Being knocked down by the Heavenly Dao while ascending

"I refuse." Pei Mingyan said it straightforwardly. After he finished speaking, he added a new discovery he had made, "Before that, you may have forgotten something."

Xue Qingyu was startled, and immediately reacted. A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead, "It's Xiaokong!"

"Yes. Maybe we have been doing something wrong all along." Pei Mingyan stood up immediately and ran towards Xiaokong's house at the foot of the mountain without saying anything more.

Xue Qingyu did not follow. He sat on the stool and kept recalling, trying to find out the problem.
But no, "Xiao Kong" disguised himself too well.
He couldn't help but wonder, does Xiaokong really exist?
Or, from the very beginning, "Xiao Kong" was just a person created by the master after deceiving Mei Xucheng and others, and the real purpose was to monitor him, guide him, and make him do things that best suit the master's wishes.
But how is this possible?
Pei Mingyan arrived at the small house at the foot of the peak. He pushed open the door and looked around the room.
The inside of the house was exactly the same as what he saw outside the window last time. This was the biggest problem. As long as someone actually lived there, there would always be changes in the house.

Once the seed of doubt was planted, he couldn't help but start thinking about everything that had happened since he arrived at the academy.

At that time, he was attacked by Qingyun and others, and he pretended to be unconscious, which could have avoided everything. Who shook his faith and made him fall into the academy again?
Who called Mr. Wu and told him about Mei Xucheng's situation?
Who else can move freely around the academy without any hindrance, and even walk around without a reason?
Who is this person? He was originally from Zhulixing but now he lives below the main peak and has not been brainwashed by Xue Qingyu.
……

Plum blossom cake, the search for Tang Gu to expose Pang Yuan, and even the last step of tempting Pang Yuan into the battle formation...all of these things are related to Xiao Kong.
Back to the beginning - the person who picked him up and admitted him to the academy was Xiaokong.

If all this was designed by that person, then what exactly did he want to do?
——It’s that mark!

The mark was preserved very well by the Mei family and would not be easily known to others. Therefore, except for the person who keeps it and the head of the family, no one else knows the whereabouts of the mark.
Once he learned the truth about Mei Xucheng's incident, he would definitely send a message to the head of the family to confirm the safety of the mark. This confirmation was the man's opportunity.

No, no!

What about Xue Qingyu?
If Xue Qingyu was abandoned from the beginning to the end, then why didn't Xiaokong stop him from saving people? If Xue Qingyu died, wouldn't that mean there would be one less enemy?
The mark has always been kept in the Mei family. As long as Mei Xucheng's matter is not exposed, the Mei family will never know the truth, let alone become his enemy.
This is the perfect solution...

So what is missing? What is the problem?

Pei Mingyan couldn't figure it out for a moment.
He walked to the back of the door, where a pair of long shoes were still placed. He hesitated for a long time, squatted down, held the shoe tube, and took out the book that Xiao Kong had stuffed in.

Xue Qingyu walked in at this time, and seeing his behavior, he asked, "What is that?"

Pei Mingyan moved his lips and put his hand on the cover of the book. He didn't know whether to open it or not. He asked, "Do you have any clues?"

Xue Qingyu nodded, "I do still have something to hide from you."

Pei Mingyan hummed and said self-deprecatingly: "Everyone has a secret, forget it..."
As soon as he finished speaking, he opened the book and found the pages were blank.
He flipped through a few more pages, and they were all blank.
Finally, I found a page with some content. There were no words on it, just a few rough pictures. I could vaguely tell what they were telling.
Pei Mingyan did not stop and turned the pages again. Sure enough, there was no content at the back, just blank pages, brand new, with no signs of having been turned over or used.
He thought about it and put the book back to its place, then stood up and suggested, "Let's go out and talk." Then he went out the door first.

As soon as he went out, he took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, suppressing all the emotions in his heart, and said frankly: "Maybe we were played and fooled from the beginning. On the worst side, Xiaokong is two people, one is the Xiaokong we know, and the other is your real master. On the best side, Xiaokong has always been just your master."

Xue Qingyu understood what this meant.
This means that, in the worst case scenario, Xiaokong has become a hostage, and if they are concerned about Xiaokong, they will inevitably be hesitant. In the best case scenario, Xiaokong has always been the master, so they have just wasted their true feelings.
He replied: "It seems that our cooperation can continue now."

"The Mei family..." Pei Mingyan was filled with emotion. Who would have thought that even if he dodged in every possible way, he still couldn't help the Mei family escape from this predicament.

Xue Qingyu said: "Contracting with me will do you more good than harm."

