Chapter 277 Lantern Ritual
"Am I the only one who has it?"
Lin Jue looked carefully and saw that not only his own room, but also the door of his junior sister's room, the door of Mr. Luo's room, and even the door of the attic had Spring Festival couplets pasted on them.
Luo Gong's room is on his right, and in front of the door is written:
The people are safe and the country is prosperous;
May the weather be good and the harvest be favorable to usher in a prosperous new year.
Banner: Peace in the world
"Um……"
Lin Jue looked at the couplets and was deep in thought.
Then he turned his head and looked to the other side.
The room of the junior sister is seldom occupied. On the left side of her room, in front of the door is written:
The years of youth are here every year;
Your cultivation of Taoism will improve step by step.
Horizontal banner: Immortality
"Ok?"
Lin Jue smiled again.
Now it is confirmed that the Spring Festival couplets pasted for them by the two "foxes" in the yard were probably not pasted casually. At least they were put up after some consideration and are more or less in line with them.
As for why they posted this Spring Festival couplet for the junior sister, it was probably because they were chatting while eating in the yard and they heard it.
Lin Jue walked to the attic again.
What it says is:
The spring rain moistens everything;
The crabapple blossoms dot the mountains.
Horizontal banner: Spring is in the air
"Ah……"
Lin Jue laughed out loud and turned to look at the crabapple tree in the yard.
The crabapple has not bloomed yet.
As I said before, the "fox" in people's mouths, like the "dragon" in people's mouths in the past, is not necessarily a real fox. It is because people like foxes and worship fox spirits, so when they see some unknown spirits with the ability to change, they call them "foxes" whenever they appear in cities, mountains, forests, and villages. If they are related to water, fog, and clouds, they are called "dragons".
Lin Jue had not carefully investigated what these two were, but his fox always ran to the crabapple tree on the first day it arrived and stared at the tree with interest. Lin Jue knew that even if these two were not spirits of the crabapple tree in the yard, they must be related to it.
If it is really a crabapple tree, this couplet would be a bit narcissistic.
Anyway, we need to thank them anyway.
"Thank you very much." Lin Jue said to the attic, "I was just worrying about what to write for this year's couplets. Your calligraphy is much better than our brothers and sisters."
Naturally, there was no response.
Lin Jue looked at his junior sister again.
"I've already thanked you." The little sister thought he was urging her to thank him along with him.
"Did you eat breakfast?"
"Eat it! It's a boiled egg!" the little sister said, raising her hand, holding an egg in her hand, and handed it to Lin Jue, "It's still hot!"
Lin Jue took the egg and rolled it on his face. He felt a little sleepy at first, but now he felt much better. He said:
"Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Let's go out for a walk and have a bowl of wontons."
"Be diligent and frugal and you will have many more years to live!"
"How much do wontons cost? Let's go! Call Luo Gong!"
"go!"
The junior sister was easily persuaded by him, and since she was now wealthy, she turned around and followed him in a hurry.
Call Mr. Luo and go out together.
Just as he reached the door, he suddenly ran into Mr. Pan.
Mr. Pan was still a little damp and cold, holding two perch in his hands. He was surprised to see Lin Jue, but he was obviously looking for Lin Jue and the other two, so he immediately bowed to them:
"I haven't come to pay my respects to you for a long time. Today I come to say Happy New Year to my three benefactors!"
Then he handed over the two fish in his hand:
"I just caught a perch from the river this morning. It means abundance every year. I dedicate it to my three benefactors."
"Too polite."
Lin Jue felt helpless about this.
Luo Seng took the two fish.
At the same time, he looked at Mr. Pan, who was still dressed as a fisherman and was wet, and couldn't help asking, "I heard that Mr. Pan has rarely come back these days. I wonder what he is busy with outside?"
"It's nothing. I'm just taking care of Mr. Pan's old mother and looking for some things in the river." Mr. Pan said.
