Chapter 29: Clues and Falls

I originally said this to pretend to be mysterious in front of Xiao Chengqian, to find a little sense of accomplishment in him questioning me, but I didn’t expect him to just say “oh” with no curiosity, not even about the clue my master left behind. He even pretended to be my brother, saying “I trust you, whatever you say is fine,” leaving me completely speechless.

Although Taoist exorcism is not as good as Buddhist exorcism, it is still not a problem for us to exorcise two ghosts. In the end, after the exorcism spell was cast, the ghosts left one after another following the path indicated by the spell, and the exorcism was completed.

The cave was really quiet this time. Xiao Chengqian touched his still damp hair and said to me, “I never thought I would be so soft-hearted one day, allowing the ghosts to be reincarnated and gaining some merit for myself. If I had met them earlier, I would have cultivated them into powerful followers!”

I smiled and walked towards a certain place in the cave, saying to Xiao Chengqian, “It’s better to do less of this kind of thing. Look at the evil cult that you cooperated with last time. Which one of them died well? That ghostly, skinny look could scare a child to tears just walking in broad daylight, not to mention being entangled with ghosts. With a lack of yang energy for years, when they got old, their whole body was cold, and even two down jackets couldn’t keep them warm in the dog days of summer.”

Xiao Chengqian followed behind me and said nonchalantly, “Everything has a limit, and going too far is no better than not going far enough. Our school has always walked at this limit, neither too far nor too far, and we can still get by. What’s the point of distinguishing between what is right and wrong? It’s not tiring, is it?”

“That’s walking on a tightrope. It’s not easy to grasp the right amount for a thing.” As I spoke, I had already stopped somewhere in the cave, taken the flashlight from Xiao Chengqian’s hand, and started shining it carefully on the ground.

The ground was covered with a thin layer of dirt, probably due to too much dust, so I had to bend down to push the dirt aside, slowing down my search.

But Xiao Chengqian was not idle, asking me, “You and I are of the same blood. Last time in the old forest, I actually took a loss from you, but for some reason, I did not retaliate against you. The He Long clan is made up of small people, and I was worried that they would find trouble for you, after all, you stayed in that small northern city for a year.”

I said as I searched the ground, “They’re not stupid. You had reasons not to attack, but didn’t they? In fact, I don’t know why, or maybe someone was secretly protecting me?”

While saying this, I thought of Jenny, the head of the gang. But if she really was secretly protecting me, according to her personality, seeing my appearance, she would have rushed out to beat me up eight or ten times.

“We were warned by someone in the middle, it was Jiang Yi, and… well, I won’t say anymore.” Xiao Chengqian was a little annoyed, as if he had let something slip, but I didn’t care at all. It would be strange if Jiang Yi didn’t intervene, and at this moment, I seemed to have discovered something.

I was a little excited, so I quickly asked Xiao Chengqian to help me dig. When Xiao Chengqian heard that there was a way out, he also came over enthusiastically and started to help me.

Five minutes later, in front of us, under the light of the flashlight, there appeared a red, strange-looking picture. Xiao Chengqian didn’t understand the picture, but he gently wiped the red picture, put it between his fingers, smelled it, and looked at it for a while, exclaiming, “It’s really extravagant. The best cinnabar is used, and there is a lot of stuffing in the middle. When I smell it, I can smell the blood on the rooster’s crown.

This is a tall tale. Nowadays, where can you find a real rooster king? According to the hierarchy, it is difficult to find a rooster with a phoenix eye and a white body. My master is very capable, but he doesn’t have the ability to find a rooster king. However, there is a special ingredient in this cinnabar, and the bright red color can last a long time.

This is so ‘extravagant,’ I’m afraid it’s just to leave me this message. I pondered, my master said to look at fate, but in my fate, my footprints really covered his footprints, and this master-disciple relationship has not ended.

