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Chapter 300 The Last Watchman

The people in the opera troupe are all ordinary people, unlike cultivators who do not need sleep.

Therefore, this caravan traveled frequently, stopping frequently during the day and resting at night. If they came across an inn, they would stay there; if not, they could make do with makeshift shelters to get through the night.

While everyone else was asleep at night, Ji You would go to a secluded spot nearby to continue breathing in spiritual energy to refine himself.

Day after day, the opera troupe's carriages traveled an incredibly long journey and finally returned to Pingyang County.

Pingxi County is located in the southeast of Yunzhou, not in the mining area.

The local people still make a living by farming, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

When the opera troupe returned to the county town, a spring rain began to fall, and from a distance, the scene was shrouded in mist and rain.

As soon as they entered the city, the four carriages, which had been traveling a long way, began to slow down slowly and finally stopped in front of a courtyard with a plaque that read "Fengxian Opera Troupe".

The men and women jumped off the vehicle and began unloading their luggage.

They were busy until noon when the spring rain subsided a little, and one of the carriages headed east.

Two hours later, the troupe leader, carrying wine and meat, appeared on a side street with the young actresses and martial arts performers of the troupe.

Along the street, there were wooden frames everywhere, and houses were undergoing repairs. Some had collapsed courtyard walls, which had been mostly repaired, while others had collapsed roofs and were completely abandoned.

Ji You followed behind them, her gaze sweeping over the houses.

"Is the repair work only just beginning after the snow disaster?"

"Young master, you are also aware of the snow disaster?"

Ji You nodded: "I've probably heard some of it."

The troupe leader couldn't help but sigh softly: "We took on a job and ended up stuck in Qingzhou, unable to return home. We were anxious all winter when we learned that our hometown had been severely affected by the disaster. Fortunately, all of our family members were rescued."

Who provided the money for the repairs?

"I don't know about that. Our family doesn't have an old house in the city. We've always lived in Xujiakou outside the city. It was only after that snow disaster that we realized that living in the city was safer than living outside the city. So we took out our savings from many years and bought some dilapidated houses in the city that the original owner didn't want to repair anymore."

The troupe leader stepped through a muddy patch and stopped in front of a courtyard gate: "We've arrived."

Ji You looked up and saw a courtyard with blue-gray tiles: "Although it is remote, it is quite large."

"It was bought by our opera troupe with pooled money. After we bought it, we immediately hired someone to renovate it so that it could be used for the care of our elders. My uncles and aunts all live here, and my great-master is also here."

As the troupe leader spoke, he led everyone through the door.

In the courtyard, two middle-aged men with graying hair were wiping some old jade belt opera costumes.

Upon seeing the members of the opera troupe rush in, the two looked up and smiled.

"came back?"

"Senior Uncle, Senior Uncle, we're back! Where's Master?"

"Your master went to take on other work. How was your trip?"

"I sang for eight days, but for some reason, the employer didn't let me sing at the last performance..."

The young actress looked at the troupe leader who responded, bit her lip, and swallowed her guess that the Lang family patriarch had come back from the dead.

The troupe leader handed the wine and meat in his hand to the older man: "Uncle-Master, how is Grandmaster now?"

"He seems to be in good spirits and eating well. He's been saying these past few days why you guys haven't come back yet, and now he's finally here. Hey, who is that...?"

"Oh, by the way, Uncle and Master, I brought a friend with me this time."

The troupe leader's senior uncles had already seen Ji You, and after staring at her for a long time, they finally came to their senses: "Your friend...?"

The troupe leader nodded: "I met this young man on the road. He was very interested in our play about the immortal saving the world and wanted to know what happened next. I didn't know the details either, so he wanted to come and see his great master."

Just then, an old man with white hair and beard walked out of the main hall opposite the main entrance.

He held a bamboo cane in his hand, shakily stepped over the threshold, and glanced outside.

It's rare for a person to live to seventy, but this old man does look quite energetic, although his legs and feet are a bit unsteady.

"Wencai is back..."

"Grandmaster, we're back."

Upon seeing this, the troupe leader immediately went to greet him, explained what had happened on the trip, and then whispered a few words in the old man's ear.

