Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 376 Guixu Yin

Ren Yuan sat cross-legged on the cloud he had condensed with the Cloud Gathering Talisman and asked Xiao Zong who was lying beside him:
"But what does the secret you mentioned have to do with the head of the Shangqing Sect?"

"It is related. Do you know why the Buddhist sect wants to kill all the Taoists?" Xiao Zong asked back.

"It is said that the Taoist skills pose a threat to the external alchemy of the Buddhist sect?" Ren Yuan asked uncertainly.

"This is only one aspect." Xiao Zong shook his head and said, "In fact, the fundamental reason is that the God of Divination predicted that your sect would put an end to the God of Dreams."

"The God of Fortune Telling?" This question was a blind spot for Ren Yuan. "Who is she?"

"As we all know, there are eleven Ten Witches, and there are three Daliang Twin Gods. Isn't that normal?" Xiao Zong said, "The God of Divination is Wu Gu. Unlike Wu Yang and Wu Xian, who founded their own sect, he is a mysterious dragon that is hard to find. No one knows his origins, but he is the key to Wu Yang's ability to drive Wu Xian away, so he must be real."

"Is he the god of divination?" Ren Yuan suddenly thought of Chen Lingzhi, and wondered if she was a disciple of the witch?
"Yes, she has mastered the divine power of divination, so she will never make mistakes." Xiao Zong said: "That's why the Buddhist sect only oppressed and persecuted Taoism from the beginning, but suddenly turned to exterminating it."

"..." Upon hearing this, Ren Yuan denied his guess.

It is obvious that Chen Qingzhi and his daughter Chen Lingzhi are sympathetic to Taoism and they even have a close relationship with it. How could they be Wu Gu's people?

"So you'd better not seek that false reputation and avoid real disaster." Xiao Zong also gave his advice.

"Thank you." Ren Yuan nodded. If he knew nothing about the Ten Witches and the gods, this secret would be shocking enough.

Of course, even if he was not shocked, this information itself is valuable enough.

~~
It was already dark at this time. Ren Yuan descended from the clouds and saw a bright moon rising out of the sea, with billions of stars rippling with the waves.

"We've arrived at the East China Sea." Ren Yuan landed on a desolate island with no grass... To be precise, it was a large reef that was only exposed above the sea surface at low tide.

But Xiao Zong was already content. He sat on a wet rock, looked at the moonlight shining on the sea, and said sincerely: "Thank you. I promised her so many things, and I finally did one thing..."

"Do you regret it?" Ren Yuan asked amid the sound of the East China Sea tide.

"Yes, I regret it so much." Xiao Zong had been stubborn all his life, but he finally told the truth. "In fact, people don't understand what is the most important thing. You have to wait until you lose everything and are trampled in the mud to struggle, before you know that the things you take for granted are ten thousand times more precious than what you have been pursuing so hard."

"Yes." Ren Yuan nodded: "That's what people are like. They have foolish pursuits."

"Not just humans, monsters are the same." Xiao Zong looked at the mist rising from the sea and recalled faintly:
"In the autumn of the third year of Tong Gong, I was ordered to board a sealed boat to go to the East China Sea to perform a sacrifice..."

"It was mid-autumn, the moon was full in the sea, and there was a mirage. I was looking at the fairy mountain that seemed real and illusory, and suddenly I heard the sound of nature through the fog, which made me intoxicated. The song had no lyrics, but it expressed the loneliness that was difficult to dispel. I felt sympathy for it, so I wrote a poem "Guixu Yin" based on the sound."

"After reciting, I saw the sea parted, and the mermaid came walking on the waves. The bright moon was floating on the waves, and her eyes were brighter than the stars. She rewarded me for my work of writing the lyrics with the sweet wine from the East Sea."

"That night the moonlight was alluring, she was very beautiful, and I was intoxicated even without the wine. I couldn't control myself, so I got drunk and indulged myself all night."

"But after waking up, he laughed at himself: 'How can a nobleman sleep with a demon?' So he lied to Jiao Xiaonu and said, 'The emperor is very strict now, so it is inconvenient for us to go to Kyoto together. When I am sent out, I will build a crystal palace to welcome you.' Although Jiao Xiaonu was reluctant, she still returned to the sea." "After that, we parted for a thousand days and had no contact again. I thought that she, like me, had let this fleeting romance dissipate in the years..."

"In the seventh year of the Common Era, I was banished to Southern Yan. By then I knew my life story, and I was filled with grief and indignation, with nowhere to vent. I ordered people to cut down all the lian trees in Xuzhou, just because Xiao Yan's nickname was lian'er. I also did many ridiculous things, but I still couldn't feel at ease."

"That year, it was the night of the full moon on Mid-Autumn Festival. I couldn't bear to see the families reuniting, so I drove to the beach alone to watch the moonlight."

"The moonlight that night was still charming, but the more I looked at it, the sadder I felt. I felt lonely and alone. I was sitting on the beach drinking alone when I suddenly saw a thousand-foot whale boat breaking through the waves. The sea water turned into a green bridge. A mermaid with a coral bridal cape in her hair came to me on the waves. She was so beautiful that she seemed like a fairy from the Jade Pool."

"She brought me a bucket of mermaid pearls as a dowry, smiled sweetly and said to me: 'My dear, I am here to marry you.'" Xiao Zong choked up and said, "It turns out that she had been waiting for me to show up, but she didn't know that I had forgotten her a long time ago..."

"But I was at a very low point at the time, thinking that everything I had was fake. Everyone in the world, including my own mother, was lying to me."

"So, I was particularly moved by this true love, and I decided to marry her. I knelt down with her in front of the East China Sea and made a solemn vow to her. Over the past year, we have been supporting each other..." Xiao Zong laughed at himself and said:

"But to be honest, I was just lonely and needed comfort. And I had an even darker thought - to use this behavior to discredit Xiao Yan. He calls himself a sage king, but I chose to marry a witch and make him a laughing stock for the world!"

"In fact, I was just using her in the end, but she was willing to give everything for me..." A dying man speaks kind words. In the end, Xiao Zong finally realized how sorry he was for her.

He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, and with great effort peeled off the scales protecting his heart, saying, "If it weren't for this scale protecting my heart, I would have been tortured to death by Feng Tietou and his gang..."

After saying this, he picked up the scale and pressed it tightly against his face, feeling the familiar coolness. He waited until his hot tears wet it before he carefully put the scale into the sea.

The tide was high now, reaching above his knees and taking away the jade-like scales.

In the moonlight, the scales glowed with a dreamy brilliance, as if the mermaid was singing and dancing. Singing the song "Guixu Yin" that she sang when they first met:
"Sad tears, the mermaid has been weaving silk for a hundred years.

The pearls rise and fall with the tide, shining brightly every night waiting for you to pick them up.

Sea vows are carved on coral, mountain pledges are embroidered on dragon silk.

Where the pearl shattered and the light disappeared, the soul dispersed into the sea mist..."

"Jiao Xiao, I'm here to watch the moonlight with you." Xiao Zong lay on his back in the sea that gave birth to Jiao Xiao, looking at the waxing moon in the sky, and said with regret:
"It's a pity that I can never see the moonlight of that night again..."

Ren Yuan and A Yao stood in mid-air, watching the cold sea water flood over Xiao Zong's head, ending his tragic life.

The two were silent for a long time, and A Yao took a deep breath and said, "I don't want this to end."

Ren Yuan then held her hand and said, "We will live and die together."

"Yeah." A Yao nodded, held Ren Yuan's hand tightly, and flew away from the sea with her.

(End of this chapter)