Li Xiuchang has known for a long time that the brothers and sisters in the neighborhood basically know each other through Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi.
Except for Mr. and Mrs. Lu Yang, no one else knew each other at first. They all became friends with Zhang Wanzhi first. After being introduced by Zhang Wanzhi, they got to know each other and became a close-knit six-person group.
Of course, after Li Xiuchang joined, this group of six has become a group of seven.
Only then did Li Xiuchang find out that before he joined, there was another senior brother in the gang!
"His name is Wang Jingxing, Grand Elder from the Immortal Dust Sect. They are also my close friends for many years. We have known each other since we were young. I ascended one step ahead of him, but we came to the lower world together. Unexpectedly..."
Zhang Wanzhi, who is usually cheerful and optimistic, is rarely in a low mood at this time.
Li Xiuchang was stunned. He didn't expect that the senior brother he had never met before was actually Immortal Dust Sect's senior!
The brothers are staying at the Immortal Dust Sect. Is this related to this?
Mentioning this senior brother Wang Jingxing, all the senior brothers and sisters looked sad.
Li Xiuchang can also understand that if any of his senior brothers and sisters were missing, he would probably do the same.
Wang Jingxing joined Immortal Dust Sect at an early age and rose to prominence at a young age. He cherished the hero Zhang Wanzhi who was also famous at a young age and became a close friend.
On the way to practice, the two encouraged each other and continued to compete. In the end, Zhang Wanzhi took a step forward and ascended to the Desolate Heaven Realm first.
But not long after, Wang Jingxing also ascended, and reunited with Zhang Wanzhi in the Desolate Heaven Realm. The temporary passage they discovered together also returned to the Immortal Shade Realm.
So speaking of it, Zhang Wanzhi and Wang Jingxing have known each other for the longest time, and they can almost be regarded as "little friends".
Under the organization and introduction of Zhang Wanzhi, the group of seven gradually took shape. However, unlike other senior brothers and sisters, Wang Jingxing did not choose to live the life of idle clouds and wild cranes after returning to the lower realm. Instead, he returned to the Immortal Dust Sect and became Grand Elder of the Immortal Dust Sect.
"Immortal Dust Sect's disciples often have a strong sense of belonging and identification with the sect, and Jing Xing is no exception, but I don't want this to pave the way for something to happen to him in the future."
Zhang Wanzhi fell into memories and recounted the past:
"About 2,000 years ago, there was a period when he was very busy. Every time a few of us got together, he was always absent. Even when we chatted with him through voice messages, he always ended in a hurry and could not say a few words.
"I didn't take it seriously at first, but gradually I realized something was wrong. Even some details such as word usage and tone during chatting were different from before.
"So a few of us took the initiative to visit us, and on the pretext of celebrating Old Mo's birthday, we invited him to a restaurant outside the Immortal Dust Sect. He couldn't resist, so he agreed to come over.
"But after a few words of conversation, we felt that something was wrong. Although he tried his best to pretend, the closeness we had known each other for many years could not be faked. It was not difficult to detect the alienation and defensiveness he had hidden under the surface of enthusiasm."
Mo Tu on the side said in a deep voice, "What's more important is that that day is actually not my birthday, but Old Gui's birthday, but he didn't notice anything was wrong."
Just because he can't remember his birthday, Li Xiuchang doesn't think it's a big deal. After all, monks live a long life, and they don't have the habit of celebrating birthdays every year. They only celebrate their birthdays at least once every hundred years.
But it can also be heard from other aspects that something is obviously wrong with this senior brother Wang Jingxing.
Zhang Wanzhi seemed to guess what Li Xiuchang was thinking and explained:
"If you know him well, you will understand the problem. He is the kind of person who is delicate and considerate. No one who knows him has anything bad to say about him.
"He clearly remembers the birthdays of several of our close friends and some of his elders, and sends congratulatory gifts every ten years. It is impossible to mix up the birthdays of Old Mo and Old Gui."
Li Xiuchang frowned. "Did Senior Brother Wang have his body taken away? Or was he possessed by something?"
"Or is he actually no longer Senior Brother Wang?"
That was all he could think of.
Because this is no longer a drastic change in temperament, but a memory problem.
It feels like a completely different person.
"We suspected the same thing at the time." Lu Yang sighed, "But if it is to seize the body, it is equivalent to changing the soul. Divine Sense's fluctuations and soul aura will change. Others disguised as Wang Jingxing can't hide it from the Immortal Dust Sect, nor can they hide it from us."
"We even asked Old Gui to spend a lot of his life to do calculations. We can confirm that Wang Jingxing is still Wang Jingxing and has not been taken away or replaced by others. Then the only possibility we can think of is that it is possessed by you, or controlled by others by some means."
