A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

"This place is in such a mess, I don't think Scholar Ning will get your bill too smoothly."

After leaving the door, Uncle Jiu said this to Ning Caichen who was beside him.

Ning Caichen didn't care about it, and was still trying to persuade Uncle Jiu: "Don't be too pessimistic, anyway, try it first. We haven't arrived yet, let me see who should be the first to charge... the inn, It should be over there."

Having said that, the three of them walked towards the end of the long street while paying attention to the surrounding situation.

It was relatively quiet inside the inn, and no one drew out their knives to chop each other for the time being. When they walked in, they were greeted by the shopkeeper: "Guests, are you eating or staying at the inn?"

Seeing the other party's politeness, Ning Caichen cupped his hands, smiled politely and said, "We're here to collect the bill."

When the shopkeeper heard this, his face sank "shua", and it was not easy to drive people away, so he could only mutter a few words in a low voice, and waved helplessly: "Come on, die early and be reborn early."

Ning Caichen turned his head and raised an eyebrow at Uncle Jiu, meaning that you will be paid for this, right?

Immediately afterwards, he took out the ledger and went to the shopkeeper's side.The shopkeeper took out his abacus in desperation, and said to the scholar in front of him, "Why did you change the person again? Where did the previous bill collector go?"

If it was the same as before, then I would have run away as soon as he entered the door, why would you ask you to catch me and collect my bill?

Ning Caichen replied indifferently: "The one before was killed on the way back, so I'm here again."

"Anyway, you'll be killed sooner or later if you collect the bill. It's better to take advantage of me." The shopkeeper snorted, staring at the abacus in pain, his mustache trembled every time he slapped it twice.

"Boss, you are joking... I have no grievances or enmities with anyone, why did they kill me?" Shusheng Ning said.

Before the words fell, there was a scream outside the door: "Killer!"

Several people turned their heads and saw two groups of people holding knives, guns and sticks, fighting in the middle of the street at the entrance of the inn, mixed with various scenes of greeting each other's relatives and blood spattering.

Uncle Jiu and Simu watched for a while, and found that these two groups did not regard each other as wanted criminals, but were robbing the one lying on the ground; He fell down sadly, gnawed a mouthful of mud, and couldn't see his face clearly...

"You can't stay here for long!" The two Taoist priests looked at each other, and they saw that their senior brothers wanted to say the same thing, so they turned around to persuade Ning Caichen, and left quickly after accepting the bill.

It's just that Ning Shusheng was also attracted by the situation outside the door. When he turned his head again, the shopkeeper had already put away the abacus, and turned his head to ignore him.

"Shopkeeper, why don't you count?"

The naive and ignorant young man was still asking.

"What is it? What is it?" The shopkeeper seemed to be seeing him for the first time. "What are you doing here? If you don't stay in the shop, leave quickly."

"... Shopkeeper, you just forgot, I'm here to collect the bill."

"How can there be any account? Don't make trouble, or I will ask someone to kill you!"

Ning Caichen was confused by what the shopkeeper said, and pointed to the account book that was still spread on the table at this time. Just as he was about to say something, he found that two pages had been torn from the middle of the account book, leaving only dog-toothed paper stubble.

Only then did he realize that something was wrong, and he wanted to say something, but the shopkeeper and the waiter next to him also drew their knives, waiting for him to speak with a menacing look.

Simu hurriedly stepped forward to cover his mouth, Uncle Jiu also stood in front of the scholar, reached out to close the account book and took it back, staring into the shopkeeper's eyes and said: "Perhaps I made a mistake, we will go back and confirm with the creditor." Now, let’s bother the shopkeeper again.”

Hearing this old man with particularly thick eyebrows say this, the shopkeeper felt a little guilty for some reason, and said sternly, "I won't pick you up if you stay in the store now, it's full!"

"Let's go."

Uncle Jiu didn't say anything, he pulled Ning Caichen out the door.

The fire on the street just now has not ended, and there are several dead people lying on the road, but the passers-by around seem to have not seen them, those who should walk, those who should buy things, and those who should chase wanted criminals commit.

