Section IX. Ceremonies
"Well, since you've decided to take it, you can take this one. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. biquge。 info "Red Moon handed one of the gray candles to Zhuge Kaoru. "I'll tell you about the rest of the matter when you arrive, and now I'll send you to the place where Zhuge Kongming sleeps." Hongyue got up and drew a door beside her, and then motioned for Zhuge Xun to enter.
Zhuge Xun looked at the 'Gate of Time' created by the red moon, picked up the cloth bag that he had been carrying, and the gray candle had been floating beside Zhuge Xun.
"On the other side of the door is in front of the tomb door, which is the tomb of Zhuge Kongming, who has been guarded by the eight circles, and if you want to enter the tomb, you can only be a member of the Zhuge family." Red Moon said.
"Then I'll go." Zhuge Xun entered the gate of time, and then the back door was closed.
Red Moon whispered to the candle beside her, "You can truly rest in peace this time." ”
"This is ......" Zhuge Xun stood in front of a huge stone door, the height of the door was ten meters, and the stone door was carved with the family crest of the Yin and Yang Zhuge family, but it was said to be a stone door, so much like a door painted on a large complete stone.
Zhuge Xun wanted to see the tomb of the ancestors with his own eyes after coming eight laps, but I heard Long Ye say that the distance between the tomb and the ground is 963 meters, and the land in this distance is full of various toxic substances, and the patron saint of the Zhuge family, even the people of the Long family have no way to approach the door of the tomb, let alone enter the tomb, and the amount of tomb soil and the topographic trend directly above the tomb are piled up according to the 64 hexagrams in the "Zhou Yi", 963 meters, and the structure of each ten meters is different, if there are no drawings to excavate, It's a dream! But the drawings only tell you how to finish the 963 meters, if you want to enter the tomb, if you are not the onmyoji of the Zhuge family, you can't enter, I heard that the tomb door is the first pass to test whether you are qualified.
"Has Mr. Zhuge already arrived at the door?" The sound of the red moon came from the open.
"Yes. I'm already at the door. Zhuge Xun replied.
"Then the next step is the trial of Zhuge Xun."
Zhuge Xun heard Hongyue's words and looked around at the place where he was standing. It turned out that behind him was a bottomless canyon, and the sound of water flowing at the bottom of the valley could be heard, and on the opposite side of the canyon were six identical cave entrances, and a stone statue of a 'ghost' squatted directly above each cave entrance. On his side, a stone bridge was hoisted by chains. If it was a normal way to get there, I would have used this slate suspension bridge, but now I am already on this side of the bridge. And the door of the tomb, this stone gate nearly ten meters high...... Ostensibly, there is no mechanism, and the stone gate seems to be embedded in the surrounding stones, making one wonder if the stone gate really exists. Groping for the stone door, trying to find the mechanism to open, Hongyue said, this door can only be opened by the real Zhuge family, how to open it?
Whether it is pulling, pushing, or dragging, the stone gate does not move at all. "Miss Red Moon? Miss Red Moon, how do I open this door? Zhuge Xun called out to the red moon, but was not answered. Looks like you'll need to figure it out on your own.
How can the real Zhuge family prove themselves?
Zhuge Xun sat cross-legged on the ground and stared at the stone door in front of him, looking at the family crest of the Zhuge family and some other patterns on it, this pattern ...... How is it a bit like the pattern carved on the wooden door of the Red Moon Pavilion? Does the tomb of the ancestors also have anything to do with the red moon? She said that Zhuge Ancestor had a wish in the Red Moon Pavilion. That's right, wish! Zhuge Xun remembered half of the gray candles that Hongyue gave him before he came, but how to use them!
At this time, Zhuge Xun noticed that since he came to this door, the candle has been stopped in the middle of the door, Zhuge Xun approached the candle and wondered if it wanted to give him any hints, just when he was close to the candle, the candle suddenly went out, and the whole underground was pitch black. As soon as Zhuge Xun wanted to light the fire, he found that the pattern on the door was emitting a faint light, and as long as there was a little light, he couldn't see the light emitted by the door. "So that's the case, I understand, it seems that only in this way can I prove that I am a member of the Zhuge family." Zhuge Xun muttered to himself. The candle next to him lit on its own accord again, but it still stopped in the middle of the door.
Zhuge Xun concentrated his mind, summoned his own four-way divine beast, and bit the middle finger of his left hand, drew the family crest of the Zhuge family in the air with blood, placed the four divine beasts in the four corners of the door, placed the family crest drawn by blood in the position between the candle and the door, and then recited the long and jerky ancient spell in the depths of his memory.
