allonlinenovel Chapter 180 Dream of a Millet Dream and the Sound of Rain (9)
Chapter 180 Dream of a Millet Dream and the Sound of Rain (9)
Yuan Hong: "That's true. Immortals aren't necessarily good people. I've heard that the cultivation world is no different from the mortal world. Everyone comes and goes for profit, seizing bodies, seizing elixirs, seizing primordial spirits, killing wives to prove their Dao, and exterminating their entire family... There are precedents for all of these. Is that true?"
Yun Songhe: "..."
As a vivid example, when he heard the words "killing one's wife to prove one's Tao," his brow twitched and he felt very unhappy.
Yuan Hong muttered to himself, "Master, he might really not be a good person... You can know a person's face, but not their heart."
"Is it necessary to agonize over good or bad? If it benefits me, it's good; if it harms me, it's bad. Once you get used to thinking this way, life becomes much easier."
Yun Songhe snorted coldly: "The worst thing is to fail to be a good person or to fail to be a bad person completely! You can't go up or down, so why torture yourself? As someone who's been there, I feel I have to remind you that when faced with a choice, never hesitate, or you will really regret it, regret it so much that your intestines will turn green."
Yuan Hong: "Did you make a choice? Did you hesitate? Did you regret it?"
Yun Songhe: "Yes, I also had a choice. I didn't kill them all back then, and now I regret it to death!"
"Actually, you'll regret it whether you kill or not. But if you kill, even if you regret it, it's just a struggle with your own conscience, and you don't have to worry about the dead taking revenge on you; if you don't kill, you're in even worse shape. When trouble comes knocking on your door in the future, you'll definitely regret not killing them in the first place."
"When faced with two evils, choose the lesser. That's all I have to say. In the end, you have to make the decision yourself. Choose whatever you like, I won't interfere."
After saying that, he prepared to leave, waving his sleeves and leaving without a trace.
"Wait!" Yuan Hong called out to him. "How exactly did you find Huangliang City? You arrived right after the clerk died. Isn't that too much of a coincidence? Besides, you clearly said that the Golden Silkworm Gu calamity might also affect you, yet you just came and went so casually?"
Yun Songhe said helplessly, "There's nothing I can do about it. It's just such a coincidence. Just as I never expected that I would be here, solving the mystery of the 'stolen Golden Silkworm Gu' that has troubled me for ten years."
"Or perhaps, for me, this is not a coincidence at all! Because I have kept this matter in my heart, searching for it for ten years, and it is only natural that I have finally found it."
"As for why I let this matter go so easily, it's because in my opinion, the lost Golden Silkworm Gu only affected a few mortals and did not fall into the cultivation world to cause a bigger storm, so I don't need to worry about it."
Those who cultivate immortality see mortals as mere ants; what is there to fear?
A mortal's life is but a hundred years, while he is already over a thousand years old. In his eyes, the battles of mortals are like ants fighting, family feuds are like ant colony disputes, and the change of dynasties is like a fire killing off a wave of old ants, and another wave of new ants being born on the scorched earth. The new ant colony replaces the old ant colony, and the cycle repeats itself without any novelty.
Yun Songhe was not a bored person. He didn't care how ants survived, nor did he care about the endless cycle of revenge among mortals.
"However, thanks to you for calling me, there's something I almost forgot to do." He suddenly looked at Li Tingyun, walked over, placed his palm on the child's crown, and patted it.
"Hey, look at your gloomy face, let me see... Hmm, not bad, not bad, you really are a mixed spiritual root!"
I feel more at ease now.
Yun Songhe strode away with his head held high and an air of nonchalance.
"Sir, should we...?" The constable reached up and made a gesture across his neck, indicating that he should be "chopped off".
“You all heard what that immortal said, shouldn’t you also…” Yuan Hong mimicked his gesture.
The constables panicked. They trusted Yuan Hong's martial arts skills, but to their surprise, the magistrate said, "Let him go."
"what?"
"I said, let him go."
"Ahhh?"
Yuan Hong stopped talking, then whistled to summon the horses grazing by the roadside, and leaped onto the horse using the stirrups.
It came in the same way it went.
The constables had no choice but to release Li Tingyun, and following the receding sound of horses' hooves, they shouted, "Sir, wait for us!" before disappearing from sight.
Li Tingyun was left standing there, shocked! I actually got lucky instead of stepping in a pile of stinky dog poop?! The latter was obviously more realistic, more reasonable, and more likely to happen to him than the former!
Without much thought, Li Tingyun randomly picked up a broken earthenware pot and began filling it with handfuls of ashes left from the fire. The ashes were indistinguishable as bone ash, wood ash, or shattered bricks and stones. The entire house had been burned into fine dust by this strange fire.
Fill the jar until it's full, and let the wind blow the rest away. Li Tingyun carried the jar, intending to bury it on the small hill where they had been before, under the shade of the willow tree.
Halfway there, he suddenly remembered, "Where's Wangcai?"
