Chapter 5: The Eight Extraordinary Vessels

  It's probably a Qilin! I saw the Qilin getting closer and closer to the mountain top, finally landing and walking towards that blurry figure.

  The blue smoke is slowly dispersing, and I seem to be about to see the person inside.

  "Roar!"

  That Qilin seemed to have found me too, let out a loud roar at me, and then charged straight at me! It was as if it had charged into my body!

  Ah!

  "Huh? What just happened? It seems like I had a dream, but I couldn't remember it." I muttered to myself, not even realizing when I fell asleep. I took a look at Zhang Ting, and it seemed like nothing was wrong tonight. Zhang Ting was sleeping very soundly, and looking at her sleeping face made me want to kiss her.

  I slowly leaned in towards her cheek, just as I was about to kiss her, BAM!

  She can even fight while sleeping, this girl is always on guard when she sleeps.

  The night passed like this, and I still sent Zhang Ting to the classroom in the same way. On the road, she asked me.

  "Zihe... how did this jade get a crack on it?" This little girl seems quite nervous, I found it amusing.

  "Hmm, maybe it's because it hasn't been maintained for a long time... Hehe, never mind, no matter how broken it becomes, just wear it properly and that's fine."

  I saw Zhang Ting off and returned to the bamboo forest once again.

  "Master, I'm here," I shouted out before I even reached the bamboo hut, and heard the echo coming from the bamboo forest.

  "Here you are." The master's voice also floated over, and I walked towards him.

  "Zi Chuan, wait!" Master called out to me, staring at my face and circling around my body. He whispered: "It's really him."

  "Zi Chuan! You've actually opened up all eight meridians!"

  "What does it mean? I'm a bit confused."

  "Haha! Eight Meridians! To release the Nine-Character True Words, one must first open up the Eight Meridians! And in just one night, you suddenly managed to do it!" Seeing Master's excited expression, I was still dazed.

  "The Eight Meridians! The eight meridians are the Ren, Du, Dai, Chong, Yang Wei, Yin Wei, Yin Qiao, and Yang Qiao. These eight meridians correspond to our sect's nine-character mantra. Since ancient times, the successors of our Nine-Character Sect have been opening up one meridian at a time, but you are the only one who has directly opened up all eight meridians."

  "Huh? I don't quite understand, but it feels really intense. Who else is there besides me?"

  "Huh? Is there someone else? You must have misheard, I said it's only you." Master hastily covered up for me, but I always felt that he knew something but just wouldn't tell me. I didn't ask again either.

  "Come, come, Zikuan. Now that you've opened up the eight meridians, I don't have to worry about you not being able to learn some techniques. Your innate conditions are simply perfect. Follow me in." Master is still so excited, I don't even know what's good about it.

  I followed Master into a room that was decorated differently from the others, with bookshelves lined up one after another, stacked high with books.

  "Come, sit down." I sat down according to the master's guidance.

  "Zi Chuan, next you must listen to me seriously, word by word, understand?"

  "Uh-huh, I see, Master." I replied to the master with a sentence and closed my eyes...

  "The visitor, the stillness of the mountain, the peace of stillness, the tranquility of peace. The soldier, the advance of the journey, the swiftness of advance, the constancy of swiftness. The fighter, not clear then severe, severe then cruel, cruel then destructive... In the void, the five elements are faintly visible, this is control, control then extinction." My head keeps floating with these words, feeling indelible, as if they were branded in my mind.

  I opened my eyes.

  "Do you all remember?" The master looked at me and asked about my previous results.

  "Got it, all remembered!"

  The master took me into the bamboo forest and personally demonstrated the technique to me several times.

  Under the guidance of my master, I have made some small achievements.

  The master told me that this is the effect of Ba Mai Tong!

  The Linzi Jue has achieved some small success but it's not obvious, while in the Zi Jue about controlling the five elements I only grasped the Jin element's Golden Knife Jue.

  Unfortunately, when the old man demonstrated the Golden Blade Technique in front of me, the elements gathered in mid-air formed a large blade, while mine was still a faint and elusive fruit knife. My master told me that it was already quite good and enough to deal with some wild ghosts.

  Apart from these two characters, I haven't learned anything else. In his spare time, the old man also talked to me about the wonders of this character, leaving me speechless and wide-eyed.

  Originally, the five elements can be transformed into tangible things by a certain ability of the practitioner, thereby borrowing the power of nature. For example, metal gives birth to wind, water transforms into rain, and fire becomes thunder.

  I asked the master, can you do it? He said no, because these are all legendary and only those who have become immortals can cast them. It's not just this character mantra, other character mantras also have their unknown powers, perhaps they can also be called ultimate moves.

  Having some free time, I asked Master.

  "Will that ghost come looking for Zhang Ting again tonight?" I'm more concerned about this issue.

  "It will definitely happen again."