The family crest on the door and the family crest drawn by Zhuge Xun's blood reversed each other rapidly, and the strong light emitted by the location of the four divine beasts, after the strong light, Zhuge Xun noticed that the stone gate that was about ten meters high had actually turned into a 'liquid' wall, but this wall seemed to be something similar to mercury, Zhuge Xun stretched out the protective barrier by his side, and followed the candle into the liquid wall.
Behind the wall is a solemn hall, about fifteen to twenty meters high, the four corners above the hall are lit with four lanterns, the lamp is directly below the corresponding stone statue of the three meters high four divine beasts, and the surrounding stone walls are carved with some familiar patterns, and some patterns of gods, and the ground is a bottomless black hole, just many stone pillars erected, at a glance, the erection position of these stone pillars is exactly the appearance of the Qiankun Bagua diagram, in ' A stone stele about three meters high is erected on the stone pillar in the center of the figure, and the stele is engraved with ancient characters, so if you want to see the words on the stele and go to the opposite side, it seems that you can only step on those stone pillars.
Zhuge Xun just wanted to step into the gossip array to see the words engraved on the stele, but the candle blocked in front of Zhuge Xun to stop Zhuge Xun's advance, Zhuge Xun looked at the candles floating up and down in puzzlement. Looking around, I found that the patterns carved on the walls around me were rotating irregularly, and those Shikjin, who were obviously carved in stone, looked at them together when they just wanted to step into the Bagua Array!
Is this also a trial? Zhuge Xun thought so. Then put your hands together, chant the incantation, and when you open your hands again, pull out a transparent mirror between your hands, which has the effect of magnifying and allowing you to see the words engraved on the tablet.
The inscription on the stele is written in the unique script of the Zhuge family.
The upper half is written about Zhuge Kongming's 'Exorcism Order', and the onmyoji who gets this order can drive all the gods and ghosts who contract with the Zhuge family. Zhuge Xun thought that he also had this 'exorcism order' on his fan. And the lower part of the stele is written 'Warning', which is probably a warning to outsiders who want to enter it, if they are not the inheritors, do not move forward, and the space behind them will not go back.
I should be the inheritor, although Hongyue said that she didn't identify with herself, but the Moon Pavilion and her ancestor Kong Ming already recognized herself as the inheritor, so it shouldn't matter if you enter it. Notice that behind the stele is an upward stone staircase, and at the end of the stone staircase is another door.
But now how can I get over, I can only step on these stone pillars, there is no place to stay except the stone pillars, but the candle in front of me stops me, is it to let myself not step on those stone pillars? Or do you have to step on it regularly?
Look around again to see if there are any clues. If it's a green dragon, or a Suzaku might be able to fly over. When they passed through the stone gate, the four divine beasts returned to their world, and the liquid gate also turned back into the stone gate. Reciting the spell, he summoned the Vermilion Bird God again, and the Suzaku God flew towards the opposite stone steps in the direction of Zhuge Xun's finger, but as soon as he flew into the range of the Bagua Array, he was injured by the light emitted by the surrounding walls, and Zhuge Xun also spit out a mouthful of blood, and it seemed that flying over would not work. What else can be done.
"Miss Red Moon, can you tell me how to get there." Zhuge Xun didn't believe that Hongyue didn't know.
"Exorcism." The sound of the red moon came from the open.
Zhuge Xun, who thought he would not get an answer, heard Hongyue's response.
Exorcism order? Do you want to recite the exorcism order? Now I can only try. Zhuge Xun took out his fan from the cloth bag, and the fan was written with the same exorcism order as on the stone tablet, because he couldn't use it before, so Zhuge Xun had never read this order, and he didn't know what would happen after reading it.
Zhuge Xun closed his eyes and took a deep breath, recalling in his mind the rituals and actions of reciting the exorcism order. This set of fixed movements was taught to him by the older generation of the Zhuge family when he was very young and kept in mind.
Suddenly, Zhuge Xun opened his eyes, the spiritual power in his body was fully opened, and an invisible wind surrounded him, Zhuge Xun held a folding fan, and his mouth was reciting the ghost exorcism order that he had already memorized, and his body instinctively danced. First Zhuge Xun's side, and then the entire hall was surrounded by a gust of wind, the wind blew through every corner of the hall, and the Shishen carvings on the wall were blown by the wind, and they all woke up and came to Zhuge Xun's face.
