Chapter 50: Do Not Ponder Endless Matters Outside the Body

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The two little Shimeis stood in front of Lin Jue, one on the left and one on the right, with a gap in between, and each had an archer with a bow and arrow waiting for them.

Both little Shimeis had solemn expressions.

"I ask, you answer."

Lin Jue said to them, holding his park knife.

Both little Shimeis were silent and serious.

"What is the Master's name?"

"He Xianyu!"

Both little Shimeis said at the same time, and upon hearing the other's voice, they turned their heads and looked at each other.

"Daoist Yunhe!"

They said almost at the same time, their tones the same.

"Eh?"

Lin Jue felt it was somewhat strange and pondered the reason, but his mouth didn't stop: "Where did we meet?"

"On the road!"

The two little Shimeis looked at each other, and added at the same time:

"Under Langtou Mountain!"

Looking at each other again, both little Shimeis frowned deeply, their expressions becoming increasingly serious.

"Drank the Thousand-Day Wine!"

"Don't speak at the same time, answer separately. The left one answers the first question, the right one answers the second question." Lin Jue pondered and said, "Where did the Thousand-Day Wine come from?"

Both little Shimeis were shocked.

"Shixiong, I can't tell left from right!"

"Then whichever one I point to, that one answers." Lin Jue said helplessly, "If you can't tell, I'll tie you both up and wait for the Third Shixiong to return, or until dawn."

"Okay!"

Lin Jue pointed to the left: "This one answers first!"

"Mountain Lord!"

Lin Jue pointed to the right: "Who did we meet later?"

"Wolf monster!"

Lin Jue frowned even tighter.

Both little Shimeis were silent, then both showed thoughtful expressions, and then both raised their heads at the same time.

"Shixiong, it knows what we are thinking."

"You ask again."

"When you ask, don't think about the answer in your mind."

"Smart!" Lin Jue wanted to nod at the Shimei, but didn't know which one was real, so he had to withdraw, then pointed to the left and quickly thought of a question: "What is the Fifth Shixiong's name?"

As soon as he asked, he immediately calmed his mind, abandoned distractions. This might be difficult for ordinary people, and not easy even for those who had just entered cultivation, but it was simple for Lin Jue, who had started practicing the nourishing-qi method very early.

"Vital energy."

The Shimei on the left answered seriously.

As soon as she finished speaking, she lowered her head, closed her eyes, and wisely adopted the method of frantic wild thinking to stop her thoughts.

"What about the Seventh Shixiong?"

Lin Jue pointed to the Shimei on the right.

"Women can't be officials but can cultivate to become immortals, women must marry, but if you become a female Daoist, you don't have to wait until I cultivate to become an immortal and learn Stone-Grinding, no one will dare to throw me into the river..." The Shimei on the right moved her mouth, muttering in a clear, thin voice at an extremely fast speed. It was just that as she muttered, she gradually discovered something was wrong, and her voice became lower and lower, almost muttering out of habit.

"I also don't have to be called to work every day, I want to work if I want to work... I also... don't have to... be... sold..."

Until she couldn't mutter anymore.

"Poof!"

This Shimei suddenly turned into a monster bird, with no visible injuries on her body, except for a patch of crimson red where Lin Jue had exhaled pure yang energy.

"Whoosh..."

An arrow shot out, piercing it directly.

Another mouthful of flame was exhaled.

"Caw!!"

In the sharp scream, a burst of black smoke and foul smell scattered, and this monster bird gradually turned into ash and dissipated without a trace.

Lin Jue waved his hand and summoned a clear breeze.

The foul smell was also blown out of the ancestral hall.

Everyone was still shocked and hadn't recovered.

Lin Jue looked at the little Shimei and frowned: "Shimei, what strange things were you thinking about in your mind just now?"

The little Shimei was shorter than him, but she looked up, staring at him with a normal expression, saying nothing.

When Lin Jue heard this, he didn't ask anymore.

After a while, the Third Shixiong returned.

Lin Jue still suspected he was the large bird transformed. Fortunately, now that he knew the large bird could transform and knew its ways, it was easy to distinguish. The Third Shixiong obviously encountered the large bird outside and was likely deceived by it as well. As soon as Lin Jue tested him, he immediately understood.

"What does the Eldest Shixiong like to do?"

"Him? A farmer! Naturally, digging soil and farming!"