As the old man listened, he glanced up at Ji You twice: "For a play?"

After hearing the master's hoarse voice asking the question, the troupe leader nodded: "I could tell he had no other purpose. He only asked about opera the whole way. He seems to be an opera fan, so I took the liberty of calling him over."

The Grand Master looked at Ji You for a long time, then coughed lightly twice: "Please invite him into the front hall."

"Young master, my master invites you to the front hall."

The troupe leader turned around and called out.

Ji You bowed and thanked him, then walked towards the grandmaster and followed him into the front hall.

The female lead and the male lead had already sat down in the courtyard. Seeing Ji You walk towards the front hall, they looked somewhat confused.

On their journey from Zhongzhou to Yunzhou, they had become quite familiar with Ji You, knowing that he had come for the story of that play.

But in their view, their troupe always kept its rules very strictly, so this person was likely to make a wasted trip.

To their surprise, the young master was indeed invited inside.

The front hall has fairly good natural lighting, so even though the weather is a bit gloomy today, the house is still quite bright.

The elderly Grand Master gestured for Ji You to sit down, and tremblingly tried to serve him tea, but Ji You waved him off, instead brewing himself a cup of tea.

"The old man is in good health."

"I'm just an old man, there's not much I can do anymore. I just heard Wensheng say that you are very interested in our play."

Ji You nodded while holding her teacup: "I've been asking around for a long time. I've heard of shadow puppetry and sanxian storytelling, but they're all just stories without a beginning or an end. It wasn't until I listened to a few plays by our troupe a few days ago that I gradually started to understand them."

The frail old man remained silent for a long while: "Young master, you've come all this way, I wonder what it is about this play that you're curious about?"

Ji You's initial explanation to the troupe leader was that he wanted to know what the final play was about, but now it's clear that his explanation is rather clumsy.

No one would travel all the way from Zhongzhou to Yunzhou just because of the content of the last play.

After pondering for a while, Ji You said, "I seem to have some connection with the people in the story. There are some things I want to ask them, but many people don't know. I happened to hear a few words while listening to a story at a teahouse, and that's how I've been investigating all this way."

"So, young master is looking for the people in the story, but I only know the person who wrote the story."

"The storyteller may also be a person. May I ask, sir, where did he hear this story from?"

The troupe's grandmaster spoke in a hoarse voice: "My grandmaster was once saved by a fairy when he was a child, and this story is based on that fairy."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ji You raised an eyebrow.

He had already made a mental assumption before he came: the older generation of the opera troupe might not know the origin of the story, or they might only know it from hearsay.

If that's the case, he doesn't plan to investigate any further.

Because no matter what, he has embarked on this path of body refinement, and no matter how far it leads, he must continue on it.

But he never expected that he would actually find the source of the story.

Thinking of this, Ji You recalled the boy character in the opera.

That character had very few lines and didn't seem to have much use. He had never appeared in other operas, yet he was not cut from their troupe's play.

Now it seems my hunch was right. That character was probably one of the ancestors of this opera troupe.

After pondering for a long time, Ji You came to her senses: "Besides the content in the play, did the old man's great master say anything else about this immortal?"

The old man remained silent for a while before saying, "I can tell you about my great-grandfather's life."

"Alright."

"My great-grandfather's name is Cui Rong."

In the drizzling rain, the old man spoke slowly in a hoarse and weak voice.

His great-grandfather was named Cui Rong, an orphan who begged everywhere and lived with many other children of similar backgrounds, mingling among all sorts of people.

Having barely survived to a certain age, these children, in order to fill their stomachs, followed a few older children into the casino.

It is said that those older children are very clever and have a natural talent for gambling; at such a young age, their gambling skills are already extraordinary.
So some people were responsible for stealing, and some were responsible for gambling, and they were still able to make ends meet.

But then one day, they didn't stop in time and won too much, which caught the attention of the casino's bookmaker, and they almost lost their lives.

At that critical moment, the children were saved by an old man radiating divine light.

Unlike the story of the wandering savior in that play, this old man was not just passing through; in fact, he was a regular at that casino.

Cui Rong often bumped into him at the card table, only knowing that he looked shabby, had terrible gambling skills, and sometimes even reneges on his debts, but never imagined that he was a celestial being.

