Volume 1 Chapter 79: The Unguessable Ending

After crushing the Qingxiu scholar to death, on the soul platform, the blue-green dark clouds that were thrown into the sky from the ground suddenly made a burst of lightning, and the rumbling muffled thunder resounded through the sky, and the clouds that were dozens of feet thick slowly rotated, pulling out a cloud horn of a thickness of a few feet, stretching out from the air to the ground like a tornado, and condensing on the ground a few feet in front of the kneeling old servant. The thick clouds continued to converge downward along this staircase connecting heaven and earth, and the violent spiritual power formed a huge storm, as if a hurricane had landed, and the strong breath of luck overflowed, and the few remaining people on the soul platform were suddenly restless, and the rich greed tested everyone's nerves.

"Is it luck that was born?" the man in white was stunned for a moment, and then guessed.

Juling Zhenjun frowned, when he felt the strong aura of luck, this guess also jumped out of his mind for the first time, but he faintly felt that something was wrong, as if he had ignored an important detail, and after careful consideration, his heart suddenly jumped, and he guessed an incredible result. Thinking of the result, he furrowed his brow and burst out laughing, and the maniacal laughter was thick with sarcasm.

"What are you laughing at?" Hearing the wanton laughter of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, a nameless anger suddenly rose in the heart of the already very depressed man in white, and he frowned, slightly angry.

Juling Zhenjun smiled and leaned back together, his eyes overflowed with tears, and he sneered after a while: "What kind of son of yours claim to be brilliant, and blow your sect to be invincible and invincible, but in my opinion, you are a bunch of out-and-out fools, hahahaha......"

When the man in white heard this, his eyes narrowed slightly, and his face instantly turned cold.

"What, not convinced?" Seeing the appearance of the man in white, Juling Zhenjun sneered and continued: "Keep your dog's eyes wide open and take a good look, what are the things you have been planning for a hundred years at the expense of the entire Little Underworld!"

The man in white was stunned for a moment, because the stakes were so high, he didn't even bother to figure out whether what the Gathering Spirit True Monarch said was true or false, so he immediately closed his eyes, released his divine thoughts with all his might, and traced back to the source with that strong aura of luck. However, after a dozen breaths, the white-clothed company was suddenly stunned, and then his eyes widened, revealing an exaggerated expression of horror, and he muttered: "How is it possible? The breath of luck actually wafted out of those green clouds...... At this moment, two ironic and terrifying words appeared in his mind - "bait!"

Gathering Spirit True Monarch sneered, "Do you think that green cloud is what you call luck?"

"Is it just me who has entered the game?" the head of the man in white buzzed, and he suddenly became a mess. He had long been unable to hear the sarcasm of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, the huge psychological gap and unbelievable emotions made him dance with his hands and feet, looking like crazy, and he kept muttering: "What about luck? What about my luck? Impossible, impossible, luck is obviously under the Great Array of Extinction and Covering the World, my Hidden Dragon Yuan is the gate of the chosen one, how can I not find luck?"

Jin Zun on the side was also shocked when he heard the ridicule of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, he released his divine thoughts like a boy in white to capture the location of the luck, and found that the thick aura of luck was indeed derived from the blue-green cloud that he didn't know what it was, and his face suddenly turned iron-blue.

In the end, not only are your every move firmly mastered by others with the secret technique of sending spirits, but even the luck that you have tried at great cost is all for nothing, and you are still complacent, complacent, thinking that you are playing against each other, but you are actually just a pawn of others, stupidly chasing the bait, and can't wait to jump into the trap!

The man in white sat down on the ground in a daze, his face was like ashes, and his eyes gradually lost focus. Jin Zun clenched his teeth tightly, his face was blue and white for a while, and he was stunned and didn't say a word.

The spirit gathering true monarch who had been deceived, used, and suppressed all the way was extremely depressed in his chest, and at this moment, he finally turned against the guest, and if he could take a good breath of evil, how could he let go of this great opportunity to beat the water dogs? Just when he wanted to continue to ridicule and attack the man in white, he suddenly stopped, revealing a look of shock on his face.

