As soon as Lu Shanjun left Xiaoliang Mountain, Yufeng's speed immediately increased, and he flew rapidly in the direction where Ji Yuan left. Naturally, he had in mind the thought of whether he could catch up with his mentor. After all, he stayed only to say a few more words, and they left one after the other.
Unfortunately, things went against your wishes. You can't wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep, and you can't catch up with a person who is deliberately avoiding you, especially when this person is more capable than you.
In his hand, he had the Taixu Jade Talisman given to him privately by Qiu Feng from Yuhuaishan. In addition, Ji Yuan deliberately concealed his aura, so not many people could find him, at least not Lu Shanjun.
So after chasing for half a day and running almost a state away from Xining Prefecture without seeing Ji Yuan, Lu Shanjun finally gave up and started to turn back. After all, he had something else to do in Xining Prefecture. It wasn't his own business, but that of Monk Jueming.
Ji Yuan watched Lu Shanjun go away in the sky, took out the bag of dried leaves from his sleeve, lowered his head to open it, and saw that there was about a handful of dried wolfberries inside.
I took one and put it in my mouth and chewed it. It tasted sweet and slightly sour, and was quite delicious.
Another half day passed and the sky began to darken. In the wilderness outside the city of Xining, Lu Shanjun slowly descended from the sky. Seeing that there was no one around, he opened his mouth and exhaled, then transformed into a ghost in front of him. It was Monk Jueming.
"Good be to the Great Buddha of Light, is this the body of a ghost..."
After chanting the Buddha's name, Monk Jueming stretched out his hand and looked at himself. He could not feel his own heartbeat, and he was not sensitive to the temperature changes in the outside world, at least he did not feel cold.
Lu Shanjun looked at the monk, who had now become a ghost. Although he could not know the details of what was in his mind, he could clearly feel his mood changes and his obsession with good and evil.
So to a certain extent, Lu Shanjun actually understands Monk Jueming's Buddha nature better than Monk Jueming himself, and he also knows the monk's current state of mind. If Lu Shanjun was reborn when he transformed, then Monk Jueming would have a similar feeling after dying once, even if he became a ghost.
Compared with the minions in the past, the aura of Monk Jueming at this moment was peaceful, without any coldness. Lu Shanjun could understand better why the monks in Daming Temple were so nervous about Jueming. However, if Jueming was not dead and stayed in the temple, it seemed that there would not be such changes.
"Master Jueming, a ghost is also a ghost. They are afraid of Tianguang Yang Gang and have the same weaknesses as ghosts. But ghosts are different from ordinary ghosts. They are more like humans. You are even more like a human. This is in the wilderness and woods. Xining Prefecture is ahead. I will let you go!"
Lu Shanjun no longer called the monk in front of him "Zhao Long", but called him "Master Jueming". The moment he finished speaking, he had already inhaled a wisp of thin smoke from the monk's ghost.
"After I let you go, you are no longer my lackey. Although you are free, you must be careful. The magic power I have on you is only enough to support you for one year. After one year, you will have to rely on your own lifespan. I am not sure how many years you have, but you must hurry up to do what you want to do."
Monk Jueyuan bowed and saluted.
"Thank you, Mr. Lu!"
Lu Shanjun bowed in return.
"Master, take care. I hope we can meet again one day. By the way, you can go to any place that is under the jurisdiction of the river god, land god, or mountain god, but you must be careful of the ghosts in the underworld. Even if they are good ghosts, they will not let go of wandering souls as it is their duty."
"Okay, I understand!"
Although the monster opposite had just eaten him, Jueming was sincerely grateful at this moment. Seeing that Lu Shanjun seemed to be about to leave, he quickly asked about something that was of concern to him.
"Shan Jun, have you seen all nine of them? What was the result?"
Lu Shanjun smiled, sat down on a stone nearby, opened his mouth and exhaled again, summoning the ghost Lan Ningke.
"This person is Lan Ningke, who is even more of a jerk than Zhao Long in the past."
After Lan Ningke appeared, he looked at Jueming first with a smile on his face, because his appearance had not changed much, even though he was bald, but he immediately recognized who he was.
“Hahahaha… Zhao Long, you’ve been eaten too, hahahaha, you’re not a good guy either, pretending to be a monk!”
Jueming clasped his hands and bowed.
"Donor Lan is right. Buddhism is so compassionate. May you escape from the sea of suffering soon. Good be to the Great Bright King Buddha."
"you… "
Lanningke was stunned for a moment, as if he had punched cotton. For a moment he didn't know what to say. His change of mood was particularly amusing to Lu Shanjun, who could sense it.
Lu Shanjun continued with a smile.
"Luo Ningshuang is married and stays at home to take care of her husband and children. She also has a bit of chivalry in her heart, so she should be able to raise a few good children. Although Lu Chengfeng has not been in the martial arts world to eliminate evil, he also upholds the chivalry in his heart and is open and honest. Wang Kenai is the chief constable of Yaqian Prefecture. He has arrested countless criminals and acted impartially. Du Heng is even more amazing. People thought that the loss of one arm had ended his martial arts career, but he used his left hand to work hard and even gathered a group of knights to travel around the country to practice chivalry. He is already a famous knight. As for the others, they have not been found yet."