This big, stupid dog, who was even greased than him, never missed a meal, and would bring his food bowl to him three times a day without fail, regardless of wind, frost, rain, snow, spring, autumn, winter, or summer.
Just last night, the dog chased him for a long distance, only to have its dog bowl overturned by him. After that, it left dejectedly and never appeared again.
What's wrong? It ran away because I didn't feed it for a meal. Does it not recognize me as its owner anymore?
Li Tingyun shook his head, instantly rejecting the idea.
The village was unusually quiet today. Normally, you could hear the sounds of chickens and dogs, but now, you couldn't even hear a single bark.
Many families in the village keep dogs, mostly to guard their homes. Three households have one small dog, and five households have one large dog. Wangcai is an outcast among the dogs and often gets into fights with other dogs. Whenever it wanders around the village, chaos is sure to ensue.
In this respect, dogs resemble their owners.
They are both quite disliked.
Li Tingyun carried the broken jar and wandered from one end of the village to the other.
Chickens, ducks, geese, and big dogs all avoided him like the plague. He wandered around for a while but couldn't find Wangcai.
Finally, without much hope, I sneaked into the home of the only butcher in the village. On the chopping board he used to slaughter pigs and sheep, covered in knife marks, I saw a big yellow dog with its limbs bound and wearing a muzzle.
The dog has been found; the problem is easily solved.
A butcher, what doesn't he have at home? The walls are covered with all sorts of tools for committing crimes!
Li Tingyun hid the jar.
While the man was outside chopping wood, fetching water, and setting up the pot, he picked out the sharpest boning knife, climbed up the roof beam along the pile of debris in the corner, and waited for his prey to come to him.
We're just waiting for someone to come in and die!
The butcher, a burly man, burst through the door. Li Tingyun saw that his face was covered in soot and his hair was curly, giving him an odd appearance. She thought to herself: He didn't always look like this, did he? At least his face wasn't this dark and his hair wasn't this frizzy.
I don't know why it turned out like this, like it's been hit by a powder keg.
The butcher walked up to Wangcai. Besides the dog, the chopping board was piled high with dried chili peppers. Instead of immediately slaughtering the dog, he picked up a few peppers, chewed them, spat them out with a "pui," and muttered, "These chili peppers are fine..."
Such strange words and actions greatly puzzled Li Tingyun.
The butcher, somewhat wary, grabbed the dog's muzzle and shook it left and right.
Hesitantly and cautiously, I removed its muzzle...
Wangcai cried out, "Master, save me!!!"
The dog is talking!
The butcher's body trembled, and he dropped the knife in fright.
Li Tingyun also stumbled and fell off the roof beam.
As soon as he landed, he picked up the knife and stabbed the man through the spine before he could turn around!
Kill with one knife.
This was the third person he had killed with his own hands.
In just twelve hours, one night, and one day, he committed three murders, which can be described as heinous.
Li Tingyun rescued Wangcai and kicked it warily, "Did you just speak?"
Wangcai gritted its teeth, closed its mouth tightly, shook its head at him, and spun its tail rapidly.
"...Did I hear that right?"
Impossible! That heart-wrenching scream was clearly the sound of a "human".
"Wangcai, call me 'Master' one more time?!"
The dog wouldn't listen; it just wouldn't bark, not even if it wanted to. It made a "hoarse" sound in its throat, as if something was stuck there.
"You stupid dog, what's wrong with you? You didn't eat shit, did you?! Open your mouth now!"
Li Tingyun grabbed the dog by the neck and shook it violently. Although she felt something was very wrong, she didn't have time to waste and had to leave quickly.
Never mind, let's find my broken jar. "Wangcai, stay close to me, don't get lost!"
A man and a dog, the man running in front and the dog chasing behind, sneaked along a rarely used path all the way to the village entrance.
Li Tingyun was so focused on looking back that he didn't see a person suddenly appear in front of him.
The man was also running frantically with his head down.
The two collided head-on, causing them to fall flat on their faces.
The broken pot was smashed even more.
"Who was it? Who bumped into me? You blind fool..."
Zihan stood up, clutching her head. Before she could even see who it was, she was punched in the eyes, and her vision immediately went blurry.
"It's you again! Damn it! You stupid bastard! Always picking on your dad!"
Li Tingyun cursed and tore his clothes, then wrapped up the fine ash scattered on the ground.
Before I knew it, I got kicked in the back.
Zihan lunged at him and started fighting, yelling, "Who are you?! What's that stuff on your face? It's as red as a monkey's butt! Are you trying to imitate Guan Yu in opera? How dare you bump into your older brother? And you still think you're right?!"
Li Tingyun's face was covered in sticky bloodstains. No matter how wicked the child was, he would never have imagined that this "little brother," who was even shorter than him, had just killed someone and run out of the bloody crime scene!
He thought the other person's face was painted with theatrical makeup.