Behind the man in white, the thick green clouds that originally covered the sky and the sun, after being integrated into the will of terror, have all fallen from the sky at some point, constantly accumulating and compressing, and actually condensed a vague humanoid silhouette in front of the kneeling old servant, the humanoid was more than eight feet tall, and the fog was billowing all over his body, and he could barely see the appearance of a heroic man, his vague face could not see the facial features, only two dark green ghost fires were constantly beating, emitting a penetrating cold breath, as if from the eyes of the evil ghosts of the netherworld, which was terrifying.

"It's the wisp of soul that His Royal Highness the Hades King has appeared......" The Gathering Spirit True Monarch was a spirit, and he couldn't take any more vent of the depression in his chest, so he hurriedly took two steps forward, knelt on the ground with his fists clenched, and said respectfully: "The 113th generation of the Central Plains Gathering Spirit Mountain Gathering Spirit True Monarch see His Royal Highness the Hades!"

Startled by the solemn report of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, the lost and desperate Jin Zun also came back to his senses, seeing the appearance of the figure, he immediately turned pale, and also took two steps forward, knelt on the ground with his fists clenched, and said respectfully: "The one hundred and twenty-first Jin Zun of Jinchuan in the extreme north see His Royal Highness the Hades King!"

The blurry figure turned his head, and the two ghostly fires in his eye sockets looked at the two, although they couldn't tell who he was looking at at at all, but both of them felt that the two ghostly fires were staring straight into their eyes, and the ghostly fires emitted bursts of weird gravity, and the gods, mana, and primordial spirits of the two of them had a feeling that they were going to be sucked out of their bodies.

Juling Zhenjun's body trembled, and he first came back to his senses, his heart was shocked, and while forcibly calming the restless divine thoughts, mana, and primordial spirits, he buried his head down, not daring to look at the two ghost fires again. After a while, Jin Zun also suddenly came to his senses, but it was just this moment of delay that made him "poof", spurting out a mouthful of blood, and a distorted look of horror appeared on his face. He hurriedly bowed down, and his heart was so frightened that he didn't dare to make any more movements.

The ghost-eyed two ghost fires slowly stabilized, and the vague figure looked at the obedient two, and said coldly: "Descendant of the Five Boys, do you still remember the Ancestor Secret Training?" His body was still an undulating turquoise cloud, and his voice seemed to be ten thousand years of ice, which made people both uncertain and fearful.

The Gathering Spirit True Monarch felt a pang in his heart, and hurriedly nodded and said: "The ancestor of the Imperial Spirit takes the prosperity of the world as his own responsibility, and the ancestor admonishes the successive Gathering Spirit True Monarchs not to forget the mission of the sect, and in the more than 5,000 years since he took over the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, he has never forgotten a moment of his own practice. ”

The vague figure nodded slightly, and looked at Jin Zun again, Jin Zun's body stiffened, and he kowtowed: "The successive Jin Zun of Jinchuan strictly followed the teachings of the ancestors of the imperial sword, and never forgot to slack off for a moment. ”

Hearing that Jin Zun replied like this, and thinking of the insidious methods used by this person in order to seize luck, Juling Zhenjun hated it in his heart, and couldn't help but sneer: "You colluded with outsiders, betrayed the extreme north, killed the Demon Emperor, and vainly sought the treasure of the Hades, and dared to claim that you have never forgotten the ancestral teachings for a moment?"

Facing the questioning of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, Jin Zun's face was pale, and his teeth were tight, but he hung his head deeply, not saying a word, and there was no intention of justification.

The vague figure ignored the accusation of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, and said to Jin Zun, "You are also doing a good job...... his tone is still very cold, but there is a trace of murderous intent. Gathering Spirit True Monarch couldn't believe his ears, and looked at the vague figure in disbelief, but Jin Zun seemed to have been prepared for it, and he didn't see the slightest hint of surprise.

The vague figure continued: "The five immortal sects have their own division of labor, each doing its own thing, since the matter is over, go back, I hope you will continue to follow the secret instructions of the ancestors and do your own thing." ”

Juling Zhenjun was unwilling, and wanted to say something more, but found that he was suddenly tightly wrapped by countless laws, and he couldn't move at all, he squinted his eyes and looked at Jin Zun, seeing that he had a calm face, thinking thoughtfully about his thoughts, and his body was also full of the power of laws. At this moment, the Gathering Spirit True Monarch suddenly blessed his heart, and noticed that the conversation between Fang Cai Jinzun and the Hades King was very strange, and said in his heart, "I am afraid that in the mind of His Highness the Hades King, the original intention and meaning of the existence of the Five Great Immortal Sects are very different from what I thought before. ”

Just as he was thinking about it, a violent white light lit up in front of the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, and after a moment, it disappeared from the soul platform.

