Chapter 282 The Great Dao and the Master (I)

As the sky gradually darkened, a bonfire was lit in the temple. Ji Ruxue used a stick to fan the fire and roasted a rabbit. The crackling sound became more and more intense as the fat fell.

The thin woman squatted far away in the corner, sniffing the smell of barbecue, but her eyes were fixed on the bracelet on Chi Meng's wrist, not blinking, and concentrating intently.

Chi Meng was stared at so hard that her hair started to swell. She shrank behind Ji Ruxue and poked her head out, shouting, "I really can't show you this. This thing is very precious. If you don't tell me who you are, I won't give it to you!"

The thin woman squatted in the corner with her hands on her knees, muttering to herself, looking at Chi Meng's face, touching her hair and face from time to time, muttering words that no one could understand.

Xiao Yan did not disturb the two of them. He sat with his back against a big tree and took out a piece of paper with the words "Survival of the fittest" written on it and looked at it. By now, a lot of words had been added to the paper, in a disorderly manner. There were Taoist excerpts, Legalist aphorisms, and many Confucian sayings.

If Xiao Yan had not studied Buddhism, perhaps his achievement would not be second only to this.

He frowned, read it again and again, pondered it again and again, and closed his eyes from time to time to chew on the meaning, trying to connect the principles contained in it.

You Chuan was sharpening his knife and summoning the falcon Xiao Hui. He was combing the feathers of his pet alone outside the temple, looking a little lonely.

Chi Meng stared at the thin woman worriedly. Hearing her inexplicable words, he became even more frightened. He pulled Ji Ruxue's clothes and said, "Miss, why do I always feel that this woman is a little strange? I don't dare to sleep at night..."

Ji Ruxue smiled when she heard this and patted Chi Meng's hand, signaling her not to be afraid.

In fact, she had seen too many problems from Xiao Yan's attitude. This woman didn't look that simple. She was most likely related to the Twelve Caves. But she didn't know why she lived here alone. Maybe for ten or twenty years? If a person lived in such a place for too long, it was normal for him to become a little strange.

As for why that woman suddenly became interested in Chi Meng's bracelet, Ji Ruxue thought about it and came to only one conclusion: this woman might really know the Gu King, rather than the two members of the Dan tribe making up stories.

Speaking of which, it seemed that the two members of the Dan tribe disappeared after they entered the temple, which was a bit suspicious.

Ji Ruxue hesitated for a moment, then asked the woman, "Why don't you tell me why you want to see this bracelet?"

"Who are you?" The woman raised her head, then rolled her eyes and pointed at Xiao Yan, then bent her thumbs and said, "Which one of you two is that?"

Ji Ruxue gave a dry cough, and Chi Meng was upset.

This woman, how can she be so unserious...

Chi Meng had no choice but to point at the bracelet and said, "This is my father's thing. It's very precious. I can let you take a look at it from a distance, but you are not allowed to touch it!"

After saying that, she thought for a moment and then said, "Do you know my father, the Gu King Chi Li?"

The woman stared at the bracelet for a long time, then shook her head, stood up and jumped back onto the swing, saying, "What are you doing here... Did your dad ask you to come?"

"Looking for Twelve Caves!"

Chi Meng put his hands on his waist and said as a matter of course: "There is a poisonous turtle in the Ten Thousand Poison Cave, that is the witch king Chi Li. This guy is extremely evil. He imprisoned my father and also researched a great witchcraft. It is said that only the Twelve Caves have the antidote. For my father and Rao Jiang, we must find the Twelve Caves!"

The woman hooked her hands on the vine ropes of the swing. This time she did not swing too high. Instead, she lowered her head and stared at the ground, muttering something. Then she looked at Chi Meng, then at Xiao Yan, and then at Ji Ruxue.

She counted on her fingers, "Are you Chi Li's daughter?"

"How about this!" Chi Meng raised his head.

"The one who's studying, your last name is Li?"

Xiao Yan put away the draft paper and said with a smile: "Senior, my last name is Xiao."

The woman said "oh", then she raised her second finger and asked Ji Ruxue, "What do you do?"

"Warrior." Ji Ruxue drew out the Tang sword.

