Chapter 9: Big Plans
Xie Qiutao was held in Miss Qiu's arms and her mouth was covered. Although she knew not to be too extreme, she had been wandering for many years and met her loved ones again. She felt endless longing and difficulty in understanding. It was not easy to calm down.
"Woo..."
Xie Qiutao stared straight at the woman on the ground, her clear eyes blurred by tears.
After Shangguan Yutang saw that the woman was stunned, he already let go of his hand. To be on the safe side, he reminded her: "You'd better keep silent."
Then he looked at Zuo Lingquan beside him:
"Have you touched enough?"
Zuo Lingquan's mind was focused on Qiu Tao and his daughter, and he really didn't pay attention to the five fingers trapped between the plump balls.
After being reminded by his ancestor, Zuo Lingquan released his soft hand and kept looking at Qiu Tao who was coming over.
Miss Qiu was also thinking about Qiu Tao. She even forgot to think deeply about her ancestor’s words of ‘taking it for granted’. She hugged Qiu Tao and said softly:
"Don't get excited, this is not the place to talk."
The woman on the ground, after staying for a while, was probably awakened by Miss Qiu's words and quickly got up from the ground:
"Why are you here...Quick, don't stay here, come with me..."
As she spoke, the woman took several sets of robes and waist tags engraved with the emblem from Linglong Pavilion, and handed them to several people, her eyes always looking at Qiu Tao in Miss Qiu's arms.
Shangguan Yutang didn't really trust this woman who was supposed to be a prisoner of a foreign race, but with his eyesight that had seen all the joys and sorrows of the world, he could tell that the woman's feelings for his daughter were not fake. He raised his hand to take the robe, and gently hooked it with her. On the body.
Xie Qiutao's covered mouth was released, but she gritted her teeth tightly and said nothing. After looking at each other, she lowered her head and silently put on her clothes. .
The woman was obviously a little disappointed and felt unspeakable guilt in her heart. She did not dare to go over and hug the little girl who had grown into a big girl. After taking a look at everyone, she turned and walked towards the lake.
Zuo Lingquan turned around and patted Qiu Tao's back, and followed her. Although he had been paying attention to Qiu Tao, from the corner of his eye, he also noticed that Miss Qiu's eyes were looking at the woman's back, a little dazed.
Zuo Lingquan hesitated for a moment and asked in his heart: "What's wrong?"
Miss Qiu noticed Zuo Lingquan's inquiry, tilted her head and met her eyes, then shook her head without saying anything.
In fact, Zuo Lingquan could roughly guess that every family has its own scriptures that are difficult to recite. When seeing other people meet again, they will inevitably think about themselves. He couldn't explain this kind of thing here, so he didn't say anything more.
The river bend is not far from Xuanwu Lake. The woman walked in front and led a few people to the garden by the lake. They walked on a secluded path and approached the back door of a house.
The house is very empty, and you can hear some human voices and the low calls of animals on the lake shore outside.
The woman entered a living room in the house, looked around a few times to make sure no one was paying attention, and then closed the door.
As soon as the shielding formation was opened, the woman suddenly changed into a different person. She could no longer hold back her suppressed emotions. She ran over and hugged Qiu Tao, who was standing there blankly, with tears streaming down her face:
"Qiu Tao..."
Xie Qiutao gritted her teeth tightly and made no sound, but she could not hold back her tears. She did not hug her mother, whom she had longed for for many years day and night, but was reluctant to push her away, so she just remained silent.
Shangguan Yutang shook his head slightly, sat down next to the tea table, and said in a calm tone:
"Good and evil are not mutually exclusive. Let's talk about the business first. It won't be too late to talk about old times later."
Zuo Lingquan and Miss Qiu were wary in their hearts and kept paying attention to the woman, but they couldn't speak too directly. Zuo Lingquan said:
"Sit down first. Qiu Tao has been thinking about Aunt Xie these years. She has searched all over the country for her whereabouts, but unfortunately she has found nothing. Why did Aunt Xie come here?
The woman knew why Qiu Tao was so cold to her, and she also knew that several people doubted her position and wanted to check her background.
