The old demon of Montenegro wants to practice Taoism

There are a total of six murals on both sides of the corridor. Although hundreds of years have passed, the colors are bright, the order is clear, and the characters are vivid, as if they were painted yesterday.

These six murals are generally the story of a bald monk with a group of followers, carrying a lot of salutes, starting from the Tang Dynasty, traveling to various countries in the Western Regions, retrieving the scriptures, and finally returning to the Tang Dynasty.

The characters on the first and last murals are both in the style of the early Tang Dynasty, and there are two large characters of Luoyang on them. The characters on the four murals in the middle have different looks and strange costumes. They should be scenes from the Western Regions.

Of course, there are no monkeys and pigs on the murals, not even horses. This year is the 11th year of Chenghua, which is the summer of 1475 AD. Wu Chengen has not yet been born, let alone passed down through the ages, known as the Four Great Journey to the West is one of the masterpieces.

Although there is no Journey to the West, everyone is familiar with the story of Xuanzang’s Journey to the West. Even though Yan Chixia is a Taoist student, she heard a lot of stories when she was a child. After seeing this mural, he was very puzzled: “Xuanzang’s journey to the West? In this underground palace..." He paused, swallowed the word "repression" that he almost blurted out, and said, "Is the enshrined Master Xuanzang?"

Shan Yangze shook his head, "Probably not." According to records, Master Xuanzang's relics were distributed and worshiped in various places, but no one knows how big the discrepancy between the history books and the facts is, so who is it? I don't know, but one thing is for sure, Master Xuanzang is an extremely famous figure in Buddhism. If the relics of Master Xuanzang are really placed in the underground palace, this temple will definitely not decline so badly.Besides, I have never heard of relics that can become spirits when they are separately enshrined, and it is not transformed by earthworms.

If it's not Xuanzang, then who is it?Clues still have to be found on the murals.

Shan Yangze looked at the mural carefully again. Anyway, the underground palace is also a kind of tomb, and the mural in the tomb passage must have the identity information of the owner, even if the person is suppressed, it is considered ugly. You must also be able to see who this person is.Otherwise, the effort to paint these six exquisite murals is to show the craftsman's superb craftsmanship?

Look again carefully, count all the characters in the painting one by one, let him see some clues, there is another person who appears in every frame in this painting, besides Xuanzang.

This person appeared in a group of entourage, and accompanied Xuanzang from Luoyang City. He always wore a big package. The only sign on his body that could distinguish him from the other entourage was the clothes on his body.Compared with other people, the clothes on his body seem to be a bit looser, and although the color is blue, the clothes on this person seem to be darker.

But just these things are not enough to determine the identity of this person, especially on the premise that the person inside may still be alive, what if they rashly opened the door and found an old monster that they couldn't deal with?

After all, although the pagoda was built in the Tang Dynasty, it does not mean that the person inside started doing evil in the Tang Dynasty.

Although Shan Yangze is full of confidence in himself, one of the people accompanying him is a human and the other is a ghost. Once there is any negligence, it will not be so wonderful.

So still have to look for it.The faces in the murals are all similar in length, and after so many hundreds of years, and in such a secret underground palace, the history books will not record the entourage of Master Xuanzang, at best it is "accompanying dozens of people" statement.

Shan Yangze looked around again and stopped in front of the last mural.This mural depicts the scene of Master Xuanzang returning to Luoyang. There are only three people in it, which is the least number of people in all murals.

The tallest one with a smile on his face was the emperor, probably Emperor Taizong of Tang. He personally helped Master Xuanzang to salute, and there was another person standing beside him, the one who was dressed differently from all the followers.

This person is very strange. In Shan Yangze's impression, in the paintings of the emperor, everyone's head is down, and even the waist is bent, but this person is not. He stared at the two Folded hands, not even bent back.

Shan Yangze became more and more curious.In addition, there is another change. The package on this person's shoulder is gone, replaced by a small feather painted on his shoulder.

"Feather?" Shan Yangze thought for a long time, but he really couldn't think of any people related to birds in the early Tang Dynasty.

But when he heard the word Yu, Yan Chixia said "huh?" and turned to the last mural. He stared at Yu for a long time, and then carefully looked at the person in the six murals again, isn't it? He said with certainty: "This person...seems to be a Taoist."

"Taoist?" Shan Yangze asked doubtfully.

Yan Chixia pointed to the feathers on his shoulders and said, "Look here. According to my Longhushan classics, at the beginning of Taoism, Taoist priests wore clothes called crane cloaks. According to legend, they were shawls made of crane feathers. It means becoming immortal. It gradually evolved into today's Taoist robe. And his clothes, look, are they very similar to the Taoist robes on you and me?"

