Jianchou's gaze moved down to the nine-section bamboo and noticed a tiny mayfly, but he didn't care much.
"Among all the living beings in the world... whose life is not life?"
The sudden thought made Jianchou stunned for a moment.
On this huge island, Jianchou was the only one there, looking all alone.
The stars in the sky gradually became sparse, and the moon disappeared into the clouds, leaving only a blurry shadow.
The sound of waves hitting the shore is still there, as is the faint chirping of seabirds.
But the sad heart suddenly became empty.
A lot of things have happened in the past ten days.
When all these things are taken together, it seems like they are more than what I have experienced in the past twenty years.
Her husband betrayed her and she lost her child in her womb. She became a disciple of a Taoist hermit and left the mountain village. She traveled along the way and even began to practice. She actually had some skills and abilities that were different from those of ordinary people, although they were very insignificant.
She even made some enemies, met some interesting people, and made some friends...
friend.
If she had looked at it from her perspective ten days ago, all this would have been incredible.
And now, it is happening to me so realistically.
The world is so vast that she could never have imagined it in the past.
Just like she is now, sitting by the stone pond, on the isolated island, next to the sea, looking around, she sees the vastness and endless universe.
The sea and the land, is that all
uncertain.
Jianchou raised his eyes and looked at the slowly moving stars. His thoughts gradually calmed down and became purer.
She thought of Zhang Sui's silence and steadiness, Zhou Kuang's simplicity and arrogance, Fu Daoshan's absurdity and wisdom, Xu Lan'er who attacked Nie Xiaowan out of a momentary evil thought, and even...
I thought of Xie Buchen who killed me in his pursuit of immortality.
Seeking the immortal way
That is not the immortal I am looking for, nor is it the truth I want to ask about.
If immortals represent the extinction of human desires, being heartless and selfless, then Jianchou is not looking for immortals, and is not asking about the Tao.
She thought of the Buddhist and Taoist scriptures she had copied for her mother Xie a long time ago. She thought that time passed quickly and so much time had passed that she should have forgotten them completely. However, the memories hidden deep in her mind suddenly emerged again.
"There is a thing that is mixed and formed before the heaven and earth, and it is silent and desolate! It is independent and unchanging, and it moves around without danger. It can be the mother of the world. I don't know its name, so I call it Tao, and I force it to be called Da. Da means to go away, to go away means to go far away, and to go far away means to return. Tao is great, the sky is great, the earth is great, and the king is great. There are four great things in the world, and the king is in one. Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature..."
Tao, what is Tao
If we follow what the book says, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao."
Jianchou thought and murmured softly.
The mayfly that landed on the nine-section bamboo flapped its wings, flew up, and then fell back to its original place.
Jianchou thought of the origin of the name Xie Buchen: "The Tao is always nameless. Although simple and insignificant, no one in the world dares not be a loyal follower."
So, Xie Buchen, his surname is Xie, his given name is Buchen, and his courtesy name is Wuming.
Jianchou was unable to figure out the meaning of his name for a moment.
Is it the Tao that makes the world dare not disobey, or is it that he will disobey the Tao
Thinking of this, she laughed inexplicably.
My heart was unexpectedly calm.
In her sleeve, there was a silver lock that she had kept for a long time. When Jianchou took it out, the color of the red rope was still bright and eye-catching.
Her warm fingertips stroked the patterns on the red rope bit by bit.
The word "thank you" on the silver lock still made her heart ache.
Hatred.
Only in this quiet and deserted moment could she hear the wildly growing voice in her heart, breaking through the soil, rising from the ground, rushing into the clouds, and entangling the entire world.
The wind blows on my face.
When Jianchou held the silver lock, what came to his mind was the red silk fluttering on the old tree in the center of the village.
Only ten days have passed, but when I think back on those past events, it feels like a lifetime has passed.
Jianchou slowly inhaled a breath of the fishy and salty air on the island, and then slowly exhaled.
She finally calmed down completely.
The drawings she had drawn on Zhanye Island during the day suddenly appeared in her memory.
Jianchou finally remembered that he still had one thing to do.
She opened the booklet she carried with her. The last few pages described the usage of spirit stones. Jianchou sat down cross-legged, followed suit, held a spirit stone left by Zhang Sui, and closed her eyes.
Visible to the naked eye, wisps of white light faintly lit up from the spirit stone in Jianchou's hand, followed the meridians in her palm, merged into her arm, and then traveled around the acupoints all over her body.
At the same time, the fighting plate under him began to rotate and became looming.
