Chapter 48: My old dragon

When he said that, Mo Ran couldn't help but agree.

The Master is right.

There was a faint aura about Fake Gouchen that Mo Ran thought was his own illusion, but since Chu Wanning felt it too, the chances of it being an illusion were slim.

The scent of a dead body.

This Gouchen Shanggong is not only not himself, but he is not even, in fact, a living person.

In other words, the man behind the curtain only took a corpse and used it as a puppet for himself, disguised as the god of all soldiers. He didn't even show up in person.

As he pondered, a low chuckle came out of Jin Chengchi's side.

The fake Gouchen Shanggong leapt into the air, but his appearance was now horrific, his skin crumpled together as if a snake was shedding its skin or a silkworm was breaking out of its cocoon.

"Evening Yu Heng, Beidou Immortal. Master Chu, you really do live up to your name."

False Gouchen hangs above the shimmering lake, its painted face seemingly twisted into a near-distorted smile.

"A man of your stature, the School of Confucianism, couldn't keep you back then."

Chu Wanning said in a cold voice, "Who are you really?"

"You don't have to know just who I am." False Gouchen said, "I will not let you know who I am either. Think of me as a man who died long ago and has risen again from hell to seek the life of you decent people."

Wangyue said morosely, "You are shameless, Pinching Willow has been destroyed, and without the power of the sacred wood, you will not be able to perform the forbidden spell and do anything wrong."

False Gouchen laughed coldly, "You old loach, you're dying and you're still here to spoil my day. You have no place to talk here, so get lost."

Chu Wanning suddenly said, "Your Excellency is a white child, does that mean you have a say in the matter?"

The so-called "white pieces", as the name implies, are the most special type of pieces in the game of Zhenlong.

When the practitioner finds a newly dead corpse and pours a part of his soul into it, that part of the soul merges with the corpse to form a "white child" as white as jade.

"In other words, the "white sons" are in fact stand-ins for the caster, except for the fact that they are not as powerful as the original, they can think and act on their own, and what they see and hear can be empathised with the original.

Fake Gouchen, whose identity is revealed, is applauding and laughing: "Yes, yes"

After these three "yeses", the fake Gouchen's face became more and more distorted, as if his own spell was running out and he could not maintain the movement of the white child, gradually revealing the original form of the body he occupied.

"Chu Wanning, don't be presumptuous. You think stopping me today will help. Even if Pinching Willow is destroyed, my body can still go and find another source of spiritual power. You, on the other hand, are the one."

As he speaks, his clouding eyes suddenly glance wistfully over Chu Wanning and fall on Mo Ran.

A heartbeat away

If you think I am the only one in the world who knows the three forbidden arts, then I am afraid you will not live long."

Chu Wanning's long eyebrows lowered and he said sternly, "What do you mean by that?"

However, the fake Gouchen suddenly stopped talking, and after a short pause, he suddenly burst into fishy fragments, and a piece as white as jade burst out of him, swirling against the light in mid-air and falling into the thin waves of Jin Chengchi with a thud.

It seems that the fake Gouchen in the shadows has finally run out of steam after losing Pinching Willow's assistance.

At the same time, Wangyue, who had survived almost as long as Pinching Willow, stumbled twice and fell back to the ground with a thud, whispering, "Ah."

Xue Meng exclaims, " Wangyue "

Mo Ran also says: " Wangyue "

Wangyue's lips were bloodless as the four men came to Mr. Jiao. He looks at them, his throat as hoarse as a crow at sunset.

"You must never, never, never believe the nonsense of the man who spoke. His words are far more false, far more false than true"

Shi Mei's eyebrows were full of concern and sadness as she said in a warm voice, "Elder, stop talking, I'll heal you."

"No, it is not necessary. What your master could not do, you can do even more." Wangyue coughed violently several times, then gasped, "Over the years, many people have come to Jin Chengchi for swords. However, since the treacherous evil entered the pool, Pinching Willow has destroyed tens of thousands of blades as he did not want to use the sacred objects left behind by his master. The only thing left behind is a willow vine of equal strength, a sword of the gods."

