Ning Jiujiu met the immortal.
When he boarded the ascension platform for the second time, he expected that he might see different things, but what he saw was still beyond his imagination.
On the ascension platform, rice was boiling with water in the stove. Shao Xiaoli leaned against Ning Jiujiu, and she could feel that Ning Jiujiu had fallen asleep.
Rather than falling asleep, it is better to say that he has entered a mysterious and void state.
Lu Marry held his hand, and the Taoist scriptures of both of them had reached an extremely high level. With just a moment's thought, their spirits were sublimated, and under the huge thrust of the sea of consciousness, they shot through the sky and reached the sky.
She knew that Ning Jiuchuan's thoughts had left her body, but she didn't know where he had gone. She just held his hand in case something unexpected happened.
Ning Jiujiu came to the extremely high place of Taiyin's Eye.
Only today did he know that the story of Baicheng was true.
There really were immortals who ascended here and... stayed here.
The immortal that Ning Jiujiu saw was a pile of white fragments.
He didn't know how to describe them. Maybe they were a shovelful of snow, maybe they were torn paper, or maybe they were the original shape of a person before they formed an embryo.
The incomparable cold at high places almost penetrated through the physical manifestation and invaded Ning Jiujiu's pure consciousness.
Baicheng... Ascended One...
Is this what Suzaku is implying
Ning looked at the 'immortal' in front of him for a long time, unable to determine what kind of existence he was.
Then the white shard became aware of his presence and began a conversation with him.
"Is there someone there?" the immortal asked.
"Yes." Ning Jiujiu answered.
"Don't go up," said the sage.
"Go up? Does going up mean ascending?" Ning asked for a long time.
"Yeah." The immortal said, "If you go up there, you will be torn apart, just like me now."
"Are you an ascended person from Baicheng?" Ning Changjiu asked.
"Yes, that's the place where I achieved enlightenment." The immortal said, "But I shouldn't be called the ascended one. We are all paper figures."
"paper man?"
"Well, the ascended ones are all paper figures." He said this, his body like shredded paper.
"Are there many paper people like you?" Ning Jiujiu asked again.
"There are many... but they should all be dead. I was lucky enough to survive." The immortal's words were filled with fear.
"Who were they killed by?" Ning Jiujiu knew about the existence of the dark master and still asked.
"It's a ghost." The immortal's words were firm and simple: "There is no fairy court in the sky, there are only ghosts there. It is outside the door and it wants to come in."
"Ghost?" Ning Jiujiu did not expect the other party to describe the dark master like this, so he asked: "Have you seen him?"
The immortal said: "I haven't seen it, but I have been in contact with it."
"Then how do you know it's a ghost?" Ning Changjiu asked.
The immortal said: "I killed many ghosts before I became an immortal, so I know that it is also a ghost."
This sentence was a bit incomprehensible, and Ning Jiujiu didn't know how to understand it. He could feel the immortal's fragments shaking constantly, as if out of fear in his bones. That is people's innate fear of ghosts or unknown life.
Ning Jiujiu asked: "What exactly is the ghost? Where does it come from?"
The fragment of the immortal glowed with white light, and he was squirming within a certain limited area, like a pitiful insect.
The immortal could not answer, and he spoke vaguely: "Of course ghosts are debts, karma, and grudges... The immortal is a paper man, but the ghost is a ghost."
"Is there a way to get rid of ghosts?" Ning Jiujiu asked.
"A bigger peach wood sword and immortal talisman." The immortal said.
"How big do you want it to be?"
"I don't know, I'm not a Taoist priest." There was fear in the immortal's words, and he said in a low and delicate voice: "Shh. Don't ask anymore, it might be eavesdropping on us."
"Hmm... Okay." Ning Jiujiu raised his head and looked at the indescribable sky, feeling cool again. He thought for a while and then said: "Who left you here, and what state are you in now?"
The immortal said: "I have been dismembered. The person who saved me asked me to wait here for someone, a girl. Are you the one I want to wait for?"
Ning Jiujiu shook his head and said: "Sorry, I am not a woman, and I am not the person you want to wait for."
The immortal was silent for a while, as if he was thinking deeply.