In the Small Underworld, on a huge platform in the Central Plains Gathering Spirit Mountain, thousands of monks were gathering in a group, pointing and whispering to the colorful clouds in the sky. Suddenly, a white light flashed among the crowd, and the soft spatial power divided the crowd into two halves, and the crowd was suddenly startled, like a school of scattered fish, hulala retreated more than ten feet, surrounding the white light in the center, nervously guarded. After a breath or two, the white light gradually dissipated, revealing a green-robed young man with a cloudy face.

When all the monks saw the appearance of the green-robed young man, they were immediately surprised, and they knelt down in unison, and greeted them in a respectful voice: "Welcome back to the mountain!" The neat shouts of thousands of monks were like ocean waves, overwhelming the mountains and seas, shaking countless birds to scatter and flee. The Gathering Spirit True Monarch was awakened by the sound, and only then did he realize that he had returned to the Gathering Spirit Mountain, and his heart was full of amazement.

In the past, the farther the teleportation distance, the more complex the formation, and the more uncomfortable it brought to the teleportee, the more intense, and a few ultra-long-range teleportation arrays even had high requirements for the physical strength of the monks, which was still in the realm. Directly controlling the laws of space like the Nine Nether Kings, and accurately teleporting the people to be teleported directly across borders to a certain place, is really an unheard of feat for the Gathering Spirit True Monarch, not to mention that it is only a wisp of soul left by the Nine Nether Kings countless years ago, and the strength is probably less than one ten-millionth of the original body at that time, after so many years have passed, what kind of cultivation will the Nine Nether King's body have? And what will all this happening in the Heavenly Hades Temple have to do with this big man? If it doesn't matter, how could he leave this wisp of soul in the first place? And to say that all this is his arrangement, what is this Lord of the One Realm, who almost only exists in legends, planning? From his conversation with Jin Zun, the Gathering Spirit True Monarch faintly felt that the existence of the Five Great Immortal Gates was very likely to be closely related to the original arrangement of the Nine Nether Immortal King, but what kind of important event did it take a super high-level monk like him to plan so carefully and take countless thousands of years to realize? What role did he or the entire Gathering Spirit Mountain play in the layout of His Royal Highness the Hades, and what should he do next? This series of questions gave the Gathering Spirit True Monarch a headache, and compared to it, it seemed that all the games he had seen in the past were as naΓ―ve as a family.

In fact, from ancient times to the present, how many powerful Divine Realm cultivators have tried to figure out the mind of Lord Hades, but none of them succeeded, so why should an ant like himself worry about the sky? The Gathering Spirit True Monarch laughed dumbly, and shook his head self-deprecatingly, thinking that the terrifying and strange trip to the Heavenly Hades Temple ended so suddenly, no one expected that it would be such a result in the end, and it could only be said that it was not only the creation of people that made people, but also the way of the world where the weak eat the strong. Juling Zhenjun suddenly remembered the explanation that Mo Yan left to He Zichuan before he blew himself up, and now that he thinks about it, it really makes sense, Mo Qian gave birth to a good daughter, but it's a pity that he was involved in the calculations of Lord Hades, otherwise the future is limitless. As for He Zichuan, although Juling Zhenjun had a good impression of him before, he couldn't suppress his bad feelings for Jinchuan, even if strictly speaking, He Zichuan himself was a victim and had been expelled from Jinchuan, but Juling Zhenjun still felt very uncomfortable thinking of him. Many times people are like this, no matter how rational they are, they will always be governed by likes and dislikes, no matter how great and strong the person is, it is inevitable that they will be vulgar.

After a while, a young monk mustered up his courage and walked hesitantly in front of him, and said in a low voice: "Zhenjun, Zhenjun, are you okay?"

"Huh?" "Huh?" Gathering Spirit True Monarch woke up in shock, seeing that thousands of monks were still kneeling beside him, he immediately said slowly: "You don't have to be polite...... you don't have to be polite" As he spoke, he suddenly remembered something and asked the young monk beside him, "Is the liaison envoy of the East China Sea Demon Palace still in the sect?"

