Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 68 The Elegy (3)
"I understand," An Xingmian let out a long breath, "It was Yin Changsi who killed him, but left his head on purpose, so that he could witness the revenge of this exiled outcast with his own eyes, right? You were obviously expelled by the Chenyue Sect, but why did you want to take revenge on Nagato?"

"He didn't take revenge on Nagato, he just tried to destroy the library cave of Tianzangzong." The queen mother said.

An Xingmian thought about the Queen Mother's words, and suddenly his face turned pale: "What did you say? Could it be Tianzangzong... Tianzangzong..."

"You guessed right," the Queen Mother nodded, "Although Tianzangzong did not open up the passage of the underground magic fire as we said in the lies, there is indeed another hand behind it. promote."

"That hand is taught by Chenyue."

"Behind Tianzangzong...is the Chenyue Sect?" An Xingmian muttered to himself, feeling unbelievable.But he also knew that at this time, the Queen Mother would not lie about this issue.

"It's really nothing strange," said the Queen Mother. "Even in the days when I was in power, the shadow of Chenyue was everywhere, but the people couldn't smell it. They were originally a sect trying to control everything." , just like a chess player who uses the world as a chessboard and all living beings as chess pieces."

"That is to say, Tianzangzong has been digging the caves for the collection of books, but... Chenyue is secretly promoting it?" An Xingmian asked.

"Chenyue also had a plan similar to Tianzangzong," the queen mother said, "but the sect of Chenyue always walks on the dividing line between light and darkness, and it is possible to give up their lives for their beliefs at any time, which is impossible." So much energy was allocated to accomplish such a plan. So later, in addition to the original three divisions of Yin, Yang, and Ji, Chenyue Sect created an independent unnamed branch. This branch is not controlled by any dean. Instead, they directly obey the orders of the leader of Chenyue, who are few in number and unknown, and have been passed down from generation to generation with only one purpose, that is to lurk in the Nagato Tianzang Sect and promote the plan of the Tianzang Sect's book collection cave."

"In fact, at the beginning, Chenyue also tried to dig the cave by herself, but their manpower was very different. After spending a lot of energy, they found that the cave for collecting books they dug was located on an underground active volcano. They had to give up. They realized that digging a library cave is a difficult and complicated task. The previous geographical exploration alone would have taken several years, and Chenyue could not spare this manpower, let alone search for a collection of books from an entire era. .So they can only find ways to use Nagato and the simple and tenacious belief of the Nagato monk.”

An Xingmian ignored his anger, but immediately thought of another question: "The cave on the active volcano? Isn't that the one used to deceive the emperor? I have always wondered why it was created in such a short period of time. Come out a fake cave, it turns out that it is the relic of the failure of the Chenyue Sect that already existed!"

The queen mother nodded: "That's right. This Hou Buning is the dean of the unnamed branch of Chenyue, and Yin Changsi is his smartest student. But Hou Buning soon discovered that although Yin Changsi was extremely smart, he was a People of faith have a strong sense of profit and cannot bear the heavy trust of Chenyue. Especially Hou Buning's branch holds all the secrets of the book collection cave. It was destroyed once, so he finally reluctantly drove Yin Changsi out of the gate."

"Yin Changsi was originally full of hope and wanted to become a shining figure in the history of the Chenyue Sect, but he was exiled. This person was originally an extreme character, but now he was full of hope and resentment, so he made up his mind to fundamentally Destroy this branch—that is, destroy all the book caves."

An Xingmian clenched his fist, then let it go, clenched it again, and let it go again.Yin Changsi has been reduced to ashes, and Hou Buning only has this fragile head left, but who should be blamed for Nagato's great hatred?After this investigation, Nagato's belief has been shaken in his heart repeatedly, and now, he is even told that there is Chenyue's palm behind Nagato, and that kind of resentment is hard to express in words.

This is just jumping out of a fire pit and finding himself in another, bigger fire pit, An Xingmian thought bitterly.Although Nagato is not a tool of a conspiracy to destroy the world, the Chenyue Sect hoards books, but it has absolutely no good intentions.For them, knowledge is the greatest weapon to play with the common people in the world, but Nagato has unintentionally assumed the role of an accomplice.Poor generation after generation of Nagato members, especially those of Tianzangzong, who are full of enthusiasm for pursuing the true way and dedicate everything for their beliefs, but they don't know that they are just pawns in Chenyue's hands.

