Chapter 199: The End of the Year, the Change of Life and Death
The hallucination memory that was similar to predicting the future flashed by his mind. Although the picture was blurry, it gave Chen Jue many reminders of the details.
The back of the familiar woman looked a bit like Yun Xiaomei and a bit like Linglong, because Chen Jue only knew these two female friends who had embarked on spiritual practice.
Moreover, the two people's heights, body shapes and some physical features are relatively similar. In the brief glance just now, Chen Jue only saw a blurry back, and he couldn't tell which one it was for the time being.
In addition, the peculiar silver-patterned battle suit looked extremely sci-fi, as if it was made of some kind of soft metal. It was unknown what kind of technological product it was. It was quite different from the armor, bulletproof vests and other things that Chen Jue already knew.
And the environment in the picture clearly shows that they are in a huge pit full of life-giving minerals.
The life-bearing minerals that have fallen to Earth have long been mined out by our predecessors. Only a very small number may exist under ice sheets like those in Antarctica, which is not in line with the environment.
Moreover, the last roar that came to his ears did not sound like the sound made by all the known beasts on Earth that Chen Jue had heard. After thinking about it, Chen Jue got a ridiculous answer.
That is, in the future of the hallucination memory, perhaps for some reason he has landed on the moon and gone to the origin of the innate qi, which is the unknown celestial body behind the wormhole tunnel.
Perhaps only that unknown planet has a similar environment that is close to the future illusion seen by the [Sky Eye].
"A déjà vu of the future?"
"But this [Sky Eye] state also reminds us that the images we see may not be 100% real."
"So, there is a great probability of it happening?" Chen Jue muttered in his heart, and took another look at the attribute panel. He found that after opening the [Heavenly Eye] just now, it not only consumed the nutrients and energy in his body.
Even the numbers in the life expectancy column had a red minus 1, dropping from 283 to 282.
"I'm... predicting the future and shortening my life? "
"It seems that the red reminder given by this [Heavenly Eye] that tells me to use it with caution is not unreasonable." Chen Jue was stunned for a moment, and then he recalled that when old man Luo was fortune-telling for him, he also mentioned that revealing the Heavenly Eye would shorten one's lifespan.
Throughout history, most of the sages who were good at fortune-telling and divination did not live very long because they revealed too many secrets, unless they were masters like Old Man Luo who had reached the Jindan stage.
Moreover, when Old Man Luo reads people's fortunes, he only reads half of it, without involving too many causes and effects, and most of what he tells others is half-true and half-false.
Want to predict your future life for just a few dozen dollars? No one will believe it if you tell it to others, so just listen to it for fun.
Just like ordinary people go online to check horoscopes, fortunes, divination, and fortune-telling, most of the answers given online are ambiguous. This is a set of fuzzy matching algorithms similar to modern computers summarized by ancient people who made a living by wandering around the country. Basically, anyone who enters the algorithm can be matched with a high degree of accuracy. There are also some psychological hints involved, which makes you feel that it is very accurate at first glance, and you feel it is impressive without knowing it.
However, Chen Jue's hallucination memory of the future through the [Sky Eye], and the siphon effect caused by it is enough to prove the power of this [Sky Eye].
Moreover, the budget requires a lot of brain calculations in the future, which will consume nutrients in the brain's nerve cells, just like ordinary people staying up all night to play games. After staying up all night, they will feel uncomfortable and weak for several days. This is excessive consumption that directly causes physical damage. For Chen Jue, this is a direct shortening of his life.
It can be seen how great a price Chen Jue paid for the predictive memory fragment just now!
"This [Sky Eye] cannot be used lightly. If you use it too much, you will drain yourself. It will be troublesome if it dies early." Chen Jue thought so. Feeling that the food he had just eaten in the evening had been consumed, he went out of the hotel for a midnight snack.
After returning to the room, he used the [Spirit Refining and Longevity Method] and [Dragon Sleeping Method] to nourish his brain and restore the previously damaged vitality.
…
When he got up the next day, Chen Jue first checked the life column of the attribute panel and found that the life span he had lost had not been regained. He sighed inwardly and decided not to use the [Sky Eye] function easily anymore.