The three of them stood here and looked to the left and right, and all they saw were insensitive faces.

"Don't collect the bill, go quickly, go now. I would rather not have this job than stay here." Jiu Shu said, and the four eyes next to him nodded with concern.

"It's getting late, where shall we live?"

Ning Caichen had no objection to leaving immediately, even the most stupid people would understand that there was no need for Guobei County to come again.But he still has bills from two other counties to collect, so he can't rush all night no matter what!

Uncle Jiu also sighed, took two steps forward, grabbed a man who was unarmed and looked normal, and asked, "Brother, is there a Taoist temple nearby?"

"Temple, three and a half miles to the east of the county seat!" The man replied impatiently, shaking off Uncle Jiu's hand.

Chapter 34

When the few people arrived outside the county, the sky had already sunk.

The desolate and messy vegetation all around seems to have turned into a ghost that chooses people to eat, and it spreads its teeth and claws in the wind; the coolness on the soles of the feet is getting more and more cold, even in this summer night, it is freezing cold, only Ning Caichen is carrying The candlelight in that lantern reveals a little bit of warmth in this boundless cold night.

Both Uncle Jiu and Simu felt that a sense of crisis was approaching, but Ning Caichen was still an optimist, and turned his head to talk to them from time to time.

"I'm wronged you two. When I usually travel around and have no money to stay in a hotel, I often go to the temple to stay like this. The land temple was the same last time, and I got to know the boss because of it..."

Simu responded to him absent-mindedly, while whispering to his senior brother: "This place is full of ghosts, obviously abnormal; we also put eyeliner on the back, senior brother, guess what's going on?"

"It's just the people from Guobei County. It looks like the three of us don't look like we have brought a guy with us. We want to rob money and kill ourselves in the wild." Uncle Jiu said, "...It's a good thing we are here, otherwise this scholar will not escape tonight This calamity."

"It's better to draw an array of talismans so that those people can't find us." Simu came up with another idea.

Uncle Jiu patted his junior brother on the shoulder and said to him, "Then you go and set up the formation. I'll go and see Scholar Ning and don't tell him to wander around."

His four eyes rolled, he didn't dare to say anything to his senior brother, he just fell behind a few steps, and went to work on his own; Uncle Jiu quickly caught up with Ning Caichen, and before he could speak, he heard the scholar yelling One voice: "There is really a temple!"

The two of them pushed aside the weeds with the wooden branches they picked up in their hands, and they saw a stone tablet not far ahead, with three large characters written on it: Lanruo Temple.

Ning Shusheng hurriedly raised the lantern, and saw an eerie ancient temple in the distance.

The place is dilapidated and dilapidated, obviously no one has taken care of it for a long time, but the doors and windows of the house are considered intact from here, at least it is a temporary residence with complete functions for travelers to rest.I don't know where all the monks in this temple have gone. Even the temple wall facing the stele has collapsed in half, and the bottom of the wall is covered with moss.

The name of a temple is "Lan Ruo", which is a bit of nonsense literature.Uncle Jiu, who has been dealing with Buddhism and Taoism for a lifetime, knows best that Lanruo is the abbreviation of the Sanskrit transliteration of "Alan Ruo", which originally refers to temples just like "Galan", "Baocha" and "Senglu"; "Similarly, it is not impossible to name this kind of name, but it also proves that the person who named it does not understand Buddhism at all.

When you go out, you can’t choose a lot, and a place to shelter from the wind and rain is enough. This ancient temple, which was built by someone and was abandoned when it was abandoned, is just right.

I just don't know how the four-eye array is arranged in the back. If the people behind chase here, there is not so much place to hide.

Thinking of this, Uncle Jiu raised the thick branch used as a walking stick, and with two or three strokes pushed aside the grass vines next to the stone tablet, revealing the words on the stone tablet.

"Let's go, Junior Brother, he will catch up when he sees the stele."

As he said that, he took the lantern from Ning Caichen's hand, and stepped into the Lanruo Temple in a hurry.

The stone road in front of the temple was almost submerged in weeds and dirt, but fortunately, it was still recognizable and walkable; but the desolate and cold atmosphere was a bit frightening, even Ning Shusheng, who said he didn’t believe in ghosts. Couldn't help sticking to Uncle Jiu's back.

