Chapter 5 Change of appearance
On a rainy night, Zhao Cheng ran along the river bank, following the increasingly clear fragments of memory.
Since the Jade Rat left this secret passage, there must be follow-up measures.
Half an hour later, Zhao Cheng arrived at a dilapidated temple outside Dongdu and walked in without hesitation.
The temple was already deserted and in such a state of disrepair that even beggars were reluctant to come. A Buddha statue whose appearance had long since disappeared was half-baked by the rain and wind.
"Please forgive me, Bodhisattva." Zhao Cheng put his hands together and bowed, then walked around to the back of the Buddha statue and pressed down on his right arm and the side of the lotus pedestal at the same time. There was a rumbling sound behind the Buddha statue, and a small hole just big enough for Jade Rat to pass through opened up.
Zhao Cheng went in and touched the inner wall of the Buddha statue. The small hole on the back slowly closed.
Crawling along the small hole, Zhao Cheng silently counted the steps until he reached 175. Then he began to grope above his head in the darkness and successfully found a well-hidden pull ring that was just big enough to fit one finger in. With a gentle pull, a secret passage appeared on the side.
This happened twice, and Zhao Cheng finally crawled into a secret room.
"You kid, you're hiding so deep, aren't you afraid of suffocating to death?" Zhao Cheng patted the dirt on his body, fumbled for a tinderbox and lit it. Suddenly, the furnishings in the hut were clearly visible.
There were several medicine bottles on a wooden shelf, and a small box underneath. These were all the items that Jade Rat used to save his life.
Zhao Cheng opened a medicine bottle and poured out a pill and swallowed it. This is the best medicine for internal injuries.
Then he couldn't wait to open the small box and took out a lump of mud.
"Goodbye, Brother Yushu." Zhao Cheng smeared the mud on his face and secretly circulated his spiritual power. Suddenly, he felt a burning pain on his face. Zhao Cheng gritted his teeth and endured it while secretly thinking about his past life. He kept rubbing his face with his hands.
After half an hour, pieces of dry mud fell from Zhao Cheng's face.
Zhao Cheng picked up a bronze mirror from the box, looked at the face in the mirror, and finally couldn't bear it anymore, and cried bitterly on the spot.
The original Jade Rat Elf's alert face was gone, and a face with ordinary features but sunny and cheerful appeared in the mirror. Except that his figure was a little shorter and thinner than before, Zhao Cheng was resurrected in another world.
Change your appearance. This is one of the cards that Jade Rat has left for himself. He will only use it when he is desperate.
Zhao Cheng picked up another item from the box. It was a piece of tough paper with the seal of the Ministry of Revenue of Xijing on it. The household registration column stated that the holder was from Xijing Lianshao. Both his parents had passed away and he had been studying abroad since he was young. There was nothing wrong with it except the name column, which was empty.
"Brother Yushu, you have done so much. Do you want to completely leave Dongdu and start a new life in Xijing? But sorry, I am a man of revenge. I killed the person who killed you, but I have not yet avenged the person who hurt me, so I cannot leave."
Zhao Cheng picked up his pen and began to write on the household registration certificate: "Now it's your body, Yu Shu, and Lao Zhao's soul and face. I won't take advantage of you. From today on, there is no Yu Shu, no Zhao Cheng in this world, only..."
The pen finally came to an end, and three large characters in regular script were written on the paper.
Zhao Yushu
"It is reasonable for scholars from Xijing to come to Dongdu to study because of their reputation," Zhao Cheng, no, Zhao Yushu laughed at himself and took Huping into his arms.
Below that were three books. Zhao Yushu picked them up and couldn't help but sigh.
"Cloud-Seeking Hands", "Shadow-Stepping Steps", "Hundreds of Tricks"
The Jade Rat's housekeeping skills
Although the snow mountain has been rebuilt (but Lao Zhao doesn't know it yet), and although he has fragmentary memories of the Jade Rat, he still has no systematic memory of these key skills. It seems that he needs to practice from the beginning.
Fortunately, I have a foundation. The so-called practice, which is the process of slowly regaining my memory, will definitely be twice the result with half the effort.
The last thing in the box was a dozen silver notes from the famous Huibao Merchants all over the country. Each note was worth 1,000 taels, and there were fifteen of them in total. It was enough for a person to live a carefree life in the two capitals.
Having money, status, and cultivation, damn, this is what you need to travel through time. Zhao Yushu smiled and wrapped his clothes tightly. He couldn't lose these books and money.
