The old national teacher forgot his own name.
He parasitized on the flesh statue. Time passed for decades, so long that the faces of his blood relatives were all blurred. The old man remembered the obsession engraved deep in his mind, and remembered every bit of the century-old business. But when he thought of his past as a human, there was only a fog in his mind.
Sometimes old people would think, maybe people shouldn’t live this long.
He stuck to the meat statue, feeling the rotten and sore feeling all the time. The old national teacher was old and frail, with a very poor physical condition, and was often repelled by the refined meat paste. He could only stop the meat statue for a while by eating a pair of "immortal bodies" every few months.
Back then, he was second to none and never tired of eating fine food. But now he had to eat a human corpse alive, chewing up bones and internal organs, and swallowing it down. The old national master was not a coward. He wanted to pass on the necessary information and witness the end of his career with his own eyes.
Being born as a mortal may be the greatest honor.
However, since the current emperor suddenly surrendered, the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse. The core of the flesh statue suddenly caught fire and burned it completely, leaving only a pile of half-dead flesh. Then the earthquake continued, and the vital energy was cut off. Without the source of vital energy, the flesh gradually lost its vitality, became purple and swollen, and smelled terrible. The weather became much warmer, and maggots began to gnaw on the rotten dead flesh, leaving him with a lingering breath.
Jiang Youyue didn't come back, and Qu Duanyun didn't come back either. Even the servants stopped coming to take care of the house. There were flies circling in front of his bed, and the fruit was getting moldy.
How is the century-old business going? The old national teacher doesn't know. How long has it been going? He also can't remember clearly.
The dead water of rotting flesh flooded the ground, and the temple was completely silent. Through the screen full of flies and insects, he stared at the tightly closed door - he had to see the end, he had to...
There was a slight creaking sound.
The blinding sunlight poured into the house, and the fat flies scattered away, and a strong corpse stench rolled up like a dark cloud. Even so, the blood on the person who came was still terrifying, and the slight sound of armor rubbing against each other was chilling to the ear.
Military general
The old national teacher barely opened his eyes. In his blurred vision, he saw the figure of a young man. He was wearing fine armor, had black hair like ink, and had an awe-inspiring aura. Warm wind and light poured in, making him look like a god descending from the sky.
For some reason, the old master always felt that this person looked very familiar. He was unable to speak normally, and could only squeeze out a series of unclear mumbles in his throat.
"... Still alive." The visitor's tone sounded more like pity than surprise.
The man was dripping with corpse water, pulling the gauze curtain. The hand that pulled the gauze curtain was slender and beautiful, like a jade sculpture. If there was only one flaw, it was the scar at the base of the thumb. At first glance, the scar looked like a weird ring.
I can't be wrong, the old master thought. He knew the shape of that hand, he had chewed it countless times.
The man who came was the master of the immortal body. He traveled through three hundred years of time, once again armed with weapons, and stood on the land of Yidu.
"Ah... um..." The old master stretched out his hand with great effort, trying to express something. However, as soon as the maggot-covered finger was extended, it was lightly dodged by the man.
"Hanging to death, watching the flesh being destroyed. Jiang Youyue and Qu Duanyun are in prison, is Luo Jiu's god descending to heaven..."
The man smiled, his smile was cold and satisfying.
"The Divine Saint is too far away from their hanging tree and cannot borrow its power. He is much easier to deal with than the Immortal Yun Zhen. You should understand that without a commander, the army will be nothing but scattered sand."
“… Hmm!” The old imperial teacher curled up his fingers.
"I know that the hanging tree of Naluojiu will still bear fruit and raise the next True Immortal. Our people will sneak into Naluojiu and wait for the opportunity to destroy it. It is better for the evil spirit like the hanging tree to disappear as soon as possible."
No wonder the saint directly sealed this man underground. He really couldn't understand the greatness of a century-old career.
However, the old man was calm and composed. He felt neither anger nor sorrow. Maggots were gnawing at his flesh, but the old master did not feel any pain. He stopped mumbling, his deformed hands dropped, and his eyes were filled with endless fatigue.
