Tai sui

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, before the fourth watch, Xi Ping woke up with a start.

When he opened his eyes, he forgot what he had dreamed of. He stared at the birthday jade hanging on the bed curtain for a moment. When he saw the "Ninth Day of April" engraved on the jade, he thought: his birthday is about to pass.

He turned over, closed his eyes sleepily, and thought in a daze: What can I give you?

A string of south pearls recently acquired is not bad, but the size is too big, and thin people wear it clumsily; a gold enamel pocket watch with a peacock inlaid is a bit gaudy, but young girls are not afraid of sex; there is also a Magu The quality of the jade is not the best quality of the birthday decorations, but the carved goddess has a bit of charm of leaving.

Suddenly, Xi Ping opened his eyes again.

He remembered that things couldn't be delivered.

It turned out that this matter had been quietly fermenting in his chest for several days, and at this time it finally swelled to size, blocking his overly broad heart.

This is the first time in Xi Ping's life that he has experienced life and death. The feeling may not be deep, but the stamina is long.

He put on his clothes and got up, and filled out half of the mourning speech... the second half of the speech was not held back.After reading it, I couldn't help but feel sad, because his masterpiece is really nonsense, and it is no different from the pile of "psoriasis" in Anle Township.

Zui Liuhua didn't have to be silent, for a while, Jinping's joy was bleak, and Xi Ping suddenly felt that those gentle towns were so boring.Two days ago, my friend and friend got a "gas car" that didn't use a horse. He asked him to go out for a run, but he also pushed it without interest.

During the day, he would listen to operas with his grandmother, or pose for his mother to draw and play, and lived in the old grandmother's yard at night.When the old lady fell asleep, he would read by himself.

Although it must be put down within two pages, it is a true read.

He also planned to listen to Master Hou's words, and after a while, he would go to the "Young Master's Camp" to fill a vacancy, then marry a wife and have children, and live a decent life.

Unexpectedly, the fairy laughed heartily, and the life book of mortals would have to be emptied and rewritten.

When Xuanyin Mountain's recruitment post was sent to Hou's mansion, it happened to catch up with Hou Ye Xiumu.

At the beginning of the hour, except for the elderly lady, the whole family is sleeping in.A crane flew into the Hou's mansion politely, and waited for a full moment on the roof of the study, until the morning sun, but no living person.

With a mission in hand, it had no choice but to trespass into the backyard.

The old lady was watering the flowers, she was surprised to see such auspiciousness, she thought it was the end of her life, the crane came to pick her up, the old man was heading west, and the kettle was frightened away.

Xi Ping heard the girl next to his grandmother yelling, thinking that a thief had entered the house, and ran out with a sword in his hand to cut people without even opening his eyes.He groped around murderously, but he couldn't find where the thief was, and a big bird stuffed a wooden sign...and a letter.

The material of the wooden sign could not be seen, so Xi Ping yawned and inhaled the bitter woody fragrance.The woody fragrance reminds people of the pines and bamboo seas that have been lonely for thousands of years in the cold morning mist. When it pours into his lungs, he wakes up.

I saw a cluster of bamboo carved on the front of the wooden sign, with a word "Zheng" next to it, and small characters written on the back: Xi Ping, son of the Marquis of Yongning, entered Qianxiu Temple on April [-]th.

A moment later, the Marquis of Yongning in his dream boiled up—it was raining red, so why sleep!

They, the prodigal sons raised by the Hou Mansion like a joke, actually received the invitation card for the general election of Xuanyin Mountain!

But amazing, he didn't realize that he was qualified to become a fairy!

Even Lord Hou was dumbfounded, he repeatedly checked the golden seals of Xuanyin and Tianji Pavilion on the envelope before he dared to open it.

The content of the letter was concise and clear. It only said that Xi Ping, the candidate disciple, should go to the altar of Tianji Pavilion to worship the saint when and where, and then go to Qianxiu Temple for a one-year training period.