The woman shrank her neck and pointed outside the temple: "What does that person outside do?"

"Don't worry about him, what on earth are you going to do?" Chi Meng asked with a frown.

“No, no…”

The woman ignored Chi Meng and counted on her fingers: "The one with the surname Li..."

She counted, shrugged, and continued to swing: "You can't get through the Twelve Caves, forget it, just stay and chat with me, your sister."

Ji Ruxue frowned, puzzled, and Xiao Yan thought slowly.

Chi Meng watched the woman walk down slowly after smelling the aroma of meat, pick up the rabbit meat and start eating it without hesitation. She was not afraid of burning her mouth, nor did she think of leaving a bite for them. She ate with relish.

"Do you want to eat it?" The woman handed the half-eaten rabbit meat to Chi Meng, and was unusually polite.

"Eat it by yourself!" Chi Meng was so angry that he crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head away.

"Don't be angry." The woman coaxed her, gnawing on the rabbit meat and said, "Tell me, how did your father get imprisoned?"

It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned it. Once he mentioned it, Chi Meng became so angry that he bared his teeth and claws, and he was about to fight this strange woman on the spot.

The woman was shocked. She just wanted to know how that idiot Chi Li was imprisoned. Why did Ni'er react so strongly? She didn't think it was a big deal. It was just a small matter. Why should she worry about it?

Before the God of War and Monster Altar came into being, Chi Li was a guy who could not die.

But she was really afraid of Chi Meng's look, as if he was going to snatch the roasted rabbit meat from her mouth and throw it into the fire, so she carefully hid in the corner.

"I think I understand what you mean..." Xiao Yan suddenly stood up and pointed to the north. "We still have a companion who hasn't arrived yet. He is a versatile person with a good character. He respects teachers and is not ashamed to ask questions. He is thorough. To be honest, when we came here, he was the one who cleaned our butts all the way. He was very careful."

As he spoke, he pointed at Chi Meng with a smile: "This man is also Miss Chi Meng's registered disciple, and he is especially respectful to Miss Chi Meng. Speaking of which, he will be able to catch up with us in two days."

"Oh?" The woman became interested and started counting with her greasy fingers again: "Well...that's right."

As she said this, she put her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction: "Okay, okay, I'll tell you, but you have to accompany me for two days. If I'm in a good mood, I'll tell you where to go."

Chi Meng was dumbfounded. Why did this woman with her hands on her hips look so familiar?

No, no, why do we have to wait for Hou Qing’s cheap disciple to catch up? What kind of condition is this?
Chi Meng felt dizzy and a little hungry.

The woman came closer and handed her the rabbit meat: "Tell me how your father was imprisoned..."

------

"Disciple greets Master Chi Meng and Master Xiao Yan."

Early in the morning, Hou Qing arrived exhausted with the letter from Xiao Yan.

The one who delivered the letter was naturally You Chuan's falcon Xiao Hui. This eagle had become a spirit in the Shiwan Mountains, and it surprisingly found Hou Qing, the king of the mountain in Jiuli Village, with ease. And just two days later, Hou Qing arrived as expected.

Even though he was so exhausted, this corpse ancestor was still dashing, with fluttering clothes, and his classy demeanor was not diminished at all.

Chi Meng held his forehead with his hand, Xiao Yan smiled, Ji Ruxue had a blank expression, and You Chuan was a little confused.

The woman squatted on a high place in the cleaned temple, slowly biting an unknown fruit, looking Hou Qing up and down like a queen, muttering something incomprehensible.

Hou Qing spent a cup of tea to figure out the relationship, then he clapped his hands with the bone flute and said seriously: "Although I have only just started learning music, I have studied this skill of finding dragon points. I still have some impressions of my search for the Twelve Caves in my early years."

"Wow!" Chi Meng couldn't help but be surprised. This cheap disciple actually knew this trick?

Thinking of this, she curiously asked, "Have you ever buried someone?"

"No." Hou Qing explained seriously, "I only robbed thirteen large tombs."

"..."

Chi Meng sucked in a breath of cold air. This was even worse than being buried as a Feng Shui master!

