Chapter 2 ancient school

"Xifu...the wind is so strong! Ming Huan eats ashes!" The immature child's voice was like a silver thread, pulled thinly, and was blown away by the wind as soon as it exited.The girl who spoke was sitting on the back of the donkey, shaking her little red bow shoes in annoyance. The wind is really strong.The dust rolls into gray and white pillars, cruising in the wilderness.The young bitter cabbage and purslane were dusted by the wind and turned gray.The air was filled with the pungent smell of wild garlic, and the donkey snorted uneasily, as if trying to shake it off. "Be patient for a while, Ming Huan, don't let your aunt laugh." Behind the girl, the young man in gray used the empty sleeve on his right arm to cover her small face, comforting her softly.

"Xi Gu can't smile brightly! Nong is a good Wei, is it Wei Xigu?" The girl pushed his sleeves away, poked her head out to ask the woman in white riding a horse, her eyes were bent into flattering crescents.The woman smiled, shook the gourd in her hand, and took a sip with a chic posture.The young man glanced at the woman and shook his head helplessly. "Xifu, how far is it?" The girl put her little hands in front of her eyes, narrowed her eyes and looked hard. In the distance, a round of red sun is falling wearily.At sunset, the rolling mountains wind and undulate, like lions and elephants, connecting endlessly, majestic like a crouching dragon, entrenched at the end of the earth.

"Soon." Looking at the blue daisy that broke the sky, the young man with the broken arm murmured, "Look, that's Taihang Mountain..." The young man with the broken arm was Yun Jisang.After the ghost haunting bell case, he left Ping'an Town sadly with his apprentice Cui Minghuan and his senior sister Zhuo Anjie.Afterwards, the three of them passed through Zhuozhou, Dingxing, and Ansu all the way, and after staying in Baoding Mansion for a few days, they went west and entered Pingding Prefecture.The puppet gate they want to visit is living in seclusion deep in the Taihang Mountains.Although it is an ancient sect that has been passed down for thousands of years, in the Jianghu, the puppet sect is just a small sect that is good at making mechanism puppets, and it is not known to everyone.The reason why they came to visit was because Puppet Gate was good at making prosthetics.It is said that the prosthetic limbs made by the Puppet Gate are flexible and delicate, and under the control of an expert insider, they can even catch flying mosquitoes and flies.

The mountains are steep and the cliffs are like a city.Three people, one donkey and one horse, walked slowly along the mountain. Although it is early spring, the mountains are still desolate.Under the dark gray sky, there is a sad desolation.The dense forests are like mottled moss marks all over the valleys, and together with the snow on the top of the mountain, they sink in the twilight. The mountain road is getting steeper and steeper, and above the dangerous mountains, the bluestone is jagged like a ghost's face, looking down at the travelers below.Every time a strong wind blows, there will be strange rocks shaking slightly, as if they will fall down at any time.From time to time in the sound of the wind came the intermittent cry of apes, as if weeping and complaining, as if they were telling a poignant legend.Ming Huan was terrified when he heard it, and couldn't help shrinking his small body into Master's arms.

"Don't be afraid, Ming Huan..." Yun Jisang patted her back lightly, comforting her in a low voice. After walking for a while, the forest in front of me gradually grew lush.White horses and green donkeys also stopped from time to time to eat the tender mushrooms that sprouted by the roadside.Ming Huan was so hungry, she couldn't help raising her head, and looked at Yun Jisang pitifully: "Xifu, is there still time to eat?" After patting her little head, Yun Jisang said softly, "Why are you so tired?" Hungry? The dry rations I brought are all eaten up on the way, just bear with me, and you’ll be there." Zhuo Anjie urged the horse to come closer, and said with a smile: "On the way, 90% of the 100% of the dry rations were eaten by Ming Huan. She ate it as a snack, but it still couldn't fill her little stomach. I see, there must be a hole in Ming Huan's stomach, leaking out all the food she ate along the way." Ming Huan pouted after hearing this. With a small mouth, he held his little belly and touched it around, as if he wanted to find out that inexplicable hole.

