Miss Zashiki

As long as there is darkness in people's hearts, there will be an endless stream of things visiting.But compared to those, the most terrifying thing is the voice of temptation from my heart.

——Shape is form, truth is cause and effect, and reason is original mind.

Everything in the world has its shape, everything in the world has its cause and effect, and all creatures in the world have their original mind—and it is precisely because of this that this world can exist exactly.

The drug seller thinks so.

-

Although the content of monsters and human beings is different, the essence is the same.Therefore, just like the existence of humans, birds and beasts, all kinds of monsters can be seen everywhere in this world.Humans and demons, as long as they follow their own rules and do not interfere with each other, they will not harm each other.

But monsters are different.

The resentment born in the human heart, combined with monsters that shouldn't be in the world, will form a formidable Shura of various phases, which needs to be cut off with the demon sword.

The medicine seller holds the Demon Repelling Sword in his hand, but he has no ability to pull it out—to pull out the Demon Repelling Sword, he needs to gather all the shapes and truths of the monsters, and all three conditions are indispensable.So far, he has never really succeeded once.

He thought that it is not easy for human beings to fully see their own form and truth, let alone those who want to understand monsters.

He thought that he still needs to see more appearances, experience more causes and effects, and witness more original intentions, all of which will take time.

He has traveled many places and failed many times, but he was never in a hurry.Because he knows that as long as he continues to walk towards a tangible goal, one day, he can reach his destination.

-

When he came to the small village named Hanamachi, he still had this thought.

In larger capitals, whenever one thinks about the strange tales of monsters, one always keeps one's mouth shut, but in this tiny place, the son of a small magistrate has no taboos when talking about refining monsters.

For a dog that sticks to its heart with the word "loyalty", if its owner orders it to fall into a demon, logically speaking, it is not such a troublesome thing that it will take a lot of trouble - so it seems that if human beings want to refine the demon For servants, dogs are indeed a good choice.The loyalty of the heart is affected by the cruel and tyrannical nature, and it is often nailed to the master more impartially.

However, after seeing the dog with his own eyes, the drug seller understood.The human failed to tame it.He's a brutal enough owner, but not the owner it admits to be.

Before this, Lang Cheng, the medicine seller, had seen thousands of sentient beings, so when faced with the bloody scene of which one was willing to fight and the other was willing to suffer, his heart was not able to produce much fluctuation.In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the dog had traces of obsession and intrusion, he didn't want to waste time in such a small place.

But someone—or rather a monster—didn't think so.

Among the monsters that the drug seller had seen before, Fu Xiaoyue could be classified as the weakest group.He even doubted that even a human child of her size could easily knock her down.

—Weakness, cowardice, recklessness, dullness.

This was the psychological impression that the medicine seller had had of her for a long time.He could see through the truth of her shape almost effortlessly.

And it is such a weak person who needs to hide his own monster identity in the human world, not only lingers for a long time at the source of resentment, but even wants to "rescue" that dog with all his heart.

He thought that she might have looked at the dog's situation, and she had a bit of sympathy for the weak.But she may not know that once that dog falls into a demon, it can crush this town to the ground in an instant.

In fact, from beginning to end, she was the only weak one.No matter how you look at it, she doesn't have the position to "save" others.

The medicine seller's own position has never been "salvation".Even after he learned that the grievance originated from the infant who died young, he never thought about moving the cabinet out of the building as Fu Xiaoyester did—that is, to resolve the grievance.

What he wanted to do, from the beginning to the end, was to use the demon-repelling sword in his hand to cut off monsters-although this time he still failed.

That cabinet was stolen by another monster.He knew the monster named Gu Huo Niao. He didn't have any malice towards human beings, but he had an extraordinary obsession with human children.

And that dog, before being completely harassed by the grievance and turned into a monster, it also fell into a demon first.After enduring countless beatings and tortures, it gave all its loyalty to the weakest monster.

He didn't understand the origin of this "truth" and "reason" at first.It wasn't until later, when he saw Fu Xiaoyester's figure falling from the wall of the execution ground, that he vaguely realized that - although the conclusion seemed extremely absurd, it had to be admitted that it seemed that when each other was in danger, the two The two monsters have delivered trust to each other.

