Zhao Gongming!

I looked at the black-faced man sitting cross-legged in front of me in fear, and my heart trembled, remembering the statue of the God of Wealth I saw when I first entered the Nine Old Caves, and the two figures gradually overlapped in front of my eyes.

I licked my dry lips to relieve the tension and uneasiness inside.

The name Zhao Gongming is believed to be familiar to anyone who is a little familiar with Chinese mythology. He is one of the four generalissimos of Taoism, a thunder general in the underworld, and an autumn plague one of the five plague gods. If you are not familiar with these, then another name for him by the common people must be like thunder.

Zhao Gongming, the god of martial arts!

Every year in the first month of the first month, the Han people will worship a deity, in charge of the world's gold and silver treasures.

And it was such a mythical character who would appear alive in front of my eyes, which couldn't help but shock me incomparably.

"Meet Zhao Gongming's senior!"

I restrained my shock, bowed my head and bowed respectfully to Zhao Gongming in front of me.

But soon I realized that something was wrong, because the black-faced man in front of me didn't react at all, and I didn't even hear a breath on him, he just sat as solid as a rock.

My heart moved, I'm afraid that there was something wrong with the person in front of me, otherwise we made such a big disturbance with Zhu Polong outside the door just now, and even I broke the stone gate and trespassed into the cave, this Zhao Gongming didn't have any movement, which is not reasonable at all.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a lot bolder, and then I took a closer look at the black-faced man in front of me, his face gave people a sense of majesty and coldness at first sight, but after a closer look, I found that it looked a little stiff in many details, and coupled with the lack of breathing, it didn't look like a living person.

At this time, Xia Wu saw me coming, and she was much bolder, she pulled the corner of my clothes and said timidly: "He...... He looked like he was dead. ”

My eyelids jumped, although I also had a faint premonition in my heart, but it still made my heart tremble a little when Xia Wu said it. You know, this is a god in folklore, and it feels like a dream.

I swallowed nervously, and stretched out a hand to touch Zhao Gongming's wrist, wanting to check his pulse.

But then, something unexpected happened, just when my fingers just touched Zhao Gongming's body, his seemingly burly and majestic body was as light as a piece of paper, and he fell down at the touch of a button, and his whole body fell on the stone bed at once, exposing his back in front of our eyes.

"Ahh

A sharp voice came out of Xia Wu's mouth, and my ears buzzed.

But I didn't have time to care about these at this time, because the moment I saw Zhao Gongming's back, my legs were weak with fright, and my face was incredulous.

On the back of the mythical god of wealth, there is a huge hole with jagged edges, as if someone has forcibly torn it open from the inside. And looking through this hole to the inside of Zhao Gongming's body, it was empty, with no internal organs, no muscles, and no bones, as if it had been hollowed out alive, leaving only an empty flesh shell.

A figure floated out of my body, looking at the strange scene in front of me with a solemn expression.

"Cher! Do you know what's going on? ”

As soon as I saw Xue'er come out, I immediately opened my mouth to inquire. Although this girl doesn't look very old, her origin is extremely mysterious, and she knows many secrets.

Xue'er didn't answer me, but her body fluttered for a while, and she carefully observed Zhao Gongming's flesh shell in all directions, and as time passed, the expression on her face became more and more serious.

After a long time, Xue'er sighed faintly: "Piao Piao is like a legacy of independence, feathering and ascending to immortality." ”

I was stunned, what Xue'er said Su Shi's famous sentence in "Former Chibi Fu", I didn't understand what she meant for a while.

"Feathering, ascending immortal." Cher opened her mouth and repeated, this time only four words, but it sounded to my ears no less than a thunderbolt from the sky.

