Half an hour ago, forbidden area.
"You want me to pretend to be a god?" Yin Ci was a little surprised.
"Yes, I said that my disciple died in there. Your previous disguise was too real, and it's hard to explain to others. It's better to give it up."
Shi Jingzhi regained some strength and prepared to set fire everywhere.
"Of course, you don't have to perform magic, just pretend to faint. I can use the excuse of 'saving the gods' to close the door to visitors. Your face is convincing enough, and they believe in the fairy fate, so don't doubt it for now."
It’s also a way, Yin Ci thought.
The villagers' feelings towards the goddess could not disappear immediately. No matter how they explained, the fact that the goddess's body was missing would arouse suspicion. It would be better to establish a new god to reassure the villagers. With the testimony of Yindeng, this absurd plan seemed to work.
A chaotic night passed, and although the two of them had a lot to say, they tacitly kept silent. They tidied themselves up in silence, trying to restore themselves to human form, and pulled up the fainted Gan Deng.
The plan officially begins.
The master and his apprentice stayed in the forbidden area for a night. Now that they were on the ground, the air was so fresh that it made people cry.
Including the explosion before entering the forbidden area, Shi Jingzhi had been working hard all the way, holding back, and exploding. He was completely exhausted and had no strength left. The disciple was sturdy and not light. He was so tired that his legs were shaking, but he had to pretend to be a ghost and put on the posture of a hermit.
Yin Ci wasn't much better.
He continued to close his eyes, pretending to be an unconscious god in distress. Shi Jingzhi walked unsteadily, and his heart was in turmoil, fearing that his cheap master would fall on him again and shatter his good plan in public.
Yin Ci had never been so nervous even when fighting against the goddess.
Fortunately, Shi Jingzhi had a strong character and good luck. Before he took two steps, Yan Qing rushed up to him.
Yan Qing frowned at Yin Ci, who looked "strange" to him, but didn't ask a single question. Shi Jingzhi breathed a sigh of relief, and changed from hugging to carrying, and the two of them carried Yin Ci to the room, one on each side.
Su Si followed behind with an expressionless face, blocking several people who wanted to ask questions. Fortunately, most of the villagers did not react and were left behind in astonishment.
As soon as he entered the room, Shi Jingzhi's legs went weak. He fell to the ground and instantly fell asleep. Yin Ci tried to stand up, but found that his sleeve was tightly grasped by Shi Jingzhi.
On the other side, Yan Qing tried to take off Shi Jingzhi's flag, and also felt the firmness of the fox's claws - Shi Jingzhi was sleeping very soundly, and he didn't catch anything he should have caught.
Yin Ci thought for a moment, then followed suit and lay down, falling asleep on the spot.
After a night of fierce fighting, he was also exhausted, so he had to replenish his body first.
Yan Qing, Su Si: “…”
Su Si tapped Yin Ci with his toes: "No, who are you?"
Yin Ci turned over and said, "The senior disciple of Kushan Sect."
Su Si: "… Third son, I'm telling you this sect is weird. Let's not talk about the face-changing thing first. Look at the appearance of this master and disciple. Which one looks like a normal person?"
Yan Qing looked back and forth between the two of them, and finally settled on Su Si's face. He was silent for a while, and sighed faintly: "Come on, move them to the inner room first."
The master and disciple slept from early morning to evening.
Shi Jingzhi was right. He gave himself the name of "Emperor's Messenger", so the villagers didn't dare to come to his house. Yindeng became the only witness, and people flocked to Mianjie's house to try to dig out what happened. The little girl was greatly shocked. She only said that there was indeed something fishy about "ascending to heaven", and she didn't want to say too much else, and people were helpless.
Let's just let them get through this day.
When Yin Ci woke up again, Shi Jingzhi had already disappeared. Only Yan Qing was staring at him, with "unbelievable" written on the right side of his face and "how could this be" written on the left side.
Yin Ci didn't have the good temper to explain everything one by one, he went straight to the point: "Where is Master?"
"Master Shi is in the innermost room of the backyard. He said he would let you go there by yourself when you wake up."
They were here. Something bad had happened in the forbidden area, so they had to have a long talk. Yin Ci went over the lines he had prepared several times in his mind and went there calmly.
The door of the small room in the backyard was slightly open. A strong smell of medicine mixed with hostility came towards me.
Is Shi Jingzhi going to settle accounts with him? No problem, he will just deal with it.
But no matter how much Yin Ci thought about it, after seeing the situation inside the house, he still froze at the door.
There was a screen in the innermost room of the backyard, and behind the screen was a full bathtub with a horrible medicinal liquid. Shi Jingzhi had obviously bathed in advance, and his hair was still wet.