There is no reason, it can be called nonsense, and it is difficult to explain it with reason, but it is really entangled in each other's form, truth, and reason.

At that moment, the drug seller felt a rare enthusiasm in his life.He suddenly realized that in his own heart, he still held a similar sense of trust——

He is so unreasonable, wholeheartedly, trusting in the sword of expelling demons in his hand, and the truth of reality that exists in this world.

Fu Xiao asked him yesterday where he wanted to go after leaving Hanaming.He said, go to a place where he can really pull out the demon sword.

-

The medicine seller went to Jagged City, the most complicated place where the human world, demon ways, and ghost realms intersect, and it is also the most violent killing field.

He came here not to kill monsters, but to prove his true heart.

It was a family named Sakai.

The reason why he chose Sakai's house was entirely due to the sudden restlessness of the balance in the medicine box when he passed by the door of this mansion.

That should be regarded as a large family, with a large population and many servants of all kinds.Where there are many people, the mind is more chaotic.So, when he managed to find out the reason for the turmoil from Patriarch Sakai, the cat-like monster that was blocked outside the barrier was about to break through the spell barrier.

According to the Sakai family, this monster itself is a domesticated cat demon in his family, and the resentment it is infected with is from a concubine who died of illness in the family this morning.That concubine was an orphan girl rescued by Patriarch Sakai on a certain romantic night several years ago.After bringing her back home, the head of the family took pity on her weak nature and accepted her as a concubine.Just as she died of a sudden illness this morning, the cat demon in the house suddenly went berserk, so she guessed that her resentment might be attached to the cat demon.

The medicine seller once heard such a saying: When a person is about to die, his words are also good.So at that time, even though he felt that the information provided by the other party was vague, he finally chose to believe in the "truth" and "reason" and tried to draw out the demon sword - in fact, due to the situation, he did not. The second better option.

But he failed.

At the same time, because he failed to exert the power and effect of the demon-repelling sword, he suffered the backlash of monsters.

——Resentment is born in the heart, the heart is immortal, and resentment is never extinguished.How can one trust blindly in such a place that can continuously produce darkness?

It's not that he couldn't accept that he made a mistake, so at that time, he tried again at the first time, pressing Patriarch Sakai's exact "truth" and "reason".

However, the other party bit him to death from beginning to end, and everything he said was true.

At the moment when Huamao broke through the world, the drug seller had this thought for the first time: Are monsters and human beings different in appearance?

He thought this way, and in the next second, he saw the "truth" and "reason" provided by the monster.

Different from the general text fragments heard from the head of the Sakai family, this time, through the perspective of Huamao, he vividly "seeed" every detailed memory picture.

That's a very different story.

It turns out that what died this morning was not the concubine of the mansion, but the concubine who was imprisoned in the secret room; she did not die because of jealousy and illness, but died under the sword of the Sakai Patriarch's samurai; It was not an orphan who was rescued by a good-hearted person in a snowy night, but a lady who was robbed by gangsters on the way to get married; The tool of catharsis and the object of abuse.

——Is this "truth" and "reason" real?

The drug seller remembered his original intention, and with unprecedented sincerity, he seriously questioned his heart and the sword in his hand.

In the end, watching the three teeth on the Banishing Sword close one by one, he pulled it out again, and slashed at the charging monster in front of him—

Then, he failed again.

Judging from the act of being willing to provide "truth" and "reason" to him just now, the woman's remnant soul actually has the will to seek relief. But they are all filled with vengeance and killing——

All of Sakai's family died at the hands of that cat demon.And after being attacked by monsters twice in a row, he himself became the last of his strength.

The monsters whose grievances are resolved will perish on their own in a short time.

Seeing Huamao who had escaped from the mansion, he had no intention of catching up, but just stood there in the blood-stained room, quietly looking at the demon-repelling sword that fell to the ground.

...why it still doesn't work?

The "truth" and "reason" identified by his original heart cannot be recognized by Tuemon Sword.But he believed in the Sword of Exorcising Demons, just as he trusted himself.

In other words, this trust is actually wrong.

The drug seller suddenly fell into complete confusion, and couldn't help but softly pointed at the demon-dispelling sword on the ground, and asked, "Is there really such a thing as form, truth, and reason in this world?"

