Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 80 We are meeting so soon?

"Let me go first." Ren Yuan was simply disgusted. How could such a person be the emperor?
"I'll let you go if you promise me." Chen Baxian acted like a rogue.

"Let go..." Ren Yuan reached out to pry his arm apart.

"Don't let go!" Chen Baxian held him tightly.

As a result, Ren Yuan's arms, which were able to break stones and split rocks, were unable to bend Chen Baxian's arms.

Ren Yuan had no choice but to use a Five Ghosts Moving Talisman to throw Chen Baxian onto the paddle wheel behind the stern of the ship.

With more than 100 kilograms of weight pressed on it, the paddle wheel began to turn slowly. Chen Baxian hurriedly used his hands and feet to climb up, but the more he climbed, the faster it turned, but the faster it turned, the faster he had to climb, and he became a hamster running wildly in a cage.

"Brother, I was wrong. Please spare my life. I will never dare to touch you again." He quickly begged for mercy loudly: "This is not a joke. If I drown, I will never wake up again."

Ren Yuan wanted to warn him not to get carried away. After admiring him for a while, he said slowly, "I can let you get on board, but there must be three rules."

"Tell me, I'll do whatever you want." Chen Baxian shouted hurriedly.

"Just three. First, you must not reveal any secrets related to this ship."

"Of course, of course. How can we let anyone know about our brother's life-saving treasure?"

"Second, don't look for each other in reality unless we both agree."

"Oh, I see."

"Third, I am the owner of this ship. When you are on this ship, you must listen to me and not act on your own." Ren Yuan said in a deep voice: "If you agree, come up. If you don't agree, your wood from yesterday is still there."

"I agree, I agree to everything." Chen Baxian was almost exhausted and dared not bargain.

Before he finished speaking, his eyes blurred and he returned to the deck. While stretching his sore limbs, he gave Ren Yuan a thumbs up and said, "Brother, what a great move you made. It's amazing."

"It's just a trifle." Ren Yuan was a little puzzled and asked, "Have you never seen the Five Ghosts Moving Talisman?"

"Talisman? This is the first time I've heard of it." Chen Baxian shook his head.

"Well, you are even more ignorant than me." Ren Yuan said speechlessly: "Do you also live in the deep mountains and forests?"

"Don't talk nonsense. My home is on the shore of Taihu Lake, a key point between the north and the south. I am absolutely well-informed. There is nothing in the world that I don't know!" Chen Baxian patted his chest and said proudly.

"But you've never heard of talismans?" Ren Yuan was quite surprised. He always thought that only a Taoist priest could draw talismans.

Well, he had never seen a Taoist priest...

Chen Baxian thought about it carefully again and shook his head again, "I have indeed never heard of this thing. If you insist, it is the armor horse popular in Beijing, which is somewhat similar to the... talisman you are using, but it is definitely not the same thing."

"What's the difference?" Ren Yuan asked curiously. He had seen the magical horse and armor used by Xie Gui, and its magical power was even greater than the talisman he drew.

Of course, the senior sister said that their school had five grades of talismans: gold, silver, purple, blue and yellow. Before, he could only draw yellow talismans.

"The difference is significant." Chen Baxian explained, "I heard that Jiama is a hand-painted statue of a god. If the person who gets it worships it devoutly, he can borrow some of the god's power at a critical moment. But you can draw it directly out of thin air with your finger and it works. It's really amazing!"

"Is that so?" Ren Yuan nodded. That was indeed a big difference. In fact, he had also seen the evil-suppressing talismans that Xie County Magistrate used to seal the six jars. They were genuine Taoist talismans. So he felt that there might indeed be fewer people who could draw talismans, but they shouldn't be as evil as Chen Baxian said.

But he said vaguely: "Actually it's almost the same, maybe just called differently in different places."

"Oh." Chen Baxian nodded doubtfully, then asked with a smile: "Brother, what's on your mind? Just speak up like a man, it's so uncomfortable to keep it in your heart."

"You figured it out again?" Ren Yuan said calmly.

"Persevere to the end, there will be a way!" Chen Baxian imitated him and shouted with clenched fists.

"..." Ren Yuan thought, how could I have forgotten this? He was about to change the subject, but then he thought, since he was going to go out and find out anyway, why not ask this 'well-informed person' first?
So he asked, "I was just about to ask Brother Chen, do you know where to find a Taoist priest?"

"Now that there are no Taoist temples, where are the Taoists?" Chen Baxian laughed and said, "They all changed their careers. Some became Feng Shui masters, some became doctors, and some shaved their heads and ran to the temples to become monks. Do you think they are pitiful?"

"Even if I don't become a Taoist priest anymore, my previous memories and abilities won't all be erased, right?" Ren Yuan said softly.

"You are right." Chen Baxian shook his head and said, "About ten years ago, the emperor summoned Taoist priests from all over the country to the capital to perform a ritual for the dead in Fushan Weir. As a result, all those Taoist priests who had achieved great success in their practice had their heads shaved overnight, converted to Buddhism, and completely forgot their past."

“Fuck…” Ren Yuan was numb after hearing this. Why does it have to be so big? How can we newbies play with it?

But then I thought, if it weren't for this, Master probably wouldn't have hidden in the mountains, right? I wouldn't have been able to learn such a rare talisman...right?

"All the Taoists remember nothing?" he asked.

"That's not the case," Chen Baxian shook his head and said, "After all, those who were able to enter the capital at that time were all well-known senior masters, famous Taoist priests, and their direct descendants. However, the cats and dogs who stayed in the temple to look after the house, although they did not lose their memories, they also lost their inheritance. What's the difference between that and being useless?"

"..." Ren Yuan's heart sank, knowing that it would be difficult to find a master through the Taoist priest.

He asked without any hope: "Then do you know where to cure the corpse king poison?"

"Don't tell me, I really know it!" Chen Baxian slapped his thigh and said, "I heard that there is a centuries-old immortal living in seclusion in our Taihu Lake. If you can ask him to give you an elixir, you can bring the dead back to life and cure any poison."

"Is this true?" Ren Yuan looked at Chen Baxian suspiciously. "Why does it sound so cliché?"

"What good would it do me to lie to you?" Chen Baxian spread his hands and said speechlessly, "If I say I don't know, you won't throw me off the boat."

"That's true..." Ren Yuan nodded. Although he still felt it was a little unreliable, he had to try his best at this time. Even if he didn't succeed, it would be easier to get information in a big city.

After pondering for a moment, he asked, "How do I find this old immortal?"

"Come to Changxing County in Wuxing Commandery to find me, and I'll take you there as a way to repay you for saving my life." Chen Baxian patted his chest and asked with a smile, "If we go both ways, it doesn't count as a violation of the second rule, right?"

"Not really." Ren Yuan said in a muffled voice. He didn't expect that they would be dating offline so soon.

"Haha, good. When you get to the county, just ask any woman. There is no one who doesn't know me." Chen Baxian then warned, "Don't ask a man, or you will bear the consequences yourself."

"..."Ren Yuan was speechless.

(End of this chapter)