Chapter 39: Returning Home (VI)
That night, when Lu Ren counted the 322nd sheep, the alarm clock he had set for waking up in the second half of the night rang.
The sudden ringing of the alarm clock frightened Zong Chen. The first half of the night when he was on duty was uneventful, without even the slightest abnormal sound. The whole village seemed to be dead, without a single movement.
It was already 1:30 in the morning, the time when humans are most prone to sleepiness. But Lu Ren got up without hesitation almost the moment the alarm rang. Zong Chen wanted to share another hour of night duty with Lu Ren, but Lu Ren firmly disagreed. He said that Zong Chen was still in the growth stage, and not sleeping would have a bad impact on his growth and development. After a long time of persuasion, he finally persuaded Zong Chen, who wanted to hold on for a while, to go to bed.
Reluctantly, Zong Chen lay down and calmed down for a while, and finally seemed to feel sleepy. He closed his eyes and breathed very shallowly. In the quiet night, Lu Ren turned a few pages of the book out of boredom, listening to the gentle calls of Zong Chen and Qilin cub.
The world was so quiet that it seemed as if only this room and the book in Lu Ren's hand were left.
Tonight, the lights were not turned off to prevent accidents, but the lights that had been on suddenly flickered twice. At first, Lu Ren did not take it too seriously. It was normal for the voltage to be unstable in rural areas, and the lights flickered several times in the first half of the night.
Lu Ren calmly watched the text illuminated by the light suddenly darken in his vision. When the light came back on, Lu Ren found that a shadow that had not existed just now was projected on the page in his hand. He soon realized that the outline of the shadow was a person's figure.
Someone was standing in front of him.
With this realization, Lu Ren looked up in horror and found a man holding a knife standing next to the bed. The man was only one step away from him and had suddenly appeared when the light flickered.
That person is Guan Eryue.
Guan Eryue was not normal at the moment. He looked at Lu Ren as if he was looking at a dying livestock. Lu Ren hadn't realized the danger yet, but in a flash, the knife in Guan Eryue's hand fell on Lu Ren. Lu Ren almost subconsciously raised the book in his hand to block it. The pages of the book clamped the blade in Guan Eryue's hand, and the spine of the book pressed against the tip of the knife. Although it was only a stopgap measure, it must be said that the book bought Lu Ren a chance to breathe.
Guan Eryue had no intention of stopping. He stabbed harder with his knife. An ordinary book was not strong enough to withstand such force. Lu Ren seemed to have heard the sound of the book spine breaking. Lu Ren did not hesitate. He immediately shouted, "Zong Chen!"
Lu Ren's shouting successfully woke up Zong Chen. After Zong Chen woke up, he was almost frightened to death when he saw the confrontation between the two people. He quickly ran behind Guan Eryue, shouting, "Classmate Guan, let's talk it over!" He put his hands through his armpits and pulled his shoulders back.
Guan Eryue didn't even glance at Zong Chen. He kept his eyes on Lu Ren the whole time without saying a word.
What shocked Zong Chen was that Guan Eryue's shoulder was as firm as a piece of iron under his hand. Zong Chen and Lu Ren, two young and strong men, could not stop Guan Eryue, who looked younger.
Lu Ren could only watch the tip of the knife move forward inch by inch in front of him.
At this critical moment, Guan Eryue suddenly trembled as if he had received an electric shock, and then his whole body suddenly went limp as if his spine was pulled, and the knife in his hand fell to the ground. Zong Chen quickly caught Guan Eryue, and during the tug, a corner of Guan Eryue's clothes was lifted up, revealing a part of his waist, on which was wrapped a thin silver chain.
Demon-locking chain.
Guan Eryue, which means Guan Eryue, Eryue together makes Yang, so it is Yangguan.
Yang Guan's sudden fall to the ground really scared Zong Chen. He quickly reached out to check Yang Guan's breath. He felt warm breath coming from his hand, slow and long. Zong Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, he is still alive."
Yangguan didn't look like he had fainted, but rather looked like he was asleep.
Zong Chen patted Yang Guan's face again and shouted, "Classmate Guan." But no matter how he shouted, Yang Guan didn't respond.
Lu Ren looked at Yang Guan's condition and couldn't help but shift his gaze to the Qilin cub sleeping beside him. He thought, "What happened that made Yang Guan want to kill me in the middle of the night? And what made him and Qilin fall into a deep sleep together?"
The night became confusing.
On the other side, Zong Chen, who had been trying to call Yang Guan for a long time, finally gave up. He called out to Lu Ren who was in deep thought: "Brother Lu, please give me a hand and carry him to the bed."
Lu Ren hurried to help. However, when they were halfway through the process, Zong Chen suddenly thought, "If something happens to Guan Eryue, will Zong Nian, who lives in the same room with him, be safe?"
Zong Chen yelled, "Oh no!" and let go, quickly opened the door and ran to the next room. His sudden withdrawal of force was beyond Lu Ren's expectation, causing Yangguan to fall to one side and hit the bed heavily. But despite this, Yangguan still didn't wake up.