Yun Jisang smiled slightly, looked up and looked around, suddenly his eyes lit up, and he jumped up.Under Zhuo Anjie's playful eyes, she stepped on the treetops and walked through the forest. After a circle, she floated back to the donkey's back. She opened her hand, but there were a few red, yellow and yellow wild fruits in her palm. "Guoguo!" Ming Huan cheered, and was about to take it, but Yun Jisang said: "Wait a minute..." As he spoke, the broken arm moved slightly, and then his gaze became gloomy again. Zhuo Anjie urged the horse to come over, and said softly: "I'll do it." She took the wild fruit, took out a handkerchief, wiped it carefully, and then handed it to Ming Huan.

Ming Huan didn't notice anything strange about Master, so he happily took the wild fruit, took a bite, and shouted with a bitter face: "It's good!" Then he widened his eyes round as if revenge, and took a big bite of the fruit. The faint loneliness between Yun Jisang's eyebrows stabbed Zhuo Anjie's heart lightly like a needle. In her impression, since childhood, he has never been really happy.In the teacher's door, he looks very easy-going, but he often hides in a dark corner alone, thumping lightly.Why are you crying, man? At that time, she looked down on this crying junior brother a lot.Later, she also lost her close relatives, and in spite of the pain, she drank quietly by herself, facing a bright moon.It wasn't until that moment that she realized that such pain is often deposited in the deepest part of the abyss of the soul, and even the strongest people cannot bear it.As she traveled the sword world and experienced more and more, she was finally able to face everything with a calm attitude, but as a junior, she still couldn't let go of the pain in her heart.After all, wading out from the abyss of the soul is a difficult and long journey.

Or, just let me accompany you all the way, through this barren darkness, until you find the light in your heart.And this is the only thing I can do for you, my... junior brother.She smiled faintly, and glanced at Yun Jisang's empty right sleeve: "Looking at your body style of wearing flowers and winding willows just now, although you are still slow, you can use your true energy freely. The internal injury is better?" "Hmm?" , it's all right." "I have heard of Yiteng Bozhao." Zhuo Anjie was silent for a while, "She is one of Fusang's nine master ninjas, and her skills are very deep. Ji Yi's ninjutsu is weird and unpredictable, and I am afraid it will not be so easy to break. Internal injuries are easy to deal with, but to restore your six-soul dark consciousness, the power of the medicine stone alone may not be enough."

"Don't be happy with medicine, it's like a mountain forever." Yun Jisang said lightly. "It's easy to say, but I'm the one asking for help." Zhuo Anjie rolled his eyes at him. "I'm sorry, Senior Sister, and I owe another favor." Yun Jisang's smile was still a bit forced. "Although begging for others is better than asking for oneself, but begging for one time, in exchange for a lifetime of convenience, it's worth it." Zhuo Anjie took another sip, stuffed the gourd, and hung it back on her waist reluctantly, "Besides, I Is there ever a time when I didn't pay back the favor I owed? If that mule knew that I went to beg him, I don't know how happy he would be." Yun Jisang couldn't help laughing.The principle of life that the senior sister pursues has always been "throw me papaya, repay it with Qiongju, throw me tiles and stones, and repay it with gold." It's just that she is very skilled and never asks for easy people. There are more times to repay it with gold.

