The Word of Heaven

Chapter 293 Heavenly Questions
Pei Jinge looked at him expressionlessly. After a moment's silence, he finally picked up the piece of rabbit meat and put it into his mouth.

The base of the pot was made of plain water, ginger and scallions, so the meat naturally didn't have much flavor.

However, she said nothing, finished her meal seriously and carefully, then put down her chopsticks, letting the sound echo faintly.

"Can we talk now?"

“Eat more…”

Before he could finish his words, Gu Zhuo felt the gaze falling on him and chose to remain silent.

Then he turned and asked, "What do you think?"

Pei Jinge said indifferently: "I won't kill you."

Gu Zhuo smiled and thanked him.

Pei Jinge looked at his smile, his eyebrows suddenly knitted slightly, and he suddenly said: "If it weren't for the unquestionable facts, I still don't want to believe that you are the Taoist master, especially when you smile at me."

Gu Zhuo asked in confusion: "My smile is ugly?"

Pei Jinge was silent for a moment, then said, "On the contrary, it's because your smile is so clean and amiable, like a real young person."

Gu Zhuo was somewhat emotional, thinking back to the snowstorm during the trip to the wilderness two years ago, and the girl who had pointed at him and scolded him, saying, "Wouldn't it feel a bit old-fashioned?"

Pei Jinge didn't know what happened in the past. After a moment of silence, he shook his head and said, "Or maybe I'm actually old and don't know what a real young person is."

Gu Zhuo thought that this sentence was a bit sad.

Thinking of this, he stood up and closed the door tighter to block out the last strong chill of deep winter brought by the wind and snow.

The lights in the stone house did not become brighter because of this, but instead became deeper and darker.

Pei Jinge naturally brought the topic back to the previous point.

"I don't want to kill you. This is related to my curiosity about you, but the real important thing is that you are not worth killing right now."

She said, “You are the goal I have been pursuing since I started my spiritual practice. I cannot accept that you died under my knife without any chance of fighting back. That almost negates half of my past life.

When saying this, Pei Jinge's tone was exceptionally calm, but it carried a strong, unquestionable flavor.

Gu Zhuo didn't know what to say.

Pei Jinge looked at him, thought for a moment, and added a sentence.

"Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to look down on you or laugh at you."

"I never thought that you would look down on me."

"it seems to be like this."

The two of them talked seriously or casually, then cleaned the table, dealt with the dishes and leftover food, and there was not much difference from usual.

These were all very simple tasks and naturally could not take up too much time. Before the wind and snow outside the window had even had time to slow down, everything that needed to be done was done.

Taking advantage of the deep night, the two left the stone house and began to take a walk.

The walking route is basically fixed and only changes very rarely. The ever-changing scenery of Baidi Mountain with the climate is almost making Gu Zhuo and Pei Jinge tired of it.

However, this is probably the only thing that can be considered as entertainment for them living in this secluded place, so no one would say something like "don't waste time" which would be so disappointing.

The night is extremely dark, the wind and snow are still blowing,
Gu Zhuo was holding an umbrella, carrying a lantern, and wearing a thick cloak, while Pei Jinge, who was traveling with him, was still wearing the same dress.

Against the backdrop of the night sky, wind and snow, this scene is actually very beautiful.

But the meanings revealed in this scene are not beautiful.

Pei Jinge turned his head, looked at Gu Zhuo who was tightening his clothes, and said, "What's wrong?"

Gu Zhuo was silent for a while, then smiled and said, "I don't have any clue."

Pei Jinge thought that it was indeed a very difficult question.

——Heavenly Questions.

She once again thought of the two words that Gu Zhuo told her in person after she left Changle Temple. It was also the first of the three questions the abbot left behind with his great supernatural powers at the end of his life.

These three questions were like three doors leading to the Heavenly Dao, creating a real distance between Gu Zhuo and the universe, and to the greatest extent preventing him from further deepening his Daoization, leaving him with only his self. The price he paid was that his own realm became like water without a source.

The ultimate goal of spiritual practice is of course transcendence, but before transcendence one must first achieve coexistence with heaven and earth and become one with all things.

Now that Gu Zhuo can no longer see the heaven and earth, no matter how mysterious the balance between heaven and earth is, it can no longer be endless as it was in the past.

In this situation, except for those unavoidable and necessary moments, such as when life and death were approaching, he was unwilling to use even the slightest means of cultivation, and even abandoned the most common method of nourishing the Taoist body with true essence.

Not to mention the strong wind, cold snow, strong winds and heavy rain, and scorching sun... these are not enough to make Gu Zhuo an exception.