The woman reluctantly let go of her hand, sat down next to Yutang, suppressed the waves in her heart, and said softly:
"My name is Xie Wen, I am the 46th generation descendant of Xuanwutai and the current head of the family. Back then, our family of three was visited by foreign monks. In order to prevent Qiutao from falling into the hands of the enemy, we threw Qiutao into the sea. We tried our best to stop him, but the one who had no choice but to take action was Hunyuan Tianzun Zhang Zhilu. We, the couple, were no match at all. Even seeking death was a luxury, and we were caught on the spot. "
Zuo Lingquan heard his ancestor talk about Hunyuan Tianzun Zhang Zhilu, the second-in-command of the Kui Bingzhou human race, whose status was similar to that of Lord Dizhao, and he was indeed a giant. He asked:
"Is it for the Xuanwu bloodline inherited by the Xie family that a person of this level personally takes action against you?"
Xie Wen nodded lightly: "When the first head of the Xie family fought against the demons outside the territory, he won the favor of God and became the heavenly official envoy. Although the ancestors finally ascended and passed away, this bloodline has been passed down and has been diluted by more than forty generations. , is still stronger than other creations in the world, and is the purest Xuanwu power in the world. The alien race has been collecting the power of gods from all over Jiuzhou for nearly a hundred years, and we have become the primary target."
Shangguan Yutang nodded slightly: "You still have good moral character, why didn't the aliens touch you in the end?"
This was the question that everyone was most concerned about. Xie Qiutao pursed her lips, obviously wanting to ask "Did you defect with your father?", but the question could not be asked.
Like Qiutao, Xie Wen has been adhering to the family motto since she was a child and is incompatible with demons. She obviously feels guilty when talking about this matter. She said softly:
"After Zhang Zhilu caught our couple, he was going to smelt our bones and blood on the spot to extract Xuanwu power, but at that time Mei Jinshui from the north came over and stopped Zhang Zhilu."
At this point, seeing that Shangguan Yutang looked wrong, Xie Wen added:
"I'm not saying that Mei Jinshui is a good person who adheres to the right path. Mei Jinshui is the leader of a foreign tribe with extremely clear goals and stands absolutely opposite to the right way. However, Mei Jinshui's way of doing things is different from that of other foreign tribes. He recruits tribesmen in order to Focusing on attacking people's hearts, she can teach by words and deeds, instill her own ideas in her subordinates, and make them agree with her beliefs from the bottom of their hearts. If they are not from the same group, they will not accept Mei Jinshui at her door.
"There are many strong men under Shang Yin, but many of them are profit-seeking people. They only obey the strong and will protect themselves wisely. This is not the case with Mei Jinshui. There are not many men under him, but they are all die-hards and can be fierce in order to uphold the way. Not afraid of death, enduring for thousands of years, Mei Jinshui is better than Shang Yin in terms of skill."
Shangguan Yutang, a man with such a strong backbone, was inspired by Mei Jinshui's influence and took the initiative to go to Xiangyang City to pay homage to the dock. He knew very well how powerful Mei Jinshui was. She asked:
"Were you influenced by Mei Jinshui's words and switched to her camp?"
Xie Wen shook his head: "The ancestors of the Xie family have played a role in cutting off the Tao of Immortality. As a descendant, how can I go against the beliefs of my ancestors? No matter what Mei Jinshui said, I have not wavered in my Taoism. I only want to die."
"But sometimes, asking for death is a coward's act. Mei Jinshui told me a very simple truth at that time - if I die, it will not change the fact that the aliens have taken away Xuanwu's divine power, and the blood in my body is not enough at all. In order to achieve their goals, the aliens, whether willing or not, have to continue to look for the scattered Xie family members and the creatures of the Xuanwu lineage, including you who just escaped. They could chase you, but they just didn't.
"If I don't want to see this happen, I can only take a gentle approach - cultivating spiritual beasts with Xuanwu bloodline and letting them voluntarily contribute part of the power of the bloodline in their bodies, so as to achieve the goal. What can be done in the world like this? The only people involved in this matter are you and me. If I don’t agree, it will save the alien race a lot of trouble. Just kill them all the way.”