"As far as I know, Luo Jiankong is good at making hidden weapons. The seven-star crossbow he made is one of the best in the world. It's just that this person has a bad reputation. It is said in the world that he is greedy and despicable, and he only cares about business. Money, regardless of good or evil. How did the senior sister get to know such a person?" Zhuo Anjie bent down and pinched a straight calamus stalk, and played with it casually: "It's interesting to say. You know, I've never been good at other things Heart, I only like food and wine. When I passed by Suzhou five years ago, I heard that the yellow croakers in Chufenglou were well made, so I went to the door. The place is very particular, and only ten fish are made every day. When I went that day, there were only croakers left Coincidentally, Luo Jiankong, an old gourmet, was also present, so we two fought over this yellow croaker. Naturally, I am not as rich as him, but he is not as good at fighting as I am. After arguing and fighting, he lost... ..." When she said this, Yun Jisang couldn't help smiling, Zhuo Anjie rolled his eyes at him, and then said complacently, "Of course I eat the fish, he can only stare blankly. Fortunately, your senior sister has I think he is good enough to think of him, so I invited him to drink together. That's it, I became friends with wine and meat. Later, he invited me to drink a few times, but I saw that he was a bit utilitarian and thoughtful, and gradually We became estranged. Speaking of which, we haven’t seen each other for five or six years.”