The other person has obviously lived longer than himself, but now he is full of vitality, like another sun.
In a trance, the old master seemed to have returned to the Juyi Valley many years ago. The red leaves were flying, and Yuzi's small body was curled up into a ball. The high fever made him red all over. The moment he held the child, he had never felt such a vivid and burning vitality.
This is the person with whom you are willing to live and die together.
So that's how it is. So that's how it is. Twenty-four years ago in Fenglin, the one who saved that child was you. And Yuko's desire, which was set long ago, is...
The throat feels cold.
The old master opened his eyes and saw his own black blood spurting out. The sticky blood mixed with the corpse water, stirring up a foul smell. Yin Ci's move was as fast as lightning, without any hesitation. When he reacted again, the old man's head had already fallen to the ground.
"I should have taught you to rot here slowly."
The man half-knelt down, and his long hair slid down his armor.
"I'm sorry you brought Jingzhi to my place. I'm willing to give you a ride. Old man, after all, I boasted to him that I have a strong life and can defeat evil spirits."
The old master's head rolled half a circle and was facing the window. Outside the window, birds were chirping and the sky was clear. A few turbid tears oozed from the corners of the old man's eyes. He didn't know whether he was blinded by the glare of the sky that he hadn't seen for 24 years, or he was mourning the "great cause" that had completely died.
From beginning to end, Yin Ci did not give him a chance to speak.
That day, a fire broke out in the Imperial Master's Mansion. From the shrine behind the house to the mysterious underground palace, everything was burned to ashes, leaving only some broken walls and ruins. What was puzzling was that hundreds of headless male corpses were carried out from the underground secret room. There were many different opinions at the time, but in the end, there was no conclusion on the matter. They became evidence that the Imperial Master's family "privately raised demons and created evil arts", and there was no other follow-up.
In the midst of the turbulent times, these things are no longer worth mentioning.
The late spring of this year was the most turbulent period in the history of Dayun. Xu Jingxing surrendered, and a few days later, the whole country was shaken. Xu Jingxing changed his previous forbearing attitude and regretted it in public. The God of Descendants was originally advancing triumphantly, but after the earthquake, it showed some signs of panic, slowing down its speed of advancing into Dayun.
Just when Luo Jiu's army was hesitating, two new ministers were added to the court of Emperor Yun.
The military commander was named Yin Zizhu, who was in his prime and handsome. He was a master of war, but no one had heard of him before. The civil official was named Shi Jingzhi, who was as bright and beautiful as a demon, but had an evil spirit. He had previously caused a "rebellion" incident, but now he was on friendly terms with the emperor. No one knew what had happened.
There is no doubt about one thing - for Xu Yun, the appearance of these two people marked a turning point in the war.
Yin Zizhu personally led his army to fight against Na Luojiu, and Shi Jingzhi was inseparable from him. The two of them worked together perfectly, outnumbered the enemy, and pushed Na Luojiu's army back step by step. The two of them even went deep into the camp of the God of Descendants, and somehow burned the invincible God of Descendants into a pile of charcoal.
In the past, Naluojiu worshipped him as a god, but now that the god had fallen, the morale of Naluojiu's army collapsed. It took the two of them less than two months to recover all the lost territory and expel all the Naluojiu troops in the territory.
In two months, Xu Jingxing's health improved a lot, at least he could sit back in the palace and attend court. Seeing that the two of them were fighting more and more bravely and winning victory after victory, no one in the palace was worried. However, no matter who said "Shi Jingzhi and the general were very close, and the two of them were famous among the people, we had to be on guard", Xu Jingxing always looked erratic, avoided talking about other things, and never responded to the matter seriously.
Until the Battle of Narajiu was completely over.
Contrary to what everyone expected, the two heroes of civil and military affairs did not seek any power and immediately asked to retire and return home. Shi Jingzhi was not polite. He stood in the court and asked for a reward in public with a memorial like reading the name of a dish. This man asked for a stirrup from the mansion, and it took him a whole incense stick just to read out his request. Seeing that Xu Jingxing's face was getting greener and greener, the ministers were afraid that the emperor would be angry in public.
