the last priest

When he returned to his hometown, he found that Zha Wenbin was not there. Chaozi asked the people in the village and they all said that he hadn't seen him for a long time.Pushing away the room, spiders started to appear in some corners and corners. Where did Cha Wenbin go?

There is a big mountain behind the village. The top of the mountain used to be a public collective forest farm. During the famine in the 70s and [-]s, people in the village used to cut down trees in that forest farm to open up wasteland and grow corn.In order to take care of these grains, a small house was built in that mountain depression. Nowadays, people no longer go to the mountains to make a living, and the country has issued a policy of closing the mountains for afforestation. The house has long been surrounded by towering trees.

There was a stream by the side of the house, and a big black dog was squatting by the stream, scratching and scratching the golden-yellow thing with its paws, wanting to bite it several times but not knowing how to bite.Taking a closer look, under the black dog's feet was a golden toad with only three legs, no smaller than a rabbit.

"Heizi, come here!" A middle-aged man shouted standing at the door of that dilapidated house, and the big black dog gently picked up the three-legged toad on the ground and came to his side wagging its tail.

One person, one dog, one toad, who else is there besides Cha Wenbin in such a harmonious natural scene?

He really didn't want to involve too many people. Perhaps it would be a good choice to spend his entire life in this barren mountain very close to home. If he put down the Dao in his hands and lived his life like this, wouldn't it be a choice?

There was corn mush in the steaming pot, and he needed to get some for Heizi, the dog's appetite was getting bigger and bigger.Putting down Heizi's dog bowl, Cha Wenbin stroked its head, turned around and entered the room again, it was time to sit quietly.Ever since he started learning Taoism, he has developed a habit. Whenever this point occurs, he will enter the state of meditation. Perhaps for practitioners in the spiritual field like them, enlightenment and non-enlightenment all depend on a single thought. It's a pity that this time, he hasn't come out for a long time.

Heizi is not picky about food. Although Zha Wenbin's workmanship is not as good as Dashan's, it still likes sweets. The three-legged toad also squatted on the ground and took a piece of food from Heizi's bowl with its big tongue, which made people laugh. Heizi yelled at it angrily.The toad seemed to be a little afraid of the dog, and moved its clumsy body back, but when the dog didn't pay attention, it swept away another piece, which completely angered Heizi, and opened its mouth wide to bite. Going down, I saw the three-legged toad kicked hard and shot at the stream, then turned around to reveal two small eyes to see if the dog was chasing it.

Heizi also rushed to the river, and the three-legged toad quickly retracted his head back into the water. If it was normal, the dog would definitely jump off and get wet, and then Heizi would be caught by Cha Wenbin. Scream, because soggy sunspots make a mess in the house.This kind of scene is what the three-legged toad likes to see the most. This toad is not an ordinary toad. Its spirituality made it tease Heizi when it was only the size of a fist. Now it still enjoys teasing this toad dog.

Only this time, the three-legged toad did not wait until Heizi jumped into the water as usual, it had already found the crevice of the rock where it wanted to hide, but after a long time there was no movement, the three-legged toad poked its head out of the water again, but I saw the big black dog circling around a young man.

Seeing that it was that person, the little three-legged toad was so frightened that it immediately went back into the hole again. Who is this person who can scare that toad so much?It was He Yichao, the demon king of the world. This kid often fed the three-legged toad some messy things when Cha Wenbin was away. One time he actually threw a ball of chili sauce into it. The poor three-legged toad thought it was something good. Once it was rolled, it was put into the big mouth, and it dragged its tongue out for two days without being able to retract it, so when it saw this thing, it would rather hide away by itself.

After pushing open the broken wooden door, Chaozi called softly: "Brother Wenbin?" Behind him was a tall figure standing next to a short and wretched man, and Heizi was baring his head non-stop at the moment. Fang yelled at the little man.

"Why are you here?" Seeing them, a smile appeared on Zha Wenbin's face that hadn't been seen for many days, but at the same time there was a trace of worry.

In the village at the foot of the mountain, when Chaozi was about to return to the provincial capital, he met a forest ranger. He told Chaozi that he had seen Cha Wenbin’s big black dog near the forest farm, so Chaozi climbed five It took many hours for Shan to come here, and he didn't understand why Cha Wenbin moved here after sending them away.

Cha Wenbin made a pot of tea for them. The tea was wild tea he picked in this old forest. Although it was not pretty, it tasted very fragrant, with a hint of sweetness in the bitterness.

Taking out the thing from Xiao Baoya, Chaozi said straight to the point: "I got it from this friend, show me the way inside." Then, Chaozi glanced at Xiao Baoya again. , Xiao Baoya thought in his heart that you didn't pay a dime, so why are you ashamed to say that you took it.