After checking out of the hotel, I found a courier point to mail the dry-cleaned robes and old clothes back to my hometown in Chencun.
That cassock witnessed his enlightenment process, and since it was given to him by someone else, Chen Jue would not throw it away easily. He was a nostalgic person, and would keep any meaningful things he had worn or used, and would not easily discard them, so that he could take them out and look at them when he was old, recalling the years he had experienced.
After leaving Yinling City, Chen Jue headed south. Instead of returning directly to Wen City, he crossed through the prosperous and glamorous Dongdu, tasted Dongdu's pan-fried buns, fried pork ribs, salty tofu brain, etc., and then took a boat to Zhoudao.
The reason we came to Zhoudao was because several people in the roommate group suggested getting together to celebrate the New Year. Needless to say, Cheng Wei, this old man, is a rich man and has reunited with his ex-girlfriend. He has been traveling all over the world in the past few months. Every day when he checks his Moments it's like he's on a honeymoon. He said he wanted to go to Putuo Mountain to worship Guanyin and pray for a happy marriage.
Jiang Fan, who was working hard in Hangzhou, only needed to drive 2 hours to Zhoudao, and he also joined the New Year's Eve plan. Chen Jue happened to pass by Dongdu, and thought he would stop by to take a look since it was close.
As for the gathering place, it was the home of Huang Zhe, the sixth roommate in the dormitory.
Huang Zhe, nicknamed Rabbit, is 185cm tall, with fair skin, big eyes and a childlike face. He is the most handsome guy in the dormitory. But he is a Buddhist. When it gets cold, he basically stays in bed. Just like a rabbit, he likes to eat grass near his nest and asks people to bring him food every day.
However, Huang Zhe's Buddhist attitude is innate. He was born with the best conditions among all the poor people in the dormitory.
Zhujian, located in Zhoudao, is a great place for seaside tourism and vacation. It has a natural coastline and most tourists who go to Putuo in Zhoudao to worship Buddha and Guanyin will visit it.
When Huang Zhe was a child, a large developer took a fancy to the land in Zhujian and directly spent money to expropriate the land to build a five-star hotel. Every household in the nearby village was given a four-story villa with a yard of two to three hundred square meters for free, and they also received dividends from the village every year.
Coupled with the endless stream of tourists sending money to the island, every household has run a homestay or farm stay and does business at their doorstep. During the peak tourist season, they basically make a fortune.
It happens to be winter now, and not many people go to Zhujian Beach to play. Huang Zhe's homestay is also vacant, just right for accommodating Chen Jue and others.
Before Chen Jue went to the beach in Dongdao County to practice martial arts, he also wanted to go to Zhoudao to fight Huang Zhe's Qiu Feng, where he could eat and drink for free and practice martial arts, but he gave up because he thought the distance was too far. Unexpectedly, he came here again after several months.
…
After arriving at Zhou Island by boat, Chen Jue sent his location to the roommate group. Jiang Fan, who happened to be coming from Hangzhou, was nearby and gave him a ride.
Jiang Fan brought his wife and children with him this time. It happened that Chen Jue had visited his hometown some time ago and stayed with his parents for two days. The two of them mentioned this matter in passing.
Chen Jue even asked him how it felt to abandon the comfortable environment of his hometown in Tianzhu and come to Hangzhou. Jiang Fan replied nonchalantly, "How can I still be drifting? Haven't you seen my wife and children?"
"Wherever they are is my home. Transportation is well developed now. It only takes half a day to buy a plane ticket to Tianzhu."
"When we were studying in Vancouver, we all left home, but you, Lao Mao, lived closest to home and went back every weekend."
Chen Jue smiled slightly when he heard that. He was the only one from Vancouver in the dormitory at that time. He went back home on weekends to take care of his seriously ill grandparents. Otherwise, he planned to live on campus for a long time.
However, Chen Jue disagreed with Jiang Fan's suggestion that the transportation was convenient and it only took half a day to get home, so he asked, "If it's so convenient, how many times have you been back to your hometown to see your parents this year?"
"Um... three... should be counted as four times. In October, they came directly to Hangzhou for a trip." Jiang Fan thought about it and replied with a blushing face.
