Someone brought eight dishes and one soup, as well as a pot of soju, all of which were placed on the stone table in the courtyard.

The taste of those dishes was pure, and the aroma wafted lightly in the wind, spreading throughout the courtyard.

"Sit down. Jingguan Xiaowu took the lead in sitting down as the host, lifted the wine jug, and poured wine for me and Grandma Land.

Her gesture of pouring wine was a little strange, and she used the "right hand to left" method for pouring wine for me, but when pouring wine for Grandma Land, she used the "left hand to left" method of pouring wine.

You must know that in the eating habits of the old Jinan people and even the Han people across the country, the backhand reversal method of "left hand to left" is the "severed head wine" gesture of the jailer to bid farewell to the death row prisoner. Whoever drinks this cup of wine will not live more than a day and a night.

"Drinking. Jingguan Xiaowu raised her glass.

Grandma Land didn't notice this detail and picked up her glass unconcernedly.

"The rivers and lakes are tight and the waves are strong, and the people are precarious. I borrow this glass of wine to wish you both peace, smooth sailing, auspicious light, and a bright future. Jingguan Xiaowu said.

The three glasses clashed together, and then Grandma Land drank them all.

Drink the "guillotine wine", and her life will not be long.

I have always been very calm in my heart, in this turbulent and strong era, whether a person can survive or not depends on himself a lot of times.

History is like a huge book of life and death, recording everyone's experience of death. Therefore, the ancient sages and great masters repeatedly taught their disciples to read through history and find the true meaning of life from history.

Grandma Land finally broke the lock of her fear, but at the same time, she was struck by fate.

"Let's eat vegetables, Mr. Xia. Jingguan Xiaowu said.

I looked at her, and when I looked at her, I was just as calm and calm.

"Good dish. I picked up the chopsticks and tasted them, and although I didn't know the taste in my mouth, I still whispered praise.

"Jinan is a good place, good mountains and rivers, good food and fun, when Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he always took Jinan as the first stop to go out of Beijing for a rest. Jingguan Xiaowu said.

Grandma Di stopped her chopsticks and sighed thoughtfully: "In the past, there were masters in my Tu clan who served as the imperial guards of Lord Qianlong, and the glory of the clan was born from that time. ”

I can understand that in any previous era, thaumaturgists also needed the hand-picked certification of the imperial court, and once they stepped onto the dragon gate, their value doubled. The word fame and fortune is a magic weapon that makes heroes bend their waists at any time.

"Disrespectful, disrespectful. Jingguan Xiaowu raised a glass to Grandma Land.

"It's really a shame to say that the Qing Dynasty is dead, and my Tu clan has withered. Grandma Land took another drink.

"I remember that the Tu clan originated in the extreme north of the White Mountains and Black Waters, about the eastern part of the border. That was the front line of the resistance against the invading army, and I really hoped that the Tu clan would prosper and serve the country. Jingguan Xiaowu said lightly.

She is a Japanese national, but at this moment she is looking at this war from the perspective of a completely neutral person, and she speaks without partiality, which is admirable.

"My Tu clan is finished, fortunately, there are young talents like Mr. Xia who can inherit the subterranean technique, so that it can be passed on forever, and there is hope for it to be carried forward. At this point, I have died without regrets. Grandma Land said.

She picked up the flask and poured three glasses in a row.

The sun shone on her red cheeks, making her look so younger.

"Don't take a word of death lightly, desperate to live, to survive in a desperate place, is the realm that a thaumaturgist should pursue the most. Jingguan Xiaowu said lightly.

The Hongmen Banquet is the place of death, the Tiegong Temple is the place of death, and the shore of Daming Lake is full of death, but the three of us sit here and drink calmly, still refusing to succumb to the fierce force of the strong enemy, it is precisely because of the "life" of the thaumaturgist.

Even if a true thaumaturgist is like a dead tree and his life is like a hanging thread, he must lay the foreshadowing of survival in the tortuous fate of the grass snake and gray line.

The "life" of thaumaturgists is different from the lives of ordinary people, life and death, death and life, life and death, with the same root and breath as heaven and earth, and closely related to the universe, and its highest state must be "my life is by me, and the destiny of heaven is also by me" - I die, heaven dies, heaven dies, heaven dies, I am not dead.

Actually, I am well aware of the fate of the land grandmother.

In the sinister omen of the "Nine Palace Death Talisman", her Tu clan has been framed in it.

