Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

Zhuge Qing shuddered, and the hairs on his back stood on end.

The man—Old Wei—chuckled and gestured towards the box with his chin: "Hey, that's the thing I put in there."

Zhuge Qing took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He took a closer look at the man in front of him—a gray jacket, black trousers, and cloth shoes; he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man. But his posture was off; his weight was on his left foot, his right hand hung at his side, and his left hand was behind his back, as if he were ready to strike at any moment.

Zhuge Qing calmed himself down and said calmly, "If you are as recorded in the notes, then I can say that you are not Wei Zhongxian. And the person who called himself Zhuge Kongming is not my ancestor either."

"This little guy is interesting." Old Wei looked at him with great interest, his eyes narrowing into slits just like his. "Did you come alone?"

Zhuge Qing did not answer.

Old Wei said to himself, "You're really smart. Those old folks in your clan have all gone mad. If they saw that notebook, they would just kneel down and kowtow, saying that their ancestors have appeared to them."

Zhuge Qing pursed his lips.

He couldn't refute it.

Old Wei walked towards the offering table.

Zhuge Qing slowly retreated, keeping his distance from him.

Old Wei came to the offering table, reached out and touched the incense burner, rubbed his fingers on the rust, and smelled it.

Zhuge Qing was already close to the main hall gate.

Old Wei turned around, leaning against the altar, and said with a smile, "Actually, the three of us were born from faith and stories. After the initial adjustment period, if the host trusts us enough, we can live together harmoniously..."

He tilted his head and thought for a moment: "Simply put, it's equivalent to schizophrenia in your modern medicine."

Zhuge Qing noticed the key point in his question: "There are three of you?"

Old Wei counted on his fingers: "One for me, one for Zhuge Liang, and one for Zhong Kui."

He lowered his hand and clicked his tongue. "Tsk tsk, Zhong Kui is in a sorry state. His host doesn't trust him at all, and now he's acting crazy, needing the energy to eat people to stay alive. If it weren't for him being kept around to distract attention, I wouldn't have saved him."

Zhuge Qing asked, "Where is that person?"

Although he didn't say the name, Lao Wei knew who he wanted to ask.

He didn't elaborate, only speaking of himself: "My host trusts me completely, and we cooperate very well. He didn't try to resist me, and I didn't intend to devour him. He helped me adapt to this era, and I gave him what he wanted. Don't you think that's great?"

Zhuge Qing took a step back: "I have no interest in you."

Old Wei laughed heartily, his laughter echoing through the empty main hall: "I know, I know, all you want to know is about Zhuge Liang."

He spread his hands: "But I don't know either."

Zhuge Qing slowly retreated, seemingly realizing there was nothing more to discuss.

Old Wei said, "Actually, I originally wanted to kill you."

Zhuge Qing's expression changed, and his narrowed eyes almost closed.

Old Wei waved his hand: "Zhuge Liang helped me get out of that wretched place, and I'm here to deliver his stuff. That's how our deal started. As for what I do with it after it's delivered, that's up to me."

He pulled his hands out from behind his back, interlaced his fingers, and moved his wrists.

"I've recently learned some new-age tricks and want to try them out. However, the fact that you were able to directly pinpoint our origins makes me have higher expectations for you, a little genius like you. I don't know what Zhuge Liang is up to, but I'm really looking forward to your performance."

Old Wei's body gradually became transparent, starting from his feet and spreading upwards, like ink stains soaked in water.

Voices came from all directions: "Little one, don't disappoint me."

Zhuge Qing was startled and subconsciously activated the Qimen Dunjia formation.

hum-

The surrounding scenery seemed to have been wiped away by a hand; the Taoist temple, the courtyard, and the loess slope all distorted for a moment before solidifying again.

He stood outside the gate of the Taoist temple.

My feet were on the gravel road, and in front of me was the courtyard wall that had collapsed halfway, with the illegible plaque above the gate hanging overhead.

Sweat dripped from Zhuge Qing's forehead.

