Chapter 61: Midnight Duel
The old man led the three down the mountain and stopped in front of a stone house at the village entrance, saying in a hoarse voice, "Hurry back to sleep, it's not safe in the village at midnight."
After finishing speaking, he didn't care about the three people and walked back to the house with a stumbling gait. Immediately, the dim candlelight lit up inside the house, and the faint glow in the vast mountains and fields around seemed like a guiding lantern, forming a circle of light.
"What an eccentric old man." Xu Jing muttered a sentence, and the three people with different moods continued to rush towards the village.
Xu Jing's residence was also a civilian house, which was quite spacious, with three rooms on either side. Xu Jing lived in the main room, and after sending her to the door, Chu Ping and Ruan Qiu Hua returned to Tang Guangbo's home.
It was already 9:30 at night, and the streets were empty. When they returned home, everyone inside was still awake, and upon seeing the two return, they all teased them.
Ruan Qiuhua was terrified and exhausted, and briefly told a group of people about what had happened the night before. Everyone who listened was shocked and amazed. Tang Guangbo furrowed his brow after hearing the story and said in a low voice, "I forgot to tell you all that there is an old saying in our village that says not to enter the mountain at night. There's an old man named Lin Tianfang who lives at the entrance of the village. He's never been married and is quite strange. He has a bad temper and doesn't usually interact with the villagers."
Chu Ping listened on the side and felt mysterious and suspicious in her heart. She secretly made guesses, but had no leads at all.
Just now, the old man's simple word "retreat" caused a stir in heaven and earth, which was quite strange. The Taoist skills, Buddhist magic, and even the secret techniques of the demonic sect he had seen before did not have such spiritual power. He suddenly became extremely curious about the old man.
"Hey, Chu Ping, I didn't know you knew kung fu! You've never mentioned it before. Being able to knock back a boa constrictor with one punch is no easy feat!"
A girl suddenly spoke up and asked, everyone immediately remembered Ruan Qiu Hua's statement and started asking in unison.
Chu Ping smiled and said, "I was frail since childhood, hoping to practice martial arts to strengthen my body. Maybe that snake was too weak to fight back!"
Such a clumsy excuse, let a group of people sneer at it, but also didn't think much. After all, Chu Ping's slender body was there, saying that he had been practicing martial arts since childhood, which is possible, but saying that the python couldn't be beaten was just too clumsy.
A group of people who had never been in a situation like this before couldn't feel the danger, but upon hearing that there were pythons on the mountain, they initially felt uneasy, then intense interest followed, and they all said they would bring their tools tomorrow to go up the mountain.
In the midst of the noise, time slowly slipped away, and everyone had been traveling all day, feeling tired and sleepy, one by one fell asleep. Chu Ping was full of energy, waiting for everyone to fall asleep, quietly walked out of the room, stood in the courtyard, raised his head and gazed at the distant mountains behind the village.
Even on a hot summer night, in the depths of the night, it is still quite cool. The gentle evening breeze carries a refreshing dampness, and although Chu Ping no longer fears the heat or cold, he still enjoys this feeling.
The starlight gradually faded away, and the entire sky was shrouded in endless darkness. Chu Ping glanced at the time, it was already midnight.
This time, in ancient times, was called the hour of Zi, according to modern time, it is from 11 pm to 1 am, which is the first of the twelve hours.
Li Chunfeng once pointed out that "the ancient calendar divides the day, starting from midnight", which is a rather strange time, both the end of one day and the beginning of another, the former belongs to yin, while the latter belongs to yang.
Yin and yang intersect at Tai time, which is also an important moment in Taoist cultivation. In the Neidan school of internal alchemy, midnight is considered the time to ignite the fire!
Whether it's the demonic path of Buddhism, practicing at midnight is the best time.
It is now the time of yin and yang swapping, colliding with each other, but it is also the most turbulent moment. Many tragic events and evil deeds often occur at this moment.
Chu Pingyao gazed out at the distant mountains, subtly regulating his breath and inner true yuan. He sensed that the surrounding spiritual energy was thickest with wood spirit, so he guided it through a cycle of heavenly circulation within his body. Slowly exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, his spirit immediately became lively and vibrant.
When he looked again, he saw a massive resentment rising suddenly from the mountains opposite!
This resentment is extremely dense, on the top of the mountain, swirling into a piece of dark cloud, giving people a sense of ferocity, resentment, sorrow and anger, extinction, as if countless fierce ghosts are flying in it, phosphorus fire floating, hooks and iron chains are hidden, and like raging torrent, angry sea waves, the whole is like a purgatory on earth.
Before midnight, also known as Yeshi, is the moment when yin energy is strongest and yang energy is weakest. The hundred ghosts go out for a walk, often taking advantage of this time.
"What an enormous evil spirit!" Chu Ping secretly felt a chill in his heart!