"Goodbye." Pei Mingyan taunted, "How can there be no problem with the two contracts in one body? The problem is not with you, but with me. What's worse, both of us will be affected... Hey, this is not your master's plan, throwing you out as bait, killing me, and then using me to threaten the Mei family. Well, the plan is beautiful, but it's unrealistic, because the Mei family is not threatened. Even if I am Young Master Mei, there is no exception."

"I can sign a master-servant contract with you." Xue Qingyu said.

Pei Mingyan was speechless for a moment, "…Is it worth it?"

"Maybe I have some savior spirit." Xue Qingyu smiled, and it was hard to tell whether he was happy or self-deprecating. "While saving others, I am also healing myself. Over the years, I have watched everyone in the academy start their new lives, and I have a sense of peace and stability in my heart. I have seen how they collapsed and wanted to die... Therefore, I am even more fascinated by this kind of peace."

Pei Mingyan seemed to want to say something but stopped himself.

"I know what you are going to say. They were saved when they were trying to commit suicide. In your eyes, it was against their will, and you don't approve of it. However, I have never saved everyone. Most of those who have no worries have died. Those who came to the academy were mostly desperate or impulsive. They didn't want to die, but they just couldn't face the past, so I gave them a chance to be reborn."
"I have thought about your disapproval. Depriving others of their memories is never a good thing. Even if I have asked them whether they are willing to start a new life, it still cannot change the fact that I gave them a false life."
"I am sorry for them."
"That's why I need to compensate them. If I can't even protect their lives, how can I compensate them? Why should I continue to live?"
Xue Qingyu cut his finger, blood gushing out. He knelt on one knee, crossed his index finger and ring finger, touched them together at the center of his brow, and then used his finger as a pen and his blood as ink to draw strange symbols on the ground. He also answered Pei Mingyan's question, "So... maybe it's not worth it. I'm also a dying man."

Pei Mingyan was silent for a long time, but still gave in. "What are the consequences of having two contracts for one object?"

"Backlash." Xue Qingyu did not raise his head and continued to draw symbols. "Although backlash will bring pain, I will bear most of the pain. When I cannot fully digest the pain, you will be at risk of migraine."

"Phew, you scared me. It's a headache. It's a small problem. After being ravaged by the heavens, I don't care about ordinary pain."
Pei Mingyan deliberately added a few modal particles to try to ease the heavy atmosphere.
He looked at the symbol on the ground that had faded due to the blood, saw the subtlety at a glance, and stretched out his index finger to touch a certain point on the symbol.

The symbol disappears immediately.
Pei Mingyan felt that some strange power penetrated into his sea of ​​consciousness through his fingertips, circled inside and then retreated, returned to the ground, and then followed the disappearing runes on the ground, penetrated into Xue Qingyu's wound, and ran into Xue Qingyu's body.
At the same time, he had a vague feeling in his mind. After a little probing, he saw Xue Qingyu's childhood memories.
Out of politeness, he immediately withdrew.

It was a strange and indescribable feeling, as if parts of their thoughts were intertwined. He could see everything about Xue Qingyu. The other party was like a transparent, mindless dead object in front of him, like an unlocked cabinet or an open cabinet that could be seen by anyone who came.
Moreover, this is one-way and the other party cannot see any of his thoughts.
Master-Servant Contract...
Ugh.

The symbols on the ground completely disappeared, and the wound on Xue Qingyu's fingertips also healed.

Pei Mingyan only felt that there was an additional connection between them, as if it was some kind of strong resonance.

Xue Qingyu did not feel uncomfortable after being spied on. He looked calm, "This resonance power is the power of compatibility with the Negative Spirit Clan. My compatibility with you is not very high. I think the most suitable weapon for you is not the zither. But because of my voluntary contract, my willpower has been increased, which is enough to wrap up the master... the original owner's control over me."

Pei Mingyan said tactfully, "This contract is not good, really. It is strange that the two of them have no secrets, because everyone has things they don't want to be honest about, which can be good or bad."

Xue Qingyu closed his eyes. "I don't have the ability to spy on the master, but the master can explore my heart at any time. Please let your soul follow me--"

Pei Mingyan locked Xue Qingyu's thoughts as soon as he entered, muttering, "The Fuling people are also human beings, not weapons. Since they are human beings, they should have their own secrets."

"I was right about him." Xue Qingyu sounded very happy.

"Don't. You've got the wrong person. You weren't looking at me. I just changed my face back." Pei Mingyan said, following Xue Qingyu's guidance into his sea of ​​consciousness.
Different from his empty sea of ​​consciousness, Xue Qingyu's sea of ​​consciousness has mountains, trees, water and flowers, each staying in its own position, with a unique sense of tranquility.

"This is the Fuyuan natural moat in my memory." Xue Qingyu suddenly appeared, smiled faintly, and gently waved his hand. The natural moat disappeared like a passing cloud.
Xue Qingyu said: "The previous owner's thoughts are inside."

