our mountain

Zhang Yun and I looked at each other.

The table where the old lady was standing was a step away from us, so I could clearly see the man in the gray coat impatiently rolling up the greasy advertising paper on the table and blocking it in front of my eyes.

However, it didn't stop the old lady from preaching. Her eyes were empty, and she hung her head and chattered endlessly: "...in this way we can enjoy eternal happiness...our home is in Six Stone Lane..."

She spat out an address, inviting everyone at the table to join the Celestial gathering for the evening.

We didn't take the initiative, the old woman had already moved between the two of us, her wrinkled hands were overwhelmed, and she grabbed a piece of crumpled paper with a few handwritten words on it:

The pain in this life is temporary and mild, and I advise you to walk with God.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, civilization to civilization.

The sky of heaven and man is our sky, and our sky is the sky of heaven and man.

I have read the "Code of God" from the chairman, and I can understand the teachings represented by these three sentences. Zhang Yun didn't say anything, and I was responsible for finding Tang Yi's body.

The old woman didn't look at us, and I covered half of my face with my wine glass, lest she recognize me as the enemy of their high priest.

"Believe in heaven and man... Believe in heaven and man to preach..."

"I believe." I said.

The old woman didn't seem to react, and continued: "There will be good rewards in the next life..."

Then she fell silent, staring at me with those very small eyes that seem to be under the layers of eyelids, but those eyes seem to have no focus, what seems to be behind me is also like my body Before: "Eight o'clock in the evening..."

"How many people are in your party?"

She didn't seem to be very good at answering this question, so she spit out the address of Six Stones Lane and asked us to attend the party in the evening.

"Your high priest is dead? Who will preside?"

She still didn't answer, and turned to the next table with a dull expression. Zhang Yun and I got up and went outside. The weather was gloomy and there was a choking smell in the air.

"I'll take a look at the gathering here in the evening. I haven't figured out how the Celestial Cult will work after the death of the high priest. I haven't figured it out yet. The clue to the next corpse seems to be nearby, right?"

"Well, a scavenger."

We got clues to the second bone from an old man who picked up trash. The old man picked up a small piece of bone when he was picking up trash, and then he felt pitiful, so he found a place to bury it.

Zhang Yun didn't want to dig the grave. I did the job and wrapped the first thin knuckle with a handkerchief. I didn't look at it too much. If I read too much, I would have strange associations.

Why are all the fingers left?Is there a skull I can miss?Afterwards, I thought about it for a long time. After all, it was the burning soul, starting from the dantian and spreading all over the body. Her hands might still be holding her special gun, which was blocked for a short time so that the hands were not burned out.

Although the place where this bone is buried is close, it is still quite far away from the Six Stones Lane where the [-]:[-] p.m. party will be held.

I can use the activator strapped to my arm to create a combination of levitation and acceleration runes, but out of consideration for special circumstances, I followed Zhang Yun’s introduction step by step and took an extremely cheap rickshaw .

Zhang Yun is still in the internship period, and now he is working in the family, so he can't accompany me at night. After we agreed to contact in time, we parted ways.

Six Stones Lane... No. [-]...

I pinched my nose and walked further, the smell of sweat, feet and inexplicable decay rushed into my nostrils. It was as strong as a biochemical weapon, much higher and deeper than the stinky water ditches in Fengyin Mountain.It was already dark, and there were no lights on the road. I squinted my eyes to identify the house number, and didn't take out my lighting. It was still very expensive, and I was worried about being robbed here.

Someone in the dark has been following me, and I am always under surveillance, but if I am robbed, as long as I am not killed on the spot, the people in the dark will not make a move, so I am more careful.

I quickly found No. [-]. The door was two doors apart, the wood was a little moldy, and there was a very strong smell of poor-quality detergent coming out of it.The gate is sunk deep into the ground, only half of it is above the ground. To open the gate, one has to step into a mud pit.

I knocked on the door, and a young female voice came from inside: "Come in."

Could this be someone else at the party?

I pushed open the door first, then strode across the puddle and stepped on the stone slab. With my not-so-high stature, I still hit my head.

I have to stoop down.

