Being knocked down by the Heavenly Dao while ascending

The child repeated the story in a low voice.

Pei Mingyan looked at the winter rain falling on Yingshan Mountain and laughed for no apparent reason. It was hard to tell whether the laughter was sad or happy.
The winter rain is silent, and the destroyed forest sprouts and grows vigorously under the nourishment of the rain.
Pei Mingyan removed his protective aura and the rain fell on him.

The rain fell for a long, long time.
.
Xuantianmen.
A group of people knelt outside the study with their heads down, looking ashamed.

Fifteen knelt at the front of the crowd and loudly pleaded guilty to the young master: "It was Fifteen who falsely conveyed the young master's instructions and delayed the young master's important affairs. I beg the young master to forgive me and let me off the hook."
When the other tribesmen heard that Fifteen wanted to shoulder all the blame, they all said, "Young Master, we were also wrong. Fifteen also wanted to protect you!"

The room remained silent, with no response.

Fifteen and one lowered their heads.

A group of people couldn't hear the response from inside the house and began to confess their guilt.
Some of them confessed their guilt even though they did not feel guilty. However, as the silence in the house grew longer, they began to become suspicious.

They were worried about the young master's punishment.
The young master is the benefactor of the Murong clan and the one who helped them regain their new life.

It was the young master who allowed them to integrate into the lives of ordinary people and live as ordinary people. They married, had children, and started their own lives.
But they did not forget who allowed them to have all this, it was the young master.

Fifteen said that if there were no bargaining chips, the young master would die.
Getting bargaining chips for the young master is something they can do, how can they let the young master die like this?
They looked at each other, stopped the crowd from arguing about the crime, and sent someone to speak on their behalf.
The representative said, "Master, no matter what Fifteen did wrong, he just wanted you to live. If you want to blame, please blame all of us. We all have the same idea, we all want you to live. If this is also wrong, then please punish us."

This sounds nice, but in reality it is forcing the young master to let Fifteen go. The law cannot hold everyone responsible, let alone a kind-hearted person like the young master.
Have the people of the Murong clan changed? Would they have the courage to resist the orders of the young master in the past?
Fourteen suddenly remembered the young master when he was young, remembered the young master's resounding questions when facing the elders of the clan, and remembered how the young master turned the situation around with his own strength, allowing the eldest young master to leave the Murong clan safely.
Perhaps the Murong people have never changed. Everyone is equally selfish and cruel.
He turned his head and stopped looking at the group of people in front of him.

Fifteen knelt on the ground and trembled. He could hear the tribesmen pleading for him, but he could no longer hear their voices. He began to understand something vaguely.
The Murong people...are no longer the Murong people.
From the moment the young master asked everyone to change their appearance into other people, they were no longer members of the Murong tribe.

How could a true member of the Murong clan make things difficult for the young master?

Thinking of this, Fifteen suddenly laughed. Making things difficult for the young master... Ha, making things difficult for the young master...
The one who really made the young master embarrassed was him! .
There is fog halfway up the mountain.
Ah Qing felt the formation activated and knew that the young master had returned, so he quickly asked everyone to prepare food while he went to the small building to greet him.

As soon as she entered the small building, she heard voices coming from inside the house.
But the sound was wrong.
Before she decided whether to go in, she heard the young master say -

"You are the one who caused Shu Yu's death."

The second young master is dead?!
Ah Qing hurriedly left the small building, took off a curved jade pendant from his waist and threw it into the small building.
The jade pendant is the key to enter the small building. If the young master does not allow you to enter, you cannot enter the small building without the jade pendant. She is the only person in the fog who can enter and exit the small building at will, and the reason why she can enter and exit at will is precisely this jade pendant.
The conversation in the small building now was definitely not something she should know, nor was it something that everyone in Banshan Juwu should know.

She had to go out and buy time for the young master.

In the small building.
Shang Nanyi remained silent for a long time in the face of Pei Mingyan who was suppressing his anger, and finally said slowly: "This is something that must happen."

