Chapter 9: The Ghosts and Gods Scatter

  Who the hell is Ziyu?!

  This was Su You's first reaction after he came to his senses. When he was young, he grew up in a village where everyone called him Yóuzǐ, but reversed... who would want to take the initiative?

  Then he couldn't help but think that having such a dream might not be an accident. Especially, the face of the piano saint in his dream was more like the ghost who had suddenly found him three times in recent days than Jiang Siqi.

  Was it also destined in the dark or designed by the other party when they went to Paiyun Mountain?

  Also recalling the suspicion that Jing Sheng mentioned at noon, Su You carefully got up without making any noise. Jiang Siqi and Jing Sheng were sleeping soundly beside him, he tiptoed past them and pulled down the zipper of the tent to take a look outside.

  A summer night in the mountains, with a gentle coolness. Some insects chirping here and there, the western moon casting down a patch of silvery light. The firewood is still crackling away, but no one is by its side.

  Su Yu paused, lowering her head to look at her watch. It was three o'clock in the middle of the night, and according to reason, it should be Du Ying's turn to tend the fire. But if no one was there, who lit the fire? Did Du Ying add more firewood after climbing back up the tree?

  It was the third watch of the night, and Su You didn't want to startle everyone awake with a sudden movement, so he carefully crawled out of the tent and looked around. The light from the bonfire was limited, and he couldn't see what was going on among the dense leaves.

  It was no use calling him to sleep again now, so Su You sat down by the bonfire.

  There are thoughts during the day and dreams at night, Su You is convinced of this, because it shows that the hot spots in the cerebral cortex before sleep have not rested yet. But as for whether dreams have any predictive or warning functions, he doesn't believe it at all.

  Even strangers in dreams must be people who have been seen by the dreamer before, just passing each other on the road or having passed for so long that they can't remember.

  Su Youyan could swear to any god in heaven that he had never seen the classical white robe in his dream! He had also never believed in the legend of ascending to immortality by feathering! Let alone automatically bringing the face of the ghost he saw into the legend of Paiyun Mountain!

  This is so unscientific!

  Su rubbed his temples in a headache. He thought that the old people who said he had a hard eight characters back then must have been right, and the karma of his past life was coming back to haunt him...

  Achoo! Who's with a man? No, a male ghost! They have a predestined relationship!

  Su You felt a chill run down his spine as he thought about it. Then he began to recall the events since they entered the mountain, and eventually felt that the most suspicious thing was not what Jing Sheng said, but another aspect -

  It's said that Paiyun Mountain is full of snakes, but since they came up the mountain, they haven't even seen a single scale. Although they all brought anti-snake medicine, it shouldn't be this thorough, right? It's not winter, where did all the snakes go?

  "Bang!"

  The sudden noise startled Su You, who had been lost in thought. He turned his head and happened to see Du Ying walking towards him from behind the tree trunk. "You really went up there?"

  "The view is great up there." Du Ying replied. He walked over to Su You's side and sat down, asking: "How did you get up? It's not time yet."

  Su You naturally couldn't say he had a weird dream, and could only say: "I couldn't sleep."

  Du Ying nodded in understanding and didn't ask any more questions. She lowered her head to arrange the branches, making the bonfire burn brighter.

  The two fell silent for a moment before Su You asked, "Is that temple on the mountain difficult to climb?"

  "Be careful with that bamboo basket," said Du Ying, "but with the wooden pulley's climbing rope, even if it were Jiang Siqi, I could pull him up."

  Xiao Qi's small stature, Su You couldn't help but smile. "That's good." After a pause, he asked again: "The statue was destroyed... wasn't there any mural or something left behind?" He especially wanted to verify what the legendary zither saint looked like.

  Du Ying shook his head. "The weight of the temple is all supported by wooden beams nailed into the rocky mountain body, and it's been thousands of years since the wind and rain have been blowing, so it's not bad that it hasn't collapsed yet. The surface paint has all peeled off. Even if it's a stone carving, the surface carvings can no longer be seen."

  Su You didn't say anything, but her face showed extreme regret.

  "It sounds like it's not very exciting, don't you want to go?" Du Ying misunderstood the regret, "This is also quite normal. Anyway, from what I know, no tourists have climbed up so far."

  "No," Su You shook his head, a knot already forming in his heart. "Since I've come this far, it's not like I can't go up there. I'll just go then!" He had a premonition that if he didn't resolve this matter, he would likely be sleeping poorly for many nights to come!

  Du Ying nodded and said, "It's said that the qin saint's guqin was made of Qinggang wood, which never rots." He shook his head as he spoke, "But even if it were made of stone, by now there would only be a shell left..."

  Su You didn't say a word, but her gaze involuntarily drifted towards the direction of that pit.

  The vanished snake? The thousand-year-old green hill? Only a stone zither remains? The appearance and name of the zither sage are all lost?

  Is this related to his previous experience? Or is he just overthinking?

  Thinking so, the remaining few hours passed especially quickly. At four o'clock, Du Ying's night watch was over, and he yawned as he climbed up the tree. Su You sat by himself until dawn, without waking up the next ones, Jing Sheng and Jiang Siqi.

  "I rubbed my eyes, and you, did you turn off my alarm clock?" Jing Sheng woke up to realize the problem.

