White Bone Monkey King

March 12.

In mid-spring, in the first month of the month, all things are awakened.

In this cold spring day, the cold wind on the river is as cold as a knife, and the hundreds of thousands of mountains are as depressed as withered tombs.

There is a county on the bank of Yinyi River.

It was a county called Chang.

Jin An exited the cave and woke up. He was surrounded by a dark and narrow space. His body seemed to be stuck. The surroundings were so quiet that there was no sound.

Knowing that he was still in the coffin, Jin An couldn't wait to push open the heavy coffin lid, wanting to tell the old Taoist priest and the big old man the good news, eh? Unexpectedly, the coffin lid didn't move at all.

Jin An tried to push the coffin lid again, but it still didn't move.

boom! boom!

what happened? What is going on outside?

Jin An tried his best to smash the coffin lid, but it still didn't move. The coldness of the forest hit his scalp, and the coffin lid was sealed from the outside.

boom!

The coffin lid exploded into pieces, and along with the explosion was thick loess pressing down on the coffin.

The moment the coffin lid was smashed, there was strong sunlight outside that dazzled Jin An's eyes. His eyes were blindingly white. It was not night, why was it daytime?

Jin An's eyes were dazzled by the sunlight, and before he could see his surroundings clearly, several frightened screams suddenly sounded around him.

"ah!"

"There's a corpse in the grave!"

"Help!"

Jin An, whose eyes had recovered somewhat, finally saw his surroundings clearly. He saw several men and women running away in panic, crying for their fathers and mothers.

And at his feet were overturned incense candles and paper money used to worship the dead.

But at this time, Jin An had no time to care about those people. He sat up from the coffin with a heavy look. He was not in the house covered with Taoist scriptures painted by the old Taoist. There were small earth bags piled up in the open space around them. They are all small graves where dead people are buried.

No wonder he had difficulty pushing the coffin lid just now. The white coffin he was lying on when he passed away was actually buried alive!

Jin An looked at the unfamiliar sight in front of him with confused eyes.

Who can tell me what is going on?

Why is it that when I wake up after walking into the underworld, the whole world is turned upside down? I wake up from the grave. Am I already dead?

And then I came back from the dead?

Jin An stood up from the graveyard in confusion. He looked at a village not far away. It was the layout of Xiba Village that he was familiar with.

And we also saw the familiar embankment of the Einyi River.

But now Xiba Village has become a deserted village where people have left the village.

The houses in the village are dilapidated, with collapsed roofs, broken walls, and overgrown weeds as tall as people. If it's nighttime, this is a veritable ghost village.

Judging from the desolate and dilapidated appearance, no one has lived there for at least ten years.

Hades?

Earthly world?

At this time, all kinds of thoughts came one after another. Jin An had a headache thinking about it, and the confusion in his eyes became more intense. Who can tell me! What the hell is going on!

What about the veteran?

Where's the silly sheep?

Why was it that when I woke up, I was transformed into a world of change, things and people had changed, was I really dead?

That sense of loneliness and absurdity that is unfamiliar to the whole world makes Jin Anxin feel uneasy and panicked. Could it be that I haven't withdrawn from the ghost world yet, but I have been targeted by some evil spirit, and I have been stuck in the ghost world? Didn't you come out of the wall illusion?

Thinking of this, Jin An's eyes immediately darkened, and then he took out the Liudingliujia Talisman on his body. At this time, he didn't care about wasting anything, open!

However, the man did not become a burly soul six feet six tall. He was still in the shape of a normal human being. He had indeed returned from the underworld to the earth, and Jin An's thinking had fallen into chaos.

In a state of confusion, Jin An walked out of the coffin.

With the last glimmer of hope, he wanted to go into Xiba Village to look for the missing people.

But at this moment, Jin An stepped on something at his feet. He looked down and saw a bundle of bamboo slips in the coffin at his feet.

In addition to the bamboo slips, there were several other familiar things in the coffin.

A scroll of bamboo slips called "The Secret Sutra of the Five Internal Organs".

"Guangping Youshuo Synaesthesia Record" is an ancient book bound with thread.

A letter.

A disc.