When did he enter the formation? Why didn't I notice at all?

If that person really wants to kill me, wouldn't that mean...?

Zhuge Qing dared not think any further.

He forced himself to calm down and re-observed his surroundings.

The gravel path underfoot was a dry mountain trail. The gravel varied in size and had sharp edges, making it uncomfortable to step on.

On both sides of the road were loess slopes, and the thorny vines and wild grasses on the slopes shone with a grayish-green hue in the morning light, not much different from what I had just seen.

But something's not right.

Zhuge Qing closed his eyes and sensed the Qi around him.

The flow of Qi is uniform, from east to west... This is the normal direction of natural Qi flow.

He expanded his scope of perception.

The Qi flow circled around him in a bend, as if someone had placed a stone in the middle of a river, and the water flowed apart from the stone, bypassed the stone, and then converged again.

Zhuge Qing opened his eyes, squatted down, pressed his fingers to the ground, and inserted them into the soil. When his fingertips touched the hard soil, he felt a faint trace of Qi.

That Qi was not natural Qi; it was artificially injected, and it was very faint, almost blending into the surrounding Qi.

Zhuge Qing stood up and walked around the perimeter of the Taoist temple.

Zhuge Qing stood up and walked around the perimeter of the Taoist temple.

This time he walked much more carefully than before, each step precise to the last, his eyes fixed on the ground while his peripheral vision scanned the surrounding scenery.

He stopped when he reached the east wall of the courtyard.

A gap has collapsed in the courtyard wall, and bricks from the breach are scattered on the ground. Some bricks are half-buried in the soil, while others are piled up together.

The bricks are not arranged correctly—if the wall collapsed on its own, the bricks should have fallen in one direction and laid out in a continuous pattern. But these bricks are scattered, some facing east and some facing west, as if someone picked them up and then threw them down.

Zhuge Qing picked up a brick and looked at it.

The brick's broken surface was very fresh, and the soil was a darker color than the surrounding soil.

He put the brick down, took a few steps back, and looked at the open space from a higher vantage point.

There are a few stones, a few clumps of weeds, and a few broken bricks on the open ground. They seem random, but if you connect the stones and weeds and mark the positions of the broken bricks—

Zhuge Qing closed his eyes and drew a picture in his mind.

Stones, weeds, and broken bricks, when put together, form an Eight Trigrams Formation, no... the most basic "Four Symbols Formation".

The stone represents the Azure Dragon, the wild grass represents the White Tiger, the broken bricks represent the Vermilion Bird, and the fallen wooden beam represents the Black Tortoise.

The four symbols guard the four directions, leaving a gap in the middle, which is the location of the formation's core.

Zhuge Qing walked to the center of the open space and stomped his foot.

The ground made a hollow sound; the ground was hollow!

Zhuge Qing dug away the surface soil.

After digging two or three inches deep, his fingers touched something hard. He cleared away the surrounding soil and revealed a wooden plank, which looked very similar to the wood from the previous wooden box.

He lifted the wooden board, revealing a hole about half an arm's length deep. Inside the hole was a stone box, about the size of a palm, made of grayish-white stone that had been polished very smoothly.

Zhuge Qing took out the stone box, and the lid popped open, revealing a jade pendant inside, which gleamed faintly in the morning light. The jade pendant was shaped like a fish, with its mouth slightly open, its tail upturned, and its body engraved with fine patterns.

Zhuge Qing turned the jade pendant over.

Two characters are engraved on the back.

"Bright Seal".

Zhuge Qing closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

That's not right.

If, as the notes describe, he was indeed a personality born from faith and stories, then why would he leave behind this jade pendant? Why would he use the Eight Trigrams Formation? Why would he use the Four Symbols Formation to hide something?

A personality that needs to rely on the host's memories to exist should not possess such complete sorcerer skills.

unless--

Zhuge Qing put the jade pendant in his pocket, put the stone box back into the cave, covered it with a wooden board, filled it back with soil, and restored the bricks and stones to their original state.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, turned around, and walked back the way he came.