I was shocked, "Cher, what did you say?" Feather Dengxian, how is this possible, his body is obviously hollowed out. ”

Xue'er gave me a blank look and said, "You have studied the Tao for so many years, do you know what feathering is?" ”

I nodded and said, "This is a Taoist term, which refers to the cultivation of a person who cultivates the Tao to a certain level, and when he perceives the avenue of heaven and earth, he can jump out of the cycle of life and death, birth, old age, sickness and death, feather and ascend to immortality, and live with heaven and earth from now on." ”

I went on to add: "But this is just a legend after all, although there are records of Taoist true immortals from time to time in ancient books, but they have never appeared in this world. The word feather is more used on the Taoist elders who have reached the end of their life. Let's take a step back, even if this Feather Dengxian really exists, what is the connection with the situation of Zhao Gongming in front of him? ”

A touch of reminiscence appeared on Xue'er's face, and she said like a dream: "In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu believes that people have four stages: young, young, strong and old, just as there are four seasons in nature: spring, summer, autumn and winter, and it is also similar to the changes in the four forms of eggs, larvae, pupae and adults of insects. And human death is like an insect that feathers from a pupal to an adult, which is called a feather into an immortal. ”

"Among them, there are two kinds of human death, one is ordinary people and practitioners who do not practice enough, they run out of life, turn into ghosts after death, and re-enter reincarnation and reincarnation under the rules of heaven and earth, which is like a chrysalis that fails to transform into a butterfly, and the time of life is only wasted. And the other is the master of the Tao, they comprehend the avenue of heaven and earth, jump out of reincarnation, and eventually become like a chrysalis into a butterfly, feathering and ascending to immortals. ”

Cher paused here and continued, "Have you ever observed the process of an insect chrysalis turning into a butterfly? They absorb all the nutrients of the body in the pupae, change the structure of the body, and make themselves become more advanced creatures. The so-called feathering of Taoism is also similar to this, and the flesh shell you see in front of you is just his old body that has faded from feathering. ”

I was stunned on the spot, Cher's words were like a shock, completely subverting my world, as if opening the door to a new world for me. At the same time, I suddenly thought of another thing.

The human skin I saw in the ancient Shu ruins of Qingcheng Mountain. At that time, according to the story of the white-clothed corpse king, it was believed that it was a kind of transformation carried out by the turtle spirit, which was the ancestor of the zombies, and the zombies molted their skin, such as being reborn. Now it seems that it is almost the same as the feathering of this Taoist family, which has faded away the old body and replaced it with a more powerful body. Maybe there's something else in between, I don't know what's in it.

"Hey, Zhao Gongming, God of Wealth, if I'm not mistaken, in the folklore of Mount Emei, there is Zhao Gongming's cultivation in this Jiulao Cave, and now it seems that it is not groundless. That's where he feathered out, tsk. Xue'er couldn't help but praise.

"And where did he go from the flesh shell? Could it be the legendary Heavenly Realm? I asked, a little dazed.

Xue'er gave me a blank look and said, "How do I know, I haven't seen it with my own eyes, everything can only be guessed." ”

Xue'er glanced at the stone bed and said with a smile: "But since you're here, you can't go home empty-handed." The essence in this flesh shell has been absorbed, and it is of no great use, but this whip is a good thing, and I don't know why he didn't take it away in the first place, could it be that he really became an immortal and looked down on this kind of thing? ”

I followed Xue'er's gaze and saw the silver whip, which I had been attracted to by Zhao Gongming's flesh shell just now, so that I ignored it. Now that I look closely, I find that this whip is divided into eighteen sections, and the whole body is shining with silver light, and it looks so dazzling, it is definitely a treasure.

My heart moved, I stretched out my hand to put Zhao Gongming's body back in place, and then saluted him and said, "Senior Zhao Gongming, you are the righteous god of heaven and the true immortal of Taoism. The junior has admired you for a long time, and please forgive me for offending your body, and now that you have been feathered away, I guess I can't look down on this silver whip, rather than let it be dusty here, it is better to let the junior I take him to kill demons in the outside world, in order to show the prestige of our Taoism. ”

"Haha, you kid, you can really talk. But this guy is just a meat shell now, and he doesn't know what you're doing anyway, so don't be afraid. Cher grinned.

But at this moment, as Cher's words fell, there was a noise in the room where the god platform had been placed just now, and I turned my head in fright.

At the door, there were a pair of eyes looking at us coldly......