Lantern: Reflection of the Peach Blossoms

The tide of time hit the reef and made a roar.

In the vast empty space, Yan Lanyu curled up her body with all her strength, gasped tremblingly, and hit her forehead hard on her knees amidst the severe pain and desperate tearing.

Why is it me?

Why make me relive all this? !

The ugly past has been buried deep in the soul, why do you have to cruelly dig it out and show it to your heart's content? !

His forehead was cut, and blood flowed down the bridge of his nose to his cheeks.His face twisted and convulsed, and he let out hoarse, sharp, and inhuman cries of pain.

let me out.

"—Let me out——!"

--boom! !

The huge body of the magic dragon swam past, and instantly swept off a row of vermillion pillars on the corridor outside the hall.

The column body crashed down and smashed into countless pieces on the ground. Several clergymen who came rushing stumbled and slipped, and were almost smashed to death by the wooden stakes coming from the sky.

As soon as Chuhe raised his hand, the wooden pillar that was about to fall behind him seemed to be lifted up by an invisible force, and slowly returned to its right position.

"Who are you?" The wizards couldn't see the magic dragon hovering above their heads, and they all stared at the boy in front of them in horror: "Why are you here, what are you doing?!"

Chuhe didn't answer, squinting and looking into the air.

I saw a ray of snow piercing the sky, unstoppable like a meteor, and then exploded into a dazzling glare!

"Maha!" Zhou Hui's roar overwhelmed everything, "What the hell are you holding!"

Zhou Hui's figure fell sharply, and he landed firmly with a bang. Huo Ran got up and said angrily, "The sword in this kid's hand is too open. He can summon wind and lightning directly from the sky. Do you know what it is?"

Chu He rubbed the center of his brows helplessly: "That is Tian Congyun, an ancient artifact that is said to be able to control the weather. Together with Yata Mirror and Qiong Gouyu, it is also known as Japan's three major national treasures... Hurry up and throw Maha back into the sea of ​​blood. Isn't it messy enough to just drop this dragon and then leave quickly?!"

Zhou Hui was furious: "Little bastard is too hateful! No, I want to grab his sword!"

Chuhe: "..."

The few wizards around were stunned, and immediately rushed up after a little quick reaction: "Where did you come from, to trespass on the inner palace that only His Royal Highness can enter?! Hurry up and get back!"

Zhou Hui immediately turned his head and asked in a low voice, "Really? Only the royal family can enter?"

Chuhe: "Almost, this is a place dedicated to the Japanese royal family. Yoshida Aida and the others should have sneaked in..."

"Hey?! Then shouldn't there be a lot of treasure here?!"

"Shut up!" Chu He was in a mess: "Don't make any more trouble at this time!"

The wizard almost died of anger, but the defense inside and outside the shrine did not rely on manpower. The clergy were extremely limited, and most of them were witches who were powerless.There are only a few of them on duty near the inner palace, and even if they call the police at this time, no one can be called, and there is nothing they can do.

"If you don't go out, don't blame us..."

Before the wizard finished speaking, suddenly an extremely thick lightning bolt descended from the sky in the night!

Maha's cold voice sounded in the burst of electricity: "You mortals, don't get out of here—!"

--boom!

At the very moment, Chuhe raised his hand in the air and pushed horizontally, a soft and turbulent force rolled up several wizards by their waists, and pushed them dozens of steps away in an instant.

At the same moment when the wizards barely landed, the electric current fell like a waterfall, splitting the place they occupied just now and the front door of the hall to pieces!

The wizards cried out in unison.Zhou Hui staggered a few steps in the violent shaking, almost being hit on the head, and couldn't help but cursed: "A dead child is too good at playing, right?"

Chu He snapped Zhou Hui's hand that was about to draw his sword, raised his other hand against the strong wind, and a string of pure blue beads flew out of his wrist instantly.Immediately afterwards, the Buddha beads shattered and transformed into a glazed dagger in the light, which was grasped by his slender fingers, and he waved his arms in the direction of Maha's attack.

The edge of the blade formed a fan-shaped blue light, brazenly going up against the wind, and smashed Tian Congyun in Maha's hand into the air with one blow!