Does his form really exist?Did his karma really happen?Does his original intention have practical significance?

For a long time, chasing and guarding the truth in the world - this is his "truth", but this "truth" in this world, is it also just a fake?

Or, is the world he lives in real?

-

After leaving Sakai's house, he walked for a long time in a direction that he wasn't sure about, until he vaguely heard a bang in the medicine box behind him.

It is a scale.

Because he didn't put them neatly in a comfortable position according to his previous habits, and now they are all making noise inside.

The drug seller finally stopped.

……It's noisy.

Very noisy.

A noise he hadn't noticed before.

Thinking of this, he emptied out everything in the medicine box.

All kinds of bottles and cans suddenly shattered all over the place, and colorful medicinal powders and liquid medicines were mixed together, which quickly stained several blank spell papers in a mess, and the surface of the balance and demon-repelling sword that fell into it also changed instantly. It's full of smudges.

For a moment, the scales were all frightened and stunned, and they stood still for several seconds before trying to fly into the medicine box again tremblingly.But in the middle of the flight, they seem to think of their companions on the ground again, but all kinds of bottles, jars and papers are irreparably messed up, and finally they have to fly back to the nest one by one, holding the demon sword in their mouth, heartbroken.

After standing silently for a long time, the medicine seller started walking again.

This time, there was finally no more movement in the box.

-

Meeting Fu Xiaoyue again was also because of Tian Ping's reminder.

Before that, they hadn't made a sound for many days, so at that time, he subconsciously looked in that direction.

From Jagged City to Yunshu Kingdom, along the way, he had seen her arrest warrants at almost every post on the official road.

What to do to save her?Why bring her on board?To him, she should be no different from the rest of the people who were about to board the ship.

—Is there any difference?

When holding that small weight in his hand, the drug seller was asking himself this question.

These days, he has asked himself a lot of questions, most of which are the same as this one, and he can't get a definite answer.

He didn't intend to ask others about these questions that he couldn't find the answer to.

The drug seller knew a truth a long time ago: if the problem lies in his own heart, it will not help to ask others.

-

"Fundamentally, there is no form, truth, or reason—this world just exists like this. This is what I am afraid of."

Perhaps, this is not just something he is afraid of, but also something that has really happened all this time.

——If form, truth, and reason do not exist in this world, then what else is real?

He asked himself another unanswerable question.

——Since it's unreal, it doesn't matter if it disappears.

After answering that sentence, all the movements and noises around me seemed to suddenly go away.His whole body seemed to be isolated in an airtight box, and not a gleam of light could penetrate, or even the light had turned black.

He lowered his eyes, and obviously couldn't see anything, but he could clearly feel that his body disappeared bit by bit starting from the tip of his fingers—turning into smoke, into air, or nothing at all. , just simply disappeared.

Soon, this whole empty body will completely disappear in this false world, leaving only a layer of clothes floating on the ground—or maybe even that is fake.

......

After an unknown amount of time, in the chaotic darkness and silence, a small voice suddenly sounded:

"Mr. Yaolang—"

"What you have just heard, no matter what you see now, is just the illusion of Kaifangzhu. Nothing has changed in the world you are in."

"...This world, of course, is a tangible truth, and your own existence is the best proof, isn't it?"

--no.

—He couldn't prove it.

"...the pharmacist I see and touch now is real; everything I've experienced with the pharmacist is real; Form, truth is cause and effect, principle is mind', these are also true—if you are not sure, let me prove it for you.”

"...if you will trust me."

"So, Mr. Yaolang, you don't have to be afraid at all."

......

The box was opened.

There was a faint light shining from somewhere, and the vague sound of waves and waves came from all directions, and there was a very subtle sound of breathing at a very close distance.

When he regained consciousness completely, he realized that he was still looking down at his hands.

Wherever he looked, the cuffs were still empty, only another child-like hand grasped there vaguely, and there was a vaguely strange feeling coming from there.

He watched the disappearing arms slowly show their shape in his eyes again, and at the same time he realized the origin of the subtle touch before.The hand resting on the wrist was trembling slightly with a layer of hot sweat on the palm.

In the next second, he suddenly heard the answer to that question in his heart.

—Is there any difference?

—she is real.