Chapter 1: Xu Xiashan

The world is relative.
The Middle-earth continent is across the ocean from Daxizhou. The terrain in the east is higher, and the sky there seems to be higher. Clouds rise from the land on the sea, and continue to drift towards that place, finally converging together, and they will not disperse all year round.
Here is Yun Tomb-the grave of all clouds in the world.
There is a lonely peak in the deepest part of the cloud tomb.
Legend has it that the world is composed of five continents, each with different landscapes, and only those powerful lives that enter the sacred realm can see all the landscapes. For ordinary people, legends are just legends. They don’t know where the rest of the continent is, how to get there, and the lonely peak in the cloud tomb is the gateway to other continents.
Naturally, no one has seen the scenery above the clouds. Here, the calm clouds spread like white silk to all directions, and there seems to be no end. Behind the void mirror is the endless black abyss, which contains countless stars.
Suddenly, two stars lit up, getting brighter and brighter, turning toward the mirror at high speed. The two stars came to the front of the mirror to see clearly. It turned out to be two holy white flames.
A spider-like crack appeared on the mirror surface between the real world and the night sky, and then repaired instantly.
The two sacred flames have appeared in a magical way in the real world on the mirror side. The thin air is transformed by the burning and undulating waves-it is not the Divine Fire, but its eyes.
The whole world is disturbed by the huge advent, the light is constantly refracted, a cloud-like shadow appears on the cloud surface, the space begins to arch and deform, and it seems that it may be crushed.
A golden dragon appeared between the void and the clouds.
The red sun in the distance was completely obscured by its huge body, and the world was tens of thousands of kilometers above the clouds, so it was dimmed. The surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and frost crystals began to reflect in the clouds, reflecting countless rays of light, and became weird. The sparkling crystal mirror is average. Because of the discoloration of heaven and earth, this is the majesty of top life.
The golden dragon overlooked the world, his eyes indifferent.
It has seen the scenery on the clouds many times.
The golden dragon flew towards the solitary peak in the sky. When approaching, the terrifying giant dragon body sank deep into the cloud and disappeared. The endless amount of mist was broken by the horrible and huge body. The rocky cliffs between the solitary peaks and cliffs are extremely steep, extremely steep, with no plants, not even moss, dead, like a grave.
In this way, flying deep into the fog, after a long day and night, I don’t know how far it was flying, but I still stayed in the fog. I didn’t encounter anything else, but I could vaguely see the moss appearing between the cliffs, and the cloud was higher than the top. To be a lot thicker, perhaps because of self-squeezing, a lot of crystals began to form in the clouds, and that was water droplets, so the air was also humidified.
The Golden Dragon has no interest in these changes and continues to fly downward.
The plants in Gufeng are getting more and more, the clouds are getting wetter and wetter, the water drops fall on the cliff, and gradually become a stream of countless green leaves. Countless thousands of thin streams of water gurgled between the cliffs and fell into the mist.
The golden dragon looked at the tenuous stream between the isolated peaks, and the expression in his pupils became more dignified, and the two groups of fire became more and more secluded-this is the tomb of all clouds and the source of all water.
Numerous streams of water fell from the solitary peak, and it only looked at one of them.
The golden dragon was flying in the fog, as the stream flowed silently, and experienced countless days and nights, which seemed to repeat endlessly, but at a certain moment... the fog in front of it dispersed.
Before the clouds, it was the ground.
The lower edge of the cloud is very smooth, completely dependent on the undulations of the ground, perfectly guaranteeing that there is a distance of five feet between the cloud and the surface, which is exactly the height of a human, and it seems to come from the design of the creator. The five-foot space between the surface and the clouds leads to a distant place. There is light in the distance, but the sun is not visible. There are countless streams on the surface.
The mist dissipated in front of the huge dragon head, exposing the ground and the stream.
The stream comes from the wet dew in Gufeng, clear and calm, there is a wooden basin floating in the stream, there are several layers of sackcloth, and there is a baby on the sackcloth-the baby's face is slightly blue, and his eyes are closed, obviously not born too Long time.
