the last priest

The thunder stopped, the fire extinguished, and the stick of incense had just finished burning, when Cha Wenbin swayed slightly and fell limp on the ground, for the Zhengyang Patriarch had already left.

Occasionally, there would be one or two "croaks" in the dark cave, and the little three-legged toad could not heal his wounds yet, but relied on the instinct of protection to keep licking Cha Wenbin's face with his small tongue.

Chao Zi was the first to wake up, followed by Zhuo Xiong. Although these two were also injured, they were slightly injured.Chaozi was so dazed that he saw that Zha Wenbin was majestic and capable of doing things, but he also knew that the man did not seem to be the brother Wenbin he was familiar with. At this moment, Zha Wenbin was lying unconscious on the ground.

With some difficulty, the two dragged Dashan and Cha Wenbin out of the tomb. The big tree outside had been destroyed by lightning, and their overstretched bodies could no longer bear the difficulty of climbing, so they simply fell asleep at the entrance of the cave.

On the second day, Xiao Baoya saw that they hadn't returned yet, so he went into the mountain to look for them.I heard people in the village describe the lightning and thunder in the mountains last night, and it seemed that there was a fairy house haunting it. Something must have happened to Xiao Baoya, and he led dozens of people from Dingjia Village to dispatch.Looking at the turtle land from a distance, most of the turtle's head has been cut flat.

The four dying people were pulled out one after another, and rushed to the hospital for treatment in a chartered car. Among them, Dashan and Cha Wenbin, who were the most seriously injured, were also sent to the provincial hospital.

Dashan's chest was pierced through. Fortunately, he is strong and has a broad chest, and his sharp claws are only one centimeter away from his heart. However, due to the infection inside, he has been running a high fever.

Cha Wenbin had three broken ribs, and his internal organs were also damaged to varying degrees due to the strong impact. After some rescue work, his life was saved.

Chao Zi and Zhuo Xiong were basically able to go out to the field after a week of hospitalization. After that time, the four of them rested for about a year.

During the period, Chaozi, who was still conscious, described the whole process he had seen to Zha Wenbin, including the sentence that was different from what Zha Wenbin used, "Hurry up as if you have no extremely high true law".Later, after checking a lot of materials, Cha Wenbin found that "urgently as a law" was simplified by later generations to make the mantra easier to remember.It's a pity that Chaozi didn't remember any of the ten magic spells Ling Zhengyang used because he was seriously injured at the time.

The reappearance of these things belonging to the ancestors once again proved how glorious Tianzhengdao used to be, but now the Taoist talents are withered, and even some vitality is almost gone.

This year was a peaceful year. Zha Wenbin did not take over a single ritual, and it was the most relaxing year he had ever lived since he joined the Taoist sect.This year he lost his son and drove away his only apprentice with his own hands. It was also the most difficult year he had ever lived.

At the beginning of April of the following year, Cha Wenbin decided to take a trip to the Qinling Mountains. It was not Xiao Baoya who made him make up his mind, but the three-legged toad.

The box brought by Xiao Baoya has been kept in Chaozi's hands. During the hospitalization, they also studied Heizi.Every time the sunspot was taken out, the little three-legged toad would jump up, and later it became two front legs to hold the box and never let go.No matter the shape or material of this box, it obviously surpassed their cognition, especially the insect and bird text, which came from the ancient Qiang people. Now they ignore it, and they decide to go for a walk.

What happened to Xiao Baoya has been a few years ago, and all he can do is to use his own memory to find the place where "Master Snake" took them.

The Daba Mountain stretches for thousands of miles. Xiao Baoya only knows that the place they went to is located at the junction of Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces. The landform here is multi-karst, with an average altitude of about 3000 meters.He only remembered that he walked through the old forest for six days before arriving at a lake, but no one could tell how many lakes there were on Daba Mountain, which is called no man's land.

It took him about six days to enter the mountain, but it took him more than a month to get out of the mountain. Because they couldn't find the way to go there, they decided to start looking for the place where Baoya came out of the mountain.Because there is usually only April and May to avoid the rainy season, so there is not enough time left for them.

The herbal picker who saved Xiao Baoya passed away last year. When he came back this time, Xiao Baoya offered incense and kowtowed to his benefactor. Without him, he would have died.