This series of movements was so smooth and unstoppable that half of Maha's body was knocked back, and he said angrily, "Mother!"

"Stop making trouble." Chu He stretched out his hand to Maha, and said, "Come here, and I will take you back to the sea of ​​blood."

"No! Why do you all come to interfere with my actions?! Why do you all stand on the side of the human world?!"

Chuhe shook his head and said, "That's not the case. I know you want to compensate for the lack of godhood by devouring your soul..."

Chuhe still wanted to continue to reason, but at this moment, the Tiancongyun sword that flew out of the sky drew a bright arc, and suddenly drew countless intertwined electric sparks from the cloudy sky.

Immediately afterwards, the power grid criss-crossed, converging into a beam of lightning, lightly touching the blade pointing high into the sky.

Chuhe: "Huh?"

The accident happened suddenly, and everyone was attracted by this strange celestial phenomenon.Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the moment lightning touched the blade, it was like cold water being poured into a pot full of boiling oil, and the whole sky exploded with a bang!

"I told you a long time ago—!" Zhou Hui grabbed Chuhe's ear and yelled loudly: "You are still teaching Da Mao there, I told you that this sword is valuable! Grab it and use it yourself!"

Chuhe couldn't speak a word.

I saw the waterfall of current flowing straight down, like pouring down rain. In this magnificent light curtain that runs through the sky and the earth, the magic dragon finally showed its furious figure!

——If the body of the magic dragon was in a parallel space just now, and mortals could not see it with naked eyes, then under the rare celestial light, it has completely broken free from the shackles of the human and devil, and projected itself in the human world of the image.

The wizards opened their mouths wide and watched it show its figure in the sky. The dragon's head soared hundreds of meters into the air, its whole body entwined into mountains, and its huge tail even hung down to the ground.

"This... is this a dragon? Could it be a dragon?!" The wizards shook their heads and retreated tremblingly: "Why is the dragon here?!"

I saw that the magic dragon seemed a little anxious under the eyes of everyone, with a hill-like head cruising left and right, and three blood-red lantern-like vertical pupils slowly scanning the mid-air, as if looking for something.

And Maha, who was also in the air, didn't plan to pay attention to it at all.

King Peacock Ming didn't pay much attention to such inedible things.What's more, Zhou Hui was right in front of him, and his hatred for his father was enough to overshadow his concern for these shitty things about the Japanese. Even if this dragon kills everyone now, it's none of his business.

Maha just wanted to continue to deal with Zhou Hui, he turned around and swept towards Tian Congyunjian.

——However, at this moment, the eyes of the magic dragon in the sky suddenly had three pupils overlapped, and they looked at him in unison.

"..."

Maha felt something was wrong, he raised his head and looked at the dragon.

The wind rolled up his long silver hair, and his gaze was indifferent and inexplicable.At that moment, through King Peacock Ming's violent soul, the giant dragon seemed to sense a certain familiar aura, and suddenly raised its head to form an inverted U shape ready to go.

"...?"

This is to attack me?

Before Maha could react, the next moment, the giant dragon came down from the sky and knocked him flying with lightning speed!

"--what!"

Maha was caught off guard and flew across the waist, spurting a mouthful of silver-white blood all over the sky!

What the hell is this doing?Why did you find me all of a sudden? !

Maha couldn't figure out why the magic dragon suddenly aimed at him among so many people present, but it was too late to think about it.He hadn't recovered from the dizziness caused by the impact, and then the demon dragon opened its ferocious fangs, rushed towards him like a giant train, and smashed Maha from mid-air to the ground with one end!

With a loud bang, a huge crater with a diameter of several meters was smashed out of thin air.

Maha was lying at the bottom of the pit, and before he got up, he saw the giant scaled claws of the demon dragon screaming and stepping on his head amidst the dust!

——If it were a mortal, let alone his body being smashed to pieces, there would definitely be no bones left, and they would be turned into powder in an instant.

Peacock Daming King's anger rushed to the top of his head instantly.

He stood up shaking, opened his mouth and let out a long and sharp howl, and then he was suddenly exposed to golden light; his whole body was transformed in the golden light, and in the blink of an eye, he turned into a huge jewel-like peacock!