There are words on the Taoist plate, Taoist of the five internal organs, Taoist temple master of the five internal organs.

Jin An looked at the words on the Taoist disc, and his confused thoughts became slightly clearer. He put away everything in the coffin, and then walked toward Xiba Village in confused silence with his back alone.

…

Jin An walked into the abandoned Xiba Village and looked at the familiar layout of the village, but now it was empty.

The lively village last night has turned into a desolate and deserted village overgrown with weeds. It is a veritable ghost village.

Is this Huang Liang’s dream for ten years?

Or is a person resurrected from the dead in a coffin ten years later?

Jin An used the knife in his hand to clear the tall weeds in the yard, then covered his mouth and nose with his hands and walked into the dusty house.

There was a thick layer of dust on the floor of the house, indicating that no one had been here for a long time.

There is no black coffin in the main hall of the house.

There is no white coffin either.

This is just the main hall furnished in an ordinary people's home.

Next, Jin An silently walked through every corner of the house. The window sills, tables, and all furniture in the house were covered with a thick layer of dust. There are also many vines growing on the wall and it is covered with dust, except for the Taoist scriptures painted all over the wall by the old Taoist priest.

Unwilling to give up, Jin An walked through all the empty houses in Xiba Village. Not a single house had a cinnabar scripture painted on the wall, which directly ruled out the possibility that Jin An had remembered the wrong address.

Unknowingly...

Jin An walked to the river embankment...

Due to the long disrepair of the river embankment and lack of long-term management by the government, most of it has collapsed due to years of floods. The river embankment is covered with sediment and has lush weeds and trees.

Hoo, ho, ho—

The wind by the river was so strong that it made Jin An's cheeks hurt.

Jin An silently circulated the Black Mountain Kung Qi in his body to resist the cold wind by the river.

"Black Mountain Kung Fu", "Blood Sword Sutra", "Sixty-Road Monument Opening Hands", "Secret Sutra of the Five Internal Organs", the Jianghu martial arts cultivation and Taoist mental method cultivation are all still there.

The Tiger Evil Sword, the Liuding Liujia Talisman, the Five Thunder Evil Killing Talisman, and several other items that were sealed by the Yin De Edict are still there.

This means that what happened to him in the past month or so was real and not a dream.

"So what's the problem?"

"The Six Ding Liujia Talisman and the Five Thunder Evil Killing Talisman are real, so the old Taoist priest is also a real person, so where are the old Taoist priest and Shayang now? Why don't they leave before I wake up from the white coffin? Already?"

"The Tongxin Golden Lock also exists and is really worn on my body, so the murderous corpse in the white coffin also exists... I don't know that I am now imitating Du Shiniang and jumping into the river angrily with the Tongxin Golden Lock. The murderous corpse in the white coffin Will the Lord really save me?"

Jin An stood on the river embankment covered with loess and overgrown with weeds, looking at the turbulent Yinyi River under his feet. Jin An took a step and silently retracted it.

The water is a bit cold today.

Let’s dance another day.

…

…

"Tao, Taoist Master, are you going to commit suicide by jumping into the river?"

"A person's life is only a few decades. Isn't it bad to live?"

Suddenly, the cautious voices of several people came from behind.

Jin An was interrupted from his thoughts. He turned around and looked behind him. He saw that the grave-sweepers who had been scared away by him had returned and were hiding from a distance and looking at him with concern.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Afraid." The common people nodded honestly.

"Then do you think I am a human being or a fake corpse?"

This time, the people argued for a few words each, and then carefully answered Jin An: "Taoist priest, you should be a human being, because only human beings dare to stand under the sun and are not afraid of the sun."

Jin An was silent, and then looked blankly at the world in front of him: "Can I ask a question, how many years is Kang Dingguo's Conquest of Virtue now?"

A middle-aged man with thick eyebrows among the crowd replied: "In reply to the Taoist priest, this year is the eleventh year of the Conquest of Virtue."

"Eleven years of conquest for virtue..."

"Eleven years of conquest for virtue..."

Jin An muttered to himself first.

