Chapter 29: Re-entering Songlin Mountain
In the five days at Zhushan Temple, this little kid still brought a lot of excitement and joy to the originally quiet Zhushan Temple. Whether it was Zhang PoPo or my master, Zhushan Lao Dao, they both quite liked me.
Of course, during those five days, the old Taoist priest also taught me some miscellaneous things. There were Taoist methods for jumping gods and medical skills for treating illnesses and saving people. To be honest, I wasn't very interested in either of these two things. After all, at that time, I was still a little kid, and apart from playing and eating, it was hard for me to be interested in anything else.
The five-day period passed quickly.
On the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, Zhongyuan Festival, also known as Ghost Festival, after dinner at Zhushan Temple, Master Zhushan took his ritual instrument and led me to Songlin Mountain.
When we walked to the foot of Songlin Mountain, the sky had already darkened. However, since it was the 15th day of the lunar calendar, the moon was still quite round and bright, so I could barely see the road ahead.
After walking into the Songlin Mountain, after walking for more than 100 meters, the old path of Zhushan stopped at an old tomb built with bluestone. This old tomb should be a lone tomb. I made this judgment because the tomb was overgrown with weeds, and the worship platform was also submerged by wild grasses.
"This grave has just been disturbed by the exterminating wife." Bamboo Mountain Old Dao muttered to himself.
Has anyone visited the grave? I didn't notice it at all! The surrounding area is overgrown with weeds, and there are no signs of anyone trampling them, which means no one has approached this grave.
That exterminator woman is formidable, but she's still human, can't be that she wouldn't step on the weeds around the tomb and then fly into mid-air to move the tomb. Also, those weeds on top of the tomb clearly haven't been disturbed by anyone either!
"But haven't these weeds by the grave been disturbed?" Although Bamboo Mountain Old Dao is my master, in my opinion, not everything he says is necessarily correct. So when I have doubts, I will speak out.
"Would I, your master, deceive you?"
"Which adult hasn't fooled a kid before?" After staying at Zhushan Guan for five days, I had already become familiar with the old Taoist priest of Zhushan, so in front of him, I was no longer reserved at all.
"You little devil, watch closely." With that, Bamboo Mountain Taoist took out the peach wood sword he had been carrying.
About the Peach Wood Sword, Bamboo Mountain Old Dao had given me a brief introduction. He said that the Peach Wood Sword was made of natural peach wood, and that peach wood was the essence of the five woods, known as the immortal wood. Therefore, the Peach Wood Sword is an important magical tool for warding off evil spirits.
In short, the old Taoist of Bamboo Mountain made this peach wood sword sound incredibly mysterious, but in my opinion, this thing is just a broken wooden sword. It can't be used for chopping or stabbing, and it's not even useful for peeling an apple, it's completely useless, only good for pretending to be a deity to fool people, and it's not as good as the knife I use to chop firewood at home.
I think this way because I'm a naive and innocent little kid. In my eyes, there's no such thing as ghosts or gods. Therefore, the things that Zhangshan Lao Dao said, I actually don't really believe in them deep down.
That old man, Zhushan, indeed genuinely wanted to take me as his apprentice, this is beyond doubt. Therefore, after seeing my doubts about him, the old man thought of using the opportunity to prove himself in front of me, so that I would believe in him.
Actually, with the reputation of Zhushan Old Dao in this area, it would be easy to recruit a disciple. I just don't understand why he chose me, a little kid who didn't quite believe in his teachings. Was it really because I killed the Five-Step Snake that exterminated the family? Or was it because he saw my palm lines and thought I could learn from him? Anyway, at that time, I didn't figure out why Zhushan Old Dao chose me, a stubborn kid, as his disciple.
Let's put other things aside for now and get back to Zhangshan Old Dao jumping big god. Only to see, Zhangshan Old Dao took out the peach wood sword and danced wildly in the air.