For a moment, he felt a little hopeless, and sat down on a chair, without saying a word for a long time.Tang He came to him and patted him on the shoulder to express comfort, but he couldn't say anything.But Bai Qianyun gave him a glare: "You bastard, don't be too horny, think about Xiaoxue."

This sentence was like a slap in the face, An Xingmian's whole body shook, and he broke out in cold sweat instantly.Yes, he thought, Xue Huaiqing and Tang He had already told me that the most important thing is to be yourself.Nagato is the red sun in the sky, and I am myself; Nagato is the dark moon, and I am still myself.Whether Nagato's beliefs and scriptures are true or false, whether they were born with the trend, or manipulated secretly by Chenyue, they cannot affect the existence of "I".

In fact, the so-called true way is nothing more than finding "I" in the floating world, it is nothing more than seeing "I" clearly before stepping through the last door, that's all.An Xingmian suddenly realized something.He closed his eyes, concentrating slightly, and when he opened them again, his expression was normal.

"Behind all this is hatred and resentment," he said softly, "This Yin Changsi is really a peerless genius who can play with the emperor and Nagato in the palm of his hand, even if he leaves Chenyue So what? The real Zhu Ming shines everywhere. It's a pity that all his brilliance is blinded by the hatred in his heart, and he has wasted his life in vain. It is nothing but harming others and himself. Hatred is a real endless long road. A door that people cannot cross even at the end of their lives."

He stood up, walked up to the Empress Dowager, and asked softly: "And you, Empress Dowager, where did the source of hatred that prompted you to do such a risky thing come from?"

The queen mother trembled.She lowered her head subconsciously: "Hate? Where did I get such hatred? It's just greed."

"But I don't see where you are greedy," An Xingmian said, "Are you greedy for pleasure? You are the empress dowager, and your bedroom is not as simple as the boudoir of a rich man from Wanzhou. Are you greedy for power? You have only been in power for a few years, and Emperor Hongjing has just grown up, you quickly let go of power and retreated behind the scenes, and never asked about anything. May I ask you to abandon your own child and snatch the child of the court lady to pretend to be your own. What exactly did you get? What did you enjoy?"

The queen mother lowered her head, speechless, when she raised her head again, her face was ashen, her eyes were full of despair.The aloof dignity that belonged to her was gone, replaced by a kind of pity.

"Please, don't ask any more questions," she murmured, "It's all my fault, kill me, kill me, and it's over."

"We haven't decided what to do, but if I don't know the truth, I can't guarantee that I will do something." A voice suddenly sounded, it was Bai Qianyun who hadn't spoken for a long time.Since he was a child, he has been dreaming of meeting his biological parents, but this night's meeting has hardly any affection, but only naked and bloody conspiracy and hatred.He has been trying to meet the Empress Dowager's gaze, but the Empress Dowager has been avoiding his gaze, but now, he is unwilling to give the Empress Dowager any retreat.

The queen mother finally raised her head, her gaze met Bai Qianyun's.Her eyes were unabashedly full of love and warmth, but the love and warmth that came too late did not make Bai Qianyun happy. On the contrary, his heart was stuffy, as if he was stuffed with something. In desperate need of catharsis.

"I'm not a member of Nagato, and I got involved in this matter only to help my friend, so you can let go of all other words and tell me the truth," Bai Qianyun stared at the Queen Mother with piercing eyes, " Why? Why are you doing this? Why do you even have the heart to abandon and kill your own flesh and blood?"

"There is no truth anymore. What I just said is the truth." The queen mother smiled sadly, "My child, I am sorry for you. That is the biggest sin in my life. I don't ask you to forgive me, I just hope...in the future you can forgive me." Live well. No matter what, after 33 years, I finally saw you, no matter if it was heartbreaking, guilty, cold-blooded or cruel, before I died, I finally felt a little less regretful."

