Hibiskus als Gemälde

Kapitel 125

"So beautiful...so beautiful..." Then, a voice mimicked the pronunciation of Elder Peng from a high tree.

"Who?" Elder Peng asked warily.

"Who?" the voice asked.

Dudu was overjoyed upon hearing this; it recognized the voice—it was one of its own kind, a parrot mimicking its speech! So it flapped its wings and soared to the treetop. But the sight before it utterly astonished it: in the moonlight, two hideous black crows perched on the treetop, their triangular eyes staring at it with astonishment…

Under the tree, Han Sheng looked up and his eyes flashed. He understood immediately. He smiled and explained to Elder Peng, "These are divine crows, a kind of black bird unique to Blue Moon Valley. They are very intelligent and have an excellent memory. They can remember everything they hear and can even imitate human conversations very well."

At the top of the tree, Dudu looked at the two crows with a puzzled expression and tentatively asked, "Was it...was it you two talking just now?"

"Was it...was it you two talking just now?" the two crows repeated, their pronunciation equally halting and stuttering.

Dudu was even more surprised. She had never heard of crows, whose intelligence was extremely low, having the ability to imitate language. What was even more infuriating was that they were actually imitating her stuttering to make fun of her. So, in a fit of rage, she raised her huge curved beak and pecked at them...

"Caw caw..." The crows cried out in surprise and flew down from the treetops, landing on the shoulders of an old monk in red robes in the forest.

"Hehe, I suppose the one who comes tonight must be an old friend..." The old monk in red chuckled as he walked out of the pine forest.

“Master Danzeng?” Han Sheng recognized the old monk in the Blue Moon Valley Lama Temple.

"Benefactor Hansheng!" the old lama Tenzin said with delight. "For many years, I have come to Moon Lake every month at midnight to see if any uninvited guests have entered the valley. But tonight I have unexpectedly been greeted by you."

Han Sheng smiled faintly and said, "Master Danzeng, let me introduce you. This Elder Anxi is a Tibetan Bon master who has been living in exile overseas. Please forgive my boldness, but I have brought him back to his homeland on the snowy plateau."

The old lama Tenzin bowed to the Parthian elder in surprise.

"Look! The white-haired old man..." Shen Caihua suddenly pointed to the red pine forest.

The person above said.

The Milky Way stretched far and wide, the moonlight as clear as water. An old man covered in long white hair quietly glided past the treetops, and like a flying fairy, he slowly descended before the crowd... Suddenly, he spotted the Hakka woman, and then trembled all over, shaking off the long hair on his chest and abdomen to completely cover his lower body.

"Old man from western Hunan!" Han Sheng was amused to see that the old man was still naked.

"Oh, Xiao Hansheng, you have two children already?" the old man asked in surprise.

“No, they are Shen Caihua and Momo, do you remember them?” Han Sheng replied with a smile.

The old man from western Hunan examined them carefully, his face lighting up with joy. He said, "Hmm, they really are those two naughty babies with their bare bottoms. They've grown so big in the blink of an eye."

Next, Han Sheng introduced the old man to Elder Anxi and the Hakka nanny, and asked, "How is Grandma Xiaoying?"

"She's gone mushroom picking again. She always likes to wander around at night," the old man from Xiangxi muttered discontentedly. Suddenly, he noticed the person Jia Shiming was carrying on his back and exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, isn't that the Ancestor?"

Han Sheng nodded and said, "It is the Ancestor. She has now been transformed into a 'Yin Xiangren' by the Grand Master of Siam."

“Oh, let me take a look…” The old man from Xiangxi stepped forward, examined the old man’s eyelids closely, and slowly said, “Hmm, it seems like he has lost his soul.”

Han Sheng knew that Siamese black magic originated from the Gu magic of Miao territory, and that the old man from Xiangxi was the Apu Laosi of Miao territory, the most powerful black sorcerer in the Greater Miao Mountains. So he asked, "The ancestor's soul is in my head, and I'm thinking about how to release it as soon as possible so that the mother and daughter can be reunited..."

The old man from western Hunan looked at Han Sheng in surprise and asked in bewilderment, "How could the ancestor's soul be inside your body?"

"It's a long story, and Elder Anxi must be tired from his long journey. I'd like to arrange for everyone to rest first, and then we can discuss this in detail later," Han Sheng said.