“Chengyi, what does this picture mean?” Xiao Chengqian scratched the back of his head. Seeing that I didn’t answer, he asked again: “Is this what your master left you?”

“Yes, what does it mean? Those who understand it will naturally understand it very easily. I won’t explain it to you in detail, but let me just say that we don’t need to go to the other lakes. This is the place we must go to.” Yes, what my master left me was a picture, and for a period of time, I kept dreaming about it. This picture is the one that the master left on the chain, representing a dozen lakes.

Now, Master has left this picture in the cave again, and the positions are all correct. The only difference is that Master’s picture uses dots to represent the lakes, while Master’s picture has a bright red cross in most places, and only the three pictures including the place where we are are the same as Master’s.

This way of expression is fundamentally very simple. When I lived with Master, I was already familiar with this kind of “single-celled” animal-like expression. For example, if I had to do morning exercises, copy the Tao Te Ching, cook, do laundry, etc. in one day, Master would write down the things I had to do the next day on a piece of paper the night before. After I had done them, I would give myself a cross. In short, if I didn’t have a “full cross” in one day, I couldn’t sleep at all.

When I think of these past events, I still have some of the “resentment” I had as a child. MD, every day I see crosses, and I get all crosses on my exams. I’m going to get beaten up when I go back.

When I think of these things again with a smile, the meaning of this picture is naturally explained. The crossed-out parts are naturally places that have no exploration value and don’t need to be visited. The dotted parts must have something left behind.

Is it just these three places? I looked at the biggest dot and felt a little uneasy. Is it there? When I was a child, my master told me to scare me, and he said that it was a place to exercise my courage. Isn’t it the lake where the dot is located?

I was deep in thought when Xiao Chengqian interrupted me, saying, “Since you know what it means and where you’re going next, let’s get this done. Although I don’t think there’s much hope, if you don’t try, how will you know for sure?”

Xiao Chengqian’s words made me come back to my senses. I slowly walked to the edge of the pool, shone my flashlight on the stone pillar, and carefully observed it. Is there no hope?

The stone pillar was not absolutely smooth, but was pitted and uneven. It protruded from the rock wall, somewhat like a slightly curved tree. Such a stone pillar might not be promising for Xiao Chengqian, a rich young man, but for me, a “peeled egg” who grew up in the countryside and caught birds and fish, there was still hope.

Thinking this way, I gave Xiao Chengqian my flashlight and said to him, “You shine it for me, and I’ll climb up.”

“Ah? You’re not joking.” Xiao Chengqian was stunned.

“Do I look like I’m joking?” While talking, I casually did a few warm-up exercises and walked towards the pool.

“Come on, Chengyi, don’t joke around. If you fall into the water, I’m not afraid! What I’m afraid of is that if you fall into the water, you might run into that thing…” Xiao Chengqian reminded me very ‘naughty’.

I didn’t even turn my head. The karma that has been passed down from the master is my responsibility as a disciple, even if it means going through a sea of knives and fire. The chains left by the master, the DVDs left by the master, and the drawings of this cave, all seem to be telling me that this is what should be done, and that some things are righteous.

Before Xiao Chengqian could finish his long-winded reminder, I had already stepped into the water. I thought that the pool was like a ditch, with a bank on one side, sloping and gradually deepening. But the truth made fun of how inexperienced I was. I stepped in and fell in.

With a ‘plop’ sound, a bone-chilling coldness surrounded me. My first feeling was that it was about the same cold as the water in the X pool, or even colder.

Without any preparation, I fell into the water and felt as if I were drowning, sinking endlessly. I didn’t know why, but suddenly a chilling feeling from my soul shot up.

You can’t tell how deep the water is until you try it. I didn’t see any hope of getting out of this sinking feeling. How deep was this pool? It seemed to be much wider below. In the darkness and confusion, I clenched my teeth and desperately tried to distract myself from the dangerous feeling.

Even though I know that my spiritual senses are often right!