Xie Wen looked at the tearful Qiu Tao: "Mom doesn't want to help the aliens, but it's the lesser of two evils. Since there is no way to stop them, I can only choose to save most of the creatures and even your life... "
After Shangguan Yutang listened quietly, he nodded slightly:
“This is a helpless move, and it’s not your fault. →”
Xie Qiutao knew that her mother would not collude with evil heretics, so she pursed her lips and asked:
"Dad, what's going on? I saw it at Shenhao Sect..."
"Your father is not a Xie family member."
When Xie Wen talked about her husband, he showed a bit of helplessness:
"He doesn't care about the Xie family's ancestral precepts at all, he only cares about whether you and I are safe. It's impossible for foreigners to completely trust me, and they leave you outside just so that I can work for them in a down-to-earth manner without any objections.
"In order to prevent you from getting involved in this matter, your father made an agreement with Mei Jinshui. Mei Jinshui will ensure that you grow up safely and then give up monitoring you; he will help Mei Jinshui with errands and take your place. Make sure I don't have any objections.
"Mom accepts disciples here because these children are all good-natured people. They are just born in a foreign race. There is nothing wrong with it. If I don't teach them, they will also be sent to Hunyuan Sect and Chiwu Valley, and they will become righteous in the future. Rather than being like this, it is better for me to teach myself. At least the people I teach will retain a trace of fire in their hearts, so that they will not be able to distinguish right from wrong when the Nine Continents are in turmoil..."
Xie Qiutao listened carefully, her eyes misty, and after Xie Wen finished speaking, she sniffed:
"Mom, I knew you and dad would not abandon the bright and the dark. It scared me to death... Now we are here to take you out and kill these villains from the alien race..."
Xie Wen saw her once energetic daughter, with unspeakable joy in her eyes, but when asked to take her out, she shook her head:
"Mom can't leave. Once mother leaves, your father's safety will be put aside. Tens of thousands of spiritual beasts in the lake outside will definitely not be able to escape. The aliens don't supervise me. Even if I know the door is open, I can't leave. I know you If everything goes well with your father, mother will be satisfied."
Spiritual beasts understand human nature and treat their owners as parents and relatives. Knowing that the aliens will forcibly extract Xuanwu's power after leaving, Qiu Tao's mother will definitely not be cruel.
The evil way can achieve its goals by any means, but the right way cannot forget responsibility and morality. Shangguan Yutang knows that this kind of imprisonment method is far stronger than iron chains and wooden shackles. Think about it and say:
"Knowing that you are here, your Taoist heart has not wavered. We will use a perfect method to bring you back in the future, so as not to let any fellow Taoist feel cold."
Xie Wen shook his head gently: "If you fall into this situation, it will be difficult to leave. You don't have to force it. As long as Qiu Tao is safe and sound."
Xie Qiutao's eyes were very tangled. She wanted to reunite with her mother and never be separated again, but she also understood her mother's current situation. It would be difficult to leave everything behind and reunite with her if the alien race was not destroyed, and she didn't know what to say. , could only direct his grievances and anger at the Youying alien race, and asked:
"What are the aliens doing? They asked you to raise spiritual beasts to gain Xuanwu power. What do they want?"
Xie Wen sighed: "My heart is not with the alien race. If I know the plan, I will definitely find ways to send the news out. How could the alien race not think of this? Any information involving the core of the alien race will not be passed to me. But after all these years Through my observations, I also saw some clues..."
The purpose of Shangguan Yutang coming here is to find out the purpose of the alien race to collect the power of divine beasts. At this time, his eyes were a little more focused, as were Zuo Lingquan and Miss Qiu.
“…This is the ancient Cangsha River, where an ancient immortal emperor attained enlightenment, and it is also the only well-preserved immortal emperor cave in Jiuzhou. The alien race operates here, probably to infer the physical condition of the Jiugai realm cultivators through the cave structure of the Jiugai realm cultivators, so as to find a way to maintain the realm in this world…”
Because of their realm, Zuo Lingquan and Miss Qiu didn’t quite understand what they heard, but Shangguan Yutang understood what they meant.