The old lama Tenzin led the master and his disciples back to the lama temple to rest, while the rest of them went to rest in the old ancestor's small wooden house in the forest. Han Sheng, however, followed the old man alone into the simple thatched hut that he and Grandma Xiao Ying had shared.

Grandma Xiaoying was overjoyed to see Hansheng and showered him with concern, inquiring about Lan'er.

Han Sheng gave a general account of the situation over the years, focusing on recounting in detail the unfortunate experiences of his ancestor.

"'Yin Xiangren'? In the black witchcraft of Miao territory, there are various types of Gu techniques, such as 'powder, insects, liquid, eggs, smoke, and ointment,' but there is no such sinister and poisonous spell as you described. I guess it might have been created by a highly talented sorcerer from Siam..." The old man from Xiangxi said with a frown.

“Chen Caihua once used ‘Zhu You Divine Skill’ to release the souls of Japanese soldiers inside the Zhu You Relic. I asked him to do it again, but he can’t remember it right now,” Han Sheng said with a helpless expression.

The old man from western Hunan remained silent for a long time before slowly saying, "The ancient 'Zhuyou' art was profound and extensive. Tracing its origins, the earliest Miao Gu magic actually came from the Zhuyou art of the Central Plains. Hansheng, have you ever heard of the 'Ghost Pot,' the ancestor of Zhuyou art?"

"The Ghost Pot?" Han Sheng was taken aback upon hearing this.

Chapter 191

Han Sheng remembered that on his journey north, a Hakka woman had told him about a secret chamber guarded by four mythical beasts within the navel of Guanzhong. She said that Mo Mo had once brought out a skull called "Ghost Pot" from the Wind God's head, which sparked a bloody battle in the martial arts world. Could this be what the old man from western Hunan was referring to?

"The originator of the ancient Zhuyou technique was Feng Hou, the prime minister of the Yellow Emperor. He assisted the Yellow Emperor in defeating Chiyou and unifying the Central Plains. It is said that before his death, Feng Hou used the most mysterious and bizarre 'head-shrinking technique' to shrink his head to the size of a fist, condensing all his life's power into it, which he called the 'Ghost Pot.' For thousands of years, people in the martial arts world have exhausted their lives searching for this magical treasure, but they have never found it, to the point that people later believed it was just a false legend..." Under the dim oil lamp, the old man from western Hunan had a strange longing in his eyes.

"The head-shrinking technique?" Han Sheng asked in astonishment.

"This extremely profound incantation technique has long been lost. It is said that Shi Qian, the hero of Liangshan in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Yang Xiangwu, the notorious bandit during the Kangxi era, both possessed a 'bone-shrinking technique' that allowed them to shrink their bodies to half their original size and squeeze through the iron bars of a prison cell. This is probably a similar incantation technique, but it is far less profound than the 'head-shrinking technique'," the old man continued to explain.

"So, what exactly is the magical function of the 'Ghost Pot'?" Han Sheng asked with great interest.

"I'm not entirely sure about that," the old man said. "I only heard Old Apu say that the 'Ghost Pot' must be opened with incantations and spells, at which time the heavens and earth will be shrouded in mystery... In his book 'Tai Xuan,' Yang Xiong of the Western Han Dynasty wrote, 'Heaven is mysterious because it is unseen, earth is mysterious because it is formless, and man is mysterious because of his heart and mind. The northwest is the depths of heaven, where essence is transformed; the yellow springs are the depths of earth, where the hidden soul flourishes; and man is the depths of thought, where the ultimate essence is contained.' The sun rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes, a testament to the path of martyrdom." The old man glanced out the window, gazing blankly at the twinkling stars in the night sky, lost in thought.

After a long while, Han Sheng muttered to himself, "I understand now. The 'Ghost Pot' can not only summon the spirit of the Ancestor, but it can also release the 50,000 Chinese Expeditionary Force soldiers from within the Zhuyou Relic in Shen Caihua's mind..."

"What did you say?" the old man from western Hunan asked, puzzled.

"I need to leave the valley immediately," Han Sheng said thoughtfully.

The old man from Xiangxi and Xiaoying's grandmother looked at Hansheng with surprise and incomprehension.

"I'm going to retrieve the 'Ghost Pot'!" Han Sheng said with gleaming eyes.

Under the hazy moonlight, Han Sheng left the old man's thatched hut in western Hunan and excitedly ran back to his ancestor's small wooden house.

"Master Jia, do you know where the 'Ghost Pot' is now?" Han Sheng asked anxiously.