However, just when Zhuge Xun read the second half of the exorcism order, a mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out, and at the same time blood and tears flowed from the eyes of the original red pupils, Zhuge Xun endured the pain, he knew that this was because of the blood of vampires mixed in his body, and the mixed blood made him not have such pure spiritual power to support the exorcism order, and the gods who were awakened by half of the exorcism order had begun to stare at Zhuge Xun who was kneeling on the ground with no physical strength.
'It's going to be backfired!' Blood continued to flow from Zhuge Xun's mouth, and the taste of blood made those Shishen more and more uneasy, and Zhuge Xun was already surrounded in the middle. The gray candle strengthened its own fire, temporarily shocking the Shikigami who were about to move.
"Throw your eyes away." Red Moon's voice remembered.
Zhuge Xun, who was already unconscious, heard Hongyue's words, stretched out his index finger and middle finger and directly buckled off his red eyes and threw them to the ground.
"Finish reciting the exorcism." Hongyue was still in a calm voice, as if she didn't know Zhuge Xun's current situation.
Without a different pupil, Zhuge Xun felt that the spiritual power in his body seemed to have suddenly increased a lot, and he didn't care about the pain to finish reciting the second half of the exorcism order, and when the exorcism order was all recited, all the gods on the wall woke up, and the black pressure was everywhere in the hall.
Hongyue, who is in the main hall, saw Zhuge Xun's actions through the mirror on the table, which requires him to make those gods surrender himself, if Zhuge Xun is not a mixed race, maybe things are not so complicated now, but...... If it goes on like this, Zhuge Xun can't survive this level. I already knew that going to Zhuge Liang's tomb with his half-toned body was only half successful, and letting him give up that alien pupil was only to save his life temporarily, if he couldn't make those gods obedient, Zhuge Xun would die there. The half candle beside him seemed to be worried about Zhuge Xun on the other side of the mirror.
What to do! My current breath is very chaotic, and I can feel the breath of those awakened gods, what should I do! Zhuge Xun gasped for breath. You can't rely on the red moon now, you have to figure it out yourself. I recalled in my mind that when I was a child, the elders of the Zhuge family seemed to have said something after teaching myself the exorcism order, what were the words!
"Calm down, I want to be calm!" Zhuge Xun sat cross-legged on the ground, taking a deep breath and feeling it. "We must have the responsibility of protecting the Zhuge family, we must have the responsibility of protecting the gods of the Zhuge family, and we must have the tolerance to accept all things." Zhuge Xun read the words that came to his mind. "The responsibility to accept all things, to protect. I see, I'm sorry to scare you. ”
Zhuge Xun withdrew the scattered spiritual power, his body was empty, and said to the three hundred and sixty-nine Shikjin who had contracted with the Zhuge family in the main hall: "I swear in the name of the Zhuge family to 'accept all Shikgods and protect all Shikkai. Swear by blood! Zhuge Xun used his own blood to draw a 'Demon Sealing Array' in the air, and buried the array in his own eyeballs.
Seeing Zhuge Xun's behavior, the first Shikin hesitantly entered Zhuge Xun's eyes, the second, the third, and then all the Shishen entered Zhuge Xun's eyes in turn, just when Zhuge Xun thought that he was completely willing to follow him, there was a big snake with wings coiled on the stone tablet, and his golden eyes stared straight at Zhuge Xun.
"You're a winged snake? Won't you follow me? Zhuge Xun asked.
"I'm Kong Ming's Shikjin, and I won't follow anyone else!" From the mouth of the serpent came a weak but firm voice.
"yes, okay." Zhuge Xun was not reluctant, he just closed his eyes and felt the gods in his body. The candles around him kept floating up and down, as if they were worried about Zhuge Xun.
The red moon of the main building has a long breath, too. "Winged Serpent."
After a long time, Zhuge Xun opened his eyes, and it seemed that those gods had re-contracted with the current head of the Zhuge family. Zhuge Kaoru let all the Shikjin into his body is to express his determination to the Shikkami gods, and also prove that he is strong enough to protect the survival of Shikkami, and after the contract is re-established, Shikjin will no longer stay in Zhuge Kaoru's body, Zhuge Kaoru will let them out, return to the world that belongs to them, and summon them out when Zhuge Kaoru uses them.
"Since you all agree that he will be your new master, then send him over." The winged serpent coiled over the stone tablet said to the reappeared Shikigami.
Zhuge Xun closed his injured eye, picked up the red pupils on the ground that were detained by himself, and said to the winged snake: "You are the ancestor of the god, so I have no way to liberate you, I heard others say that I am here to inherit the ancestor, so when I complete the inheritance, I can let you go and go where you want to go." ”
"Can you give me that eye?" The winged serpent said.