Then he asked urgently: "Did a big event happen in Chang County during the year of Zhengde ten years ago? In the Wenwu Temple of Chang County, a green money willow tree magically changed from bronze leaves to brass leaves overnight?"

Unexpectedly, when faced with Jin An's question, those people all looked confused.

"Chang County has been dead for ten years, who can still remember things that took that long."

"Chang County is now a ghost town. There was a fire ten years ago and the entire city was burned to death. No one dares to go near it now."

Several people were discussing it.

Buzz!

Jin An felt a roar in his head, and he was stunned on the spot, and then hurriedly asked what happened ten years ago?

But those few people didn't know much about the details.

It can only be vaguely stated that the death of Chang County was due to a terrible fire.

The fire burned the whole city and spread quickly. No one escaped, whether they were old, weak, women, children, gentry, merchants, or government officials. Tens of thousands of people in the city were all burned to death inside.

It was a purgatory on earth. Later, the government said it was worried that a plague would break out from those corpses, so they sealed the gate of Chang County. Naturally, no one knew what was going on inside...

At this time, he was still the middle-aged man with thick eyebrows, recalling and saying: "I heard my grandma talk about what happened ten years ago, because my grandma barely escaped the fire in just half a day, so the memory is special deep."

"My grandma went to the city during the day to attend the Qingming Temple. Unexpectedly, the next day, she learned that Chang County had been burned down by a fire. The government came and asked the surrounding villages to move out quickly. They said there were so many corpses and there was no place to bury them. I was worried. There will be a plague.”

"Although Xiba Village is forty miles away from Chang County, the government said that Xiba Village is in a safe location, but everyone is afraid that so many people will die. If a plague breaks out, it will definitely spread here, so they moved with other villages. The village is dozens of miles away.”

The man continued to recall, and Jin An gradually learned more details.

According to what this person said, the day when the fire broke out in Chang County, like today, was the Qingming Festival, and that day was the Qingming Temple Fair.

The Qingming Temple Fair is the most lively and important festival of the year in Chang County. There are also tourists from the nearby villages in Chang County. Naturally, many people go to Chang County to participate in the Qingming Temple Fair and see the thousand-year-old sacred tree Qingqian Liu.

And this man's grandmother was lucky enough to see the thousand-year-old sacred tree, the Qingqian Willow, on the Qingming Festival ten years ago when she was riding in an ox cart from the village to the city to attend the temple fair.

Next to the incense box next to the Qingqian Willow, there are people who are responsible for introducing the origins of Wen Mo Temple and Qing Qian Willow. For example, the construction of Wen Mo Temple came from the memory of a high-minded scholar who expelled foreign invasion and died on the battlefield.

"Let me tell you, there was a Taoist priest in the queue behind my grandma. As a result, when my grandma took the bullock cart back to the village, she kept scolding the Taoist priest, saying that the Taoist priest's words were unpleasant, and he actually did so in front of Qingqianliu. He scolded our great Confucian from Changxian County for being a thief who was greedy for life and afraid of death, betrayed his country for glory, and deceived the world and stole his reputation."

"The Taoist priest didn't speak loudly, and only a few people near my grandma happened to hear it. However, my grandma was timid and fearful and did not dare to offend the Taoist priest. Later, she only dared to talk to our family when she got home."

"Unexpectedly, Chang County was engulfed by a fire that night, and no one escaped."

"So my grandma has always suspected that the Taoist priest who was disrespectful to the sacred tree must have offended God and caused the lives of a whole city to be buried with him."

The man seemed to be remembering something and said mysteriously: "By the way, I remembered it. My grandma did mention it to us. After the Taoist priest scolded Qingqian Liu, Qingqian Liu did change."

"But that was all after my grandma left Chang County. Later, after sunset, people who came out in front of the city gate before the curfew said they saw changes in Qingqianliu."

When Jin An heard this, he was stunned again.

He was surprised and asked: "Isn't it right? It shouldn't be the day of the Qingming Temple Fair. After someone scolded the Qingqian Liu, the Qingqian Liu had a mysterious phenomenon overnight, and then grew brass leaves. The Qingming Temple Fair Qingqian Liu became even more lively and continued. After ten years of prosperity... did the whole city die in the end?"

