[Shadow Guardian] The Wind Rises from the Wild West

There is a tomb deep in the shadow gate, and no one is buried in it.

Inside the tomb was a natural cave, not too deep, and there was a cold spring in the innermost part.The pond is only a few feet in radius, and the water infiltrates from the cracks in the rocks, and slowly fills up here.When the stone door of the tomb was closed, the cave was pitch black.Yun was sitting quietly in the cold pool of water in the darkness.

The cold spring water around him is misty, but he still holds a scroll of bamboo slips in his hand.The characters on the bamboo slips are engraved, and you can read them by groping in the dark.

There are many such bamboo slips piled up in the corner of the inner chamber of the tomb, including ancient scriptures and history, as well as the notes of the seniors of the Shadow Gate.He was afraid of the dark when he was a child, and in order to exercise his eyesight, the tomb was never lit.Until one day, the former head of the sect stuffed such a roll of bamboo slips in his hands, and he felt the handwriting engraved on it, and he was able to read it by hand, and he gradually lost his fear.Over the years, besides practicing kung fu, Yun has already read all the bamboo slips.He can even judge the technique, skill, and even character of his predecessors from the sharp strokes of the handwriting.

However, these are all remnants of before Tiandu moved eastward. At that time, Tiandu was located in the imperial city at the foot of Qi Mountain, only three days away from Qi Mountain.At that time, the shadows of each generation of emperors would leave their own bamboo slips, some wrote a lot, and some only wrote a few volumes.At that time, the king's order was clear, and the four fields came to court.

After moving east, there was no more words.

Yun slowly stroked the writing on the bamboo slips.It would be nice if I was born a few hundred years earlier.

He didn't lie to Ah Jin.Many years ago, he had sworn to these bamboo slips that he would never be a shadow of the royal family.

Four years ago, he also swore to the back of the sect master's departure that he would never be a shadow of the royal family.

Now, he will no longer be the shadow of the royal family, he has made a promise that he will become the shadow of a stranger from the Western Wilderness.

It was crazy, it was almost betrayal, but he decided anyway.

It was late at night, and Ah Jin's voice came from outside the door of the tomb: "Master of the door." It was obvious that he had cried.

Yun Jin was in the cold spring, it was dark in front of his eyes, but he seemed to be able to see the little girl's grievance through the tomb passage and the stone gate. "Is everything settled?"

"Yes, it's placed in the East Hall." Ah Jin raised his voice a little: "Sect Master, you don't know that those barbarians from the Western Region even brought their prey to roast and eat, and it's in our yard!"

"Yeah." Still in an extremely flat tone.

"I... quarreled with them."

"Oh?"

"Also... I even fought with them..." Ah Jin confessed, sounding even more aggrieved.

"Are you hurt?" Yun's concerned voice came from inside the door.

"No." Ah Jin felt sore and cried again, "Master, come out, let's hide in the mountains together..."

The people in the tomb were very patient, waiting for her to finish crying before slowly saying: "Ah Jin, from tomorrow onwards, you will be the head of the Shadow Sect."

"I do not want!"

"After I leave, you can start to teach Aqi. Your flame is only on the sixth floor, so don't rush into it." Yun's tone was as calm as usual, even with a hint of pampering. "Using extremely cold things to assist in cultivation is the method of blazing cultivation. However, after reaching the ninth level, it will run on its own from time to time, which is difficult to control. If there is no cold spring to suppress, you must go to the emperor's side to achieve the fire contract."

What he said was very brief, and it was difficult to explain in detail for the time being, so I can only leave it to Ah Jin to experience it himself in the future.

The internal strength of Yingmen is called Blazing Flame.The blazing flames are like wildfire, they run on their own all the time. After reaching the ninth level, if there is no extremely cold thing to suppress them all the time, they will almost burst through the meridians and break out of the body.Therefore, they had to rely on Hanquan to wear it down and suppress it.

Therefore, Yun could not get out of Qi Mountain, nor could he escape into the deep mountains.Yun's aptitude is excellent, although his temperament is gentle and soft, but he is born with blazing skills, and he is a rare talent in Yingmen.His internal strength reached the ninth level three years ago.Up to now, during the day, every two hours, he has to soak in the cold spring for more than half an hour, so as to kill the blazing inner breath in his body that is about to boil.

Because of this, the cold spring has always been the exclusive practice place for the sect master.Because of this, the shadows of each generation went to the emperor's side after reaching the ninth level.This constant exposure to ice and fire is torture.Only by achieving the fire contract and becoming a shadow can one be freed from this torture.

Ah Jin was already crying outside the door of the tomb. "I won't listen! Clan master...I'd rather you go to Tiandu and be the emperor's shadow guard than go with that barbarian!"

A low sigh came from the tomb, "Ah Jin, the fire contract only exists between two people, and the emperor can only have one shadow. Have you ever thought about it, if I go to Tiandu and become the shadow guard of the emperor, Then... the current Shadow Guard of the Son of Heaven will die back and die."

The emperor's current shadow guard is Yun's previous sect master, and Ah Jin has seen it before.

There was a moment of silence outside the door, as if he couldn't accept this for a while. "However, that barbarian is not a celestial bereaved, how could he reach the fire contract?" The celestial bereaved has a special bloodline, and only descendants of the royal family can reach a fire contract with the shadow guard, making it a unique vassal.

