Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 9 Misfortune (5)
"When people mention Heluo, they always say that they are dwarves living in the underground city, but this is not accurate." The owner of the cruise ship is a talkative middle-aged man, and he enthusiastically introduced his hometown to An Xingmian, " In fact, many rivers also choose to live in cities on the ground, and there are many such rivers in our cloud. It is said that a long time ago, a quarter of the entire population of the cloud was a river! But Later, there were always wars, and humans fought fiercely with Heluo, and gradually, Heluo became less and less."

"Those rivers, how do you make a living in Yunzhong City?" An Xingmian asked with great interest.

"Heluo's dexterity, forging, carving, etc. are much better than us humans," said the ship owner, "In the past, in Yunzhong City, you could hardly find a blacksmith's shop opened by humans—the business was all overwhelmed. Heluo has been snatched away! There is a saying in the cloud called 'playing with a hammer in front of Heluo', which is specially used to ridicule those who are overconfident."

The two laughed together.The ship owner added: "However, after successive wars, the relationship between humans and the river network gradually deteriorated. During the last war, the human emperor issued an order to prohibit the river network in Cloud City from casting any At that time, many Heluos were arrested or even killed for disobeying orders. After the war, although this prohibition was abolished, the Heluos may not want to provide their good weapons to humans again, so they re-introduced There is no weapon shop in Yunzhong anymore, their blacksmith shops are all for things that have nothing to do with weapons, such as kitchen utensils, woodworking utensils and so on."

At this time, the cruise ship has been traveling along Jianshui for half a month, and there is only half a day left to travel to Yunzhong.An Xingmian looked at the white waves stirred up by the side of the boat, and pretended to ask casually, "By the way, do you know the Monastery in the Cloud?"

"Monastery? Is that the place where Nagato monks practice?" The ship owner was stunned, "It's really rare that someone would inquire about the monastery. That's right, there was such a monastery in Yunzhong City before. But then it collapsed, it was more than 20 years ago, and no new monastery has opened since then.”

Crashed and cracked.The owner of the ship used two words suitable for commercial places, as if it was not a monastery but a restaurant or restaurant, but An Xingmian could understand this meaning. The so-called collapsed means deserted and disbanded.But he noticed that at this time, the Yunzhong Monastery disappeared more than 20 years ago, that is to say, it has been at least 20 years since the old vagabond Li Han left the monastery.It seems that some old things that have been dusty for a long time will be involved in this, and it may not be easy to dig out.

He asked again: "Why did it collapse? Do you know the reason?"

The owner smiled proudly: "This matter is not a big secret, many people have heard of it, but if you ask others, you may not be able to tell the details, but I happen to know. When the monastery was still open , my brother-in-law is practicing in the monastery."

"It turns out that he was also a long-door monk," An Xingmian said, "Please tell me in detail, I am very interested in this period of history."

He took out a gold baht and stuffed it into the captain's hand. The captain immediately smiled, and while putting the gold baht into his arms, he said, "I'm so sorry, I've already received your fare...I'll explain it to you in detail." Let's go. My brother-in-law, who was quite smart at first, didn't know why, but he decided to live a good life, but he insisted on becoming an ascetic monk. He solemnly worshiped a long-door monk as a mentor, and entered the monastery to start It turns out that the marriage arranged for him by his family has also been rejected. I went to inquire, and people who practice can marry wives and have children, but he just said that it will affect his practice, and he is determined not to get married..."

The talkative ship owner was eloquent as soon as he spoke, An Xingmian listened to him patiently, and after he had finished scolding his unlucky brother-in-law enough, he finally turned back to the topic: "Then that day Year, let me think about it, it should be...the 20th year of Shengde, that is, 23 years ago, yes, it was the 20th year of Shengde, that year happened to be the birth of my second son...in the winter of that year, In November and February, something big happened in the monastery."

"Oh? What's the big deal?" An Xingmian felt a burst of excitement, but on the surface she still acted like a justly curious audience, and didn't seem overly concerned.

"Thirty monks suddenly disappeared in the monastery! A total of thirty long-door monks are missing!" The ship owner said mysteriously.

An Xingmian was taken aback: "Thirty people disappeared all at once? Good guy, that's really a big deal. Where did they disappear?"

"I don't know much about that," the captain scratched his scalp. "It seems to be a big secret in their Nagato, and it can't be easily revealed. But from his tone, it seems that the thirty Nagato monks They went to a certain place to do something, but they never returned. They sent people to look for them, but they couldn’t find them. This incident seemed to have dealt a big blow to them. Later, the monastery couldn’t continue, so they had to disband. "

"We can only break up..." An Xingmian was thoughtful, "What about your brother-in-law? Is he still in the cloud?"

"He? It's half there." The owner said in a disdainful tone.

An Xingmian was startled: "Half of it? Was he dismembered?"

