Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

I highly recommend "Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain"! It's super exciting!

Cheng Mo felt a little uneasy under Xia He's gaze: "What's wrong?"

"Little Taoist priest," Xia He's voice was soft but earnest, "didn't you notice that you were acting very strangely just now?"

"Something's not right?"

"Zhong Kui is an unstable element to begin with. Not only did you fail to control him immediately, but you also allowed this monster to enter ordinary villages." Xia He's fingers tightened. "If he suddenly goes berserk, can we stop him in time?"

Cheng Mo's expression remained unchanged as he calmly asked, "Xiao He, are we saviors?"

"ha?"

"We are not saviors," Cheng Mo answered calmly. "These ordinary people have their own destiny. Whether we save them or not, their fate is already predetermined."

Xia He frowned deeply: "What kind of unorthodox theories are these? Have you been doing too much divination in your inner realm lately and gotten influenced by it?"

Cheng Mo shook his head, his gaze falling on the dark village houses: "I'm just standing from an outsider's perspective. We have no connection with the people in this village, and they don't even know we exist. As for Zhong Kui, or rather Zhao Dezhu, it's a mistake made by the company."

He paused, then turned to Xia He: "We're just helping the company; we don't need to pay for the mistakes the company made. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I don't understand." Xia He shook her head, her pink hair fluttering gently in the night breeze. "I only know that as human beings, we should have a basic moral compass, be able to distinguish between good and evil, and have compassion. We shouldn't stand by and watch someone die or be injured when we have the ability to help."

Under the moonlight, those eyes were clear and bright, without a trace of impurity.

Cheng Mo looked into those eyes and suddenly felt a stirring in his heart.

He released Xia He's hand and took a half step back.

A question mark appeared above Xia He's head: "?"

Cheng Mo took a deep breath: "Let's practice."

"ha?"

Although Xia He was full of questions, she still followed along with him.

The two walked one after the other under the locust tree, rising and falling. Xia He gradually became enveloped in a pink mist, like a thin veil, which shrouded the two of them.

Cheng Mo closed his eyes, his consciousness slowly sinking into that familiar interior scene.

Wisps of black mist drifted by, blurring the mountains and trees. In the river, fish swam slowly, no longer leaping out of the water. On the riverbank, cats and deer lay motionless, looking listless.

Cheng Mo watched all this, but his heart remained unmoved.

until--

Pink mist seeped in from outside the interior, starting as just wisps, then growing thicker and thicker.

Pink mist seeped in from the sky, wisps of it, like morning light piercing through the clouds.

It enveloped the mountains and rivers, the black mist swirling and struggling in the pink, slowly fading away.

It merged into the river water, and the fish at the bottom of the river turned over and swayed their tails.

It floated into the animal's body; the cat raised its head, and the deer stood up and shook its ears.

The black energy was squeezed by the pink mist, contracting from all directions to one direction, and finally condensing into six chains. Each chain was as thick as an arm, pitch black, and covered with dense patterns. They extended from the void and pierced into the earth of the inner landscape.

The pink mist, like a cat smelling fish, surged toward the six chains, enveloping, binding, and wearing them down.

Cheng Mo felt a buzzing sound in his head.

The world suddenly became incredibly clear and incredibly beautiful.

The fragrance of earth, the fresh scent of flowers and grass, the slightly fishy smell of stream water, the sweet aroma of pine resin in the distance—each scent is clearly discernible, each aroma has its origin and destination. Every subtle change in the airflow as the wind brushes against my skin is perceptible.

Then, the sound came.

You are better than everyone else.

"You can see what others cannot see, hear what others cannot hear, and perceive what others cannot perceive."

"You're always right, everyone else is wrong."

"What your master taught you was too slow."

"You have a better path."

"Xia He is with you because you are strong. If you weren't strong, would she still be here?"

"How many extraordinary individuals in this world can reach your level? If you want to, you can do anything. Those rules, those principles, those restrictions are all for the weak."