Fortunately, the emperor managed to survive this disaster.
Yin Zizhu looked at Jingzhi with a smile, but his eyes seemed to be wrong. When the two of them left the court, they held their hands without hesitation.
That was the last time the ministers saw the two of them.
"… Isn't it amazing?"
The storyteller took a sip of tea and cleared his throat.
"Those two were like stars from heaven sent down to earth to save Yun from danger. Even Luo Jiu's 'divine descent' was killed by those two! They are so close, they must have come down to earth together. This is something I just heard not long ago, it's true."
A snotty-nosed kid standing next to him asked in confusion, "Grandpa, don't gods ask for nothing? You just said that Jingzhi asked for many, many things at that time."
Everyone was listening with fascination just now, but now that they were being led by a little kid, they began to question it.
Storyteller: “…”
Storyteller: "This... the gods always need some offerings. Our situation is urgent, and the gods need offerings urgently. It's normal, normal."
The little boy wiped his nose with the back of his hand and continued, "Grandpa, grandpa, but my mother said that we had good weather and good harvests before we arrived, and the child got well quickly after getting sick! This time the gods came again, why didn't they fix these places?"
At this point, the audience became even more interested.
"Oh, there was a heavy rain in my hometown not long ago, and the rice seedlings were soaked."
"It's OK in our village, but it seems like there's a drought over there, Lao Zhang. It's terrible."
"My child caught a cold. It usually took two or three days to recover, but this time he took half a month to take medicine. I don't know why..."
The storyteller pinched his grandson's face and threw a few copper coins at him: "Go, go, go over there and buy some candied haws."
Then he raised his head, grinned with his gap-toothed mouth, and coughed seriously.
"As for me, I used to have a headache that would last for ten or eight days, but this time it only took two or three days! The gods may have their own plans, but we ordinary people just need to live our own lives. If we rely on God for help every day, won't we all become lazy people?"
There was laughter in the teahouse.
"Oh, that's right. My parents are much better now."
"Let it be flooded. I heard that the Hu people have introduced new seedlings to Yueshui Pavilion. If it doesn't work, we can change the crops."
…
The little boy didn't care about the noisy crowd, he ran to the candied haws vendor. Unfortunately, just as he wiped his nose and hadn't opened his mouth, he saw a hand reaching out and taking the last candied haws on the straw.
The little boy couldn't bear it anymore, he raised his head, wanting to pout and make a scene. But when he saw the man's face, he immediately forgot about crying and making a scene - it was because the man was so handsome.
Grandpa said that fox spirits are good at confusing people's minds, and people who encounter fox spirits will definitely feel this way. The little boy stared blankly in front of him, his eyes filled with tears that had just brewed, and his snot slowly ran three feet long.
The fox fairy didn't show any tricks to deceive people. He just held the candied haws tightly, and his expression looked very struggling. The fox didn't seem to want to respect the old and love the young, and his face was full of "this is mine, I won't give it to you".
But it seemed that there was some kind of force that held him in place, so that he couldn't get out of it. The fox fairy's eyebrows were squeezed into a ball, revealing a bit of pain.
"Okay, stop worrying about it." A voice trying to hold back a laugh came. "Jingzhi, how about a compromise, you give him half?"
The little boy slowly turned his head and looked at the people around the fox fairy. This time, not only could he not stop his nose from running, his chin dropped.
This brother is so good-looking, he must have become a god again!
"No, I can't." The fox fairy snorted. "But this is what you bought for me..."
"I'll share mine with you." The other immortal smiled charmingly. "Wouldn't it be more interesting for you and I to share the food slowly when we get back to the inn, rather than eating alone?"
The fox fairy's eyes lit up and his back straightened immediately.
He took a copper coin from the boy's palm, used his Qi to split the candied haws into two halves, and took the upper half for himself. The little boy grabbed the lower half, his eyes still scanning between the two "gods", not caring about eating at all.
It was not until the two of them left hand in hand that he came to his senses and trotted back to the teahouse.
"Grandpa, grandpa, I just saw a fairy!"