Yan Chixia waved her sleeves to show Shanyangze.

Being reminded by Yan Chixia, Shan Yangze also reacted. Although he knew the legend of becoming a fairy, he certainly did not know as much about the origins of various Taoist artifacts as Yan Chixia. Not to mention, occasionally he is still useful.

But this hint is really secretive enough, and who would have thought that a Taoist person would be suppressed in a ruined temple and underground palace?

Why did this Taoist travel west with Master Xuanzang? Even looking at this mural, the Taoist priest seems to have a good relationship with the emperor. Who is this Taoist priest?

In the early Tang Dynasty, there were only two Taoist priests in the early Tang Dynasty. Which one was it?

Shan Yangze suddenly remembered Guo Qianlai, since he entered the pagoda, he was not quite right, and he didn't even say a word when he got off the corridor.

After searching, I found that Guo Qian had stood in front of the innermost stone gate at some time, with nostalgia and grief on his face, and he said: "Buddhism cultivates the afterlife, Taoism cultivates the present life. In the legend of Taoism , has been an elixir from ancient times to the present. Immortality, immortality..."

Guo Qian let out a long sigh: "Master Xuanzang traveled westward for a total of 17 years. According to history books, he brought back 150 relics, seven Buddha statues, and more than 600 scriptures from various countries in the Western Regions. The world said that Master Xuanzang was determined. , It took a lot of hardships to memorize the Buddhist scriptures, has no one thought about the secret hidden in it?"

"How did he carry these things back?"

Accompanying?Sanyoze thought.

Guo Qian nodded and said: "That's right, there is indeed an escort. But the route he traveled west, through the desert and over the snow-capped mountains, was accompanied by ordinary people. No one had experience in living in the desert or snow-capped mountains. How did they go? back again?"

"I walked more than [-] miles in two years. On average, I have to walk at least [-] miles a day, and most of the roads are deserted areas where there are few people. How did they survive?"

Not to mention that Guo Qian had doubts, Shan Yangze actually couldn’t figure it out himself. Xuanzang’s trip to the west, except for the time he stayed in the local temple to study Buddhism, the time he traveled was only four or five years. During these four or five years, he walked back and forth .In the middle, I crossed the desert seven times. It is impossible to rely solely on the sun or willpower to guide the way. That's why someone later invented the three highly skilled apprentices, and future generations still believe it.

Guo Qian thought for a while, and then said: "Only speaking of the 150 relics, each of which is stored in the relic pagoda, let alone dozens of people accompanying him, even if 80 to [-] people followed him, they would not be able to carry them back. There are hundreds of scriptures, and people have to memorize them."

"When Master Xuanzang traveled westward, Emperor Taizong did not agree. Why did Master Xuanzang return to Luoyang in the 19th year of Zhenguan, and Taizong met him in the hall and sat with him? The contrast was so great. Even later Master Xuanzang He asked to leave the capital twice, but was not allowed, and did not leave the capital until after his death."

"When he traveled west, he brought back not only the scriptures, but also another thing! And this one thing made the contrast between Taizong's front and back, Gaochang country destroyed, and Li and Tang emperors not let him leave Beijing. The most important thing for Empress Zetian to build temples all over the country!"

Shan Yangze felt that something was wrong, just as he thought about it, he saw that Guo Qian had placed his hand on the stone gate, and said: "The people in this underground palace are the most famous Taoist priests in the early Tang Dynasty, who secretly traveled westward with Master Xuanzang. Yuan Tiangang who retrieved the elixir of life!"

Shan Yangze was overwhelmed by the huge amount of information in Guo Qian's words, and before he could recover, Guo Qian had already stretched out his hand to push the stone door.

Different from the difficulty when entering from the outside, the stone door opened with a slight push, and there was only a small room inside. There was a stone pier in the middle of the room, on which a skinny man was locked with a rusty iron chain. Taoist priest.

The Taoist sighed faintly and said, "We were all wrong."

"Come in." Guo Qian looked back and said, "This underground palace...is not in danger."

As soon as Shan Yangze was about to step up, he was stopped by Yan Chixia, who only heard him whisper: "What is his background, is it really Yuan Tiangang inside?!"

Shan Yangze didn't know what Guo Qian's background was.He shook his head and said, "Go in and ask."

Yan Chixia took out a fire pocket, wiped it and found two wall lamps on the stone wall. Although the light was not strong, the small underground palace could be seen clearly.

If the man in the middle is really Yuan Tiangang and is still alive, then he has been sitting in this dark underground palace for more than 700 years.