He imitates a monkey for a while, and then imitates an old hen. Master Zhangshan said that he was learning from the golden rooster, but I think he is not even as good as a rooster, at most, he can only be considered an old hen who has just laid eggs and is clucking away.
Anyway, to be honest, the movements of Zhangshan Old Taoist look quite spectacular. Zhangshan Old Taoist danced for almost two minutes and then put away his sword after finishing.
"See?" said Zhang Shan Lao Dao, pointing at the grave and speaking to me.
I followed the old Taoist's finger as he pointed in a direction, and saw that the place was emitting a thin wisp of green smoke. Next to this old tomb were many other old tombs, but none of them had any green smoke rising from them. It was clear that the old Taoist's magic had taken effect.
"Master is so powerful, he made the old tomb emit green smoke!" I exclaimed excitedly as I jumped up.
My intention was to praise my master Zhu Shan Lao Dao, but after hearing my words of praise, Master Zhu Shan's nose became so angry that it started smoking.
"It wasn't me who made the old tomb emit green smoke." Bamboo Mountain Old Dao gazed at me with a helpless expression, his eyes didn't have any murderous intent, but there was still some anger in them.
"Who made the old tomb emit green smoke?" I asked weakly again.
The words of a little kid can often accidentally kill people.
"I'm too lazy to bother with you, scram!" said Zhangshan Lao Dao.
"Huh! There's a small hole on the mound, right under that green smoke." Just as Old Daoist Bamboo Mountain was about to pull me forward, I suddenly discovered a newly drilled small hole on the mound, and that green smoke was rising from that small hole.
After I said this, Zhushan Laodao stopped pulling me forward.
"That small hole is the soul-guiding hole dug by the exterminating witch, and now she's performing a ritual to collect the souls in this isolated grave," said Bamboo Mountain Old Dao.
"How was this hole made? Was it chiseled like a stonemason?" I'm more interested in the small hole on the mound than the extermination of the family. Because I really can't figure out what method the exterminator used to make that hole without damaging the surrounding weeds.
As for this question, Zhu Shan Lao Dao thinks it's both infuriating and laughable. In the eyes of Zhu Shan Lao Dao, this question doesn't even need to be asked. Any slightly experienced Taoist would know what's going on here.
However, although I am a disciple of Master Zhushan, I am the chief and only disciple. Master Zhushan has only accepted me as his one and only disciple so far. But after all, I'm just a young kid, and Master Zhushan only gave me a simple five-day training, so it's normal that I don't understand the subtleties of the Kong.
The old man on Bamboo Mountain didn't answer my question directly, but pointed to a place not far from my feet.
At the place where the old man in Bamboo Mountain pointed, there was a small pile of new mud. Judging from the color of the mud, it should be from that old tomb. On top of the new mud, there were some black little ants crawling back and forth.
This little kid's brain is still somewhat bright, as soon as I saw that black little ant, I thought of it, those mud were brought by the ants. In other words, it was the exterminator who controlled these black little ants and then instructed them to dig a hole in the old tomb.
"I understand." I nodded and said: "That hole was dug by these little ants at the behest of Exterminator Grandma."
"Hmm." The old Taoist master Zhangshan gently patted my head and said, "This little guy still has some wisdom roots."
After finishing speaking, the old Taoist asked me again. "Do you know why these little black ants don't leave after the soil has been moved?"
"They have to fill up that hole!" I said.
"How did you know?" My words startled Bamboo Mountain's Old Dao, he hadn't expected that I would even know this.
"I'm not stupid, how could I not know?" Just when the old Taoist of Bamboo Mountain was beaming with joy, I retorted with a sentence, then pointed at those small black ants on the ground. "Look, they're moving these mud back and forth, if not to fill that hole, what are they doing?"
Listen to me finish, the joyful expression on Zhu Shan Lao Dao's face immediately decreased by more than half. It was clear that he had overestimated me earlier, thinking that I had figured it out, but unexpectedly, I had seen those ants moving back and forth with mud. However, he still patted my shoulder in approval and said: "You little guy, your observation skills are very strong, not bad."
