Today I hold the world

Zhong Ziyan stopped, looked back, and saw that the man had flown up the cliff, about 40 years old, gray temples, thin figure, long face, blood all over the gray clothes, and blood stains at the corners of his mouth.

The man sat cross-legged on the spot without treating his injuries. He thought quietly for a moment, and beckoned to Zhong Ziyan, signaling him to come and sit beside him.

Zhong Ziyan hesitated a little, approached slowly, folded his fists and bent over, boldly asked, "What can I do for you?"

The person in front of him did not answer Zhong Ziyan, but motioned him to sit down again, and Zhong Ziyan learned to sit cross-legged, only to hear the person ask: "My name is Xie An, where are you from?"

"I'm Zhong Ziyan, from Xincheng." Zhong Ziyan replied.

Xie An asked again, "Is the elder in the family still alive?"

Zhong Ziyan saw the blood coming from the corner of Xie An's mouth, so he sped up his speech, "When I was three years old, something happened to my family, and they all died. I had cousins, a younger brother and a younger sister who had been separated for many years, and now I only depend on one old servant for life. Teach in the city to make a living.”

Xie An nodded, ignoring the blood on the corner of his mouth, screaming and wailing came from the lake under the cliff, Xie An didn't look back, just stared at Zhong Ziyan, his expression was uncertain, and after a while, he took out a purple talisman from his bosom .

"This talisman is here to protect you from that ghost. My life is not long. I've entrusted you with an entrustment. Listen carefully. I will leave quickly with the dragon cauldron. When I get back, I will make arrangements and salute. I will go there before December [-]th." Go to Qingling Mountain in Fuzhou, crush the jade seal and someone will come down the mountain to meet you, just hand over the dragon cauldron to that person, if you have a wish, you can ask him for it, don't be greedy."

After Xie An finished speaking, he took out three more objects somewhere, an ancient scroll, a red tripod half smaller than the palm of his hand, and finally a piece of jade with the word "Fang" engraved on it.

He first handed the ancient scroll and the jade seal to Zhong Ziyan, "The spirit-inducing technique in the door is not allowed to be spread outside the door. This ancient scroll is what I got from the secret realm, and it is also a superior spirit-inducing mantra. I have commented and improved it, so I will treat it as my own." reward for this trip."

He put the small cauldron under his feet, stood up with difficulty, coughing up blood.

Zhong Ziyan also stood up and saw that Xie An had turned his back to him and looked down the cliff. Soon Xie An turned back and said to him, "That ghost is also a poor person. You lost your relatives when you were young, so you should be able to understand the misery in this world." Resentment, unless it is absolutely necessary, don't hurt her life, when her obsession is eliminated, it will dissipate."

Zhong Ziyan understood that Xie An should be talking about the female ghost in white at Yanbo Temple, he looked down at the purple talisman in his hand, thinking that this thing should be extremely harmful to the female ghost, so he nodded solemnly.

Xie An took one last deep look at Zhong Ziyan, turned to look at the sky, it was pitch black, and he closed his eyes and sighed, "I often heard from the masters in the sect that a hundred years ago, Yanbo Ancient Temple enjoyed a great reputation in Dongzhou, but now it is just reduced to ordinary people. In a place where bandits hide, the ups and downs of the world are often attributed to only one or two variables, just like today I accidentally fell into a murder, 30 years of hard work went to waste, and finally I have to complete the road of a beast, it is really ridiculous!"

After saying that, Xie An's momentum surged, and a golden light appeared in his dantian, which was unparalleled. He jumped off the cliff, and a blood-red dragon flew out of the lake below the cliff. The golden light and blood quickly merged, and the dragon gradually shrank. With the word 'seal', the big jiao turned into a streak of blood and flew into the red tripod at Zhong Ziyan's feet.

Zhong Ziyan looked down and looked for Xie An everywhere, but he had disappeared, and finally a vague voice came from his ear, "The blood dragon in the dragon cauldron has not dissipated its hostility, and is good at deceiving people's hearts. You should be more careful. If you have a small success in cultivation in the future , shelter Xie Xuanyi and Er."

The first sentence is to remind Zhong Ziyan not to be careless on this journey, and the latter sentence should be Xie An's selfishness when he passed away. Zhong Ziyan kept it in his heart, picked up the small tripod and put it in the bag, and hurried to the mountainside.

Holding the purple talisman in his hand, he entered the main hall of Yanbo Temple, went straight to the east side room, looked around, found no white-clothed female ghost, carried Miao Miao's body on his back, and walked out of the temple gate.

The sky was already light, Zhong Ziyan turned his head and looked into the temple, there was a white figure standing there alone in the main hall, as if waiting for someone, Zhong Ziyan couldn't help lamenting in his heart, people are more terrifying than ghosts.

Then he walked down the mountain quickly. I don't know if the night's experience was so miraculous that it stimulated the potential in his body. Zhong Ziyan's feet were extraordinarily fast. At dawn, he had already climbed up the hill where he sat down to rest.

Looking back at the nameless mountain now, the mystery of yesterday still exists, but there are some other emotions in my heart.

After returning to Xincheng in the afternoon, a dozen little beggars cried around Zhong Ziyan. After crying enough, they went to find a burial place outside the city together. They simply dug a hole, rolled a straw mat, filled it with loess, and burned a pile of cypress leaves Grass, as soon as the blank paper money is scattered, the funeral will be done.