Yu Dayong is the son of a herb picker, and he hasn't married a wife in his [-]s this year.He followed his father into Daba Mountain several times when he was young, because collecting herbs is hard work, and most young people nowadays are unwilling to do it.There are many poisonous snakes and beasts in Daba Mountain. Because of the special geological relationship, there may be a bottomless karst cave under which meadow, and you will die if you step down.He was the only one in the village who would act as their guide, simply because he lacked money.

It took two days to purchase, and Chaozi spent a lot of talking and money in exchange for three guns, one of which turned out to be a Japanese [-] gun used during the Anti-Japanese War.The gun was well maintained, but the bullets were a little short, only twenty rounds in total, which were used by the village militia captain back then.The other two are shotguns. The homemade soil shotgun has enough ammunition. This kind of gun has no accuracy at all. Chaozi simply used a saw to shorten the barrel of the barrel and used it as a sprayer.

Explosives and detonators are the kind used for blasting. They are not very powerful, but better than nothing.Yu Dayong owns a gun of his own, and usually shoots hares and pheasants, a total of four guns.They also prepared some other bits and pieces before they came, and it was not the first time they went out, and they knew what they needed.

Three days later, a group of six people headed towards Daba Mountain, and Yu Dayong took them for two full days along the route of the herb collectors back then.Two days later, they arrived at a dilapidated shed. Dayong said that this was the farthest place they had collected medicine before, and it was used as a temporary rest.

Just here, the surrounding trees are already towering, and the weeds are as tall as a person. Xiao Baoya ran for a full month back then, and God knows where that place is.

According to Xiao Baoya's description of the scene of the lake back then, Yu Dayong determined a few rough directions based on the legends of the older generation. As long as you walk towards one place in these directions, the deviation will be hundreds of thousands in the future. inner.

According to Yu Dayong, there is indeed a "holy lake" in the Daba Mountain area.

It is said that during the Long March of the Red Army, in order to smash the Kuomintang's encirclement and suppression, they broke through to the west and crossed the Daba Mountain in December [-] and entered northern Sichuan.A small five-member reconnaissance team from the team that crossed Daba Mountain lost its way in the vast mountain and lost contact with the main force of the Red Army.

In that era of war and revolution, the number of sacrifices caused by such accidents was innumerable, and the large army also marked the five of them as "sacrificed population" as a note, but unexpectedly, two of the five died on the second day. In the spring of every year, I walked out of Daba Mountain again.The two surviving people stayed in the local area to fight guerrillas because they failed to catch up with the main force. After liberation, one of them became a high-ranking official, and the other returned to this small village at the foot of Daba Mountain to be a farmer.

According to the veteran who returned to the village, he came back to stand guard for three dead comrades in arms, and his life was exchanged by those three for their lives.The veteran is willing to say very little. No one knows what happened to them back then. He just said that the five of them found a non-freezing lake on the frozen Daba Mountain, and the water was still steaming. They lived through that winter by relying on this lake.

The old people in the village all said that the lake that does not freeze is called the "Holy Lake", and it was the place where the Queen Mother of the West came to take a bath. As for the people who have been to the lake, except for the dead veteran, no one else in the village have been.

Xiao Baoya patted his thigh when he heard this and said: "I remember what you said. When 'Master Snake' took us there, the water in that lake was indeed hot, but it was warm. I was still there. I took a shower in there."

Chaozi glanced at Xiao Baoya and said frighteningly: "You boy, make sure, if I remember wrongly, Master Chao will bathe you in boiling water when I get back!"

"I can remember it correctly, I'm sure! That lake is indeed hot!"

Cha Wenbin stroked his chin and said, "I wonder why the veteran must come back to stand guard for his comrades. This kind of thing happened a lot during the Anti-Japanese War. Dayong, did the veteran get married later?"

Yu Dayong took a sip of wine and said: "No, he has been a bachelor all his life, and he insisted on being a forest ranger all his life. He just watched the forest where we came in. Well, the [-] big cover in that brother's hand is from He came from there. It is said that the leaders of the military region have approached him several times, wanting to ask him to go out to be an official, but all he asked for was this gun. Wrapped, well maintained."

Chaozi gave a "crash" and checked the barrel. The inside was indeed as bright as new, and it could be seen that the original owner treated it really well. "Behind every gun with a story, there is a person with a story, blind man, right?"

Zhuo Xiong nodded. For guns, no one understands the importance of guns better than soldiers. A person who regards guns as his life must love his comrades very much. That veteran is indeed worthy of respect. . . . . .