"Wait! What are you doing!" Bai Qianyun was shocked, but it was too late to rush over.The Empress Dowager pulled out a short knife from her sleeve with a sharp movement not commensurate with her age, and stabbed it in her heart. The knife was fast and accurate, and there was almost no blood gushing out, which was obviously irreparable.She chose to commit suicide.

"What are you doing!" Bai Qianyun hugged the crumbling queen mother, and couldn't help crying.The Empress Dowager had no kindness to bring him up, she could only abandon him and send people to hunt him down, so his heart was naturally full of hatred.But at the moment before the queen mother swung a knife to commit suicide, the gaze she cast was sincere and not fake at all. The gaze made his heart tremble, and the longing for maternal love that had been hidden in his heart could no longer be concealed.At this moment, he didn't know what he was doing, and he didn't know what he should do. He only knew one thing: his mother was dying.Whether it is love or hate, longing for reunion or longing for revenge, his mother is about to die, and he is still an orphan without father and mother.

Everyone looked at the dying queen mother with complicated emotions, and found that there was actually a mystery hidden behind her death, but there was no way to prove it.However, An Xingmian began to search around in the bedroom, hoping to find some clues.

At this moment, a faint voice sounded, it was from the dying queen mother.When she was about to die, she seemed to have lost her sanity, and she even started humming a tune.The melody of this song is long and sad, which makes people feel a burst of desolation, but it is not quite like Donglu's melody.At this moment, it seemed that all the glory and wealth, all the conspiracy and betrayal, all the hatred and blood became unimportant to the Queen Mother, and only this song was left in her remaining consciousness.

"Xiao He, remember this tune." An Xingmian said.

"What?" Tang He didn't quite understand.

"You are good at singing and dancing. You are better than me in this aspect. Remember, just remember! I will explain later!" An Xingmian said in a low voice.

The three of them stopped talking, and Tang He began to try hard to remember this peculiar melody, until the last chant turned into dust, and the Queen Mother's lips stopped moving.There was also a slight sound mixed in, it was Bai Qianyun's uncontrollable tears falling to the ground.

four

The Empress Dowager's sudden suicide was obviously not too glorious news, so the whole incident was completely suppressed until a month later, when the emperor's birthday was over, it was announced that the Empress Dowager had "passed away due to illness". Naturally, a grand mourning ceremony followed.As for the reason why this month was passed, it is actually not difficult to guess: if the death day of the empress dowager and the emperor's birthday happen to be on the same day, do you think the emperor should celebrate his own birthday in the future?Although Emperor Hongjing was an emperor who did not seek pleasure, celebrating his own birthday was a legitimate right of the emperor, and he would not be exempt from it.

What is intriguing is that although the queen mother's death is quite suspicious, for example, other people's footprints can be found at the scene, but the emperor did not launch any investigation and let the matter go easily.Those in the know secretly speculated that it might be because the emperor himself was also vaguely looking forward to the early death of the queen mother.With such a wise and strong mother, although she has declared that she will ignore the government, the emperor will inevitably have a shadow in his heart.Now that the queen mother is dead, maybe the emperor really feels that this country belongs to him completely and completely.

Or maybe, the emperor had long discovered that his mother had hidden too many secrets in her heart, and now that those secrets disappeared with his mother's body, he could finally sleep a little more comfortably.

Of course, the most important reason is that the emperor got a letter.It was a long letter that an unknown master sneaked into the palace in the middle of the night and placed it directly next to the emperor's pillow.After the emperor read it, he was dumbfounded, and then burned the letter to ashes.

"Is this really the case... I was deceived?" He muttered to himself, "Maybe, I should still believe it. It's better to let go of the hanging heart than to need the interpretation of a dream interpreter to fall asleep."

"Nagato...I'm really sorry for you." He sighed with some guilt.After reading and burning the letter, the emperor's sleep was much better, although—this made him extremely puzzled—his dream interpreter was also missing.

Of course he couldn't guess that this dream interpreter was also arranged for him by an old dough maker.While giving advice to the emperor, the dream interpreter quietly prescribed medicine to the emperor, so that he could not get a stable sleep.And when the old man who kneaded dough was wiped out, his faithful disciple didn't have the faith to live anymore.Yin Changsi's conspiracy was really only one book away, but that fake book finally ruined his life's plan.

(End of this chapter)