Zhuge Xun looked at the red pupil in his hand, he didn't expect that he would not have one eye, although this eye took away part of his vampire bloodline, but not all, now his injured eye is sealed with the 'Sealing Demon Array' so this red pupil, not only this red pupil, all eyes have no way to put them back into their eyes, and this red pupil is useless. "Okay." Zhuge Xun threw his eyes at the winged snake.
At this time, those Shikigami had already built a 'bridge'.
"You just need to step on the 'bridge' to come over, this is what anyone who wants to enter Kong Ming's tomb must do, inheriting Kong Ming also means inheriting our gods, it is not possible without strong power. If you weren't this half-toned body, with your spiritual powers, you would only need blood to make us surrender, but now that eye of yours ......," the winged serpent said.
"It's okay, it's just one eye." Zhuge Xun stepped on the bridge floating in the air and walked towards the stone steps opposite.
When Zhuge Xun stepped on the stone steps, the bridge composed of Shikjin also dispersed, and the Shikjin also returned to their own world and disappeared into the main hall.
Zhuge Xun followed the winged snake to the second stone door at the end of the stone steps, the stone door was also engraved with patterns, the difference was that this stone door was two left and right two combined into one, and there was a handprint groove on each door.
After a flash of white light, the winged snake with the body of the snake changed into a classical beauty with white hair and white clothes. "These two mudras, one is yours and the other is mine, and I am here to wait for Kong Ming's heir."
Zhuge Xun is not a gossip person, but seeing the look in the golden eyes of the winged snake when mentioning the name of the ancestor, he understands why she doesn't want to be someone else's Shikami, she only belongs to him. (This story is pure fiction!) I'm sorry! )
Zhuge Xun pressed his right hand on the stone door on the right, and the winged snake also pressed his hand on another stone door, the pattern on the stone door turned, and the door slowly opened to both sides.
Behind the door is a large hall, compared to the previous hall, this one is much simpler, the four walls are carved with various patterns, and the stone top on the head has a spherical night pearl shining like a small sun shining on the main hall. On the central ground of the main hall is a circle of eight-pointed stars, with a crystal coffin at each corner and a crystal coffin in the center of the array.
"He has been waiting for the arrival of the heir, in fact, he is not at fault, and helping mankind is only a temporary soft-heartedness, if it weren't for the three people who invited him, under the pretext of 'the world is born', he would not agree to go out of the mountain to help that person fight the world, he just wants people to live better, less war in the world, less poverty, but there is one of the family mottos of the Zhuge family. It's not allowed to hurt people with art', although it's just helpless, but war is at the cost of human sacrifice, he is not wrong, some people say that he has ambitions, he wants to usurp power, hum, anyone is possible, only he doesn't! People who have not really experienced history will not know what real history is like! The winged serpent looked sadly at the crystal coffin in the middle.
Zhuge Xun walked down the steps and walked through the eight crystal coffins located in the octagonal in turn, it turned out that each coffin did not contain people, but some things, namely: the crystal coffin in the east is a spring branch, the crystal coffin in the south is a burning fire, the crystal coffin in the west is a silver wind chime, the crystal coffin in the north is a rotating waterwheel, the crystal coffin in the northwest is six ring coins strung by red rope, the crystal coffin in the northeast is a crystal citrine cluster, and the crystal coffin in the southwest is a book without a nameInside the crystal coffin in the southeast is a golden compass.
There was a person lying in the crystal coffin in the middle, and the winged snake was lying on the lid of the coffin at this time, looking at the person in the coffin with tender eyes. "Let me take a last look at him, I know the inheritance ceremony of your Zhuge family, although I don't want to, but you are chosen by him, and I have no right to refuse, so let me look at him again."
Listening to the words of the winged snake, Zhuge Xun knew that it was his ancestor who was lying in the crystal coffin now, approached the crystal coffin, and could clearly see the person inside through the lid, that person was lying in it as if he was asleep, wearing the clothes of the Zhuge family's onmyoji, and his hair was neatly tied on his head, although it was not full of red light, but it was not like the complexion that a person who had been dead for hundreds of years should have, if it was in that era, he should also be a beautiful man, and his appearance was somewhat similar. His hands were clasped in front of his chest, and under his hands was a piece of talisman paper, which was blocked by his hands and could not see what was written on it.
The candle that had been following him stopped on top of the crystal coffin.
"What am I going to do? What does the ceremony look like? Zhuge Xun asked the winged snake.