"What's going on here?" Chu He was about to step forward, but Zhou Hui grabbed him: "Wait, don't go!"

When Chuhe turned his head, he saw Zhou Hui squinting his eyes and looking carefully at the magic dragon that kept attacking, and said for a while, "It's not trying to attack Maha...it's looking for someone."

"--Find someone?"

"Hmm, he wants to find Yan Lanyu." Zhou Hui said, "Do you still remember that Maha used his own barrier to lock Yan Lanyu in?"

Chu He was startled.

The peacock spread its wings and tail feathers, and swept over the dragon with raging golden fire wrapped around it. Wherever it went, it immediately cut a long wound on the dragon's body.Black blood and scales rained down, but the peacocks dodged all of them, rushed forward and slammed seven inches into the dragon's body!

Bah!

The dragon's body was knocked several feet away, and the peacock took the opportunity to flap its wings and fly high into the sky.

The original fighting strength of Peacock King Ming could be described as berserk, and he was about to turn around and give the dragon a ruthless blow, but suddenly felt an extremely imperceptible shock deep in his heart.

This is……?

A trace of doubt flashed in Maha's eyes, followed by continuous vibrations from the nerve endings.

——He suddenly realized that it was an enchantment.

It was the enchantment set up by King Peacock Ming, which was shaken by the violent impact of the magic dragon, and then began to collapse.

In a different dimension, the world is like a collapsed house. At first, fine dust fell, then broken bricks and rubble, and finally the broken walls fell down like an earthquake.

With the process of the collapse of the different dimension, those memory images hidden in the depths of the soul were also broken, turned into thousands of fragments, and faded away like a tidal wave; Yan Lanyu let out an inaudible cry of pain amidst the loud noise, as if she was flying in the deep sea. Floating up, broke free from the boundless enchantment space with a crash!

At the end of the void above his head, a ray of white light leading to the real world finally appeared.

And at his feet, the last fragment of memory is spinning and falling into the abyss.

——18 years ago, Tokyo.

In an ordinary apartment house, the breeze wrapped in sunlight brushed through the curtains.In the cradle beside the bed, the baby is kicking its legs, with wide eyes, looking at the smiling young couple.

"Look, husband, he is smiling, he is smiling at me!"

"Be good, baby, come give Daddy a hug..."

The baby in the cradle was picked up, but for some unknown reason, he suddenly began to struggle without warning, making a babbling sound, and then burst into tears.

"Ah, what's going on? Did you pee?"

"Be good, baby, come to mommy to breastfeed..."

Ding Dong!

The doorbell rang, but at the same time the baby cried and struggled even harder, wailing with almost unimaginable force.The young father couldn't hold him at all, so he put the baby back in the cradle hastily, while the mother hurried to open the door.

At that moment, the baby reaches out to its mother, as if desperately trying to grab her.

However, he was too young, and his soft fingertips brushed against the corner of his mother's clothes without leaving any traces.

"Excuse me, are you... ah!"

"Wife! What's the matter with you, wife?! Who are you... Come quickly! Help, come quickly!"

There was an uproar, blood splashed everywhere, and the cries for help stopped abruptly, followed by the sound of a heavy object thumping to the bottom.

Several men in plain clothes stepped through the door, and the one at the head went straight to the cradle and looked at the baby.

"Hi," he said, "see you again."

The baby stopped crying, and a few drops of blood splashed on his swaddle, one of which was slowly flowing down his white and tender cheek.

The man's smiling face reflected in his dark pupils, it was really a familiar face.

——Tianyou Qizhi.

"It is a great fortune to see the king return in my lifetime."

Tianyou Qizhi bowed politely by the cradle, reached out to pick up the baby, turned around and said to his hands, "It's time to go back."

Those with extremely pure and strong souls can refine the soul of the world.

The soul of the yang soul died of injustice, and the soul returned to the world after going through endless hell, mountains of swords and seas of fire, is called the soul of the yin world.

The Yata mirror heart is capricious, and can illuminate both gods and ghosts; only those who have both yin and yang souls can serve.

The years are flickering, and the streamer passes by in a blink of an eye.

Five years later, Tantric sect.

