Taoist chanting

Chapter 188

It was snowing heavily, and the gate archway of Xianling Temple was crowded with parents who came to pick up their children.

I haven't seen my child for more than two months. I miss my parents very much. The Taoist rules are strict. I am sent to the mountain gate as an apprentice. I only have one annual leave a year. I am not allowed to visit, so as not to delay the apprentice's practice. The regular money of the thirty-fifth of the month is settled at the end of the year.

"Come on! They're here!"

Following the shout of the parent in front, everyone stopped chatting and stretched their necks to watch.

In the misty snow and mist, there was a tall Taoist priest wearing a thin blue Taoist robe, followed by two groups of apprentices wearing dark blue thick cotton Taoist robes, each with bamboo swords hanging from their waists, cloth bags and umbrellas on their backs. He is also carrying a bamboo basket, looking very energetic.

The two lines of apprentices were silent, walking in an orderly manner, without looking sideways.

Affected by the solemn atmosphere, the noisy parents kept silent.

Zhang Wenfeng clasped his fists in salute to many parents, and called the names loudly, and let the apprentices and parents in line go back. Before leaving, the apprentices had to hand in the jade pendants hanging around their waists.

Walking out of the gate of the archway, the little ones returned to their original nature one by one, showing off the clinking pocket money in their knapsacks to the adults, and those who got the rewards in the assessment couldn’t wait to uncover the straw on the bamboo basket, hanging a piece of fresh meat, a tail of fresh fish, and a bag of crisps. Candy snacks, this is what they earn by their ability.

In an instant, there was a turmoil of people, and the bustle and bustle resumed.

The little girl Shui Qingru was very uneasy, she didn't feel relieved until she saw the two elder brothers in the crowd smiling happily at her and waving at her. She couldn't remember when was the last time her elder brothers smiled at her?

Daoist Yue told her that if no one came to pick her up, she would stay in the Taoist temple for the New Year, which is the same.

I also told her that her two elder brothers would rush to ask her to go home for the New Year.

Yue Anyan and the temple master were walking in the wind and snow, with a donkey with flapping ears behind them, they chatted while walking.

"Shui Qingru performed well today, she doesn't seem to have practiced 'Hand in Hand' yet?"

"No, she is very focused on sword practice, and earnestly completes the daily training according to the requirements. She has not been lazy for a while. This is very rare. She has developed a sense of sword. Maybe she can find a sense of spirit through sword practice."

"Other apprentices...can you just practice one move first, like the water is clear like flat stabbing, Wei Jingjie is practicing spear piercing, and then you can practice the whole set of swordsmanship after getting the feel of it?"

"Practicing only one move is very boring, and few can persist. You can let them try."

"After the Chinese New Year, when they come back, I let them try for a month, use their spare time to practice a move, stipulate how much training to complete every day, and see the effect. If they can persist, continue, and if they can't persist, don't force it."

Yue Anyan wore a blue cloak, and said with a smile: "Seeing Xiaoya make that sword today, I want to practice flat stab alone. The sword master He Daochang, who sparred with you last time, just used flat stab. It's very good." sharp!"

Zhang Wenfeng turned his head to look at it, and said with a smile: "I copied a copy of He Daochang's sword practice experience, and you can refer to it later."

"Okay, I'll make a copy."

Yue Anyan asked curiously: "That Daoist He is also a weird person, he gave you all his experience in sword practice, is he trying to cultivate an opponent for himself?"

"That's right. There are a lot of people who practice Taoism, but there are very few people who practice swords purely."

The two chatted casually, walked to the foot of the mountain and waited for the second senior brother to finish his work.

The donkey sniffled, smelling the aroma of wine wafting in the wind, left the two of them behind, and headed into the forest to the east.

After a while, the second senior brother sent the apprentices away, and when he returned, he brought a man in a straw hat with him.

The second senior brother looked a little weird, and introduced: "My lord, this is layman Xue Xiang from Beiyan Village. He said he hit something dirty, and he wants to ask the lord to help him cure his illness."

The man bowing and bowing seemed to have something to hide, he kept his mouth shut and didn't speak.

Zhang Wenfeng returned the salute and signaled the man to be polite, and looked at the sturdy, bronze-skinned man in his thirties. He didn't see any ghost or evil spirit on him, but his face was very haggard. There was a layer of snow on the edge of the straw hat, obviously he had driven a long way Lu asked, "Tell me first, what's going on?"

