In the quiet valley, a gravel path winds in, and there are already wild flowers on the side of the sunny slope, with yellow dandelions and white camellia flowers.

Three simple thatched huts, with corn and dried vegetables hanging from the eaves, and a clear stream running in front of the houses, with bluestone slabs running across them. There is a small vegetable garden next to it, with green spinach, shallots and cabbage, and the secluded life seems to be comfortable and comfortable.

Entering the house, there is a cursive script pasted in front of the hall, which is the Tang Dynasty poet Du Xunhe's "Title Jiang Temple Zen Harmony": "Jiang Temple Zen monks are like enlightened Zen, and bad clothes live in Maoxuan." Lazy to ask the donor to cultivate the truth, it is a lie to say **. Out of the fishing boat frightened the geese, and the rock and wood axe burst into the cold ape. Pedestrians don't ask the purpose of the teacher, the eyes are not flashy and the ears are not noisy. ”

"Brother Mo, the old man has lived in seclusion in this hut for nearly forty years, leisurely, and informal, please feel free to do so. Zhen Wuming said.

Hearing this, the little mountain ghost immediately took off his mask, and coldly startled Zhen Wuming, but then laughed and said, "This brother is so powerful." ”

"Is it?" said the little mountain ghost, who thought he was boasting, and happily reported to himself, "My name is Dong Dong." ”

Zhen Wuming stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Brother Mo is not only extraordinary, but even his companions are unusual, and the old man is now eye-opening." ”

"Mr. Zhen, where did so many hermits in Zhongnan Mountain come from?" Mo asked puzzled.

Zhen Wuming was quite unimpressed: "There are no less than 10,000 hermits in Zhongnan Mountain, but there are very few true hermits, and most of them are fake hermits who sell their fame and reputation. ”

"False hidden, why is that?"

"False hermits, such as half-official and half-hidden, Tang Dynasty Wang Wei both took official salaries and lived in seclusion; Suddenly the official flickered, Wang Meng in the early Ming Dynasty and Dong Qichang at the end of the Ming Dynasty did a few years of official and went to seclusion, the court was called out to do a while, and then went to seclusion to see that the situation was not good; Ming Yin real official, Tao Hongjing of Qi Liang in the Southern Dynasty lived in seclusion in the mountains, known as 'Tao Hermit', and every time there was a major event in the court, he came to ask him for advice, known as 'the prime minister in the mountains'; Helpless and hidden, Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, they lived in seclusion just unwilling to cooperate with the Qing court and helplessly hidden, in fact, they were most enthusiastic about the current situation; ”

"Really hidden?" Mo Yan thought it was funny.

"Laozi, Zhuangzi, Guiguzi and Chen Kuan, who created and painted the 'Taiji Diagram', these people are the real hermits, and the hermits who are frustrated in officialdom and the downfall of the literati are far from reaching such a great realm. ”

"What about Tao Yuanming? The text calls him the first hermit in ancient and modern times. Mo Yan said.

Tao Weng began to be in his twenties, and then he was hidden, and he was a small official, and he was also appointed as the commander of Pengze County in his forties. How can an official be regarded as the first hermit in ancient and modern times when he returns to seclusion in his twilight years? Such a reputation stems from the two sentences in his poem "Words for Returning": "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and leisurely seeing Nanshan" is too famous. Zhen Wuming said disdainfully.

Mo Yan wanted to ask him what kind of hermit he belonged to, but it seemed a little abrupt, so he swallowed back the words to his lips.

"Brother Mo, who are you looking for?" asked Zhen Wuming.

"They were monks from Siam, a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, wearing red robes, which were different from the Central Plains monks' attire. ”

"Oh, did you come here to live in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain?"

"This," Mo Yan was reluctant to say explicitly, so he said vaguely, "Maybe live in seclusion for a while." ”

Zhen Wuming thought for a while, and suddenly patted ** and said, "Could it be that you are here to attend the fifth party?"

"What 'five-fold gathering'?"

"There is a mysterious hermit in the depths of Zhongnan Mountain, known as 'Yellow Fan Old Monster', it is rare for outsiders to never go out of the valley, it is said that every few years they will invite the four monsters of blue, red, white and black to come to dinner, very strange. ”

"Who are they?"

"There are the old monsters from the Ryukyus, the red monsters from the South China Sea, the white monsters from Huijiang and the black monsters outside the gates, these people were all famous in the rivers and lakes decades ago. Zhen Wuming explained.

"Did you come all the way from all over the world just to have a dinner party?"

Zhen Wuming smiled and said, "It was not an ordinary dinner, it is said that the food is a rare thing in the world." ”

"What is rare?" Mo asked with interest.

"Spirit beasts. Zhen said mysteriously.

Mo Yanyan's heart sank when he heard this, and he vaguely felt Elder Fang's intention to come to Zhongnan Mountain this time.

"When is the dinner party of the five old monsters?"

"On the fifteenth day of the second month, it was noon on the day of the Descent. ”

"I'd like to go and find out, and maybe find out what those friends are. ”

Zhen Wuming muttered: "The valley where the old monster lives is very secret, and it is said that there are many hidden mechanisms inside, and it is difficult for outsiders to get in, and if you don't get out, you won't be able to get out." ”

"Mr. Zhen, just tell me where that valley is. ”

"In fact, the old man has not been there, the main veins of Zhongnan Mountain go east and west, the branch veins are more than 170 in the north-south direction, most of these canyons are deep in twenty or thirty miles, it is said that the old monster of Huangfan is in a place called 'Earth Lung Valley', and it takes about two or three days to walk the mountain road from the old man. ”

Mo Yu calculated that there were still four or five days until February 15th, but he was not in a hurry to rush there immediately, and he would borrow a night in Zhen Wuming's hut tonight, and it would not be too late to set off tomorrow, so that he could learn more about the situation of Zhongnan Mountain.