The fog on the stream blooms like a flower, with countless tens of thousands of petals, crowded, surging, broken, and squealing, a golden dragon head larger than the palace, slowly exploring the cloud and coming to the surface of the stream on.
The five-foot distance between the stream surface and the fog is very narrow for it-the body of the golden dragon is hidden in the fog, and part of the dragon's head is also hidden in the fog, which seems more majestic, mysterious, and horrifying.
The golden dragon looked at the stream quietly.
The tub was still undulating in the stream.
In the tiny tub are abandoned, closed-eyed, bluish-born newborn babies.
...
...
The fog gradually dispersed and everything returned to tranquility.
However, tranquility is only temporary... In the depths of the mist, even up to the nearby Gufeng, almost at the same time, there are countless screams and howls of horror and panic!
I thought that in the quiet and inanimate world, there were so many birds and beasts hidden in the fog. The sound of flapping wings was everywhere in the fog. The unicorn panicked the sound of the thousands of years of giant trees, and even a very clear phoenix!
An invisible line of fire formed by Shennian spread from the bank of the stream toward the sky, and the wet grass suddenly became very dry, even the water plants in the stream curled up at the edges!
There is still no emotion in the eyes of the golden dragon, noble, indifferent, and kingly.
The world's beasts fled under the clouds, and it didn't care. Even the young phoenix didn't care. It just stared at the creek in front of it and stared at the wooden basin on the stream. Gufeng fell hundreds of thousands of streams, and it only stared at this stream; after 30,000 years, it came to this world again, just for the baby in the basin, how can it be opened?
A very thin filament falls slowly, the filament is golden in appearance, and inside is sacred white, as if it can shine on its own, the front of the filament is very thin, and the rear section is gradually thickened until it looks like an arm, the surface It is extremely smooth and perfect, especially the luster that shines from the depth, adding more beauty.
The material of this silk is like gold like jade. It should feel very heavy, but it is actually very light. With the breeze on the stream, it seems to be dancing, and it seems to be dancing. I want to touch the tub, but it is instantaneous. Withdraw.
That was the dragon whisker of the golden dragon.
At this time, the fire in the eyes of the golden dragon has become less eternal and stable, and the indifference has been replaced by thinking, seeming to hesitate something. The front ends of the two dragon beards, like soft fingers, touched gently on the edge of the wooden tub above the stream, as if they were touching, but they did not actually touch.
This golden dragon has spent a very long time, with unimaginable wisdom, but at this time, the tub seems to be a difficult problem that it cannot solve-the emotions in its pupils have become more and more Complicated, craving, vigilant, hesitant, and finally turned into a struggle, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps intentionally, the wind above the stream changed slightly, and the dragon beard that was supposed to rub against the edge of the tub Trembling, and finally really touched the tub for the first time, even rubbed under the baby's ear in the tub!
It was this slight contact that produced an extremely dramatic change-the two fires deep in the eyes of the golden dragon's eyes, with a blast, turned into thousands of stars, and the starry ocean showed coldness nakedly And greedy desire!
That desire is praise and emotion.
It is a compliment to life, it is moved by life.
It is the most primitive desire of life.
The golden dragon looked at the wooden basin on the creek, opened his mouth, and the dragon breath poured out like broken jade.
The baby in the pot still had his eyes closed, and he had no idea what would happen next.
The stream is shrouded in shadows.
The dragon's breath fell around the tub.
In the next moment, the tub and the baby in the tub will become the food of the golden dragon.
At this moment.
One hand fell on the edge of the tub and pulled the tub toward the stream!
It was a scarred hand, somewhat thin and small.
In the sound of the water, the stream was rippling, and the hand was holding the tub and ran desperately towards the bank.
The owner of the hand is a three- or four-year-old boy.
The little boy pulled the tub to the bank of the stream, hid it between the shore stones and his body, then turned around, pulled out the sword from his waist, and looked at the scary, huge golden dragon head on the stream.
This is a very strange little boy.
He was blind with one eye and missing one ear. When he ran desperately in the creek, he could see that his legs were lame and the empty sleeves had only one hand.
No wonder he can only draw his sword by hiding the tub behind him.
Looking at the huge dragon head on the stream, the trail boy's face was pale and his teeth rattled, not because of the freezing cold water, but because of the fear in his heart.