In ancient texts, the arrival of a number is closely related to the direction of the five elements. Among them, one and six are water, seven and two are fire, nine and four are gold, three and eight are wood, and five are earth. In terms of the plane orientation, the number of water is one in the north, the number of water is in the northwest, the number of fire is seven in the west, the number of fire is in the southwest, the number of gold is nine in the south, the number of gold is in the southeast, the number of wood is three in the east, the number of wood is eight in the northeast, and the number of earth is five in the center.

The Tu clan is good at submersion, and they are the definitive candidates for the "Earth Number Five", and they occupy the most central position of the Nine Palace Death Talismans.

In other words, the moment Jingguan Xiaowu saw the "Nine Palace Death Talisman", she already understood the fate of Grandma Land, so she repeatedly asked her to pass on the submersible technique to me, so as not to completely lose this kind of thaumaturgy after she encountered an accident.

Grandma Land stood up and bowed her hand to me: "Everything from now on, please." ”

I slowly got up and bowed to her.

"In the future, if the submersible technique will be carried forward one day, I hope that Mr. Xia will not monopolize the glory, and in the order of sects, I will also add a stroke to my Tu clan. She said.

I nodded solemnly: "Senior, the submersible technique will always belong to the Tu clan, and I just play the role of connecting the upper and lower generations, temporarily keeping it for the seniors." In the future, when the submersible art is enshrined in the temples of the thaumaturgical realm, its only owner is surnamed Tu, not my summer stone. ”

"I will testify that from ancient times to the present, the submersible technique originated from the Tujia and will always belong to the Tujia. Jingguan Xiaowu said.

Grandma Land's eyes suddenly swelled with extreme gratitude and extreme sourness, and she grabbed the wine jug violently, drank three sips, and then waved her hand, and the celadon wine jug shattered on the side brick wall.

"Let's go!" said Grandma Land, and staggered out drunkenly.

Jingguan Xiaowu and I didn't stop her, because this is the arrangement of fate, and no one has the right to choose.

The flask was shattered, and our little feast for three was over.

"Next, there are three more battles, and the battle will be fought in Jinan City at the same time. First, they all died together, burning half of the heavenly clouds; second, they captured ghosts with one hand, and sacrificed their blood to Minghu; third, they sneaked underground and glimpsed the sea dragon king. Jingguan Xiaowu said.

I looked at her, the corners of her lips pursed tightly, and a vertical line in the center of her eyebrows was deeply sunken, like a sharp sword hanging in mid-air.

The enemy is besieged on all sides, and I have already killed the enemy chieftains on the east, north, and west, leaving only the enemy in the water due south, so this second battle must be completed by me.

"I'm going to do the second thing first. "I don't want to talk half nonsense.

"It's difficult, the devil is born from the heart, I'm afraid of arousing your demons. I should have completed this battle, but Mr. Zhang had already handed over the big tent of the Chinese army to me to stabilize the overall situation, and I would never be able to leave. She groaned.

"Just tell me how to do it. I said.

"In the middle of the Baihua Embankment, where two large willow trees live next to each other, there is an angler, facing due west, holding a fishing rod in each hand, which is your target. As the leader of the water ghost army, whenever there is a big operation, he always shelters there, commands from a high position, and waits for an opportunity to intercept and kill decent people who flee from the embankment. Note that he has a nickname called 'Buddha with a Thousand Hands', and any hand you can see is fake, and when his real hand is revealed, it is the most fatal blow. She said.

Without the slightest delay, I immediately walked out.

"People and demons are easy to get rid of, but hearts and demons are difficult to solve, you have to be extremely careful!" Jingguan Xiaowu repeated behind me.

It's still early in dusk, and it should be a tough afternoon. For me, the quick assassination of the Japanese is a great good, and I am willing to give it a try, even in the face of all odds.

"Heart Demon?" When I stepped on the north end of the Baihua Embankment, I noticed that the scene in front of me seemed familiar, and I immediately remembered the two words that Jingguan Xiaowu said.

"The devil is born from the heart, first control the heart, and then control the body, the most difficult to eradicate. When the demon is too big to control, then it must be killed by wielding a sword, and the person dies first, so that the demon in the heart cannot live, and it will naturally disappear. This is the explanation of the "inner demons" in the ancient texts and the means of eliminating them.

Of course, I understand the horror of the "heart demon", and an impermanent person like the official lady is the best at dealing with the "heart demon", but unfortunately she has died early.

Forty steps to the south, on the right side of the stone embankment, there are two large willow trees standing near the water, with vertical and horizontal branches, hanging obliquely from a height of five or six meters to the surface of the lake.

The tree is too thick, and it completely blocks the person standing in the middle of the tree. However, I saw two fishing rods sticking straight into the lake, and immediately understood that the assassination target was there.

