Chapter 241: [Dragon Blood Mountain] The Truth

It was a drizzly morning when the scroll lit up again. Huai Zui was sitting in his meditation room, twirling a star-moon linden bead in his hand and muttering Buddhist sutras under his breath. Suddenly there was a flash of light at the door, and he did not turn around, but simply dropped a wooden fish, sighing: "Awake."

Mo Ran looks back and sees Chu Wanning standing outside the door, his handsome figure seeming to melt into the thin light of day.

"Why did the Master even bother to save me."

" Temple of No Mercy, see no blood."

""

"Now that you have testified to yourself, and I understand your meaning, you are free to leave the mountain, and from now on, do not come back."

Chu Wanning didn't bother to take any luggage, he looked at the familiar back in the joss stick and Buddha's voice and said for a long time, "Master."

Master.

And then said something about saying goodbye and thank you for your kindness

The gauze on his chest was still blotted with blood, the knife was removed, but his heart still throbbed with pain.

Nearly fifteen years of trust, and all he got in return was Huai Zui's "I want your spirit core." For fifteen years he had thought Huai Zui was a kind and benevolent man, who cared for the grass and the trees and had compassion for the ants. He had always thought that all the world was as peaceful as Lin'an City and Upper Fairy World.

But it was all a lie. Huai Zui had lied to him.

This is a robbery that hurts a million times more than the shattering of a spiritual core.

Chu Wanning closed his eyes and finally, he said to him, "So long, Master."

He left his gentleness, his trust, his innocence in this solemn monastery, that which Huai Zui had once given him, and which was later taken from him with the broken spiritual core, the rushing blood.

He turned and walked away.

"I knew he would hate me, and even if I followed him down the mountain, he would never be able to get over this hurdle in his heart." Huai Zui said softly, "I let him go, and from then on I left an image in his mind of being unkind, unrighteous, selfish and thin-skinned.

"At that time, shortly after his birth day, he was fifteen years old. Fifteen years of floating, spring, summer, autumn, winter, joy and sorrow, and from that day onwards, all never to return."

Huai Zui is sweeping the steps of the courtyard as the leaves turn from green to yellow and finally there is no longer a trace of life on the branches, another year of snow falling in the twilight of winter.

The monk, wrapped in thick monk's robes, stands under the eaves of his house, squinting at a field of snow.

His face is still young, but his gaze is a dragon's-eye view of old age, and like all ordinary people in their old age, he loves to dwell, and if he sits for a while, he unconsciously falls into a light sleep.

"I am very old, two hundred years old, and the events of my youth are slowly fading in my mind, but more and more I remember those years when Ching Chu Wanning was by my side. I sometimes wonder if that's how elders feel about their children, but what kind of elders am I?

Huai Zui said, "The Yin energy in my body is getting thinner and thinner, and there is probably no hope of redemption in my life. I don't want to go anywhere anymore, so I spend my days in the Temple of No Mercy in seclusion, but when the begonias are in bloom, I fold one of the best ones and take it to the ghost world and give it to Chu Xun as usual."

"I've never been a broad-minded person, so there's only so much I can do in the end, and if I have more, I can't do it right, and if I come across a choice, I don't know if it's right or wrong. I was going to leave it at that. Until one day a man suddenly came to my yard."

It was late at night and the door of the house was knocked on hastily.

Huai Zui got up to open the door and suddenly froze.

"It's you."

Mo Ran followed and immediately got a good look at the man's face.

It's Chu Wanning.

Chu Wanning looked very anxious and pale, and the strangest thing was that he was wearing only a thin summer shirt in the middle of winter.

Mo Ran's first thought was that he had given his coat to some straggler who was freezing to death, but then he realised that he hadn't. Chu Wanning was properly dressed and, with Huai Zui's permission, he entered the bedroom looking like a cornered beast and, without saying a word, handed Huai Zui a spell smoker.

Huai Zui had a million words stuck in her throat, but finally she only asked, "What happened to you?"

"I cannot support my powers for long, I cannot explain to the Master one by one." Chu Wanning's words were urgent, "This incense burner is of vital importance and I really don't know who to give it to. There are so many unknowns in this earthly world, I don't know what will become of him next, or who will be spared and able to protect this secret, so I can only come to bother you."

"What are you talking about? You're sick."

Huai Zui did not react, but Mo Ran, who was standing next to him, his head buzzed and his eyes went black as he realised something was wrong with "Chu Wanning".

Ear piercing

This Chu Wanning has a pierced ear on his left ear and wears a tiny scarlet earring that resembles tiny vermilion.

It was a small detail that struck Mo Ran as a thunderbolt, and he could not speak again.

This is not Chu Wanning at all or rather, this is not the Chu Wanning of this earthly world at all

He came from a past life, from the time of the Fairy Tramper emperor, or he could never have possessed this seal. Mo Ran vividly remembers this earring, quenched with his own spiritual blood, attached to a love spell that would make Chu Wanning more sensitive to his touch and aggression.

You can't go wrong

He could even vividly recall the intimacy with which he had made the spike, and then, as he worked Chu Wanning to the point of disorientation, he licked and sucked his left ear fiercely, feeling the trembling release of the man beneath him as he spasmed and shuddered, and then unceremoniously pierced his earlobe with the spike.