Jiuzhou is simply a big bucket, and all living things are fish in it.
Sealing Taiyin God and disrupting the balance of yin and yang is equivalent to muddying the top layer of water, making it impossible for any fish to swim to the original height, let alone jump out of the bucket.
Even if the fish in other buckets forcibly jump through this layer of dead water, they will be forced to lower their altitude and not be able to exert their full strength under the restrictions of heaven and earth; the natives of Jiuzhou have no pressure to deal with such existence, so since the longevity path was cut off, there has been no incident of the descent of the devil.
Xie Wen said that he had found a way to maintain the realm in this world, which obviously meant to find a way to force the Jiugai realm cultivators to survive in the dead water at the top layer.
As long as this can be achieved, even if it only lasts for a short time, the ability of the Jiugai realm cultivators is enough to fly out of the sky, or find a way to restore the balance of heaven and earth.
But the premise for this is to have an immortal emperor.
If the yin and yang are not balanced, it is destined to be impossible to break through the forgetfulness. The way the predecessors locked this world completely eliminated the idea of the younger generation to unify Jiuzhou again.
The only way for contemporary cultivators to become immortal emperors is for most of the cultivators to join forces, use their lives to open the way, and force the longevity path to open up; and to stop this, all it takes is for one immortal king to disagree.
For example, Shangguan Yutang, as long as she doesn't want the longevity path to be opened, she can hide in the dark. If other immortals dare to try, they will go to make trouble. If she doesn't die, it will be difficult for more immortals to accomplish this feat.
This is a move of the ancestors, giving all immortals a veto. If the entire human race and even the demon race are united and want to open the longevity path, then the longevity path should be opened.
As for whether someone will deliberately make trouble and want to drag Jiuzhou to death at the moment of life and death, the ancient sages are not worried at all.
First of all, opening the longevity path is beneficial to the strong at the level of immortals, while cutting off the longevity path is to be too long for oneself, which is harmful.
The immortals who insist on not opening the longevity path will definitely not be mentally retarded and harm others and themselves. Now the conservatives are all respected and righteous immortals, which also proves this point.
Secondly, even if someone is crazy, or someone misjudges, and intervenes to stop it, other immortals can join forces to beat this person to death, so that everyone agrees.
At that time, even if everyone is wrong, it is the choice of the entire Jiuzhou creatures. It is not the fault of one person that harms Jiuzhou. The ancestors have done their best, and they can't blame anyone.
At present, the route of the Youying alien race is to destroy the righteous path and then reach a consensus among everyone.
Although this decision has led to thousands of years of war between the righteous path and the Youying alien race, there has never been a day of peace.
But if Jiuzhou wants to maintain relative peace in this world of the survival of the fittest, and if the creatures want to always maintain sufficient martial virtues in peace, so as not to lose their blood in the gentle land, this is already the best choice for the ancestors.
Originally, this arrangement was impeccable, and any choice was right. Even if the alien race won Jiuzhou in the end, it was the will of heaven that could not be violated.
But if an immortal emperor suddenly appeared in the world, all these things would change.
Shangguan Yutang frowned after hearing what Xie Wen said:
"To understand the physique of a Jiugai cultivator and find a way to maintain the realm in this world, the prerequisite is to have a Jiugai cultivator. Could it be that the alien race wants to find another way and conjure up an immortal emperor out of thin air before opening up the longevity path?"
This statement made Zuo Lingquan and Miss Qiu slightly stunned, a little difficult to understand.
In the early stage of cultivation, you can still rely on the seniors to help you, but now you are an immortal king, there is no one above to help you, everything depends on yourself, and there is also a ceiling blocking it, how can you conjure up a person on the roof out of thin air without breaking the ceiling?
Xie Wen obviously didn't know the details either, and shook his head and said:
"I don't know what the alien race wants to do specifically. I can only guess that it has something to do with seizing the power of the gods and studying the ancient Cangsha River and the Immortal Emperor. You have to find out the rest yourself."