The two of them walked through the rotten gate and came to the courtyard. They saw stone pagodas scattered and blue tiles in ruins.

Seeing the situation in the courtyard, Ning Caichen was also relieved. Just as he was about to say something, Uncle Jiu grabbed him aside and whispered to him, "There is someone!"

Is there anyone else in this place?

The scholar was about to say something when he heard a gust of wind, and two shadows rolled into the yard one after the other, tumbling into a ball.The first person had a strange appearance, with curly hair and beard, and walked with a sword on his back, stepping on shooting stars; the person behind had a majestic face, a yellow and beardless face, with a long sword out of its sheath, and followed him like a shadow.The two of them were still three or five zhang away, but their sword aura had already soared into the sky, causing sand and rocks to fly in front of Lanruo Temple, obviously their martial arts had reached their peak.

The distance of several zhang flew by in an instant, and the bearded man in front couldn't avoid it. On one side of his feet, he made a move of Su Qin's back sword, parrying the stab of the yellow-faced swordsman behind him, and then shouted angrily, and the sword came out of its sheath, A bitter fight with the yellow-faced swordsman.

But see: the shadow of the sword is rustling, and the dark light is shining.The sound of gold and iron being handed over was endless, and the lanterns in the hands of the two people hiding in the corridor were blown tottering by the vertical and horizontal sword energy.The rabbit rose and the falcon fell with dozens of moves, and the bearded man took advantage of the terrain of Lanruo Temple to make a sudden attack with his sword, and cut a wound on the yellow-faced swordsman's arm.Although the injury is not serious, it is clear that the victory has been divided.

Nine Uncle pressed Ning Caichen not to let him go forward or speak, while he himself was attracted by the fierce fight, and secretly sighed in his heart that both of them are good fighters, much better than his two tricks of the rivers and lakes up.

Only the one with the beard said: "Brother Xiahou, you are really patient. Wherever I hide, you will chase after me."

The yellow-faced Xiahou swordsman snorted coldly: "Yan Chixia, I didn't expect you to sharpen your sword sharper in Lanruo Temple for half a month!"

The person named Yan Chixia also sneered and replied: "No, it's just that you wasted your youth. You are too ambitious and don't seek to make progress. For the sake of the false name of the world's number one sword, you are too sharp, have bad intentions, and use tricks. Too much anger, the sword is fast and inaccurate! If you don't cultivate your morality, you will never want to beat me in your life!"

Swordsman Xiahou was furious, but when he saw the wound on his shoulder, he finally held back, snorted angrily, swung his sword and left.

At this moment, he finally saw Uncle Jiu and Ning Caichen standing in the corridor, and he didn't know where he was wrong, so he sternly asked, "What are you two looking at?"

Uncle Jiu frowned, cupped his hands and said, "This hero..."

"What kind of a hero? Didn't you hear people say that I am too ambitious, have bad intentions, and have indeterminate form and spirit!" Xiahou swordsman interrupted Uncle Jiu very impolitely and said, to see if the two of them are holding anything in their hands, Swallowing back the rising anger, he strode out of the courtyard gate.

The four-eyed Taoist priest was following in from the outside, and bumped into the swordsman inadvertently.

"Oh, who doesn't have eyes when walking..."

The four eyes instinctively wanted to swear, but Uncle Jiu snatched him to his side, slapped him on the back of the head, and carried him to the back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my junior brother has bad eyesight and didn't look at the road."

Seeing that Yan Chixia who was behind her also took two steps towards this side, as if she was about to come forward, swordsman Xiahou snorted again and left.

Ning Caichen, who was still staying in the corridor, also heaved a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but nodded gratefully to Yan Chixia.This bearded man looks fierce, but he has a good heart.

Yan Chixia didn't appreciate it, she stood still and put away her sword and said: "This place is not safe, there are many mandrill spirits and monsters, if you want to lodge, go elsewhere!"

"...Brother Yan, there is no other place to live within a radius of ten miles except Guobei County. It's getting late now, if you drive us out, wouldn't it be more dangerous?"