"The Ghost Pot?" Jia Shiming stared blankly at Han Sheng and said in a low voice, "It should be in the capital."

"Who was behind this in the capital?" Han Sheng pressed.

“It might be in the director’s hands,” Jia Shiming replied, “but the story is a long one…”

Next, Jia Shiming recounted to Han Sheng how he was sent by the director to infiltrate the leader's camp years ago, hoping to obtain the Geda Prophecy. However, due to the sudden political upheaval following Chairman Mao's death, the plan was abandoned. At the beginning of the year, he was ordered to Fenglingdu in Hedong to search for the "Feng Hou Tomb," and he eventually managed to obtain the "Ghost Pot." Unexpectedly, a fierce battle in the Yuxi Grand Canyon nearly resulted in him being silenced by the director, and Huang Jianguo was killed in the explosion. The "Ghost Pot" in his travel bag was also lost, but it was basically certain that the "Ghost Pot" had fallen into the director's hands.

"What does the director need the 'Ghost Pot' for?" Han Sheng asked, puzzled.

“Resurrect Mao Zedong,” Jia Shiming replied softly.

At dawn, a ray of golden sunlight shone on Blue Moon Valley. Rhododendrons in red and purple bloomed on the alpine meadows. Han Sheng walked out of the red pine forest and came to the Moon Lake. Looking into the distance, the graves of Liu Jinmo and Xiao Cuihua were covered with lush green grass. Two children stood silently, hand in hand, before the graves. They were Shen Caihua and Momo. Dudu and the big black cat "Xiao Cui'er" were squatting at their feet.

“Father Liu, we’ve come to see you…” Shen Caihua said sadly, still holding onto the innocent memories of Liu Jinmo deep in his mind.

"Who is buried here?" Mo Mo asked softly.

Han Sheng stood silently behind them, sighing as he replied, "Child, your name is Zu Mo, which refers to your mother, Grandmother, and Liu Jin Mo..."

"I heard my father's name is Yang Gong?" Mo Mo asked, puzzled.

Han Sheng gave a wry smile. Some things were hard to say. He changed the subject and said, "I'm leaving the valley. You two can stay here. Master Jia and the Hakka nanny will take care of you."

"Hansheng's father, are you going to Wuyuan to see Lan'er's mother?" Shen Caihua asked softly, his head lowered.

"No, I'm going to the capital. You all wait here. When I return, the ancestor can be resurrected," Han Sheng explained.

Shen Caihua gazed at Han Sheng with lingering reluctance, as if he wanted to say something, but after opening his mouth, he remained silent.

"Liu Jinmo..." Momo muttered softly, then shook her head in the end.

"Sigh..." Han Sheng sighed and turned to leave.

At the end of the valley, beneath the snow-capped mountains, stands a Lama temple consisting of dozens of white wooden watchtower-style buildings. From within the temple, muffled drumbeats resound, and atop the tall white stupa, the crescent moon and the precious pearl reflect dazzling golden light.

Han Sheng walked along the narrow, cobblestone path, crossed an ancient wooden bridge, and entered through the old wooden door painted with thangkas. The main hall was filled with the smoke of incense. An image of Padmasambhava was enshrined on the altar, with the Five Dakinis flying behind him. Prayer flags hung from the ceiling everywhere. The light was dim, and the air was thick with the scent of sandalwood. Although it lacked the extravagance of Han Chinese Buddhist temples, it possessed an extraordinary simplicity and sanctity, carrying a touch of ancient desolation. Beside the altar, a thin, wiry old lama in red robes sat behind a prayer table, chanting sutras, striking a drum and blowing a conch shell after each recitation. This was Lama Tenzin.

Han Sheng bowed respectfully to the statue of Padmasambhava, then walked up to the old lama.

“Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru, Padma, Siddhi Hum…” The old lama chanted the scriptures, looked up and saw Hansheng, and said with a happy expression, “Benefactor Hansheng, Elder Anxi has agreed to stay. The Bon religion, which has been in exile for thousands of years, has finally returned to Tibet…”

Han Sheng smiled slightly and said, "Master Danzeng, I've come to say goodbye."

"What? Are you leaving?" Tenzin asked, puzzled.

"I have important business to attend to in the capital, and I will return as soon as possible," Han Sheng explained.

From the side of the main hall, Elder Anxi and Elder Peng emerged and asked with some surprise, "Hansheng, are you going to the capital?"