…

"Taoist Master, we are locals of Chang County, how could we remember it wrong?"

"Indeed, on the day after scolding Qingqianliu, Chang County was burned down by a fire."

Listening to Jin An's incomprehensible words, the middle-aged man with thick eyebrows carefully looked at the strange young Taoist priest in five-color robes in front of him: "Taoist Master, why are you sleeping in a dead man's coffin in the cemetery?"

"Did you offend some enemies and be buried alive in a coffin by your enemies?"

Jin An hummed vaguely, and then eagerly asked the people in front of him for more details.

According to what several people on the other side said, the Kangding court not only closed the city, but also relocated all the people from all over the country within a few dozen miles of Chang County.

Although Xiba Village is far away from Chang County, it later became empty and became a deserted village ten years ago.

Today is the time to worship ancestors during the Qingming Festival. The few people in front of me are very brave. In recent years, they return to their hometown every year to visit their graves.

Because everyone feels that ten years have passed since the Changxian fire, and all the dead have been eaten up and only bones are left, so there is no longer any plague to be afraid of.

Therefore, in villages far away from Chang County, like Xiba Village, many people began to return to their hometowns to pay homage to their ancestors.

These people only know so much, and they don't know the deeper details. After all, what happened ten years ago was too long, too long.

Long enough for all the truth to be buried in the rolling yellow sand.

They saw that Jin An really didn't look like someone who wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the river, so they all left after not staying long.

After all, they saw Jin An emerge from the coffin in the cemetery with their own eyes, and the living returned to the living, but it was still very scary.

As a result, Jin An was the only one left in the place again. He felt as if he had been abandoned by heaven and earth, and his figure was confused.

…

…

Chang County.

When Jin'an returned to his hometown, only one night later, things and people here had already changed.

The city gate is closed.

The tall city wall, ravaged by the vicissitudes of time, has been desolate for a long time, showing a heavy and heavy sadness, like a silent and sentimental giant.

Nuo is a big city.

There was total silence.

It is not difficult for Jin An to climb over the city wall. When Jin An, the only living person, is isolated on the city wall, he quietly looks at the collapsed ruins and the dead city covered with weeds and bushes after the fire is extinguished.

desolate.

sad.

There were also mixed feelings of sourness, all rushing to my throat at this moment.

"I'm back?"

"Do you still remember me..."

Is the disaster that happened last night the same suffering that was inflicted on you ten years ago?

Are you taking me through it all again, the catastrophe that no one could escape from ten years ago?

Various scenes from the past month or so emerged once again clearly in Jin An's mind.

Snap.

Snap.

In the deserted street, corpses were everywhere. Jin An was walking alone, his footsteps echoing in the surroundings.

He walked through familiar markets, markets, stone bridges, dry river beds, the Fengle Building that collapsed in ruins, the Deshan Building that was destroyed by fire, Jin'an and the old Taoist priest's favorite mutton restaurant and inn. The place where the old Taoist priest Goat lived, the Yamen, the Goulan House...

And half of the street was destroyed by gunpowder, leaving a huge crater at the original site of the Man Mo Temple.

"A noble Confucian who died in battle to expel foreign invasion..."

Jin'an looked at the Wenwu Temple that had been reduced to nothing, with a sentimental expression on his face, lamenting, and finally became angry: "Those who are greedy for life and afraid of death, traitorous to the country for glory, and let foreigners burn, kill, and plunder treacherous people, yet they still have the dignity to establish themselves. Temple, set up a chastity tablet for yourself! Let the world praise you for dying on the battlefield, rather than surrender, and whitewash the treacherous people as noble and upright scholars! Other people's treacherous ministers will be infamy for thousands of years, but you deceive the world and steal your reputation, and the more you live, the more you look like a saint!"

…

The flowers are bright and the willows are dark, and the sky is full of sorrow. I go up to the top of the city.

I want to ask where Gu Hong is going, but I don’t know his life experience.

The setting sun was shining slantingly on an official road far away from Chang County.

A carriage was driving slowly on the official road, getting farther and farther away from Chang County. The person driving the carriage was an old man pulling the reins.