Now, most of the time, he is no different from ordinary people.

"What if you could solve the three questions the abbot left for you?"

Pei Jinge looked up at the sky shrouded in layers of night, as if thinking about something and unable to figure it out.

Gu Zhuo smiled, looking very optimistic, and said: "I will probably return to my former state of immortality in an instant, and be invincible in the world."

Pei Jinge came to his senses, glanced at him, and asked, "So where have you come now?"

Gu Zhuo still had a smile on his face, and said honestly: "Let alone taking the first step, I haven't even figured out where to go."

Pei Jinge suddenly became curious and asked, "Is there anyone in this world who can help you with this?"

Gu Zhuo said: "No one can blame me, because this is my own problem."

This sentence sounds very proud and can easily make people feel uncomfortable, but Pei Jinge knows it is true.

Those three questions were left by the abbot, but that doesn't mean she asked them.

Sanwen and Yingxu are somewhat similar in their most proficient technique of planting demons. Both of them leave certain thoughts in the other party's mind, and then let it take root and sprout according to the traces in the deepest part of their Tao heart. However, what the two seek is completely different, so that what they get in the end is very different.

Pei Jinge once again recalled the words that the abbot's first disciple whispered to them in an unconcealed subtle tone when they left Changle Temple.

——Three questions can inspire spiritual wisdom.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but look at Gu Zhuo and asked, "After you solve those three problems, will you become two of you?"

Gu Zhuo was slightly startled, then he understood the meaning of the words and said, "The Taoist master in the past, and me now?"

Pei Jinge hummed seriously.

Gu Zhuo said sincerely, "I don't know."

Pei Jinge looked him in the eyes and said, "It's better not to do that, otherwise things will be countless times more troublesome than they are now."

Gu Zhuo sighed and said nothing.

Pei Jinge didn't want to see him sighing, so he changed the subject very stiffly and said, "Then let's take a look at the scenery first."

At this point, the two of them happened to walk to a lake on Baidi Mountain.

The lake was not frozen, but covered with a thin layer of ice that broke into pieces when the wind blew.

The crackling sounds mixed in the wind gave an inexplicably pleasant feeling, as if all things were sending off the music with the sound of a piano, telling people to stop being sad.

Gu Zhuo stopped and stood in front of the lake, feeling a little sad and uncomfortable.

The discomfort had nothing to do with the severe cold at the moment, but because he felt that his sea of ​​consciousness should be extremely lively at this moment, but in fact it was completely silent.

Yes, after those three questions arose, Gu Zhuo’s world lost those extremely familiar voices that he heard day and night.

To this day, he still can't get used to it.

"I'm also curious about one more thing." Pei Jinge raised his head slightly, staring at the starless snowy sky, his voice not drowned out by the wind: "I just discovered it."

Gu Zhuo wondered why you were so curious?

Pei Jinge said: "Daqin, no, the most amazing woman in the world is inseparable from you."

Gu Zhuo was stunned and subconsciously wanted to refute, but the moment before he opened his mouth he realized that it was indeed the fact.

The most eye-catching people in the world today are Yu Sheng, Pei Jinge, and the Queen of Daqin.

The first two are well known to everyone, and the world also knows that the third one was that the Queen once had the idea of ​​marrying Lin Wanyi to Gu Zhuo, but too many unexpected changes happened later, so the matter was left unresolved.

This can naturally be called a deep relationship.

Pei Jinge turned his head, raised his eyebrows, looked at him and said, "But I don't remember that the Taoist master has ever had the same luck with women as you. According to the records of the Patrol of the Celestial Beings, the Taoist master only had a secret relationship with Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Gu Zhuo was somewhat speechless and asked, "What do you want to say?"

Pei Jinge pondered for a moment and gave a clear question about this.

“Is this considered a kind of spring coming back to life?”

"Can you change the word?"

"I thought of a rather unpleasant saying. Do you want to hear it?"

"… Let's change the subject."

"Heavenly Questions, what exactly are you asking?"

"Actually, I thought you were asking what to eat tomorrow."

"If it was when we first came up the mountain, then I would indeed ask."

"Why don't you ask now?"

Gu Zhuo was a little curious.

Pei Jinge was silent for a moment, then said expressionlessly: "Is there any point in asking? Even if I ask, I still end up with a faint..."

Halfway through her words, she realized that the last word was extremely indecent, so she simply rolled her eyes at Gu Zhuo and didn't bother to say any more.

Gu Zhuo was slightly surprised when he heard this and laughed out loud.