The young monk was stunned for a moment, and replied, "Yes, it is not yet the deadline for the East Sea Demon Palace to replace the liaison envoy, they should still be stationed on the Optimus Peak. ”

Juling Zhenjun nodded slightly, and said, "That's very good, quickly invite them to see me in Qinghua Palace." After that, he took a seemingly random step, but his body had already flown out hundreds of zhang, and then turned into a ray of light and flew towards the depths of Juling Mountain.

At the same time, in a certain secret hall in Jinchuan, a white light slowly dissipated, and a gloomy Jin Zun appeared in front of his purple gold ascending dragon seat. As soon as he appeared, a figure immediately flashed more than ten zhang away, and he asked in an unusually vigilant voice: "Who is it?

Jin Zun's mind hurriedly swept away, and saw that the person who came was Zhang Yufan, the head of the Internal Affairs Academy, his face was slightly pale, and he said lightly: "Don't panic, it's the deity who is back." ”

Zhang Yufan was stunned for a moment, and said in surprise: "Your Excellency, why are you back, is it a big thing?"

Jin Zun let out a long sigh, looking a little excited, but after a moment, he returned to his gloomy appearance, and said unhurriedly: "This matter is a long story. In the days since the deity left, could there be any changes within the sect?"

Zhang Yufan saw that Jin Zun's face was unhappy, and he didn't dare to ask about the result of the matter of the Heavenly Hades Palace, so he replied honestly: "Everything is as usual in the sect, and there is nothing abnormal. ”

Jin Zun nodded slightly, and asked again, "Are the fourth and fifth still in the abyss rift?"

Zhang Yufan said with a smile: "Yes, during this time, they have quietly thought about it behind closed doors, and they have not made trouble everywhere anymore." ”

Jin Zun sneered, noncommittal, and continued: "Immediately recall the three elders of the Transformation Realm, Li Baifeng, Hua Tianyue, and Zi Ning Shan, and order the entire sect that from today onwards, the entire Extreme North will enter a state of emergency, and always guard against the actions of several other great immortal sects." In addition, you tell Senior Brother Li to ask him to personally go to the Southern Xinjiang Sacred Domain, and be sure to ask Emperor Xuanyuan Ming to go to the Golden Dome to meet with the deity. ”

Hearing Jin Zun's order, Zhang Yufan's face changed, and he immediately realized that there was about to be a big event in the small underworld, and he trembled and clenched his fists and said yes, he was about to turn around and retire to implement Jin Zun's law.

"Wait", just as he turned around, Jin Zun suddenly stopped him and asked, "Is the sixth girl back?"

Zhang Yufan replied respectfully: "Huang Lanxi just returned to the sect yesterday, and she is now repairing in the Shadow Hall, and as soon as she comes back, she will close the door and thank the guests, I don't know what happened. ”

Jin Zun nodded and said lightly: "I know, you go and do something." ”

Zhang Yufan bowed down and retreated, watching him quickly disappear into the main hall, Jin Zun's face quickly became ugly, his eyes narrowed into a thin line, revealing a hint of danger, and he muttered: "Do you still know how to come back......

On the soul platform, a vague figure stood quietly in front of the old servant, although the old servant knelt on the ground, he was not so frightened, more of a supreme respect.

I don't know how long it took, but the vague figure said lightly, "You're here too?" His voice was still cold and icy, but not as ruthless as before, but with a little warmth to greet an old friend.

The old servant kowtowed heavily and replied respectfully: "Junior Luo Haishan to see His Royal Highness the Hades King!"

The vague figure shook his head and said, "After so many years, your Nine Heavens Great Sage has not even grown at all, not only has your cultivation stagnated, but even the Spiritual Parasitic Technique is still so clumsy. ”

The old servant smiled bitterly: "The junior is inferior in talent, even if it is the secret technique at the bottom of the box, it will naturally not be able to enter the eyes of His Highness." Saying that, he sighed faintly and continued: "Since that great battle, the luck of the interface is insufficient to support the monk's advancement to the divine realm, and the juniors have tried every means to find a new way out, but they still have little success. Many guys like the younger generations are advanced to the god realm, and they even do everything, and the old ghost Wu of Qianlong Yuan is one of them. When the younger generation heard that he was vainly trying to enter the Heavenly Hades Temple and steal your luck, they were afraid that he would do something unfavorable to His Highness, so they had no choice but to use the Spiritual Secret Technique in order to stop it. ”

The vague figure snorted coldly and said, "The reason is high-sounding, but in the final analysis, it's just a plot of luck." ”

The old servant smiled bitterly, and bowed down again, no longer quibbling.