At the mention of this section, Xue Meng looks even more gloomy, pursing her lips and remaining silent.

" willow vine willow vine To this little Taoist master." Wangyue looked at Mo Ran, "At that time at the lake, I said to you, in the past for the evil, I also can not stop. I just hope you will be good in the future, but in fact, you should follow the wishes of your master. So I hope that you can you can"

Seeing that he was already struggling to speak, Mo Ran stopped his words and said, "Don't worry, senior, I understand."

The augur murmured, "That's good then that's good then I'll I'll be relieved"

He looked up at the sky, his lips trembling slightly.

"It is said that Jin Chengchi seeks swords, and that underwater spirits and monsters will make demands. In the old days, most of those demands used to be to test the character of the visitor, however there were occasional exceptions"

Wangyue's voice fades, and under her eyes there seems to be ten thousand years of time passing by like a moving lamp.

"I kept my master's promise to guard Jincheng Lake after his departure, and not to leave. I never expected that this guard would be the landscape that I saw when I was a child, but I would never see it again for the rest of my life."

He turned his head slowly and looked at Mo Ran with a pleading look, a warm, moist glint in his old eyes.

In that instant, Mo Ran suddenly knew what he was going to say.

As expected, Wangyue said softly, "Little Taoist, the plum blossoms on the hillside are bright all year round and I used to love them when I was a child.

Mo Ran was just about to say, "OK, I'll go and fold it for you.

But before he could even say yes, the light in Wangyue's golden brown eyes suddenly went out.

Jiangnan has nothing to offer but a gift of spring.

Snow-capped mountains loom in the distance, the lake is golden, and the red light of a rising sun spreads into the pool, breaking into dots of poignant red in the churning waves.

Wangyue Return to silence.

He was once one of the first great dragons of creation, who once stirred the heavens and the earth, who called the wind and the rain, and who bowed down and carried the king on his travels. It was said that he had a curse on him and was forbidden to turn his back on his old master. But they do not know that he honoured the Gouchen and promised to do so for many years.

There are very few beings in the world who remember the creation of the world. Wangyue knew that the real Gouchen Shanggong was of mixed demon blood, but that his mother had been forced by demons, not by choice. Gouchen hated the demons and came under Fuxi's command, and with his own demonic blood, he created the first sword in heaven and earth for Fuxi. Gouchen helped Fuxi to eliminate the demon invaders and to sweep the Kyushu.

However, after the reunification of heaven and earth, Fuxi became suspicious of Gouchen Shanggong because of his half-devil blood. Gouchen Shanggong was not confused, and after a hundred years, he asked himself to leave the divine realm and come to the mortal world.

Along the way, he saw the suffering of all beings and the killing of weapons, and felt remorseful that he should not have created the sword. So he collected all the weapons he had left behind and stored them in the treasury at Jincheng Lake, where he planted the Pinching Willow and told the creatures in the lake that anyone seeking a sword must be kind-hearted to be worthy of Shenwu.

And now Gouchen is no more, Wangyue is gone.

Under Jin Chengchi, there is no more Shenwu, no more Jiao Ren, all the sins and penances, all the distortions and obsessions, all gone up in smoke with the collapsing Pinching Willow.

For a while, no one spoke, and in the midst of the heavy snowfall, the four bright red monoliths on the side of Jin Chengchi, still as peaceful and calm on the water as they had been at first sight, showed no sign of the havoc and suffering that had taken place underwater.

Just as when they first climbed Xuyin Mountain, they had no idea that behind the 'proposed trail' lay a tale of flesh and blood.

Mo Ran looks up at the sky and above the wall, a lone eagle flies over the snow.

He suddenly thought: in his previous life, Wangyue had given him the Stranger's Knife, which was powerful, but in this life, the Stranger's Knife he had seen was only a fake, and the one that really belonged to him had probably destroyed itself in Pinching Willow, and he would never see it in this life.

After a while, he inexplicably thought again.

In that year, he came to Jincheng Lake to seek the sword.