"Yes, I'm going to retrieve the 'Ghost Pot' and release the souls of our ancestor and the 50,000 Chinese Expeditionary Force soldiers," Han Sheng told the elder.

"Excellent, excellent, such a great deed..." Elder Anxi exclaimed upon hearing this, but then added, "Hansheng, the capital of the Central Plains has always been a place where dragons and tigers hide, so we must be careful in everything we do."

"Please rest assured, Elder, I will," Han Sheng replied.

Han Sheng returned to the cabin and told Jia Shiming and the Hakka nanny about his plan to leave the valley and retrieve the "Ghost Pot".

“I will go with you,” Jia Shiming said calmly.

“No, you should stay in this valley. The ancestor is still unconscious, Master Jia’s true energy has not recovered, and the Hakka Granny and Xiong Dahai still need to take care of the two children…” Han Sheng shook his head and said.

“Hansheng,” Jia Shiming said with a wry smile, “In such a vast city as Beijing, do you even know where the Director is? Zhongnanhai is like the imperial palace, heavily guarded. The 8341st Capital Guard Division is far more formidable than the imperial guards of the Qing Dynasty. If you wander around recklessly, you're bound to cause trouble. Even if you manage to escape by chance, it will likely implicate Lan'er and Wu Chushanren back in our hometown of Wuyuan…”

The Hakka woman nodded upon hearing this and said, "Master Jia is right. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win. Master Jia is familiar with the capital, so let him go to the capital with you. You can rest assured that the old lady and the children will be taken care of by this old woman."

Han Sheng thought about it and agreed. This Master Jia had lived in the capital for a long time and not only knew the area like the back of his hand, but also knew the director. It would indeed be much more convenient to have him accompany them. So, he nodded and said, "Alright, Master Jia, let's set off immediately. We must be back in Blue Moon Valley by 11:15 on the 15th of next lunar month."

The two quickly packed their belongings and then quietly left Blue Moon Valley.

Snow-capped mountains, vast meadows, a lone Himalayan eagle soars in the azure sky, while herdsmen sing ancient and sorrowful Tibetan songs, which evoke a profound sense of desolation.

Han Sheng and Master Jia, carrying their packs, traversed mountains and valleys eastward, heading straight for Zhongdian. Because Master Jia's inner energy had not yet recovered, he was unable to use his lightness skill, so the two had to travel on foot, making their pace rather slow.

In Blue Moon Valley, around noon, when Shen Caihua and Momo were tired from playing and walked back to the cabin hand in hand, they learned that Han Sheng's father and Jia Shiming had already left that morning.

“I want to go too…” Shen Caihua pulled Mo Mo outside and said in a low voice.

“Okay, I’ll go too,” Momo replied quietly.

So, the two of them, each taking Dudu and "Xiao Cui'er" with them, tiptoed out of the red pine forest and walked straight out of the valley along the edge of Moon Lake.

"Dudu, you lead the way in the air," Shen Caihua instructed, patting the large parrot on the shoulder.

"You...you don't worry, Dudu knows...knows the way." Dudu excitedly flapped its wings and soared into the air.

When it left Ganbaidi, the suction tube was left in Enmaihe River. Although Shen Caihua was a little reluctant to leave, it was, after all, its hometown. With the kappa as companions, it wouldn't be too lonely.

Dudu led the way in mid-air, Chen Caihua secretly farted in his crotch and used his "lard lightness skill" to follow closely behind, while Momo carried the big black cat and "crossed the river on a reed".

As dusk fell, Han Sheng and Master Jia climbed a steep mountain ridge. By this time, Master Jia was already panting heavily and exhausted, so the two stopped to rest and took out a few pieces of dried yak meat from their bags to fill their stomachs.

Han Sheng stood atop the cliff, silently gazing at the clouds and mist below the towering precipice. A surge of emotion welled up within him. This was the very spot where Liu Jinmo and Xiao Cuihua had fallen off the cliff. The bloody battle that had taken place back then was still vivid in his mind, but now, all of that was just a memory...

A mountain breeze rustled through the trees, and Han Sheng couldn't help but shiver. Just then, he heard footsteps approaching on the mountain path.

Chapter 192

Han Sheng suddenly turned his head and saw two people appear behind the mountain pass to the east, one tall and one short. They were the little dwarf Song Diweng and the leader's subordinate.

"Ha, we finally caught him..." Song Diweng shouted excitedly.