"Maybe the time has not come yet." The immortal was also a little regretful. In fact, he had no concept of time anymore.
Ning Jiujiu probably guessed that the one who saved this immortal should be Suzaku, and the one who made him wait should be Xiang'er... or Jiuyu
Ning Jiujiu asked: "What about when we get there?"
The immortal said: "Answer the question she asked. Just like now."
Ning looked at his broken state for a long time. The immortal could not speak, and their communication was based on pure spirit.
"Can you still go back?" Ning asked for a long time.
"You can't go back." The immortal said: "The road to ascension is one-way... because life and death are one-way. This is the sky, and there is no sea of reincarnation."
Ning Jiujiu felt the emptiness and silence around him. He was not sure which universe he was in. There were not even soul-devourers here. The whole world seemed to only contain the broken immortal in front of him.
Ning Jiujiu looked at the squirming fragments of the immortal and asked, "Do you regret your ascension?"
"Regret." The immortal said bluntly.
In Luoshu Tower, many people knew that the ascension might be a scam, but they still insisted on rushing to the sky, even though they almost died without regrets. So Ning Jiujiu was a little surprised when he heard his answer.
The immortal continued: "Ascension is meaningless, because the outside world is also desolate. Even if you spend your whole life, the ascendant will only leave this sea of stars at most, which is meaningless to yourself and the universe."
"Then what makes sense?" Ning Changjiu asked.
"Eternal life." The immortal said.
"Isn't immortality what Ascension seeks?" Ning Changjiu asked.
"No, ascension and immortality are incompatible with each other. This is something that paper people will only figure out after they ascend." The immortal's words were very light, but they can make people feel endless regret: "There have been immortals in the world. They The secret of immortality has long been revealed.”
"Who is it?" Ning asked for a long time.
"Di Jun and Chang Xi." The immortal said.
"..." Ning hesitated for a moment before continuing to ask: "What did they say?"
The immortal said solemnly: "They say that you will live forever."
"Eternal life?"
"Well, only by being together with the world can we survive forever. When humans live, they live. This is the saint." The immortal spoke slowly, with the regret of hindsight: "There is no world outside, and the probability of the birth of the world is so slim that it is close to No, even gods like Zhulong Tianzang Mingjun have gone through all kinds of hardships to come to our world. In fact, we are already in the fairy palace of the universe, and our ascension is just to go to a larger cemetery."
Ning listened to his words for a long time and fell into a trance.
The words of the immortal deny the common sense of cultivators. Ascension is away from immortality. The real immortal court is actually the human world...
"But there is no difference between cultivation, farming, and weaving. Even without the guidance of a saint, people will understand these on their own sooner or later. Why is the end of cultivation contrary to the purpose of cultivation?" Ning Jiujiu asked the doubts in his heart.
The immortal has obviously also thought about this problem.
He gave his guess uncertainly.
The immortal asked: "Do you know when to make a paper man?"
Ning thought for a long time and said, "When someone dies?"
"Hmm." The immortal said, "Maybe the paper figures are tributes."
…
The air flow in the air floats in vain, like a glacier surrounding the world, freezing the paper man's 'remains' here.
The immortal's physical body had long been destroyed, leaving only fragments of the sea of consciousness. This is his brain for thinking.
At this moment, after saying the word "tribute", the immortal's brain began to tremble.
This trembling was caused by fear, although he didn't know where the source of fear was.
Ning Jiujiu also felt cold.
"Tribute?" Ning Changjiu asked: "Whose tribute?"
The immortal's consciousness seemed to be moving, but he didn't make a sound. He just said vaguely: "Maybe our mother goddess knows."
What the Mother Goddess is talking about is the Seventh God.
He added: "It is also possible that the spirit energy itself wants to escape."
Reiki himself wants to escape
Ning Jiujiu felt that this statement was too unbelievable.
Ning didn't ask any more questions for a long time. He planned to ask the follow-up doubts after seeing his master next time.
The conversation between the Immortal and him was not long, but the information involved was too much for him to digest for a while.
Ning Jiujiu didn't know what to ask, so he asked: "Do you have any other secrets you want to tell? I can help you convey them to the world."