Seeing Yin Ci coming in, Shi Jingzhi had a blank expression on his face. He raised the brush towards his apprentice while exuding a fierce anger.
Yin Ci turned and left.
Shi Jingyi flicked his sleeves, and two streams of energy shot out, slamming the door shut. "Yin Ci, come here."
Oh, he even called me by my full name. Yin Ci turned around and stopped playing the role of an obedient disciple: "What, Master, do you want to demonstrate again?"
Shi Jingzhi said angrily: "I need to talk to you."
"Then put the brush down first."
"If you feel uncomfortable, you can go into the water wearing clean underwear. You fell into the pool and I had to check your physical condition." Shi Jingzhi waved the brush, swung it with the momentum of an ancient weapon.
Forget it, if you can't avoid it, you can just brush it. Shi Jingzhi can't possibly peel off his skin. Yin Ci left on a pair of pants and entered the bathtub with his upper body naked.
It turns out that Shi Jingzhi didn't mean to skin him, but the force was almost enough -
Not long after, Yin Ci gritted his teeth and said, "Master, stop rubbing. I'm only wearing a ghost leather jacket."
When he was highly suspicious, Jingzhi was taking the opportunity to teach him a lesson, and his skin was about to be rubbed off. Even if the ghost leather coat was still there, his master could still rub it to pieces here.
Shi Jingzhi raised his eyelids and said, "Oh, that thing is called a ghost leather coat. It's quite convenient. The last time I saw you in the ghost tomb, I thought I saw a ghost."
Then, he slammed the brush and said, "Your name is 'Yin Ci'? Who are you?"
Yin Ci turned his head and looked at Shi Jingzhi, who had a stern face, and blurted out the lie he had prepared long ago.
"I am the great-grandson of Su Zhi of the Chi Gou Sect. My name is Yin Ci. The meridians of the Su family are damaged from birth, so they cannot practice internal skills and are unwilling to get involved in the affairs of the martial arts world. My grandfather changed his name in his early years and lived in seclusion in the mountains. The family only passed down a magic weapon and a set of swordsmanship..."
Shi Jingzhi: "Ghost leather clothes, bone-sweeping sword technique?"
"Exactly. I was born with an abnormal appearance, and my grandfather made me live in a ghost leather coat to avoid attracting attention."
"Why did you hide it from me?"
Yin Ci told the truth: "Interesting."
Shi Jingzhi slapped him on the spot: "You're lying to me in a ghost tomb, is that fun?"
"Because I want to know what kind of person Master is. The Su family is in a special situation. If I want to follow you, I must test the waters first. Master said that he didn't recruit me just to make up a few people, but I can't just believe it. I didn't expect that Guimu had offended me... Hiss, be gentle!"
"You didn't expect me to be that crazy, right?" Shi Jingzhi lowered his eyes.
Yin Ci was stunned. After being together for so long, this was the first time he heard Shi Jingzhi talk about this matter on his own initiative.
"Since you are willing to speak openly, everything is a give and take. I have a slight heart disease and sometimes lose control. In the future, please bear with me... This time you lied to me, I will fine you another six months' salary."
Yin Ci: “…”
The good news is that Shi Jingzhi does not intend to kick him out of Kushan Sect.
Bad news, he's free.
Fortunately, Yin Ci was only distracted for a moment. He firmly grasped the topic and did not let the fox evade him: "Are you suffering from a slight heart disease?"
Does it refer to the "heart disease" that makes one go crazy for a stranger, or the "heart disease" that allows one to calm down quickly and kill the goddess? He finally has a chance to figure out Shi Jingzhi's devilish logic, so how could he let it go
Shi Jingzhi stopped moving, and the dark and ambiguous look from under the forbidden ground appeared again.
Now that everything was settled, Yin Ci could see the meaning behind that look—it was not love, nor was it lingering, but only pure evaluation.
Perhaps because he discovered that his apprentice had no inner qualities, Shi Jingzhi was less cautious than when he first left the ghost tomb. His master's aura was like a handful of deadly weeds. No matter if it was pressed by a rock or mud, as long as there was a little gap, it would grow wildly and try to be equal to the world.
And his willingness to step into the tub and have this conversation had already been in Shi Jingzhi's way. He knew that if he wanted to stay, then the master would still be the master, and the apprentice would still be the apprentice.
"Master, what's your heart disease?" Seeing that Shi Jingzhi didn't answer for a long time, Yin Ci asked again.
Shi Jingzhi sighed and said, "Aci, have you ever heard of 'substance addiction'?"
“Substance addiction?”
"Ordinary people may develop addictions to alcohol and gambling, but as a teacher, I am addicted to material things. I am particularly attached to my own things, whether it is property, weapons or disciples. Among them, the one thing I cannot give up the most is my own life."
"Ordinary people don't want to die either."