After Lu Ren reacted, he understood what Zong Chen meant by "Oh no!" and quickly followed Zong Chen to the next room.
Fortunately, Zong Nian was still in his room . Unfortunately, the Five Emperors Sword had been destroyed, leaving only a handful of ancient copper coins scattered all over the bed. The red rope that was originally used to bind the Five Emperors Sword was spread all over Zong Nian's body, and the bright red color set off his already fair skin, which was particularly shocking.
The door of Zong Nian's room was locked, and Zong Chen rushed in directly. The huge noise woke Zong Nian up. Zong Nian propped himself up and looked at the door, but when he saw that the person who came in was Zong Chen, it was not so much confusion or shock that Zong Nian showed an expression, but rather his expression was more like seeing the nostalgia and sadness of an old friend.
In such a strange night, Zong Nian was covered with the destroyed Five Emperors' Coins. However, after waking up, he didn't care about it at all. The only thing he did was to look at Zong Chen's face and start crying. Big tears flowed silently from Zong Nian's pupils. He cried so seriously and sadly that Zong Chen didn't know whether he should disturb him for a moment. Lu Ren, who arrived a step late, heard Zong Nian crying and saying in the room: "Great, I'm back. It's not too late for everything."
Lu Ren felt that he was not just one step late, but a century late. He wondered, "Come back?"
Five minutes later, in Lu Ren and Zong Chen's room. Zong Nian finally sorted out his broken emotions. He drank the hot water that Lu Ren poured for him and told his story:
Zong Nian has actually finished his life.
He was born in the Zong family, the leader of the four most prominent Xuanmen families. Although it was only a humble branch family, he was taught by famous teachers since childhood and had no worries about food and clothing. Before he became an adult, the biggest disaster he encountered was probably an oolong wedding with the family god when he was thirteen years old, but it was resolved in the end without any danger.
The disaster started during a summer vacation when he was fifteen years old. He and his cousin Zong Chen were invited by Qi Yu to go to Fengxu Village for an investigation. The villagers here worship the Bodhisattva devoutly, but they, a few outsiders, do not believe in this Bodhisattva. Zong Nian, who was young and ignorant, knocked off a corner of the Bodhisattva stone statue when he went to play in the mountains. Who knew that the Bodhisattva statue was originally a huge formation eye used to seal evil things, and together with the entire village, formed a large formation. His ignorant behavior directly destroyed the formation.
Countless evil creatures were released, wreaking havoc on the world.
A year later, the end of the world came, and all major civilized cities of mankind were paralyzed.
Five years later, Zongnian's parents were killed in an attack.
Ten years later, the Zong family also failed to escape the catastrophe, and Zong Chen died of exhaustion after fighting bloody battles. At this point, the four Xuanmen families were completely destroyed.
Zong Nian struggled alone for twenty years. When he was in a desperate situation and about to be swallowed by demons, he unexpectedly saw the Bodhisattva he saw in the small mountain village when he was young. He sat high on the lotus platform, looking down at all living beings, and shed a tear of sadness.
The tears of compassion fell to the ground, and instantly took root and sprouted, and a lotus with colorful brilliance blossomed. The evil spirits were illuminated by this brilliance and turned into ashes in an instant.
Peace was restored to the world. But the dead could never come back. At that moment, Zong Nian, the survivor, knelt before Him and begged for forgiveness.
The Bodhisattva forgave Zong Nian and sent him back
Lu Ren didn't know what Zong Chen was thinking, but his biggest feeling after hearing this story was that Zong Nian was in a daze. He turned his head to look at Zong Chen, who was also sitting next to him and listening to the story without saying a word. He felt that there were two words engraved in Zong Chen's wide eyes: "Absurd!"
Zong Nian seemed to know that the two people present would not easily believe his words, so he did not say too much nonsense. He just asked Zong Chen for talisman paper and cinnabar, and then dipped his finger in cinnabar to draw a talisman on the talisman paper. He did it without any hesitation and completed it in one go.
Then he pinched the talisman paper between two fingers, concentrated his energy into his dantian, and shouted, "Burn!" The talisman paper actually ignited on its own as if responding to his shout. The flames reflected Zong Nian's young face, as well as the astonishment in Lu Ren and Zong Chen's eyes.
Lu Ren hurriedly asked Zong Chen what he thought.
Zong Chen said: "This is a fire talisman, which is a high-level secret method of the Zong family. At Zong Nian's current age, it is impossible for him to have learned it."
After hearing this, even Lu Ren couldn't help but begin to doubt: Could it be that Zong Nian was really reborn from the future?
The next day, Yangguan and Qilin were still sleeping soundly. But Zong Nian disappeared early. Lu Ren and Zong Chen were about to go out to look for him, but they saw Zong Nian coming back with a group of villagers, talking and laughing. They even waved goodbye .
Lu Ren and Zong Chen hurried forward to ask where Zong Nian had been. Zong Nian smiled and explained, "We went to worship the Buddha together."