Shangguan Yutang pondered for a long time and felt that this guess was too unrealistic, but things are unpredictable, and he couldn't rest assured without checking it out. After thinking about it, he could only say:
"Does anyone here know the inside story?"
"These are all captured people and apprentices. It's impossible for anyone to know such secrets. And this is not the core of the alien race. It is a workshop for extracting the power of gods. "
Xie Wen looked outside: "There are four places similar to Xuanwu Lake along the river. Going downstream is Zhuque Gorge. The residual soul of the pill thief was sent here before, and was taken away after staying for a while; the power of gods collected by Xuanwu Lake is also sent away regularly, and I don’t know where it is sent. "
Shangguan Yutang frowned. The information she squeezed out from Xuanye was that the most mysterious place was the Cangsha Ancient River. If this was just a workshop, then the secret plans and locations of the alien race would be difficult to find.
Miss Qiu listened for a long time, and she seemed to understand but didn’t dare to make a rash comment. After hearing about the residual soul of the pill thief, she asked:
"The aliens attacked Barren Mountain and stole the stolen pills at an extremely fast speed. They also knew the sealing formation very well, and they seemed to have an internal agent. But we have not found an internal agent until now. The Lord of Barren Mountain is still suspected by Dongzhou. Did my aunt know that at that time? situation?”
Miss Qiu's ancestor, Qiu Boyue, has been dealt with badly since her guard failed to steal the elixir. She is still unable to raise her head and speak in Jiuzong. Everyone knows that Qiu Boyue is innocent, but the situation cannot be explained clearly. This blame will have to be carried until death. Miss Qiu is asking now because she also wants to mention her ancestors to clear her grievances.
Xie Wen thought about it carefully and said softly:
"I only found out about this after the Stealing Pill was sent back. The people in Cangsheng Guhe didn't expect that the aliens could really bring the Stealing Pill back. There were many people asking, so I also inquired about it at that time. Because the Stealing Pill had already been brought back, This matter is not considered a secret. The traitor is definitely not the Lord of Barren Mountain. It is said that he is someone from the Supervisor Temple. He captured a prisoner and asked about the defense information of Barren Mountain. "
"captive?"
Miss Qiu frowned and felt that this statement was a bit false - the people who knew the specific defenses of Huangshan and even had access to the seal of stealing pills were at least the core elders of Jingting Terrace, and it was obviously difficult for a person of this level to fall into the hands of a foreign race. Let alone getting the news out alive.
However, the Seal of Stealing Pills has existed for three thousand years and cannot be changed. There may always be a few people who leak the information in history, and there is no guarantee of this.
Miss Qiu thought for a moment and then asked, "Auntie, do you know where the prisoner is now?"
Xie Wen said: "I don't know this, and it's difficult for me to go out."
Shangguan Yutang thought for a moment and responded:
"Behind the Sky Eagle Fort in the Temple of the Supervisor, there is a blessed land of yellow beams. It can help people forget their past lives and tribulations in the world of mortals. It can also throw people into it and forge their lives to obtain information. Many information about the righteous path has been leaked there. If this If it’s true, it should be there.”
Miss Qiu opened her mouth, obviously wanting to go over and take a look, but she glanced at Qiu Tao, who had been looking at her mother, and didn't know what to do now.
Shangguan Yutang stood up and said: "You mother and daughter haven't seen each other for many years. Let's have a good chat. If something unexpected happens, we have to leave before dawn. You don't have to be sad. I said I would take you back, and I will definitely do it. ”
Miss Qiu stood up when she saw this.
Zuo Lingquan was originally going to follow him out to give the two of them some time alone, but Xie Wen glanced at Zuo Lingquan and said:
"Are you Zuo Lingquan?"
"Exactly, in uncle's letter just now..."
"Sit down and talk."
"Forehead……"
Zuo Lingquan glanced at the back of Tangtang's head, then sat back in his chair with a smile, sitting upright.
And Qiu Tao, who was crying just now, turned red for no reason at this time, showing a bit of nervousness...