"To ordinary people, living is like to wine lovers, fine wine. But there is always a difference between 'wine lovers' and 'alcoholics'. Even the best wine, if it is mixed with poison, ordinary people will not drink it, but it is hard to say for alcoholics... Anyway, once this impulse comes up, I can't control it well."
Yin Ci was completely distracted and let his master wash his shoulders.
This explanation made sense for both his attitude toward his apprentice and the goddess. But Yin Ci always felt that something was wrong—Shi Jingzhi's explanation was too smooth, as if it had been prepared in advance.
Furthermore, Yin Ci had walked the world for more than 300 years and had never heard of such a weird addiction. The "addiction to things" was probably similar to his "great-grandson status", a mixture of falsehood and falsehood, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.
They are not close friends, so it is unlikely that they would tell each other such private matters.
But it was good this way, with a little truth in the lies, they could show some of their true nature. I still had some use for this fox, there was still a long way to go, and it was hard to say who would expose who first.
So he stopped there: "In other words, I destroyed myself, and went crazy inside Master. I found a clue that could help me survive, and went crazy inside Master. Master, you are quite unique in your madness."
Shi Jingzhi snorted coldly and used the brush more vigorously.
Yin Ci sneered: "Besides, I am a living person, not an object. Master, there is no need to be blindly obsessed."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shi Jingzhi stopped brushing and his expression gradually became strange. Seeing his reaction, Yin Ci's scalp numbed for a moment.
Looking at Shi Jingzhi's expression, it didn't look like "What are you talking about as if it's a matter of course?" but rather "There is such a thing, this is the first time I've discovered it."
Yin Ci sat in the hot water, feeling a chill slowly creeping up his spine.
Addiction to substances.
Shi Jingzhi's care, anger, madness and scrutiny towards himself suddenly had another explanation.
Just like a child who gets his first gift, he carefully keeps it in his arms. If it is lost or damaged, he will be filled with grief and anger. Now that he has peeled off the shell of this object, he finds that the inside is more delicate and interesting than he imagined, so he will definitely take a closer look.
Will it hurt me? How should it play to make me happy? Does it have any other secrets
Regardless, it's my stuff.
Thinking back on it now, all the intimacy and care that Shi Jingzhi had shown him in the past seemed to be separated by a layer of film, and seemed so natural and logical.
… Damn Yidu Shi family, no normal family can raise such a child.
Even if a child is abused from childhood to adulthood, he still has some concept of "how people get along with each other", even if it is a twisted concept full of resentment. However, looking at Shi Jingzhi's situation, he doesn't even have a vague understanding of this.
There is something very problematic about this person's background.
Yin Ci turned around completely and met Shi Jingzhi's eyes. Shi Jingzhi still had a strange blank look on his face, as if he was trying hard to remember something, and the brush in his hand was still dripping with water.
Yin Ci grabbed Shi Jingzhi's hanging hair and pulled him in front of him. For the first time, he focused all his attention and looked directly at that overly seductive face.
Yin Ci had always considered himself a superior. He knew that Shi Jingzhi was a little bit special, but he had never paid attention to his master. He would just play with him once and then throw him away. This man was usually lively and active, and at most he would go crazy occasionally, but he was not abnormal enough to require special attention.
People say that good swimmers drown in water, but they are just wrong.
Looking through Shi Jingzhi's amber eyes, Yin Ci was unable to find a complete "human heart".
At the bottom of Shi Jingzhi's eyes, there were only scattered fragments on the ground. He had all kinds of emotions, but he was like a baby, in a very primitive state, and he didn't look like a normal person.
This person's obsession with life is more like a plant thirsty for water than a normal human emotion.
…It seems I need to correct an idea, Yin Ci thought.
To him, Shi Jingzhi was no longer a simple pleasure. His master was shrouded in countless mysteries and had many connections. He wanted to piece together the fragments and take a closer look at what was hidden in the shell.
"Ah Ci?" Shi Jingzhi brushed his apprentice for a long time like brushing a cow, and finally calmed down when he saw that Yin Ci was only a layer of skin left. At this moment, being stared at, his heart tightened, and he was afraid that his apprentice would rebel.
Yin Ci slowly smiled and let go of Shi Jingzhi's hair: "As a living person, I can take care of myself. Anger hurts the liver, Master, you'd better stop being crazy."
Shi Jingzhi's expression relaxed a little: "Teacher..."
He didn't finish.
Perhaps it was because Shi Jingzhi had been brushing his apprentice for too long, Yan Qing could no longer bear it and came to knock on the door: "Master, I have something to discuss with you about the goddess. We found the goddess's residence and discovered some... strange things."
Shi Jingzhi's attention was instantly diverted: "Strange things?"
"Yes, Yan Budu seems to have been here."