Chapter 13 Wu Liang rests here
The next morning
Duan Qing was woken up by the cold. After a day of tossing and turning yesterday, he fell asleep by the campfire not long after talking with Ma Liang last night.
The campfire had long gone out, and all he could see was white fog, filling the forest, and he could hardly see his hand in front of him.
Yawning with sleepy eyes, his clothes were a little damp from the fog, and it was very uncomfortable to wear.
Rubbing the eye mucus from the corner of his eyes, Duan Qing looked at Ma Liang next to him. He slept next to Brother Ma Liang last night. He remembered that Brother Ma Liang was sitting cross-legged before he fell asleep last night. At this time, he still sat cross-legged, but his head was slightly drooping.
"Brother Ma Liang?"
He called out tentatively.
There was no response. Looking at Ma Liang in front of him, Duan Qing felt something was wrong. He stepped forward and stretched out his hand to test his breath, but there was no breath.
Sure enough, Brother Ma Liang had... !
Although he had foreseen this moment, he still felt a little sorry. He felt sorry for Brother Ma Liang. Although he had just met Brother Ma Liang and had only spent one night with him, he respected his love for him.
Last night, when Ma Liang said that he didn't have much time left, Duan Qing had some luck in his heart. He felt that Brother Ma Liang was so powerful, and the situation should not be as serious as he said. At worst, he could hold on for a while.
But now looking at Brother Ma Liang's body, he felt like he was dreaming. If it weren't for Ma Liang's cold body and the small bag in his arms reminding him of what happened last night, he would have thought that all this was a dream.
This was the first time he saw a dead person in the true sense. It was not as scary as he imagined, although Ma Liang's current image was indeed a little scary. The skin exposed outside his clothes was all black, his eyes were closed, and his face was distorted. It seemed that he was in great pain before dying.
Duan Qing couldn't bear to watch any more. He looked around and found the red flying sword next to Ma Liang's body. He started digging on the ground. He couldn't bear to see his elder brother Ma Liang exposed in the wilderness.
The soil in the forest was relatively soft, but the roots of many big trees in the soil were intricate. Fortunately, Ma Liang's flying sword was made of unknown material. The stone-like tree roots were like tofu under the flying sword.
Two hours later, a small mound of earth was formed on the ground. A wooden board was inserted on it. The wooden board was still oozing resin. It was obviously made of a tree that had just been cut. There was a line of words engraved on it crookedly, Ma Liang rests here.
Duan Qing knew that he shouldn't engrave it like this, but he couldn't write the word "tomb" on the tombstone, so he engraved this sentence.
There was a private school in Xiao'an City. Duan Qing went there for a few years. His mother also taught him a lot, so his level was not bad, but it was limited to reading. He had no chance to touch the pen during these years in the inn, so his writing level was very limited.
After bowing several times to the small earthen mound, Duan Qing packed up his things and prepared to leave. After taking inventory, he put the small cloth bag and Jin Xuanling given by Ma Liang in his arms and kept them close to his body. He also put the clothes dried last night into the bag.
There was also the black pot. He was reluctant to throw it away when he fell into the water and was on the verge of life and death. Of course, he would continue to carry it now. In addition, there was a small bottle of Qin wine that his father gave him before leaving, which had never been touched, and Ma Liang's flying sword. This sword was extremely sharp and could cut iron like mud. It was just right for self-defense. It was much better than the kitchen knife he had brought with him. It happened that the kitchen knife was lost in the chaos yesterday.
It was almost noon at this time. The fog had completely dissipated in the sunlight, and Duan Qing was ready to go.
Now he had to go back to the official road. It was too dangerous to travel in this forest. Although there was the guidance of Jin Xuanling, he didn't know if he could find the Jin Xuan Sect that Ma Liang's elder brother mentioned.
Duan Qing sighed and took a step to leave.
He scanned the area one last time to make sure he hadn't left anything behind. He paused for a moment in front of the small earthen mound, which looked very inconspicuous in the forest. He wanted to remember this place and what had happened in the past two days.
In fact, he couldn't forget it even if he wanted to. In his ordinary life, what had happened in the past two days stood out in his memory!
Suddenly, Duan Qing felt that something was wrong. It felt strange. He scanned the area again and his eyes fell on the wooden sign in front of the small earthen mound.
This wooden sign... Duan Qing looked at it carefully and took two steps closer. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he felt a chill on his back.
He found something wrong. The words on the wooden sign were originally "Ma Liang is buried here", but now the words on the wooden sign are "Wu Liang is buried here". There was an extra dot on the word "Ma" at some point.
Duan Qing was sweating. He was sure that he had not made a mistake before, and he had also seen it when he was packing up. It was indeed Ma Liang who was buried here, but why did it change now?
He walked closer, walked to the wooden sign, squatted down and looked at it carefully. He was relieved when he saw a light golden thing attached to the horse. Because it was similar to the color of the wooden sign, it looked like a " Wu" character from a distance.
The thing was big at one end and slightly smaller at the other end, and its shape was irregular, like a deformed insect.
It should be some kind of insect that he had never seen before, otherwise how could it appear on it by itself, Duan Qing thought.
He looked at it carefully again, and the thing didn't move at all. He felt a little strange, so he picked up a dead branch and tried to poke it. It felt a little hard, not like a bug, and it was very tightly attached to the wooden sign. He poked it several times but it didn't come off.
Duan Qing felt a little strange, if it wasn't a bug, then what was it! So he stretched out his hand to take the thing down, and the amazing thing was that as soon as his hand touched the light golden thing, the thing fell down and landed in his palm.
He was so scared that he threw the thing away and it fell at his feet.
After the thing landed, it was still motionless, it seemed that it was really not a bug!
So Duan Qing squatted down and picked it up. The first feeling he had was that it was cold, and it felt a bit like jade. Then he felt heavy, very heavy. This thing looked about the size of a finger, but Duan Qing felt that it was much heavier than gold of similar size. He estimated that it was three times as heavy as gold.
Duan Qing took this strange thing in his hand and looked at it carefully. This thing was light golden in color, in the shape of a long strip, with one large and one small at both ends, and some places in the middle were sunken, which looked very irregular. Before, he thought that this thing might be jade or something, but now he looked carefully and it should not be, because its uneven surface could be seen with some strange lines.
Could this be some strange gold? Duan Qing even put it in his mouth and bit it, but there was no trace left.
He was puzzled and didn't know what it was, and what puzzled him most was why it suddenly appeared on the wooden sign he set up for his elder brother Ma Liang.
Duan Qing racked his brains but couldn't figure out what it was, but he just thought it should be a piece of metal he had never seen before.
In the end, he attributed it to Ma Liang. His elder brother Ma Liang was a cultivator, so this should be something he left behind. As for why it suddenly appeared on the wooden sign, he thought it was probably Ma Liang's spirit.
He put this strange little piece of metal away and kept it for later study.
It was almost noon after all this trouble, and Duan Qing didn't stay here any longer. Finally, he bowed to Ma Liang's wooden sign and turned to walk out of the woods.