The Horn Gate among the Seven Sound Gate is located at an angle of 130 degrees on the fifth floor of Qingyang City. This floor is relatively special compared to other floors. In the past, it was inhabited by merchants from the Demon Spirit Tribe, which is equivalent to The city's commercial street.
Most of the families who had lived on the fifth floor had a three- to five-story street-facing building as a shop. Behind the shop were courtyards and residences, but now they are all empty.
After Ouyang Xiaoleng used his spherical compass to determine the preparation direction, he walked along the shopping street and found a six-story store at the approximate location. From the outside, this store looks taller and wider than the stores on both sides, but even so, it still cannot block a towering tree in the yard. The dense branches and leaves stretch from the courtyard to the sky, as if greeting people outside.
There is a plaque hanging on the door of the shop with the word "Qing Nang" written on it. Ouyang Xiaoleng remembers that in the Qin and Han Dynasties of the human world, there was a master named Huang named Shigong who became an immortal. He once wrote a book about Feng Shui of heaven and earth called " "Qing Nang Sutra", I don't know what the relationship between this Qing Nang and that book is.
The store's ajar door creaked open with just a slight pull. Facing the store door was a long counter. In addition to a row of shelves behind the counter, there was also a plaque that read "Know the Way of Heaven and Earth." ".
Ouyang Xiaoleng recalled that he had seen such a sentence somewhere, which was similar to that if you want to understand the Qingsang Sutra, you must understand the ways of heaven and earth. He thought that the former owner of this store was really interesting. Looking further to both sides, there is a staircase extending to the second floor, and the door leading to the courtyard behind is hidden under the stairs on the right.
For some reason, his heart was always attracted to the big tree that he had seen outside the store, so he did not go up the stairs but walked straight towards the courtyard.
When he was under this big tree, he realized that its huge umbrella-like trunk and crown looked so familiar. He felt that he must have seen a tree similar to it somewhere, but he couldn't think of it for a moment. Woke up. After carefully recalling it for a while, I suddenly realized that this tree was exactly the same as the tree of life in the Demon Horse Forest, or that it was a miniature version of the tree of life.
He gently placed his hand on the tree trunk of the uncle in front of him, feeling that his soul and the will of the tree gradually merged. As expected, his consciousness was brought to the Demon Horse Forest, passing through the gurgling streams and lush plains, and arrived under the real tree of life, where an old man sat, and in front of the old man there was a chess game.
The old man with white hair and boyish face was wearing a green coarse cloth robe. He was twirling his beard with his hands and staring at the chessboard in a daze. He sighed from time to time, as if he was stumped by the chess game in front of him.
Ouyang Xiaoleng passed through the demon horses resting around the tree of life and walked to the opposite side of the old man. When the old man looked up and saw him, he seemed to have known him for a long time. He raised his hand and motioned for him to sit on the chair opposite. . He sat down as he wished, and then looked at the chess game in front of him carefully, only to find that it was not an endgame at all, but more like a gossip formation with Othello.
The old man raised his head, pointed at the chessboard and asked him, "What do you think of this game?"
"First of all, this is not a chess game. If my guess is correct, this should be some kind of formation?" Ouyang Xiaoleng stated his thoughts straightforwardly.
The old man nodded and continued to ask: "Then what do you think should be done next?"
This stumped Ouyang Xiaoleng. He recalled the word Qingnang he had just seen on the plaque outside the store door. The "Qingnang Sutra" uses numbers to reflect the mysteries of heaven and earth, and the principles it follows are similar to those of Qingnang Sutra. The "River Diagram" is the same, that is, ten natural number sequences are arranged in two rows to form five different number sequences, one six, two seven, three eight, four nine, and fifty. That is, the yin and yang are matched, the male and female intersect, and they form one complete life, forming the five omens, and there are water, fire, wood, metal, and earth, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the sun and the moon, and they are constantly moving.
He tentatively filled up the black and white chess pieces on the chessboard according to this principle. The old man nodded after seeing it and muttered something: "One six is water, two seven is fire, three eight is wood, four nine is alloy, fifty is earth." , wonderful! wonderful!"
Seeing that he was satisfied with his placement, Ouyang Xiaolen wanted to ask him about the Horn Gate. Just as he was about to speak, the old man raised another question.
"What do you think I should do to gather all the monster horses in this monster forest in front of me in an instant?"
Ouyang Xiaoleng looked around. The demon horses in front of him were either taking a nap with one leg slightly bent, or gnawing the tender grass on the ground leisurely. It was quite difficult to get them to focus all their attention on him, and it was even more difficult. Needless to say, there are many demon horses existing in other parts of the forest.
After thinking about it, he suddenly remembered that there might be a way to do it. The tree of life around him was also called the brain of the entire demon horse forest. Every demon horse here was also controlled by it. If he tried to harm If this tree is like this, will it summon all the demon horses in a desperate situation to protect itself? Thinking of this, he stood up and summoned the divine ice, swinging his sword to chop down the tree of life.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" The old man hurriedly stopped him. Seeing that he finally retracted his hand, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, "You are such a reckless young man! If this tree of life dies, all the people here will die. The demon horse will lose control, and if you try to summon your unicorn in the future, I’m afraid you won’t be able to summon it!”
Ouyang Xiaoleng was stunned for a moment when he heard that he could actually name his demon horse contractor, but he soon realized who the old man in front of him was and asked directly: "Are you the Tree of Life?"