A three-foot-long door regulation is attached at the back.

Other trifles—such as how to get there, what to bring and what to wear—are not mentioned.Xuanyin's general election is not out of the circle of the children of the aristocratic family, and there are no rules that he doesn't understand.

After the shock, the whole family looked at each other in blank dismay.

A selection post can make Jinping's high-ranking family beat people's heads into dog's heads, but this wonderful family is suddenly hit by a pie from the sky, and after recovering, there is no joy on his face.

Hou Ye read the letter several times, and solemnly ordered his family to inform King Zhuang.

The old lady put her hand on the silk silk, found a brocade box and confessed the wooden sign, and murmured blankly: "Xuanyin Immortal Gate...give me the invitation card for my baby?"

Marquis Cui of Yongning frowned and said, "Our family never thought about it... But I have already found someone to visit my daughter-in-law, what do you mean?"

The old lady asserted: "Xianmen must have expanded its enrollment this year."

Mrs. Cui became more and more worried: "Okay, why is Xianmen expanding its enrollment? I'm afraid it's not going to be peaceful?"

Mrs. Cui is good at painting and calligraphy, and has quick wit. She is the only one in the family who can recite Fenghua Xueyue smoothly—others can only act as "Fenghua Xueyue" and keep their mouths shut for her to chant—that is how she tricked Lord Hou into his hands back then. .However, people with overly sensitive minds are often prone to hurting spring and autumn, and love to think of the bad when things happen.

The old lady knew about her problem, and hurriedly comforted her daughter-in-law: "Anyway, it's a good thing."

After finishing speaking, he patted Xi Ping's dog's head lovingly, "Your grandfather is a worthless person. He took the exam for eight years as a scholar, and half his life as an examiner. His family spent money to donate a sesame official to him. If you knew that my baby is so promising I'm afraid I'm going to pick up my big teeth and crawl out of the ancestral grave!"

Xi Ping: "..."

There is no need to alarm his old man.

The old lady sighed again: "There is no sun and moon in the mountains. If you are selected into the inner sect in the Qianxiu Temple, you will go down the mountain after you have been reborn. Grandma will have gone to the next life long ago, but you will never see me again."

After Mrs. Cui heard this, the old worries were not resolved, and new worries were added, tears rolled in her eyes.

Hou Ye was muttering in his heart that you two are thinking too much, and returning to the inner sect... Could it be that the inner sect collects rags?

I heard Xi Ping say decisively: "That's impossible. I'll stay in Qianxiu Temple for a year at most before I come back. If I want to meet you, I will follow up with you. When I come back to marry, there will be no delay."

After hearing such nonsense, Marquis Yongning immediately wanted to blow his beard again.Before he could vent his anger, he was suffocated back by the unanimous "God bless, that's so kind" by the old lady and his wife.

There was no room for him to speak in this family, so Master Hou had no choice but to stare at Xi Ping vigorously, feeling extremely aggrieved.

Xi Ping didn't matter, he really didn't want to go, but it seemed shameless to say this.He quickly thought about it, although being locked up in the ravine sounds painful, but fortunately it will only be a year, if he gets well, he might be able to enter the Tianji Pavilion when he comes back.

That is the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets!

No matter how incompetent a boy is, he is also a boy, and he also knows that Mu Qiang, the figure of Pang Jian pulling the bow in the heavy rainy night, after all, still imprinted yearning in his heart.What will happen after entering Qianxiu Temple, anyway, at this moment, he is determined to work hard.

His accidental selection also disrupted the idle pace of the family.

The old lady and Mrs. Cui found out that when they went to Qianxiu Temple, they were not allowed to go out of the mountain for a year, they were not allowed to contact their family members, they had no servants to serve them, and they even had limited luggage. exile.

Grandma and mother gave thousands of instructions, but Xi Ping patiently accepted them all.