Ming Huan listened to it, and couldn't help but ask: "Girl, that fish...is it delicious?" , liqueur, and autumn oil, then add sugared ginger at the end. That taste, tsk tsk..." Zhuo Anjie closed her eyes slightly, looking dazzled. Ming Huan swallowed a big mouthful of saliva, looked at the sour wild fruit in his hand, and wanted to throw it away, but at the same time he was a little bit reluctant, hesitating in his heart. Zhuo Anjie saw her small appearance, couldn't help laughing and said: "Okay, I won't tease you anymore, turn around the hill in front and you will find the Puppet Gate. When you get there, there are plenty of delicious fruits, eat as much as you want!" " Ming Huan's eyes were shining brightly, satisfying longing: "Really?" "I lied to you as a puppy." Zhuo Nvxia said without holding back. Ming Huan opened his big round eyes, tilted his head, and tried to imagine how his aunt would turn into a puppy. He shook his head and asked Yun Jisang, "Xifu, what is a puppet?" "Is this a puppet, also called a puppet?" .According to the records of "The Chronicle of Things", the emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty was besieged by Shanyu Maodun in Baideng Mountain. He could not get out of trouble for seven days. Shi was jealous by nature, so he made a beautiful puppet and danced in the room with a mechanism. When Yan saw it from a distance, he thought it was a real person, and thought that if he captured the city, Mao Dun would definitely accept this beautiful woman as his wife. In order to commemorate this past event, people used puppets as a joke." Ming Huan blinked his eyes wide: "Xifu, that puppet is really with us. Is it the same?" "Of course it's different." Yun Jisang smiled, "A puppet won't be as hungry as Ming Huan. Didn't Ming Huan see a puppet show when I took you to the temple fair?" "Ming Huan saw it before, it was so fun!" Those puppets are the most common puppets, but they are not as beautiful as those made by Chen Ping.After Yun Jisang finished speaking, he patted Ming Huan's little head, "Does Ming Huan understand?" Ming Huan nodded vigorously. Didn't it mean that Chen Ping bought off the Yan family with a lot of money?Why did he become a puppet to bully the enemy again? "Zhuo Anjie listened with gusto, and couldn't help interjecting. Yun Jisang laughed and said, "If it is enough to bribe a lot of money, the Yan family may not be willing to retreat. If they can capture the city, all the property of the Han army will naturally belong to the Huns. Why retreat for mere property? So the theory of puppets is still possible. I believe it. I guess Chen Ping bribed the Yan clan with a lot of money on the one hand, and on the other hand created a puppet to attack the Yan clan. Gaozu was able to escape by doing both. It’s just that this method is almost child’s play, not upright, so it is recorded in the history books that Chen Ping explained During Gaozu's siege, he only said, "Its plan is secret, and the world cannot hear it. Historians are stingy, but Chen Ping has been wronged." Senior?" Zhuo Anjie looked at him with a half-smile, Yun Jisang smiled but did not answer. "Sure enough. Chen Ping has six tricks. If it weren't for the Guigu faction, how could there be so many ghosts? No wonder it's called a puppet... "Half-human, half-ghost is for 'puppet', standing on the base of a man, and it is exactly the word 'puppet'. The word puppet alone is worthy of Chen Ping's performance of this good show." "Why, senior sister hates Chen Ping?" "This guy abandoned Chu and Touhan, and planned everything behind the scenes. His writing is not as good as Zhang Liang, and his martial arts is not as good as Han Xin. He came to power only by intrigue and trickery, and finally climbed to the position of prime minister. I can't see such a sinister villain. " Yun Jisang was not surprised by her attitude, and smiled slightly: "Chen Ping used tricks to save Gaozu, go to Fan Zeng, kill Han Xin, and live Fan Kuai. If such a person is a villain, then wouldn’t other people become dolls between the fingers of a villain?” "Forget it, I can't talk to you." Zhuo Anjie gave him a blank look, and urged the horse to run forward.Yun Jisang was about to keep up, but suddenly reined in and frowned. "What's wrong?" Zhuo Anjie Zhuma asked. Yun Jisang shook his head: "It's nothing." There seemed to be a faint sob in the wind, maybe he heard it wrong.This is not the first time he has delusions.Today, after losing the dark consciousness of the six spirits, it is difficult for him to maintain that keen perception.He urged the donkey to move on. "Crack!" The sound of dead branches snapping was clearly audible, and Yun Jisang reined in abruptly: "Who? Who's there?" In the woods, a low figure moved slowly, with gray and white messy hair faintly visible.An old woman covered in patches walked out with a bent body and a cane.Her disheveled hair was fluttering in the wind, and every time she took a step, she would stop, let out a hoarse and deep sigh, and kept muttering something, as if reciting a mysterious spell. "Grandmother! Old lady" Yun Jisang greeted loudly, the old lady stopped and turned to them, but she didn't turn her head and kept muttering. "Mother-in-law, how far is the puppet door from here?" The muttering in the old woman's mouth suddenly disappeared, she turned her head slowly, and let them take a look. What a look!Those eyes contained countless resentment, hatred, fear and curse, it seemed like a flame from