"What are you looking for?"
The three of them looked at him in confusion.
"It's a long story." Lord Pan stood where he was, not afraid of the cold and dampness on his body, and said to them, "The Nine Heavens Fairyland has divided the world's mountains and rivers into gods. Anyone with a name and surname needs to collect three things to control the things in the mountains and rivers like the innate gods. These are the priesthood, the seal, and the ritual vessel. None of them can be missing."
"go on."
"Although I was plotted against by the Alligator Dragon King, the Heaven did not remove my divine position, so the divine position and position are still in my hands, but the ritual vessel and the seal are all lost. My three benefactors, oh, and this Fuyao Immortal, after the four of you got rid of the Alligator Dragon King, I went to his cave to look for it, and found my seal in a secret place, but the ritual vessel is still missing. According to my perception, it is still in the Weishui River and has not gone far away, but I have been looking for it for half a year and have not found it."
"What does the ritual vessel look like?" Luo Seng asked, "Let's see if we have seen it in the cave of the Crocodile King."
"Wei Shuihe's ritual vessel is a lantern."
"lantern?"
The three of them couldn't help but look at each other.
The fox also looked thoughtful.
"That lantern looks no different from an ordinary lantern. It is very plain and is hung by a wooden stick. If it were just a lantern, apart from being able to see a person's five qi under the reflection of the lantern, and ordinary people being able to move freely in the water with the lantern, it has no other use. It requires the use of seals and priesthood to control the water of the Weishui River." Mr. Pan continued, "I have already died once, and I just want to get the ritual vessel back so that I am no longer bound by the Nine Heavens and can truly benefit the people. Alas, I shouldn't say anything else. This is my only chance to return to my position as a god." The three continued to look at each other.
It was just a casual chat. It was New Year's Day and people were saying hello with gifts, so it was not right to say a few words of courtesy. Unexpectedly, we ended up talking about something they knew.
But Lin Jue's first focus was: "Can we see the five auras of a person under the illumination of the lantern?"
"Yes. All gods with higher positions either have the ability to see people's five qi, or have such magical instruments and rituals, so that they can distinguish good from evil when dealing with people." Pan Gong nodded, "But it also requires that the five qi of the gods and monsters holding the ritual instruments are not mixed. If the five qi of the gods and monsters themselves are mixed, no matter what means they use, they will not be able to see the five qi of people."
"Can a cultivator see it?"
"If you haven't achieved enlightenment, you can see everything."
"Haha! I see!"
It turned out that the Wei girl relied on this lantern to determine that they were not here to celebrate the birthday of the Crocodile King, but to see him off at his funeral.
As a result, she saw through the intentions of the three of them earlier than she originally thought.
“Interesting and interesting…”
Lin Jue turned his head and glanced at Luo Seng. Seeing that Luo Seng didn't know, he explained to him:
"It is said that people have five qi: pure wood means benevolence, pure fire means courtesy, pure metal means righteousness, pure water means wisdom, pure earth means thought. When all five qi are pure, one has all the virtues of a saint. When wood is turbid, one is weak, when fire is turbid, one is lustful, when metal is turbid, one is violent, when water is turbid, one is greedy, when earth is turbid, one is stubborn. When all five qi are turbid, one is inferior to the people. It is said that many spirits can tell whether a person is good or evil precisely because of the five qi."
Is Mr. Luo a foolish person?
But it's been a while since we last met.
As soon as he heard it, his first thought was that the Wei woman acted very cautiously. Before coming out of the water, she used the lantern to illuminate them, to see their five qi, to distinguish their good and evil, and only after making a rough judgment did she dare to run out to meet them. And she cleverly used her appearance to create an atmosphere, making people feel that she first extended the lantern out of the water as a habit or ritual of the gods, and people would not suspect that the lantern had any other purpose.