The man hesitated, and said in a low voice: "I... When I was speaking, someone was repeating what I said. I wonder if you... can you hear another voice?"

Zhang Wenfeng was slightly surprised. Seeing Yue Anyan looking at him, he seemed to have guessed something, nodded slightly with his senior sister, looked at the man's neck and continued to ask, "When did you have this symptom?"

"Yes... the last time it snowed, it had been more than [-] days. At first, there was only an occasional echo, which was very subtle. I thought there was something wrong with my ears, so I asked the barefoot doctor in the village to prescribe some herbal medicine. After a while, I I didn't pay much attention to it, for the past three days, as long as I spoke, that voice would follow me, disturbing my mind and not daring to speak..."

There was a look of fear on the man's face, seeing the Taoist priest's gentle expression, he boldly asked: "Guanzhu Zhang, am I being haunted by a dead ghost?"

He came to the town to see a doctor, the old doctor immediately changed his face, and told him to come to the fairy temple to look for Guanzhu Zhang. practice, what else?
Zhang Wenfeng saw that there was no abnormality in the man's throat when he spoke, so he knew it well, and said, "It's not a ghost, it's because you ate something bad. Go, go to the mountain and I'll diagnose and prescribe medicine for you."

The man heard that it was not haunted by ghosts, so he immediately let go of his hanging heart, thanked him a thousand times, and followed the three of them up the mountain.

Yue Anyan asked via voice transmission: "Listening to this symptom, is it the work of a respondent?"

Zhang Wenfeng replied via voice transmission: "That's right."

The second senior brother heard of such a strange disease for the first time, so he asked through voice transmission: "Monastery Master, what disease does Layman Xue have?"

"It's not a disease. It's just that I ate an answering bug in my stomach. It's still fine. When it gets serious, the answering bug gets into the throat and learns to speak after him. People outside can hear it clearly. It may be life-threatening."

Zhang Wenfeng had heard the rumors of the answering insects in his previous life, and there were very few records in the transcribed classics sent by Chen Qingqiao.

Yue Anyan said via voice transmission: "It is said that using thunder pills to make juice and swallowing it can drive out the answering insects."

"Not necessarily, there are many types of echo insects, with different attributes, and each has its own treatment method. Taking Lei Wan medicinal juice is only one of the widely used prescriptions."

Zhang Wenfeng transmitted sound to the two at the same time, saying: "The answering worm is a kind of zerg. If you subdue it and cultivate it slowly, there is a high chance that you will be enlightened."

The second senior brother was very interested. He envied Yue Anyan for subduing a silver-threaded knife mantis, but he didn't reveal it. He said via voice transmission: "After the answering insect cultivates its wisdom, what special ability does it have?"

"It's not very clear, some big sects may have related records."

When he reached the top of the mountain, Zhang Wenfeng asked the man to sit in the dining hall. He opened the door of the east hall, went to the pharmacy to get an ordinary pharmacopoeia, and returned to the dining hall that had not been used for a long time. The second senior brother had already lit the oil lamp.

Zhang Wenfeng sat across from the man. He opened the catalog of the pharmacopoeia, and every time he read the name of a medicine, he asked the man to follow him. He asked the man to tell him if the name of the medicine was not followed by the echo.

Read it all the way, and turned three pages.

"Hundreds."

"Hundreds... Huh!"

The man exclaimed in surprise: "There is no response."

Zhang Wenfeng said with a smile: "You read 'Hundred Parts' three more times."

The man read the words, but still did not get a response, Zhang Wenfeng nodded to Yue Anyan who was waiting, and transmitted a few words, Yue Anyan turned and went out.

Zhang Wenfeng asked: "Lady Xue, think about it carefully, did you eat any fruit before you got sick?"

"Fruit?"

The man frowned, and after a while, he shouted: "I remembered, two days before the snow fell, I was hunting in the mountains, and I saw a white fruit floating beside the dry grass in the stream, it was smooth and shiny. It was bad, so I picked it up, washed it, and ate it. It tasted very sweet. At that time, I still felt strange that the fruit in winter was so delicious? I searched around, but I didn’t find a tree with ginkgo fruit.”

The man compared the size of the fruit.

Zhang Wenfeng nodded slightly and asked, "Do you remember that place?"

"Remember, I used to trap hares around there . . . what's wrong with that fruit?"

The man surnamed Xue asked with a look on his face, he guessed some reasons.

"There are worms in the fruit."

"Ugh!"

(End of this chapter)