Gourd Outside, the mountain wind is fierce.
It was the middle of winter, the vegetation was withered, and the mountain roads were covered with a thin layer of frost.
Shen Hui walked in front, Patriarch Baoxue sat on Willow Leaf Flying Sword, following leisurely beside him.
Fourth Senior Sister Jinghui bounced back and forth, while Lu Huan and Hu Cheng ran after her ass.
And the one hanging at the end is Shouyuan.
He stumbled as he walked, and his feet seemed to be in shackles.
Sometimes he stepped on gravel and staggered, sometimes he kicked a protruding tree root and fell forward.
At least he held on to the tree trunk next to him and didn't fall down.
"Ouch--"
He stumbled again, and this time he fell sideways and grabbed Lu Huan's arm.
The little girl staggered under his tug and almost fell too.
Jinghui looked back and couldn't help but said:
"Senior, why do you act like a toddler? If it doesn't work, why don't you go back to Gourd and wait until we get out of these high mountains before we let you out?"
"Yeah, why go out and suffer this crime?"
Shouyuan Hearing this, he immediately stood up straight, patted the mud on his robe, and said with a straight face:
"Who said that? I'm very good."
He took another two steps and stepped on a loose stone this time.
The stone rolled down the mountain, and he rushed forward, hugging Hu Cheng's waist to steady himself.
Hu Cheng was hit by him and staggered forward two steps, dumbfounded:
"Senior, please slow down."
"Slow? Slow for what?"
Old Daoist let go of his hand, cleared his throat, and said without changing his expression:
"I think back then, when I traveled around the world, the road I took was much more dangerous than this. You juniors are short-sighted."
He stood with his hands behind his hands, looking into the distance, assuming the posture of a master.
"I remember when I was looking for medicine in Fallen Kui Mountain. The mountain road was so narrow that there was only room for one foot, and at my feet was an abyss. The cliffs were thousands of feet high, and it was difficult for monkeys to climb. I walked with my hands behind my back, as if I was flying, with Hand Seals in one hand, climbing vines with the other, and stepping on the ladder with my feet, as if walking on flat ground..."
"Aren't you holding your hands behind your back? Why are you climbing the vine with one hand Hand Seals and the other?" Jinghui asked.
Shouyuan waved his hand immediately after hearing this:
"Oh, what do you know? If you don't tell me, don't tell me..."
Seeing this, Jinghui leaned close to Lu Huan's ear and whispered:
"Do you believe it?"
Lu Huan pursed his lips and smiled, then shook his head:
"Don't believe it."
Shouyuan had pointed ears, turned his head, glared at the two of them, and continued:
"Another time, in Miasma Forest, I was surrounded by a group of poisonous insects, and they flew among the trees without touching the ground with their feet for seven or forty-nine days..."
"What did you do with your eating, drinking and diarrhea for more than forty days?"
Hu Cheng asked honestly.
Shouyuan said without changing his expression, "When you have reached my level of cultivation, Grain Avoidance it is a common thing."
He cleared his throat again as he spoke, pretending to be calm and boasting a bit:
"Walking on the snow Heaven Mountain, chasing the wind down Vast Sea, the cliffs thousands of feet long are like walking on the flat ground, and the thousands of miles of desolate roads are walking in the morning and evening. Nowadays, the mountain roads are just a little bumpy. I just haven't set foot in the world for a long time, and I am a little unaccustomed to it!"
After he finished speaking, he turned around and saw that the other five people had already gone far away, and no one listened to his bragging.
Shouyuan's face twitched, then he pretended that nothing happened and continued to stride forward, this time walking more steadily.
After walking for a while, he suddenly remembered something, moved closer to Shen Hui, and asked in a low voice:
"Qingxuan, I want to ask you something."
"Senior, please speak."
"Is Soul-Searching Gourd... really gone from now on?"
Shouyuan said with a bit of reluctance.
Shen Hui smiled when he heard this and corrected him:
"First of all, it's the junior Soul-Searching Gourd."
Shouyuan turned down the corners of his mouth and did not answer.
Shen Hui patted Gourd on his waist and continued:
"Furthermore, Gourd has not disappeared. It has just changed its appearance."
Shouyuan was silent for a moment, then asked tentatively:
"Then if I unfortunately die in the future..."
"Senior, don't worry."
Shen Hui interrupted him, "If you unfortunately die, your soul will still return to Gourd."
Shouyuan's lips moved, but he stopped talking.
Shen Hui glanced at him and asked:
"Senior, what exactly do you want to ask?"
Shouyuan hesitated for a while, then finally spoke and looked at Shen Hui cautiously:
"I want to ask, this Gourd is quite big. Can I... find a mountain and put it in it, and use it as the Mountain Gate of Soul Crossing Temple?"
When he said this, although his face was forced to be calm, there was a bit of anxiety in his eyes.
Unexpectedly, after listening to Shen Hui, he didn't hesitate at all and nodded directly:
"There is nothing you can't do."
Shouyuan was stunned:
"You agreed?"
"I agreed."
As soon as the words were settled, Shouyuan was stunned.
