The three souls have gone from fighting to meeting, and meeting again to relying on each other. Today they are leaving, leaving this person who is in the same line as themselves, and going to the place where they were supposed to go.Maybe Zha Wenbin didn't know that the self who could kill Yincha and fight against the golden mask no longer existed. From today on, he transformed into an ordinary Taoist priest again.

The next day, after waking up from the dream, the golden sun was shining all over the earth, and Cha Wenbin felt a little weak in his body.These years, he seldom feels tired, and always has endless energy. This is the first time he feels tired in many years.

When I came to the river, I planned to take a handful of water to wash my face, but I saw myself reflected in the water as if something was missing, but I couldn't tell.

"Maybe it's because I've traveled too much recently, and I'm a little tired," he said to himself, and slapped himself vigorously with both hands, trying to wake up, but found that his palms seemed to become softer.

Looking at his left hand in disbelief, the curved palm like an eagle's claw has recovered!The skin on the back of his hand was as smooth as a newborn baby, and he could feel the skin breathing the mountain air when he brushed it lightly.

"Quack!" It was a cry of a frog, and it is not surprising that there are frogs in mountain rivers.

"Master, master! Come and see!" Hetu's cheers sounded behind him, and Cha Wenbin turned around to see a small golden toad in the child's palm.

"Is it that it has grown up? The little tadpole has grown up?" Hetu asked happily.

Cha Wenbin took the toad and took a closer look. It only had three legs. Like its ancestors, there was a string of white copper coin seals around its mouth, and the seven golden bumps on its back, arranged according to the Big Dipper, were slightly raised. .

"Guagua!" The little toad yelled, and Cha Wenbin's face was less than five centimeters away from it at this moment. The little toad suddenly jumped up high, and then flicked out its tongue to gently sweep Cha Wenbin's cheek.

"Old buddy!" Cha Wenbin gently tapped the tip of the little toad's nose, and it closed its eyes as if enjoying it.

Everything went back to the beginning again. Back then, he brought the little toad here, too. Now that he has truly attained the Tao, Cha Wenbin is left alone on the road ahead.