The old man did not answer his question, but looked up at the big tree beside him, and then said: "The first question tests your observation ability, and you just remembered it when you saw Qingsang in the store. , and also associates it with Hetu, which shows that you are indeed insightful and knowledgeable; the second question not only tests your reaction power, but also tests your courage, and you have successfully passed these two problems, and then there is the final one question."
Seeing that he paused at this point, Ouyang Xiaoleng asked anxiously: "What is it?"
"I'm tired of standing here all alone, old man. I want to have a competition with you. Can you say that?" As he spoke, the old man stood up from his chair and clapped his hands. In the blink of an eye, a medium-sized chestnut horse appeared. The demon horse came on the wind, screamed in front of them, and then stopped.
Ouyang Xiaoleng thought to himself: This old man is really interesting. He wants to race horses with me at this age. He is obviously overestimating his abilities, so he said: "Old man, if you lose in this competition with me, don't say yes then." I bullied you!"
"Haha, the game is a game, but you have to follow my rules. I can let you test it out first!" The old man said with a smile on his face. It seemed that he was confident about this game.
"Okay, it's a deal!" Ouyang Xiaoleng was focused on completing his test quickly to open the horn gate, so he said no more and was all ears to hear what kind of bizarre rules the old man would tell.
"First, you can't ride your unicorn in the competition, but a demon horse that I selected for you; second, what we are competing is not just speed, but the ability to overcome obstacles while moving; third, If you win, I will guide you on how to open the Horn Gate. If I win, you will give up your previous plan and leave Qingyang to return to your royal city." The old man put away his smile and said the three rules one by one.
After hearing this, Ouyang Xiaoleng thought it was reasonable, so he didn't raise any objections, but agreed to a few rules he said. Seeing the situation, the old man clapped his hands twice more, and a jujube-colored demon horse with white flowers ran over like the wind. It rushed among other demon horses all the way, carrying the wind and swirling up the sand. When it ran to them, , barely stopping the brakes and overturning the table with the chessboard. Even after it stopped, it kept kicking the ground with its hooves, and breath was constantly coming out of its nose.
"You just ride this horse! You try to get familiar with it first!" The old man said with a mischievous expression on his face like an old naughty boy.
Ouyang Xiaoleng walked up to the demon horse, intending to reach out and touch its forehead. Unexpectedly, as soon as he got closer, the rough breathing from its nostrils became more rapid, and it kept stepping on the ground and shouting at him. warn.
He made a comforting sound in his mouth, and after trying several times, he reluctantly put his hand on its forehead, but the horse was obviously still resisting. He turned back and asked the old man: "What's its name?"
"It doesn't have a name yet, because it is really wild and difficult to tame, so it has never had a contractor. Even I can't control it. The most I can do is slap it on the forehead. I have been using it for a long time. You have just accomplished this, and you have accomplished the same thing so quickly. It seems that there is really hope that you can tame it this time." After the old man finished speaking, he walked towards the chestnut-colored monster horse that came first. He jumped onto the horse's back, lowered his head and said to him, "Try to see if you can get on the horse first!"
Ouyang Xiaoleng knew in his heart that he would not let him win so easily. He did not expect to come up with such a ghost idea. Not to mention the monster horse in front of him that had never been tamed by anyone. Even people who were unfamiliar with it wanted to think about it. It is also an impossible task to control the demon horse to cross various obstacles. The two together are even more difficult. The old man obviously does not want him to open the horn gate and deliberately makes things difficult for him, right? !
But since he himself agreed to compete with the old man, he couldn't complain, so he could only continue to comfort the demon horse in front of him, constantly stroking its forehead and saying: "Don't be afraid, I'm going to ride on your back now!" "
He flew onto the horse's back with a light movement. At first, the tall horse under him was stunned for a while, and soon it started to bump around like crazy, trying to knock him off. He had to hold on to the horse's mane tightly and not let go. , let it throw itself away like grass swaying in the strong wind!
"Don't you feel that you have some advantage now?" The old man's voice echoed in his dizzy brain.
He controlled his body to be as low as possible, looking for balance back and forth, and calculated the right time to tighten the horse's mane to slow down. He would never give up even if his body was exhausted by it. Finally, the demon horse under him began to slow down. It slowly slowed down and finally stopped. It no longer resisted him riding on its back, although it still felt nervous from time to time.
The old man nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, I read it right. You really have the talent to train horses! Now follow me!"
Ouyang Xiaoleng controlled the demon horse to follow the old man to the open area, where obstacles had been set up at some point. Although the originally wild demon horse had become relatively docile at this time, would it be able to smoothly follow his own wishes? Getting through these obstacles is still an unknown.
The first obstacle is a long serpentine uphill section, which not only tests the endurance of the demon horse, but also the rider's control ability. If you are not careful, you will rush out of the slope; the second obstacle is a set of high and steep slopes. The dense fence mainly tests the rider's ability to control the demon horse to jump continuously; the third obstacle is a gravel road burning with blazing flames, which tests whether the demon horse can take risks to complete the rider's mission.
Ouyang Xiaoleng and the old man stood at the same starting point riding their respective demon horses. Many demon horses gathered around them one after another. They stood aside like spectators. These night elves were also curious about what this young man could do. What kind of training does this unique companion have