But this dress is a bit tattered.
Zhao Yushu looked at his tattered outer robe. After being beaten by the jailer for several days and escaping all the way, this robe was no longer presentable.
Then he saw the man in black that he had brought to the ground.
This black cloak was more like a windbreaker from the previous life with a hood. It felt like cloth, but there was no tear at all, except for the two people that Mrs. Xu had worn.
The man in black was stabbed into pieces, but the clothes were fine. They must be a treasure.
Zhao Yushu put on the black clothes and tied the belt. The strange thing was that the man in black was much taller than him, but the clothes fit him unexpectedly. This was unscientific.
Who cares? When in doubt, quantum mechanics, no, fantasy world, who cares about Newton's coffin lid?
Finally, there is the little sachet-like thing
"Storage bag?" Men who are used to reading novels can always accept a new world more quickly
As expected, it can't be opened. I'm not surprised at all.
Keep it for now, you can open it sooner or later
With the sachet hanging on his waist, Zhao Yushu took one last look around the small shelter. Nothing was left out, so now...
Have a good sleep! I'm so sleepy! There was no bed in the room, so Zhao Yushu didn't care about anything at this time. He just lay down on the floor and snored loudly.
I don't know how long I slept. Zhao Yushu was awakened by hunger, and then he slowly crawled out from another way.
At the same time, at the exit of the secret passage in the distance, Princess Fu came riding in wearing a bright red hunting suit, not caring about the muddy riverside at all, and stepped directly into the water with her precious lambskin boots.
"It's fine if you don't see the person alive, but what does it mean if you don't see the body after death? Don't tell me that the black-clad master killed the Jade Rat and kindly buried him."
"I am incompetent!" The guards of the palace who were scattered to search for him all knelt down and apologized. The heavy rain and the river washed away all traces.
"Amitabha, princess, it's hard to say, it's a matter of escape and death." The middle-aged monk had a bandage on his hands and chest, and his face was still pale. It seemed that the sword of the black-clothed man was really difficult to block.
"Master, why did you come with me if you are not recuperating in the palace?" The princess frowned. She thought it was foolproof when the three guests from her palace worked together, but in the end, they didn't catch any fish and the bait was gone. It was impossible for her not to have some complaints against these three guests who thought highly of themselves.
But after all, he is a guest official. No matter how unhappy he is, he must show respect to others.
"I was seriously injured by a single blow. How can I sit idle in the palace? If the donor Yidao was not in danger of death, he would have come here today." Although the monk was not an outsider, he was smooth in his words and deeds. His words were full of apology and flattery, and the princess could not get angry.
"Master, your words are too kind. But with your level of cultivation, do you think that it is possible for the Taoist priest to escape after being struck by a thunderbolt? Moreover, the Jade Rat's Snow Mountain Qi Sea was destroyed. Can it really escape?"
The monk nodded and said, "I have been thinking about this all night. This person's skills are very similar to those of the Ghost Gate of Mangshan. He mainly practices the art of controlling ghosts and is defeated by thunder. If he was hit by the thunder, his soul would be shattered on the spot. But he blocked most of it with his knife. He will definitely be seriously injured, but he will not die. As for the jade rat..."
The monk pondered for a moment and said, "Based on what I have seen and heard over the years, no matter how high his cultivation level was before, even if he was a master of inner vision, he would not be able to walk out of this secret passage alone if his Snow Mountain Qi Sea was destroyed and he was seriously injured."
"But he is now nowhere to be found alive or dead." The princess narrowed her eyes and was not satisfied with the monk's answer.
"So, what the big monk meant is that the ghost caught up with the kid in the secret passage and kidnapped him, but it couldn't save his life, unless he switched to practicing the Yinhun method. But his Snow Mountain Qi Sea is already destroyed, so there's no point in practicing. Or, just slap him to death with a palm and throw him into the Luo River, drifting downstream," the sloppy Taoist priest lazily replied.
The princess nodded and said, "That is to say, no matter what, the Jade Rat is dead. It's a pity that the 17-year-old Dongdu Cloud Explorer died like this. Come on, search another 50 miles downstream. If you find a body, drag it back to me. Also, search the whole city to prevent that ghost from sneaking into Dongdu and harming my father!"
"Here!"
After the princess gave the order, she mounted her horse and headed for the inner city. The monk and the Taoist priest looked at each other and laughed bitterly.
On the other side, Zhao Yushu stood in front of a tea shop next to the pipeline outside the city, staring at the owner of the tea shop.