The eerie atmosphere floated for about half a time, and then another piece of colorful and strange colors burst out from the mountain, directly hitting the top of this thick ghostly energy, rushing this breath to roll over and over, like clouds and misty seas, forming a huge vortex in the air.
The ghosts swirled around the whirlpool, flying in a frenzy. A jet of black light shot down like a waterfall, colliding with the colored lights, and the hundred ghosts let out a shrill cry, their voices eerie and terrifying.
The colorful light grew thicker and thicker, as if a giant pillar was about to pierce through the sky curtain and shoot straight up!
Innumerable scattered colorful lights drifted about like fragments, and wherever they passed, the entire mountain range seemed to be shaken. Chu Ping concentrated her mind and looked over, feeling that the countless trees and plants in the mountains seemed to become part of the mountain body and turn into stone carvings!
Just then, a hoarse voice was heard, like the tearing of silk or the rubbing of paper against glass, sending shivers down one's spine!
"Seal!"
The sound was coming from the stone house where the old man lived at the entrance of the mountain village, and although it was only two words, it seemed to be chanting a large volume of scriptures, and the chanting voice lasted for a long time.
To Chu Ping, the sound was like thunderclap, but in the whole village, no one else was awakened by this sound.
With this sound, all around the mountain, in every direction and corner, countless dark lights suddenly burst forth, merging into the eerie atmosphere.
With the help of countless dark energies, it suddenly expanded again, like a piece of the sky falling down, tightly entwined with the colorful light. After another half an hour's time, it once again suppressed the colorful light.
The colorful light disappeared, and the eerie atmosphere floated for a while before slowly settling back into the mountains.
Chu Ping looked at it for a while, but in her heart, she was puzzled and couldn't figure it out!
In the eyes of the cultivator, ghosts and monsters are mostly evil spirits that run amok. In this case, the rainbow light should be a righteous one. However, now the rainbow light is clearly being suppressed and sealed by the ghostly energy. Moreover, the scattered rainbow light that petrifies all the trees and plants in the mountains and forests may not necessarily be a righteous path!
What shocked him even more was that the mysterious old man could actually manipulate all the ghosts and monsters in the mountain!
This mysterious and remote mountainous region is actually not simple at all!
The more she thought about it, the more confused Chu Ping became. Her mind was a tangled mess, and her clarity of thought was shrouded in a thin layer of fog, unable to clear up!
"No wonder those who cultivate the Tao must stay away from worldly noise and distractions, for seeing too much yet being unable to explain it creates obstacles in the mind, which is a demon that hinders cultivation!"
Feeling a change in his mood, Chu Ping let out a long sigh and fell into deep thought.
A cultivator should purify their mind and reduce desires to align with the Tao of Heaven. The universe is emotionless, hence it can last long; if the universe had emotions, it would also age. Therefore, many people in the world suffer from birth, death, illness, and disasters. In reality, this is due to excessive entanglements, which become obstacles to longevity.
This is also why practitioners of Taoism live in seclusion in the mountains and forests, avoiding the worldly dust!
What the eyes don't see, the heart won't be troubled. The world is indeed vast, but if I don't see it, to me, it's no different from being an illusion!
At this time, Chu Ping suddenly had an impulse to go up the mountain to investigate the truth, but thinking of the thousands of ghosts that had just been laid out and the powerful petrification of the colored light, he felt a sense of trepidation. After deliberating for a long time, he finally made up his mind.
"Let's go and investigate again tomorrow during the day, after all that old man said that it's not safe in the mountains at night, implying that daytime is much better!"
Having made up his mind, he still had to make some preparations. He took out the magic armor from his sleeve, which he had obtained from Sun Boji that day. He gently stroked it once, and the light flowed like water, moving back and forth on the surface of the magic armor. Chu Ping finally decided to take it out and use it!
On that day, Chu Ping also investigated the demon armor and found that it was a set of powerful artifacts, but they were heavily sealed. The sealing power was so great that even with Sun Bozi's cultivation in the realm of detachment from life, he could only break through one layer, making it difficult to guess who had placed the seal. The origin of the demon armor also left him puzzled!
After that, the demon shell was left in the ring, and he didn't continue to investigate. Now his strength has reached a bottleneck, and since his cultivation can't be improved in the short term, he can't help but rely on some external forces to enhance his combat power!
Divine consciousness is like water, slowly seeping into the magic armor, and instantly a vast expanse of heaven and earth appears before one's eyes, with mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, deserts, grasslands, cities and pools!
Under the vast sky, there is no human habitation, only a hazy grey mist that drifts and floats, undulates and spreads out to fill the entire world!
In the center of this gray fog, there was a bright light. Chu Ping knew in his heart that this was a spiritual imprint left by Sun Boji. Since Sun Boji himself had not died, this imprint still existed. As long as he erased this mark and refined it with his own spirit, he could control this demonic armor!