He looked Shen Hui up and down suspiciously, squinted his eyes and said:
"You promised so readily. Could it be that there is another trap?"
Shen Hui shook his head with a smile and said seriously:
"It's just a Mountain Gate. As long as the disciples of Soul Crossing Temple are not those extremely evil people, we are all on the same path."
Upon hearing this accurate statement, Shouyuan was instantly overjoyed.
He stared at Shen Hui for a long time. Seeing that his expression was calm and not pretending, he rubbed his hands and laughed twice, feeling a little lighter:
"Good! Very good! It seems that I have to pay more attention to Spirit Mountain in the world in the future and look for a beautiful place! I also have to look for Root Bone disciples everywhere to strengthen my Soul Crossing Temple lineage and pass on the Tao tradition."
Jinghui on the side heard this and immediately interrupted with a smile:
"Senior, what kind of Law Technique do you Soul Crossing Temple have?"
"That's a lot!"
Speaking of this, Shouyuan suddenly became energetic and his chest stood up:
"For example, Cloud-to-Ladder Art, Touchstone-to-Gold Method, Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding Art..."
Shouyuan clasped his fingers and spoke more and more enthusiastically:
"And Wind-Borne Voice Transmission, Drawn-Ground Prison, Scatter Beans, Raise Soldiers, Form-Shifting Shadow-Exchange..."
Jinghui's eyes lit up. "Scatter Beans, Raise Soldiers? Senior knows this?"
"That's natural."
Shouyuan raised his chin slightly, with a proud look on his face.
"Back then, I used a handful of soybeans to drive back three thousand soldiers. The beans grew as soon as they fell to the ground and turned into strong men. They were all more than ten feet tall, holding pumpkin hammers. They beat the gang of thieves until they cried for father and mother, and pissed themselves..."
Hu Cheng listened carefully and couldn't help but ask:
"Senior, are those strong men powerful? How long can they last?"
"This..."
Shouyuan rolled his eyes and said vaguely:
"Then it depends on the quality of the soybeans. If they are high-quality beans, it will last for a long time. If they are old moldy beans, then..."
Everyone immediately understood.
After walking for another distance, Lu Huan remembered something and came over and said:
"You can ask Daoist Yun Su later. Maybe she knows other Spirit Mountain. Our Mountain Gate is what she told us."
Shouyuan nodded when he heard the words and whispered:
"Yun Su? I have written it down."
As he spoke, he raised his head again and looked at the mountains in the distance:
"How far is it?"
Shen Hui glanced at the sky and said with a smile:
"It's not far away. If you can walk faster, you can get there before dark."
Shouyuan As soon as he heard this, he immediately quickened his pace:
"Go quickly, go quickly."
But when a group of people climbed over the mountains and came to the Purple Bamboo Temple, they couldn't help but stop.
The Daoist temple is still the same Daoist temple, with blue bricks and gray tiles, wooden doors and stone steps.
However, before Mountain Gate, the originally green bamboo forest has completely changed its appearance.
That bamboo forest... is blooming.
There are green bamboos all over the mountains and fields, and I don't know when the branches are covered with fine flower spikes.
The flowers are extremely small, so small that you have to get close to see them clearly, but they are densely clustered together.
Strings, clusters, hanging down heavily, as if the bamboo finally spoke after a long silence.
The mountain breeze blew by and the bamboo leaves rustled, but they no longer had the crisp vitality of the past.
Looking from a distance, the entire bamboo forest looks like an old man with a white head, trembling slightly in the wind.
Occasionally, a few withered yellow bamboo leaves were picked up by the wind, whirled twice in the air, and then fell lightly on the mountain road, making no sound.
Lu Huan stopped, tilted his head and looked for a long time, and couldn't help but say:
"What is this?"
Shen Hui looked at the sea of flowers and was silent for a moment before slowly speaking:
"The bamboo is blooming."
Lu Huan blinked with confusion on his face:
"Can bamboo bloom?"
"Yes."
Shen Hui nodded, his eyes falling on those pale flower spikes, hesitating:
"It's just..."
He didn't say any more.
Jinghui stood next to Lu Huan, raised his hand to comb his hair, and finished the sentence for Shen Hui in a low voice:
"It just blooms and then dies."
Lu Huan was stunned and turned to look at Jinghui:
"Death?"
"Hmm."
Jinghui nodded. "Bamboo only blooms once in its life. After the flowers bloom, they will set seeds, and then... the entire bamboo forest will die. It's like..."
It's like all the energy in this life has been spent on a flowery thing.
Lu Huan was stunned.
She turned her head and looked at the blooming bamboo forest again.
I thought those flowers were pretty just a moment ago, but when I look at them now, I find them desolate.
The wind picked up again, the flower spikes trembled slightly, and the fine petals fell one after another, falling on the bluestone steps, the frost-covered eaves, and everyone's shoulders.
Shouyuan stood at the end, looking at the bamboo forest, and whispered:
"As the old saying goes, 'If bamboo grows flowers, the years will be poor'. Flowering bamboo is not a good sign."