I don’t know if it’s because Jianchou consumed too much energy in the battle during the day, but the two Kun lines that were originally lit up on the fighting plate became a little dim.
However, with the injection of new spiritual power, they gradually became fuller and brighter.
Wherever the spiritual energy flows to Jianchou's body, there will be a spot on the fighting plate that becomes exceptionally bright.
The Dou Plate is closely related to the meridians and acupoints in the cultivator's body. Each "Daozi" corresponds to an acupoint, and each "Kun Line" corresponds to a meridian.
Gradually, the low-grade spirit stone turned into a grayish-white color without any spiritual energy. When the last bit of spiritual energy was drawn away, it made a mournful "pop" sound and finally shattered into powder, flowing through Jianchou's loosely clenched fingers.
Jianchou opened his eyes.
At this moment, she could clearly see the rotating disk, every bright or dim Kun line on the disk, and those dim ones where the "Daozi" should fall.
He stretched out his right hand, leaned forward, and drew a few strokes with his index finger on the ground covered with a thin layer of sand.
If there were a powerful monk here, he would probably be shocked.
It was because what Jianchou painted was none other than the huge seal that appeared in the sky on the day when the accident happened at Qingfeng Temple.
Jianchou tried to control the bowl to rotate slightly at an angle, and then stopped immediately.
At that moment, she seemed to hear the sound of the key being inserted into the keyhole and the mechanism clicking together.
The lines of the seal drawn by Jianchou actually coincided with some Kun lines on the Dou Plate!
And those "dots" on the seal that turn around and fall on the bowl happen to be the positions of one "Daozi" after another that have not been lit up!
This mysterious seal that appeared out of nowhere turned out to be a Taoist seal!
Daoyin is the method of practicing!
Jianchou still remembers what Fudaoshanren said.
The acupoints and meridians of the cultivator correspond to the Dou Pan. Now that the Dao Seal is on the Dou Pan, as long as Jianchou can understand the Kun line and Daozi on the seal, and which part of his body it corresponds to, he will be able to learn the spell represented by the seal!
At that moment, Jianchou's eyes brightened.
She knew that she had obtained what others dreamed of.
Daoyin…
And it wasn't just one. Her mind was also engraved with the five-colored Taoist seal projected by the huge ball of light outside the hidden world of Qingfeng Temple!
Six in total!
“… Is God compensating me?”
Jianchou thought about it and suddenly found it a little funny.
She casually clapped her hands to shake off the powder left in her palms after the spirit stone shattered, then stopped sitting cross-legged in meditation, and the fighting plate beneath her gradually disappeared.
However, the surroundings did not become dark.
A little bit of off-white fluorescent light suddenly entered Jianchou's field of vision.
She was startled for a moment, turned her head, and saw a quiet and beautiful scene.
At some point, a group of fireflies suddenly flew to the side of the pond, fluttering their tiny wings, flying back and forth in the grass beside the pond, holding small lanterns on their tails, illuminating only the small darkness around them.
They had no idea that there was a human monk sitting not far away, spying on them.
In the deep darkness, they were breathtakingly beautiful.
I was so sad that I was stunned.
It was not until the light at the tails of the fireflies began to gradually dim that she felt an even stronger light projected between heaven and earth.
The sky was gradually turning white.
A night is about to pass like this.
The morning dewdrops slid down the leaves of the low grass around the stone pond.
Jianchou blinked and chuckled, "The light of a firefly really can't compete with the sun and the moon..."
"Do you think so?"
An indescribable voice came from behind Jianchou.
It sounds young, but it seems full of vicissitudes; it sounds clear, but it has a faint hoarseness; it sounds frivolous, but it has an indescribable heaviness...
When Jianchou turned around suddenly, he was stunned for a moment.
She was sitting at one end of the huge stone slab, and at the other end stood a young man with delicate features.
The morning mist seemed to cover his eyebrows and eyes, making them vaguely blurry. He was wearing a light dark green robe embroidered with ancient and outdated patterns.
Although he is just a young man, he gives Jianchou the feeling of an old man in his twilight years.
She didn't even notice when the young man came to her side.
He naturally reached out and picked up the nine-section bamboo at hand, but the mayfly that was resting on it had disappeared without him noticing.
Jianchou clenched his fingers tightly, but with a smile on his face: "Who are you?"
"I?"
The young man seemed a little confused. He thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "I don't know who I am either."
"Don't you have a name?" Jianchou was surprised.
The boy still shook his head, and there seemed to be no emotion in his eyes.
