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  Lao Xia used to be a smooth talker, able to turn the dead into the living with his words. It was also thanks to this mouth that he made some money in the south back then. But later on, Lao Xia's words became very few.

  This piece of jade made Old Xia feel a little familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before. In recent years, every time he saw something familiar, he would get a headache. The more he thought about it, the more painful it became, so he was afraid to see things that seemed familiar to him. The jade ring had some cracks, and Old Xia held it in his hand, feeling no different from a stone. He thought that if the woman in front of him got out of control, he would use this stone to smash her head.

  The atmosphere in the house was a bit strange, two men and one woman, all acquaintances but no one spoke. The sun outside shone brightly, but here it was as dark as midnight, you couldn't see your fingers when you stretched out your hand, I don't know if it's been too long since any light came in, Old Xia felt a chill on his body and couldn't help but shiver, then the goosebumps on the back of his neck rose layer by layer.

  The woman leaned against the headboard, her knees bent up, her head buried between her legs, a messy heap. Although it was very dark, Old Xia felt that he could see the woman's current state, as if there was nothing around them, only him and her.

  Lao Xia wanted to say something, he knew that he and this woman had a story before, and he also wanted to know some things from her mouth. But how could he speak without opening his mouth? Lao Xia sighed in his heart, Ah, girl, do you recognize me or not?

  Suddenly, Old Xia heard a woman's voice rising: "Xiao Yi, is that you?" The voice was very soft, with a slight tremble, and a bit of a sob.

  It's been a while since anyone called me by this name, Old Xia knew what he used to be called in the past, and those who can call out this name should all be old acquaintances. It seems that she is indeed the woman in the photo.

  However, this sound doesn't seem to be coming from the head of the bed. Lao Xia looked around and couldn't even see Cha Wenbin in the dark. He felt that the sound was more like it was floating down from the ceiling above his head.

  Lao Xia was taken aback: Did she really hear what I just thought in my heart?

  "Yes, Little Yi." The voice once again confirmed Old Xia's conjecture.

  "Now I am called Qiushi." Old Xia said in his heart.

  The woman's voice came again, "Ye Qiu and Shi Tou, you still remember the old times. If one day I become like you two, will I also have to take a name called Yi Qiu Shi?"

  Now that he can really talk, Lao Xia didn't forget what the Taoist priest had entrusted him with, and tried saying in his heart: "What's wrong with you? I've forgotten about past events and can't recall them. I have a photo, and the girl on it is said to be you. Cha Wenbin asked me to come, he said I could talk to you."

  "Xiao Yi, I'm still used to calling you that, I don't know what's wrong with me, looking at the person on the bed?"

  "I've seen it," Old Xia replied.

  "I've seen her too, she's been in my room for a long time, no matter how hard I try to shoo her away, can you hurry up and get Wenbin to help me chase her out? I'm really scared."

  Lao Xia suddenly felt his mind in a mess, he turned around and walked out, stumbling and knocking over stools and chairs, until someone grabbed his shoulder and said: "It's okay, I'm here, what did I just say?"

  It was Cha Wenbin, his voice could still make Lao Xia's heart slightly calm down. Lao Xia fumbled for a while and said: "Let me go out first, it's too dark here."

  Zha Wenbin hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a talisman from his bosom and stuck it on the door, saying: "Alright."

  Downstairs, the Yuans were all waiting. Several exhausted Taoist priests nodded in greeting when they saw Wen Bin arrive. Although the two families belonged to different paths, this matter was a shared concern, and no one was there just to watch the excitement.

  Zha Wenbin went downstairs, took a seat, and Old Xia's face was not looking good. He drank a mouthful of hot tea, lowered his head in silence for a while, which made everyone anxious. Zha Wenbin signaled them not to disturb him, letting Old Xia collect his thoughts alone. After a long time, Old Xia raised his head and said: "She told me that the person sitting on the bed is not her. She can call out my old name, so it shouldn't be wrong."

  Others might not understand what he meant, but Cha Wenbin understood about 70-80%. He stood up and bowed to the several masters: "In these days, thanks to the masters reciting the Diamond Sutra day and night, otherwise Miss Yuan would probably not have made it until today."

  "Amitabha, fellow Taoist, no need to be polite." After saying that, the old monk bowed again to Mr. Yuan and said: "Mr. Yuan has been kind to our temple, so I'll say one more thing to him: in this life there are eight sufferings - birth, aging, illness, death, separation from loved ones, long-lasting resentment, unfulfilled desires, and inability to let go."

  Cha Wenbin heard the old monk's words, which were not much different from what he had been thinking in his heart. In recent days, he had been searching for a solution but to no avail. As the Taoist saying goes, "Heaven's will is hard to escape", Yuan Xiaobai was destined to have this calamity, and it was unavoidable.

  "May I have a word with you, Master?"

  The old monk's body didn't move, and with half-closed eyes he said: "I suppose you want to ask about what that donor just said, the 'her' he mentioned?"