I strode over until I reached the willow tree, where I saw an angler in a shabby robe. He was facing away from me, looking down and playing with the fish food in his palm.

"Is there any fish on the hook?" I asked.

He turned around and whispered, "Yes, but they're all small fish, and they're not worth carrying a rod." ”

We were less than five paces apart, and it stands to reason that we should have a clear view of his features. At this moment, I felt an indescribable dizziness, feeling that his face was changing rapidly, as if there were countless faces alternating on his face, each strange and weird.

Eventually, my vertigo disappeared and his features became clearer.

His eyes were so black that they seemed to have been soaked in thick ink.

"You're here to kill me, I know. He said.

I nodded, walked over, and stood side by side with him in the middle of the two trees.

Right in front of me, the beautiful scenery of Daming Lake was unobstructed. The war destroyed half of the city, but it did not affect the lake - at least on the surface, Daming Lake is still as smooth as a mirror, without the slightest stain of war. I saw duckweed, lotus leaves, algae, dragonflies, butterflies...... It's no different from what I've seen before. Standing on this stone embankment, time seemed to be opened up in an instant, and I returned to Qushuiting Old Street in 2016.

"You know I'm here to kill you, and I'm not hiding?" I asked.

"I'd love to talk to you about some spiritual realm that only a master can reach. There are traitors over there, so whatever Zhang Quanzhong does, I will get the information as soon as possible. I wonder what kind of Chinese even Zhang Quanzhong admires? In China, there is only one person I admire, and that is the Bodhidharma Grandmaster. He has the forbearance to face the wall, and he also has the intelligence to glimpse the universe, so he created the Sect of Ten Thousand Buddhas. I also learn from him, he is facing the stone wall, but I am facing this still water, facing the water every day, and gaining insight from the water. He said.

After hearing these words, I remained silent on the surface, but deep down in my heart I was in awe of this "Thousand-Armed Buddha".

After Patriarch Bodhidharma, countless Buddhist disciples have also adopted the method of "facing the wall" to improve their understanding of Buddhism. Especially in the major monasteries in Tibetan areas, retreats, facing the wall, and 100 days of non-eating meditation are popular. What's more, some practitioners close the entrance of the cave with river mud and practice "meditation without breathing for a day and night".

The pursuit of form is full of variety, but those practitioners have forgotten the true meaning of Zen Buddhism. Face to wall, to read life from the stone, not to destroy the self until it loses its life.

After that, there was a great wisdom in the face of "fire" and enlightenment, and wrote the famous verse of "Bodhi Ben Wushu" that will go down in history forever, and finally let the wisdom of Zen Buddhism on the basis of Bodhidharma to a higher level.

The "Buddha with a Thousand Hands" is a Japanese, and he has been able to realize the method of "facing water" on the basis of stone and fire, and in time, he may be able to realize the truth of the universe and become another great master of Zen Buddhism.

"What can we talk about?" I asked.

His dark eyes rolled, and after a moment's thought, he spoke eloquently again: "Human lifespan is the biggest problem hindering cultivation, and if you want to succeed, you must first extend your lifespan. Your ancient Chinese emperors went to the East China Sea in search of the elixir of immortality, and it was precisely because they realized the importance of longevity. In Fuso, we have done a lot of research on this, and we have realized that the country, the land, and the individual all have a life span, and if we want the country to prosper, the land to perpetuate, and the individual to immortalize, we have to live on top of other countries, lands, and people, ask for supplies, enslave them, and not let these simple and repetitive daily tasks take up time, and then spend all the time in our lives thinking and researching, and doing things of greater significance. At that time, whether it is facing the wall or the water, there will be enough time and energy. ”

Obviously, he was talking about the colonial phenomenon of World War I and World War II. The British Empire and the French Empire once had countless colonies around the world, constantly squeezing the colonial governments and obtaining a large number of cherished means of production, which created the glorious history of Britain and France.

"Sure enough, it's a high opinion. I said quietly.

"Specific and subtle, looking at the present, I will use the power of the whole lake to raise a turtle and a snake, absorb the essence of the turtle and snake every day, and provide for myself with the auspicious number of the turtle and snake's life, so as to achieve the goal of longevity. You say, will that work?" he asked.

His wishful thinking is good, but Daming Lake belongs to the people of the whole city, not a pond for someone to raise turtles and snakes.

"Good idea, I guess it works. I replied.

He laughed: "You are really very honest, different from other Chinese. Zhang Quanzhong admires you so much, it must make sense, hahahaha......"