This was the first time he saw a real dragon. He didn't even know what a dragon was, he only knew about fear, but instead of escaping, he took the thin wooden sword and blocked the pot behind him.
The golden dragon looked at Xiaodaotong indifferently, and only the super strong who also entered the sacred realm could see the deepest anger and coldness in its pupils.
Xiao Daotong shouted something, his face was pale and his fear was abnormal, but he didn't let go of the pot in his hand.
The golden dragon angered, the dragon breath enveloped both sides of the stream, and death was coming.
The wooden sword in Xiaodaotong's hand fell into the water, and he turned to hold the wooden tub in his arms.
The scales on the golden dragon rubbed against the mist, splashing countless days of fire, and the stream began to burn.
Just then, a middle-aged Taoist appeared on the bank of a stream.
The middle-aged Taoist looked at the golden dragon on the creek and looked quiet.
The sky fire on the stream suddenly went out.
The golden dragon looked at the middle-aged Taoist and issued a dragon chant!
Long Yin is extremely long, as if it will never stop. It is a very complicated syllable. Listening to it is like the most complicated music, and it is like the sound of the most terrifying hurricane in nature, mixed with unimaginable power!
The middle-aged Taoist looked at the golden dragon and said a word.
It's a single-syllable word. The pronunciation is very strange and difficult to understand. It doesn't seem to be like human language at all. The fragments seem to contain endless information, ancient meaning!
The Golden Dragon understood it, but it disagreed.
So the fog on the stream violently surged.
The dragon breath spit everywhere, and the wet grass and woods by the stream instantly turned into a terrible fire.
The little boy turned his back to the creek and didn't know what was happening. He lowered his head in fear and closed his eyes, just holding the tub in his arms tightly.
...
...
I don't know how long it has passed before the creek finally became quiet.
The young boy raised his courage and looked back. He saw that the stream was clear and the fire on both sides of the stream had been extinguished. Only the charred trees and roasted stones were talking about the horror of the previous battle.
There was a dragon roar deep in the clouds. The roar is full of pain, unwillingness and regret. It is telling the five continents of the world that its previous hesitation has brought about how sad it is.
The Daotong was startled, holding the tub with one hand, limping ashore from the creek, walked to the middle-aged Taoist, and looked timidly into the depths of the cloud.
Middle-aged Taoist reaches out to extinguish the flame on his shoulder.
The little boy remembered something, and raised the tub with some difficulty.
The middle-aged Taoist took the tub and gently picked up the baby in the tub. His right fingertip fell on the baby's body across the sackcloth. At the next moment, his brow frowned.
"Your life...it's really bad." He looked at the baby wrapped in sackcloth and said with pity.
...
...
In the east of the mainland, there is a small town called Xining. There is a stream outside the town. There is a mountain beside the stream. There is a temple in the mountain, but there is no monk in the temple. There is only one middle-aged Taoist with two The disciple is practicing Taoism here.
The mountain is an unnamed green mountain, the temple is an abandoned Buddhist temple.
Xining Town is in the Zhou Kingdom. The Dazhou dynasty established Taoism as the state religion eight hundred years ago. Until now, during the orthodox years, the state religion unified the world and is even more respected. In principle, the three masters and apprentices should live in the Jinyiyu food, but the town of Xining is too remote. The broken temple is even more remote, and people are rare on weekdays, so I can only live a life of rough tea and light rice.
Taoists naturally need to cultivate the Tao. There are countless ways to practice in the world today. The Taoism taught by the middle-aged Taoist is completely different from other sectarian Taoism. It does not pay attention to practice and understanding, ignores the sitting pictures of life stars, does not care about the spiritual refinement, it is just a word: Back.
The Yu people began to recite the Taoist classics since they were young. Chen Changsheng was forced to stare at the old books with yellow just after opening his eyes. The first thing he knew was the Taoist classics that filled the house. After learning to speak He began to learn to recognize words, and then began to recite the texts from the classic books.
Recite and learn from time to time, so that you can be familiar with it, this is the life of two small children in the broken temple.