He asked Jianchou as usual: "Do you also think that the light of a firefly is not as bright as the sun and the moon?"
"The light of a firefly is short-lived, while the sun and the moon are eternal... Moreover, the light of a grain of rice... is too far away."
What Jianchou said was just a fact. Although she liked fireflies in the dark, she had to admit the gap between the two. It was just that the mysterious young man in front of her seemed too obsessed with this issue.
The boy stood at the end of the stone, and the moss seemed to be crawling all over his body.
"Fireflies are short-lived, but the sun and moon are eternal. Do you know what this is called?"
"… have no idea."
Jianchou didn't quite understand what he wanted to say.
When the young man smiled, it actually gave people the feeling of a cool breeze on their faces.
He said, "This is the Word."
road
Jianchou was stunned.
She suddenly felt that the young man in front of her was extraordinary.
"Do you know what Tao is?"
"I know." The young man replied calmly, "I heard that everyone wants to know what Tao is, and wants to ask God for a clear proof to know whether their Tao is the Tao. This is called 'proving the Tao'. Do you also want to prove the Tao?"
Jianchou was sure that even Fudaoshan would not dare to say so brazenly that he knew what "Tao" was.
Over thousands and thousands of years, how many people dared to know
Jianchou believed that those who knew the "Tao" had achieved immortality.
So she was skeptical about the words of the young man in front of her.
Blinking his eyes, Jianchou said, "I don't want to prove the truth, I'm just curious about what the truth is like."
"What?"
The boy stood still, his eyes fixed on the sea level in the distance.
A red light, cast by the sun rising slightly above the horizon, appeared in his eyes, with a bloody red tint.
"It's an ugly, ugly thing. You don't want to see it..."
Jianchou felt that this child might have some minor problem with his brain.
But the feeling of talking to him was very magical, and it made Jianchou feel peaceful in his heart.
She didn't mind and changed the subject: "I don't understand this Tao thing. I'm more curious, why are you here?"
"I was originally here, but you disturbed me, so I showed up." The young man slowly curled up and sat opposite Jianchou, but did not get close at all. "Have you ever heard of a saying? Born in the morning and dead in the evening, without food or drink; a drop in the ocean, a mayfly in the world."
"Not all, but I've heard of it." Jianchou nodded, "Mayflies are born in the morning and die in the evening."
The young man suddenly showed a strange smile: "I am a mayfly, born today."
"… "
Jianchou was stunned for a moment.
Mayflies are very small insects that often live near water and have a lifespan of only one day. Jianchou had seen them in many places before, but this was the first time he had seen a person who called himself a mayfly.
The young man laughed out loud, as if he found Jianchou very amusing: "I was watching you for a while just now. You are a human, right? Are all people as interesting as you?"
"I... am not that interesting. A truly interesting person should be like my master..."
Jianchou wanted to tell him what Fudaoshanren was like, but the words he had just said suddenly popped up in his mind.
Mayflies are born in the morning and die in the evening.
The voice paused for a moment, and Jianchou did not continue speaking.
The boy asked, "Why don't you continue?"
"There's nothing much to say." Jianchou shook his head.
The boy asked again: "Are you not surprised that a mayfly is talking to you?"
“…Yes, but it’s not very important anymore.”
"I am just born today, and I will die when the sun sets and dusk comes." The young man's voice seemed to begin to change. Jianchou could clearly feel that the voice was much more mature and experienced.
Born in the morning, die in the evening.
This young man in front of me will, at dusk,
Are you dead
The boy himself, on the other hand, did not show any excitement at all, his voice was as smooth as a line.
"Mayflies are born in the morning and die in the evening. Their life span is only one day. This is also the Tao. But like all of you monks, I was born not long ago. Why should I die? I don't want to die."
He then asked, "Do you think there are mayflies in the world that live more than one day?"
Jianchou was unable to answer.
The young man's eyes fell on Jianchou's face, and he said, "You heard that you can live forever, and I want to, too. I don't believe I can't live for more than a day."
"What if I can't?"
There was an indescribable heaviness in my heart, perhaps because the young man's few words seemed to have touched something
I didn't know, I just asked.
"When the sun rises, I live; when the sun sets, I die. Why should I die after hearing the truth?"
The young man slowly stood up and looked at the slowly rising red sun.
His voice went from gentle to gradually thrilling.
"If I cannot live more than one day, I will make sure that the sun never sets, and the sun never rises; that there will be no morning or evening, no day or night; that time never flows, and that eternity will remain the same as one day!"