The vague figure asked again: "Who is the person who was crushed to death?" It seems that his cultivation is only a thin line away from the divine realm, but his mood is unstable, I am afraid it will be difficult to take that step in this life." ”

Although the Hades King only had a moment's contact with that guy's parasitic spirit, how could his evaluation be bad? Such an evaluation was undoubtedly a death sentence for that person, Luo Haishan was overjoyed in his heart, and replied: "That person's name is Li Zhengqian, his honorific name is Qingyao Tianjun, and he belongs to the same list of the seven great heavenly venerables in the heavenly and human realms as the younger generation, and he is the great-grandson of Bihua Tianjun. ”

The vague figure nodded slightly: "No wonder his talent is so outstanding, but his mood is up and down. Okay, that's it, you can go back. Since you know that there is no luck here, you should restrain your disciples and not come to the small underworld to disturb sentient beings again. After that, the old servant's body stiffened, and the power of countless laws penetrated deep into his body, teleporting a white soul to the ground, and the old servant's body and spirit were over-stimulated by the spiritual secret technique, and they were already full of holes and unrecognizable.

After sending away Luo Haishan's parasitic soul, the vague figure looked at Wang Honglin, the son of a thousand faces. At this time, the thousand-faced boy had empty eyes, his face was like ashes, and he sat on the ground dejectedly, dressed in white and full of stains, where was he still high-spirited and lightweight. The vague figure sighed faintly, and said regretfully: "Although the secret book was given by this king himself, this king has already reminded you that you can't cultivate until you have to, but I didn't expect you to be able to control yourself after all." ”

The Thousand-Faced Boy looked up inexplicably, not knowing what the vague figure was saying. However, at this moment, his eyes were suddenly stunned, the dazed color quickly faded, a sharp and strange look appeared in his eyes, his face showed a resentful and cold color, and a strange and powerful aura occupied his body, as if he had completely changed into another person. Faced with the sigh of the vague figure, he lowered his head and said nothing, like a child who had done something wrong, but was too stubborn to admit it.

The vague figure shook his head and said, "What, there is a problem, but you have awakened your soul, and it is too late to regret it." ”

The man in white had a gloomy face, shook his head stubbornly and said: "Fate is actually a choice, and the moment you make a choice, it is destined for the next fate." When making a choice, people are sometimes blinded by all kinds of karma, make wrong judgments, and never recover. However, the opportunity is fleeting, and the pace of pursuing dreams cannot be halted for fear of failure. For me, the Mystical Archive was indeed given by you, but the path I chose myself, and there was no excuse to find it, so I could only go one way to the dark. What's more, although embarking on this road is a glimmer of vitality in the midst of a catastrophe, I may not fail, and it is too early to make a conclusion. ”

The vague figure hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Since that's the case, then you can do it yourself." As he spoke, he raised his misty arm and swept it gently, and the strange and powerful aura on the white-clothed man's body disappeared in an instant, and his eyes resurfaced with a thick color of confusion.

Seeing that the white-clothed man was back to his original state, the vague figure said coldly: "Go back and tell your master Wu Moxi, if another Heavenly and Human Realm monk dares to step into the Little Underworld, then all the monks above and below your Qianlong Yuan must be prepared for all falls." Hearing this, the man in white was shocked, and before he could react, he felt that he was wrapped in a thick space law and disappeared in the Heavenly Hades Temple in an instant.

In an ordinary village in the small underworld, an old man dressed in a thick cotton jacket and carrying a large medicine basket on his back, like an old farmer who went into the mountains to collect medicine, he opened the door of his house tremblingly, slowly paced out of the door, and looked at the broken house in a daze.

