My Taoist buddy has practiced surrogacy

Chapter 1385 The Sound of the Piano
Zhou Xing, dressed in the clothes of a musician, holding a pipa, walked through the long palace corridor towards the cold palace. His steps were light, but his eyes showed a hint of vigilance.

When he walked near the cold palace, he heard a faint sound of a zither. The sound was like weeping and complaining, as if telling of endless sorrow. Zhou Xing's heart moved, and he walked in the direction of the sound of the zither.

In front of a dilapidated palace, he saw a woman. The woman was dressed in plain clothes, with long hair draped over her shoulders, and was concentrating on playing the zither. Her face was a little haggard, but it couldn't hide the beauty between her eyebrows.

Zhou Xing stopped and listened to the music quietly. The woman seemed to notice someone, raised her head suddenly, and looked at Zhou Xing vigilantly.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" the woman asked.

Zhou Xing bowed and said, "I am a court musician. I was attracted to come here when I heard your piano music. Your piano skills are superb, but there seems to be endless sorrow hidden in this piece of music."

The woman sneered and said, "I am an abandoned concubine in the cold palace. Apart from the sound of the zither, what else is there in this palace that is worth my nostalgia?"

Zhou Xing looked at the girl, and a wave of pity welled up in his heart. He said, "Young lady, why do you have to suffer so much? Maybe there will be a turn for the better in the future."

The woman looked at Zhou Xing with disdain and said, "A turning point? I have already given up hope in this deep palace."

Zhou Xing didn't say anything more. He sat next to the woman and gently plucked the pipa. The melodious sound of the pipa and the guqin intertwined, as if telling each other's story.

Late at night, Zhou Xing returned to the musician's residence. He sat at the table, took out a piece of talisman paper, lit it, and turned it into a butterfly. The butterfly danced and flew towards the forbidden palace.

Ling Xue (the reincarnation of the female monarch) woke up from her dream and saw the flashing magic runes on the window frame. She was startled and quickly reached out to touch the runes. In an instant, some vague memories flooded into her mind.

Ling Xue disguised herself as a palace maid and quietly came to the musician's residence. She hesitated outside the door for a moment, then knocked gently.

Zhou Xing opened the door and was slightly startled when he saw Ling Xue. Ling Xue quickly said, "Musician, I heard that you are a great musician, so I came to ask you for advice."

Zhou Xing invited Ling Xue into the room, and after they sat down, Zhou Xing played a piece of music called "Breaking the Formation". The passionate melody seemed to bring people into the battlefield, full of lofty sentiments and ambitions.

Ling Xue was so absorbed in listening that she blurted out, "This song 'Pozhen Music' is exactly the same as what I saw in my dream."

Zhou Xing rubbed the strings with his fingertips and suddenly asked, "Did the princess lose half of the jade pendant in Merlin during the Demon Sect election seven years ago?"

Ling Xue was shocked. She didn't expect Zhou Xing to suddenly ask such a question. She nodded and said, "How did you know?"

Zhou Xing took out half of the jade from his arms, which matched perfectly with the half in Ling Xue's hand. Ling Xue looked at Zhou Xing in surprise, her eyes full of confusion.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside. It turned out that the music officer had come with people to search. Zhou Xing quickly hid Ling Xue in the secret room.

The secret room's stone wall was engraved with the Haoqing Sect's mental method. Ling Xue's fingertips touched the broken stele, and some memory fragments emerged. She remembered that in her previous life, she had protected Zhou Xing from the catastrophe and blocked a fatal blow for him on the battlefield between immortals and demons.

At the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Zhou Xing and Ling Xue were forced to play "The Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix". On the surface, the two of them cooperated well, but in fact, the magic sect's communication technique was hidden in the piano music.

After the emperor heard the music, he suddenly had a splitting headache. Zhou Xing saw the emperor's dragon energy wrapped in strange black mist, and was secretly surprised.

Just when the banquet was halfway through, an assassin suddenly appeared. Crossbow arrows rained down on the emperor. Zhou Xing was quick-witted and threw Ling Xue to the ground, protecting her with his body.

Three poisonous arrows pierced Zhou Xing's right shoulder, staining the pipa with blood. Zhou Xing smiled and wiped the blood off Ling Xue's face, saying, "I hugged my senior sister like this last time in the ancient tomb."

Ling Xue was moved when she saw Zhou Xing injured. She tore open her skirt to bandage Zhou Xing's wound and found that the inside of his calf was branded with the same sect mark as hers.

The two looked at each other and recognized that the jade pendants on each other's waists were the tokens they had given to their Taoist partners. They finally understood that they were fellow disciples who had experienced tribulations in different small worlds.

In order to explore the strange black fog on the emperor, Zhou Xing and Ling Xue decided to sneak into the underground palace. They carefully avoided the guards and came to the depths of the underground palace.

The underground palace was eerie and filled with a pungent smell. The murals around it depicted some strange scenes, as if hiding some secrets.