When the winged serpent raised its head, it was already in tears. "Open the coffin."
Zhuge Xun gently pushed open the lid of the crystal coffin, and the lids of the other eight crystal coffins also opened at the same time, and there was a faint smell wafting in the main hall, Zhuge Xun was familiar with this smell, this was the smell in the main hall of the Red Moon Pavilion.
"You have a six-pointed star in your eyes, right?" The winged snake asked.
"Yes."
"No wonder. The Zhuge family's array is all eight-pointed stars, and his eyes are also eight-pointed stars. He has a rune paper in his hand, you take it out. Use the fire of the crystal coffin to burn the rune paper, and then use this bowl to take the water from the crystal coffin over there and drink the ashes of the rune paper. This is the method he came up with, this body only has spiritual power, so he can only use this method. The winged serpent handed an empty bowl from the head of the crystal coffin to Zhuge Xun, who could feel her hands shaking.
When Zhuge Xun drank the rune paper with an eight-pointed star on it, his body suddenly seemed to be emptied, and he could feel that all his original spiritual power was gone!
"What's going on!" Without waiting for Zhuge Xun to finish asking, his body floated up by itself, floated to the top of the person in the coffin, and came face to face with the ancestor in the coffin.
"Feel it with your heart, the ceremony has begun." The winged snake reminded Zhuge Xun.
Zhuge Xun stared at the ancestor who was close at hand, and the man was lying there peacefully. Zhuge Xun closed his eyes and felt the flow of air around his body, and suddenly a suction force came from under him, and he felt stronger and stronger! It was as if the body was torn apart.
"Relax!"
The sound of the winged snake came from the haze, Zhuge Xun tried his best to maintain his sobriety, but after all, he couldn't resist the powerful suction, and after a loud scream, Zhuge Xun's consciousness gradually fainted.
Consciousness is like going to another space, there is nothing, only the gray candle beside him, the candlelight reflects the space, Zhuge Xun is trying to focus on the focus, one eye is really inconvenient. In the candlelight, Zhuge Xun saw his ancestors. I didn't see him open his mouth to speak, but his voice came into his head:
Your arrival has liberated me, the greater a person's ability, the greater the responsibility, and the Zhuge family will be handed over to you in the future. Thank you to Miss Red Moon for me.
"Wait a minute!" When he opened his eyes again, he was already lying flat, feeling that his body was about to fall apart, and he struggled to stand up, and found that his long hair had returned, and saw the winged snake standing by the crystal coffin of the ancestor.
"You wake up, the ceremony is over, you have now become the head of the Yin Yang Zhuge family, shouldering the heavy responsibility of guarding the southern enchantment, I hope you will not live up to his sacrifice." The winged snake looked back at Zhuge Xun who stood up.
"It's over?" Zhuge Xun came to the crystal coffin. "What about the ancestors?" I saw that the ancestors who were originally lying in the crystal coffin only had their clothes left, but the corpse was not only gone.
The winged snake pointed at Zhuge Xun's heart. "Here it is. The succession ceremony of the Zhuge family is literally, the previous one gave all of himself to the next one, its blood, its flesh, its spiritual power, and its all. So He has merged with you, He is you, but you are not Him. Now that you are trying to adjust the breath of your body, you can feel the increase in spiritual power, and the bloodline in your body that did not belong to the Zhuge family has been 'cleaned'. ”
Hearing the words of the winged snake, Zhuge Xun took a deep breath and felt the changes in himself, and could feel that there was a powerful spiritual power in his body that was merging with him, meditating in place, and letting his body slowly accept that power. After a long time, when he opened his eyes again, the six-pointed star array in his original cyan eyes had advanced into an eight-pointed star. The eye socket that I lost my eye was still a little painful, so I didn't need to open that eye, and I had to make an eye patch when I went back.
"Until you find the next person who can protect the Southern Enchantment, you will always live forever, without the constraints of the Zhuge family, you need to decide for yourself, whether it is a god or a demon. This tomb exists only for this ceremony, and since the ceremony has been completed, this tomb has no meaning for its existence. The winged serpent looked around at the place where it had guarded for a thousand years.
"Isn't the southern barrier here? This tomb will disappear, so what about the enchantment? ”
"The southern enchantment is actually the array of the eight-pointed star in your eyes, as long as you don't have an accident, the enchantment will be fine. This burial chamber will still exist, but it will not mean anything. ”
"What about you?" Zhuge Xun asked. "You don't have a pact with your ancestors?" (To be continued.) )