Cha Wenbin looked at the child beside him and asked thoughtfully, "Hetu, do you know why grandpa gave you this name?" ”。

Xiaohetu immediately stood up from Cha Wenbin's side, and walked up to him respectfully: "Grandpa said that according to legend, Fu Xi drew gossip through the pattern on the dragon horse, and the pattern on the dragon horse is called Hetu." Grandpa also said that Hetu is the root of gossip, the origin of yin and yang, and the ancestor of Tao. ”

Touching Hetu's little head, Cha Wenbin asked with a smile, "Then do you like to learn the Tao from me?" ”。

A nine-year-old child, who said things innocently without consideration, Xiaohetu shook his head and said, "I don't like it." Cha Wenbin was a little surprised, and the smile on the corner of his mouth began to solidify, "But grandpa said, let me learn the Tao from you." Hetu added.

Cha Wenbin did not blame this child, everyone has the right to choose their own life: "Can you tell me why I don't like to learn the Tao?" ”。

Hetu lowered his head, looked at his toes, the two shoes kept rubbing against each other, and his little face began to blush slightly.

Seeing that this kid had something on his mind, Cha Wenbin naturally wouldn't continue to ask: "It's okay, it's okay if you don't tell me." ”

"I'm afraid." Hetu finally held back these two words.

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid of the portrait of the old man hanging on the wall."

Cha Wenbin understood that the children who were his average age were in contact with cartoon characters, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, which became popular in that era, and he was facing an old man who was somewhat majestic and dignified. Although Cha Wenbin also thinks that this kid does have the talent to be a Taoist priest, he is still a child after all.

Learning to be a Taoist priest is not like what most people think, slaying demons and destroying demons, drawing talismans and chanting spells to kill the Quartet. Taoism, as a local religion that has been passed down for thousands of years, is the most important thing to pay attention to is the word "enlightenment". Starting from the basic Taoist etiquette, and then the transcription and recitation of various Taoist classics, the monotonous and boring life is not something that everyone can adapt to.

Cha Wenbin patted Hetu's little head: "Before you think clearly, you can call Uncle Cha, if you want to learn the Tao one day, call me master." ”

A tall, thin man carries a sword diagonally behind his back and a broken bag with gossip embroidered on it. A **-year-old child is bouncing in front of him, the child is holding a glass in his hand, and there is a golden tadpole in the cup, these two people are easy for others to mistake for father and son.

There is no direction to go, and the people you meet are all kinds of people. Some people joke at what age they are, do they want to make a TV series by dressing up like this? Others would stop the man and ask him if he would tell fortunes; There are also people who regard them as a father and son who cheat on eating and drinking, and some people have paid high prices to buy tadpoles in the hands of the child.

Hatu had not left the village since he was born, and the farthest was the infirmary at the east end of the village to fetch medicine for his grandfather, and he had never studied or worn new clothes. All this outside gave the child enough freshness, and he knew for the first time that there was a bigger village outside.

Cha Wenbin originally wanted to take him to visit some Taoist temples among the famous mountains and rivers, and every time he went to the foot of the mountain to see those shuttle tourists, he shook his head and left. Taoism pays attention to pure cultivation, so in the past, those who attained the Tao would choose those towering mountain tops to build Taoist temples, or those cliffs that are difficult for ordinary people to reach. In addition to feng shui, it is more important that these places are far away from the fireworks of the world and can be quiet. Today, these ancient Taoist temples have become a bustling tourist attraction, and there are more roads made of steel and concrete between the cliffs that could only be climbed by apes in the past.

People who are busy selling all kinds of souvenirs are waving all kinds of amulets wholesaled from other places, and the beautiful name says: This is the light opened by a certain master, and it is not close to a hundred ghosts when worn on the body. In fact, this kind of thing from the Yiwu wholesale market in Zhejiang Province is not as good as the habitual use of a bubble of children's urine in Cha Wenbin's opinion.

He was originally a rural Taoist, so he didn't want to go to the immortal mountains and rivers.

Three years later, Cha Wenbin took Hetu to Sichuan, and he wanted to see where it all began.

Qifeng Mountain has long been a mess, there is no longer a towering mountain top, no longer a magnificent fairy bridge. Desolation and ruin were the only things left of the place, and the original village was destroyed by the landslide, and mudslides mixed with endless secrets washed away everything here.

There are no more strange villages, no trace of the original ancient well, and there is no trace of the village here. Locals say that white bones often appear in the river, and some people have found mutilated bronze objects from the river.

