Netherworld Chapter 91: The Head of the Wei Family (5)
I couldn't respond to this because he had already thought of a way out. Moreover, once this old man made a decision, even ten horses couldn't pull him back.
Aren’t you afraid that I won’t be skilled enough and lose the inheritance of your Five Elements Meridian?
The old Taoist shook his head: "The Five Elements are derived from the Five Classics. Although the limitations of the bloodline have been broken by the flaws of the Taoist method, the true Tao still exists and has not yet been revealed to the world. Our ancestors were not ordinary people, so they could not leave only one path. So even if you cannot inherit my Five Elements, the Five Classics will be born in the future to continue the inheritance."
Isn't that a pity? After all, your Five Elements Meridian has been passed down for thousands of years.
The old Taoist shook his head again and said: The root of the Five Elements is the Five Classics. Everything changes based on the Five Classics. As long as the root still exists, everything can be restored.
I fell silent. The old Taoist thought was different from mine, and it was hard for me to convince him. But is one person really more important than a thousand-year heritage?
Sometimes I feel that practitioners are different from ordinary people, and the old Taoist practitioner seems to be different from other practitioners. Perhaps, he is the outlier among them, just as he once said, Gamu is also the outlier among corpse refiners.
Now I know what that means.
Corpse refiners never use their relatives to refine bronze-armored corpses, no matter how strong that person's body is. Because relatives represent friendship, it is easy to make a hole in one's heart. If the corpse refiner's heart cannot be calm, then no matter how powerful the bronze-armored corpse is, it is like a nuclear bomb, with only deterrence. If no one presses the launch button, it is just a useless decoration.
After the breathing exercise, the old Taoist priest took me on the journey. We walked and stopped along the way, and returned to the Five Elements Taoist Temple at five o'clock in the morning.
The ordinary Taoist temple stood on the top of the mountain late at night. But when I looked up, I felt an inexplicable heaviness.
That Taoist temple has carried a thousand-year heritage, but now, it may be destroyed. This is the double oppression of history and responsibility. I am not as strong as the old Taoist, and I can't be indifferent. The only thing I can do is to follow him forward, step by step.
After entering the Taoist temple, the Jiaoye, who had untied the knot by himself without knowing when, climbed down from his pocket and spun happily on the ground. From time to time, he would lean his head over and spit out something from the things on the ground, looking like a dog smelling something.
I no longer had the heart to tease it, because the old Taoist quickly brought out the wooden box containing the stone beast from the house.
The wooden box was opened, and the Taoist priest took out the things one by one. He first held the half-broken jade hairpin and looked at it, then he exhaled lightly and put the hairpin into his arms.
Then, he took out the secret book and handed it to me, and solemnly reminded me: No matter how it is passed down, the most important thing is the character. I believe you can tell. If it cannot be passed down, destroy it when you can no longer protect it. The Five Elements Meridian has been glorious for thousands of years. Even if it cannot be passed down, it cannot be in my hands... Alas! Keep it well!
After taking a final look at the cover of the secret book, the old Taoist priest took out the box containing the stone beast and opened it without hesitation.
I held the Five Elements Secret Book in my hand, but I had no intention of flipping through it. I was once very interested in this ancient book that recorded the Five Elements Secret Method, and even thought about secretly reading it. However, when I remembered that the old woman was beaten half to death for stealing when she was young, the idea was immediately abandoned.
Being beaten is not scary, what's scary is what if the Taoist priest imitates his master and changes my appearance? This is different from the ID photo, and I will become an illegal resident. An illegal resident here has the same status as a stray dog.
The stone beast that once showed the black spirit was still stored in the box. The little beauty's theft did not cause any damage to it.
I'm very glad that the stone beast was taken away by the old woman. Otherwise, if Du Shengmai was injured by the old Taoist priest, and accidentally absorbed the essence of the stone beast, the solution would not be so peaceful. With the character of the people in Du Shengmai, they would definitely not return it, and the old Taoist priest... I guess he could slap them all to death, and then he would live in the condemnation of the old woman and the little beauty all day long. Perhaps, these dark words would make him depressed or something, and then it would be out of control , and he would be admitted to a mental hospital.
The old Taoist priest took out the stone beast and placed it upright on the ground.
The old Taoist bent down, and in my surprised eyes, he took out an axe from under the table. I heard a clicking sound, and it was obvious that there was a secret compartment under the table.
The old Taoist priest held an axe in his hand and stood in front of me, blocking the stone beast.
I heard him whisper: Give me the Five Elements Pulse and pass it on.
He paused and said: Take good care of them.