Need?
"We work together to prevent what 'is' going to happen from happening, right?"

Shang Nanyi fell silent again, as if he was considering how to phrase the matter.

"The Murong tribe has a way to summon people's souls back, right?" Pei Mingyan asked him.

"Yes." Shang Nanyi replied, "But..."

"Don't hesitate." Pei Mingyan said, "All the rain transformed by Shu Yu was left in Tianshui Forest. Tianshui Forest still has my formation. If his soul can still stay, it must still be here. If anyone can summon his soul, tell me."

Shang Nanyi paused for a long time before saying, "He must die. There was no Mei Shuyu in the dream I told you about, and there was no Mei Shuyu in the incident in the fishing village, but Jiang Yuansheng and Mei Xucheng spent their entire lives trying to stop the black energy."
He paused, "Mei Shuyu was still a child at that time. If we simply wanted to stop the black energy from gathering, the easiest way would be to kill Mei Shuyu, who was still a child at that time. Wouldn't this minimize the losses?"

Pei Mingyan naturally had not thought of this method, or perhaps this was also his naive side. Killing an innocent person in exchange for world peace was certainly not something that an ordinary citizen in the 21st century would consider. In other words, this was actually a difficult problem that everyone had been arguing about - the trolley problem.

Shang Nanyi continued, "Did Mei Xucheng and Jiang Yuansheng think about killing him? I don't know. Did I do something wrong? I don't know."
"But I know that even if I am given another chance, I will still choose to do this. What I can do is to alleviate Mei Shuyu's pain and make him die willingly."

Pei Mingyan suddenly understood why Shang Nanyi was the male protagonist.
It’s because of this heart.

Killing one person to save everyone is not right, but what if this person chooses to die voluntarily?
Even if behind this voluntary act were twenty years of deception and falsehood, so what? The people who died did so voluntarily.

"This is your choice," Pei Mingyan said, "not mine."

Shang Nanyi added: "Some things cannot be said. I can only tell you that this is something that is bound to happen. Only when certain things happen, will certain things happen."

Pei Mingyan looked at Shang Nanyiyi, and Shang Nanyiyi looked back at him.

Pei Mingyan closed his eyes and raised his voice: "What are you hiding?"

At this moment, Fang Qing dragged Xue Qingyu down from the sky and rushed into the small building.
The formation was like paper in front of Fang Qing. It would break even if it wasn't poked. The two of them came in without any hindrance.

"What's going on? Where are the people?!" Fang Qing looked around the house anxiously.

Pei Mingyan replied: "Zhi'er is fine, don't worry."

"Huh..." Fang Qing exhaled heavily, his heart dropping halfway. Suddenly he remembered something, "What about the others?"

At this time, Xue Qingyu pulled his sleeve and shook his head at her.

Fang Qing immediately changed the subject, "Ah, well, were you guys arguing just now? Things have already happened, and arguing won't help. Why don't we think about how to make sure the sacrifices aren't in vain?"
Her voice dropped as she spoke. The person she was talking about was not Mei Shuyu, and she didn't know about this yet.
The sacrificed person she was referring to was the man with the jade flute.
She knew all about the entanglement between Yuxiao Man and Zhier. At first, she thought Yuxiao Man was not a good person, and he was a hypocrite who used both kindness and force.
But now recalling what the man with the jade flute said, he did have his point.

Xue Qingyu also said: "What can I do?"

Pei Mingyan shook his head and told the three people the result of his trip, "Jiang Yuanse and I also reached an agreement."

Fang Qing asked: "What?"

"He won't interfere in future events, and Shang Nanyiyi will be able to get his identity back." He glanced at Shang Nanyiyi.

Shang Nanyi faced his gaze calmly, but his body was slightly turned away. It can be imagined that his heart was not as hard as he said.

Xue Qingyu asked: "What is his request?" "Ask the Heavenly Dao a question for him."