There are at least hundreds of beggars in Xincheng. In the past two years, almost none of them died inexplicably. He said that Miao Miao was already dead when he picked it up on the way, so he didn't dare to go to Yanbo Temple.

The government also came to inquire because of frequent missing persons recently. Zhong Ziyan said that he didn't know anything on the surface, and secretly told Zhang Mingyuan, the staff who came with him, about the thief in Yanbo Temple. This person was with him when he was young. Read the book, is a trustworthy person.

Being able to catch culprits is rewarded by the government. The character of an official is second, and the performance is the first thing to look at. Xincheng has been peaceful for the past two years, which shows that the officials in charge of governance are quite capable. During the three-year promotion season, a missing persons case happened. The imperial court issued an order, but the case could not be solved in a short time.

Therefore, the yamen pursued this matter very closely, and the rewards were very heavy. Zhong Ziyan had no background in the local area, and he was just a poor scholar. in the bag.

Zhang Mingyuan is different. His family is a prominent local family, and there are few things he can’t do. That’s why Zhong Ziyan told Zhang Mingyuan about the matter and asked him to ask for credit. .

Zhong Ziyan gave a rough overview of the situation, not talking about ghosts and gods, and finally told Zhang Mingyuan not to stay in Yanbo Temple at night, it is very evil, and accidents will happen, the words can only be said in a vague way, I don’t know if Zhang Mingyuan listened to it In short, this is no longer Zhong Ziyan's control. The most important thing in his mind is the delivery of the tripod entrusted by Xie An.

The north of Xincheng is mostly where poor households live. The beggar’s nest is at the end of Niping Street. Zhong Ziyan built a thatched cottage here for teaching. His real residence is in the Sanli Bridge outside the city, with four thatched cottages. , fenced yard.

Comforting dozens of students, it was already dark, so he walked out of the city quickly and returned home in a short while.

At this moment, on the wooden table in the thatched hut, the master and the servant are sitting opposite each other. The old man on the opposite side has gray hair and looks at Zhong Ziyan kindly. His name is Liang Yu. He was about to die, and he had long lost the bravery of the past, but it was just this humble old man who pulled Zhong Ziyan up.

There were four objects on the table, and Zhong Ziyan had already told Liang Yu all the things, "Ah Weng, I promised Mr. Xie that I should go through it, but I don't know the depth of it, ah Weng is very knowledgeable, Still need to analyze one or two from it.”

Liang Weng carefully flipped through the ancient scroll made of unknown material, his eyes became brighter, "Young master, today's harvest can be regarded as good luck. Wishes will come true.”

Zhong Ziyan patted the table, "Ah Weng, what I'm talking about is the matter of going on the road, not this one. A gentleman promises a thousand dollars. Mr. Xie asked me to go to Qingling Mountain on December [-]th. If it's late, something bad will happen." How can I break my promise to a dead man?"

Liang Weng laughed loudly, knowing his young master's faults, after a moment of silence, his expression was serious, "If you go, then the people on the mountain will harm the young master, who can stop it?"

Zhong Ziyan was at a loss for words for a while, and the word 'but' was hanging on his lips and he couldn't say it.

"Loyalty is naturally important, but life is more important. The young master has grown up, so the old man might as well talk about the past..." Liang Weng told Zhong Ziyan some events that led to the fall of Jiang Guo.

There is another special existence above the Jiang Dynasty, which is the sect formed by people like Xie An. The main reason for the fall of the Jiang State was that the sect behind it was destroyed, and a lot of civil servants and generals involved in the Jiang State died. The family is just one of them. Those who can fly to the sky and escape from the earth are more inhumane than the royal family. The life and death of ordinary human beings are not worth mentioning in their eyes.

Zhong Ziyan was amazed, he did not expect such a secret history, and asked Liang Yu suspiciously, "Then why does grandpa want me to revive the Zhong family?"

Liang Yu smiled, "A person who wants to achieve something, how can he not have great ambitions in his heart? This is just a set of rhetoric made by the old master. In fact, the old master's arrangement is that the old man will take the young master to Ziyun Mountain to learn from the teacher after the young master passes away. Break away from the mundane world, embark on the journey of cultivation, and prove the immortality."

Zhong Ziyan was dumbfounded, this really overturned his 15-year world, it turned out that his grandfather had already made arrangements.

"Don't be surprised. The Zhong family's bloodline was almost extinct back then. The reason why the old master didn't make any big moves until his death was that the young master could enter the school next year. Now that the time is approaching, how can there be another twists and turns?" Liang Yu looked at Zhong Ziyan.

Zhong Ziyan whispered, "Thank you Mr. for entrusting..."

"If the young master insists on fulfilling Xie An's entrustment, Liang Yu will go on the road on this trip. Firstly, he can fulfill the entrustment. Secondly, the old man is old and will soon sleep in the coffin. Are you afraid that they will not do harm?" Liang Yu Yu gave Zhong Ziyan this strategy.

Zhong Ziyan immediately vetoed it, how could Ah Weng do dangerous things for him with the kindness of nurturing him for more than ten years.

"Ah Weng, it's not urgent. I'll think about it for two days. It's getting late. Ah Weng should go to bed earlier." After finishing speaking, Zhong Ziyan took his things and went back to his room.

Zhong Ziyan tossed and turned at night, took a long time to fall asleep, got up early the next day after dinner, wandered into the city as usual, went to teach the little beggars, and left a letter in the quilt of his room.