My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 702: Message from Che Shangong
"What are you going to do next?"

"Would you like to stay in this secret room and continue exploring to see what the murals on the wall are? Or would you like to leave the secret room with the woodcutter and come back to explore later?"

Of the two options, Jiang Xinghuo chose the former without hesitation. He planned to stay and observe the mural of Zongbu God on the wall.

But just when he was about to make a choice, the game interface suddenly flashed and new game text popped up.

"You heard the sound of the iron plate outside the secret passage being opened, and there was a slight sound of footsteps echoing in the darkness. If nothing unexpected happened, it should be someone walking in from outside. What choice are you going to make now?"

"Will you choose to use dimensional magic to hide yourself and the woodcutter, or will you choose to face the newcomer head-on and see who he is?"

This time, Jiang Xinghuo chose the second answer. Since they were already here, there was no need for him to hide. He would first see what was going on.

"You used the dimensional magic to place the woodcutter in another dimension to prevent him from harming innocent people in the event of a fight. Then a figure appeared outside the secret room. When the other party saw you, he was startled at first, and then immediately launched a fierce attack on you."

"You were attacked by the Fire General."

"General Fire, a monster born from a fire, was transformed from the souls of the unjustly dead creatures in the disaster of the skyfire burning the city. He contains a very strong aura of injustice and evil, and also has the ability to control fire."

"When General Fire waved his hand, he released countless flames, causing the temperature of the entire secret room to skyrocket. However, these flames did not cause any harm to you. You used the Fire Gathering Technique to absorb them all into your body, and also absorbed the life essence of General Fire, which became nutrients to improve the quality of the Kitchen God's fire."

"Your Kitchen God Fire level has been increased by +2."

"Do you want to touch the body of the Fire General?"

"Searching, please wait..."

"You found something on the body of General Huo, which can be considered a gain."

"You have obtained a fire-avoiding bead (excellent), a fire crow gourd (rare), and a fire-controlling robe (excellent)."

"Fire-avoiding beads (excellent material), beads condensed from the essence of flames. Carrying them with you can prevent the invasion of flames and have the ability to resist high temperatures. They are also essential medicinal materials for refining the Fire Bath Pill."

"Fire Crow Gourd (rare item), a black gourd that can release 108 fire crows. It has many abilities such as attack, patrol, eavesdrop, and send messages. However, when using it, it must be fed with real fire. It usually lives in the gourd. If it encounters a flame with special properties, the fire crow inside may be upgraded to a special golden crow."

"It is said that the incarnation of the Skyfire City Burning Disaster is a Golden Crow Gourd. It is said that it is fed with the debris of the Skyfire Meteorite and has bred 365 Golden Crows, which can release flames as hot as the sun."

"The Fire Control Robe (excellent item) can resist flames and control the surrounding flames. However, it cannot automatically generate flames and can only control existing flames to attack."

A total of three things dropped from General Fire. The Fire-Proof Beads and the Fire-Controlling Robe were both useless items to Jiang Xinghuo. On the contrary, the Fire Crow Gourd was quite interesting.

"It has been detected that the Fire Crow Gourd can be integrated with your Burning Fire Pillar. The 108 Fire Crows also have the potential to transform into Netherworld Fire Crows. Do you want to integrate the Fire Crow Gourd with the Burning Fire Pillar?"

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the text prompt and without much hesitation, he directly chose the fusion option.

"You chose to merge the Fire Crow Gourd with the Burning Fire Pillar."

"In the process of merging, please wait..."

"The fusion is complete."

"The Fire Crow Gourd has been completely integrated into the Burning Fire Pillar."

Jiang Xinghuo clicked on the text message and took out the fire pillars from the magic bag. Eight high-temperature copper pillars immediately appeared in his palm, but they did not cause any damage to Jiang Xinghuo's skin.

If you look closely, you can see firebirds swimming above the fire pillars. They seem to be strange beasts transformed from flames. They can break away from the fire pillars at any time and attack the enemies outside.