hell, melting all these emotions, casting them into nails, and nailing them into Yun Jisang's heart.Yun Jisang's body couldn't help shrinking back slightly. "Puppet door..." The old woman murmured in the wind, "Soon, soon." Turning her head to look at the empty side, she said with fear, "Xiao Shanzi, go back to grandma!" Go home, it's getting dark, that thing will come out when it gets dark, go home quickly, don't be caught by it..." Caught by it?Captured by what?Yun Jisang looked at the nearly insane old woman, feeling suspicious. "Come on, let's go with grandma." The old woman stretched out her hand and pulled her non-existent grandson away.The wind howled, rolling up the withered and yellow leaves all over the sky, and the crooked figure of the old woman slowly disappeared in the messy withered yellow, as if everything just now was just an illusion in the wind. "It seems that this puppet door is not a good place to go." Zhuo Anjie frowned. "Xifu..." Ming Huan sensed the abnormality in the atmosphere, raised his face, and looked at Yun Jisang. Yun Jisang was silent for a long time before saying in a low voice, "Let's go." The wind moves through the woods, carrying secret whispers from tree to tree.Gradually, the tree began to sway.Not just one or two trees, but large tracts. The entire forest is like a group of puppets. Following the command of the wind, they sway their shriveled limbs together, making loud noises, as if they are struggling to break away from the bondage of the earth.Yun Jisang couldn't help but tighten his legs and speed up.It wasn't until he left the woods behind that he reined in his mount and let out a sigh. "Xifu, look at...the strange Shanwei..." Ming Huan said suddenly.Yun Jisang looked up, and in the vast mist, a blue-black human-shaped mountain stood quietly in front of them. "Presumably this is the figurine mountain, there is such a mountain in the world..." Yun Jisang murmured. "It is indeed a strange mountain..." Beside her, Zhuo Anjie also sighed softly. Yes, this mountain is peculiar.It's shaped like a standing doll.The layers of indigo daisy are its hair, the numerous black rocks are its skin, and the white waterfall between the ridges is just like the ribbon hanging down its waist.It stood there, staring at them, and at the same time staring at the white clouds and dogs between the sky and the earth, life and death love and hate. At the foot of the mountain is the Red Clay Square in Zhuma.The square is not big, and a stable is built on the south side, where two old brown horses flick their tails leisurely, chewing dry yellow hay.A long bluestone corridor stretches straight to the mountainside from bottom to top.At the bottom of the corridor, a boy with a bun on his head and a red robe stood upright. The two tied up their mounts and came to the corridor.Only then did I realize that the boy who greeted the guests was actually a wooden puppet.When they came to it, the puppet slowly raised one hand and pointed at the huge wooden bucket beside it, apparently signaling them to climb onto the wooden bucket. "This thing is very interesting!" Zhuo Anjie laughed, and jumped into the wooden bucket first. Ming Huan looked left and right at the puppet, and asked curiously: "Xifu, can it see us?" Under the feet, I knew it in my heart: "Look, there is a mechanism on the stone slab under our feet. Once the stone slab is loaded, the mechanism will be triggered and the puppet will raise its hand. Although this design is ingenious, it is nothing special." After finishing speaking, he picked up Ming Huan, sit on it.The wooden bucket is very large, and it is estimated that it can seat ten people. There are mahogany chairs in the bucket, covered with purple velvet cushions, which are very comfortable to sit on. As soon as the two of them got on the wooden bucket, the puppet's hand dropped, and the wooden bucket made a bang, and began to slowly move up the corridor. "Let's go up! Let's go up!" Ming Huan yelled, excited like a deer in spring. "Tell me, how did you do it?" Zhuo Anjie seemed to be interested in taking the exam for Yun Jisang. Yun Jisang was hugging Ming Huan to keep her from moving around. Hearing this, he smiled slightly and said, "It's not difficult to do. It must be that there is a rail under the wooden bucket, and an iron cable is used to pull the bow. Limo...it must be there." As he spoke, he pointed in the direction of the waterfall.Zhuo Anjie took a look with her head, sure enough, there were two stone rails on the corridor, and an iron cable in front of the wooden bucket was leading them up continuously. "Be proud, you're right again." She retracted her head in satisfaction, leaning lazily on the edge of the bucket with her slender waist. The wind gently blew her long hair and dazzled her vision.Zhuo Anjie raised her hand, brushed away the long hair in front of her eyes, and smiled sweetly at Yunjisang.The demeanor at that moment gently wrinkled his heart. In a blink of an eye, the wooden bucket has risen to the mountainside. The sound of the waterfall is rumbling and deafening, the spray is like wind and thunder, and the water vapor is like shooting smoke and flying clouds, washing the green wall.In the misty water vapor, from time to time, egrets croaked and passed by the edge of the blue cliff, and then disappeared, as if they had been melted into the vast clouds. Yun Jisang stared at the stone platform beside the waterfall.On the bluestone platform, the huge water wheel