  "Anyway, I couldn't sleep." Su You replied. He stood up, "I'll go to the riverbank to wash my face." But he had already made up his mind to find out the problem behind these strange things!

  Jing Sheng stood still, suspiciously adjusting his glasses frame. What made him feel that Su You was somehow different from yesterday?

  Anyway, after having breakfast, a group of people set off and climbed to the northern foot of Shunyangping in the afternoon.

  This place is called Ping because of its open terrain. In fact, Paiyun Mountain can be said to be a flat-topped mountain, if not for the granite peak in the middle that separates the south and north Shouyangping.

  Pingding Mountain has the advantage of having an unobstructed view, especially when there are no higher mountains around. Now they can not only see the waterfall from a high vantage point but also saw two layers of the so-called three-layer cloud - the upper layer of clouds slightly shifted to reveal the sea of clouds below, indeed resembling a staircase.

  "Cloud ladder to ascend to heaven?" Jiang Siqi exclaimed in surprise, "Indeed the name is not in vain! Take a photo, take a photo, help Teacher Jing out!" At this time, he completely forgot who had been paralyzed like a rotten mud just two days ago.

  Jing Sheng was at his wit's end with this little ancestor. "Wait, I'll adjust the aperture."

  "How strange, why are there two layers of clouds?" Muhe asked curiously.

  "It's probably due to the terrain," Souma, who believed in science, immediately began explaining. "You see, this is a hilly area and it can't be helped that there are some low-lying areas where water vapor will gather. The layer below actually looks more like fog, while the one above is cloud."

  "Ah... I see!" Mu He suddenly realized, "You know a lot!"

  Jiang Sheng, who was fiddling with his SLR camera on the side, couldn't help but roll his eyes inwardly at this conversation. What a boring blockhead! No wonder he's still single after graduating for many years!

  Su You was completely unaware of this sarcasm and took a deep breath. "The air in the mountains is really good, there's always a fragrance."

  "Is it? Fragrant flowers?" Mu Lian also chimed in.

  "It's hard to describe, but it seems like there are flowers, and the scent of wood and leaves?" Su You continued to take deep breaths, "Come to think of it, I've had this since we entered the mountain... Ah, it feels so comfortable!"

  He closed his eyes and naturally didn't see Mulin giving Mulian a knowing glance. "Now that you mention it, it does seem to be the case!"

  "Okay," Jing Sheng said at this time from behind the SLR camera, "I've adjusted it, who wants to take a picture first?"

  Even if Jiang Siqi was careful, he had already heard from the previous conversation that his brother didn't have any thoughts about the Mu sisters. He couldn't help but feel relieved in his heart. At this moment, when he heard Jing Sheng ask, he finally thought of showing gentlemanly demeanor: "Ladies first, who goes up first?"

  "Of course, together!" Mu He didn't hesitate at all, and holding Mu Lian's hand, they walked forward. It has to be said that beauties have an advantage, even wearing a sportswear stained with leaves and mud, when smiling, it makes the surrounding scenery pale in comparison.

  They were having a great time over there, and Du Ying in the wooden house also heard it. "Will it work, Nang?" he asked in a low voice.

  "How can it not be possible?" Shi Nan carelessly placed the kitchen knife on the chopping board. Next to him were already chopped, extremely fine and even mushroom threads, as well as blanched wild chicken meat. The water in the pot had boiled, bubbling up with hot air, obscuring his rugged face. "As long as we let them go up and encounter Shi Qin, our mission will be accomplished."

  Du Ying nodded solemnly, his attitude seemingly transformed into that of another person. "I think they seem to have already harbored suspicions."

  "From the moment they entered the mountain, not a single person they met was alive!" Shi Nan sneered with a smile, "Could they have thought of this? No matter how suspicious they are, it's impossible for them to suspect this." He also glanced in Su You and others' direction, saying: "That extra person is quite interesting too."

  "This is exactly what Jing Sheng said. 'He scared away all the snakes here, fortunately he didn't discover this himself.' Du Ying said, 'But to say it again, ordinary people can't be as good as...'"

  "That's right!" Shi Nan agreed, tacitly understanding Du Ying's pronoun jump. "After a thousand years of reincarnation, the aura is still so heavy, it's simply eerie. I don't know what happened back then..." He seemed to fall into reminiscence, involuntarily trembling slightly.

  "Tongzi was making a fuss and wanted to see, but when he really let him go, he didn't dare to." Du Ying was still looking outside and didn't notice Shannan's reaction.

  Shi Nan snapped back to reality, greatly shocked: "His Tao is still shallow, he's getting too close, be careful or you'll get directly dispersed!"

  "Our current situation isn't much better." Du Ying said, her voice slightly bitter.

  "But there is still hope!" Shao Nan emphasized, but his own confidence was also not quite enough. "We can't give up at the last moment!"

  Du Ying fell silent for a moment. "You're right. We can only see the outcome after tonight... For now, just do what we need to do."

  "Du Ying, Du Ying! Do you want to take a photo together?" A few people's voices came from afar. "Call your brother Yang up!"

  The two of them exchanged a glance, Shi Nan tilted her head, indicating that she wanted to look at the pot, while Du Ying walked over. Several people were watching him as he stood in the sunlight, narrowing his eyes to size up Jiang Siqi.

  Is this really that person?