Ji Ruxue frowned, and she finally understood why Hou Qing was so good at driving corpses anywhere.

"Okay, okay, I've seen it." The thin woman threw away the fruit core and nodded, "Each of you has unique skills. If you want to enter the Twelve Caves, it is really possible."

As she spoke, she sneaked into the depths of the temple, looked left and right, fiddled with something in a corner, and suddenly took out a bone token and threw it to Chi Meng from a distance.

"Take it, go southeast for ten miles and find the Twelve Caves. Show this to them and they won't embarrass you."

"Ten miles, so close!?" Chi Meng was surprised, and then looked at the old token. He saw a sun engraved on it with a human face inside. There was also a small snake-like carving around the token, which had been eroded by time and was a little broken.

"Go away, go away!" The woman suddenly seemed a little impatient at this time. She raised a wooden stick and drove several people away. Her temper was very bad.

Chi Meng was frightened and hurriedly pulled Ji Ruxue away.

"Wait." At the last moment, the woman suddenly called out, then took a few steps under the gaze of several people, raised her hand, and gently touched Chi Meng's face, her eyes flickering behind her messy hair.

Chi Meng got goosebumps all over her body, but for some reason, she didn't feel disgusted by the gentleness of this Mosuo woman. Could it be that they had grown to like each other over the past two days?

"Your surname is really not Li?" The woman turned around and looked at Xiao Yan.

The latter smiled and did not answer.

The woman muttered, shook her head, and walked back to the temple: "Let's go, stay away."

Several people started on their journey, but before leaving, Xiao Yan bent down and saluted the woman with his arms crossed, very solemnly.

However, the woman entered the temple and never came out again.

Hou Qing tapped his palms with the bone flute intermittently, looking at the temple hidden in the deepest part of the Dead Creek Forest, and nodded secretly: "It's quite tasteful."

……

"Come out."

The woman slowly tore off the gauze wrapped around her arm and shouted towards the corner of the woods.

Migeshu and Tulasi walked out from behind the big tree tremblingly, and buried their heads on the ground, extremely frightened.

Because after the woman tore off the dirty and worn gauze, the intricate tattoos on her arm were finally revealed. The color was a strange dark red, like a pair of gluttonous eyes, staring fiercely at the world.

"You have been quite well behaved these past two days, so I will be kind to you."

The woman said, "Go back and tell your people to leave Dead Creek Forest as soon as possible. If you leave it too late, you won't be able to leave."

------

"What a weird person..."

Chi Meng held up the domino, looking it up and down, chattering, "She clearly recognized my father's bracelet, but she said she didn't know my father. She clearly said she didn't know the Twelve Caves, but she gave us this token. Miss, who do you think she is?"

Ji Ruxue shook her head and said, "It is said that Dead Creek Forest is a place of exile. If nothing unexpected happens, she might also be exiled here."

Chi Meng said "oh" and turned around, as if he wanted to take another look at the mysterious woman.

If he was really exiled to Dead Creek Forest, it would be really miserable.

Her father said that when the Twelve Caves were around, being exiled to the Dead Creek Forest meant losing your freedom and you would never be allowed to leave the Dead Creek Forest. Otherwise, the Twelve Caves would take action, or you would completely lose all ties with the Twelve Caves.

What a weird person.

Chi Meng shook her head, then couldn't help stamping her feet, staring at Hou Qing and said, "Can you please stop blowing? It's so annoying!"

Hou Qing, who had been playing the bone flute all the way, put away the flute and bowed, saying, "Master, please teach me the musical skills."

It seemed that in an instant, the team suddenly became active.

……

Although it was said to be ten miles, according to the ruggedness of the road, Xiao Yan and his four companions seemed to have walked twenty or thirty miles. It was not until dark that they finally found a valley.

However, the scene here was beyond the expectations of Ji Ruxue and others.

This valley is indeed full of buildings. There are caves on the mountain walls, stone forests and thatched houses in the valley, a bluestone road under your feet, and sculptures and stone tablets beside the road. At a glance, it is obvious that at least thousands of people can live here.