Upon hearing this, Ji You frowned slightly: "As far as I know, cultivators can use their divine sense to see through the dice cup."

The troupe's master paused slightly: "I don't know the details of this matter, but that's how the story goes, and I'm just trying to recount it in as much detail as possible." "Please continue, sir."

"it is good."

The old man picked up his teacup, took a sip, and continued speaking.

The rescued children were not grateful to the old sage; instead, they took advantage of the chaos to escape.

This is not because they are ungrateful at a young age, but because their parents were almost all beaten to death because of taxes.

Therefore, even if they were saved by immortals, they still harbored wariness and hatred towards cultivators.

But little did they know that the immortal was not a proper immortal; he kept pestering Cui Rong and several other children, wanting to become his apprentices and learn gambling.

Upon hearing this, Ji You's lips twitched, and an image flashed in his mind of an old man with a sage-like demeanor chasing after a group of poor children, asking them to become his disciples.

If this story is true, then this Night's Watchman was truly unrestrained and dissolute.

"and after?"

"Then they started to take advantage of each other."

"?"

“My great-grandmaster and the others were not very old at the time. Although they were skilled gamblers, they were worried that they would be beaten again if they went to the casino. So they had the idea of ​​using the immortal for each other.”

Ji You nodded, thinking to himself that a child living alone in a chaotic world may be illiterate, but his ability to assess situations is extremely high.

The rest of the story unfolded naturally. According to the grandmaster, the immortal got together with these children and met them at the casino every day.

The old immortal protected them and acted as their bodyguard, while the children received practical lessons and were under his protection.

Over time, the group became quite familiar with each other.

The children gradually realized that the immortal who accompanied them to the gambling den every day seemed different from other immortals; he wasn't as aloof and superior, and they gradually got used to his presence.

Then the children learned from him that the old man's name was Cui Lang.

Upon hearing this, Ji You raised her eyes slightly: "You share the same surname as your great-grandfather?"

Grandmaster shook his head: "Back then, my grandmaster was called Gou Laba, not Cui Rong."

Upon hearing this, Ji You understood.

The writer of this play was an orphan who didn't have a proper name; he only had a humble name that made him easy to raise.

The reason he was later named Cui Rong was probably because he had grown up and was ready to start a family, so he wanted to have a name that he could say well.

The order is reversed; it's not because they happen to share the same surname, but because Cui Lang came first, and then Cui Rong.

Ji You came to her senses: "According to you, this person has always stayed nearby and has never moved. So where did the story in the play about leaving the mountain and traveling in the clouds come from?"

“Of course it was him who said it. My great-grandfather recalled this incident in his later years and said that the man loved to boast.”

The immortal named Cui Lang loved to boast, and he liked to ramble on about random things every day when he ate with the children.

He said that he had a very high level of cultivation, which made his fellow disciples very jealous. Everyone wanted to take what he deserved, and they would get angry when they couldn't get what they wanted.

He also boasted that he had slain demons and guarded the night, which allowed them to survive.

The children didn't believe it, but they knew in their hearts that he must be a good person.

And so, year after year, day after day, they lived a stable and peaceful life, and during that time they also took in many other orphans without parents and lived together.

Ji You opened his mouth after hearing this: "Jealousy among fellow disciples?"

The grandmaster nodded: "Not bad."

"That's not how it's portrayed in the play."

"Plays sung for immortals should naturally be written in a positive light. How dare we mortals sing about things that immortals fight over?"

"Did Cui Lang ever say what the night is?"

Grandmaster shook his head: "Back then, my grandmaster and the others were young and inexperienced. They thought he was just talking about the night. No one thought of anything else. It wasn't until they were adults that they realized that what he said back then might have been something else."

After listening for a long time, Ji You finally spoke softly, "And then what happened?"

"Later, my great-grandfather and the children who depended on him for survival gradually grew up..."

"?"

According to the old man, the rest of the story did indeed become rather mundane.

His grandmaster and the other children gradually grew up. The children who were initially in charge of gambling got married, started their own families, and moved out to live elsewhere.

Dog Laba was introduced to a marriage, and for this reason, he named himself Cui Rong and left the courtyard where they lived together.