"You lifted the effects of the dimensional spell, brought the woodcutter back to reality, and left the abandoned royal hunting grounds with him."

"Of course, before you left, you used the dimensional magic to seal the entrance to the tunnel, and also used talismans to isolate and shield this place. Unless you observe it very carefully from a close distance, it is difficult to find that there is a secret entrance here. Even if you find the entrance to the secret passage, you cannot enter and explore it if you cannot crack the dimensional magic."

"You have returned to the village at the foot of the mountain with the woodcutter. What are you going to do next?"

"Will you say goodbye to this woodcutter, or will you give him something else?"

Jiang Xinghuo chose the latter.

Then he found a few things in his magic bag and chose to present them to the woodcutter in the mountains.

"You found the Snake Controlling Technique, the Snake Breeder's Secret Technique, and the Withered Marrow Finger Secret from the backpack. Give these three items to the woodcutter."

Jiang Xinghuo gave these three things to the woodcutter to test whether he could speed up the process of setting up the markers.

He learned several ways to build landmarks from the old man in the ancestral hall in Taiping Ancient Town. In addition to spreading his own legend, another way was to teach and preach.

However, this statement is relatively vague and does not clarify the content of the teachings. It also does not know whether it is enough to pass on the skills in one's own hands, or whether it must be an original skill created by oneself.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo planned to use the woodcutter as a test subject to verify what the situation was. Anyway, it would not be a loss for him.

The secret book of snake-controlling technique and the secret of withered marrow finger were both things he had obtained in Qingming Town. They were left by the Wuzhu's disciple, withered marrow fairy. The secret art of snake-raising was also obtained by him originally. There was no use in keeping them, so he just used them for this experiment.

"You gave these secret books to the woodcutter and told him to practice diligently, pass on the skills, recruit many disciples, and you can get rid of your current poverty." "The woodcutter felt as if he was living in a dream. He couldn't express his gratitude to you in words. Not only did you save his life, you also gave him a large sum of wealth. Now you have passed on the skills to make a living. In the future, as long as it can be used, I will definitely not hesitate to die and will complete your instructions at any cost."

Jiang Xinghuo pretended not to see this. Human hearts are unpredictable. These four words are worth pondering and guessing no matter in which world.

Even though the woodcutter is thanking him profusely now, dancing the yangge and playing opera, and saying nice things to him, when he gains the ability in the future, he might try to kill him.

Of course, he did not expect any rewards from the woodcutter. He mainly wanted to try this method to see if it could speed up the process of establishing the signpost.

If possible, we should promote this method and strive to successfully establish the signposts in the shortest possible time.

As long as the signpost is erected, one's life will have an extra layer of protection.

I don’t know if my future self will set up signposts.

It would be fine if there was no signpost, but if a signpost was set up and still couldn't escape the fate of being killed, it would mean that the enemy's strength was far beyond one's imagination.

"What choice are you going to make next?"

Jiang Xinghuo gave the things to the woodcutter, then controlled the character to come to Guandong City, found a teahouse and bought a few things, and then returned to the abandoned royal hunting ground.

"You have come to the secret room with the mural of the Zongbu God again."

"You looked at the mural marks on the wall that were invisible to the naked eye and took out the revealing liquid from your trick bag. Do you want to splash it on the walls of the secret room?"

"Revealing Fluid (common consumable item), ink developed by the exile Danqingke, can make things invisible to the naked eye visible."

"You poured the revealing fluid on the wall. You saw flashes of fluorescence and the revealing fluid began to move around the wall. In a short while, murals appeared on the wall."

"You went over and carefully examined the murals, and found that they depicted the past events of Zongbu God. Many of these events have been passed down orally in folk legends for many years. But when you saw the last mural, you found it very interesting. A figure with a blurred face was kneeling in front of Zongbu God with his hands raised high, and Zongbu God stretched out his hands as if he wanted to give him something."

