Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 72: Hebaek Liujun
After cutting off Xie Gui's dog head, Ren Yuan hurried back to check on Tian Liangzi's condition.

I saw that the huge body of the yellow eel was covered with terrible knife wounds. The largest wound was even big enough for a person to stand in. The blood was almost drained out, and no one knew how many bones were broken. The eel lay limp on the ground, motionless.

Ren Yuan ran to Tian Liangzi's head and called out loudly, "Wake up, uncle!"

Tian Liangzi barely raised his eyelids, looked at Ren Yuan with a dull look, and asked with difficulty: "Won?"

"Yes, we won!" Ren Yuan held back his tears and choked up, "Uncle, you are really amazing. You were able to hold him off for so long."

"Of course..." Tianliangzi smiled complacently and slowly closed his eyes.

When Ren Yuan spoke to him again, he could not hear any response. He reached out to push his head, but saw the skin and flesh of the yellow eel falling off in pieces...

"Is the senior dead?" A Yao finally recovered some strength and came to Ren Yuan and asked.

"I'm afraid so." Ren Yuan lay on the big yellow eel, finally unable to hold back his silent tears. Although he knew that sacrifices were inevitable in this battle, it was still heartbreaking to lose an elder who was not too serious but very principled.

"Senior..." The senior sister also lay on the big yellow eel and cried bitterly.

As they cried, the two found something was wrong. The skin, flesh and bones of the big eel kept falling off and turned to ashes when they hit the ground.

And in this patch of smoke and ash, there seemed to be a smaller version of Tianliangzi.

"Uncle!" Ren Yuan and the other man quickly pushed away the pile of ashes, and saw that the black spots on the small Tianliangzi's body had turned into scales, and there was a faint diagonal bulge on its forehead!
"This guy actually turned into a dragon?" At this time, Liu Zhongjun also came over, looked at Tian Liangzi's condition, and couldn't help laughing: "It turns out that you have to accumulate more merits in your daily life to turn misfortune into good fortune."

"What's going on?" Ren Yuan and the other two asked in confusion.

"Fish turns into dragon, snake turns into sea dragon, eel turns into wind tip. We worked so hard to draw the Shangqing Five Thunder Talisman, but it became his thunder tribulation." Liu Zhongjun sighed, "It's worth it that this guy has been controlling the clouds and rain for the village his whole life, and he can even get through this situation."

"When he wakes up, we won't be able to afford him." Despite saying this, he laughed heartily and was truly happy for his old friend.

"Really? We cried for nothing." Senior Sister Ren Yuanhe wiped her tears and asked hurriedly, "When will he wake up?"

"Who knows? Maybe he will hibernate for a while and wake up during the next year's Waking of Insects. Maybe it will take one or two years, or three or five years." Liu Zhongjun smiled uncertainly and said, "Anyway, it's just a matter of sleeping for him, and the longer he sleeps, the more severe he will be when he wakes up."

"That's good." The two of them breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Liu Zhongjun, wanting to ask him how he was.

But I found that something was wrong with Liu Zhongjun. He was standing there, but he seemed like he would disappear at any moment...

"Grandpa, you..." A Yao stretched out her hand to grab him, but her hand passed through his body and grabbed nothing.

"Oh, it's okay, it's okay. This is my spirit. Its magic power has been exhausted, so it should naturally dissipate." Liu Zhongjun seemed to be talking about an ordinary little thing.

"Is your original body okay?" Ren Yuan asked anxiously.

"Of course it's okay." Liu Zhongjun shook his head and smiled, "Then you can't pull my hair anymore..."

"No, you're lying! I can feel that your soul is dissipating." A Yao suddenly cried, "I should have thought of it earlier. When I was turned into a bird, you couldn't come to save me because 'people move and live, trees move and die'..." "What you said, I was originally a willow tree without a soul. Becoming a spirit was just an accident. Now I'm turned back into a willow tree. How can I be considered dead?" Liu Zhongjun smiled kindly, "You can't refuse me wine just because I'm useless and can't speak..."

"..." Ren Yuan was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth. He quickly opened his third eye and looked at Liu Zhongjun. It was just as his senior sister said... his soul was on the verge of dissipating.

"Tell me quickly, you will be resurrected too!" Ren Yuanshi hoped that he could leave himself a glimmer of hope like Tian Liangzi.

"Of course. When I have absorbed enough incense, I will be able to meet you again." Liu Zhongjun nodded with a smile.

"You two should take good care of each other." He looked deeply at the two people and the big yellow eel lying on the ground, and then looked around, as if he wanted to remember the land that gave birth to him forever. Then he turned into a wisp of green smoke and rose into the blue sky...

~~
Ren Yuan and A Yao stared at the direction where the smoke disappeared. Through their tearful eyes, they clearly saw a thick willow tree growing on the Fangxian Mountain...

Although it has grown for many, many years, the change of seasons has only added another growth ring to it, and has not given it any intelligence.

Until one autumn, a group of tourists dressed in Han Dynasty clothes climbed the mountain on Double Ninth Festival. While they were resting under a tree, someone brought out some dates and shared them.

After eating the dates, the tourists saw a small tree hole in the big willow tree. They became playful and used the date pits as arrows to play the game of throwing pots. They threw the date pits into the tree hole. Some hit the target, while others bounced away.

Oddly enough, in the spring of the following year, the date pits that fell on the ground did not sprout, but the date pits in the tree hole grew branches and leaves and became a small sapling.

A few years later, the sapling grew into a jujube tree, and its trunk protruded from the tree hole, as if another jujube tree had grown on the willow tree.

One day, a woodcutter who went up the mountain to collect firewood finally noticed this scene. He felt it was incredible. After returning, he told others about it. The villagers all said that the tree growing dates among willow trees must be extraordinary!

At this time, a woman had a headache and the pain would not stop. She had no money to hire a witch or a sorcerer to treat her, so she ran to the mountain and burned incense and kowtowed to the willow tree that grew dates.

Maybe because she sweated while climbing the mountain, her headache went away after burning incense. She kowtowed in joy and shouted that the sacred tree had appeared.

Soon, word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and people from nearby villages all came to burn incense and kowtow. The old willow tree became extremely popular, with worshippers coming to visit all year round.

Gradually, the willow tree gained so much incense that it actually developed intelligence and was able to help the people get rid of disasters and diseases. The incense became even more popular, and his Taoism became deeper and deeper. He was about to successfully transform into a human, but he was struck by lightning and fell into a deep sleep for many years.

When he woke up, he found that a small temple had been built around him. He thought it was built by the people for him, but he soon found out that it was a mountain temple built for a little mountain ghost named A Yao.

The reason why the mountain god temple was built here was probably because the little mountain ghost lacked confidence when he first debuted, so he used this big banner as a cover.

Fortunately, he was kind-hearted and the little mountain ghost was also honest and kind, so the two of them shared the same temple and have been sharing incense until today...

Therefore, the old willow tree always remembers where his intelligence came from and who gave him his spiritual skills.

Therefore, even though he knew that his spiritual wisdom would disappear, he came here without hesitation...

So, this is the story of Liu Zhongjun.

(End of this chapter)