Uncle Jiu was already wary when he heard the words mandrill, spirit and monster, but as he said, besides this ancient temple, is there any other place to live nearby?

"Anyway, I told you to go, you'd better go. When you meet a ghost, don't blame me for not reminding you!"

Yan Chixia blew her beard and stared at her eyes and said, she turned around and was about to go back to Lanruo Temple.

With sharp eyes, he saw the sharp corner of a stack of yellow paper protruding from the cloth bag at the hero's waist, and quickly called out tentatively: "Friends, please stay!"

Hearing this, Great Xia Yan was also taken aback, turned his head suspiciously, and heard Simu say: "Fusheng Wuliang Tianzun, incredible merit, Maoshan disciple Simu nodded, dare to ask what sect you are from?"

If you look carefully, the scholar is just an ordinary scholar. These two elders are indeed clean and tidy, and they are holding swords and fingers at him. They really look like Taoist priests.

"My Xia, Yan Chixia, has learned some Taoism from Penglai Taoist Master Qingxuan, but I haven't learned it in my whole life, so I dare not call myself a Taoist disciple."

After hesitating for a while, he finally answered in a low voice.But then he persuaded again: "There are really ghosts here, if the two fellow Taoists don't want to get involved, it's better to leave early."

Ning Caichen, who didn't know the heights of heaven and earth, saw that a few people seemed to be able to make such a connection, so he became courageous and retorted with a smile: "You Taoists are like this. It seems that if you don't say that there are ghosts, you will have nothing to eat. If there are ghosts here, you Why do you have to stay here for half a month?"

"I, Yan Chixia, am not afraid of ghosts!"

Yan Chixia was so angry with him that she wanted to go forward and drag him into an argument, having ghosts and being afraid of ghosts are not the same thing, and living here with Lao Tzu is not the same as living here with you.

Seeing that he was really angry, Uncle Jiu and Si Mu hurriedly stood in front of Shusheng Ning, and Uncle Jiu spoke up to persuade him: "Brother Dao, young people are ignorant, so why bother to get angry? He is not the only one in the world who doesn't believe in ghosts and gods. No matter what What the hell is going on here, the three of us can still protect him; if we go out, it's really courting death."

Great Xia Yan thought about it too, sighed, and asked the three of them to follow him in, and said as he walked, "Brother Dao, you don't know... Lanruo Temple is not an ordinary ghost."

The three hurriedly followed, walked through the corridor, got into the side door along the screen wall, and arrived at another courtyard where Yan Chixia lived.He has cleared out all the broken tiles and bricks here, and the doors and windows are well placed on the walls. There is a bonfire pit surrounded by stones in the courtyard. Although the place is not big, it looks like a place where people can live.

Several people sat by the campfire and passed each other's names. Uncle Jiu anxiously asked about the "ghost" again.

Yan Chixia didn't make a fool of herself, and explained seriously: "There is a locust tree here that has become a spirit and controlled the souls of dozens of poor girls who died in vain. Many people have been killed in the past. But it can't do anything to me, and it's afraid that I will make trouble for it, so after doing a few games with me, it agreed not to interfere with each other, not to enter my acre of land to disturb me, and not to let me Disturb it outside."

Another locust tree?

Uncle Jiu frowned, and asked again: "Forgive me, Brother Yan is also a cultivator of Taoism. Don't you know that good and evil are incompatible, why did you make this agreement with him?"

"The world is like this, the human affairs are so difficult, and there is no time for self-care, so where is the 'good and evil'?" Yan Chixia shook her head, then stared at Uncle Jiu and said, "Brother Lin Dao, you don't believe it anymore, and you still want to take this ask me?"

Chapter 35 Don't take it lightly

After listening to Yan Chixia's words, it wasn't Uncle Jiu who reacted the most, but the dumbfounded four eyes.

He suddenly remembered that senior brother these days is not only simply not staying at home, but also transfers some business that needs to be done by gods to him.Originally, he thought that his senior brother was interested in teasing him in the name of training as before, so he played tricks with him, but he thought that he couldn't do it by himself!