This is the result of Master Hou's small words and deeds: all animals know to go back to their dens to collect their claws, to lose their temper when they go out, and when they enter the house, they must never show face to their wives.Xi Ping has been used to being rubbed by these two wives since he was a child.

But even so, this time he is still a bit overwhelmed - Mrs. Cui may think that if he enters Xianshan Mountain, he will have to eat bigu, wishing to feed him a year's meals in advance, three meals a day and six meals a day, so that Xi The hump is fed out on the back of the spine.

Xi Ping got angry from food accumulation, and for several days, the fishy smell kept coming back from his throat. At night, he was full of chaotic dreams. He always felt that someone was "buzzing" in his ear, humming the "Resurrection tune".

Just when Xi Ping could hardly survive at home, the day of departure finally came.Before leaving, he went to Prince Zhuang's Mansion to bid farewell to his third brother.

Zhuang Wang seemed to know that his ears were callused by various instructions, or that his spirit was short of energy as the weather was getting hotter. I bought him a big double-layer brocade box.

King Zhuang usually asked him to take a copy of good tea and wine back to the Hou Mansion when he got it. Xi Ping was used to taking it and left with it, but when he got home and opened it, he was shocked: there were no tea cakes in the box. , It is a "degraded fairy weapon"!

"Immortal Artifacts" - are the utensils that can only be used by immortals.

There are different grades of fairy artifacts. A master can use a low-grade fairy artifact, but the reverse is definitely not possible.For example, even if a half-immortal in the awakening stage gets the Zhenshan artifact from Xuanyin Mountain, it is like giving a baby a big saber, which cannot be urged.

Of course, mortals who don't understand the spirit can't move the fairy weapon, but with the moon-plated gold descending to the earth, in recent decades, the steam machinery technology in the world has made rapid progress, which in turn has affected Taoism.Some refining masters tried to install some low-level immortal artifacts into the movement, so that they could be based on spirit stones and supplemented by kerosene, and made "degraded immortal artifacts" that mortals could use.

However, there is still controversy in Taoist sect about the "degraded fairy weapon" - it is said that the conservative and old-school Kunlun banned this thing.

Xuanyin is much more lenient, after all, Lin Chi, the initiator of "Fake Alchemy" and "Degradation of Immortal Artifacts", is Xuanyin's sect.

But even so, degraded immortal artifacts are still very rare.After a fairy artifact is downgraded, its function is much simpler than the original version, and there are many restrictions on its use. However, the movement inside is complicated and costly. It is not easier to modify a downgraded fairy artifact than to create a high-end decent fairy artifact. .The refiners are all proud and arrogant, and they are too lazy to waste this effort for mortals.

Furthermore, in addition to kerosene, the degraded immortal weapon also burns spirit stones.

Among the spiritual stones, the most inferior and most impurity "green mine" stone, one or two stones also get one or two gold.

The low-grade "Bizhang" is worth ten taels of gold in the market, and a Bizhang bead the size of a finger can be exchanged for a good horse.

The middle-grade "sapphire" gold is 40 taels - the salary of the Marquis of Yongning for a whole year, no more, no less, just one tael of blue stones.

As for the top-grade "Bai Ling", let alone the decent quality "Bai Ling" beads cost a hundred taels of gold, which is enough to exchange for a decent house in the imperial capital where every inch of land is expensive.

The spirit stones burned for degraded immortal artifacts should not have too many impurities, at least they must be bizhang stones, some delicate ones even burn sapphire, otherwise the life of the artifacts will be affected, who can afford it?

In the double brocade box given by King Zhuang, a pair of moon-plated and gold-edged white jade boards were placed on the upper layer, as well as some small pendants for exorcism and body protection.

The lower floor is filled with "sapphire" spirit stone beads.

As soon as the wooden box was opened, the aura was overwhelming, and the air in the entire study room was cleared, which was enough to burn a degraded immortal weapon with high power for several years.

Xi Ping was almost blinded by the blue light, and blurted out: "Mother, my third brother hasn't given birth to a daughter yet, did you give me his future dowry first?"