slowly rotates under the impetus of the waterfall, and slowly puts away the black iron chain. At a glance, he saw a woman in black standing quietly on the edge of the stone platform.In the strong water wind, her extremely long hair fluttered with the wind like splashing ink, and her long skirt was like a thick black mist, wrapping her slender figure.He was startled, and was about to take a closer look, but the mist filled the air, and the woman had disappeared. "What's wrong?" Zhuo Anjie noticed his strangeness and asked with concern. "It's nothing." Yun Jisang shook his head, shaking the black figure from his mind. "Xifu, look at that..." Ming Huan pointed to the front and shouted. Yun Jisang looked up, and at the end of the corridor, there was a tall stone archway in sight.On both sides of the archway, there is a puppet boy standing on the left and right, as if welcoming their arrival. The three of them got off the wooden bucket and walked to the archway.The boy on the left cupped his hands silently, then turned around and walked forward creakingly along a bluestone corridor. Zhuo Anjie looked at the boy and said with a smile: "This is the leading puppet of the puppet gate, let's let it go." Ming Huan was curious, chasing the puppet to look at it non-stop, sometimes running in front of it, looking at it. Watching the puppet walk around him slowly, he cheered, clapped his hands, and chased after him. "This is a hair-shaking puppet, it's really exquisite." Yunji Sang praised. "Junior brother also knows how to shake hair puppets?" Zhuo Anjie casually asked after walking behind Ming Huan. Yun Jisang smiled slightly: "The so-called hair-shaking puppets are the most delicate of the puppets. Most of them are powered by machine springs. After being fully wound up, the puppets will move by themselves without human power. As early as in the Spring and Autumn Period, There is a record of "Luban made a wooden kite, every time he hits the wedge three times, and he takes it home". This is also the earliest rocking puppet in history. The door-to-wife worship in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the water-carrying armillary sphere in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, and the later Zhao Shihu's Xiandu Garden, Beihai Twenty-Four, etc. are all outstanding puppets." "No, I remember Mozi who made the wooden kite, right?" Zhuo Anjie turned her head suspiciously. It is indeed recorded in "Huainanzi" that Mozi once used wood as a kite, and it took three years to build it, but it took only one day to lose it.But senior sister, don’t forget that it was said in "Mozi·Lu Wen" that "Gongshuzi cut bamboo into a magpie, and when it was formed, it flew for three days. Even Mozi himself admitted that the wooden kite or bamboo magpie was made by Lu Ban. Does the senior sister still want to fight for the old man? " "You know a lot..." Zhuo Anjie curled her lips, then smiled again, "But you liked these things very much when you were young. I remember you made a wood otter to catch fish when you were eight years old. In the otter's mouth There is bait, and there are stones in the otter's belly. After the wooden otter sinks into the water, once a fish enters the otter's mouth to eat the bait, it will trigger the mechanism, and the stone will be separated from the otter's belly, and the wooden otter will surface with the fish. At first I I'm kidding you, who knew that wooden otter was really easy to use. It only took half a day to catch more than a dozen fish..." "Yes, I still remember those fish were eaten by the senior sister..." "You don't like to eat it Fish, why can't I eat it?" Zhuo Anjie gave him a sideways look. "Senior sister has eaten all the food, what are you talking about?" Yun Jisang has long been accustomed to her senior sister's trickery and strong words. "But since then, you don't play with those things anymore, I always feel it's a pity..." Zhuo Anjie sighed.She knew very well why Yunjisang stopped playing tricks.When he was nine years old, he read the story of Lu Ban's death of his mother due to a coincidence in "Lunheng Confucian Zengpian".Lu Ban made a mechanism carriage, and used a wooden figure as a coachman to drive his mother out. However, something went wrong with the mechanism, and the wooden figure carried the carriage and never returned. Lu Ban lost his mother.Thinking of Yun Jisang's life experience, she couldn't help but sigh sadly. Xiao Minghuan curiously ran to the guide puppet, pulled up its lapel and looked at the bottom, then ran back, disappointed: "Xifu, it has no feet, and there are three wheels tied underneath." "It's just a puppet. Puppets naturally don't have feet." Yun Jisang smiled slightly. "Then...does it have a heart?" Ming Huan asked curiously again. "How can a puppet have a heart?" Yun Jisang sighed softly, "If it had a heart, how could it be willing to be someone else's puppet?" Ming Huan nodded thoughtfully, and looked at the leader with pity Puppet: "Without a heart, isn't it so pitiful..." In front of a vermilion curved corridor, the guide puppet stopped, stiffly raised its right hand, and pointed to the south. In the vast mountain mist, more than a dozen pavilions flicker, scattered among the mountains, with white walls and black tiles hidden in the mountains of Qingdai, as quiet as the ancient sea of ​​consciousness of this figurine mountain. "Puppet School, an ancient school that has been passed down for thousands of years..." Zhuo Anjie said softly.