Pawn Crossing the River

After Xiao Bodhisattva left, Qi Xuansu did not rush to leave. He was not scared by Xiao Bodhisattva, but carefully visited this abandoned temple for many years.

Although there are only broken walls and ruins left here, there are still some murals on the remaining walls.

The murals here are a bit mysterious. They are not the Buddha and Bodhisattva of Buddhism, nor are they flying temples. They have nothing to do with monks. They do not depict scenes of the human world, but more like a chaos. I don’t know whether it is too easy or too empty.

Of course, if you want to use murals to express the world, it must be abstract, and you need a little imagination to understand it.

At first glance, the mural depicts a circle, which is divided into three layers, small at both ends and large in the middle. The layer in the middle and occupying the largest area depicts the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, plants, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and then annotates three words in the form of extinction.

Because Qin Wubing mentioned that the Beiting Protectorate encountered a strange stone tablet in the West Courtyard of the Golden Tent, which recorded in the form of extinction that the West Courtyard was established by Song Zheng during the reign of Emperor Sizong of the Wei Dynasty. In fact, the last emperor of the Wei Dynasty was Emperor Shenzong, and there was no Emperor Sizong at all. So Qi Xuansu had a little understanding of the extinction text afterwards, but he didn't have time to study it systematically, so Qi Xuansu could only recognize that it was the extinction text, but he didn't know what it meant.

However, to Qi Xuansu's surprise, Xiao Yin actually knew the extinction text.

It's true that every inch has its own strengths and every foot has its own weaknesses.

Xiao Yin usually shows herself to be unlearned, but in fact she has some ink.

Qi Xuansu asked and found out that it was Mr. Old Yin who taught her. She seemed to be born to learn this. She remembered it after reading it once. It was much easier than any Taoist classics. Because it didn't take much effort, Xiao Yin didn't reject learning this, unlike Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu who asked her to learn the Taoist classics, as if it was like asking her to die.

Thinking about it carefully, this is reasonable. It is said that the extinction text is the text for communicating with the dead. The three major yin objects and the Emperor Willow are more or less related. It is reasonable for Mr. Old Yin to know the extinction text.

So Xiao Yin started to translate for Qi Xuansu. These three words mean "human world".

That is, the human world.

Above the human world is a semicircle with an arc on top, and three words are also marked on it. It translates to "Heaven Beyond Heaven". There is also a line of small notes next to it: Time stops, everything is reduced to dust, and all mortal things are turned into nothingness.

However, this "Heaven Beyond Heaven" is divided vertically into several different areas, which are also marked, such as Posuo, Liuli, Jile, Sanshisan, Courtyard, Hall, etc., of different sizes and shapes.

These areas do not occupy the entire "Heaven Beyond Heaven", and there is still a considerable part of it blank. The two are like the relationship between a city and the wild. There are many things of different shapes wandering in the "wilderness" part, including the one-eyed one that Qi Xuansu remembers deeply.

Xiao Yin also noticed it, pointed to the one-eyed one on the mural, and then pointed to the stone Buddha.

Qi Xuansu just nodded, did not comment, and continued to look down.

Below the human world is a semicircle with an arc at the bottom, marked with three words, which translates to "Naraka". This is actually a transliteration of Sanskrit, meaning the afterlife, hell.

Here, like the "heaven beyond heaven", it is divided into many independent areas, marked as: Avici, Huangquan, Abyss, Hell, Hades, etc.

In addition, there are also large blank areas within the scope of "Naraka", but there are no various strange things active here, and it seems dead silent. Under "Naraka" is marked with a line of small words: All things fall, forever sink.

At this time, looking back at the "human world" part, there are actually some small areas marked separately, such as Kunlun, Lingshan, Shambhala, Eden, etc., scattered in various places in the human world.

Qi Xuansu probably understood it a little. This mural seems to depict the three realms of heaven, earth and man, and it is quite objective, at least much more objective than the doctrines of a single sect.

Is this the three realms in the eyes of "Changshengtian"?

Then who built this temple and left behind the one-eyed stone Buddha sitting upside down and these murals?

Was it the shaman heretic who secretly built a tunnel under the palace in the Great Snow Mountain?

What does Bodhisattva Xiao have to do with all this? Why did she know about the existence of the tunnel?

This inevitably reminded Qi Xuansu of the deceased Monk Xiao. Legend has it that a Buddhist master found Monk Xiao, who was still in his cradle, in a relic of the Sea of ​​Death. Is this legend true? Monk Xiao was picked up here? Or are there more than one similar temples in the Sea of ​​Death?

In addition, the Taoists had clearly discovered this place and erected a monument and wrote a book outside the temple, indicating that this place was taken over by the Taoists. So did the Taoists at that time see these murals? If they had seen them, why didn't they report it to the government? Did they deliberately not report it? Or did something unexpected happen?

The Taoists only erected a monument but did not subsequently change the Buddhist temple into a Taoist temple. Is this related to this?

Unfortunately, the time is too long, and many things cannot be verified. The truth is like many lost ancient cities, destined to be buried in the vast yellow sand.