The two searched for clues in the underground palace, and suddenly, a mural on the wall attracted their attention. The mural depicted a tragic battle, with countless soldiers lying in a pool of blood. On one of the military flags, there was a secret pattern of the Haoqing Sect.

Ling Xue looked at the mural with a look of surprise in her eyes. She said, "This mural seems to be related to our sect."

Zhou Xing nodded and said, "It seems that there are some secrets hidden here."

Continuing forward, they came to a mechanism room. There were all kinds of strange instruments and runes in the room. Zhou Xing relied on his wisdom and experience to crack the mechanism.

However, just as he cracked the last mechanism, a rain of arrows suddenly occurred. Countless sharp arrows shot from all directions at an extremely fast speed.

Seeing this, Ling Xue flew in front of Zhou Xing without hesitation. Three poisonous arrows pierced her back, and blood instantly dyed her clothes red.

Zhou Xing looked at Ling Xue's wounded appearance, his heart filled with anger and self-blame. He picked up Ling Xue and quickly looked for a way to stop the bleeding.

In the stone chamber, they found some healing herbs. When Zhou Xing applied medicine to Ling Xue, he found an ice phoenix totem on her back. He was shocked and asked, "How did you get the ice phoenix totem?"

Ling Xue smiled weakly and said, "This is the secret of my life experience. I will tell you when I have the chance."

The two continued to explore the underground palace and finally came to an altar. On the altar was a bronze box, which emitted a soft light.

Zhou Xing opened the bronze box and saw two jade slips lying inside. The jade slips were engraved with some ancient words and runes.

Ling Xue picked up a jade slip and read: "Only when the twin calamities are over can we know that the moon is the same."

At this moment, the jade tablet turned into a stream of light and sank into the two people's brows. A strange memory flooded into their minds. It turned out that three hundred years ago, they had jointly resisted the Heavenly Demon Rift.

The assassin's true identity is a traitor of the Demon Sect. After learning the identities of Zhou Xing and Ling Xue, he decided to capture them all.

He trapped Zhou Xing and Ling Xue in the underground palace and said coldly: "Zhou Xing, Ling Xue, do you think you can escape? Today is the day you die!"

Zhou Xing looked at the traitor and sneered, "You want to kill us? You're dreaming!"

He detonated the mechanism in the tomb, and immediately, huge rocks rolled down and dust flew. The tomb began to collapse, and Zhou Xing and Ling Xue took the opportunity to break out.

They fled to an open space, but the traitor was still chasing them. Zhou Xing knew that this was not a solution, so he decided to die with the traitor.

He pushed Ling Xue onto the hot air balloon and said, "Take care of yourself and wait for me to come back."

The hot air balloon slowly rose, and Zhou Xing turned to face the traitor. He activated his magic and destroyed his own heart meridian. A powerful force burst out, shattering the quicksand within a radius of ten miles. Ling Xue saw this scene on the hot air balloon, and tears welled up in her eyes. She screamed, her heart filled with pain and despair.

After the smoke and dust cleared, Ling Xue landed on the ground. She picked up half of a charred jade plaque in the sand. The inscription on the plaque and her broken jade just happened to form a complete sect seal.

At this moment, a giant teleportation array emerged from the sandstorm. At the center of the array lay Zhou Xing's bloodstained robe, wrapped in a half-burnt osmanthus branch - the token she gave him when he took the entrance examination.

Ling Xue brought Zhou Xing's remaining clothes and jade token and came to the upper realm through the teleportation array. In the upper realm, she asked around for news about Zhou Xing, but could not find him.

As the days passed, Ling Xue never gave up looking for Zhou Xing. She believed that Zhou Xing must still be alive.

One day, Ling Xue met the gatekeeper in the sect's forbidden area. The gatekeeper looked at her and said with a smile: "Girl, you are finally back."

Ling Xue looked at the gatekeeper and felt that he looked familiar. After a closer look, she was surprised to find that the gatekeeper was Zhou Xing.

Zhou Xing smiled and spread out his palm, saying, "The scar from the 318th calamity is still there."

In his palms lay two intertwined golden elixirs, and the elixir patterns were like the flames and moonlight that burned the city that night.

Ling Xue looked at Zhou Xing, her eyes full of joy and emotion. She threw herself into Zhou Xing's arms and said, "It's great that you're still alive."

The morning light penetrated the clouds and sprinkled on the two of them. Zhou Xing brushed the fallen leaves off Ling Xue's shoulders and asked, "Do you want to be a merchant outside the Great Wall or a scholar in the south of the Yangtze River next time you go through the tribulation?"

Ling Xue tied the medicine bag to his wrist with her backhand and said with a smile: "As long as I meet you in different worlds."

The two smiled at each other. They knew that the road ahead was still long and there were more disasters waiting for them. But they believed that as long as they stayed with each other, they would be able to overcome all the disasters and ascend to the upper realm.

Zhou Xing was wearing thin clothes and heavy shackles, walking with difficulty on the hot sand. His face was full of fatigue and haggardness, but his eyes revealed an unyielding will. Behind him were the yamen runners who escorted him. They rode on horses and whipped Zhou Xing from time to time, cursing.

