strokinit Chapter 176: The Celestial Venerable's disciple has arrived...
Chapter 176: The Celestial Venerable's disciple has arrived...
Chapter 176 The Celestial Venerable's disciple has arrived... (4000 words)
Lu Yuan's words plunged Tiger Sheep into silence.
Lu Yuan quietly looked at Hu Yangyang, waiting for her reply.
I can tell.
Tiger Sheep was very moved by Lu Yuan's words.
but----
Perhaps it's because they know too much about this matter, making it impossible for them to know anything about it.
So, after a moment of silence, Tiger Sheep shook his head, preparing to refuse.
However, before Hu Yangyang could speak, Lu Yuan interrupted her directly, saying, "Don't be so quick to refuse. How will you know if you don't try?"
After saying that, Lu Yuan looked at Hu Yangyang with a serious expression and said, "You need to think carefully. What you're trying to do now is ultimately not a solution!"
"Even if I let you off this time, even if this matter is dropped, what about next time?"
Looking at the struggling tiger-sheep, Lu Yuan said, "The Daoist sects outside the pass aren't limited to the True Dragon Temple alone!"
"It's definitely not just me, Lu Yuan, who's in charge of this matter at the Guanwai Dao Sect!"
"I saw it this time, so I turned and left. What if it were someone from another sect?"
"Your efforts to keep the lamp burning for the evil god will eventually be discovered, and if you are discovered, the consequences will be—"
Lu Yuan stopped there.
Tiger Sheep looked at Lu Yuan but didn't say anything.
The firelight danced in her eyes, flickering on and off.
She stood there for a long time, so long that the fire shrank even further.
After a while, the tiger-shaped rabbit on Lu Yuan's arm snuggled closer to him, mumbled something, and didn't wake up.
"What if?"
Lu Yuan repeated it again.
Tiger Sheep didn't respond.
She squatted down, slung the package over her shoulder, turned around, and faced away from Lu Yuan.
"Give me a hand."
Seeing Hu Yangyang's expression, Lu Yuan knew that Hu Yangyang had agreed.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan couldn't help but grin and say, "I'll carry her on my back, you lead the way."
She took two steps forward, stopped, and looked back at Lu Yuan.
"Keep up."
The valley was very quiet.
The moonlight shone on the road, a stark white, casting long shadows of the three people.
Tiger Sheep walked in front, carrying the paper doll Tiger Rabbit on his back. His steps were steady, each step treading on the boundary between moonlight and shadow.
Lu Yuan followed behind without saying a word.
Tiger Sheep didn't say anything. The three of them walked on, crossing the valley and the patch of burnt paper ash.
The ashes from the paper were blown up by the wind, forming a thin layer that clung to the ground and dissipated as it reached your feet.
The moon is setting in the west.
The shadows of the trees were spread crookedly on the road, like cracks.
Tiger Sheep stepped over it, and Lu Yuan stepped over it too.
We walked for a long time.
So long that the moon had shifted further west, so long that the paper tiger and rabbit figures changed positions twice on Lu Yuan's back.
She was sleeping soundly, breathing very lightly, her chest pressed against Lu Yuan's back, rising and falling gently.
Tiger Sheep suddenly spoke up.
"My dad might not see you."
Lu Yuan didn't speak.
He doesn't want to see people from the Taoist sect.
"We, the ten families outside the pass, are not of the same ilk as you."
She paused for a moment, but didn't stop walking.
"But you're right. What if?"
Lu Yuan didn't continue on that topic, but instead asked with some curiosity, "There's something else I'm curious about."
Tiger Rabbit walked quickly ahead without turning its head and said, "Since your father's skills are so high, and the paper figures he makes are so lifelike, even I didn't notice it at other times."
"Why did it have to be that night that Tiger Rabbit's neck and paws showed signs of injury?"
Tiger Sheep walked ahead without stopping.
"My dad's hands were shaking at the time."
Lu Yuan waited for her to continue.
She took a few steps, her voice flat, as if she were talking about something from a long time ago.
"The final step in making paper figures is sealing their souls."
"Seal the soul inside, and the paper figure will come to life."
"Your hands must not tremble when sealing the soul. Seal it all in one go, from head to toe, inside and out, completely and thoroughly."
"My dad's hand shook when he sealed it off at the very last moment."
She paused.
"That mark is not usually noticeable."
"It only shows itself briefly at night, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest."
"It peeks out briefly, then shrinks back in."
"My dad said it's because the soul wasn't sealed properly, and a little bit leaked out."
"If it leaks, it leaks; there's no way to fix it."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan couldn't help but ask curiously, "She has no other problems."
Tiger Sheep immediately replied, "No."
"My dad folded the zither for seven days and seven nights, and every stroke was accurate and every line was straight."
"My hand just shook in that one moment."
Lu Yuan didn't speak. He remembered that night when the moonlight slanted in through the window and shone on the back of Hu Tu Tu's neck.
