Chapter 51: Dark Night Mountain

The Taoists rested in Ai Li's city lord's mansion for three days. For those who had been living in the open air for the past half month, it was a great comfort. After all, there was wine and meat, comfortable accommodation, warm fire, and beautiful maids. Although no one dared to have any bad thoughts under Zhang Yuelu's eyes, it was also good to be pleasing to the eye.

During these three days, Qi Xuansu was not idle. He asked Shangguan Dun about the language of the Western Continent. He did not ask for conversation and writing, but only asked for some simple daily vocabulary.

As for Zhang Yuelu, she did not intend to learn. After the exiled immortal entered the heavenly stage, he could learn a magical power called "mind reading", and "mind reading" also had a pre-requisite magical power called "heart lake voice transmission", which could bypass the language barrier and communicate directly with the voice of the heart. She felt that instead of learning another language, it would be better to practice this magical power directly.

Sanren naturally do not have such magical powers. They have neither "mind reading" nor "heart lake voice transmission". They only have "innate divine calculation", which is not as good as "Ziwei Dou Shu". However, the basis of "innate divine calculation" is to predict the trend by calculating various variables by human power, rather than predicting the future by the will of heaven. Therefore, after practicing "innate divine calculation" to a certain level, it can greatly increase brain power, which is reflected in the enhancement of memory and understanding.

There was a Sanren in the Tianren stage who took nine days to completely learn the language of the Golden Tent. He was proficient in sixteen languages ​​in his lifetime, especially in inscriptions and oracle bones.

Relying on the advantages of Sanren, Qi Xuansu was able to communicate with Arthur in three days with a few simple words and various gestures.

The reason why Arthur was sent to the East was that he knew some of the Central Plains language, but he was very laborious and it was easy for him to not express his meaning. He originally had a companion who was very proficient in the Central Plains language, but unfortunately he died on the way here, so he needed Ellie to translate.

In his spare time, Qi Xuansu also asked Zhang Yuelu about the similarities and differences of several major inheritances.

The differences between the major inheritances of Taoism are reflected in various aspects, and the most important one is the difference in combat power.

Taoism has specially evaluated the combat power of several major inheritances that do not rely on external things.

Qi Refiners are the most stable. It is difficult for them to defeat opponents with higher realms than themselves, and it is also difficult for them to lose to opponents with lower realms. They have always been the mainstay of Taoism. The Qi School in the three major inheritances of Confucianism is very similar to Qi Refiners.

Warriors and alchemists are two extremes. Before the gods, warriors have an overwhelming advantage over alchemists. After the gods, alchemists can gradually compete with warriors head-on, and even have a slight advantage, because the warriors cannot fly for a long time, which is a fatal weakness. As a result, as long as the alchemists pull away from the warriors, they will be played with. As for the fight between human immortals and ghost immortals, it is full of unknown variables, and it all depends on their performance.

Wuzhu originated from the ancient witch religion and ancient immortals. As a way of Shinto, it is similar to the inheritance of Buddhism. It requires a huge amount of incense and vows. The upper limit is extremely high and the lower limit is extremely low. As long as the incense and vows are sufficient, they can compete with the exiled immortals of the same realm without losing the upper hand, or even win the battle. If the incense and vows are insufficient, they are almost the bottom of the five immortals, or even worse than the scattered people.

As the leader of the five immortals, the exiled immortals have too few samples, but there is no doubt that they are in a crushing situation. Compared with the Qi Refiners, it is easier to defeat people with higher realms than themselves, and they have no defeats against opponents with lower cultivation than themselves.

As for the scattered people, it can be said that there are all kinds of strange things, some can win and some can lose, and they can always be unexpected, depending on the number and type of magical powers cultivated by the scattered people.

Since the development of the scattered people, there are a total of 36 methods of success, and no one has ever been able to learn them all. The reason is also very simple. Many of the magical powers and spells are inherently conflicting. Let's not talk about other inheritances, just talk about warriors and alchemists. Warriors emphasize the integration of spirit and body, while alchemists want spirit and body to travel. Is it integration or separation? If you force yourself to practice both, you will hurt yourself before you hurt the enemy.

So far, the highest record of Sanren is to practice 24 methods of superior accomplishment at the same time, which is comparable to the exiled immortals. Unfortunately, this senior Sanren stopped at the stage of heavenly man because of his miscellaneous and unrefined skills, and failed to go further.

This has to mention the rules of Taoism. No matter what inheritance, before reaching heavenly man, you must strictly follow the fixed route of Taoism to learn supernatural powers within the prescribed range. After reaching heavenly man, you can freely choose different methods of superior accomplishment and great accomplishment according to your own preferences.

It is probably because Taoism believes that before reaching heavenly man, you are not knowledgeable enough, your concentration is insufficient, you know the truth but not the reason, and you are prone to go astray and must be strictly controlled. After reaching heavenly man, you have your own discernment, and you can relax control. Except for a few forbidden methods and restrictive methods, you can practice everything.

Therefore, in a sense, only when you reach the stage of heaven and man can you be considered to have truly entered the realm.

Three days later, Ellie's men sent a message that there have indeed been many cases of missing people in Wugo Mountain recently, but the Western Region has always been a lawless place, with rampant bandits and large population mobility. The death of a few people is not a big deal, and the City Lord's Mansion did not care much about it. It was not until Ellie ordered to find the traces of outsiders that these cases were taken seriously.

Through the clues in these cases, Ellie finally locked her sights on the Black Night Mountain, about 300 miles away from Wugo Mountain.