After entering the door, there are four parallel clotheslines in the yard, drying bed sheets and men’s and women’s clothes. The smell of inferior detergent is extremely strong, but there is still a familiar but unrememberable stench in the room.

I lifted one layer after another of the sheets. These fabrics have been washed, as if they were once stained with indelible filth, so that they need to be rubbed so vigorously that the horizontal and vertical threads of the cloth are torn apart. , like the texture of boiled chicken breast.

Lifting the last layer of sheets, I stepped into a puddle, looked down, and saw that I had stepped into a laundry tub—countless bubbles were gushing on the water, I pulled my foot back, and rubbed it with my hands—— Too much detergent!The people in this neighborhood are not rich, and they can even be said to be extremely poor. Some people don't wash clothes. Why do you have to put so much detergent in a basin of water?

The stench suddenly rushed in front of my eyes again.

The door in front of me was ajar, and the smell came from inside.

I suddenly felt very uneasy, thinking back to "The Code of the Gods", I pulled Tangyi's tiger skin as a banner, and said in a low voice: "Follow God's arrangement, here I come."

"God's presence is the greatest blessing in our life." The young female voice inside replied calmly.

I pushed open the door, stifling my screams.

There are two chairs facing the door, and a young woman with her eyes closed is gently stroking the knife on her lap with both hands—the old woman I saw during the day is sitting on the other chair with her head tilted.

The reason why she tilted her head was that her neck was broken, her ears were pressed against her right shoulder, and there was a peaceful smile on her face.

The stench came from her body, the smell of incontinence mixed with blood.

I retreated quickly, the activation instrument on my arm and the dagger in the Qiankun Ring were ready.

The young woman said, "You are also a disciple of God and should be able to understand our decision."

what?Is this the cult that Tang Yi taught you? That's not what the Code of Gods says!

"What is your relationship?"

She kept her eyes closed and pointed at herself gently: "I killed my mother."

Why doesn't that person in the dark come out?This is a homicide!I'm going to turn around and yell to kill, but the woman's expression is still gentle, she doesn't have the aura of a murderer, she is just a mortal...why?

We stalemate for a while, and I feel no danger.

The woman said: "My mother said that she has completed a great commission today and is qualified to go to God."

I was taken aback.

The only word about the Great Commission in the "Code of God" is that it is the great commission given to us by God to spread to everyone what God has done for us. There are more people who obey our words and believe in God than the stars. The more we have, the more qualified we are to see God.

No... That's not how I understand it... How can someone pass on one, think that they can do it, and end this life non-stop!

"How many great missions has she accomplished?" I stopped looking at the old woman's body and trembled slightly.

"One piece. Thank you for believing in God."

What does it mean?The old woman preached like this, and I was the only one who achieved it?But I don't believe it!

"One year ago, our family was blessed by God, and we heard the gospel from the high priest. Our confusion was answered. We knew that after death, God would accept our souls and make up for our sufferings in this life. We look forward to Immediately to see God, but we have not done anything for them, so we went out to preach one by one, whoever got the qualification will go to see God... Unfortunately, my legs were broken by the factory machine , My eyes were blinded by the crystal cutting powder, and I have never had the opportunity to go out and witness for God..."

"Whose sheets and clothes outside belong to?"

"Sister, brother, brother, I, father, just washed mother's bed linen, I will wash mother's bed linen after the party. Scared you, friend, we will all return to the arms of God, don't be afraid, be strong Emboldened. Come, the party begins, and we read the code together..."

The woman seemed to remember that I was at a party. Only then did I see that the hand holding the knife was shaking all the time, and then I let it go and landed with a clang.

I have already dialed the communication to the inspecting sergeant in this area, turned my head and walked out layer by layer of sheets, but I did not run in panic. I went outside and stood still in the darkness.

I took out the "Divine Law Code" from the Qiankun Ring, I suspect that I remembered it wrongly, did it record something that I forgot?No, the books I read don't forget so far.

Here come the inspectors.

"what is it call?"

"Li Xiaoling." Turning Li Lingxiao upside down, I handed out the fake ID.

"Is it from outside?"

"It's from the east, and it hasn't been long since I came to the port."

"There are a lot of these things, thank you for reporting the case."