The voices overlapped, as if countless mouths were speaking simultaneously in his ears, each word carrying a seductive power, trying to penetrate Cheng Mo's mind and take root deep within his consciousness.

Cheng Mo stood in the center of the interior scene, expressionless.

The pink mist gathered more and more, and the chains began to melt, peeling off layer by layer from the surface, turning into black powder and dissipating into the air.

The clear and melodious world gradually faded away, and those seductive voices became weak, unreachable, and eventually less than a speck of dust.

All six chains had melted into the pink mist.

The interior scenery has been restored to clarity.

Cheng Mo suddenly shuddered.

Consciousness rose to the surface, swimming upwards from the bottom of the water, faster and faster, until finally bursting out of the water with a splash.

He opened his eyes, his body still moving slowly, the pink mist pulsating with his movements, flowing around him as if it were alive.

Cheng Mo felt warm all over, as if he were soaking in a hot spring, and every pore of his body relaxed.

He closed his eyes again and repeated the moves of the Longevity Kung Fu over and over again.

To conclude.

Bring your hands to your sides and calm your breathing.

The pink mist gradually receded into Xia He's body, and the two opened their eyes at the same time, their gazes meeting.

Xia He spoke first, sounding somewhat worried: "Little Taoist priest, what happened to you just now?"

Cheng Mo sighed, "That Zhuge Liang is really something else; we almost fell for his trick."

"interior?"

Cheng Mo nodded: "You know about the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and thought, right?"

"The six senses, you know." Xia He nodded, then frowned slightly. "But isn't the inner world the spiritual realm? How can the six senses correspond to it?"

Cheng Mo shook his head, cracked his neck twice, and said, "He left six chains in my inner world, each representing one of the six roots. Those chains made me feel a lot—"

His voice suddenly became ethereal, a world so clear and distinct that he had never experienced before.

"But it is also constantly eroding my will and injecting consciousness that does not belong to me."

Xia He became even more worried and waved her hand in front of his eyes: "Little Taoist priest, are you alright?"

Cheng Mo came to his senses and let out a long breath: "It's alright, it's alright now."

Fine wine is good, but it's also poisonous. Fortunately...

He looked at Xia He, a smile playing on his lips, "Thanks to you."

"Mmm...woo—" Xia He was about to speak when Cheng Mo suddenly hugged her and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Xia He paused for a moment, then responded enthusiastically.

A cool night breeze rustled the locust tree leaves, and pink mist swirled around the two of them, like a hazy veil.

For a long time, the lips are divided.

Xia He pressed her head against Cheng Mo's chest, listening to his strong heartbeat, and said in a muffled voice, "Little Taoist, I really want to do you right now."

Cheng Mo rested his chin on her head: "Why do you always want to pin me down?"

"Get lost!" Xia He slapped him, straightened up, took a half step back, and pointed at Zhao Dezhu under the big locust tree. "Take care of this guy first."

Cheng Mo nodded, took out his phone, and dialed Xu Si's number.

The phone rang seven or eight times before being answered. Xu Si's voice was muffled, clearly still in bed: "Feed? Who is this?"

"Fourth brother, we've found Zhong Kui."

There was a loud bang on the other end of the phone, followed by a rustling sound. Xu Si's voice instantly became clearer: "Where?"

Cheng Mo held the phone a little further away: "Where is it?"

Three question marks seemed to float above Xu Si's head: "What are you talking about? I asked you where you were, why are you asking me that? How should I know?"

Xia He pointed to the sign at the entrance of the village, which read—Mopan Gou (磨盘沟).

Cheng Mo also mumbled into the phone, "I didn't ask where you were, I asked Xia He. Stop talking nonsense, I didn't hear you."

He turned to Xia He and asked, "Where did you say you were just now?"

Xia He shouted into the microphone, "Mopan Gou!"

Over there, Xu Si held the microphone far away, and only came back after the shouting stopped: "Okay, okay."