Author: Tu Longshi

Qi Jingzhi walked slowly to the edge of the stone platform, lowered his head and looked down. There was no one visible at the bottom of the valley. Most of the firelight that had formed a circle was extinguished, and the remaining light was extremely weak, like a candle in the wind.

.

He turned around and looked up again, only to see that the body of the strange snake that had been used as a rope was still hanging on the stone wall, and the end of the snake's tail was still several feet away from the stone platform.

Old Wei has passed away, and no one can move the cloud snakes and fog tigers to help him cross the void.

Qi Jingzhi pursed his lips, feeling his eyes were slightly hot, and a breath of bad breath filled his chest.

"The blue sky is high, the yellow earth is thick, the moon is cold and the sun is warm, come and fry the life!"

The inscription on the Jianrenshou Knife appeared in his mind: "Human life is not eternal, and the sky does not take off years! In the world of life, not only do we have to suffer the rotation of the sun and the moon, but also all kinds of disasters! What should we do when we see this?"

"

"What should we do when we see this?"

Qi Jingzhi withdrew his gaze from the snake corpse on the mountain wall, and then glanced at the deep and dark cave in front of him. Suddenly, he kicked his feet hard on the ground, and his body suddenly sank and floated. He jumped three feet out of thin air.

More than enough!

Back in Xiaosong Mountain, he climbed to the top of an ancient tree while practicing boxing and had an epiphany. He was unaware of it during the process and didn't know why afterwards.

He had just fallen into a dream in his pillow. At the last moment, he held the knife in his hand, flapped his wings and jumped into the sky. However, the dream was ultimately false and he could not do anything.

Until this moment, Qi Jingzhi suddenly realized something in his excitement, but he didn't feel any joy at all. He was only full of bad breath and anger.

"Qi Jingzhi, do you still remember why I gave you this name?"

"Students, remember! Qi Jing means solemn respect. Master named me Jing Zhi to encourage students to be sincere and upright, to respect Heaven and the Patriarch, to behave properly, and to respect me without any shame!"

"The student's knife head is stained with blood, and he feels no guilt!"

The questions and answers between teachers and students suddenly echoed in the young man's mind.

Before today, the most important thing for Qi Jingzhi was the last two words of "being worthy of guilt". It was not until this moment that he suddenly realized that his mind was undecided, and he had never really thought about how to respect God, how to teach the ancestors, how to act in an orderly manner, and how could he truly

Do it without any shame?

"I like to think a few more steps when things happen, and I try to be thorough, so I think I have a plan. I often feel complacent about my thoughtfulness and intelligence, but I don't know that these are just trivial matters. The most important thing is my sincerity! I named the Niu Er Jian Knife.

Hu Chan, isn’t that what you expect from yourself?”

“The road ahead is long and full of obstacles, but only with sincerity and righteousness can we be focused and diligent!”

"So, what does Cheng mean? What does Zheng mean?"

At this time, Qi Jing's momentum to rush forward was exhausted. He did not raise his hand to grab the corpse of the strange snake not far above him. Instead, he stretched out a foot and kicked hard on the stone wall in front of him. His whole body rose rapidly again, and soon

It was almost higher than the cliff.

"I see that in this Daqi, no matter the mortal monks or ghosts and demons, they are all involuntarily living in the world. They are driven by the sun and moon above, and there are misfortunes and blessings below. They will go to hell sooner or later, and they will all become ghosts! Even if they are

The so-called gods will also die at the end of their lives and the temple will collapse!"

"The moon is cold and the sun is warm, to fry people's lifespan! If we cannot truly transcend it, then the heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and all phenomena in the world are just an upside-down dream of all living beings! How is such a short and vain life different from the dream in the jade pillow?"

Thinking of this, Qi Jingzhi's heart seemed to have something breaking out of the ground.

"To realize the truth, I can only make great progress on the road of spiritual practice and cut off all illusions with the sword in my hand! No matter whether it is ghosts and gods in heaven and earth, or demons in mountains and rivers, anyone who messes with my mind and blocks my path will have the only word of death!"

"In the future, I can act more arbitrarily, follow my own heart, and uphold the straight path! What I should do is what I am willing to do, and what I do is what I wish. What else is wrong?"

With a bang, this idea suddenly exploded, dispelling the fog and haze in Qi Jingzhi's heart.

Vaguely, something suddenly appeared in his heart, flying high and roaring loudly.

Qi Jingzhi tried hard to distinguish, and felt that it seemed to be a piece of white feathers with red in it, or a pair of wings with pure white body and blood-red tips. Finally, his true appearance was revealed, and he turned out to be a pair of ordinary straw sandals with stained soles.

The shoes were stained with mud and stained with blood, just like...the crane shoes mentioned by Jiao Yulang in the story!

"Is this the immortal who throws his shoes and steps on a crane to fly up?"

"Is this the heart that shakes like a dancing crane and the bones that grow like a flying dragon?"

"This is... my heart?"

A flash of understanding flashed in Qi Jingzhi's eyes. The energy and blood all over his body suddenly penetrated. His body, which had nowhere to rely on, suddenly seemed to have given birth to a pair of wings. It actually rose several feet higher out of thin air, far higher than the cliff at the top of the valley. Then

Then it slowly fell down like a light feather.

Standing in mid-air, he raised his eyes and looked around, and saw a big moon hanging high, towering mountains, a strong wind, and roaring waves in the forest sea.

The next moment, a high-pitched and exciting cry of cranes went straight into the sky!

Compared with the past, there was obviously more anger in this crane's chirp, a violent energy that struck heaven and earth.

This is an angry crane!

What you should do is what you are willing to do, and what you do is what you wish for! Angry cranes are on their shoes, fluttering their wings and soaring into the sky!