But then Luo Seng immediately thought of——
Since the Wei girl used this to see the five energies of herself and the others, she might not be able to fully understand the character of the three of them, but she certainly knew that the three of them were not as they pretended to be.
So she already knew that the three of them were lying when she met them for the first time, and she even went on board and talked with them afterwards. In fact, she was just watching their performance the whole time.
How did this woman stay so calm throughout the whole process? She didn't even notice the flaw.
"Ha ha!"
Luo Gong couldn't help laughing out loud.
The junior sister's expression became strange.
"What are you laughing at, my benefactors?"
"It's nothing. It's inconvenient to say. It's inconvenient to say." Luo Gong said while holding the fish.
"Mr. Luo is right. Although it is harmless and quite interesting, it is not a glorious thing." Lin Jue, like Mr. Luo, did not think it was a big deal. Instead, he recalled it with interest. "The fun in this can only be savored by us slowly."
The junior sister didn't say anything.
When she first heard it and thought about it, she felt a little embarrassed, but she was not the only one who experienced that embarrassing thing, and an open-minded emotion was contagious, just like a smile. Seeing that the two people around her who had also experienced that embarrassing thing were laughing, she scratched her head and started laughing too.
"Oh, Mr. Pan." Luo Seng held up the fish. "Since we have accepted your fish and eaten your bacon yesterday, we are grateful for your kindness. Now that we know the whereabouts of your gift, we can repay you for giving us the fish and meat. As for whether you can find it and get the gift back from her, it depends on your ability."
"This……"
When Mr. Pan heard the first half of the sentence, he was very frightened and wanted to refuse, but when he heard the second half, he was stunned.
His body was shaking, and he bowed.
"Please give me some advice."
"Since you are the god of the Wei River, you naturally know that there is a little god in the Wei River, named Wei Nu, right?" Luo Seng said.
"is her?"
Mr. Pan's body trembled again.
In the past, he was the god of the Weishui River. Regardless of his abilities, all the lesser gods in the Weishui River were considered his subordinates. It's just that matters between gods are not as strict as those in the human world.
"So it was her. No wonder I couldn't find her." Pan Gong murmured to himself. After a moment, he bowed to the three people and said, "Thank you three benefactors."
"Since it's already been paid back, there's no need to thank us. It's a compensation. We only said one sentence." Luo Seng said, "Although we don't have any friendship with that Wei girl, we have dealt with her before. So if you can't beat her, don't ask us for help."
"Natural, natural."
Mr. Pan kept muttering to himself, bowing his head repeatedly, and then left quickly. No one knew whether he returned to the courtyard or went out again.
The three of them stood at the door and looked at his back.
Lin Jue asked, "Mr. Luo, who do you think will win in a fight between these two?"
Luo Gong thought for a long time, then shook his head:
"Hard to say."
This Mr. Pan naturally had the advantage of being the god of the Wei River, but both of them had their own advantages.
If I stand here and think roughly, it seems that I have already made up a drama of fighting for the throne of God in my mind, and no matter who is the protagonist, it seems to be a wonderful story.
"I'll take this fish back and put it in a water tank. It's up to the Taoist priest to decide how to eat it."
Luo Seng didn't think too much and walked back to the yard with the fish. Not long after, he came out again and accompanied the two of them outside to eat a bowl of wontons.
Probably something that happened last night, some words were written on the white wall near the gate, mostly poems, mostly about fireworks and New Year's sceneries. The characters were of different sizes, scattered horizontally and vertically, and quite casual, but each line was beautifully written. Even Lin Jue's words from last night, "There are a thousand good things to happen to this night on earth, but it's not as good as getting drunk and sleeping around the fire," were included.
It seems that these two people really like poetry.
The three of them admired it for a while before leaving.
Unexpectedly, just as he walked to the wonton stall, he ran into Master Fan who had returned. He told him that the Five Elements Magic had been delivered to his doorstep.
……
Today's leave request is updated↓
(End of this chapter)