Lord Hou glared at him.

"I thought it was food again," Xi Ping said, "If I knew it was this, I wouldn't take it."

Hou Ye then said: "This is His Highness's intentions for you. If you give it to you, you can take it away. It is also a useful thing. Our family will not make His Highness feel cramped."

Saying so, Hou Ye picked out one of the white jade boards: "You take one of these two boards, and give the other to your grandmother."

"What is this?" Xi Ping picked up the jade board and looked at it. The white jade was almost flawless. There was a small koi carved with moon-plated gold in the upper right corner, which was very clever. Can you speak well, why do you always use your hands and feet! Turning around, I will dodge quickly and show your old waist again, which is my unfilial piety again."

"It's called 'right away'." Lord Hou retracted his Wuying foot, raised his chin to signal Xi Ping to put down the jade plate.

He placed a blue jade bead in the groove at the bottom of the two jade plates, and soft fluorescent light flashed across the jade plates.

Lord Hou took the pen and showed Xi Ping how to use it.He wrote the character "Xi" on one of the jade boards, and the other jade board glowed like water waves, and then at the same position, an identical character "Xi" floated up.

"As long as the two 'nearly close' are equipped with spirit stones, they can be used to communicate no matter how far apart they are. Qianxiu Temple does not allow disciples to write letters to their families, but there is no prohibition to block the transmission of immortal weapons, it should be tacit consent You brought it with you." Master Hou said, "Your mother and I are fine. The old lady is old, and if she doesn't say anything, she really doesn't want to see her children and grandchildren traveling far away. Even if you have nothing to say, don't forget to report to the old man every day. .”

Xi Ping: "Oh."

Hou Ye pressed the moon-plated koi on the jade board, the fish seemed to come alive, its tail flicked lively, and the body of the fish moved with Hou Ye's fingers on the jade board, wherever it moved, where The handwriting turned into water vapor and was wiped off: "Sit there, sit down, and I will have a few more words with you."

Xi Ping put Erlang's legs down and sat upright with his pen, waiting for his old father to speak.

Hou Ye said: "I didn't expect you to receive a recruitment post, otherwise I should have taught you this long ago. Our family's ancestors have been mortals for generations, and there is no shelter in the fairy gate. If you continue to cause trouble like in Jinping, no one will I will carry it for you."

Xi Ping protested: "You heard what you said, am I a troublemaker?"

Lord Hou: "Otherwise, what are you?"

Xi Ping was about to refute, when his father said coldly: "The surname Xi can't touch the threshold of the fairy gate, you are here to hang the name of the imperial concubine and His Highness Zhuang Wang, even if you die yourself, don't get involved other people!"

Xi Ping: "...Oh."

Hou Ye didn't know what to think of, and when he said this, he was a little lost in thought, and his eyes fell outside the study window.

It was already very late at this time, and the shadow of the whirling tree fell on his once handsome Jin Ping side face, darkened the gray temples again, and deepened the ditches at the corners of his eyes.

Time has sculpted mortals, and they have always been merciless.

Xi Ping suddenly felt for no reason that Master Hou was not very happy about the fact that he had received the invitation card. It was not the simple uneasiness of his grandmother and mother, but some kind of... deeper worry.

He looked at the pair of white jades close by again, and became more and more puzzled in his heart - since he was a child, the Hou Ye told him that there is a difference between immortals and mortals, and that he should respect and stay away from immortals.So their family is different from other families. They have always only worshiped ancestors, did not burn incense or worship gods, and could not see any paper symbols, inscriptions and other things in the house... Why does the Lord Hou seem to be familiar with these degraded fairy artifacts?

At this time, Lord Hou came back to his senses, and said: "Whether it's the immortals preaching in the Qianxiu Temple, or the classmates who practice together, don't offend them easily. We don't want to be successful, and we don't need you to curry favor with those 'Heavenly' people, remember? And..."