"Li Xiaoling" has no right to know what happened after that. I got the follow-up information from Zhang Yun. By the way, after the inspecting sergeant sealed off the scene, I saw more than a dozen hollowed out "Code of God" seized by them. page, enshrining a phalanx.

It has become like jade in texture, but it is blood red, with a faint aura. In the ancient repair period, this thing was most suitable for cultivating demons.I owe Zhang Yun a favor, wrap it in another silk handkerchief and put it away.

I looked through the information Zhang Yun gave me in the rented house temporarily arranged for me in line with my identity.

The young lady is called Wan Tong. She could still see things a year ago. She works in a crystal processing factory. Sunset Port is close to the sea. There are two large crystal deposits in the sea. The salary in the crystal processing factory is not bad.However, her previous life was better.

It all started when the cultivation world issued reforms.

After the reform, the comprehension product foundry affiliated to the Qianyang faction introduced modern management methods and signed a new contract with Zhang’s consortium. After a month-long investigation, the managers believed that although most of the current comprehension products are made by mortals production, but safety cannot be guaranteed.

The dust and psychic radiation of the hedron mills can seriously injure the untrained mortal.

The high-pressure psychic energy furnace that explodes/bombs the psychic energy escapes and splashes workers all the time.

The packaging box that encapsulates the blank jade slips is shielded from interference, and the specially treated equipment is from the Yaozu Dynasty. The failure rate is very high, and it is extremely easy to crush the hands of workers.

So, the manager said, let's do training for the workers, which just responds to the current requirement of universal cultivation.

However, the project was quickly rejected, and the cost was extremely high. The training was basically to lead mortals into the path of self-cultivation. The cost of training a self-cultivator was astronomical. Although the money needed to get started was not much, it was enough to hire three or four more Equally paid workers, this arm's length plan will soon be history.

So the manager said, let's improve the production line to improve safety. The profit of the factory is not high. Most of the profits are taken by the consortium that occupies the patent and investment. Ordinary people, unable to bear the pressure of practitioners, refused to change the production line.

But the tide of reform has come, and this inhumane treatment of workers is not allowed. Therefore, the Federation issued subsidies, and the committee specially allocated funds for the construction of some facilities of the Cultivation Academy for Sunset Port. The factory owner finally decided to replace the production line to ensure the safety of workers.

Wan Tong was very happy. She saw the notice from the factory. Her father had been working in the crystal bomb factory. Every day, he was covered with scars and bumps all over his body. They were insignificant to a cultivator, but very deadly to ordinary people. wound.

She herself works in a spar processing factory, and the dust makes her cough frequently. The factory area is already seriously polluted, and she feels that if this continues, she will die of pneumoconiosis.

My mother works in the Jade Slip Factory. Because she has to be on guard against the machine getting out of control and falling down at any time, her waist is always bent under the safety line, her body can no longer be straightened, and her face in her 40s looks like she is 60 years old.

But I didn't expect that the advanced production line was replaced, the number of workers needed decreased, the factory laid off half of the staff, and the elderly father was laid off, because the various sects absorbed the chip technology of mortals, and fewer people used jade slips. Although the production line did not reduce the number of workers, many factories were closed. My mother’s factory closed down, and the factory owner ran away. It is said that he went to work in Shangyang City to make up for the wages owed.

Wan Tong herself has not received much impact. She is young, and the orders of the crystal processing factory are increasing, because her factory did not change the production line, but raised the wages of the workers. The workers heard the crystal bomb factory After the layoffs, everyone felt that the factory owner was a good person, and she planned to work harder.

My younger sister and younger brother attend classes at the free school here. Suddenly, news comes that cultivation has been included in the college entrance examination, and my younger brother's studies are not good. He decided to find a job first to support his younger sister, who is always the first in grade, to enter the cultivation college. If you become a cultivator, your family can enjoy happiness.

At that time, they heard the wind that the first batch of pilot schools were the schools in Sunset Harbor. The whole family gritted their teeth and took part-time jobs. They told their sister, don’t worry, if you don’t pass the exam in the first year, you can take the exam in the second year. Cultivators will come to the fore.

My younger sister worked very hard, and even performed better than some children in the urban area in many mock exams.