"Of course not, I mean, he only spends half of his time in the clouds, and the rest of the time, who knows where," the captain laughed. I have to travel outside with my instructor, and go to those inaccessible places: deep mountains, swamps, Gobi Desert, virgin forests, etc. I haven’t been back to Yunzhong for two months, so I don’t know if he is still there .”

Of course, that's not the "rules of the Changmen monks", An Xingmian thought, at best it's the rules of the Tianzang sect.Nagato does encourage monks to travel more, which can increase their wisdom and sharpen their will, but it is unheard of to strictly stipulate that at least half a year should be spent traveling every year, and it is probably an exclusive invention of Tianzangzong.This tribe is really weird.

"And their monks don't have a fixed residence," said the boat owner. "It's just that the fishing villages near Yunzhong have been plagued by plagues for the past two years. People die of illness every year, and the fish in the water are getting less and less. So every year he takes his disciples to live in those villages to help them find a way to stop the plague."

"Anyway, after entering the cloud, please point me to pay him a visit." An Xingmian said, and stuffed another gold baht into the captain's hand. The captain nodded repeatedly, and couldn't close his mouth with joy. up.It seems that as long as someone pays enough money, let alone bring someone to find him, it will not be a problem for him to sell his brother-in-law.

It was already late at night when the boat entered the Yunzhong Wharf.Yunzhong is different from Nanhuai City. The main economic pillar is the forging industry. Naturally, it can no longer start work after nightfall, so Yunzhong is very quiet at night, unlike Nanhuai City, where people sit in taverns to discuss business many nights.An Xingmian was already very familiar with the owner of the ship, and after his guidance, he found a pretty good inn to live in.Early the next morning, the owner hired a carriage for him and gave the driver the address of his brother-in-law.Fortunately, the brother-in-law happened to be staying in a fishing village near Yunzhong and had not left yet.

"Food and drink have been prepared for you in the car," the boat owner said, nodding and bowing. "Those fishing villages are quite far from the city, and it will take half a day to go back and forth."

Satisfied, An Xingmian rewarded the knowledgeable and interesting ship owner again, jumped into the carriage, and went to look for the long-door monk named Han Xinzhi.Along the way, he glanced at the scenery of Yunzhongcheng, and found that there are indeed many large and small blacksmith shops here, and it seems that even the air smells of coke, and on the road, he can often see rivers that are only half the height of ordinary people. network.

He also paid attention to the expressions of the people along the way. It seemed that everything was normal, and no one seemed flustered. It can be seen that the news of the arrest of the long-door monk had not spread widely among the people, and only the government and the army still had the news.But, does Han Xinzhi know about this?Could he have gone into hiding with his companions?

He tried his best to recall everything related to Tianzangzong, but he couldn't figure it out.In fact, the various sects of Nagato are often in contact with each other, exchanging experience and experience in cultivation and in-depth interpretation of the "Nagato Sutra". It is the so-called Fa Conference.An Xingmian had participated in two dharma conferences with Zhang Haoge, but first, he was just a rookie, and second, he never liked to show off his tongue. The first time his side won easily, he didn't speak.But in the second Dharma meeting, after several rounds of debate, Zhang Haoge looked at An Xingmian expectantly.

"But I don't really like arguing with others." An Xingmian was a little embarrassed.

"This is a discussion, not a dispute," Zhang Haoge said confidently, "Just point out your experience one by one, and then correct the other party's mistakes, that's all."

"At the end of the day, I'll help you fight," An Xingmian chuckled, "but since you've said so, I'll try."

So An Xingmian appeared on the stage, and after a lot of eloquence, he actually turned the situation around and turned defeat into victory.This is also a rare bright spot in his long monk career.

But in general, because Nagato lacks a strong central organization, and there are too many internal tribes, the mutual understanding among the tribes is not deep.Even Zhang Haoge couldn't remember anything special about Tianzangzong.An Xingmian thought for a long time, but he didn't think that any important event was related to Tianzangzong, so he simply didn't bother.

Near noon, the carriage arrived near the small fishing village.In order to prevent the carriage from being too ostentatious and attracting attention, An Xingmian got off the carriage two miles away from the fishing village, told the driver to wait for him, and then walked towards the village on foot.

This fishing village is not big, but the houses in the village are clean and tidy, and the fishing boats by the river are also strong and wide, and many of them can be seen as new boats at a glance.The clothes of the fishermen in the village are not much different from those in the city, which shows that this fishing village is quite prosperous.An Xingmian stopped a passing fisherman and asked him where the head monk lived.

"Those two masters? They live on the hillside at the west end of the village. The thatched house they built can be seen as soon as they go up the hillside." The fisherman stretched out his hand and pointed to the west.