"There are many such methods in the world of immortality, such as Dao Heart Seed Love on Chu Ya. We want to get rid of it. At least we need to know what kind of method it is, so we asked Old Gui to continue the calculation."
"The result is like peeling off a cocoon, but this thread can't be pulled out, but it involves a lot of things. The problem behind this is far more complicated than we imagined. It is so complicated that Old Gui has spent a lot of life, but can only figure out a little bit."
Chen Changsheng took over and concluded. "In short, we confirmed that Jingxing's problem was related to Xianyin. We investigated afterwards and found that he had been to Xianyin once before, and he went with several Immortal Dust Sect Grand Elder, and he behaved abnormally after returning from Xianyin."
Li Xiuchang suddenly remembered something and asked, "Were there two other Grand Elder missing at that time?"
He had seen this news in the Ascension Pavilion's library, saying that Immortal Dust Sect organized the exploration of Immortal Yin at that time, and in the end two Grand Elder lost contact.
Zhang Wanzhi nodded. "The cause of the matter was that several inner disciples accidentally entered the Immortal Shadow for some unknown reason. At that time, Immortal Dust Sect elders led people into the Immortal Shadow to search for them, but they never came back. In the end, Grand Elder was alarmed. I don't know which Grand Elder had the idea, and several Grand Elder went into the Immortal Shadow to search for someone.
"In the end, the missing disciples and elders were found, but two more Grand Elders disappeared in the Immortal Shadow. Jing Xing was also one of the Grand Elders who entered the Immortal Shadow, but they managed to come out.
"We have always thought that he encountered something in the Immortal Shadow, which caused his temperament to change drastically. But judging from Lou Yu's experience, Jing Xing probably also entered Shadow World, but came out very quickly."
Li Xiuchang finally understood why Lou Yu's identity was first found out, and the brothers seemed to be sure that it was Lou Yu.
I also understand why the senior brothers are so concerned about Xianyin and Lou Yu.
If Lou Yu and Wang Jingxing had the same experience and had the same changes, it would explain why Lou Yu did not return to the Seal Heaven Sect, but chose to remain anonymous and wander in other worlds.
Because Lou Yu returns to the Seal Heaven Sect, there is a possibility of being exposed, just like Wang Jingxing, something was discovered as soon as he came into contact with Zhang Wanzhi and others.
The reason for not replying to the Seal Heaven Sect is not because of anything else, but because I feel guilty and dare not reply.
"Senior brother, have you told Immortal Dust Sect about this?" Li Xiuchang asked.
If there is a problem with Grand Elder in the sect, Immortal Dust Sect will not ignore it.
Xia Siyun hugged his chest with his hands, half leaning on Lu Yang, and said, "You still don't know Grand Elder's status in the Immortal Dust Sect? Grand Elder is the real top level of the Immortal Dust Sect. The only one who can manage Grand Elder is Grand Elder who is more powerful than him. There are not many such people in the Immortal Dust Sect.
"Besides, a few of us outsiders went to file a complaint, saying that Grand Elder had problems. Do you think they would believe us or their own Grand Elder?"
Zhang Wanzhi added, "In addition, although Jing Xing was full of flaws in front of us, no one found any abnormalities in the Immortal Dust Sect. He completely lost many memories about us, but he knew everything about the internal affairs of the Immortal Dust Sect, which made us very puzzled."
Chen Changsheng analyzed. "First of all, as Grand Elder, it is very simple for him not to expose his flaws. Some Grand Elder live in seclusion all year round and may not see anyone for thousands of years. If he goes into seclusion directly, who would suspect him?
"And he has not lost all his memory of us. At least he still knows us, but he doesn't seem to be that familiar with us anymore. Therefore, unless he is a particularly familiar person, no one will suspect that there is anything wrong with him."
Having said this, Chen Changsheng paused, took a special look at Li Xiuchang, and then said:
"There is another important reason why we don't try to seek help from the Immortal Dust Sect, that is, we suspect that among the Immortal Dust Sect Grand Elder, there are others with the same problems as Jing Xing and Lou Yu, and... more than one!"
Li Xiuchang was shocked. Thinking about it carefully, this is really possible!
If nothing else, let's just say that there was more than one Grand Elder who entered Immortal Shade Realm to look for someone with Wang Jingxing!
And it's not just Grand Elder, Four Great Immortal Sects has always had other sects, and there are countless people who have entered Immortal Yin. Theoretically, these people may have problems!
Just the elder Four Great Immortal Sects, there are countless people who have entered Immortal Shadow.