The immortal said: "No. Because the ghost will come soon... I have nothing to do these years but think. I have thought about many possibilities, but the more I think about it, the more desperate I become."
Ning Jiujiu sighed and said, "Then what can I help you with?"
"No. You are not strong enough." The immortal said, "I am waiting for someone. After waiting for her, I may still be able to survive."
Suzaku…
Ning Jiujiu thought deeply, and he discovered that everything they experienced seemed to follow the trajectory arranged by Suzaku. He knew that the master wanted to save the common people, so what did Suzaku want
Ning Jiujiu said: "I wish you to complete your mission."
The immortal asked: "Are you leaving?"
Ning Jiujiu said tiredly: "My spirit is almost exhausted."
The immortal asked: "Then will you come to talk to me again?"
Ning thought for a while and said, "It's very difficult. I have to leave Baicheng."
The immortal felt a little regretful: "It doesn't matter, I'm used to it."
There was loneliness in his words.
He floats in heaven and earth, a ghost raised by Suzaku. He lost his body and did not dare to continue upward, nor could he return to the human world. The silence of death was his coffin.
This was the end of this strange conversation.
Ning Jiujiu's consciousness slowly drifted back into his body, like a snowflake falling back into Baicheng.
He opened his eyes and looked leisurely at the night sky.
The stars are bright.
He didn't know where his emotions came from, but he could only feel the infinite loss in his heart.
"The porridge is ready."
Beside him, the girl's clear words sounded.
Ning Jiujiu came to his senses.
Shao Xiaoli was stirring the porridge with a spoon. His conversation with the immortal seemed to have lasted a long time, but in fact it was just the first ripeness of the millet in the pot.
On the other side, Lu Marry also looked at him quietly.
"Why are your hands so cold?" Lu Married asked softly.
Once the soul leaves the body, the body will naturally be in a half-corpse state and will become increasingly cold.
Ning Jiujiu did not explain, but smiled and said: "Then marry me and keep me warm."
Lu Marian's dimples were slightly lowered. She grabbed his hand, put it in her sleeve, squeezed it gently and said, "Is this okay?"
"Um."
"Your body seems to be very cold too..." Lu Marian said.
"What should we do?" Ning looked at Lu Jianyou for a long time.
The two looked at each other for a while, and then involuntarily moved closer. Shao Xiaoli, who was on the side, picked up a bowl of porridge and said, "It doesn't matter if you are cold. Drinking hot porridge will keep you warm!"
With that said, he filled the porridge and handed it to Ning Changjiu first.
"Hmm... That makes sense."
Ning Jiujiu let go of the hand he was holding with Lu Marion, took the porridge from Xiao Li, held it in his hand, and said, "Thank you, Xiao Li."
Shao Xiaoli also served a bowl to Lu Jianjian, and finally served it to himself.
The three of them sat on the ground leaning on the railing and drank the porridge together. The porridge was very thick and sweet, which brought warmth to the body.
Shao Xiaoli secretly looked at Ning Changjiu while drinking porridge.
She found that Ning Changjiu's gaze had no focus and seemed to be always in a trance.
"Master, what's wrong with you?" Shao Xiaoli stretched out his hand and waved it in front of his eyes.
Ning took a long sip from the bowl of porridge and said, "It's okay... this porridge is quite delicious."
"After all, it was you who taught me back then." Shao Xiaoli said proudly.
Lu Marion frowned and said, "What kind of story is this that I don't know?"
"Well... it's just rice porridge." Ning Jiujiu didn't know how to explain it, and said, "In short, it's a rice dish that Xiang'er was very good at before."
Lu Marianjian was surprised: "Xian'er is also good at cooking?"
"Well, because porridge only requires rice and water, the amount of water does not need to be particular. In short, within the two ingredients, Bingxue's smart Xiang'er can still barely do it..." Ning Changjiu joked with a smile.
Lu Marry also laughed and said, "I will relay these words to Xiang'er in the future."
"Ah... are you going to kill someone with a borrowed knife?" Shao Xiaoli pursed his lips and chuckled, stretched out his slender fingers, and pushed a grain of rice from the corner of his lips into his mouth.