Jueming nodded. He had met Du Heng before. He was somewhat envious of him when he first met him in the temple.
"Thank you for the information, Donor Lu. I will leave now. Donor Lan, take care too."
After another salute, Jueming turned and headed towards Xining City. Lan Ningke on the side came to his senses at this time and seemed a little excited.
"Shanjun, you let him go? You gave him back his freedom? Why, why can he? Why!?"
"Why so many whys? If you understand why, you can leave too!"
Lu Shanjun was too lazy to pay any more attention to him. After saying a few words, he swallowed the ghost again, letting Lan Ningke return to the dark prison state. If Lu Shanjun did not share a little sense, he would not be able to see, hear, or feel anything.
This is the tragedy of the lackeys. They have no freedom of body, little privacy of mind, and they cannot go crazy even if they want to.
Lu Shanjun flew away again, but Ji Yuan did not leave. Instead, he landed in Xining City and followed Monk Jueming. He wanted to see what this monk would do.
After wandering around the city, Monk Jueming arrived at the Zhao Mansion, which should be his secular home. He entered the mansion with ease and came to the inner courtyard. In a bedroom, he kowtowed three times to two old men lying on the bed, and then left the mansion.
After following the monk for about a quarter of an hour, Ji Yuan suddenly looked up at the sky and couldn't help but smile.
As the saying goes, people of the same family tend to stick together. Lu Shanjun was actually watching from a distance, but he was not close enough, obviously because he didn't want Jueming to notice.
The fact that he could clearly see the view was in itself an indication of the extent to which Lu Shanjun had changed his opinion of the monk, or in other words, his recognition of him.
Monk Jueming was like a living person at this moment, walking forward slowly and steadily, and finally arrived at the temple square of Xining Prefecture.
His eyes were half-open and half-closed, his expression was serene, and he was chanting Buddhist scriptures as he walked towards the City God Temple.
Two night patrolmen came with a gloomy wind, glanced at the monk, and were about to pass by Jueming, but were stopped unexpectedly.
"You two are the ghosts of the underworld, right?"
It was the first time for Jueming to see ghosts, but he did not feel too much novelty, and his emotions were not very fluctuating. Instead, the two night patrols looked at each other and faced him with interest.
"This master is quite capable. He can actually see us."
"Yes, we are the night patrol under the jurisdiction of the City God of the Netherworld of Xining Prefecture. I am the right attendant and he is the left attendant. What advice does this master have for you?"
Jueming performed a Buddhist salute.
"Good be to the Great Buddha of Ming Dynasty, the two Night Patrol Masters. I am a ghost who has committed heinous crimes. Please take me to the underworld. If possible, I would like to meet some souls who died unjustly."
"you?"
"ghost?"
The two night-wandering gods exclaimed in surprise and looked at Jueming carefully.
The aura on his body is stable, with a balance of yin and yang. There is no evil spirit, no violence, no bad karma, and there is also a hint of Buddhism. I have never seen such a ghost in all these years.
"That's right. I just died not long ago, so maybe I am less ghostly."
Less ghostly? That sounds a bit ridiculous.
But seeing that the monk did not seem to be crazy, the right servant used magic to narrow his eyes, suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped the monk on the back of the head, causing Jueming to stagger.
“It’s really a ghost!”
"Strange thing... there are ghosts like you?"
The two night-wandering gods also found it somewhat funny, so they "invited" the monk to the underworld as a courtesy.
"He really went to the underworld!"
Ji Yuan and Lu Shanjun had similar thoughts at the moment. They had actually guessed about this possibility before. Although they were not surprised to see it in person, they couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Ji Yuan even wondered whether Lu Shanjun's going to Daming Temple to eat Jueming would be detrimental to Buddhism or beneficial
. . .
At the beginning of summer, Lu Shanjun found Bao Dong in Youzhou. He did not become a great hero, but he did not become a villain either. He was now a manager in his sect.
After observing the other party for two days, Lu Shanjun showed up at Bao Dong's house at night.
Bao Dong was frightened by Lu Shanjun's arrival. He was so nervous and sweating the whole time he was in contact with Lu Shanjun. Fortunately, he was not eaten and the monster left soon after.
Ji Yuan showed up after Bao Dong had calmed down a little. He just chatted with him about family matters, his ups and downs in life over the past twenty years, and the erosion of his ambitions.
There was no complaint or scolding, just listening and chatting quietly until dawn before leaving.
In fact, among ordinary people, situations like Bao Dong and Luo Ningshuang should be the most normal, except that they have an extra halo of being children of the rivers and lakes.
A few days later, when Dong Bicheng was found, Lu Shanjun was slightly surprised. Dong Bicheng's aura seemed relatively weak, and he thought there might be some special situation. However, the situation was indeed special, but not what Lu Shanjun thought.
At the foot of a mountain in Laoyang Prefecture, Yanzhou, Lu Shanjun stood in front of a tomb, looking at the words on the tombstone with some distress, muttering to himself with a wry smile.
"Dong Bicheng, Dong Bicheng, why are you such a short-lived ghost? Now I have to go to the underworld to find you. How can I sneak in?"
The agreement binds both the Nine Heroes and Lu Shanjun. This is the situation where you have to meet the living in person and the dead in ghosts.