  "It's true, I'm not talented and my learning is not thorough. I've seen many of these ghosts and monsters, the three souls and seven spirits. To be honest, I've had similar experiences with Miss Yuan before, and two of my brothers have gone through it too. One of them just came back from the gates of hell, and we all experienced almost the same thing - before dying, it seemed like we saw our own bodies floating outside, and when we woke up again, it was as if we were reborn, but we would lose our memories of the past. That's why I'm worried that Miss Yuan will go down this path too, having seen several brothers go through it already, and I really don't want to see her suffer like that."

  The old monk bowed his head and clasped his hands together, saying: "Amitabha Buddha, good indeed! Good indeed! Investigating the Taoist friend's one heart towards the Tao, their mind is tied to others, truly admirable. The causes and effects of all things arise from each other; if there is a cause, then there must be an effect, if there is an effect, then there must be a cause - this is called the principle of causality. Although the Taoist friend and I belong to different schools, we both understand that causality is predetermined. As for what can be seen, I give the Taoist friend one sentence: The Bhaisajyaguru Buddha mantra says, 'The body arises from the formless, like an illusion producing all kinds of images.' What is called true or false, real or unreal, are all produced by the mind's appearances."

  After that, the old monk bid farewell to Mr. Yuan and left with a group of monks reciting scriptures. They had not closed their eyes for three days and nights and were indeed at the end of their tether. These three days, in Cha Wenbin's words, they did delay Yuan Xiaobai for three days, but only delayed him.

  Mr. Yuan's eyes were red as he closed the door, and as a father, his role was much more than what ordinary people could bear. This once powerful man lowered his head again, during the Cultural Revolution he was knocked down, he didn't cry, when his wife left him alone, he also didn't cry, because there was always a belief supporting him, that was his daughter.

  "Bang!" His fist heavily slammed onto the marble counter, and the man gritted his teeth and roared: "Why?!"

  No one could bear such a blow, there was an oil lamp at the corner of the stairs, Cha Wenbin crouched down to fiddle with the wick in the bowl. He tried to make this lamp burn brighter, he really couldn't do anything else. A month ago, all the masters from various famous mountains and rivers were invited to gather in this house, those legendary high-ranking people who only lived in legends all attended, there was no cure for this incurable disease, the Yuan family had invited all the famous doctors they could invite, even American expert Professor Gu was invited several times, but everyone was powerless.

  Cha Wenbin was just a small figure among those great men, he didn't even have the qualification to report his own name. Those representatives of China's indigenous religions, who had been passed down for thousands of years, were displaying their unique skills one by one, without exception. No one could solve the mystery among them. Everyone knew that there was a floating "soul" in that room, but no one could put that "soul" into her original body, because that body was intact, with all three souls and seven spirits present. The floating one seemed to have appeared out of thin air, and no one knew which one was real and which one was fake.

  This was an unheard-of strange thing. Soon, more and more tall people began to come out of the deep mountains until the appearance of that person from Kunlun.

  In those days, no one was dressed like that: a blue and white linen long shirt, a pair of old black cloth shoes with square heads, and a white beard on his chin that had reached his chest. There were no book boys, no luggage, just an old wooden cane made from a tree branch, walking down the road looking weak but actually striding quickly, Zha Wenbin didn't even know his name.

  This man came quickly and left quickly, only saying one sentence: "The Great Way is fifty, Heaven's origin is forty-nine, and human beings occupy one."

  When Cha Wenbin ran out and wanted to ask more questions, the man only left him three words: "Stone Abacus".

  The above words in our vernacular language are: The Great Way has a total of fifty, forty-nine can be used for divination, and the remaining one cannot be guessed. Therefore, Taoism also says: Divide into two to symbolize two, hang one to symbolize three, calculate four to symbolize four seasons, return to the remainder to symbolize the leap month, five years again leap, so after hanging twice. Heaven is one, earth is two, heaven is three, earth is four, heaven is five, earth is six, heaven is seven, earth is eight, heaven is nine, earth is ten. The heavenly number is five, the earthly number is five, and each has its own combination. The heavenly number is twenty-five, the earthly number is thirty, and the total number of heaven and earth is fifty-five. This is why it forms changes and governs ghosts and spirits.

  The remaining one is the thing that the high-ranking Taoists of all generations have spent their lives trying to understand. Whoever can break through that "one" will truly attain the Tao. From ancient times to the present, it's rare to find someone who can fully break through the "one". Even those who can glimpse half a point within it are already among the ranks of the immortals. That's why Fu Xi sat on the Eight Trigrams Platform and observed the stone abacus. Only by breaking through that situation may one truly understand the one and two, but what virtue or ability does Zhang Wenbin have to easily break through that thousand-year-old puzzle? Now all he can do is think of another way to try again.

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  High-speed premiere of the last Taoist 2 latest chapter, this chapter is Chapter 3 Old Friends (II) address: If you think this chapter is not bad, please don't forget to recommend it to your QQ group and Weibo friends!