Chen Jue did not respond, but thought that if his parents were still alive, he would probably want to be with them every day.
Everyone's experiences and circumstances are different. Only after losing one's family, like Chen Jue, will one know how to cherish them.
However, life is all about giving and taking. Seeing that Jiang Fan has now formed his own small family in Hangzhou and is living a happy life, Chen Jue still sends his blessings in his heart, hoping that his roommate will have smooth sailing in the future.
…
The car drove all the way to Zhujian's villa area. Huang Zhe's house was already brightly lit. Cheng Wei and Huang Zhe in the yard were busy lighting a charcoal stove to grill some seafood. A row of large oysters were sizzling on the fire, and they were topped with onion, garlic and chili sauce, filling the air with fragrance.
As for Cheng Wei's girlfriend, she was chatting with Huang Zhe's wife. When they saw Jiang Fan and Chen Jue driving over, the yard began to become particularly lively.
In order to invite two roommates who were not present, a few of them specially video-called and had a remote gathering, because the new year of the Gregorian calendar would be in a few hours.
Wang Biao's video background looked like he was in a newly opened specialty store, busy closing up shop. Zhou Anping and his newlywed wife had just closed up their snack stand, saying that since the students were on holiday and there was little business in the next few days, they planned to go home and spend the New Year comfortably.
Several people had interesting things to say. They first talked about Huang Zhe, the host, and joked that he clearly just lay at home collecting money from tourists every year, but still had to work from nine to five to earn more than three thousand yuan a month.
"What do you know!"
"I call this experiencing life. If I lie down any longer my limbs will atrophy. I'd better find something to do to kill time." Huang Zhe said with a smile, flipping the oysters and squid on the grill with a rack.
He has the best family conditions in the dormitory and is also the most Buddhist one. He is the laziest, not proactive in studying, and does not work hard. His wife is his childhood sweetheart from the same village. He does not have much ambition and lives the most leisurely and comfortable life.
Every day is spent eating, drinking, and having fun, completing the task of expanding and growing branches. You can almost see at a glance what the end of life will be like.
But it is this kind of life that many people dream of but cannot get in their lifetime.
After teasing Huang Zhe for a while, the topic finally turned to Chen Jue: "Old Cat, you are the only single person in the dormitory now, don't you plan to find a partner to get out of being single?"
"I haven't met the right one yet. If I find the right one, I will definitely treat you to a meal first." Chen Jue smiled slightly. After he started practicing, he no longer paid much attention to love.
Maybe it's just like what he said, he just hasn't met the right one.
He now has very high standards, and it is difficult for ordinary girls to catch his eye.
Moreover, people have different pursuits in life, and Chen Jue has become indifferent to money, career, love, and social status. In the face of life evolution, these are just passing clouds.
"Well, old cat, you can't just be a jobless vagrant all day long!"
"There must be some pursuits and dreams in life, right?"
"Without a dream, what's the difference between us and the salted fish Yellow Rabbit?" Several roommates joked.
"My dream?"
"I hope I'll have a chance to see the sea of stars in the future!" Chen Jue looked up at the night sky of Zhou Island. It was also dotted with stars and the bright moon was high in the sky. He muttered to himself.
…
Everyone ate barbecue in the villa courtyard and spent this warm and fun New Year's Eve with laughter and fun.
The next day, everyone went to Putuo Island together, worshipped Guanyin who was holding the wheel in her hand, and prayed for peace and happiness in the new year.
By the way, in most people’s impressions, Guanyin is usually seen holding a water bottle, but Zhoudao is an island city with a developed fishing industry, and almost every household has people engaged in fishing. Therefore, the image of Guanyin on Putuo Island has changed from holding a water bottle to a ship’s rudder, blessing every fishing boat that passes by her to return safely.
…
After spending two days in Zhoudao, they went their separate ways. Chen Jue took Jiang Fan's car to Hangzhou, and finally took the high-speed train back to Vancouver.
After the Western New Year, it was less than two weeks away from the Spring Festival. Everywhere was decorated with lights and colorful lanterns. More and more people returned to their hometowns to visit relatives and celebrate the New Year. When Chen Jue just returned to Chen Village, he saw that there were more vehicles parked on the roads in the village.