Waking up in the morning, they are endorsing, the hot sun is burning, they are endorsing, Mu Zhongzhong is dumb, they are endorsing. Spring flowers bloom, summer Lei Zhenzhen, autumn wind bleak, winter snow bleak, they are on the ridge, by the stream, under the tree, at the edge of the plum, holding the Taoist Road, reading, carrying, without knowing the gradual progress of time Die.
There is a whole house in the broken temple full of Taoist scrolls. The rest of the people had been bored when they were seven years old. There were 3,000 volumes, 3,000 avenues, one or hundreds of words, or more than a thousand words, the shortest. The Shenjing is only 314 words, but the longest longevity scripture has more than 20,000 words. This is all they want to memorize.
The two brothers and sisters kept reciting, just to remember, not to understand. They knew long ago that Master would never answer any questions about Dao Zang, only saying: "Remember, nature will understand."
For those playful enlightenment children in the world, this kind of life is really unimaginable. Fortunately, the green hills are deserted, rare in human life, no foreign things are cherished, and you can concentrate. The two trails have special temperaments, and they don’t feel boring. Carrying it day after day like this, he passed years without knowing it.
One day, the sound of reading that did not stop for several years stopped. The two children sat on the rocks, side by side, a book on their knees, looked at the book, and looked at each other.
At this point they had recited the last volume, but there was no way to continue because they couldn’t understand it. The text in this volume was very strange-it’s weird to be precise. Those radicals and strokes clearly knew , When combined, it becomes a completely weird thing, how to read it? What do you mean?
The two returned to the temple and found a middle-aged Taoist.
The middle-aged Taoist said: "Three thousand Dadao, you are looking at the last volume. This volume is 1,601. According to legend, there is a hidden righteousness in heaven and heaven. No one can fully understand the meaning, let alone you? "
Chen Changsheng asked: "Master, don't you understand?"
The middle-aged Taoist shook his head and said, "No one dares to say that he really understands, nor can I."
The brothers and sisters looked at each other and felt a bit regretful. Although they were still children, they hid 3,000 Dao back to the present day. They were only one volume away and failed to compete fully, so they would not be happy. But after all, it is not an ordinary child. He began to accompany Dao Jing when he understood it, and his temperament was a little light. The two were about to turn around and leave.
Just then, the middle-aged Taoist continued: "...but I can read."
From that day on, middle-aged Taoists began to teach the final volume of the Taoist Scriptures, teaching pronunciations word by word. Those pronunciations are very strange, simple monosyllables, but they need to use a muscle in the throat and have special vocal cords. Requirements, in short, are not like the sounds that normal humans can make.
Chen Changsheng didn't understand it at all. It was just like a little duck, honestly imitating the pronunciation taught by Master, but others occasionally remembered the word that Master said to the horrible creature many years ago at the creek.
Yu Ren and Chen Changsheng spent a long time finally mastering the pronunciation of the 1,601 words, but still puzzled, and asked middle-aged Taoists to get no answers. At that time, they were already in this last one. It took a whole year on the roll, and then they began to read the last roll as before, until they could recite it.
When they thought they finally got rid of their life of apostasy, middle-aged Taoists asked them to start reading a second time, and the helpless children were forced to start repeating again, or it was precisely because of the repeat, this time to Dao Zang’s ode, they Instead, I feel a lot harder, and even feel a bit miserable.
It was at this time that they began to get puzzled. Why should Master read the Taoist scriptures by themselves? Why not teach yourself to practice? It is clearly stated in the Taoist scriptures that Taoists should cultivate the Tao and pursue longevity.
At that time, the rest were ten years old, and Chen Changsheng was six and a half years old. It was also in this autumn that a white crane broke through the clouds, bringing greetings from a distant old man and a silk book. Marriage letter and tokens—a dignitary and nobleman who was once rescued by a middle-aged Taoist wants to live up to the promises he made.
The middle-aged Taoist man smiled and looked at the marriage certificate, then looked at the two students. The others waved their hands and pointed at their eyes that could not be seen. They smiled and refused. Chen Changsheng looked sad and didn't understand what this meant. He took over the marriage letter in a confused way and he had a fiancee.