"Old Qi!" Xiao Yin suddenly shouted, interrupting Qi Xuansu's thoughts. Qi Xuansu thought Xiao Yin had encountered an accident, and hurried over to look over. It turned out that Xiao Yin found another mural in the dust while Qi Xuansu was thinking.

This mural no longer depicts the Three Realms, but a one-eyed stone Buddha. A masked woman is kneeling devoutly to the one-eyed stone Buddha, so that her buttocks are raised high, which is not very elegant.

There are also three characters next to it, which means: Compassion Falls.

Qi Xuansu didn't quite understand what these three words meant.

On the other side, Jiayin Lingguan also found a mural.

Compared to the previous two murals, this mural is a little incomplete, but you can still roughly see what it means. It is a continuous snow-capped mountain, and a huge eye appears in the position that should belong to the sun and the moon, overlooking the world.

At the foot of the snow-capped mountain, many people formed a strange team, including monks, Taoists, shamans, priests, Confucian scholars, and a mixture of good and bad. If it weren't for the age of this mural, Qi Xuansu almost thought that the mural was depicting the delusional people of the "Heavenly Court".

This complex team was about to climb the snow-capped mountain, as if on a pilgrimage. However, this mural was severely damaged, especially the place where the extermination text was marked had peeled off, which was even more confusing than the previous "Compassionate Fall".

Many murals after this mural have been completely damaged, leaving only a few mottled colors.

Skipping these completely damaged murals, the next relatively intact mural still depicts the snow-capped mountains, but the huge eye hanging in the sky has disappeared and is empty. The pilgrims have also turned around, and it seems that they have ended their pilgrimage and started to go down the mountain. However, the number of people in the team has been greatly reduced. The Taoist priests, Confucian scholars, and priests are gone. Only a monk and a shaman are left. The monk is holding a baby in his arms, with a pious face.

From going up the mountain for pilgrimage to going down the mountain with the baby in his arms, a lot of things must have happened.

Why did the huge eye hanging in the sky disappear?

Why did the pilgrim team lose so many people? Was there an internal conflict? Or were others sacrificed? Or did they encounter some danger?

Where did the baby held by the monk come from?

Unfortunately, the mural in the middle was damaged, and nothing can be known.

Qi Xuansu can only make some speculations based on the existing mural information.

This huge eye should be "Changshengtian" without a doubt. It once went to war with the real Changshengtian believed in by Shamanism, and after Changshengtian left, it used the name of "Changshengtian" to erode Shamanism.

It claims to come from the sky and descended on the snow mountain. This snow mountain is suspected to be the Great Snow Mountain, but there was no Great Snow Mountain Palace at that time. In the past, the Great Snow Mountain belonged to the sphere of influence of Shamanism, and "Changshengtian" secretly acted in the name of Changshengtian. It is difficult to say which Changshengtian's will Shamanism followed when building the Great Snow Mountain Palace on the Great Snow Mountain.

However, it is likely to be "Changshengtian".

This speculation is also based on facts, because in the end only two people came back from the snow mountain, namely the monk and the shaman.

This shaman is likely to be a high-level shaman, or he will become a high-level shaman in the future. In the end, he built the Great Snow Mountain Palace on the snow mountain where "Changshengtian" once descended, which is a kind of worship and offering. He also secretly built the tunnel under the Great Snow Mountain Palace.

Similarly, it can be deduced that the monks who left the snow mountain with the shaman built many temples to worship the one-eyed stone Buddha. "Changshengtian" is the one-eyed stone Buddha, and the one-eyed stone Buddha is "Changshengtian".

However, the one-eyed stone Buddha appeared earlier than the monks built the temple. In other words, the image of the one-eyed stone Buddha came first, and then the monks built temples to worship the one-eyed stone Buddha. Because before the monks and others went to the snow mountain for pilgrimage, there was a mural depicting a woman worshiping the one-eyed stone Buddha, and the three words "Compassion Fall" were marked.

This mural was marked separately, which should be very important.

Then a group of people went to the snow mountain for pilgrimage.

Is there a connection between the two?

We can even make a bold guess. Will the woman who worshipped the one-eyed stone Buddha be the mother of the baby?

Then will the baby be Monk Xiao or Bodhisattva Xiao?

Qi Xuansu quickly denied this guess because the age did not match.

Both Monk Xiao and Bodhisattva Xiao can walk in the world.

Qi Xuansu also personally verified that neither Monk Xiao nor Bodhisattva Xiao were first-tribulation immortals. The 100-year period was the basic rule of heaven, which could not be violated by second-tribulation immortals. No matter how much the outer demons twisted the rules, they could not twist this basic rule.

Since the 100-year period had to be observed, the ages of Monk Xiao and Bodhisattva Xiao could be roughly estimated, with an error of no more than 50 years. This tunnel and temple could be traced back to the period of the three great masters, or even earlier, the period of shamanism. If Monk Xiao or Bodhisattva Xiao was the baby, then the 100-year period had long passed, and they would either have retreated to a cave in a divine kingdom, or become first-tribulation immortals and continue to walk in the world.

So it can be reversely deduced that the baby was not Monk Xiao or Bodhisattva Xiao.