This is a barren mountain, rarely visited. The vast Western Regions are sparsely populated, and most of them are uninhabited areas, so it is not that rare. However, a few hundred years ago, there was a wizard with great magical powers living on the Black Night Mountain. This wizard cursed the royal family of Wugoshanli at that time, manipulated the king, and ruled Wugoshanli behind the scenes.

Later, the wizard died suddenly for no apparent reason. There are rumors that the wizard died in a battle with other wizards. Wugoshanli regained his freedom until the Ai family lost the battle in Loulan City, retreated here, and seized Wugoshanli.

To this day, the Cimut Castle where the wizard once lived still remains on the Black Night Mountain.

Cimut Castle was once a strategic fortress used to resist the attack of the army. Later, it was destroyed during the Golden Horde's westward expedition. After the wizard whose real name could not be verified occupied this place, he only initially repaired some areas and did not restore the style of the year. After the wizard died, Wugo Mountain was far away. The rulers of previous dynasties suspected that there was a curse left by the wizard in the castle and dared not approach it, so it has been abandoned until now.

In this case, although Cimut Castle is almost a ruin, the terrain is complex and rarely visited. There is no doubt that it is the most suitable hiding place.

After discussing with Qi Xuansu and others, Zhang Yuelu decided to go to Heiye Mountain immediately to wipe out this group of monsters, and then return to Kunlun to report.

Qi Xuansu, Zhou Bai and others often travel in the rivers and lakes, and Lingquanzi is also an old man in Tiangang Hall. Of course, they have considered whether Cimut Castle is a trap, but after repeated discussions, they still ruled out this possibility.

In the final analysis, it was the Daoism behind them that gave them such confidence. Few people dared to provoke Daoism without reason. The Buddhists, Shamans, and ancient gods dared to be enemies with Daoism because they were driven by huge interests.

The Ai family obviously did not have such a motive. In other words, the risk was too great and the benefits were too small. A shrewd businessman would not do such a losing business.

Zhang Yuelu, Qi Xuansu and others spent a day formulating two plans, and then left Wugo Mountain and went to Cimut Castle in the Black Night Mountain the next day.

Ai Li originally wanted to send soldiers to assist, but Zhang Yuelu declined politely for the sake of confidentiality. Zhang Yuelu only brought forty Tiangang Hall Taoists and Arthur.

It was not that Zhang Yuelu underestimated the enemy, but the forty Tiangang Hall Taoists gave her confidence.

The forty Tiangang Taoists seemed small in number, but they should not be underestimated. Because Qi Niang had already made it very clear that the threshold of Tiangang Hall is a seventh-grade Taoist priest and a congenital person. The lowest of these forty Tiangang Hall Taoist priests is the Kunlun stage, and the highest Zhang Yuelu and Lingquanzi are at the Guizhen stage. Even if they face a celestial being, they can still fight.

And this configuration is just the bottom of the Tiangang Hall, just like a house, which is just a simple frame without a tile on the top and a wall below.

The other deputy hall masters are like magnificent palaces, because there are unwritten rules in Tiangang Hall. For the same forty regular servants with a formal system, there will be two deputy servants without a formal system, who are unqualified eighth-grade Taoist priests. Each deputy servant is equipped with two temporary servants, who are ninth-grade Taoist priests. A regular servant of a seventh-grade Taoist priest is actually equivalent to seven people, and forty regular servants are nearly three hundred people. In addition, there are also spiritual officials directly under the deputy hall masters.

If the chief deputy hall master has 300 regular officers under his command, that is, more than 2,000 people. If the spiritual officers are added, there can be 4,000 to 5,000 people. This is why the deputy hall masters can rush to help the Western Region Daofu.

In the final analysis, it is because Zhang Yuelu's foundation is too shallow. The regular officers under his command have not had time to recruit deputy officers, let alone temporary deputy officers.

On the way to the Black Night Mountain, Arthur relayed some precautions through Shangguan Dun, such as not letting the criminals hurt themselves, otherwise they will become living dead like beasts, and these criminals are difficult to kill. They have characteristics similar to the flesh and blood of warriors. All external injuries will heal quickly. Only the heart and head are weak. And when necessary, they will turn into bats and blood pools, which are very difficult to deal with.

This is completely different from the zombies that Tiangang Hall often deals with, but Zhang Yuelu is also prepared. He is not afraid of swords, but always afraid of spells. The configuration of the 40 Tiangang Hall Taoist priests is mainly composed of Qi Refiners, warriors and alchemists. With mutual cooperation, they can exert greater power than a single inheritance.

After arriving at the foot of the Black Night Mountain, Qi Xuansu discovered that the Black Night Mountain was actually just a small mountain. Not to mention compared with the Kunlun Mountains that stretched for thousands of miles, it was also much smaller than the Maoxian Mountain outside Fengtai County. It could only be regarded as a small hill.

After observing the terrain, Zhang Yuelu first sent five Qi-refining masters with telescopes and mother-child talismans to occupy several commanding heights to observe the specific situation in the mountain.

Then Zhang Yuelu ordered ten alchemists to build a "Dividing Yin Ji" formation at the entrance to the mountain, and then ordered ten warriors to block the ground qi flow here with rocks and earth or use gunpowder and gullies to destroy the "living water" to turn "dead water".

These actions are to destroy the formations that may exist in the Cimut Castle from the outside, just like filling the trenches and moats outside the city before attacking the city.