"Sir, there is something that I can't figure out. Why don't you see Mr. Jin An one last time before leaving?"

There was silence in the carriage for a while, and the curtains on the side of the carriage were lifted. The people sitting in the carriage silently admired the scenery of the golden dome in the distance under the setting sun: "There is no feast that never ends."

"If we are destined, we will meet again one day."

"If there is no fate, it would be better to forget about each other than to see each other again."

Qi Bo sighed: "Master, if you don't tell Master Jin'an clearly, how will he know that that day he accidentally entered the ghost land of Chang County and almost died like other passers-by in the past ten years? Chang County, a ghost town where thousands of lonely souls live.”

"If you don't tell me, how will others know that it was you who saved the life, Master?"

The carriage was quiet.

The man in the carriage did not answer Qibo's words.

Young Master, Young Master, even this old slave, I can see that you are hiding something in your heart. If you really have something on your mind, you should see Young Master Jin An for the last time. If you leave today, there will be no chance of seeing each other again in the future... I'm afraid it will be as small as that. It rains endlessly.

Qi Bo sighed. As someone who had come here, he had already seen that the young master was unwilling to lose face and took the initiative to find Mr. Jin An. He wanted to wait for Mr. Jin An to take the initiative to come to her, but if you don't take the initiative to explain that it was you who took action, Congchang How could Mr. Jin'an, who was rescued from this increasingly noisy ghost town in the county, know the truth about all this?

On the contrary, Young Master Jin An mistakenly thought you were Young Master and left without saying goodbye. The misunderstanding here will only get bigger and bigger in the future.

Thinking of this, Qibo, who was driving the carriage, once again fell into the unforgettable emotional memories of his youth.

At that time, it was because of each other's arrogance that no one could let go of his dignity and took the initiative to find the other, leaving regrets for the rest of his life. In the end, it was really better to forget each other...

Qi Bo drove all the way and saw the young master in silence all the way. He knew that the young master was upset at this time and could not listen to his own words, so he began to mutter to himself: "This ghost town in Chang County is getting more and more serious."

"Ten years ago, it was just a riot in the city, but now Qingqianliu has not been punished, causing resentment to build up. Even the Buddhist vessels consecrated by the eminent monks of Zhenguo Temple can't suppress the resentment of thousands of innocent souls in the ghost town. The resentment in the city actually started to spread out for dozens of miles, affecting passers-by dozens of miles away, leading merchants and passers-by to stray into Chang County."

"Tsk, tsk, but that Mr. Jin'an is a strange person. He helped to clear up the wrongs of those wronged souls. First, he was involved in the 'Thunder Man's Corpse Cutting Case', then the 'Water Ghost Drowning Case', and he assisted Changxian County Yamen to solve the case for ten years. That shocking case before."

"Next, he was not greedy for worldly yellow and white things, he took the initiative to exchange the harmful money in the hands of the people of Changxian County with dignity, and on the night of the sudden change, they took action to deal with the thousand-year-old evil tree Qingqianliu, and they rescued so many people. The people left the city.”

"Although those people had already died in the catastrophe that night ten years ago, it was precisely because no one was willing to save them ten years ago. All the women, children, old and young in the city died in the city, and no one escaped, so they Only after death will the unwillingness and resentment in the heart turn into overwhelming resentment, resenting the injustice of the world and why no one lends a helping hand to them. Just like drowning people often resent the people on the shore for not going into the water to save them."

Qi Bo continued: "In the past ten years, every night at night, the Changxian ghostland will re-enact the disaster that happened ten years ago. Whenever you pass near Changxian, you will be affected by the overwhelming resentment and accidentally enter Changxian. None of the passers-by, merchants, scholars, ladies... or the monks or Taoist priests who took the initiative to go to the city to slay demons and protect the Tao could survive. But Jin'an, an ordinary person at the beginning, managed to survive alone."

"Master Jin'an not only became the most critical person to break the situation, but also resolved the increasingly fierce grievances in Chang County for ten years, and dissipated a lot of the grievances of thousands of lonely souls. It is estimated that in the next few decades, the grievances in Chang County will He will never come out to harm others again. This is a great merit. Even the old slave is envious of me; especially Mr. Jin'an has formed a good relationship with the lonely souls in the city. He is a powerful soul with thousands of resentments. , This is a strange thing, tsk tsk.”