I pointed to the lake, "I guess turtles and snakes are almost the same, right?"

He nodded, "Yes." ”

I shook my head and smiled, "Can you explain to me that it is useful to be a wood life but use water creatures to replenish vitality?"

His face changed: "What are you talking about? I don't understand. ”

I bent down to pick up a fishing rod, and with a slam the rod snapped from it, and both of them plunged into the tree on the right side, more than half a foot into the wood.

The Thousand-Armed Buddha screamed and covered his chest with one hand.

Almost at the same time, blood flowed from the tree's body along with his chest.

I didn't make any further moves, just stared at him with disdain.

The people of old Jinan know that the trees, flowers, stones, and insects around Daming Lake have a long history. The tree becomes a fine for a hundred years, it takes a thousand years to become a demon, the stone has a life for ten thousand years, and the insect becomes holy with the vicissitudes of life.

As for the water, it is all circulating and flowing, and the battalions of iron are made of flowing soldiers. Therefore, it is impossible for water to produce some kind of mutation, which is essentially different from the face of the wall and the face of fire of the ancestors of Zen Buddhism.

The Fuso thaumaturgist is not an idiot, since he is looking for a place to help him practice, how can he abandon these two ancient trees and choose flowing water?

There are examples of ancient wood cultivation in Chinese and foreign classics, from the double glory of people and trees to the withering of people and trees, half glory and half withering, and finally reaching the Zen of "double withering of people and trees", which completely integrates the spirit and spirit of people and trees.

Since it is cultivated with the help of trees, it is like this willow tree, which is extremely vulnerable and does not have too strong defensive capabilities, so it can only rely on psychedelic magic to contain the enemy.

As soon as I arrived at Baihuadi, I could already smell the breath of the other party's cultivation through the giant tree, so I was not in a hurry to kill people, and it was not until this moment that the disguise of the Thousand-Hand Buddha was revealed.

"I'm too underestimating the enemy, I'm underestimating you too much......" The Thousand-Handed Buddha leaned against the tree, painfully.

"Even if you don't underestimate the enemy, you don't have any defenses at your disposal. You Japanese thummers have met no resistance in the war and have become extremely arrogant and look down on all Chinese. I will not kill you, wait for all the nutrients you get from the giant tree to flow into the lake, and then slowly wither and die, just like these two trees. I said.

Proud soldiers will be defeated, whether on the battlefield or in the thaumaturgical world, the same is true.

Since Japan has the name of "Fuso", it must be a nation of "Zunmu". Moreover, in the Five Elements Doctrine, the wood position in the East belongs to "Jiayimu", which is most suitable and only suitable for practicing "wood" Zen.

If you can figure out these truths that are rigid and superficial on the surface, but profound and rigorous on the inside, then it will be much easier to deal with the enemy.

I sat down on the stone embankment and let the sound of the Thousand-Armed Buddha* sound high and low.

Jingguan Xiaowu's words did not come true, and so far, I have not suffered from the demons in my heart.

Daming Lake is the most familiar scenery of Jinan people and even Shandong people, when you come here, feel the water and tree shadows at the same time, you will think of the love legend between Emperor Qianlong and Xia Yuhe.

"I've done a lot of things, I've killed a lot of people, and when will the killing end?" I whispered.

People must always have a goal in life, and without a goal, no matter how great and strong they are, they will only be at a loss.

In Jinan City in 2016, my goal is to defeat all forces and obtain the Divine Water Mirror. At the same time, I want to find the mirror room deep in the ground and find Tang Wan. On this basis, uncover the truth of the tragedy of the Iron Ancestral Hall and seek justice from all the people in black.

The goal is very clear, surrounded by strong enemies, you must be exhausted, cautious every step, and live and die with your friends.

So, what are my goals here?

Zhang Quanzhong once asked me to "take away Jingguan Xiaowu", and the subtext was "protect her". If that's one of my goals, it's really hard.

Now, the Thousand-Handed Buddha is dying, and the task of assassinating the enemy chieftains of the Quartet has been completed, and next, the Hongmen Banquet of the Iron Gong Temple is about to end. The end means death, because the Nine House Death Talisman has already prophesied everything.

"It's too hard, it's too hard......" the voice in my heart sighed repeatedly.

Throughout history, it was the general situation that forced the Japanese to surrender, not the credit of one person, one city, and one army. Just like now, even if I continue to assassinate eight, twelve, twenty-four enemy chieftains, I will not be able to free this city from the clutches of the Japanese invaders.

I am a human being, not a god, even if I can do my best to change the fate of Jingguan Xiaowu, I can't change the established history.