As soon as this sentence came out, judging by the tone, it was known that this Third Shixiong was real.

"Shixiong, come in quickly."

"I saw firelight and shouting here, so I knew it must have come back to find you." The Third Shixiong said, "How many did you encounter here?"

"Two, killed one, one ran away."

"I didn't expect there to be three such monster birds here."

"Three?"

"One lured me away, two came back to find you. After I got rid of that one, I happened to run into the one that ran away from you on the way back, so I slaughtered it too." The Third Shixiong said casually, "This thing is indeed not yet a climate, just treacherous and cunning, not actually powerful. If one had expected it earlier and was smart and vigilant, ordinary people could also fight it."

"We were just deceived by it."

"Who wasn't?"

The Third Shixiong said as he went to look at Zhang Da's injury.

This person was heavily injured.

Besides the wound on his chest, his face was also scratched, wrapped in cloth strips. It was unknown if it could be cured, but he was a tough man, holding on like this, constantly calling for his mother.

The Third Shixiong had no choice but to go to his house to take a look, and found that his family members were all fine, so he came back to tell him, and only then did he feel relieved, closing his eyes and not speaking.

"Sigh..."

The Third Shixiong looked at Lin Jue and the two, and sighed: "Monsters and ghosts harm people! In the past, there were no such things. Now the world is getting more and more chaotic. You should see this point earlier, so it will be easier for you when you go down the mountain in the future!"

"Understood."

The group then closed the door of the ancestral hall again, sat down, and gradually became sleepy.

Only the fox was lively and didn't want to sleep, running around in the ancestral hall, occasionally sniffing deeply where the large bird dissipated, as if wanting to remember or pursue its scent. When tired, it ran back to Lin Jue's side and lay down.

The next morning, fog shrouded the mountain village.

Some families had already opened their doors.

Footsteps were hurried in the village streets.

The villagers were still shocked, hurriedly returning home. The few black-clothed martial artists carried Zhang Da back to his home, and someone took Daoist Qingxuan's token and rode a horse to invite the Daoists from Mount Qiyun.

Daoist Qingxuan and his Shidi also woke up and headed to the forest at the entrance of the village with many dharma implements.

Lin Jue and the three were relatively relaxed, following behind them.

Passing through the village, they couldn't help but look around.

They hadn't seen clearly last night, and only today did they see the appearance of this Xiaochuan Village.

In Lin Jue's view, the villages in this area could be roughly divided into three types: one was a village founded by famous scholars and gentlemen like Heng Village, where clans lived together, passed down for hundreds of years, and some descendants were even officials in the imperial court; one was a village like Shu Village, which had many merchants, and although not prominent, they traded together and were considered wealthy; and others were very ordinary farming villages, where there might be more than one clan in the village, and most were destitute.

Xiaochuan Village was the third type.

The houses here were smaller, older, and more dilapidated. Many had neither white walls nor blue tiles, but were yellow mud walls and thatched roofs. They were not wealthy to begin with, and having suffered natural disasters and monster ghosts, the village was dilapidated, and even the human aura was somewhat faint.

Many people opened their doors and came out early in the morning, but they just sat at the door, watching them pass by, and just watched silently, as if they didn't have the strength to speak.

"The common people are suffering. In a few years, I'm afraid it will be even more bitter." The Third senior fellow apprentice saw that the villagers were far away from them, sighed casually, and then aimed at the two junior fellow apprentices, "The residual souls have all been scorched clean, just waiting for the fellow Daoists from Mount Qiyun to set up the incense table and open the divine altar to invite the power of the spirits to wash away the yin energy and death energy, and this matter will be over. Junior fellow apprentices, don't continue to worry."

Before the two could respond, he said to himself:

"I am thirty this year, having lived a few years longer than you. Such things are actually not uncommon. You see them; if you can help, help; if you want to help, help. Otherwise, just pretend you didn't see them. But in any case, don't let these things affect your state of mind.

"Thinking so much is neither beneficial to solving the matter nor beneficial to cultivation. If you ask me, it's better to drink wine.

"Do not ponder endless matters outside the body, just exhaust the limited cups before death.

"..."

Lin Jue nodded, naturally understanding.

This was separating rationality from sensibility.

But if it were that easy, where would cultivation be? ===== CHAPTER 51 =====

However, if it were that easy, where would the cultivation be?

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End of Chapter

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