"Brother, how can you... Isn't this more serious than betraying the master!" Four eyes stood up awkwardly, and said in an extremely unacceptable way.

Uncle Jiu also felt a headache, so he said to Ning Caichen who was at the side first: "Scholar Ning, brother Ning, go to the temple and find a place to rest first. The facts about our brothers and sisters don't dare to insult the listener. If there is something to do, just take care of it." Just call us, the temple is not too big, we will be there in a blink of an eye.”

Ning Caichen, who was happily planning to listen to some gossip, had to pack up his things, walked out of the courtyard in despair, and found another place to rest.Yan Chixia knew that as long as he didn't leave Lanruo Temple, it would be fine, so she let him go.

There are more important things right now!

After seeing Simu's reaction just now, Daxia Yan realized that he had slipped his words and couldn't take back what he said, so he bowed his head to Uncle Jiu in apology.

"That's right, Daoist Yan's eye is perfect, I'm a little shaken." Uncle Jiu nodded and admitted, and then explained to his junior brother: "Simu, of course I don't believe it at all... just from the world of Ikabu. After I came back, it was really hard for me to be as devout as before. Belief in the Tao and worshiping God are completely different things! Have you heard about Sleepy Hollow from Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai? Think about it, Lisa and the knight Isn’t the reason for existence similar?”

Lisa is the spirit of the pine forest, and the headless horseman is a murderous ghost, which sounds like opposites at first glance.But both of them are endowed with existence by the Americans of that world... If there is no worship of nature by the "witches" among the local people, the spirit of the pine forest will not have consciousness; if there is no horror story circulating in Sleepy Hollow , Hessian knights will not crawl out of hell to harm people.

Even in that small church, a person with outstanding spiritual sense like Uncle Jiu can really feel the aura belonging to "God" when he approaches it!Otherwise, why did he let the two apprentices hide there?

There are countless sects in the world, and there are legends of creation in several major religions.If everyone's gods are real, then an important question that immediately arises is, who created this world and how?

Uncle Jiu took this question to Boss Xue, Max, and Ikab. In the end, Boss Xue told him his opinion meaningfully: "There are people before God."

Fortunately, Uncle Jiu has a lot of knowledge and doesn't think that a specific god is related to the origin of the world, so there is no obstacle to accepting this statement.

Tao produces one, one produces two, two produces three, and three produces all things; in the eyes of some Taoist disciples who are always taught by their masters, it is the metaphysical "Tao" that creates the world. At best, gods are responsible for managing the world, and officials are responsible for managing the country. almost.

[37. No. 37]

Uncle Nine’s ideas after a lot of thinking are probably similar. He admits that they are the “supernatural forces” in Ikab’s mouth, and has the ability to control and influence the real world. Not necessarily the end of practice...

Once this idea arises, the respect for gods will not be so sufficient.And this view is obviously contrary to the view of Tao Hongjing, the patriarch of Maoshan... In the "True Spirit Position Industry Map", Yuanshi Tianzun is listed as the middle and highest position of Yuqing Realm, not only does not think that "the origin of the world" is metaphysical , and also personified it, with a god position.

As a matter of course, the Taoism that Uncle Jiu learned from Maoshan's branch, because of his own doubts and possible other reasons, became more and more difficult to use.

Simu was almost shaken after hearing Uncle Jiu's explanation, but he immediately grasped the loopholes in Uncle Jiu's words: "What you are talking about is all about Ikab's world, you have never thought about your world Could the situation be completely different?"

Uncle Jiu asked back: "Do you still remember the two pine cones I took back and planted in the yard? You also said that they have spiritual energy. If the conditions of the two worlds are different, then they should be ordinary pine cones." , because Lisa was also born of a 'human'."

This logic is easy to understand. Lisa exists because of people's thoughts and worship, so if Uncle Jiu's world does not have this rule, her existence itself is irrational, and Song Guo will naturally not retain her influence; The pinecone has spiritual energy not because of anything else, but because Uncle Jiu has seen Lisa with his own eyes and believed in Lisa's existence. He himself is the link of this "supernaturalness"!