An Xingmian thanked him and went west.Sure enough, after climbing the hillside, you can see a simple thatched house, which is the temporary residence of the Nagato monks.Whenever the monks go to help the local people, they usually choose to build thatched huts by themselves without causing any trouble to the residents. This is one of the reasons why they are respected and supported by the common people.

He quickly came to the thatched hut, the chaimen was concealed, and there was no lock on it, because the long door monk didn't have any valuable property worth stealing.He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. After waiting for a while, he simply opened the door and walked in.

There was no one in the room, it seemed that the monks of the Nagato had all gone out.But An Xingmian noticed that there was a pile of broken porcelain pieces on the ground, whether it was broken porcelain bowls or cups.

This is not right!An Xingmian thought, Changmen monks pay great attention to details, it is absolutely impossible for them to break a cup or bowl and throw it on the ground.He squatted down, checked the ground carefully, looked at the wall and the crooked table, and concluded that there was a fight in the room, so there were scratches and collisions on the dirt wall, and the table was knocked crooked The things on the table fell to the ground and broke.

He hurried out of the door, looking for footprints on the ground, and soon found a distinctive footprint: Although this person walked on two feet, he had an extra crutch, and he seemed to be disabled.But the strange thing is that generally, disabled people with one crutch have a problem with a specific leg, either the left leg or the right leg. A little bit, a little bit deeper on the left foot for a while.

An Xingmian wondered what the footprint was, and followed the footprint down the mountain.The footprints extended from the hut to the outside, all the way down the hillside, and then continued westward. After walking about half a mile, a carriage appeared in front of it.He quickly moved aside, hid behind a tree, and watched the carriage whose driver was temporarily invisible.Judging from the depth of the wheels sinking into the mud, the carriage was not empty, and there might have been heavy things inside—most likely the two missing long-door monks.

After a while, a man came out of the carriage. He looked about 30 years old and held a cane in his hand.An Xingmian's heart moved, knowing that this was the owner of the footprints.At this time, he was far away, so he couldn't see the details of his face clearly. He could only vaguely see that Sheng Sheng had a fierce look on his face. When he was walking, his legs seemed light and weak, and they were almost supported by the crutch.

But because of this, An Xingmian could tell that this person was a master of martial arts.In the case of disabled legs, with the support of a crutch, his movements are quite flexible and steady.With his kung fu, it shouldn't be difficult to capture two monks who don't know martial arts.

The disabled person sat on the driver's seat, waved his whip, and skillfully drove the car towards the entrance of the village.An Xingmian kept a distance from the carriage, and followed the carriage out of the village. Seeing that the carriage was heading towards the city, he quickly found his carriage.

"Follow the carriage ahead," he ordered, "but not too closely, and be careful not to be seen."

五

After half a day of bumps, the two carriages entered Cloud City one after the other.The carriage driven by the disabled finally arrived outside a human blacksmith shop in the east of the city. As soon as the man guarding the door saw him, he immediately opened the side door for the trucks that transported raw materials to enter and exit, and the carriage drove directly in.An Xingmian thought for a while, jumped out of the car, and walked slowly to the door of the blacksmith's shop.

The forging industry in Yunzhong City is well developed, and the classification of blacksmith shops is also very detailed. Most of the shops only specialize in a certain type of ironware.A knife and a sword hang on the lintel of this blacksmith's shop, indicating that it specializes in all kinds of weapons, and the shop sign has the words "Qianyuntang" written in the common language of Donglu.The weapons made by such blacksmith shops are usually of average quality, that is, those who have little money to use them.In fact, the ship owner didn't lie to An Xingmian. Before that war, almost all the weapon shops in Yunzhong City were run by Heluo, because Heluo's casting skills were indeed superior to humans.

An Xingmian stood at the door, thought for a while, and decided to go in and have a look first.As soon as he walked in the door, a guy in his 30s greeted him immediately, looking very enthusiastic.

"This young man looks like a big shot from a wealthy family, so he came to Qianyuntang to pick up weapons, so he found the right place," the man said with a smile on his face, "Our Qianyuntang is the oldest and time-honored brand in Yunzhongcheng. going back to..."

An Xingmian nodded politely, then waved her hands: "Sorry, I didn't come to listen to your story."

The guy's smile remained the same: "Look at my mouth, it's making me angry, isn't it? Please come here, all the best weapons are here!"

He brought An Xingmian to the display rack where the weapons were displayed.The shelves are full of all kinds of swords, guns, swords and halberds, all of which are shiny and imposing at first glance.An Xingmian picked up a long sword, flicked the sword with his fingers, and then put the sword back: "Are these things called 'superior'? It seems that I came here for nothing today."

The clerk was stunned for a moment, knowing that he met an expert, the expression on his face was no longer as flattering as before, but a little more calm: "This young man has good eyesight, so you must have been introduced by another customer, right? "

(End of this chapter)