That day Wangyue emerged from the water, her golden eyes looking at him in a gentle, friendly way, before addressing him.

"The plum blossoms on the hillside are in full bloom, will you pick one and give it to me?"

Mo Ran closes her eyes and gently covers her eyelids with her arms.

In a previous life, I didn't know what was going on under the pond, so I thought that what Wangyue wanted was just to climb the ladder of elegance

It has been many days since we returned to the top of the Dead and the Living.

Chu Wanning's shoulder was badly bruised and all three boys were exhausted, so they rested for many days in Dai City before heading back to Shu.

Xue Meng did not tell Xue Zhengyong and Madame Wang about his request for a sword, as proud as he was, whether his parents were disappointed or persuaded, it was just salt on the knife. Chu Wanning, seeing this in his eyes and heart, is also very unforgiving, and spends his days buried in scrolls, hoping to find another way to get another Shenwu for Xue Meng. Or is there another way to make a mortal a match for a divine weapon?

Besides, who is the fake Gouchen and where is he now? What is the meaning of the last words of the fake Gouchen's "white son" before he blew himself up?

There is so much to worry about that the candlelight in the Cangshu Library at the red lotus watering hole shines day and night, the brass kettle drips, the tedious bamboo scrolls are spread out on the floor, and deep in the case files is Chu Wanning's slightly tired face.

"Yu Heng, don't get lucky with your shoulder like that." Xue Zhengyong sat next to him with a cup of hot tea and chattered, "Elder Greedy Wolf is good at healing, if you have time, ask him to look at you."

"No harm done, it's all starting to heal."

Xue Zhengyong tsked, "No, no, no, look at you, you haven't looked good since you got back. Nine out of ten people who see you say you look like you're going to pass out at any moment. I think that wound is evil, maybe there's a poison or something, you'd better be careful."

Chu Wanning lifted his eyes, "I look like I'm going to pass out" he paused and sneered, "Who said that?"

Xue Zhengyong :""

"Yu Heng, don't always treat yourself like you're made of steel and treat others like they're made of paper."

Chu Wanning said, "I know what I'm talking about."

Xue Zhengyong muttered without a word, looking like "you have a number of farts". Fortunately, Chu Wanning was so focused on his book that he did not see his little gesture.

After chatting for a while, Xue Zhengyong saw that it was getting late and stood up, ready to go back to his wife, but before he left, he also reminded Chu Wanning: "Yu Heng, get some rest. If Xue Meng finds out about your behaviour, he will feel guilty."

Chu Wanning simply ignored him.

Xue Zhengyong, a little embarrassed at having hit a cold nail, scratched his head and walked away.

Chu Wanning drank the medicine and returned to the case to continue his examination of the dossier, feeling mildly nauseous as he saw a vague dizziness in the back and propped his forehead on the corner.

The nausea was short-lived, however, and Chu Wanning just thought he was tired, so he didn't care.

It was late at night, and he finally fell asleep with a frown on his sword. A wide sleeve pillowed on the side of a mountain of scrolls, an unfinished volume of briefs in his lap, the edge of his robe wilting like a wave of water.

That night, he had dreams.

Unlike ordinary dreams, this one was stark and real.

He was standing in the Loyalty Palace at the top of the world of the dead, but it was different from what he had known, the details of the furnishings had changed, and before he had time to look, the doors of the great hall suddenly opened and a crimson mantle billowed.

Someone walked in.

"Master."

The man with the handsome eyebrows and dark, violet eyes, although he was already in the shape of a young man, looked a little boyish when he curled his mouth.

" Mo Ran "

Chu Wanning stood up and was just about to walk over to him when he realised that four chains flowing with spiritual energy were fastened around his feet and wrists, binding him and preventing him from moving.

Shocked and then enraged, Chu Wanning stared incredulously at the chains around his ankles for a moment, his face twisted in anger, choking on his words, before he looked up and snapped, " Mo Weiyu, are you rebelling?

The visitor, however, acted as if he had not heard his angry shout, and with a lazy smile on his face and deep dimples, came over and cupped his chin.