"You don't have to worry about this." Yun continued to speak slowly: "In the tomb next to the cold spring, there are scrolls accumulated over the years, bamboo slips and silk books. You need to read them one by one. Don't be lazy anymore. Shadow Gate's past and Many things are recorded in it, I can't go into details one by one, you have to know anyway."

Ah Jin cried again outside the door, "No, I don't want to know!"

"The prince is about to reach adulthood. When you go to Tiandu in the future, you should be able to be the shadow of the prince. At that time, you can bring all the ice breath pills made in recent years, and you will need them. I put the ice breath pills by the east wall In the jar, there are 230 six of them. The Bingxi Pill is made of cold spring water, and it is also recorded in the bamboo slips..."

Ah Jin was crying all the time.Yun, on the other hand, continued slowly, gently, and recklessly.He spoke in a low voice, and his breath was not as steady as in the daytime, and in the end, he even stopped talking for a while.After all, everything that should be explained has been explained.

**********************

Around midnight, the door of the East Hall was pushed open.There was a harsh "squeak—" from the door hinge, which woke up the staggering people in the room.Hong Han jumped up, full of energy.

It was the little girl A Jin who pushed the door.Her eyes were swollen like walnuts, and she looked depressed and her shoulders slumped. "Follow me." His voice was also hoarse.

She was talking to Honghan, but there was no reason for the others not to follow.

Ah Jin went straight through the dilapidated hall where they rested, and opened the door leading to the back.

Outside is a white stone path, which leads far to an altar in front.They walked up the stone path, only to find that it was made of large pieces of white marble.The altar has nine floors, the top is round and the bottom is thick and simple, without any carvings.Unlike the dilapidated guest hall, this place was cleaned very cleanly, and there were no weeds between the stones.

Ah Jin walked to the side of the altar, picked up the incense and lit the copper lamps one after another.After going around for a circle, the surroundings of the altar gradually lit up, and the eight copper lamps with the wings of the firebirds were the images of rituals coming from all directions.Only then did everyone realize that there were many boulders scattered around, with simple and rough murals engraved on them, which were vaguely the legends of the ancient blue bird.

There was silence at this moment, even Hong Han, who didn't care about etiquette the most, couldn't help but feel awe in his heart.

They waited for about half a moment, and the hunchbacked old servant came with a candle, and then they saw the young man following the old man.

He was completely different from the daytime. In the late spring, the night in the mountains was almost freezing cold. He was wearing only a thin linen suit, barefoot, and walked silently on the white stone ground.His hair hung softly behind him, still damp, leaving traces of damp on the sackcloth.

That's right, such a ritual passed down from ancient times must be burned with incense and bathed.

Yun walked past those firebird copper lamps, walking between the light and shade of the firelight, and his elegant face was illuminated again and again.

Hong Han kept staring at him.Looking at the young man's slender and well-fitting figure, his smooth black hair, his pale and calm face, his bare feet walking up to the white altar step by step, his slender ankles have a heartbreaking fragility.His heart moved, and he felt an inexplicable longing, and felt that he should be alone here at this time, and there shouldn't be so many people watching.

Yun walked to the top of the altar, raised his hand slightly, and made a gesture of invitation to Honghan.

"No!" The ceremonial officer from Tiandu suddenly yelled, knelt down on the ground, and said in a broken voice: "This is the emperor's gift, how can ordinary people desecrate it?"

The young man froze for a moment, then realized, and lowered his eyes.

He walked down from the altar, walked up to Hong Han, stretched out his hand, and said in a low voice, "Please follow me."

Hong Han held the hand with the brand of the fire bird, that hand was very cold, like holding a piece of ice.

Seeing them gradually walking into the darkness beyond the firelight, Ah Jin cried again.

They walked through the mountains before dawn.

It's still not dawn, but the teenager is as familiar with Qishan as his own home.

He led Honghan all the way up the mountain stream, and jumped over the boulder under the waterfall lightly.The water droplets that were like gauze under the moonlight never fell on them.They climbed up the cliff along the ancient vines, borrowed strength from the pine branches protruding from the cliff, and passed through the narrow gap in the rock wall.Hong Han is not good at lightness kungfu, but the route chosen by the young man seems to have taken this into consideration, and there is no need for extreme lightness kung fu.After a while, they came to a boulder on the top of a mountain.

In front of you are the vast mountains and land before dawn, behind you are heavy snow-capped peaks, light thin clouds and mist slide by themselves, the mountain wind is empty, and the pines burst.They stood still for a moment, breathing a long sigh of relief.

"here it is……"

"It's the place where I often come to practice." Yun took Hong Han's hand back and took a step back.

Honghan felt a little pity, he shook it all the way, but his hand was still so cold, it was not like a living thing.Afterwards, he saw the young man kneeling down to him solemnly.

Hong Han narrowed his eyes and examined.

This person once quietly caught the arrow he shot, and calmly made himself retreat from Qishan Mountain.He also calmly held his knife and pressed the dagger against his throat.And now, he knelt before himself in surrender.

If it was someone else, such as the slave old man he bought with five black sheepskins, or the Jingchu swordsman who came to follow, he must have raised his hand to show his humility.But this time he didn't.

Hong Han looked down at the boy from above, waiting for him to complete the ritual.