As the leader of the group, Zihan was slightly older, around eleven or twelve years old, and had an advantage in height and build. However, he couldn't gain the slightest advantage over eight-year-old Li Tingyun.
Enraged, he yelled, "You ugly red-faced freak! Do you believe I'll call someone to deal with you?!"
Li Tingyun was incredibly strong, and with the dog helping him hold his trouser leg, he easily pinned the man to the ground and rubbed him against the wall.
"Who are you calling an ugly monster? Say it again? I'll teach you a lesson!"
Zihan was crying and snot streaming down her face, yelling loudly, but she recognized his voice and cursed even more filthily and foully.
Hearing the commotion, the children who were playing in the mud and urinating at the village entrance rushed over. They saw a "little red man" pinning their older brother to the ground and beating him mercilessly. They were all too scared to step forward and instead threw mud mixed with their urine at him to drive Li Tingyun away.
Li Tingyun stood up.
Mud rained down on his head, face, and body, but he didn't care. He walked to the roadside bushes and bent down to pick things up.
Zihan kicked Wangcai aside, ran to his friends, and pointed at Li Tingyun, yelling, "Quick! Smash that ugly red-faced freak to death! He's that monster from the Ji family! It wasn't enough that he killed his parents, he just keeps causing trouble for our Lingxi Village!"
"Ah, so it's him. Doesn't he know magic? A celestial being came to our village today, maybe he's taken a liking to him and wants to take him as his apprentice. We'd better not mess with him..."
When Ji Yuanbao's house caught fire, they naturally wanted to go and join in the fun. But fire and water are merciless, and adults are most wary of children playing with fire. They chased them all away and forbade them to come near. So they could only play with mud at the village entrance.
During this time, they smelled a fragrant pink-robed Taoist priest walking towards the village. They chased after him and shouted "Immortal!" The "Immortal" told them: Playing with mud is the first test for the immortal sect to accept disciples. Whoever can sculpt a beautiful woman's image with mud will be his designated personal disciple!
So they played in the mud even more enthusiastically.
Zihan was the most cunning. She wanted to sneak home to get some useful tools, but she didn't get far before she bumped into Li Tingyun.
"Pah! With his disgusting and repulsive appearance, he's unloved by his parents. Maybe he even set fire to his parents' house and burned them to death!"
"He's more despicable and hateful than demons and monsters. Trying to associate himself with 'immortals'? No way! With such a wicked heart, what kind of immortality is he trying to achieve?"
"I think that dog is more pleasing to the eye than him, more handsome, and much more capable!"
Zihan cursed loudly, "You freak! You ugly monster! Get out of Lingxi Village! You'd better die somewhere else!"
With a loud bang, a stick flew through the air and struck him in the face, knocking him unconscious.
Li Tingyun: I'm picking up weapons, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for someone to rescue you? You idiots, a bunch of idiots who only know how to wait to die.
Li Tingyun leaped out of the bushes, picked up a stick, and took them down one by one, leaving no one unscathed! Don't blame him for being too ruthless; blame yourselves for being stupid. You had time to run, but you were yelling and screaming when you were about to die!
Cry for help? I'll be the first one to kill you!
Whoever tries to run away or complain first will be the first to be hit with a stick, stabbed, swung, or struck with a stick—the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Sticks or the Thirty-Six Forms of the Dog-Beating Stick!
The strikes were accurate, powerful, and showed great attitude!
The first blow is to the leg to prevent escape. "It's you Yuans who killed my father and mother!"
The second blow was to the mouth to prevent any sound, "You beasts! You harmed my parents and stole my spiritual roots, you deserve to die!"
The third blow is to the head to prevent resistance. "Sooner or later, I will skin you all alive and sacrifice you to the heavens!"
He was venting his anger, beating up whoever he could, whether they had a grudge against him or not, he didn't care, they all deserved to be beaten!
He beats the boys, and he beats the girls too. He hits the boys in the face with a stick, and he hits the girls in the face with a stick as well. It's fair and just.
The dog excitedly joined the brawl, biting anyone it saw, especially targeting legs.
Because his line of sight was too low, he only looked at legs and didn't recognize people.
at last.
The dog bit its owner's calf.
Li Tingyun swung his stick and hit the dog squarely on the head.
The brawl is over.
Li Tingyun threw down the stick, picked up the tattered rag with one hand, and dragged Wangcai by the back of the neck with the other, limping towards the edge of the village.
Unexpectedly, yet another unexpected obstacle appeared out of nowhere!
Defeating the butcher, beating up the brat—it's been a bumpy road, and I still haven't collected enough.
He knew that although the man surnamed Yuan had inexplicably given him a way out, no matter if it was a way out or a way to death, as long as it was a path he had to take, it would never be smooth sailing. Every step would be full of stumbling blocks, and he wouldn't be surprised if all sorts of messy situations occurred along the way!
Just now, that old Taoist priest, dressed in pink, flamboyant and smelling awful, has actually come back to find him!