The sun is like a golden yarn, and the cicadas in early summer resound through the tree-lined avenue.In front of the mansion full of the flavor of the Heian period, the bamboo tube was filled with water, and it was knocked on the moss-covered stone with a bang.

Tianer Qizhi stepped onto the corridor, blocked the golden sunlight with his hands, squinted his eyes and looked around.

"It's been a long time since I came here." Yoshida Aida sighed beside him, "I haven't set foot here since the head of the sect got sick and retreated. It's been several years..."

"Me too." Tianer Qizhi smiled.

"Hey, Senior Brother Tianyou, what do you think the Master Sect Master called us to come this time, what does it mean?"

Feeling the scorching eyes beside him, Tianyou Qizhi still had that smiling face, with a leisurely and calm look on his face: "Isn't this kind of thing clear when I see the master? I can't guess at all."

There was a trace of dissatisfaction in Aida Yoshiro's eyes, but he didn't say anything.

Ever since the sect master fell ill and retreated, and his physical condition has deteriorated, the open and secret struggle between the two brothers has become more and more on the table, and now they can only maintain a superficial harmony.

"Then, since Senior Brother Tian'er misses the scenery here, please enjoy it here slowly. I'll take a step first."

Aida Yoshida strode forward without looking back, Amano Kishi seemed to be deaf to the irony in his words, and nodded with a smile.

The little lotus by the pool was first released, and the dragonfly landed on the lotus leaf, flew into the blue sky in an instant, and disappeared without a trace.

Tenji Qizhi walked down the corridor slowly, walked across the garden to the main hall, and suddenly caught a glimpse of a four or five-year-old child sitting on the wooden steps in front of the mansion.

"--Um?"

He didn't pay attention at first, but after walking a few steps, he suddenly stopped again.

The child kept his head, was wearing a black kimono, and was looking at the sparkling pool in the distance. There was a tranquility on his immature face that was not commensurate with his age.A red string pendant hung on his chest, and because of his small stature and sitting, the pendant hung down to his knees.

It was an ashen-white shard.

"..."

Tianyou Qizhi narrowed his eyes and looked at the child's face carefully, as if he wanted to find the light and shadow overlapping with the memory from the facial features.

However, the child just sat motionless, as if he was very alienated from everything in the outside world. After a long while, he moved very slightly, raised his head, and looked back to meet Tianyou Qizhi's gaze.

At that moment, the sound of cicadas faded away, and the surroundings turned into a thick silence.

The New Year's Eve bell is accompanied by fireworks, and the light instantly illuminates the depths of the darkness, and then disappears into the endless night.

Tianyou Qizhi stepped forward, smiled and said in Chinese:

"Hello, we meet again, Mr. Lecturer."

The child looked at him indifferently, his eyes were like deep pools of stagnant water.

After a while he said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He stood up, turned around and stepped on the wooden steps, and walked into the big house.

Tianyou Qizhi was stunned for a moment, and the usual casual smile disappeared from his mouth.

After a while he shook his head and walked up the steps.

The sun was shining brightly outside, but the big house was dark and gloomy.The windows on all four sides were covered with dark window paper, and the smell of perennial decoction floated in the air, lingering slowly, as if some kind of moldy and sick smell had penetrated deeply into the walls and floors .

The two little boys stood guard outside the door of the inner room. When they saw Tianyou Qizhi coming, they bowed deeply and opened the paper door.

The smell of medicine in the inner room was even stronger, and there was a frail old man crouching on the sickbed, with Aida Yoshiki kneeling beside him, with his head bowed deeply.

The child knelt in the corner of the room expressionlessly, with his hands gently on his knees.From his angle, he should be able to see Tianyou Qizhi coming in, but he didn't even raise his eyes.

"Tian'er is here too, so let's get down to business."

Tianyou Qizhi walked up to Aida Yoshihiro, also knelt down, bowed his body and said, "Master Sect Leader."

The head's wrinkled mouth twitched feebly.

"The Esoteric sect has become more and more prosperous in recent years, and I am running out of time. I really want to entrust the affairs behind me to a trustworthy person before I go. After thinking about it, you two are my disciples. Whoever decides is unfair to the other."

The leader paused and coughed hoarsely.