This is Qi Jingzhi’s heart!

Perhaps it is extreme, perhaps it deviates from the original elegant and unrestrained spirit of "The Crane Sutra" and the so-called "Dancing Crane", and it even bears more or less the shadow of the young Taoist priest in the pillow dream.

"If you want to live to bring disaster to the country and the people, do you want to die happily and be praised by thousands of people? Lu Qiyun, maybe you really are another me."

"It's just that although you and I have similar temperaments, our actions and wishes are completely different. A dream is just a dream after all!"

Qi Jingzhi landed on the ground, suddenly took out the Jianren Shou with his left hand and slashed at the small cypress tree with the body of the strange snake tied to it.

"Ouch!"

Jiao Yulang appeared in the direction of the Jianrenshou Long Knife, exclaiming loudly, and had no choice but to roll on the spot, narrowly avoiding the blade.

"Brother, the knife is so fast and cruel!"

The little kid got up from the ground in embarrassment, complaining and brushing the dust off his body.

Qi Jingzhi ignored him and swung his knife fiercely again, cutting down the small cypress tree to its roots. He then kicked it out, knocking the tree and snake down the cliff.

Jiao Yulang was dumbfounded, and immediately reacted and shouted: "Old Wei hasn't come up yet! He has old arms and legs, and he can't stand it with a red gold knife!"

Qi Jingzhi looked at the little kid quietly with a gloomy expression and shook his head slightly.

Jiao Yulang immediately closed his mouth and his eyes wandered, scanning the body of the white snake wrapped around Qi Jingzhi's body, and then looking at the jade pillow held in his right hand.

"Old Wei has found back the birthday gift from your aunt, you can send the jade pillow back to Pengze Water Mansion for him."

The little boy didn't answer, but turned around and rushed to the edge of the cliff. He looked down silently for a long time, and then asked without looking back: "Is Old Wei dead down there?"

"Well, he's dead. I burned his body and buried it with stones in the cave below. Before he died, he smiled and said that he used the mountain as his coffin, which is how he looked like a king."

Jiao Yulang seemed to nodded, and his voice was a little low: "Where is the Saint of the White Immortal Sect?"

"This is the white snake on my body."

Qi Jingzhi's tone was calm, but he suddenly changed the topic and asked: "How many white-clothed immortal servants are there who are presiding over the Dharma assembly? Where are they now?"

"There are two immortal attendants in white clothes!"

Jiao Yulang turned around suddenly, with a stern look in his eyes: "After the ceremony, they guarded the two valley entrances below, and no one was allowed to get closer. I saw that they didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave.

There was no movement for a long time, so I took a detour and climbed up."

"Guarding at the entrance of the valley?"

Qi Jingzhi thought for a while and realized that the two so-called immortal servants in white seemed to have some status, but in fact they were far less trusted than the two demonic snakes lurking at the top of the valley.

He looked at Jiao Yulang carefully. Except for the fierce look in his eyebrows, there was no sign of sadness, and he handed over the jade pillow in his hand.

This time, the little kid trotted over and took it with both hands, while giving Qi Jingzhi a big smile.

"Brother, don't be offended! I was born into a family of military lords. From the clan members of each branch and house to the guards and grooms of the mansion, there are always some familiar faces around me who suddenly disappear. This matter of life and death

When you see too many things, your heart will inevitably harden."

Jiao Yulang explained a few words lightly, then his tone became serious: "Old Wei has found the jade pillow. Whether it is my Chaozhou Jiao family or Pengze Shuifu, I will give him an explanation!"

As early as when he was at the Xiaosongshan Ancient Temple, Qi Jingzhi felt that Jiao Yulang's temperament was a bit extreme, and now it seems that it was not without reason. The so-called son of an aristocratic family, what he has seen and thought since childhood is indeed different from that of a mountain boy like him.

Qi Jingzhi saw that the little boy didn't need to worry about it, and had already entrusted the jade pillow to him. He nodded immediately, turned around and walked down the mountain: "I'm going to take care of the two immortal servants. I also need to ask them about the inside story of the White Immortal Sect.

ask."

Jiao Yulang hurriedly followed up, turned to look at the body of the white snake on Qi Jingzhi's body and asked: "I never thought that the so-called saint of the White Immortal Sect was actually a snake! No matter it was Black Donkey Jing, Li Huang or that Jin member, they all kept saying so

He said he saw a woman."

Qi Jingzhi kept walking, nodded slightly and said: "When I first saw it, it did look like a woman. Its illusion skills are so advanced that even Old Wei was mastered."

As he said this, he suddenly remembered the mountain patrol he had encountered earlier. It seemed that the Yin God had not been able to see through the true appearance of the Saint of the White Immortal Sect, saying that it was because she was protected by some righteous god's power.

When Qi Jingzhi entered the cave, he did indeed see the layer of white smoke outside the naked woman's body, but it had disappeared without a trace after she came out of the dream. Otherwise, because of the strangeness of the white smoke, it would be impossible for Old Wei to entangle the white snake.

Hearing this, Jiao Yulang opened his mouth, and finally sighed: "Those who are good at wandering will be drowned, and those who are good at riding will fall! Old Wei is also an expert in illusion, but after all he met someone more ruthless. This is the magician of the charlatan.

There is a major shortcoming. Once the external objects you rely on and the magic skills you practice fail to obey your orders or are restrained by others, you will no longer be able to control your own life and death."

The little boy seemed to be thinking of something wrong and never asked about the whereabouts of the red gold sword. Even when he talked about Old Wei's illusion, he still avoided mentioning the strange object.

"Before he died, Old Wei asked me to send the red gold sword back to Liaozhou. I will set off when things get settled here."
To be continued...