The three of them were wrapped in quilts and ate the porridge while talking and laughing. The fire on the stove was extinguished, and the broken sparks were blown up by the wind and floated towards the sky.
Ning looked at the constellations in the sky for a long time and casually talked about the twelve divine masters.
"After today passes, there will be two days left in this month. By then we will have completely passed the Quanlin Star and arrived at the Tianji Star." Ning Jiujiu said.
"Tianji?"
"Well, the legendary Pegasus spews thunder and fire, and its divine kingdom is called Red Line."
"Where is the red line?"
Ning Jiujiu asked her to clench her fist, then drew a circle in the center of her fist and said: "Our stars are close to a circle, and the red line is probably at this position... Those are some of the hottest places in the world. "
Shao Xiaoli nodded thoughtfully.
Ning Changjiu said: "According to legend, Tianji will run at the highest speed in the world during the Tianji Year until the end of the Red Line Year."
"Um... It was able to obtain the status of god in the first place, couldn't it be because it ran fast?"
"It's really possible." Ning Jiujiu didn't have much impression of this and just smiled: "If this is true, then you don't need to worry too much next month."
Shao Xiaoli nodded seriously.
When she heard the word "Quan Lin", she didn't like her very much. Just thinking about it made her think she was a bad woman. She really wished she could go there as soon as possible.
Ning Jiujiu knew that the dark master was also waiting for an opportunity.
It doesn't make much sense to rashly light up the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of Quanfu has not yet been closed. No matter how powerful the projection of the Lord of the Kingdom of God is, it cannot truly threaten the Master... If you were the dark master, which time would you choose
One sin lord, two hoofs on the mountain, three white hides, four phoenixes to support... Ning Changjiu broke his fingers and recited the formula silently and counted.
In November, it happened to pass by Yuanjun star.
In December, it is the lifting of the father star.
Raising my father…
Ning Changjiu's heart tightened slightly, and he vaguely understood something.
Tian Ji is keen on racing, and the original emperor has grown old since the Taichu Divine War. If he wants the saint to die the most and has the most determined murderous intention, it is the new Jufu.
Will it be December
If so, everything seems to be going according to plan. After the lunar eclipse, he and his master still had half a month to prepare.
Ke Ning looked at the sky for a long time, always feeling that something bad was coming soon.
…
After drinking the porridge, the three of them cuddled up and slept for a while.
When I woke up, the stars were still hanging in the sky.
Ning Jiujiu used sword fire to instantly evaporate the dew lingering around him. He packed up the stove and put away the quilt. When he came back, Xiaoli and Jianjiao were also awake. It was as if they had been camping all night and returned before morning. Arrive at Huanpu Mountain.
"When Quanlinyue passes safely, let's set off back to the Middle Earth." Ning Changjiu looked at Lu Jianjian who was packing her clothes and said.
Lu Marian raised her head and twisted her hair out of habit, "Have you finished all the things in Nanzhou?"
"Yes." Ning Jiujiu nodded: "The fate has probably been repaid."
"In that case, go back early and tidy up in the next two days. I'll go say goodbye to Yazhu." Lu Marian said.
Shao Xiaoli heard their conversation and was a little nervous.
She was looking forward to seeing Siming again, but for Liu Xiwan and Ning Xiaoling, she only heard their names but never saw them, and she didn't know if they were easy to get along with.
"Xiao Li, don't think nonsense." Ning Jiujiu saw through the girl's thoughts, rubbed her hair, took out the pear she had given to him before, turned it around, and pointed the smiling side at Xiao Li.
Shao Xiaoli looked at it and couldn't help but laugh, feeling much better.
She looked at Lu Marry, who had her back turned to them, and suddenly picked up the pear, kissed it, and then put it on Ning Changjiu's face like a seal.
Ning Jiujiu was stunned for a moment, then he quickly looked at Lu Marion, touched his cheek, and held his breath.
Lu Marry didn't notice anything. She was still packing her clothes and playing with dolls at the moment.
Ning Jiujiu gave Shao Xiaoli a helpless look, grabbed the pear and knocked her on the head.
Shao Xiaoli is already a slim woman, but she still sticks out her tongue like a little girl.