The leading onmyoji in his early years has been hollowed out by years of illness.His face was gray and old, his cloudy eyes were half-closed, and his body seemed to be only a layer of skin hanging on the skeleton.

Tianyou Qizhi lowered his eyes, and glanced at the child in the corner of the room from the corner of his eye.

The head's body began to decay six years ago when he was refining the yin and yang dual-faced soul.In the winter when the young man died, the master used a lot of forbidden techniques to break through the barrier between Yin and Yang, and later used his own life to predict where the resurrected soul fell. God.

Maybe this is the price, Tianyou Qizhi thought.

From the time the first card fell, everything collapsed one after another, and all causes and effects went to the worst ending, until there was no room for recovery.

"There is nothing serious about being the head of the sect, as long as you take a little rest, you will be able to..."

The master waved his hand, and Yoshida Aida's voice stopped abruptly.

"I thought about it for a long time, and decided to hand over the right of choice to Yata Kage." The leader paused, and said, "Lan Yu, come here."

The child got up and walked forward, bowed to the sick bed as a salute, then knelt down again and remained silent.

"His name is Yan Lanyu. He is a person with four pillars and horoscopes, and both yin and yang souls. I want to leave him as a small surname to the next head."

The master coughed a few more times, and said hoarsely: "Lan Yu...you can choose one to serve."

Yoshida Aida didn't expect this direction at all, his face almost changed color in an instant, but then he suppressed it again.

Even Tianyou Qizhi was surprised, and couldn't help raising his eyebrows slightly.

The room was dark and cool, with the faint chirping of cicadas coming from the window.The incense in the corner of the room exudes white smoke, and in the tea room behind the curtain, there is a slight sound of decoction gurgling, with a lingering bitterness and saltiness.

Yan Lanyu's side face was very silent, she only stared down at her hands on her knees.

His fingertips were almost transparent, with an indistinguishable, very fine sheen that seemed to glow in the gloom.

No one spoke, the air seemed to be still for a while, and the suffocating silence flooded everyone like a tide.

Yan Lanyu's body moved, but it was slightly shifted, and she bent down in the direction of Tianyou Qizhi: "I choose to serve this lord."

As if the time bomb had reached zero, Yoshida Aida suddenly changed color and stood up abruptly: "Wait! I can't accept—"

However, the aging voice of the headmaster sounded at this moment, with a hint of threat: "Aida."

"..." Aida Yoshihiro gasped violently, and it took him a while to calm down his heaving chest, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to sit down.

When Yan Lanyu said those words, Tianyou Qizhi was also a little surprised at first, but the surprise turned into interest in an instant.

He looked Yan Lanyu up and down, as if he was meeting him for the first time, not letting go of the slightest expression on the corners of his eyebrows and eyes; however, Yan Lanyu's face showed no expression at all, he closed his eyes for a long while looking at the uncertain dust floating in the air .

The headmaster said slowly: "Since it is the choice of Yata mirror, then it has no choice but to do so. ——Tianyou."

Tianyou Qizhi bowed his head: "Yes."

"After I leave, you will take over as the head of Tantra."

The sun was shining brightly outside the big house in the Heian period, and the grass grew and warblers flew.The warm breeze in early summer passes through the branches, and the sunlight reflects on the bluestone steps, casting mottled tree shadows.

Tianer Qizhi stepped over the high threshold, squinted his eyes and looked at the sun for a moment, then suddenly turned around without warning: "Wait—"

He smiled and looked behind him, and said, "You still owe me a New Year's gift, Mr. Lecturer."

Behind him, Yan Lanyu was standing on the threshold, about to close the paulownia door.

The light in the room was very dim, and his face was somewhat blurred in the intersection of light and shadow.Tianyou Qizhi just looked at him quietly and smilingly, as if after a long time, even the singing of cicadas had faded away and became a blurred background.

"My name is Yan Jing," he finally said after an unknown amount of time, with a very flat voice.

"A thorn of thorns."

The author has something to say:

The melee scene becomes a bit fast, so in case you don’t understand it, let’s put it simply: the leader changes into a dragon, starts to attack Maha critically, and then Maha’s barrier can’t bear the complete collapse, so he releases Yan Xiaomei~