Xue Qingyu frowned, "Only when you ascend can you see the way of heaven. Only when you succeed in ascending can you be qualified to discuss the way of heaven. Whether we can get the answer is not something we can control. This agreement is not easy to complete."

"Um... um... that..." Fang Qing hesitated and reminded everyone, especially Pei Mingyan of his existence, "Heaven's Way..."

Xue Qingyu looked at her and thought of the thunder in the academy. "Do you have a solution?"

Fang Qing glanced at Pei Mingyan and asked him whether he should tell her or not. Pei Mingyan did not express his opinion, which probably meant that it was up to her to decide.
So Fang Qing said, "If you want to talk about other things, I may not be able to do it, but as for finding the way of heaven... I probably can still do it."

Several people looked at her at the same time.
.
Fang Qing was lying on the bed, with three men standing upright beside the bed. The oppressive feeling made her feel the urge to pee.
“Um… could you guys please move back a bit?” She tried to reason with the guys, “I have no intention of falling asleep if you guys do this… ah!”

Before she could finish saying "Ah", she was knocked unconscious.

Pei Mingyan signaled to Xue Qingyu, who nodded. A ray of spiritual consciousness penetrated into Fang Qing's sea of ​​consciousness, guiding her to start dreaming.
Soon, Xue Qingyu opened his eyes and gave Pei Mingyan a look. Pei Mingyan understood what he meant and put a hand on his left shoulder. Shang Nanyi hesitated for a moment and put his hand on his right shoulder.

Fang Qing's sea of ​​consciousness was very chaotic, but surprisingly safe. Normally, people with a chaotic sea of ​​consciousness would become irritable, but Fang Qing's sea of ​​consciousness was chaotic yet orderly, and every materialized thought stayed in its own little piece of land.
There are countless Fang Qings in the sea of ​​consciousness. They are all doing different things. They wear strange clothes and do strange things.

The most common appearance is a person with messy short hair holding something like a slate and grinning foolishly.
Otherwise, she would sit cross-legged on something that might be a bench, holding a stick in her mouth, her fingers moving frantically, and the box in front of her and a piece of something unknown making a "tapping" sound.
Then, she was walking through the brightly lit streets, carrying a storage bag of unknown stuff, and running back with a smile on her face.
……

Shang Nanyiyi and Xue Qingyu found all this extremely strange, but they tacitly said nothing and just walked inside, and soon arrived at Fang Qing's dream.

Their first feeling was tacitly the same - quiet.

Compared to the messy and noisy sea of ​​consciousness, the world in the dreamland was suddenly so quiet that one could hear the sound of the wind.
The first thing they heard was Fang Qing's wailing: "Who is this wicked person! What kind of thing did this person do?! How can people sleep passively? I won't get a stiff neck when I wake up, right?! A cultivator got a stiff neck when he slept, okay, I can imagine how a bunch of people will laugh at me when I go home and brag to my buddies!"
Fang Qing stood up and patted his face, then put his hands in front of his mouth to let his voice travel further, "Uncle! Godfather! My old dad! Honey! Come out soon!"

There was silence in the air.

"If you don't come out I won't play anymore. Oh, it's so boring. I want to die now." Fang Qing fell to the ground, looking like he had lost all hope in life.

But everyone noticed that Fang Qing quietly opened one eye.

Just when they thought they were being teased by Fang Qing, there was suddenly an unusual smell in the air.

Fang Qing obviously hadn't noticed yet, and was still wailing, "If you don't come out, I'm really going to die, I'm really going to die!"
She searched left and right, and finally took out a decent dagger made of wood.
She made up her mind and put the dagger on her neck, "I really committed suicide!"

After saying that, his hands started moving, and just as the dagger was about to touch his neck, a bolt of lightning struck down.
It hit the dagger exactly, knocking it to the ground, but Fang Qing's hand was not hurt at all.