  "Why does she always stare at Zhang Ting!" I didn't know why it was like that, but Master's next sentence made me understand.

  "Do you still remember who was the person she saw at that moment when she jumped down?" I recalled, it seemed like what he said was true, I remembered that at that time I saw Mengmeng's head was facing mine, and I also saw her eyeballs moving!

  "She might want to be related to you by marriage, and it's not that your eyeballs are rolling around, but the ghost is recognizing people!"

  "Does the ghost recognize me? Does this mean she's taken a liking to me?" I couldn't quite believe it, but then I remembered that in the illusion, she called me Qian Duo and even asked if I was willing to be good to her forever...

  "She wouldn't have taken a liking to you, but rather saw you and that girl together when she was dying, perhaps triggering her resentment, and fixed her sights on you."

  "So tonight I'll just watch her come and find trouble with Zhang Ting?" I wouldn't be willing to let this female ghost disturb Zhang Ting.

  "Do you think being a master will harm your disciple's wife?" Hearing the master say this, I also felt relieved. Thinking that with the master, nothing should go wrong.

  By nightfall, I went down the mountain with my master. I arranged for my master to stay in the room next to mine, and I naturally went to pick up Zhang Ting.

  Tonight Zhang Ting seemed quite tired and didn't chat with me, but went to sleep early.

  I opened the door and let the master come in and sit with me.

  "Here it comes!" Upon hearing Master say this, I became vigilant.

  Meng Meng's only way to kill people is in the illusion, and the person she can probably kill is only me. Master won't be trapped by her, but I haven't learned the word yet. Sure enough, as I thought, I was brought in again.

  "Zi Chuan! Come and save me quickly!" I saw that it was Zhang Ting, who had actually fallen into the water and was struggling while calling out to me!

  "Zhang Ting, wait for me, I'll come and save you right away!" This made me panic, I took off my shoes and jumped into the water.

  "Go away!" was the master's voice! I woke up a bit at that time, but saw Zhang Ting still not far from me splashing water! I was confused.

  "Zi Chuan, hurry up and save her! If you don't, it'll be too late!" And then, surprisingly, Master's voice also came from the other side! Ah, what should I do? Who should I believe in the end.

  "Zihe River, that's fake, believe me! If you go, you'll be dead!"

  "Zi Chuan, I'm the real one! I don't want anything to happen to you, and even less so for your wife!"

  Two masters' voices are mixed together, and I'm all confused in my head!

  "Zi Jiang! Come and save... me!" I saw Zhang Ting slowly sinking down, never mind, even if it's dangerous as long as I can save her I'm willing to, die then die!

  I swam over and grabbed Zhang Ting's hand, pulling her out of the water with all my might!

  "Ah!" I pulled up wasn't Zhang Ting! But Mengmeng, her face was flat, and the corner of her mouth was still bleeding. I wanted to pull away her hand, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake it off.

  "Haha, too late!" I saw Mengmeng smile wryly and directly pulled me into the water along with her!

  "Zhang Ting! Master!" I still shouted these two sentences in the water.

  When I woke up, everything around me was pitch black and couldn't be seen clearly. Suddenly the lights lit up, but only illuminated a small part of it, with a faint white glow. The distant parts around were still dark, making it feel even more eerie.

  I saw myself in a grand hall, with a large black "囍" character posted on the wall in front of me!

  In front of it is a Zhang Ba Xian table, next to the table are two stools, on the table are placed some tribute items, the only common point is that they are all black!

  Suddenly a woman appeared beside me, she was wearing all white, with a veil on her head. I saw her face through the veil and felt like I had seen it before, but couldn't remember.

  I suddenly forgot, who am I?

  "Who are you?" I asked the woman beside me.

  "I am your wife who has not yet crossed the threshold."

  "Oh? My wife? Then who am I?"

  "You are my husband."

  I saw that woman with a veil covering her face over there, giggling and hiding her face. Am I her husband? Is she my wife?

  "The auspicious hour has arrived!" A burst of gong sounds started up, and several more people appeared.

  A man wearing black clothes, with two red spots on his face and a black hat, was supporting me by my side, while next to the woman appeared another woman in pink clothes, also with two red spots on her face and braids, supporting her.

  "The auspicious hour has arrived, let's start the wedding ceremony!"

  In front of them, two chairs also appeared with a man and a woman sitting on them, the decorations were exactly the same, the only characteristic of these four people was that they had no expression!

  "I bow to heaven and earth!" I numbly bowed down.

  "Kowtowing to the ancestors!" When I was about to kowtow, I hesitated, but didn't know why. Just then, a man beside me forced me down into a bow.

  "Hubby and wife bow to each other!" Is this really my wife? I thought, as we bowed to each other, face to face, I felt even more that I had seen this face before! But I just couldn't remember, I slowly bent down.

  "Don't kowtow!" Just then, this voice came over, why did I feel so familiar with this voice?