The crease was thin, like the mark left by folding paper.
And then that was it.
The paper tiger rabbit moved on Lu Yuan's back, mumbled something, and rubbed its face against his shoulder.
Her breathing was very light, her chest pressed against her back, rising and falling gently.
The lamp was tucked under her arm, its dim yellow light flickering.
As for the tiger and sheep, Lu Yuan now has a new perspective of his own.
The words Tiger Sheep had just said were still echoing in his mind.
When her father was sealing her soul, his hand trembled, and on the last touch, he didn't seal it properly, leaving a crack.
Lu Yuan, however, felt that it didn't seem like it.
Judging from the current situation of Tiger and Rabbit, their father is quite formidable.
How could someone of that caliber possibly have missed something?
A flaw was found?
Lu Yuan suddenly remembered something the old man had said.
At that time, Lu Yuan was just learning to make paper figures, and his attempts were crooked and messy, and he couldn't make them well no matter what he did.
The old man said it was tied too straight, and if it was too straight, the person wouldn't survive.
The old man said that nothing in this world is perfect.
Look at that tree, it can only survive if it grows crooked.
Look at that river, it flows far only by meandering.
Look at that person, who doesn't have some flaws?
If something were too perfect, it wouldn't exist in this world.
There is no room for anything too perfect in this world.
Lu Yuan didn't understand at the time, but he gradually came to understand later.
In Taoism, making paper figures, drawing talismans, and consecrating them are all done in the same way.
If you do something too perfectly, it loses its charm.
What is spiritual energy?
It's that imperfect crack, that leaky air, that little bit of life.
If it's sealed too tightly, it will die.
We must leave a breath, a crack, a place to breathe.
Tiger Sheep said her dad's hand was shaking.
My hand trembled, and the soul seal wasn't sealed properly; there was a gap.
Lu Yuan didn't believe it.
A person who can fold such a paper figure could stay up for seven days and seven nights without sleeping, making every move precise and every stroke straight, but then their hand trembled on the last move?
What a coincidence!
It's too coincidental to be real.
What kind of ability does their father have?
This is the skill of folding paper figures as if they were one's own daughter.
This is the ability to seal a soul into paper and bring the dead back to life.
Did this person's hand slip at the last moment?
It wasn't because his hands were shaking.
He shook it on purpose.
So their father also knew that things that are too perfect don't last long.
If it's sealed too tightly, the soul gets trapped inside, unable to escape, unable to breathe, and unable to live.
There must be a crack, so that the soul can breathe.
That crack wasn't a flaw, it was a way out.
Lu Yuan suddenly realized that their father was much more capable than he had imagined.
It's not that I'm good at folding paper figures like real people, but that I'm good at knowing when to stop, when to leave a crack, and that things that are too perfect don't last long.
That takes skill.
To be able to reveal even the slightest flaw is a skill greater than his ability to make paper figures for seven days and seven nights without sleep, or even to seal a soul.
Lu Yuan remained silent, following behind Hu Yangyang as they walked forward under the moonlight.
The paper tiger and rabbit were breathing softly on my back.
The moon is setting in the west.
A bluish-gray tinge appeared on the horizon.
The road ahead is still long.
As dawn broke, the mountain chill seeped into your bones.
The ground was covered with a layer of white frost, which crunched underfoot.
The corn stalks by the roadside had long been cut down, leaving only stubble stuck in the frozen soil, covered with frost.
The ground was frozen solid, and it hurt your feet when you stepped on it.
Lu Yuan followed Hu Yangyang as they darted east and west, traveling through the mountains for two full days.
Finally, on the morning of the third day, a village appeared ahead.
It's not a big place, just a few dozen households, lined up along the foot of the mountain.
-
The house was built of stone, with a thatched roof covered with tar paper and weighed down with several stones to prevent it from being blown away by the wind.
The chimney isn't smoking yet; it's too early.
The chickens stayed in their nest, not clucking.
The dog didn't bark; it stayed huddled in its kennel.
The sky was just beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn; the village was still asleep.
At the entrance of the village stands a large willow tree, growing crookedly, its branches bare, its bark cracked and chapped.
A donkey was tethered under a tree, its neck tucked in as it dozed off, a string of icicles hanging from its nose.
A neatly stacked pile of firewood sat nearby, covered with a plastic sheet. Dew condensed on the plastic sheet, freezing into a layer of white frost.
Tiger Sheep walked to the village entrance without stopping.
An old man came out of the yard, his neck hunched and his hands tucked into his sleeves.
Upon seeing her, he grinned and exhaled a puff of white breath.
"Sheep is back? That must have been a long trip. Were you cold?"
Tiger Sheep nodded, called out "Second Master" in a clear voice, and continued walking forward.
Lu Yuan curiously sized up the old man. He didn't look like a Taoist practitioner or someone who knew any martial arts.
He was just an ordinary old man.
