Bashan, dusk.
The afterglow of the setting sun shines on a rolling mountain ridge, the forests are all dyed, and the clouds reflect the branches. Tired birds are returning to their nests one after another, and the coming night blows away the heat of the day.
When the last twilight fell into the horizon at a speed visible to the naked eye, the mountains were all dark and the sky was full of light. Suddenly, the mountain ridge moved, as if lazily stretching its waist, and began to swim slowly.
From west to east, with the head at the top of the mountain and the tail at the end of the mountain, a huge snake's head was raised leisurely, its body stretched for an unknown amount, and its green eyes looked around, exuding a gentleness and peace different from that of cold-blooded animals.
It looked among the mountains, and its eyes were fixed on a thatched hut, which was eerily gloomy and full of black air.
The giant snake concentrated for a moment, seemed to be thinking, and then opened its mouth to spray. A strange aura enveloped the hut, the black air quickly faded, and turned into wisps of fresh air in an instant.
"Sizzling!"
The giant snake showed a bit of joy, shrunk down and disappeared in the forest.
On the training ground dozens of miles away from the thatched hut, there are stone piers at the four corners, with a hollow cover on it, and there are round beads the size of an egg inside, emitting a bright and non-glare white light.
Three figures were flying up and down in the arena, fighting happily. After about a stick of incense, the three stood up sideways and stopped at the same time.
Shui Lanshao and Qing Buzi stood together, panting and sweating, their clothes were torn a few times. On the opposite side was Fang Yuan, who was also somewhat exhausted, but far less embarrassed than the two of them.
"I just learned a new move, and I wanted to catch it by surprise, but it was broken in the end."
Shui Lanshao put away her long sword, feeling a little helpless.
"I still can't fight back and forth, the second senior brother is so good, and the elder sister doesn't know how far she is!" Qing Buzi was also very frustrated.
"You guys are shorter than me. I took advantage of it. As long as you study hard and practice hard, you will soon surpass me."
Fang Yuan scratched his head, a little embarrassed.
The four disciples, Gu Xiaofei was sixteen years old and Fang Yuan was fifteen years old, their temperaments were stable and down-to-earth, which made people feel at ease. Shui Lanshao and Qing Buzi are both thirteen years old, one is bright and lively, so as to be a little clever, and the other is a little frizzy and needs to be polished.
They have studied art for more than a year and are still laying the foundation. They have little communication with the senior sister on weekdays, and they are very awed, and they regard the master as a heavenly being. Due to the short period of training, I don't know much about many things. I only know that my school is very powerful, and like many children, I am full of curiosity and eager to try.
Life in the mountains was boring, the three of them finished their evening classes, went back to the residence to wash up, and then got together to eat and chat - each holding the sword bestowed by the master, which was refined from three stones that Xiaozhai picked up at random.
"Elder Sister has been in retreat for half a month, why hasn't she come out?" Qing Buzi asked.
"It's not a retreat, I just said it takes time to think about it." Shui Lanshao corrected.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Didn't she say that her heart was disturbed, she might, she might..."
Shui Lanshao brewed an adjective, said: "It needs to be adjusted, yes, adjusted."
"You didn't see how she looked when she just came back, she was very haggard, she must have experienced something important."
Fang Yuan fiddled with the fire, on which a fat and tender spirit beast was roasting, and said: "This is the inner demon that Master said, it will pass through a flat river, and if you can't get over it, you won't stop."
"Oh, big sister can definitely do it, she is so powerful!"
The three children sighed seriously and shared the dinner. The small fire was particularly obvious, making the Bashan Mountain at night even more desolate.
Shui Lanshao looked at those shabby thatched huts, and suddenly pouted: "Our sect has too few people. It's okay during the day, but it's deserted at night. Junior brother is afraid to sleep alone."
"Who, who's scared? Why are you insulting people's innocence out of thin air..." Qing Buzi's face turned red.
"What innocence? When we first entered the mountain, I clearly heard you crying in the house at night!" Shui Lanshao was merciless.
"Can monks be called afraid?"
The blue veins on Qingbozi's forehead popped out, and he argued vigorously, followed by some incomprehensible words, such as "younger leaving home", "weaning" and so on, which caused everyone to burst into laughter, and the atmosphere inside and outside the mountain was full of joy .
Just as he was being happy, Fang Yuan suddenly withdrew his smile, drew his sword and got up, pointed at a dense forest not far away and shouted: "Who is it?"
"Second Senior Brother..."
Both children were startled, and without warning, a girl suddenly appeared in front of them.
She is petite, with soft features, exceptionally fair skin, her eyes are closed tightly, and a blood-red drop-shaped mark drips from her left eye.
She stood there, silent, motionless, very strange.
"Is it weird?"
The three looked at each other, a little panicked.
Fang Yuan asked a few more questions, but the other party still didn't respond, and said: "Whether you are a man or a monster, if you trespass the mountain gate, kill!"
The three of them reacted quickly, and quickly surrounded them, excited and nervous.
The girl's eyes were still closed, but the corners of her mouth were curled up, as if she was smiling. She didn't wait for the opponent to make a move, she disappeared in a flash, and appeared behind Qing Buzi.
Qing Buzi has very little experience in fighting the enemy, so he panicked for a while. The girl did not attack further, and disappeared like a ghost, standing in front of Shui Lanshao.