But without exception, these large-scale and orderly building complexes have long since collapsed, the inscriptions on the stone tablets have long been washed away by wind and rain, the thatched huts are dilapidated, the stone forests have collapsed, the caves are covered with cobwebs, and even the bluestone avenues have long since shattered and no one cares for them.

The human population here completely disappeared a long, long time ago.

"What's going on...?" Chi Meng looked confused, holding the dominoes in his hand, at a loss.

"No one is here." Ji Ruxue jumped off the stone tablet and shook her head. "This does look like the place where the Twelve Caves once lived, but they probably moved away a long time ago. It seems to have been quite a while, probably no less than fifty years."

"Fifty years?" Chi Meng asked in surprise, "Then why did that strange woman ask us to come here?"

Ji Ruxue didn't know how to answer, so she looked at Xiao Yan.

The latter nodded and said, "Let's look for it, maybe there will be some clues."

"Hey, hey, hey, look!"

Chi Meng suddenly pointed forward and said in surprise: "What a big man!"

Following her line of sight, I could indeed see a huge headless sculpture between the collapsed buildings. It was about ten feet tall and was bending over and looking forward, as if it was looking into the distance.

When they got closer, they found that the sculpture was dressed in Central Plains style, but the head was missing. It looked like it was broken naturally. However, after looking around, they did not find anything matching around.

Logically speaking, even if this kind of stone sculpture was broken by erosion from wind and rain, it would not disappear completely without a trace. If you really think about it, it is obviously man-made.

"It's okay, just come and be its head!"

Chi Meng jumped onto the stone seat, climbed up the stone sculpture, put his head on the broken part, looked left and right: "What do you think? Which side matches?"

“It should be here.”

Ji Ruxue compared for a moment and found a hollow stone slab about two meters in front of the stone sculpture. She knocked it lightly and then stepped on it.

Suddenly, the stone slab shattered, revealing the mystery underneath.

"Huh? Is this a sword?" Chi Meng bit his finger, looked at the wide and long sword-shaped groove under the hollow stone slab, and frowned.

She looked left and right, but didn't find anyone among them carrying a sword. Xiao Yan did have one, but it was broken in Jiuli Village.

Ji Ruxue was also puzzled.

Xiao Yan pondered for a moment, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Hou Qing suddenly say, "Based on my many years of experience, this groove should be the key to activate some mechanism..."

He walked around and stopped in front of the statue. He pointed around with his toes and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this statue is a mechanism. If we find the right direction, it might be possible to push it open with brute force."

Xiao Yan stepped forward, holding the base with both hands, and from front to back, he gathered his internal strength in his palms, shouted in a low voice, and pushed with all his strength.

Several people suddenly felt that there was a shaking of the earth and mountains, and there were sudden "clicking" sounds from all directions, as if some mechanism was forcibly opened, and there were breaking sounds everywhere.

The statue, which weighed at least ten thousand pounds, slowly moved backwards a few inches, revealing a gap.

"What a great strength..." Chi Meng muttered to himself.

Ji Ruxue stepped forward without hesitation and together with Xiao Yan, she exerted all her strength, determined to push the statue away completely.

The other three also took action. Hou Qing stopped repairing the bone flute and stepped forward to exert force.

After a quarter of an hour, the entire statue was finally pushed open, revealing a deep underground entrance and bluestone steps that extended downwards one step at a time until they were invisible to the naked eye.

Ji Ruxue threw the tinder down and saw sparks, but it did not go out.

"You can come in."

Ji Ruxue patted Xiao Yan on the shoulder, signaling him to slow down. After all, pushing a thing weighing ten thousand pounds, coupled with the restrictions of the mechanism, was already a huge loss.

A few people went down first, and Xiao Yan walked at the end.

He looked up at the headless statue.

Even though the years have left countless traces on it, it still stands silently, just waiting for a destined person to come and open this place.

I just don’t know whether my arrival can be considered as destroying the original things, or whether I can be considered as an alien who has taken away things that do not belong to me.

Xiao Yan smiled calmly, shook his head, and walked down the stairs.

Suddenly, a mountain breeze blew up, blowing his sleeves and blowing them into the entrance.

It was as if it was pushing Xiao Yan.

(End of this chapter)