"Old man Hong, are you going out to collect medicine again?" Granny Li, who was more than a year old next door, was holding a wooden basin, and she happened to walk out of the door of her own yard, and when she saw the old man standing at the door stunned, she greeted her.

The old man came back to his senses and sighed, "Yes, I'm afraid I won't be able to come back this time." ”

Granny Li was stunned for a moment, and said unexpectedly: "You have lived in Lijia Village for a while, do you have to move out when you are old?"

Hearing this, the old man recalled the bits and pieces of life here, and couldn't help but feel sad: "I am the uninvited villain, and now that the master has come home, I can only hold my tail and leave in a gloomy manner." ”

When Granny Li heard that someone was going to drive her old friend away, she immediately burst into a spicy spirit and angrily rebuked: "Which guy who has been stabbed with a thousand knives wants to drive you away? See if I don't hit him with a wooden basin! You wait, I'll call my grandson to administer justice to you." As she spoke, she was about to turn around and go back to the house to call someone, but while she turned around, she muttered: "When you were asked to marry earlier, or to have a son and a half daughter, you didn't want to, aren't you being bullied now?" If you were willing to ...... I...... Hey......"

The old man's face was full of embarrassment, and he just wanted to stop Granny Li, but he saw that she suddenly stiffened, and two dark green ghost fires ignited in her eyes, like ghost eyes from the netherworld, which was terrifying. As the two ghost fires kept beating, Granny Li's rickety body slowly straightened, her momentum changed instantly, and the temperature around her dropped rapidly, making the old man shiver unconsciously.

When the old man saw this scene, he was shocked, and immediately leaned over and saluted: "Junior Hong Zhennan to see His Royal Highness the Hades King!"

Granny Li smiled weirdly, the deep wrinkles on her face seemed to reflect the aura of Sen Han, she tilted her head, looked at the old man obliquely, and said coldly: "This incarnation without any cultivation has cost you a lot of thought, right?"

The old man laughed self-deprecatingly: "You are still so discerning, in order to create this incarnation, the younger generation spent a full three hundred years. ”

Granny Li nodded and said, "You are also careful, you don't have to leave this time, leave this body as the king's caretaker." ”

"Really?" the old man was pleasantly surprised like a child, and Granny Li nodded slightly in confirmation. Neither of them cared, how could this incarnation without any cultivation be able to take care of the family and nursing home? Perhaps in the eyes of the two of them, cultivation was not an obstacle.

The old man remembered the identity of the other party, gradually calmed down, and asked tentatively: "Your Highness, can the junior still call you a senior to admire?"

Granny Li stared at him deeply, and said lightly: "Whatever you ......want" After speaking, she was about to turn around.

The old man hurriedly shouted again: "Mu seniors, the juniors still have something unclear, and please ask the seniors to solve their doubts." ”

Granny Li paused, shook her head and said: "Everyone has their own way, you can do your best, figuring out other people's minds is falling behind after all, as for the king's plan, when you should know, you will know." ”

The old man was pleasantly surprised: "So the younger generation will know one day?" Granny Li did not answer, the strange aura on her body dissipated instantly, and the two ghostly fires disappeared without a trace, and her straight body fell down again, muttering in her mouth: "How can you not marry and not have a baby in your life......?"

Seeing the Hades leaving, the old man sighed in his heart, His Royal Highness the Hades King is so powerful that he can cross the border and directly descend on the body of an old and frail mortal without preparation, and he has come and gone without causing any damage to the descending body at all, which is simply a miraculous skill, compared to it, the spiritual secret technique is as green as a child's trick...... While thinking, he hurriedly called Granny Li and said happily: "Lady of the Li family, don't go, the owner of the house said I don't have to go." ”

"Really?!" Granny Li's face was happy, and then she said shyly: "You're all old, what are you called a lady......" As she said this, she turned around and hid in the courtyard gate with a smile in her eyes. The old man was left alone and kept smirking at the courtyard of Granny Li's house.

On the soul platform, the vague figure paced slowly, his movements were not very fast, but every step he took, he would take hundreds of zhang distance, and in less than two or three steps, he walked to the side of He Zichuan, who was blurred in flesh and blood, looking at the "corpse" whose soul was lost and his body collapsed, a meaningful smile appeared on his mist-churning face, and he whispered to himself: "Finally, I waited for you, and it was not in vain that the king worked so hard......"