"Why, did you encounter something unclean?" Cha Wenbin thought that something that Chaozi received had encountered something. It's not like they have encountered this before.

Chaozi handed the thing in his hand to Zha Wenbin and said, "No, I think you may be the only one in the world who can understand this thing. Look at the writing on it."

Cha Wenbin took it over and took a look, his brows were furrowed at that time, Chaozi went on to say: "If you say that the things we encountered at the beginning are related to these messy words, although you said it has been so long, but this The matter is still entangled in my mind, that is, what happened to us in those days, and who gave your translated scriptures? Where did Lao Wang and those soldiers go? What about the person who went to Fengdu?"

The series of questions that Chaozi raised came to Zha Wenbin's mind again. It is true that he has traveled all over the country with Hetu these years, partly for the sake of training the child, and more because he wanted to find some clues . He has indeed studied "Ruyi Book" for many years, and he can recite 72 characters backwards and forwards. However, in Cha Wenbin's view now, this legendary scripture is more like a quintessential version of the Tao Te Ching. There are also some methods mixed in. After all these years, his understanding of this book can only stay at the superficial level.

Looking at the square box in his hand, Cha Wenbin asked: "Can you tell me about the origin of this thing?"

Chaozi patted Xiao Baoya on the head and shouted: "My brother asked you something, tell the truth!"

Xiao Baoya drooped his head. He had had enough of the means of these two masters these days, so he told how to get this thing that day. When Cha Wenbin heard that this thing came from Shaanxi I also don't understand.From a geographical point of view, the main activity area of ​​the Qiang people did not stay in the middle of the Yellow River, but the inscriptions on it are indeed Qiang people's characters.

Most of the characters on it are unfamiliar to Zha Wenbin. Ancient characters are not very developed, so the invention of characters is often only used for some important words. Compared with the "Ruyi Book", he still found it. In one of the familiar fonts, in a line on one side of Fang Heizi, Zha Wenbin found the word "ghost".

"I'm not very sure what this thing is for, but I suspect that what we see may not be the original appearance of this thing. If I'm not wrong, this thing should be a box. The really important things are in the box. Inside." As he said that, Cha Wenbin went to find a flashlight, and several people entered the room with relatively dark light, and pointed the flashlight at the side of the jade, but saw that the light went in from this side but was on the other side. Did not wear out.

Back at the door, Cha Wenbin pointed to the small hole on the top of the square box and said: "Look at this small hole, it should not be processed the day after tomorrow, it is a bit like a key lock. There are many crafts in ancient times that can reach the level of ingenuity. You should know this since you’ve been in this business for a long time.” Chaozi listened and nodded in agreement, and Cha Wenbin continued: “If this is a box containing things, then this hole is most likely a keyhole. Also known as Linglong Lock, the box can only be fully opened by finding the correct matching key.”

Chaozi smiled and said, "Then let's go to the provincial capital to find a locksmith and we'll be done."

Cha Wenbin shook his head and said: "The most ingenious thing about Linglong Lock is that it only has one chance to unlock. As long as you insert the wrong key, this thing will have an internal self-damage system. Our sect once had a similar one. It is said that it was handed down from the generation of the founder of the mountain. The ancestor ordered no one to open the lock unless the sect was alive or dead. It was passed down to my master's generation and was destroyed by the group of red soldiers. They took it I went to pry it hard with a knife, but I didn’t know what was inside, and it was blown up on the spot.”

Chaozi thought about it and asked: "Then what do you mean, if we can't find the key, won't we never be able to open the things inside?"

"It can also be said that what is valuable about this thing is not the box, but the things inside the box. Things that can be preserved with such ingenious craftsmanship must be very important. Also, the horse painted on this thing is actually not A horse, but a dragon horse."

"Dragon horse?"

Zha Wenbin nodded and said: "That's right, this is the dragon horse, and the river map is named after this horse. There is a record called "The Story of the Dragon Horse", which says: The dragon horse, the spirit of the world, is The shape is also a horse body with dragon scales, so it is called a dragon horse. It is eight feet and five inches high, similar to a camel with wings, and can never disappear when jumping in the water. The sage is in power, and the negative image comes out of the Meng River. Legend has it that Fuxi watched the world and saw The body of the dragon and the horse, the map of the river." He continued: "Look at the pattern on the horse, it is actually the prototype of the Bagua map, this thing is really not simple."

They spent the whole afternoon researching on this thing, and when it got dark, Cha Wenbin suggested that they just stay overnight in the mountains.That night, the square box was not returned to Chaozi. Cha Wenbin lay on the bed and studied it all the time. Before he knew it, he fell asleep, and then had a dream. . . . . .