With the economic development in recent years, the villagers who have settled outside the village have become richer and richer, and the competitive mentality has become more and more intense. Only those who own luxury cars would feel embarrassed to park on the side of the road.
Although Vancouver is a big city, the mentality of most people is the same as that of the citizens of Xiaojing. If they have money in their pockets, they will basically show off.
During the holidays, the roads in the countryside basically become a small car show. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have to pull over and have to go back to the village to drive Porsche, Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls-Royce to dominate the scene.
Chen Jue went to the store at the entrance of the village to pick up the express delivery he had sent back. He also met several childhood playmates. They had all changed a lot in more than ten years. They looked sad when they met in the village. Upon asking, he found out that they were all back to the village to visit their elderly parents. Seeing how they were dressed in high spirits, it was obvious that they were living a prosperous life and doing well outside.
Holding the express package, he returned to his home after a long absence, cleaned the house inside and out, and hung the cassock that accompanied him to attain enlightenment in the closet on the second floor. Then Chen Jue began to enter the rhythm of seclusion and practice.
He was the only one at home, and he never joined in the fun in the village. His happiness lay in the simple practice of martial arts.
Moreover, there were a lot of leftover nutritional supplements at home, and Chen Jue planned to use them all, so he stayed at home for 10 days.
With the support of various states, especially the powerful learning ability brought by [Holy Heart], Chen Jue quickly practiced [Golden Bell Cover], [Iron Shirt], [Shaolin Bronze Man Kung Fu], and [Three Religions Dharma Eye] to the perfect state of Lv6, and awakened 4 new states at the same time.
As for the free attribute points, as many as 1.29 were refreshed in 10 days, and various attributes increased significantly due to the completion of several hard skills.
By the time the New Year's Eve came around, Chen Jue's attributes had reached the following:
Name: Chen Jue
Age: 27
Lifespan: 285 (+2)
Strength: 5.01 (+0.33)
Agility: 4.40 (+0.31)
Constitution: 6.00 (+0.32)
Intelligence: 2.32 (+0.11)
Free attribute points: 1.37
Character evaluation: True Saint
Skills: Slightly
Self-created skills: [Fasting Body Cleansing Method] [Spirit Refining and Longevity Method]
Status bonus: slightly... Newly added [Sky Eye (Level 9)] [Invulnerable to Swords and Guns (Level 6)] [Invulnerable to Water and Fire (Level 6)] [Vajra Arhat (Level 6)] [Clairvoyance (Level 7)]
Status bonus (???): [Unknown blockade]
【Invulnerable to Swords and Guns】: The body is covered with a golden bell, so sword cuts leave no marks and gun stabs leave no holes.
Status level: Level 6
Status description: Greatly improves the character's ability to withstand blows, increases strength, and improves physical fitness.
【Invulnerable to water and fire】: Wearing iron armor, it is difficult for water and fire to invade.
Status level: Level 6
Status description: Greatly increases the character's physical strength, able to resist external attacks, and slightly immune to negative states such as blisters and burns.
【Vajra Arhat】: Bronze Arhat, the Vajra of Buddhism.
Status level: Level 6
Status description: Greatly increases the character's defense and has some internal strength effects.
【Clairvoyance】: A single glance can see a thousand miles away and be able to see even the smallest details.
Status level: Level 7
Status description: Greatly improves the character's visual ability, including farsightedness, nearsightedness, dynamic visual capture ability, etc.
…
Chen Jue gained a lot from the 10-day retreat and hard training. If it wasn't for the approaching New Year's Eve, the annual time for visiting relatives and friends, he would not have quit his obsession with practicing.
WeChat on his mobile phone had already been bombarded with calls, so Chen Jue had no choice but to go to the homes of several uncles and aunts in An County to pay New Year's greetings in advance and have the New Year's Eve dinner that had been scheduled for a few days.
The custom in Vancouver is that the closer it gets to New Year's Eve, the more frequently the New Year's Eve dinner is eaten, and it is almost always packed at noon and in the evening.
Because his parents passed away early and his grandparents also passed away, several uncles and aunts in the family have already separated, and all the cousins have started their own families. Several uncles and aunts are already grandfathers and have their own work and lives. In addition, Chen Jue had been wandering outside before, and his contact with others was rare. He would only return to An County during the Chinese New Year.