A thing like a silkworm chrysalis stood there.
There seemed to be some living creature inside the pupa. The pupa wall would be bumped into bulges from time to time, and the living creature inside would bump into it like crazy from time to time, knocking the silkworm pupa to the ground.
But the whole pupa is actually like a tumbler. Although it sways to and fro, its lower body is firmly planted and the base does not move at all, which seems to mean "sitting firmly on the fishing platform regardless of wind and waves."

"This is the formation that helped me resist the previous master." Xue Qingyu said, "I invited you in to show my sincerity. I also hope that you can add a new restraint to the master's consciousness. This will make it safer for both you and me."

"..."Okay, if you want to cut the weeds, you have to remove the roots. If you can't remove the roots, you have to fan the soil to reduce the chance of germination.
His 21st century good man thinking is really out of date. "Yeah."
.
Mei family.
The elders all had worried faces as they gathered outside the house waiting for news, and each of them wished they could climb up through the windows.

The little kid kept crying and whining, being so annoying.
An elder holding a whisk couldn't stand it anymore, so he used the whisk to perform magic tricks for the little kid, and the little kid stopped sobbing.

The worries on the faces of the elders who were hearing the devil's voice faded a little, and they began to doubt - could it be because of this little devil that the young master moved to Yingshan?
An elder walked back and forth, muttering as he walked: "How long will this take! The eldest young master's condition is unknown, and the second young master has become like this..."
The female elder holding the handkerchief was panting and looked like she had hurried over. She wiped her forehead and reminded, "Don't mention it. The eldest young master must not know about this. If he knows that the second young master is possessed by a demon—"
"Shh!" An elder nearby couldn't help but kick her lightly, "I told you not to mention it, but you still mentioned it! Do you know how to speak?!"
The female elder rolled her eyes at the other party, "Okay, okay, okay! You are the only one who knows how to talk! I said that I couldn't tell the young master about this, but I was hesitant in my heart. You said that the young master is still a human being no matter what, and he hasn't become an immortal or a god yet. Why do we have to cut off his seven emotions and six desires so early? When he flies up to the sky and becomes a god or an immortal, we don't know what it will be like. Why not let him enjoy the things that an ordinary person should enjoy when the time is right."

"Elder Ruoshan is famous for his quick talk, so I won't argue with you. Anyway, the head of the family won't harm the eldest young master, and we all want the eldest young master's best. We all have our own ways, and no one can control anyone else. But the focus now is to find a way to save the second young master. When the eldest young master comes back, we won't see the second young master, and we won't have a chance to choose. How can we expect to hide it from the eldest young master!"

"Oh? Are you hiding something from me?"
A voice just happened to interrupt their conversation.

"Mountain snow!"
"It's Shanxue who's back!!"
"Go tell the master quickly that the young master is back!"
A group of people all turned around, their surprise was beyond words, and then they pretended to be ignorant in order to cover up the matter, with doubts on their faces saying "Why am I here?"

"That's so exaggerated!" Pei Mingyan laughed, "If you don't know, you might think I'm coming back once in a thousand years."
He pretended to count on his fingers, "It's only been a month since we last met. You shouldn't miss me that much. Oh?! I see. You must be thinking about those 'acquaintances' in your courtyard! I'll ask them to come back when I go back, but don't miss me all the time."

"You little brat! What nonsense are you talking about?" Mei Ruoshan stepped forward, grabbed Pei Mingyan's sleeve, and pulled him away from the crowd. "Why didn't you tell us before you came back from the academy? We could have sent someone to pick you up."

"Hey, hey, hey! It would be embarrassing if people knew that I, the eldest son of the Mei family, was doing odd jobs in the academy, okay?"

"You still know how to embarrass yourself!" Mei Ruoshan tapped his forehead with his finger, not even leaving a mark, and was very careful. "I thought you only knew how to do evil things. Why do you have to go by yourself? Just tell me, who in the Mei family wouldn't rush to go for you? Maybe a group of people would even fight to get a chance to go."

"..." Is this really just admiration and yearning? Have you really been brainwashed like those people in the academy?
Of course he knew that Elder Ruoshan was deliberately changing the subject, and while the two were talking, three elders took action together while he was not paying attention. Two of them were responsible for "silently" opening and closing the door, and one of them sneaked into the house, obviously hiding something from him.
This place was the courtyard of his stubborn second brother. It seemed that his second brother was in trouble. Looking at the size of the elders, almost all those who lived nearby had come, and most of those who lived far away had also come. Seven or eight out of ten Mei family elders were here. It seemed that there was a big problem...
Could it be that the mark was collected by my second brother? ! Did that person take action?
He turned around and asked, "Does everyone know that I'm coming back today and are waiting for me here?"
The elders looked at each other in different ways. Some looked up at the sky, as if a chicken might fly over. Some pulled their clothes and shook them, as if there were a hundred fleas on their bodies. Some even grabbed a handful of hair, as if they were counting the number...
No one dared to look him in the eye.