Marquis Yongning's sentence "Don't enter the inner door" barely reached his lips, he raised his eyes and saw his unlucky thing, and swallowed it again.

It would be good if one of the candidate disciples enters the inner sect in each session. How many golden branches and jade leaves are in front of them can't be ranked. The inner sect has half a copper relationship with this big treasure of their family?When I said this, it seemed that I didn't know what to say, it was almost like telling a toad, "Let's not marry Chang'e".

"... It's good to go to Qianxiu Temple to criticize your frivolous temper. Go safely and come back safely in a year. Don't worry your mother and grandmother."

Xi Ping: "Father, if you don't want to part with me, just tell me, what are you doing in the name of others? The older you get, the thinner your skin will be."

Lord Hou: "..."

Little bunny!

The old father couldn't bear to admit it, so he had no choice but to roll up his sleeves and beat the villain away.

In the early morning of the next day, Xi Ping stretched out his clothes for the last time, let the servants fix them, said goodbye to his grandmother and parents, and went to Tianji Pavilion.

The four streets around Tianji Pavilion were under strict curfew. Emperor Taiming came in person, held Qiu Mian, and led the three princes and nine ministers to the altar of Tianji Pavilion.

The candidate disciples lined up and knelt down to listen to the hadith.

This year's hadith is extremely short, His Majesty just said two or three simple sentences such as "Cultivate the body and mind, protect the family and the country", which is not as many words as in the legend.

It is said that every time the emissary who presides over the general election comes very late, and the higher the level of cultivation, the bigger the airs, and it will be embarrassing for everyone to wait.His Majesty asked people to get ready for a long speech when he returned, wishing he could stutter and procrastinate for a while.

This year, the Lord of Ascension to Spiritual Peak came personally, and everyone thought, maybe they will have to wait until the sun goes west?Unexpectedly, General Zhi showed up on time at the first moment of Chenshi.

When Zhi Xiu came, there was neither a sword nor a crane to clear the way.He changed into a light gray long gown with hidden inscriptions on it. He was quite well-behaved, neither luxurious nor shabby. If not for all the half-immortals stationed in the capital of Tianji Pavilion standing up to greet him, he would look almost like a mortal from a distance.

General Zhi, who has been in seclusion for a hundred years, seems to still remember his duty as a minister of Dawan, politely greeted His Majesty, and accompanied him to sacrifice to heaven and earth, giving enough face to the emperor of the world.

At 31:[-] p.m., [-] cars parked at the gate of Tianji Pavilion, and the handymen had already put the disciples' luggage on it in advance.The ones pulling the cart are Yishui white horses, so white that they reflect light, and their eyes show the special blue-green color of the Bizhang Lingshi... They don't seem to be living things, but some kind of fairy artifact.

The bells of the General Administration of Tianji Pavilion and the seven Qinglong Pagodas in the city rang three times, and Emperor Taiming sent the envoy out of the east gate.General Zhi set foot on Zhaoting and went back to Xianmen to return to his orders.

Then the disciples bid farewell to their father.

Xi Ping mixed in the crowd and saluted together, and secretly glanced at the emperor.

When he was young, he had seen Taiming Emperor Zhou Kun in the palace, and his impression of what "Tian Yan" looked like was already blurred.Xi Ping only vaguely remembered that His Majesty seemed to be as tall as the Nansheng Mountain, had a pair of extremely thick big hands, spoke very kindly to children, and often rewarded them.

Only then did he realize that His Majesty is not as tall as the mountain, not even himself.

Emperor Taiming had his back to the light, so he couldn't see his expression clearly. He was wearing a cumbersome dress, so solemn that he was almost melancholy.The two dragon whiskers on the Panlong pillar behind him grow angry, which reminds Xi Ping of the angry dragon in Tai Sui's shadow for no reason.

After the ceremony, the disciples will be escorted by Tianji Pavilion to Qianxiu Temple.