"The name 'Lung Valley' sounds strange. Mo Yan said.

"Brother Mo doesn't know, Zhongnan Mountain is called 'Earth Lung Mountain' in the "Historical Records.Xia Benji", it is said that in ancient times, the aura of this mountain topped the Central Plains, comparable to the lungs of people. The Earth Lung Valley, as the name suggests, should be quite abundant in aura. Zhen Wuming explained.

Could it be that it is another spiritual realm passage, otherwise where did the old monster of Huang Fan come from? If this is the case, it is very likely that Elder Fang has not yet gathered the Five Elements Demon Pill, and wants to come to the Earth Lung Valley to try his luck, Mo Mo thought in his heart.

"Brother Mo, it's not that the old man is curious, you have been in contact with foreign monks at such a young age, it's really rare, this companion of yours called Dongdong is obviously a beast, and it is even more surprising that he can know human language, presumably your origin must be extraordinary. Zhen Wuming said.

Mo Yan smiled and explained: "Although Dongdong is a beast, he has lived with me since he was a child, and he naturally learned the human language. In Yunnan, there are many people from Siam, Burma and Nanzhang doing business, and monks from various countries in the temple are not uncommon, which is very different from the Central Plains. ”

"Oh, I see, the old man has lived in seclusion in the mountains for decades, knows very little about the outside world, and is lonely and unsmiling. ”

"Mr. Zhen, don't you do anything else except for all kinds of vegetables and reading books like you?"

"Most of the time except for eating and sleeping is spent thinking, the world's materialistic desires are rampant, people are deceitful, and they can't calm down at all. And in this mountain, it is different, coarse tea and light rice are pure and have few desires, and you will feel an unusually empty mind. The old man often wondered, who is the old man, where did he come from, and where is he going?"

"You are Mr. Zhen, from your mother's womb, you have to arrive" Mo said with a smile, and halfway through his words, he felt that it was not so simple.

Zhen Wuming looked at him with a smile: "Brother Mo, this topic seems to be easy, but no one in the world has ever really understood it. Since the introduction of Buddhism into the Central Plains, there is a reincarnation of sentient beings, but the living can never go to the verifiable, you look at the monks in front of the Lao Tzu Temple who debated the scriptures and finally said that they were entangled in some irrelevant issues, which really made the old man disdainful. ”

"Yes, the Buddha said that all living beings are equal, but as soon as he himself came into the world, he pointed to the heavens and the earth and said, 'The world is exclusive to me', isn't it a contradiction?" Mo Yu asked.

Zhen Wuming sighed: "So Confucianism and Taoism are just a doctrine after all, and there are really a lot of fallacies in it, so the old man put aside their surname and think about it himself." ”

"Now do you figure it out?"

"A little," Zhen Wuming smiled faintly, "Who am I, I don't mean this ** skin on my body, the body is brought from my mother's womb, but it is just the host of the soul." The old man thinks that there are countless voids between heaven and earth at the same time, and the bulky ** cannot pass through these voids, but the soul can. Although mortals can't see souls with the naked eye, black cats, black dogs, and babies can often see them, otherwise there wouldn't be so many legends about ghosts. ”

Mo Yan secretly said in his heart, this Zhen Wuming thought about multiple voids and soul crossing in the thatched hut, which is already very remarkable, and he and Jin Danzi's soul in the underworld confirmed that these existed, but there is no need to talk to him about these things, he still abides by the consistent principle of doing things, no matter who he is talking to, try not to say it if he can.

The two talked happily until the second half of the night.

The next morning, Mo Yan and the little mountain ghost said goodbye to Zhen Wuming, and the two of them headed towards the Earth Lung Valley in the direction he pointed out.

Overlooking from afar, thousands of peaks stacked with green white clouds, the canyon is deep and the trees are verdant, on the way, you can sometimes see the thatched houses and caves in the mountains, the chickens and dogs bark, there are three or three hermits in cloth clothes farming in the meantime, they enjoy themselves and have no quarrel with the world.

Mo couldn't help but sigh, these hermits lived safely in the depths of the white clouds of Zhongnan Mountain, just like the black-haired Weng Zhen Wuming for decades, I don't know what year it was outside the mountain. Ge Yi coarse rice does not feel its suffering, the wind and sun do not say that it is tired, and the persistence in my heart is really admirable.

Think about those officials in the court, most of them are mercenary, and at the same time, they are sincerely afraid of the East Window incident, and they don't know how tired they are, but they are not as comfortable as these hermits in the mountains.

After three days, Mo Yan saw that there was a mountain peak in the distance, the forest grew extremely prosperous, different from the surrounding mountains, under the peak is a deep and hidden valley, and when he found that there was a stone tablet at the mouth of the valley in the near future, it was engraved with three seal characters of "Earth Lung Valley".

Mo Yan opened his soul eye and found that the Five Elements [***] Bureau had been set up in this valley. (To be continued.) )