But now that you've started a family, you still have to support it.

He didn't have any good skills, but fortunately the girl he married was originally the daughter of a fallen county official, and she could read some words, so he began to write storybooks.

His storybooks were basically based on stories that Cui Lang had told, and were gradually compiled into books by the two of them from a first-person perspective.

Later, they came up with the idea of ​​establishing a theatrical troupe.

At first, the opera troupe was very small, and it took them a long time to gradually take over the business of burying immortals.

Perhaps it was because the immortals liked it that his lineage has been passed down for hundreds of years without interruption, and he has also taken in many disciples, which have been passed down to this day.

During this century, some traditional Chinese storytelling, shadow puppetry, and other forms of entertainment have also drawn inspiration from their stories.

Ji You was somewhat bewildered after hearing this: "Where's Cui Lang? Why is he suddenly no longer involved?"

The grandmaster remained silent for a long time before saying, "Cui Lang is dead."

"died?"

"I don't remember the exact date, but I do remember my great-master saying it was a summer day with thunder. Cui Lang suddenly said he was leaving for a while and then disappeared. About half a year later, my great-master and the others found a lot of bloodstains in the courtyard, with his money bag soaking in the blood."

"My master said that there was a boy named Badger in their group. He saw that the old immortal's money bag was beautifully sewn and made of good materials, so he wanted to ask him for it. The old immortal said that he would leave it to him when he was about to die. Later, I thought that he must have come back when he was about to die."

Upon hearing this, Ji You felt her head buzzing.

Since the Night Watchmen are capable of guarding Qingyun, they must be highly skilled.

If he really died, then many important things must have happened in those six months when he was gone forever.

Does he have any disciples?

The grandmaster shook his head after hearing this: "His lineage is already extinct..."

Ji You opened her mouth: "How did you know about this?"

"My master said that the old immortal once told them that it was extremely difficult for his lineage to accept disciples, and that they needed to search slowly. He also said that if they could not find a suitable one, they would choose one from among them. He probably never expected that he would suddenly pass away."

"He died in the night?"

After a long silence, the grandmaster finally spoke: "My grandmaster believes he died at the hands of the Immortal Sect..."

Ji You was slightly taken aback, revealing a hint of confusion.

“Back then, my great-grandfather took in many disciples, but only our lineage has survived. That’s because one of my senior uncles sang a song called ‘Immortal Fall’ after going out to take on a job. Before he could finish, he was killed by people from the Immortal Sect. My great-grandfather then realized that someone was preventing the news of his death from spreading.”

"So your great-master removed the character's identity from the play and stubbornly refused to perform the last play."

"Yes, after that incident, my master changed the play to something completely different. He never mentioned certain things about his identity again, and only risked passing them down when he was about to die. This became the rule. I think my master didn't know what the point of passing them down was, but he still hoped that someone would remember him."

Ji You came to her senses: "The old man wouldn't even pass on such a risky thing to his apprentices, but he told me as soon as I asked him."

The frail old man spoke shakily, "I find the young master's face familiar..."

"Forget about what happened today. I've never been here, and you've never known anything about Cui Lang."

"I will obey the immortal's decree..."

The opera troupe has its own rules: keep your ears closed, cover your eyes, guard your words, and keep your heart calm.

So even though they recognized Ji You from the beginning, they never said anything.

But though they understood each other without words, neither the old man nor the senior disciples outside the door had forgotten the image of the immortal who led people to relieve disasters everywhere during the Xinyuan era.

Ji You strolled outside and glanced at the gloomy sky where thunder could be faintly heard.

Throughout his journey, the more he investigated, the more confused he became. He had accumulated a bellyful of questions before arriving here, and now he finally received the answers from the old man.

The Night's Watch was truly all alone.

He might not have gone to the gambling den for money, but simply to relieve his loneliness, just as he didn't seek out those children to learn gambling, but rather to find someone to talk to.

The boy following the night watchman was either Choi Rong, the playwright, or one of the group of orphans.

The final scene is only passed down after the older generation has died, because some people don't want this story to be passed down.

To his surprise, the Night's Watch had long since died out.

(End of this chapter)