"As the son of a treacherous official, he deserves this fate!" a bailiff said viciously.

At this time, a dilapidated hut appeared in front of them. In front of the hut, a woman in simple clothes was drying herbs. She was Ling Xue, the only female doctor in the wilderness.

Ling Xue saw Zhou Xing's expression and was moved. She stepped forward to stop the guards from whipping him and said, "You will beat him to death if you do this."

The bailiffs looked at Ling Xue and said with disdain, "Young lady, stay out of other people's business. The son of this treacherous official deserves his punishment."

Ling Xue ignored them and looked at Zhou Xing carefully. Suddenly, she found a crescent-shaped birthmark on the back of Zhou Xing's neck. She was startled, but soon regained her composure.

"He is no longer able to move forward, so just leave him here." Ling Xue said.

The yamen runners hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed. They took off the shackles from Zhou Xing's neck, threw him in front of the hut, and rode away on horseback.

Zhou Xing was lying on the ground, gasping for breath. Ling Xue walked over to him, squatted down, and checked his injuries. She found that Zhou Xing had multiple burns and whip wounds on his body, and she couldn't help but feel pity for him.

"What's your name?" Ling Xue asked.

"Zhou Xing." Zhou Xing replied weakly.

Ling Xue helped Zhou Xing into the hut, cleaned his wounds, and applied herbs. During the treatment, Ling Xue found a jade plaque hanging around Zhou Xing's waist, with some strange runes engraved on it. She was moved, but did not ask any more questions.

Late at night, Ling Xue came outside the hut and saw Zhou Xing drawing talismans on the ground with branches. The talismans flickered with a faint light, as if they contained mysterious power.

Ling Xue pretended not to see it and went back to her room. But in her heart, she had deep doubts about Zhou Xing's identity.

After Ling Xue returned to her room, she kept thinking about Zhou Xing. She sat at the table, frowning, thinking about how to uncover Zhou Xing's true identity.

Suddenly, there was a hurried knock on the door. Ling Xue opened the door and saw a man who looked like a traveling merchant standing at the door. He was pale and looked panicked.

"Girl, save me, there are wolves chasing me." said the traveling merchant.

Ling Xue was kind-hearted, so she let the merchant in. After the merchant entered the house, he looked around, then took out a packet of poison from his arms and secretly put it into the medicine furnace.

Ling Xue noticed the unusual behavior of the peddler, but she did not make a sound. At this moment, Zhou Xing suddenly rushed in. He saw the peddler's behavior and immediately understood his intention.

Zhou Xing crushed the poison bag with his bare hands, and black blood oozed out of his fingertips. He sneered and said, "How dare the Demon Sect add the Seven Deadly Gu into my medicine?"

The merchant's face changed drastically when he heard Zhou Xing's words. He didn't expect Zhou Xing to be able to see through the poison he had given. He was about to run away, but was caught by Zhou Xing.

At this moment, there was a wolf howl outside. The wolves had already chased to the hut. Zhou Xing and Ling Xue worked together to set a trap to deal with the wolves.

While setting the trap, Ling Xue discovered that Zhou Xing's boots were stained with Xuanming Flower pollen. She was moved and asked, "Have you been to Xuanming Mountain?"

Zhou Xing nodded and said, "Yes, I have been to Xuanming Mountain. There is a fairy fruit called Xuanming Fruit. It is said that eating it can increase your cultivation by a hundred years."

After hearing what Zhou Xing said, Ling Xue became even more suspicious of his identity. She decided to find an opportunity to ask Zhou Xing about it.

On a rainy night, Ling Xue deliberately asked Zhou Xing to help boil the medicine. She stared at the boiling medicine pot and asked, "How did you find the 3,000-year-old Polygonum multiflorum in Xuanming Mountain?"

Zhou Xing paused while stirring the medicine spoon and said, "Of course I found it by chance."

Ling Xue looked at Zhou Xing with doubts in her eyes. She knew that Zhou Xing must have been hiding a lot of things from her.

The plague suddenly spread in the wild land. People were infected and groaning in pain. Ling Xue, a female doctor, rushed around day and night to diagnose and treat patients.

Zhou Xing was also not idle, he helped Ling Xue collect herbs and take care of the patient. However, as the condition worsened, the medicine gradually ran out.

One day, Ling Xue found a prescription under Zhou Xing's pillow. The prescription said "Use blood from the heart as a guide." She was shocked and asked Zhou Xing, "Why do you have such a prescription?"

Zhou Xing tore open his shirt, revealing the hideous old wound on his chest, and said, "This was left when I cut open my heart to remove the shrapnel three years ago. Do you want to see it, young lady?"

Ling Xue looked at the scar on Zhou Xing's chest and felt a sharp pain in her heart. She didn't expect Zhou Xing to have been injured so badly.

In order to save the patient, Zhou Xing ignored his own injuries and forced his internal energy to drain the blood.