After all, the problem does not necessarily require the immortal Cultivation Level. Lou Yu did not become an immortal when he entered the Immortal Shadow.
Even Li Xiuchang himself has entered Immortal Yin, and all his neighbor brothers have also entered.
So is it possible that there are people with "problems" hidden everywhere in the Immortal Shade Realm?
It was extremely scary to think about it, and the more I thought about it, the more terrifying it became. Li Xiuchang couldn't help but get goosebumps all over his body.
He told his fellow apprentices about his thoughts, and Chen Changsheng shook his head and laughed, "This is also the reason why we didn't want to tell you earlier, because we were afraid of scaring you and even losing trust in the Immortal Dust Sect's elders."
Lu Yang said with relief, "There is no need to worry so much. Now it is almost certain that only those who enter Shadow World may have problems, and Shadow World is not something you can enter if you want. Several of us have entered Xianyin more than once, but we have never entered Shadow World.
"Even if you Senior Brother Gui lived in Xianyin for a while, nothing happened, so you should be careful about Xianyin, but you don't need to be overly afraid.
"Of course, I don't mean to tell you to imitate Senior Brother Gui. Every time he enters Immortal Yin, he must have calculated his safety before he dared to go."
Li Xiuchang thought secretly: I can't tell if there is something wrong with you guys!
However, people close to the person who had the problem should be able to detect the abnormality, and as long as there is no problem with Senior Brother Gui, his Divination Arts should not put other senior brothers and sisters at risk.
Having a divination master like Senior Brother Gui is equivalent to buying an insurance for everyone.
Finally, he asked the question he wanted to ask from the beginning, "How is senior brother Wang Jingxing doing now?"
As soon as this question came out, everyone fell into silence for a moment, and finally Zhang Wanzhi spoke:
"We confirmed that something was wrong with him, so we found the right opportunity to stop him when he was out and asked him what was going on, but he just didn't say anything and chose to run away.
"We wanted to catch him and check his specific situation, but he directly killed us without caring about our past friendship. We had every opportunity to kill him at that time, but how could we bear to do it? Finally two more people came to support him...
"His two helpers hid their identities, but the route number seemed to be Immortal Dust Sect's Grand Elder. With the help of those two people, and because we couldn't bear to kill them, we could only let them escape.
"Because of this, we are more sure that there are other problematic Grand Elders in the Immortal Dust Sect. His two helpers should be, and it is not only Immortal Dust Sect, but also the other three major immortal sects."
Hearing this, Li Xiuchang also felt a little complicated. As his senior brother said, as a disciple of the Immortal Dust Sect, he has always felt a sense of belonging to the sect and recognized it in his heart.
But now that this sect, which he regarded as a big family, suddenly learned that snakes, insects, rats, and ants were mixed in, it made him very uncomfortable.
Zhang Wanzhi continued, "Not long after, the news came out in the Immortal Dust Sect that Jing Xing died in Immortal Yin, and the soul lamp he left behind in the sect had also been extinguished."
Dead?
Li Xiuchang was a little unbelievable. This felt too strange. The senior brothers noticed that there was an identity problem, and he died soon after. He still died in the fairy shadow. It felt more like he was escaping by faking his death.
Zhang Wanzhi obviously thought so too, and continued, "Of course we don't believe it either. If you die in the Immortal Shadow, there is no body, only one soul lamp is extinguished, what does it mean? As Grand Elder, is it not easy for him to do some tricks on the soul lamp?
"But we asked Old Gui to calculate, but we couldn't calculate his Life and Death or his whereabouts. It has been like this all these years. Life and Death is unknown and his whereabouts are unknown!
"But after Old Gui spent a lot of longevity, he finally figured out a glimmer of hope, and that glimmer of hope fell on the outer gate of the Immortal Dust Sect. Only then did a few of us disguise ourselves as outer disciples and take turns guarding the outer gate Eastern Geng District.
"On the one hand, I am waiting for that glimmer of hope to arrive. On the other hand, I am also monitoring Grand Elder of the Immortal Dust Sect, trying to find people with the same problem, and asking them for the truth."
Chen Changsheng looked a little disappointed. "Our purpose has always been simple, to find him and rescue him. As long as he is still alive, we will not give up on him."
Mo Tu said in a rare soft tone, "If we are in danger or difficulty, he will not give up on us."
Xia Siyun lowered his head lightly, hiding a hint of sadness on his face. "He was always so kind to everyone, so good that when he was around, his existence was always ignored. Now that he is gone, I can always think of him in every moment of life."
Lu Yang hugged Xia Siyun and patted her back. "We miss him."