Then he raised the axe high. At that moment, I, standing behind him, seemed to see a giant in front of me. He stood tall and upright, never bowing down for anything. To me, he was the light of magnanimity and integrity.
In an instant, I suddenly felt that I might never forget this scene.
An old Taoist priest who still stands in front of me even though he is about to embark on an unknown road and his life or death is uncertain.
Just as I was stunned, the old Taoist's axe, like lightning, suddenly chopped towards the stone beast with a sound of breaking through the air.
The stone beast was less than 20 centimeters tall and looked strange. The old Taoist's axe struck the stone beast's head in the blink of an eye, without any sound, and the stone beast was split in half.
A dazzling blood light shot up into the sky, and the fine steel axe silently turned into flying ash, which was dispersed by the blood light. The old Taoist priest seemed to be also affected, and he took a few steps back involuntarily. I, who was standing behind him, suddenly felt a strong force coming from the front, and I could not stop myself from retreating.
The blood light penetrated the roof and shot straight into the clouds. At the other end, it went deep into the ground.
I saw the stone beast split in half, with blood-red flesh and light constantly merging into the light column.
A little ripple appeared on the ground, and I was shocked to see a solitary grave rising from the ground. There was a tombstone next to the grave, and behind the grave there was a secret road with no end in sight.
Faintly, there was a roar from underground, like an ancient beast, like a war drum. It was continuous, pounding the human heart, and the blood in the body could not help but rush to the top of the head.
The jade pendant hanging on the chest gave off a cool feeling, and the strange feeling of restlessness disappeared immediately.
The old Taoist priest stood in front of me, motionless, looking at the lonely grave that was slowly rising from the ground. Although the scene in front of me was unimaginable, the panic of the old Taoist priest's imminent departure made me even more panicked.
What would I do if he really left?
For a moment, I wanted to follow him into the secret road to the underworld, but I didn't dare, because the end was unknown and even the old Taoist priest couldn't guarantee life or death.
Humiliation... crime...
Suddenly, there were intermittent sounds coming from underground, so unclear that I only heard these two words.
The blood-red ripples made us feel as if we were standing on the surface of a lake, and the land beneath our feet had become nothingness. This was a scene that resembled an illusion, but was also very real.
Just as I was wondering if I was hallucinating, the blood light that penetrated the sky and the ground suddenly shrank rapidly, so fast that it was impossible to see clearly. In just a moment, all the blood light disappeared.
The stone beast on the ground suddenly disappeared along with the flash of blood.
I was stunned, and the old Taoist was also stunned. He held the only remaining wooden handle in his hand, motionless.
There was no sound in the room. After a long time, I finally plucked up the courage to ask: What's going on?
After hearing my question, the old Taoist priest took about a minute to answer: I don’t know.
There was loss and confusion in his tone, and also a hint of relaxation.
He raised the wooden handle in his hand, which belonged to the axe, but the fine steel axe had been destroyed. The cut was extremely smooth, as if it had been cut by a divine weapon.
I was somewhat glad that I was far away at the time, otherwise I would have been killed on the spot by the blood.
I was startled by the sound of "clang" when I was thinking about the blood. I looked down and saw that the old Taoist had dropped the wooden handle on the ground.
Then, the old Taoist turned around and took the secret book from my hand.
I saw his face, very calm, without any special expression. It seemed that what just happened was just a trivial matter like eating and sleeping.
I wanted to ask him, but I always felt that the atmosphere was particularly depressing. Moreover, the Taoist priest took the secret book from me very quickly, which made me feel relieved and lost at the same time.
You damn old man, you're so quick to destroy the bridge after crossing it. When you want to leave, just leave the mess to me, and when you can't leave, take everything back!
I once said that the people I hate most in my life are those who demolish bridges too quickly, leaving people no time to react.
The old Taoist priest was exactly that kind of person at this moment. I wanted to beat him up, but I couldn't. I wanted to scold him, but I was afraid of being beaten by him, so I could only grumble in my heart.
The old Taoist priest put the jade hairpin and the secret book in his arms into the wooden box, but he suddenly turned around and said to me: I seem to... have forgotten to give you the Wood Spirit Pill?
I was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed, and nodded quickly: Tell me now, it’s not too late to tell me now.
The old Taoist priest gently pressed his hand on the wooden box that originally contained the stone beast. The Taoist fire in his hand ignited, and the wooden box suddenly caught fire and burned to ashes in a few seconds.
The Taoist priest moved his hand away from the ashes and looked at me: Do you want me to tell you where to put it?
I looked at the pile of ashes, a little dazed, and couldn't help swallowing: I'd better not take it, it's too heavy and I can't carry it.
