The thick gray clouds are like lead blocks, ready to fall down at any moment.
The rumbling thunder echoes in the clouds, as if it's shouting angrily.
"What a big deal? There's even a huge thunder at the door of Lei Ping, what's there to scare?" Lao Gong spat a mouthful of saliva towards the sky fiercely before disappearing.
His actions once again made Liang Jieshi, Jin Lun, and others extremely wary.
"On this day, it's best to be cautious. One shouldn't randomly curse the heavens. When lightning strikes, it may be a sign that someone in a certain place is being taken by the heavens." Jin Lun whispered an explanation to me.
I nodded slightly.
Lao Gong's temper is indeed like that; he won't take any offense from anyone and can argue back for a couple of rounds.
I simply explained to Jin Lun briefly, and I will remind Lao Gong to pay attention to his influence when I return.
Finally, Jin Lun and the others were relieved.
We didn't go up the mountain immediately; instead, we got back into the car and waited.
The reason is simple: although they have recovered, the residual effects are uncertain when and how they will occur. It may rain suddenly at any time, and it's not wise to travel.
As expected, within about half an hour, a heavy downpour poured down, accompanied by lightning that was unknown where it fell.
We waited the whole day, and finally, when night fell, Wu Jinlan appeared, accompanied by five scholars and followed by a dozen or so Taoists.
After this period, all the monks and converts at Lei Ping Temple had grown out their hair and beards, their religious marks were covered by clothing changes, and they had become unrecognizable as monks.
Seeing Jin Lun and the people around him, all the Taoists were shocked with joy.
Following that, they gathered around Jin Lun and his companions, with a continuous stream of greetings.
As for the sudden questions of Jin Lun and his companions, they were ignored by the others.
After all, Jin Lun and his companions looked very lively and healthy at the moment.
"Master Luo," Wu Jinlan stepped forward and bowed to me.
"It's been a long time, Master Luo. Compared to when I last saw you, your aura has improved greatly, as if you've climbed several floors higher." Wu Jinlan's eyes were filled with admiration.
"Is that so?" Old Gong suddenly appeared on my shoulder, smiling broadly, "Little Wu, look at how much I've grown. How many feet taller am I now?"
"This..." Before Wu Jinlan could finish his sentence, a wave of purple aura rippled through Old Gong's eyes, leaving Wu Jinlan utterly speechless. The other geomancers were taken aback, bewildered, and hard-pressed to believe.
"Green Ghost... It should have been... No, that skeleton in the grave... This... How is this possible? You..." Wu Jinlan was at a loss for words, and his hands were raised in confusion.
"There are many things you don't understand. Let's go up the mountain." Old Gong called out to prompt, and Jin Lun and the others finally came to their senses. Everyone started to climb the mountain.
As for Liang Jieshi, he did not continue to follow us; instead, he headed back towards the Liang family.
As the sky began to brighten, we returned to the Deng Xian Dao Hall. Jin Lun and the others originally planned to climb up to the peak of the mountain and return to the temple.
Wu Jinlan, however, wanted them to rest and said that the news of their return had already been notified to the senior elder of Shenniao Temple. There was no need to rush for a little while.
I also told Jin Lun and the others not to leave, and I wanted them to wait until dark. Let Old Gong thoroughly check them out, and in the meantime, during the day, let the scholars take a look. In the art of fortune-telling by geomancers, facial features can reveal many illnesses.
Wu Jinlan then added his voice in agreement, and Jin Lun and the others finally put aside their thoughts, staying inside the Dao Hall to rest.
The scholars surrounded Jin Lun and the others in a circle, carefully observing them. Two of them were themselves proficient in some medical knowledge and also examined their pulses.
Although I was tired, I still held on and waited quietly for the results.
Of course, I didn't keep anything from Wu Jinlan about the experiences of Jin Lun and the others. I told him everything.
Including Wu Jinlan, the scholars who examined Jin Lun and the others, as well as many other scholars gathered in the hall, they all stood in shock. They looked at Jin Lun and his companions with an attitude of preciousness, as if they wanted to touch them gently.
To be honest, I've only seen such a look on Old Gong, but it wasn't for any treasure; it was for women...
I felt a bit uneasy.
Wu Jinlan coughed and said, "Master Luo, you may not know that the transformation of a corpse into a dantian is the manifestation of life force. The most precious thing in the world is this. That's why those Taoists suddenly came out to be friends with you because of this treasure!"
"First, take the corpse, and then get the dantian after it's safe. What a clever plan that was."
"What a pity. The corpse was given away and the dantian was taken by them. Too bad."
Wu Jinlan's eyes glimmered with a touch of longing and reluctance, along with a hint of regret.
The only information I kept was that Old Gong had obtained the corpse and the dantian.
A man who does not commit any crime is guilty if he has a treasure, and we are already in a precarious situation.
Once this news spreads, too many people will be envious, and the straw hat Taoist will surely come looking for them, causing trouble at their mountain gate.
As for using the corpse and dantian to resolve the issues with Jin Lun and the others, I will also ask Old Gong to find a way to hide it as much as possible.
"It's a poison, not the aftereffects of communicating with the qi of Huayizhi, which imbibes the body and has only benefits." Suddenly, a scholar raised his head and said.
He is proficient in some medical knowledge and is currently taking Jin Lun's pulse.