Pei Jinge was not an ordinary girl, so she naturally would not feel ashamed or annoyed about this. She just turned around and continued walking.

Gu Zhuo did not follow them. Instead, he bent down and picked up a few thin pieces of ice in the lake, thinking that this long winter should finally be over.
……

……

Time passes like water, winter goes and spring comes, but Baidi Mountain remains lonely.

The lives of the two people did not change with the melting of ice and snow, and remained peaceful. The only difference was that they had a new route for walking and a different scenery in front of them.

Gu Zhuo no longer always sits in the stone house.

On sunny spring days, he would sit on the stone steps of an empty mountain path, listening to the gurgling sound of water coming from the thawing streams in the mountains and forests, as if he was in a daze, or perhaps thinking.

Pei Jinge naturally would not sit side by side with him.

Under Gu Zhuo's guidance, she found a lot of classics from a stone house, including Taoist and Zen books, and read them carefully.

In the past years, she was always troubled by countless troubles and had little real free time, so she took this time very seriously.

What surprised Gu Zhuo was that Pei Jinge never asked him for an explanation or the true meaning of the words in the Taoist Canon.

Whether this is pride or an unwillingness to let her heart of Tao be tainted, only she herself knows clearly.

During dinner and walks every day, the two still had things to talk about and had real exchanges about each other's situations.

Just as they had said in the winter, after the spring came, Pei Jinge witnessed the sunset over the mountains one evening and suddenly realized something. He no longer felt any loss.

From that moment on, she could enter the realm of enlightenment at any time as long as she wanted to.

What’s interesting is that when the sun rose the next day, Zhao Qi finally broke through.

At that time, almost the entire world was shrouded in brilliant golden sunlight, and there seemed to be no trace of clouds or mist between heaven and earth.

The sky is clear and blue, and the light shines on all living things.

He is worthy of being called the sun on earth.

On the second day after breaking through, Zhao Qi entered the Divine Capital again and was invited to meet with Emperor Bai.

Only the Queen Mother was able to observe this conversation, so the specific content naturally could not be known to outsiders.

What people could see was that after leaving the capital, Zhao Qi went to the Qingjing Temple, which was closed to the public, as his first battle after ascending to heaven.

If it wasn't for the most critical moment, when the strong men from the Taoist Taishi Palace arrived and cooperated with the Qingjing Temple's mountain gate formation to successfully force Zhao Qi to leave, this sect with a thousand-year-old heritage would have become the dust of history and ceased to exist.

After this incident, everyone was curious about how the White Emperor persuaded Zhao Qi to take action against Qingjing Temple.

It was not until late spring that news spread in the cultivation world. It was said that this matter was related to the deceased master of the temple.

The reason why these things were known to Gu Zhuo on Baidi Mountain was, of course, because of Pei Jinge.

She can cross that threshold at any time, and her vision is no longer confined to one place, but can look thousands of miles away.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that the noise made when Zhao Qi made his move was extremely loud.

One day, the two sat side by side on a cliff thousands of feet high at dawn.

Spring has arrived, and the mountain flowers are in full bloom, absorbing the morning dew like pearls.

Pei Jinge stood in front of the flower tree, his eyes passing through the branches and falling on the moon hanging in the sky, and asked Gu Zhuo: "Still no progress?"

Gu Zhuo shook his head and said, "I thought of two solutions, but I don't know which one is correct, or which one is what I want."

Pei Jinge didn't ask any more questions. He was quiet for a while and said, "I usually don't sit with you at a time like this."

Gu Zhuo asked, "Are you leaving?"

Pei Jinge nodded, then shook his head and remained silent.

Gu Zhuo didn't understand and asked directly: "So are you leaving or not?"

Pei Jinge was silent for a while, looked at him and said, "Something happened outside."

During these days, she was his only way to learn about the changes in the outside world.

Gu Zhuo said: "Then let's go."

Pei Jinge's expression was very complicated, and he said, "That's not what I meant."

Gu Zhuo was annoyed and asked, "What does that mean?"

Pei Jinge stopped looking at him and gazed into the distance under the clear sky, where there was a broad plain. He said, "A lot of people are coming this way."

Gu Zhuo understood a little.

Pei Jinge continued, "If I remember correctly, according to Qin law, there is only one possible specification for the ceremonial guard that I saw at the moment."

Gu Zhuo remained silent.

Pei Jinge was silent for a while, and finally said: "His Majesty the Emperor is coming to Baidi Mountain to offer sacrifices to the heavens."

(End of this chapter)