Standing by the river that had rushed out of him, Cha Wenbin took the glass he had carried all the way from Hetu's hand, and gently held the tadpole in the palm of his hand and put it into the water. "Let's go, you're not that old fellow after all."

The tadpole stayed in Cha Wenbin's palm and kept spinning back and forth, not thinking that it could run to the river of freedom as long as it swung its tail.

"Uncle, it doesn't seem to want to leave us." For Cha Wenbin's decision to release this tadpole, Xiaohetu was reluctant.

As soon as Cha Wenbin's palm was closed, the tadpole completely fell into the water, and when he stood up, his back seemed to be a little bent than a year ago, looking at the Qi Fengshan that had collapsed half of it, Cha Wenbin sighed: "You still don't want to call me a master after all." ”

When Cha Wenbin turned around to look again, the child had already jumped into the river, and when he came up again, he was holding the tadpole in the palm of his hand and shouted, "Master, master, I caught it back again!" ”

"What do you call me?"

"Master, Master"

At this moment, Cha Wenbin had a disciple in the true sense, and he thought that the Heavenly Orthodox Dao finally had a successor.

That night, they slept under the mountain, and for more than a year, Hetu and Cha Wenbin had become accustomed to this kind of life of sleeping in the open.

That night, Cha Wenbin had a dream, he dreamed that there were three of them sitting at the foot of the mountain drinking and talking loudly, and he knew and seen all three of them. Cha Wenbin had forgotten the specific dream, he only remembered that in the end, the three of them walked side by side into Qifeng Mountain before the collapse.

The bronze bell of 3,000 years ago was sounded again, and tens of thousands of people prostrated at the foot of this mountain, respectfully greeting their king. The High Priest who wielded the Golden Scepter did not wear a golden mask, and his mouth sang ancient and mysterious ballads. A large, three-legged golden toad had been crouching beside the throne for three thousand years.

The three figures in the distance became more and more blurred, closer and closer, and at last, only one person was left who turned and sat down. Dressed in gorgeous cyan silk, the majesty of the emperor made his subjects stick their heads to the ground, and in the rumbling singing, Cha Wenbin let go of the prosperity that belonged to that dynasty.

People are divided into three souls, separated and independent, the three souls are reunited, and heaven and man are one!

This is the end of an era, and the end of a thing of the past. The three souls went from fighting to reuniting, and reuniting again to relying on each other, and today they are leaving, leaving this person who is in the same vein as themselves, and going to the place where they should have been. Maybe Cha Wenbin didn't know that the self who could kill Yin Cha and rival the golden mask no longer existed completely, and from today on, he transformed into an ordinary Taoist priest again.

On the second day, when he woke up from his dream, the golden sun shone all over the earth, and Cha Wenbin felt that his body was a little weak. Over the years, he rarely felt tired, and he always had endless strength, and this was the first time in many years that he felt tired.

When I came to the river, I was going to wash my face with a handful of water, but I saw that I was missing something when I saw the reflection in the water, but I couldn't say it.

"Maybe I've been walking too much lately, and I'm a little tired," he said to himself, slapping himself with both hands, trying to clear up, but finding that his palms seemed to become softer.

Looking at his left hand in disbelief, the palm that was bent like an eagle's claw was actually restored! The skin on the back of his hand was as smooth as a newborn, and he could feel the skin breathing the mountain air when he brushed it gently.

"Gollum!" It was a frog call, and it was not surprising that there were frogs in the mountain rivers.

"Master, master! Come and see! The cheers of Hetu sounded behind him, and Cha Wenbin turned around to see that there was a small golden toad in the palm of the child's palm.

"Is this what it has grown? Have baby tadpoles grown up? Hetu asked happily.

Cha Wenbin took the toad, and when he looked closely, it only had three legs, and there was a string of white copper coin marks on its mouth like its ancestors, and the seven golden bumps on its back arranged according to the Big Dipper had been slightly raised.

"Gollum!" The little toad screamed, Cha Wenbin's face was less than five centimeters away from it at the moment, the little toad suddenly jumped high, and then threw out his tongue and gently swept Cha Wenbin's cheek.

"Old man!" Cha Wenbin gently tapped the tip of the little toad's nose with his finger, and it closed its eyes with great enjoyment.

Everything went back to that beginning, he also brought the little toad here like this back then, and now that he has really attained the Tao, the next road is only Cha Wenbin alone.