As for the New Year’s Eve dinner, it is called “eating and drinking” or “separating the years” in Vancouver. What is served is “combined dishes”, which symbolizes bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, and the whole family is together at the turn of the old year.
The variety of combined dishes changes every year. At first, people cooked them at home, but in recent years people began to find it troublesome and went to the hotel to order a table and have it delivered to their door. Some people even went directly to the hotel to book a private room and sit down to eat. There is no longer the lively atmosphere of the banquets in the countryside that Chen Jue remembered when he was a child.
However, the first dish of the set meal is either fried noodles or fried rice cake, which means that the coming year will be as smooth as noodles, or as prosperous as rice cake.
In addition, the order of serving the set dish is also very particular, and it is divided into cold dishes, staple foods, soups, hot dishes, desserts, and sweet soups. Chen Jue's favorite is the braised duck tongue among the cold dishes , the fried rice cake among the hot dishes, and the eel stewed with rice wine that melts in the mouth.
However, the style of the dishes in each household is the same. It's okay to eat them for the first two meals, but you will feel sick of them after a few days. They are basically the same dishes, and you will get taste fatigue if you eat too much. Moreover, the dishes are too delicious and the nutrition is too high. Basically, after a Chinese New Year, Vancouverites will gain a lot of weight.
After visiting relatives on his father's side, Chen Jue took a taxi to Wen County, next to An County.
That is his mother's hometown and also Chen Jue's last direct blood relative, that is, where Chen Jue's grandfather lives.
My grandfather lived on a very high mountain in Wen County all year round. When I was a child, I had to take a rural bus to go there, and then change to a three-wheeled pickup truck that emitted black smoke and took a detour for several hours.
In recent years, the cave has been opened and the road has been built to be wide and flat. It only takes 2 hours to reach the foot of the mountain where my grandfather lives from An County.
I walked up the stone steps to the familiar, dilapidated wooden house. Next to it was a newly built three-story concrete building, which was obviously the masterpiece of several uncles.
My grandfather had a total of 8 children, and Chen Jue's mother was the 7th. My grandmother passed away early because she was exhausted from giving birth to the 8th child, and Chen Jue never met her.
As for the eighth aunt, she was given away to be adopted by someone else by her grandfather because her family was poor when she was young. Now she has moved abroad and rarely comes back.
Wen County is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, and many people go abroad to work. However, Chen Jue's uncles and aunts are either farmers or do small business in the city. The family was in difficulty in the early years, and the situation has only gradually improved in recent years.
My grandfather was an old teacher. After retirement, he lived a self-sufficient life in the mountains of Wen County. With the help of several elderly uncles taking care of him, he lived to be 98 years old.
Chen Jue brought some health products to the door, said hello to several uncles and aunts, put down the things in his hands and went to see his grandfather.
My grandfather was in good health, and the air in the mountains of Wen County was very good, so he was still energetic at the age of 98. The only problem was that most of his teeth had fallen out, so it was difficult for him to eat meat.
When grandpa saw Chen Jue appear, he felt a little nostalgic and thought of Chen Jue's mother who had passed away early.
The greatest pain in a person's life is nothing more than seeing the young die before the old. Seeing the red eyes of his grandfather, Chen Jue just held his calloused hand in silence.
He could see grandpa's sadness through his divine sense. Fortunately, when he held grandpa's hand just now, he also took his pulse. He also used the medical skills he learned by himself to check grandpa's condition and found that grandpa had no illness and his pulse was normal. The divine sense enhanced by [Sacred Heart] could also see that the old man's mental fluctuations were still very active. He should be able to live a few more years in good health and live a hundred years well, becoming a centenarian like Laozi.
The only thing that made Chen Jue uncomfortable was the difficulty in communication. The dialect in Wen County was different from that in Wen City, and was mixed with some Minnan dialect. In addition, his mother's side was from the She ethnic minority, and their accent was mixed with She dialect.
Three languages that were comparable to the devil's language were mixed together at the same time, and even Chen Jue, a true saint on earth, found it difficult to understand for a while. Fortunately, there was a cousin nearby who translated for Chen Jue. Only then did he roughly understand the words that his grandfather said to show his concern for him, and he felt warm in his heart.