Shui Lanshao was about to come to rescue him, but he suddenly hit him and almost bumped into him.
The girl still didn't attack and disappeared for the third time.
"laugh!"
Fang Yuan swung his sword and slashed fiercely towards the empty space. Sure enough, the girl happened to appear there, but his eyes widened in the next second.
The sword clearly slashed down, but it seemed to be cutting through the air, and the opponent's body seemed to be a projected painting, illusory and unreal.
Hiss!
The three of them suddenly felt something was wrong, and they were thinking about how to deal with the enemy when they heard a familiar voice.
"alright!"
"Master!"
The three of them rushed over together, and it was Xiao Zhai who came. She was obviously dissatisfied with her disciple's performance, and said in a lecture: "Xiao Yuan is not bad, what are you two doing, you are in a hurry, have you forgotten what you taught..."
Shui Lanshao and Qing Buzi were sweating profusely, they didn't dare to lift their heads.
After Xiaozhai's training, he beckoned again, and the girl ran over, her limbs were soft, not like a zombie.
"Master, what is this?" Fang Yuan asked.
"This is a servant."
Servant
Fang Yuan paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered that our sect has a unique set of advanced techniques, "Is it the technique of servant ghosts?"
"That's right, it's the ghost servant."
The Xuanhuang School has a wide variety of techniques, covering everything, and basically has various types. One of them is very special, simply speaking, it is to refine seven different servant ghosts according to different characteristics, including:
鬾: That is, the little ghost, that is, this girl.
魊: Refers to the ghost of the country, the most famous unjust deceased in a country, such as Wu Zixu, he is the ghost of the country of Wu.
魓: Ancient star name.
Chi: Same as above.
鬿: Same as above.
魙: When a person dies, he becomes a ghost, and when a ghost dies, he becomes a dwarf. It means that this dwarf is more powerful than a ghost, and it is extremely rare.
鬽: The ghost of Shanze.
I don't know where the Xuanhuang faction got this technique, or it was recorded casually. In short, few people practice it, because the conditions are too harsh, and they must first find a suitable soul, and then find a suitable body.
It doesn't mean that refining ghosts is an evil way, it's just that it deviates from the Taoist orthodox method. For example, Li Suchun's corpse refining technique came from Maoshan. Although it is a bit scary, it is definitely not an evil method.
Xiao Zhai was also curious, after many years of searching, he finally found eight bodies.
Hey, that’s right, they are the eight for old Gu’s female name. There is nowhere to find such as 魊, 魓, and 魙, so there are only two 鬾 and six 鬽.
O woman!
She wouldn't go to such great lengths to specifically hate Gu Yu, it was all incidental.
After some explanations, the three of them were no longer afraid, and began to look around in circles.
Shui Lanshao also stretched out her hand to poke, the girl's face was smooth and delicate, just like a real person, but a bit shady, "Master, she was clearly not hurt by a sword just now, how could she be a real entity?"
"This is the supernatural power of the servant. After you set up the blood sacrifice, unless the enemy's strength is much higher than yours, otherwise it can go to the sky and hide from the ground, and it is difficult to hurt by ordinary means."
"Oh ah?"
Shui Lanshao came to her senses and said pleasantly, "Is this for me?"
"That's right, even though it's a refined product, it must be treated kindly."
As soon as Xiao Zhai pointed, the girl ran to her side and opened her eyes, just like a real person. The more Shui Lanshao watched, the more delighted she was, the two of them also stared eagerly at Master.
"Wait until I find the male body."
Xiao Zhai poured a basin of cold water on it, she didn't want her apprentice to turn into a dead fat house, playing with maid dolls in the house all day long.
"Master..."
Fang Yuan is alright, Qing Buzi is like a concubine, "Didn't you find eight, even if you give one to Eldest Sister, what do you do with the rest?"
"Naturally keep the tea and water."
Xiao Zhai flicked his sleeves, kicked the little apprentice away, and went up the mountain on his own.
She came outside the thatched hut, feeling the breath inside, sometimes disappearing, sometimes calm, sometimes restless... Obviously still trapped in her own heart, unable to extricate herself.
She stretched out her hand, but still didn't open the door, wiped her body and left.
…
It was said that Gu Xiaofei went back to the mountain and told the whole story.
"Junior brother died, my heart is already in chaos, how should I deal with myself?"
"You have feelings for him?"
"I, I don't know, I need to think about it."
"Then you retreat and meditate, and come back to me in ten days."
So Gu Xiaofei locked himself in the thatched hut without eating or drinking, and after ten days there was no movement.
Just like that, ten days later, ten days later, ten days later, ten days... I don't know how long it has passed, so long that Shui Lanshao and the others have almost forgotten this senior sister.
It doesn't matter if Xiao Zhai is not on the mountain, as long as he is, he will stand in front of the house every day, but he never pushes the door.
In the early morning of this day, the night rain just stopped, and the mist was vast.
Xiao Zhai came to the hut as usual, suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand to push.
"Squeak!"
The wooden door that had been closed for a long time was finally pushed open, and Gu Xiaofei sat on the cloud bed, looking very haggard after several months of water and rice, but his eyes were brighter than before.
"Understood?"
Xiao Zhai stood in front of her.
"Master..."
Gu Xiaofei bowed down, as if a lost traveler had finally found an oasis, direct, straightforward, and unshakable, "The reason is very simple, but I only understand it now. I'm not strong enough!"