"But both of their hands are empty. At first glance, there seems to be nothing there. But if you look closely, you can easily find a faint groove between their hands. The shape looks very familiar, very similar to the cow bone ring in your hand. Do you want to place the cow bone ring in your hand in that inconspicuous groove?"

Jiang Xinghuo's heart couldn't help but move. Could this be the real use of the ox bone ring?

"You take off the ox bone ring on your hand and put it into the groove. You will see that the ox bone ring fits perfectly with the groove. Then you will hear a mechanical sound. A secret passage entrance appears on the wall next to you. The dark entrance exudes a cold aura, like a beast that is ready to devour people. Do you want to go in and find out?"

Jiang Xinghuo didn't think too much. After a brief pause, he controlled the character and walked in.

The only thought that lingered in his mind was what was behind this secret passage? Could it be the Zongbu Temple that was about to be born?
With this idea in mind, Jiang Xinghuo controlled the character to the end of the secret passage, and new game text popped up on the screen.

"You walked to the end of the secret passage and found that there was an underground cave in front of you. An old and dilapidated temple was located in the darkness, exuding the breath of vicissitudes of time."

"And right in front of the temple, there stands a statue of a god. It is rugged, majestic, and domineering. It holds a large bow and carries a hunting knife slung across its back. Although it is just a statue, the aura it exudes makes people feel palpitations."

"You have triggered the Tathagata's talent."

"You have discovered the Zongbu Temple."

"That old and dilapidated temple is the legendary Zongbu Temple, but that statue is not Zongbu God, but Zongbu God's most proud disciple - the Hunting King."

"Do you want to take a closer look at the Zonbu Temple?"

"You walked towards the Zongbu Temple, but when you arrived in front of the statue of the Hunter King, you found that there was a chain on the Hunter King's empty right palm, and the other end of the chain was tied to a skeleton."

"You observed the skeleton through the vision of Tathagatagarbha, but the information you observed surprised you."

"Because in your Tathagata's vision, the identity of this skeleton is actually a disciple of Zongbu God, named Cheshan Gong. But why is it tied up with chains and led in the hands of the Hunter King like a dog?"

"You carefully examined the skeleton of Cheshan Gong, and finally found some words engraved on the bones scattered on his chest. They were all bronze inscriptions from ancient times, and their complexity is incomparable to modern writing. Fortunately, your Longtan inkstone can decipher these words."

"You deciphered the words engraved on the bones and learned about an event recorded by Che Shangong."

“According to the words that Che Shangong inscribed on his own bones, he and the Hunter King were both disciples of Zongbu God. However, when Zongbu God was fighting with the Ancient Gods, the Hunter King betrayed Zongbu God, causing Zongbu God’s body to be killed by the Ancient Gods and his soul to be banished to the land of nothingness, unable to actively communicate with the creatures of the outside world. He was also deprived of his Taoism by those Ancient Gods and imprisoned in the Zongbu Temple and next to the statue of the Hunter King, in order to humiliate him as the legitimate descendant of Zongbu God. The statue of the Hunter King stands here because those Ancient Gods wanted to mock Zongbu God.”

“And the hunting king who surrendered to those ancient gods from outer space became the sharpest claws in the hands of the ancient gods, wielding the butcher knife against his own compatriots, just to please those ancient gods.”

"Mr. Cheshan knew that he could not escape his fate, but he did not want the incident to remain buried forever, so he carved the story on his own bones. As long as someone could find his bones in the future, they would know the shameful things that the Hunter King had done."

After reading this text description, Jiang Xinghuo thought to himself, is this really fate, or is it just a coincidence?

There is also a legend about the god Zongbu in reality. He is Dayi, who shot down the sun in ancient times. It is said that after shooting down the sun, Dayi accepted many disciples. One of them was named Feng Meng. Because of some things, he killed his master Dayi. Later, many different versions of the story were derived.

I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, or if there’s something wrong with the name of the god Zongbu, or if the story spread to Earth and evolved into this legend.

In short, the core is the fight between master and apprentice.

(End of this chapter)