The old man glanced at Lu Yuan, then at the tiger and rabbit on Lu Yuan's back, and without asking any further questions, he shrank back.
After passing a few houses, a woman came out carrying a basin of water to splash. When she saw Tiger and Sheep, she wiped her hands.
"Oh, Yangyang is back!"
"What's wrong with Bunny? Is she asleep?"
Tiger Sheep said "Mmm," and fell asleep.
The woman didn't ask any further questions and turned to go inside.
The curtain was lifted, and a cloud of hot air rushed out, a white mist.
After walking a few more steps, a man was squatting by the door fixing a crawling figure. He looked up and saw the tiger and sheep, and stood up.
"You're back? Your dad was just talking about you two the other day."
Tiger Sheep said he understood.
The man glanced at Lu Yuan, then at the magic sword hanging on Lu Yuan's body, and without saying a word, squatted back down to continue practicing his crawling form.
My hands were frozen red. I breathed on them, rubbed them, and kept working.
Lu Yuan followed behind, watching the scene unfold, and felt that everything seemed normal.
The muddy road was frozen solid, icicles hung from the stone walls, and corn cobs were piled up under the corn cob in the yard.
The windows were covered with paper, and heat was seeping through the gaps in the paper.
Smoke began to rise from the chimney, bluish-gray wisps drifting into the sky, tinged with a pale gold by the morning light.
Then the roosters started crowing, their calls echoing from one end of the village to the other.
The dog barked twice, but was scolded by its owner and then stopped barking.
Just like any ordinary village outside the pass, there was no indication that this place belonged to the people of Shijia Village outside the pass. Tiger Sheep walked to the middle of the village and stopped in front of a wooden door.
The door was old, the paint had peeled off, revealing the wood underneath, which had several cracks filled with hemp rope.
The threshold was worn smooth and shiny, with a dent in the middle, worn down over countless years.
There was an apricot tree in the yard, bare, with its branches stretching out over the wall.
Several bundles of dry firewood were piled up neatly at the base of the wall, covered with plastic sheeting and weighed down with a few stones.
Tiger Sheep pushed open the door, and the hinges creaked loudly, sounding especially crisp in the cold weather.
She glanced back at Lu Yuan.
"Come in."
Lu Yuan carried Hu Tu Tu across the threshold. The courtyard was quiet, with a small table under the apricot tree and a lamp on it.
It's made of copper, exactly the same as the one Tiger Rabbit is holding, but a size bigger, and the wick is black, so I don't know how long it hasn't been lit.
A layer of ash settled on the lamp, making it look dusty in the morning light.
The door was closed, and the windows were covered with paper. Heat was seeping through the gaps in the paper, indicating that someone was inside.
Tiger Sheep walked to the door and stopped. He didn't knock or push the door open; he just stood there.
A puff of white breath condensed in the cold air and slowly dissipated.
"Dad, I'm back."
There was no movement inside.
Tiger Sheep stood there, saying nothing more. The sky slowly brightened, and the shadows in the yard changed from black to gray, and from gray to pale.
The branches of the apricot tree cast thin shadows on the ground, like fingers or cracks.
Lu Yuan, carrying Hu Tutu on his back, stood under the apricot tree.
His back was warm, and Tiger Rabbit's breath rose and fell on his neck.
Her hands hung down, white and slender, with pink fingernails, just like a living person's.
The creases in the paper figures that appeared after the previous battle have all disappeared now.
Tiger Rabbit shifted on his back, mumbled something, and rubbed its face against his shoulder.
The cotton-padded jacket rustled softly.
She fell asleep again.
Lu Yuan walked along mountain paths for two days, and Hu Tu Tu slept on Lu Yuan's back for two days.
Lu Yuan didn't ask any further questions, assuming that he must have used too much power while fighting the faceless evil god, which was why he was unconscious.
Tiger and Sheep didn't react much, which is probably normal and there's no need to worry too much.
At the same time, the door to the main house was pushed open from the inside.
A person walked out from inside.
He was of average height and build, around forty years old, with a round face, thick lips, dark eyebrows, and a flat nose.
His hair was messy, as if he had just woken up and hadn't combed it, with a few white hairs sticking out.
He was wearing a gray cotton-padded jacket with worn-out cuffs and a patch on the elbow. The patch was made of blue cloth scraps with crooked stitches and loose threads sticking out.
One button was missing from the cotton-padded jacket, which was tied with hemp rope.
The pants were black cloth pants, with a patch on the knee that was a different color from the rest of the pants, alternating between dark and light shades.
She was wearing a pair of cotton shoes, the uppers of which were collapsed and the heels were flattened, so she wore them as slippers.
He stood on the threshold, squinting at the people in the courtyard.
The morning light shone from behind him, stretching his shadow long and trailing it under the apricot tree.
His face was backlit, so his expression was obscured, but his eyes were squinting, as if he hadn't woken up yet, or as if he was scrutinizing someone.
"It's the Celestial Venerable's disciple!"