Chu Wanning is grunting, frowning and clutching at the bedding, but she can't get away from the man on top of her.

"Does it hurt?"

He licked the thin blood that dripped from the tip of his ear, a shining light in his eyes.

"Is it painful or exciting?"

The ear pin sticks in and breaks through the soft flesh as if it were another level of conquest of the person. It always hurts when a foreign object pierces the flesh and blood, no matter what pierces inside.

The sight of Chu Wanning whimpering and shaking in pain made Mo Ran feel more and more aroused, and he rubbed Chu Wanning's chin, breaking it over to kiss himself in a hot, wet kiss as he gasped.

"It's just an earring, why are you shaking?"

Knowingly, he pushes his hand hard, pushing the pin roughly through his earlobe, unmercifully, fiercely and roughly.

"Look, it's all pierced through you." He stroked Chu Wanning's newly put on earring and rasped, "It stabbed through."

""

"It's in your flesh and blood, and you're mine from now on."

Chu Wanning in a previous life, coming to live an earthly life in this one.

The realization made Mo Ran's heart jump, his head was numb, his eyes were dizzy, he couldn't even breathe, he looked at everything in front of him numbly, what the hell was going on?

He tried hard to concentrate on the conversation between Chu Wanning and Huai Zui, but the excitement was so great that he could not return to it immediately. He was only vaguely aware of what Chu Wanning was saying to Huai Zui, and his ears were filled with broken words like "forbidden spell of destruction" and "unstoppable".

He saw Huai Zui lean back in his chair, his face waxing yellow and his eyes tightening.

"How do you prove that what you say is true?"

"It can't be proven." Eventually, Mo Ran heard Chu Wanning speak thus, "I can only ask the master to believe me."

"This is absurd. You say you came through the gates of life and death from another earthly world, and in that world there is one called Tadda"

" Fairy Tramper ."

"There was a Fairy Tramper who was destroying the world, almost turning it upside down, and you discovered his secret, which is why you tried to open the gates of life and death and came to this world in order to rewrite everything."

"It's not rewritten, it's stopped. If this continues, sooner or later they will master the spell of the Gate of Life and Death, and then it will be more than just that earthly world of ours that will end." Chu Wanning paused, his eyes reflecting the hazy candlelight, "Neither will escape."

"It's ridiculous." Huai Zui muttered, "How is this possible it's nonsense"

Chu Wanning is looking at the water leak in front of Huai Zui's door every now and then, and he is pinpointing the hour, his eyes gradually gathering anxiety: "Even if you do not believe me at this moment, you will understand later. Until then, please only seal this incense burner in the cave at Dragon Blood Mountain, in which I have set the most crucial spell to allow it to evaporate slowly inside, so that the Master does not have to worry about it. The only thing to do is"

Huai Zui looked up, almost as if he were looking at a madman, a visionary dream-like look, at Chu Wanning.

"The only thing to do is not to let anyone near the caves of Dragon Blood Mountain. Until after the Master believes what I say, find a way to bring the me of this world, along with the one called Mo Ran, to Dragon Blood Mountain. The spells in the incense burner have been laid out, so there is no need to worry."

Huai Zui moved his mouth feebly as if to say something, but this was when there was a sudden, mournful whistle outside the window.

This whistle is almost identical to the one that the Fairy Tramper makes when it disappears.

Chu Wanning's face grew paler at the sound of this movement, and he stared into Huai Zui's eyes almost anxiously, "Please, no one in the world can help me but you, there is no one else I can trust."

When he heard the word "entrusted", Huai Zui froze for a moment.

His pupils seemed to take on all at once the cloudiness and vicissitudes of an old and decrepit man.

Finally he took the censer and gave a slight nod.

The whistle was sharper. Chu Wanning looked back out of the window at the night, and then said to Huai Zui, "Please, Master, keep the Dragon Blood Mountain cave safe. What I have said today is not false."

The whistle was so harsh that it almost tore through the eardrums.

Chu Wanning turned and ran into the night, with only one last glance at Huai Zui. He had intended to make the salute of master and disciple, but his hand stopped halfway up and he closed his eyes and made a long bow, saying goodbye.

In that moment, Huai Zui, who had no idea where he got the courage, stood up and shouted at Chu Wanning, "Do you know what I did? Didn't I do the same thing to you in that world? You won't believe me anymore."

Chu Wanning, however, just shook his head, his face a blur in the night.

"Master," he was getting farther and farther away, "I don't have time for this please, do something."

"By any means possible, this matter is so important that you must persuade me to listen to you and let me come with him to Dragon Blood Mountain."

He is finally gone.

The night is dusky and the stars are penetrating the water.

Huai Zui chased him out of the courtyard, only to see a heavier-than-night flash in the distance, and Chu Wanning was nowhere to be seen, except for the incense burner in his hand, full of spiritual energy, which he held firmly in his palm, confirming that it was not a dream.

Mo Ran's eyes shake violently as the scene in front of her shakes, and the piles and scenes she has seen before are scattered like an avalanche of broken bricks and tiles.