"It's a good thing, sir, that you didn't tell Mr. Jin'an the truth about the ghost domain in Chang County in advance. Otherwise, if you knew it in advance, it would be ineffective and ineffective."

After Qi Bo finished speaking, he did not forget to flatter his young master: "Of course, young master, you have the world in your heart and are so upright. When you heard that the ghost town in Changxian County was getting more and more troubled, you took the initiative to go into the devil's cave to slay the devil. With a kind heart, he must be a person who will inherit the great blessings of our Kangding Kingdom. Even if Mr. Jin'an does not become the person to break the situation this time, you will definitely save the day and leave Chang County safely this time."

"Furthermore, the reason why Young Master Jin An was able to break the situation this time is because, Young Master, you were kind-hearted at first and couldn't bear to see him die in vain, so you gave Young Master Jin An the opportunity to practice and taught Young Master Jin An how to practice. Mr. Jin An, an ordinary person, can have a slight chance of saving his life in the ghost domain of Chang County."

"I tell you, Master, we should immediately turn around and go back to Chang County to look for Mr. Jin An, and then explain your good intentions to Mr. Jin An so that Mr. Jin An will remember you for the rest of his life."

"Yes, Master Jin An should be remembered for a lifetime and never forget that kind of thing... Master, how about I turn around and go back to find Master Jin An immediately?"

The carriage was still quiet.

Didn't respond.

The young master is so preoccupied that he can no longer even flatter you?

Qibo was still waving the whip in his hand, gently slapping the butt of the horse pulling the carriage, and driving the carriage absentmindedly along the long official road.

"Sir, are you asleep?"

Under the golden glow of the setting sun, there was still no response in the carriage.

After a while, Qi Bo asked in a low voice: "Sir, where will we go on our next trip?"

The carriage was still quiet.

While waiting, finally, the man in the carriage spoke again.

"Qingqianliu has been on the run for ten years. He has been hiding deeply and there has been no news. Others have been looking for Qingqianliu for ten years and still can't find it. You and I alone can't find it."

"I heard that the last appearance of the Nine-Faced Buddha was in the Kingdom of the Immortal God. The Nine-Faced Buddha is too old. I heard that he is about to run out of oil, so he is now in a hurry to reincarnate in his tenth life and complete his cultivation. Tenth-faced Buddha, let’s go find the legendary Kingdom of the Immortal God.”

"That Monk Pu Zhi can also be regarded as one of the disciples of the Nine-faced Buddha. There has been no trace of the Nine-faced Buddha in Kangding Kingdom for a long time. This time his disciple was born again, and as soon as he was born, he appeared in the ghost town of Chang County, and also interacted with the assassin There must be some conspiracy between the Yin Master and the Zhizharen... I guess they still have no desire to give up on the Yin Condensation Basin ten years ago, and want to come to Chang County to continue looking for clues about the Yin Condensation Basin, just in case the Nine-Faced Buddha reincarnates for the third time. If it fails in the tenth life, use the gathering basin to resurrect the Nine-faced Buddha."

The man in the carriage spoke thoughtfully.

When he heard about the Kingdom of the Immortal God, Qi Bo's expression changed and turned bitter.

When he heard that his master was not only looking for trouble from the Kingdom of the Immortal God, but also the Nine-faced Buddha in the Kingdom of the Immortal God, Qi Bo even complained in his heart: "Young Master, you also said that you want to forget Mr. Jin An in the world. Well, now you have gone directly to the Nine-Faced Buddha's lair."

Of course, Qi Bo did not dare to speculate on his master's thoughts. He turned to another matter: "The Kingdom of the Immortal God has always been mysterious, and no one knows its specific location."

"However, the old slave has heard rumors that if you want to find the Kingdom of the Immortal God, you must first find several ancient kingdoms that have disappeared for thousands of years in historical records, such as the Che Country, the Wuer Clan, and the Beauty Figurines, and then you can locate them. The location of the Kingdom of Death..."

.