"Poison?" Jin Lun's eyes darkened slightly before saying, "We haven't eaten in several months and have consumed some food. However, it was all shared together. Both the Manuscript Pavilion's people and the Demon Grotto's friends are fine."
"What about the pills you took?" The scholar's eyes were very serious.
For a moment, the faces of Jin Lun and the others turned pale, and their eyes became uneasy and suspicious.
In itself, raising corpses for medicine and refining pills is already difficult for them to accept. Now that it is brought up again, their emotions are not as stable as before.
The scholars in the room all fell silent, pondering with their heads bowed.
Wu Jinlan whispered to me, "That scholar is called Huajiang. Before he became a geomancer, he was a traveling doctor with extraordinary medical skills. As a scholar, he used facial features to complement his medical skills and became famous for a time. However, the appearance of Ding Rui Pu directly suppressed him."
I nodded, not interrupting Huajiang's speech.
Huajiang was nearly sixty years old, with white hair and a very sharp gaze. He said, "Since the Huayizhi is good, so is the dantian. The life force in it is absolutely non-toxic unless it turns black, at which point it might have some effect. But that effect is on the person themselves, not causing diseases or other symptoms. Your twitching and spasms are a natural reaction of your body. And from a facial perspective, there is an extremely faint sign of poisoning, which is easy to overlook if one does not pay close attention."
"Corpses do have poisonousness, the medicine absorbs the essence of the moonlight, the soil is made of corpse meat and poisonous corpse, which is the most delicious and most nourishing thing. Poisons that are very nourishing but also extremely poisonous. After refining the medicine, it has strange effects, but it also has strange poison. However, this poison is not deep."
Huajiang's words left the other Taoists uneasy.
Jin Lun and the others were tense, waiting for him to continue.
"I don't know what the final result will be for him, but from the looks of it, those few people did not prepare a special poison for you. They were indeed trying to save you. Perhaps, that is the side effect? They used such a pill to improve their ability to cope with dangerous situations, so they have to bear this poison."
"Once, it probably won't be fatal. Let's observe the situation first." Huajiang's tone had become more relaxed.
Jin Lun and the others had just slightly recovered their composure when suddenly, one of them let out a hiss, covering his forehead and drawing in cold air repeatedly.
Huajiang immediately went to check, but there were no wounds on the person's head or face.
He soon recovered and said that he had a vague feeling of excruciating pain on his face, as if a knife had sliced through it, and then it got better all of a sudden.
The group looked at each other in confusion, but none of them had a good solution.
Huajiang said he would write some prescriptions for several decoctions of detoxifying and expelling evil drugs, which they could take for a period of time to see if it helped.
To this point, the matters in the hall had been resolved.
There were some external disciples in theDao hall who were in charge of various trivial matters and had prepared food for us.
After eating, everyone went to rest.
During this period, I could clearly feel Jin Lun and the others' worries.
I was staying in the room I had before. After Wu Jinlan sent me to the door, he hesitated slightly before saying, "Master Luo, may we step aside to talk?"
I nodded and invited Wu Jinlan inside the room.
He closed the door and said, "Actually, before you went up the mountain, I had heard about the events in Tonggu. There is a scholar there who has a good reputation. He collaborated with some local departments to destroy a mountain, which is the General Mountain you mentioned."
"When two events are combined into one, I can better understand the great risks you face. It's not something that can be explained with just the words 'mountain collapse'."
"That person was bold enough to set off the Dragon Vein. Following that, the mountain collapsed and split, completely collapsing. He had already died of a heart attack, and not only him, but all related individuals also died suddenly."
"This is considered a major event in the field of geomancy, so in just a few days, it has spread far and wide."
"I know, you want to find Wu Binglang, but Wu Binglang should have many connections in the Yinyang world. He is not just one of the Jade Abacus Sect. Otherwise, he could not have so accurately gone to the General Mountain. Perhaps, he also encouraged that person to complete the act of blasting the mountain."
Wu Jinlan's words were very serious.
For a moment, I didn't understand what he meant to convey.
Was he offering help, or telling me to stay away from Wu Binglang?
The help itself was part of the plan that Old Gong and I had already made. I hadn't even mentioned it yet.
"As for Wu Binglang, actually, during the time between your disappearance and the disappearance of Jin Lun, Shenqiao Elder told me a lot, and with some of your information, I can basically judge that Wu Binglang should have made many friends during his time as a wandering Taoist. The things he learned from Mao You San are definitely not as little as they seem on the surface; he has just been hiding them."
"Where exactly he is hiding, no one knows. Even if you try to investigate, it would be difficult to find any results. But there is a way to definitely force him out!"
"If you can take me to the four-regular mountain and point out the ancestor graves of the Bai family, this task doesn't need to be done by you, as the consequences are too severe. I'll take care of it, and it will definitely be flawless. Perhaps, we can even directly kill him!"
Wu Jinlan drew a line on his neck with his hand, his eyes filled with determination, and a smile appeared on his lips.
He added, "Everyone in the Taoist Academy of Ascension is grateful to you and wants to do something for you. This is the most appropriate thing."
"If you nod, I, the Daoist Academy of Ascension, will all be blades!"
For a moment, I was completely silent.
The decision that had been previously rejected by Jin Lun was raised again by Wu Jinlan, and it made my heart itch.