"What are you doing?" Lu Marion noticed something strange and turned around.
I saw the two of them standing there normally, nothing unusual.
Lu Marian frowned and turned back.
Ning Jiujiu calmed down from the tension. He did not look at Shao Xiaoli, but said casually: "I will go back to the pavilion to practice for a while."
Ning Jiujiu returned to the house alone. He looked at the paintings hanging on the wall. Perhaps it was a coincidence that one of them was Yi shooting the sun.
After admiring the painting for a while, he called out the Golden Crow. Ning Changjiu's expression suddenly became solemn. He temporarily put aside the distracting thoughts he had when he wanted to talk to the immortal last night, and his mind calmed down.
He came to the third divine pillar.
The scorching sun hanging in the sky was like hawks, staring directly at him. He also stared at them and drew a bow.
What he draws is not the bow on his back, but a huge bow that spans Middle-earth.
This bow was too big, and it took a lot of terrifying divine power to pull it. When he pulled it, the entire earth's crust trembled with his bowstring.
The sun in the sky is also trembling.
They were stared at by the arrowheads, and the hawks ceased to be hawks, with their shrill, hoarse cries, and became the noisy crows at dusk.
The sun monster screamed, threatened, swore, swore, and cursed...
"Even if you kill us all, Xihe won't be able to survive!"
"His Majesty Longque is being conquered all over the world. You are no longer able to fight against him."
"Give up struggling, it will only destroy your godhead."
"Lord Yi, you and Empress Chang'e are already lost dogs."
"You could have rested peacefully in the sky, but you wanted to die... Your time has passed. Put down your bow. Worshiping the sun is what you should do as a human being."
“…”
Shut up!
Ning Jiujiu opened his eyes. He felt the divine power rushing through his body. He tightened the string and then released it after pulling it to the extreme.
The arrow shot out.
At that moment, not to mention the weeds, even the rocks around him reached intense heat in an instant, and the sharp edges began to soften, like soil that had been soaked by water.
They sacrificed their lives for the golden arrow that tore through the sky.
So, the place where he was was like the place where the sun rose. The golden light slowly rose, and they were dyed by it, burned up, and became magnificent.
The golden light pierced the sun in the sky. He heard the screams and saw the black explosion.
These false suns are black.
Those black ones are stuffed crowfeathers.
He continued to shoot arrows.
The sun in the sky exploded one after another, and black crow feathers flew all over the sky, as if the torn night curtain was falling and black snow fell.
Crows are flying.
…
A few more hours passed in the blink of an eye.
After Ning Jiujiu considered every detail, he broke away from the mythical logic.
In the past few days, he will focus on repairing the chapter about Dayi shooting the sun, peeling away the mythical fog that surrounds him, and getting straight to the truth.
On September 28th, the stars did not move.
On the 29th, everything was still calm.
Time passed and it was the thirtieth day.
That night, like a virtuous newlywed, Lu Jianjian personally cleaned the sect master's ceremony inside and out. Ning Changjiu and Shao Xiaoli also went up to help, cleaning the hall and packing their luggage. Lu Jianjian was careful He closed the door, looking quite reluctant to leave.
She will once again leave this place full of memories where she grew up.
Ning held her hand for a long time.
"You will always have to leave." Ning Jiujiu said with a faint smile: "I like it here too, but after all, the Four Peaks are not the Lingluo fruit trees on the mountain and cannot be transplanted away."
"What is Lingluo Fruit?" Shao Xiaoli asked.
Ning Jiujiu said: "A fruit that is helpful for cultivating Taoism. I used to feed it to married people."
Lu Marry glanced at him faintly.
Shao Xiaoli was at the side, and she didn't have an attack.
The three of them left with their swords in hand.
midnight.
The spring scale moon has passed,
Shao Xiaoli wanted to say something in celebration, but suddenly noticed something was wrong: "Why does the sky seem a little darker?"
Lu Marian said: "Maybe there is something wrong..."
Ning Jiujiu nodded gently and didn't think much about it, but just for a moment, a chill suddenly surged up from his toes to his brain.
He suddenly raised his head, his pupils shrinking suddenly.
The sky was cloudless and the stars were scattered.
The moon disappeared.