"You also know that you came here so suddenly." Mei Ruoshan pulled him over again, "Since you are back, you should go back to Yingshan first. A group of brats clamored to go to Banshan Juwu to wait for you. This is not true. Although Banshan Juwu is closed, a group of people still went there. If they knew that you went back to the Mei family first, they would be mad to death."

Pei Mingyan glanced at the elders one by one, and had to step back, saying exaggeratedly, "I understand! This is an order to expel me. I knew it. You just know that I'm in trouble, so you all want to chase me away!"

The elders became excited again after hearing this. "What trouble have you caused? Is there any trouble that our Mei family cannot handle? Shanxue! You tell me, and I will solve it for you!"

"..."Really, the fact that he didn't go astray was all thanks to the perfect education in the 21st century. It's really great that Meishan Xue in the original book could become like that.

Mei Ruoshan also laughed, "Oh, our eldest master has grown up and knows how to get into trouble."

"..." Listen to me, is this even human language?
Before he could say anything, Mei Ruoshan said, "Master, did you get into trouble with a girl? I heard that the medicine manager of the academy said that a girl chased you to the academy. Which girl is she?"

"Mei Ruoshan, where did you hear this news?"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
"Yes, yes! Don't be afraid, young master. We can handle anyone!"
……

"Hey." Pei Mingyan looked hopeless, listening to the topic change from where the news came from to whether it was true, then to where the girl was now, and then to how to bring her back...
How can they look like a respectable and honorable family at all?

"Hey!" Pei Mingyan raised his voice and said, "No, it's just that the academy's medicine manager was exposed because of me. It's inconvenient to stay there, so I brought him back. It's not that girl, and there's no such thing as unmarried pregnancy or anything like that!"

"Hey!"
"Ugh!"
"Eh?"

"That's what I told you! How could Shan Xue be that kind of person!"
……

Mei Ruoshan was the first to take over his conversation. "I thought it was a big deal! It's just a small matter. Don't worry. I will definitely arrange a place for him. If he is willing, my courtyard is short of a manager. Let him come to my place."

A group of elders parroted, "I'm short of people too, let him come to my place."
"I'm short of that too!"
"Bai Shi Town is short of a manager. He can go there."
……

The group of people started arguing again.

"...I..." Pei Mingyan was helpless. He glanced at the little kid with his mouth covered. He knew that the elders would not give him a chance to ask questions. He used his eyes to comfort the little kid and said to the elders, "I brought something for you, too. It will be here soon. As for father——"

The elders all stopped talking, their hearts in their throats.

"I'll come to see him tomorrow. I'll go back to Banshan Juwu today." Pei Mingyan said "sensibly".
He had no doubt that if he continued asking, his head would be like a head stuffed with a hundred little men who could only say "Namo Amitabha" and chant sutras. Soon his mouth would become bald along with his head.

He glanced at everyone's situation and left.

As soon as he left, a group of elders seemed to be exhausted. They no longer cared about their sage image and sat on the ground, pulling up their sleeves and fanning themselves.
Needless to say, we know that they must be thinking in their hearts - finally the annoying person is driven away!

Pei Mingyan left the Mei family.
His anxiety also subsided a little, and the elders still had the energy to play with him. This meant that the situation was not as serious as he thought.
A group of people gathered, all because of the news that he had suddenly "died".

He turned back to Yingshan.
Yingshan Mountain was covered with snow, almost the same as when he left, except that this time, the fog was wide open halfway up the mountain.
There was a lot of noise in the outer courtyard, and it sounded very lively. Unfortunately, he had just been disturbed by the little man chanting scriptures, and his mind was only half clear. He really didn't have the energy to meet a group of fanboys and girls.

He quietly avoided the crowd and went up to his own small building.
Fang was startled when he entered the room. Xue Qingyu was standing inside, seemingly waiting for him.

The ghost is still there?!
"Didn't we agree to do our own thing, brother?"

Xue Qingyu's face was solemn. "When we separated, I was so busy talking about the Negative Spirit Contract that I forgot to mention that clue to you."

Pei Mingyan lay on the window sill skillfully, "What clues are worth your personal trip? Tell me."

"I know the girl who came to see you last time," Xue Qingyu said.

"what?"

Xue Qingyu nodded in affirmation, "She obviously doesn't remember me, but I know her. I am sure that she and I are both from the Fuling Clan."

?! Pei Mingyan almost fell off the house.

(End of this chapter)