"He said he would do it by whatever means, but what could be done" Huai Zui sighed, "He had long since ceased to trust me and shunned me. Besides, I have reservations in my mind after all, and I am not sure if this is all a conspiracy."

"It was not until Butterfly's day split and Wangning passed away that I made up my mind after resurrecting him to fix the book with him."

"I have deliberated over that letter several times, and because I do not know how powerful the person behind the curtain is, I dare not state the truth explicitly in the letter. I really had no other excuse to approach him. Besides, he is a powerful man, and he also holds the important position of Elder Yu Heng at the peak of death and life. It was impossible for me to force him to leave, but in the end I thought that it would be inconvenient for him as his spirit core had not been fully repaired over the years. So I asked him to come to Dragon Blood Mountain to meet me on that account."

"But I have lied to him for fourteen years. So no matter how earnest my words were, he wouldn't believe me after all"

A long, quiet sigh, the sound almost perplexed.

"I've been waiting. Just like nearly twenty years ago, when I held him captive on the mountain, I came to him every day, expecting him to change. Then I also came to Dragon Blood Mountain every day looking for him, hoping he would come back."

"It would have been nice if he would have given me another chance."

The old monk's old voice was like a broken paper kite, drifting far away: "My time is running out, and I know I cannot wait much longer. That is why I have finally made this scroll. In it, I thought about it and changed it several times, putting in little bits and pieces of memories that I didn't want to put in. But I was a coward after all, and with this scroll, I didn't want him to see the sad look in my eyes when I was alive and couldn't stand him. I had seen enough of that look when he was fourteen years old."

"So, Wangning," he sighed softly, as if a weight had fallen, "by the time you look here, I shall have come to rest."

"I am still selfish as a person, and in order not to see you hate me, I only dared to give you the whole truth before I left, to that child you call Mo Ran. I am sorry for that year, it was a mistake on the part of the Master. You were a living person, never was."

Huai Zui paused for a long time, suddenly hoarse, as he uttered the last words left on earth.

" Master Chu, will you forgive me"

A Master Chu, I don't know if it is the Tao and the Chu Wanning of a hundred years later or the Tao and the Chu Xun of a hundred years ago.

After the sound, the wind suddenly picked up, and countless fragments of memory were like white snow, like drifts of flotsam and jetsam, blowing past. All the sins and punishments of two hundred years, the joys and sorrows of fourteen years, all converge at this moment.

The child is laughing: "You to one, I to one, what blossoms in the water lotus blossoms in the water."

The young man is arguing, "If you don't know how to measure others, how can you measure yourself? This immortality, it is better not to cultivate it."

At the end, the phoenix eyes closed and fell: "This is goodbye Master."

All this hazel and hazel overlaps, like the flashing of a lantern, and at its brightest, Mo Ran sees Huai Zui's hunched back again, crouching before a desk, carving the last strokes of the sacred wood.

The evening bell rings.

"Let's call you, Chu Wanning."

The sound of the wooden fish fell, the flood of water churned, and Mo Ran floated in this wild current of memories, followed by a violent push out of the reel of memories and a fall to the gravel floor in front of the Dragon Blood Mountain cave.

Time passes differently inside and outside the scroll, and it is now dusk again on earth, a magnificent red haze between heaven and earth, and a peaceful sunset. Mo Ran lies there, as if he has been transported back to that night many years ago when Huai Zui dripped blood into the wood and a child called Chu Wanning was born on earth.

He was lying on the ground, his eyes out of focus.

"Master Wangning"

He finally knew why Chu Wanning, a strong man, had fallen into his arms and cried out.

It's just that the cost of knowing is so great that it's like death by a thousand cuts.

Is it all his fault?

It was the fault of the Fairy Tramper emperor in his previous life, and Chu Wanning has spent two lifetimes trying to stop him from running the world into the ground.

Chu Wanning's auricula has been mined.

Brother of the benefactor who saved his life before Temple of No Mercy.

Not a human being but a spirit of divine wood

Each blow is like a brick and stone smash, and just one piece of truth can break a person's bones and blood, let alone so many piled up in one place.

Mo Ran felt for a moment that he was lying on the ground, as if all his bones were broken, unable to do anything else.

All messed up.

His eyes flickered to Chu Wanning, who sat with his eyes closed, and suddenly remorse gathered into bone, compassion into flesh, and pain into blood. The desire to shield this man from the extreme distress and bewilderment, to free him from the mire.

He slowly stood up and walked over to Chu Wanning.

Chu Wanning opened his eyes and looked at him.

Two people, neither of whom spoke first.

Finally it was Mo Ran who leaned down and hugged him, "Master, divine wood or human, as long as you still want me" he held back but still choked up, "I have always"

How's it all going?

Stand beside him

He doesn't deserve it.

So he ended up saying, in a self-effacing and painful way, "I will always, always stand in front of you."

I cannot accompany you, I am not worthy of you, I am so low and dirty and ruinous, but you are pure and white.

I can't stand by your side anymore, Wangning.

Let me stand in front of you, to shield you from blood and sharp knives.

Until the day of death.