It wasn't until the early recruiters from the Cultivation Academy came that they realized that the pilot was a school in the city and had nothing to do with the free school in the factory area.Some people say, come on, I have a connection, I can create a fake student status, you can go to that test center on the day of the test to try your luck, as long as you have the ability, the practitioners will select you.

Who is that person?Wan Tong had already forgotten, she remembered that the whole family pooled up their life savings, a crystal coin, and put it in the hands of that person, and then gave the rest of the dry food to the younger sister, telling her not to be nervous.

The man led his younger sister away, and the younger sister came back alone, her shoes were lost, her hair was messed up, her thighs and calves were covered with blood, her eyes were straight, and she didn't speak no matter how much she asked. Later they found out that the man was just He tricked his sister into planning to sell her, but her sister was too smart, so she ran away secretly, was raped again, and ran back again.

Go to justice, people say!They don't have money to ask for, so they can only say, we don't want to be cultivators, we just live as a family.The younger sister sits at home and has nightmares every day. The neighbors have no malicious intentions, but when they see her, they repeat that sentence over and over again. What a pity, she is a good seed of a cultivator.

Then Hao Miaozi jumped into the river, and the body tripled in size.

How could there be time to be sad? My younger brother started to learn crafts, and when he met that person, he was so angry that he wanted to argue and seek justice, but he was stabbed to death by someone and thrown in a corner.Tell the inspecting sergeant that the murderer has been found. The murderer has nothing to do with that person. He is just unemployed and drunk, and treats his younger brother as the son of a factory owner.

Wan Tong still works hard every day, but she is so sad that she lost her mind during the last step of spar molding. If the workers hadn't pushed her away, not only her two legs would have been broken.But she couldn't lose her job. She was the only one in the family who still had a job. She had to work no matter what. So she tied herself to a chair, changed workshops, and polished the facets of crystals. She learned quickly, but she was not careful. The spar fragments splashed out of the crystal wheel eroded her eyes, and she could no longer open her eyes. Half of her eyeballs were burned. The factory owner paid her a sum of money and sent her back home.

According to Wan Tong’s own testimony, neither she nor her parents had a job, and she didn’t know what to do next. Her father started drinking heavily, beat and scolded her mother, and she and her mother started doing laundry to make money, and then——

Then she heard the news from God. God said, we have been helping you all the time, and the sufferings you have suffered in this life will be compensated to you in the next life.

The voice of the high priest came from the radio on the street. She was very confused and asked others: "Is what this person said true?"

The other party didn't know either, and they said, "I don't know, but this person is a very powerful person, and she is a very famous person in the cultivation world, so what I said is right?"

"The pain in this life is light for the time being... My father preached, my mother believed, and my mother said, since you are qualified, you should go to see God and enjoy the blessings. If you enjoy the blessings, entrust us with dreams."

Then she and her mother both seemed to have a dream, but they couldn't remember who had the dream first.

Wan Tong recalled that dream. She dreamed that her younger brother and younger sister became cultivators, her father and mother both had decent jobs, and she was finally able to go to school and was admitted to Dongfang University, which she liked very much.

"This is... God's revelation." Wan Tong said.

She and her mother began to believe in the gods who created Chinese civilization.

My mother started to go out to preach. She kept washing the clothes of other people and her own family. If she hadn’t been reminded by her mother, she would not have noticed that she had washed her own family’s clothes many times more.

"It doesn't matter if you wash it, and go to see them clean." Mother said.

She laughed silently with her mother, who then told her that she was qualified to meet God and asked her to help.

They opened the tattered "Code of God" bought with all their savings at home, and both of them stroked the piece that was said to be the remains of the high priest, convinced that what happened next was right.

They sang the only Celestial hymn they could sing:

Ah, the sufferings of this life are temporary and mild, but eternal happiness is endless.

Get up, fulfill the Great Commission, and qualify to meet God.

Ah, this life is short and anxious, but the next life is in the bosom of God.

Get up and let others hear, the tender word of God in heaven.

At a certain moment, I think, Tang Yi once really felt from the bottom of his heart that religion is right.

The tone of this hymn floated in from the window, and I opened the window to look down at the five or six ragged people sitting around the square, and they finished singing together, their faces were full of joy.