In the next few years, every New Year's Day, the white crane will break through the clouds as expected, bringing greetings from the noble in Kyoto, and will also bring some interesting small gifts to Chen Changsheng.
Chen Changsheng gradually became aware of what the marriage contract meant. Every night, by starlight, he looked at the wedding book lying quietly in the drawer. He felt a little inexplicable. My fiancee, some quiet joy, some shyness, more stunned.
Calm reading career, when Chen Changsheng was ten years old, there was an accident. One night, after reciting the last one thousand six hundred and one words in the last volume of Daozang for the 72nd time, he suddenly felt that his consciousness had drifted away from the body and began to flutter in the woods in the green mountains. , The body began to emit a strange fragrance.
Not floral, not leafy, nor fat powdery. To speak indifferently, but not to disperse for a long time under the blowing of the night wind, to say dense, floating into the nose, but it is so ethereal, unlike the fragrance that can appear in the world, it is unpredictable and extremely tempting.
It was Yu Ren who first discovered the situation of Chen Changsheng. He smelled the strange fragrance, and his expression became extremely severe.
In the slightly dark green mountains covered by leaves, there are lions roaring and tigers, crane dances, and thunder frogs that should appear only on summer nights. In the depths of the cloud that no one dares to enter in the east of Qingshan, there is a huge Under the shadow of countless lives and greed and awe, Chen Changsheng exudes a strange fragrance and sleeps with his eyes closed. I don’t know when he will wake up.
The others were desperately fanning the wind beside the couch, wanting to fan away the scent from Chen Changsheng, because that scent made him talk, and gave him a very strange and terrifying thought, he had to fan the wind and put this The thought also fanned out.
The middle-aged Taoist didn't know when he came to the box. He stood beside the couch, looked at Chen Changsheng with his eyes closed, and said something that only he knew: "Where is the reason?"
Overnight time passed.
At the moment when the morning light fell on the green mountain, the strange fragrance on Chen Changsheng suddenly disappeared, and he could never smell it again. He reverted to his former appearance. There are thousands of strange beasts in the green mountain and the horrible figure behind the cloud. Away.
Looking at the sleeping younger brother, the others finally stopped panicking and sighed, trying to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead, only to find that his shoulder could not move because of the fan that was desperately shaking all night.
Chen Changsheng opened his eyes and woke up. Although he slept all night, he knew what had happened, and looking at his brother with a pained expression, his face became pale, and asked, "Master, what's wrong with me?"
The middle-aged Taoist man looked at him and said after a long silence, "You are sick."
According to the middle-aged Taoist, Chen Changsheng's illness is due to congenital physical weakness, the nine segments of meridians in the body cannot be connected, and the strange fragrance last night is that the soul cannot be relayed and can only be forced to expel with sweat. The indispensable essence of man's soul naturally carries a strange fragrance, which is a strange disease.
"Then... can you cure?"
"No, no one can."
"Incurable diseases... Is that life?"
"Yes, that's your life."
...
...
Since the birth of ten years old, the white crane has never been to Aoyama. The news on the other side of Kyoto is broken. The other side of the wedding letter seems to have never appeared. Chen Changsheng occasionally stands by the stream, looking at the west, and will think of this thing.
Of course, the more things he thinks about are his own illness, or his life... he has not become weak, and besides being prone to sleepiness, he looks extremely healthy and does not look like a premature person at all. He even started Doubt Master's judgment. But what if Master’s judgment is correct? Chen Changsheng decided to leave the broken temple and go to the prosperous world to see. While he could still see it, he would go to see the legendary Tianshuling and return the marriage.
"Teacher, I'm leaving."
"Where are you going?"
"Go to Kyoto."
"why?"
"Because I want to live."
"I said, it's not sick, it's life."
"I want to change my life."
"In eight hundred years, only three people have successfully changed their lives."
"Are they all amazing people?"
"Yes."
"I am not, but I also want to try it."
In Kyoto, Chen Changsheng always has to go. Whether he can cure his illness, he always has to go, not only because he wants to change his life, but because the other side of the marriage letter is in Kyoto.
He packed his luggage, took the little sword handed over from Brother Yu and turned and left.
The fourteen-year-old young Taoist went down the mountain.
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