"Oh, my dear father, you are finally here!" Fang Qing jumped up from the ground. "I really don't have anything important to bother you with this time. It's just that a friend of mine... yeah, a friend, is about to die, and he has a question that he wants to ask the heaven... wants to ask you, so I'm going to ask it for him. I'll count to three, and if you don't leave, I'll take that as your consent!"

"Three, two, one!" Fang Qing shouted three times in half a second, "You agreed! Then my question is -"
Fang Qing paused, and she blinked a few times quickly, "That's it——"

"Fuck! Pei Mingyan didn't even tell me what question he was asking!"

Pei Mingyan: “…”

Shang Nanyiyi and Xue Qingyu also looked at Pei Mingyan, and they were speechless for a moment.

Fang Qing licked his lips. "Um, godfather, it's like this. I missed you so much that I came to find you before I had time to listen to my friend's words. I didn't hear what my friend wanted to ask. Otherwise, I'll ask you next time. Since you're here, why don't we chat while we're here?"

There were two rumbling sounds in the sky, as if in agreement.

Fang Qing said: "I've always been curious, why did you pick me? Look at me, I look like a rookie, I don't look like someone who can ascend, you should at least find someone with potential!"

The three of them shook their heads and prepared to leave. It was obvious that the Heavenly Dao in Fang Qing's dream was silent.

There were suddenly several rumbling sounds in the sky, and clouds gathered and separated. Soon, the clouds formed three words, two of which were "Fang Qing" and one was "Fei".

Shang Nanyiyi and Xue Qingyu looked at Fang Qing almost at the same time, then suddenly seemed to understand something and looked at Pei Mingyan.
When the content of the divine decree was revealed, both of them remained calm.

"Fang Qing once told me about this." After leaving Fang Qing's sea of ​​consciousness, Pei Mingyan said to Xue Qingyu, "I have no doubt that she will ascend."

After hearing this, the two of them didn't know whether to believe it or not, and they didn't ask any more questions.

Xue Qingyu's eyes wandered between Pei Mingyan and Shang Nanyi, "If Fang Qing can ascend, then you..." Who died midway?
Although he didn't say it out loud, the two of them understood it.

"We will be fine." Shang Nanyi said.
After saying this, he suddenly looked at Xue Qingyu, "If I remember correctly, you and Fang Qing are both from the Negative Spirit Clan. To be exact, you are not human."

Xue Qingyu hesitated and clicked on the T-shirt, but suddenly his eyes lit up and he looked at Pei Mingyan.

Pei Mingyan nodded imperceptibly.
.
For the next six months, Pei Mingyan never mentioned the matter of resurrecting Mei Shuyu again. He went to Tianshui Forest and brought a sapling back to the Mei family.
When the little kid found out his second brother had passed away, he made a big fuss and even stopped loving his beloved eldest brother.
After crying for more than half a month, he went to the Mei family's forbidden area alone to practice in seclusion.

Pei Mingyan settled down in the Mei family, and the elders of the Mei family often came to visit him.

He didn't go out often, and would stay in his room writing books. All he wrote were his understandings of the Mei family's techniques. It wasn't very profound, as he was not one for academic research.
The news that Master Mei was at home made the younger generations of the Mei family very excited, and they all became diligent. Because everyone knew that Master Mei was about to ascend to heaven!
This is a rare opportunity for them to spend time with the young master, so of course they have to behave well to reassure him.

As a result, a wave of learning arose in the Mei family, and for a moment everyone seemed to have forgotten the missing second young master.

Only at midnight, when Pei Mingyan secretly went to Shuyu's unique white marble courtyard of the Mei family, he would often see the elders who were muttering about how disobedient Shuyu was, lingering in front of the only sapling in the courtyard, whispering something.

No one stayed for long, as if to leave time for the next person to come.

Pei Mingyan hid himself. After everyone left, he went to the small tree and stood there for a long time.
He remembered Fang Qing's last words: "If we go back, will Mei Shanxue come back?"
"What about us? Can we...really go back?"

(End of this chapter)