…
I sat and chatted with my grandfather, met my mother's brothers and sisters, and those cousins who were a little older than me, and then sat down to have the New Year's Eve dinner.
The mixed dishes in Wen County are a little different from those in An County. People like the small plates of home-cooked stir-fried dishes, especially the pork with sweet potato vermicelli, which is delicious. The dishes are also stacked up one by one. The custom is a bit like the Hezhouba banquet that Chen Jue had visited before.
During lunch, my cousin who was a high school teacher and inherited my grandfather's teaching career, specifically talked about the legend of my grandfather's branch.
It is said that the main surnames of the She ethnic group were Pan, Lan, Lei and Zhong. There was originally no branch with the surname Li like my grandfather. It was only after the change of dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty that the last descendants of the royal family fled to the deep mountains and forests of Wen County and were taken in by a She family and the surname was passed down.
Looking back up the family tree, one can directly trace back to the Li Tang royal family . Moreover, my grandfather’s family is a rare Taoist family in Vancouver, which is due to the inheritance of the surname Li.
Upon hearing this, Chen Jue was slightly stunned, and suddenly remembered the fortune-telling by old man Luo from Huashan for him. At that time, the other party mentioned that his mother's branch was probably the descendant of the royal family of the old dynasty.
Chen Jue had never heard his cousin mention this before, probably because his mother passed away early and seldom came to Wen County. Now, after hearing this legend, he felt that Old Man Luo was a very learned man, and he really had some real skills in fortune-telling.
But just as Old Man Luo said, this is a new era, and the descendants of the dynasty are everywhere, so everyone at the dinner table just listens for fun to enhance the dining atmosphere.
…
After lunch, Chen Jue planned to stay overnight at his grandfather's house. Several cousins of similar age thought playing cards and chatting were boring, so they called Chen Jue to go for a visit to Liu Bowen's hometown not far away.
Liu Bowen, whose original name was Liu Ji and whose courtesy name was Bowen, was a capable minister beside Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Among the historical celebrities in Wen County, the most famous one is the founding grand master of the Ming Dynasty who combined Confucianism and Taoism.
When Chen Jue was still working, he didn’t like going to these boring historical celebrity sites and found them very boring.
However, since I started practicing, I began to have a new view of these mysterious predecessors and sages, so I took my cousin's car to visit them.
I bought the tickets when I got there, and after entering the scenic area I discovered that most of the facilities were newly built, with only a few old houses with a hint of antiquity looking somewhat interesting.
Several cousins brought their families and children to the Baizhang Waterfall behind to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the waterfall. Chen Jue walked around Liu Ji's former residence and took a look at the life experience of this predecessor.
It was discovered that this predecessor was also gifted and intelligent, well-read, and well-versed in all schools of thought, especially astronomy, geography, military tactics, and mathematics. This helped Zhu Yuanzhang establish the Ming Dynasty.
However, when he came to the introduction of a fantasy story related to Liu Bowen, Chen Jue stopped. Looking at a painting in the window that was handwritten by Liu Bowen and looked like a ghost painting, Chen Jue suddenly had an idea.
I looked at the translation introduction on the side, which said that it recorded that after Liu Bowen helped Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty to conquer the country, he was afraid that the Zhu family's rule would be unstable, so he went to the mountains and cut off 99 dragon veins, leaving behind an article on feng shui that changed the geography of mountains and rivers. The text in it was vigorous and flamboyant, like Taoist talismans.
Chen Jue couldn't help but use his [Holy Heart] to take a closer look, and soon he discovered that this painting exuded a spiritual magnetic field that was similar to the Buddha's relics that Chen Jue encountered in the Buddha's Crown Palace on Niu Shou Mountain!
However, this spiritual magnetic field was different from the information left by the Buddha to help Chen Jue open the illusion of [Heavenly Eye]. Instead, it corrected the contents of the calligraphy and painting into the form of ancient Chinese and transmitted it into Chen Jue's brain.
At the beginning of the whole article, five huge "Wangqi Zhanlong Sutra" came into Chen Jue's eyes!
