Chapter 4: The Seven-Colored Luminous Stone

  Qing Yuansu heard Tang Xiaoxia say this, and couldn't help but touch his white beard with a smile: "Child, don't be too anxious, listen to me tell you bit by bit."

  Originally, Qingyuanzi was called "pure and true" by those two people because of his origin. He is not an ordinary person, but the embodiment of the good thoughts in the hearts of all living beings. When a person is born, they are originally pure and innocent, but as they grow up, the evil spirits send their minions to tempt them with various vices, gradually corrupting their good thoughts until they disappear, turning them into bad people.

  "Alas, the more good thoughts there are in the world, the younger I become, and the fewer good thoughts there are, the older I get. You see me now, it's because many people have already fallen into the clutches of evil gods. The evil god sees that my powers have greatly diminished due to old age, so they hastily sent someone to kill me, wanting to control all worlds and even time itself. Tang Xiaoxia, you dreamed of two people that night, the man is called Honglian, a symbol of hatred, and the woman is called Jinfu, a symbol of lust. They are both one of the seven guardians under the evil god, specializing in using their methods to poison humans."

  "Are you saying that man is a symbol of hatred? Or one of the Seven Great Protectors, I don't think he's anything special. That time when I casually drew a line, he couldn't get past it no matter what!" Tang Xiaoxia said with some curiosity: "Could it be that I really have some special ability?"

  "Not bad, not bad." Qingyuanzi said: "You have the power of the fire god in your body, but that day it was because you were by my side. Although my skills have declined, I still used my remaining skills to stimulate your abilities, so Honglian couldn't do anything to you. But your abilities are like sparks, although they have the ability to burn into a raging flame, there is not enough fuel, and there is no way to help. My abilities are getting weaker and weaker, and what I can help you with is limited. Before your skills become great, if you encounter him or any evil god's protection in the future, be sure to hide."

  "How can I achieve great success then?" Tang Xiaoxia heard that she still had to practice her skills and couldn't help but say with a hint of frustration.

  "Hehe, actually I don't know either." Qingyuanzi said with some helplessness. I was guided by the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone to find you, and the name Luosiqi was also written on silk by it driving a brush. At that time, Honglian and Jinfu were ordered by the evil god to hunt me down everywhere, and I had no choice but to enter your dream, unexpectedly really repelling them.

  "You don't know?" Tang Xiaoxia looked incredulous, "Then why did you want me to become strong and defeat them?!"

  Qingyuanzi smiled, "Heaven will not cut off a man's path, since the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone has chosen you, there must be a destined reason, perhaps when the time comes, everything will have an answer!"

  Luosiqi listened to Qing Yuansu's repeated mention of the seven-colored Linglong stone, and asked him: "You keep mentioning the seven-colored Linglong stone, what exactly is it? Will it be helpful to us?"

  Qing Yuandi nodded, and from his sleeve he pulled out a purple wooden box, placing it on the table as he beckoned Luosiqi and Tang Xiaoxia to come closer. He opened it gently, revealing a string of stones tied together with silver thread. The two of them stared at the seven small stones on the thread, their eyes wide with amazement, almost popping out of their heads.

  "This, this!" Tang Xiaxia stuttered in surprise, perhaps not because of surprise, but because he felt deceived and angry. He said to Qing Yuansu: "Pure-hearted old man, you wouldn't be fooling us, would you? You didn't say something about the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone? How come all seven stones on this are black? Where's the color?"

  Luosi saw that the seven stones all had very beautiful patterns and textures, but because they were black, the patterns and textures didn't look particularly good. She also looked at Qingyuanzi with a full stomach of doubts, waiting for him to answer Tang Xiaoxia's question.

  Qing Yuanzi no longer smiled, his face looked solemn, he stood up and walked to a deer statue in front of him, gently placed something on the deer's antlers, the antlers gradually emitted a silver glow. In the upper left corner of the room, a bluestone brick slowly moved away, Qing Yuanzi led the two people over, took the lead and walked down the stairs that appeared at the entrance of the cave, Luosi Qi and Tang Xiaoxia exchanged a glance, also followed him down.

  At the end of the stairs under the ground was a long corridor, and the four walls of the corridor were all made of bluestone, with many landscape and figure carvings on it. Luosiqi saw that the scenery above was carved very grandly and magnificently, completely different from what she had seen before.

  "This carving depicts the gods and heroes of ancient times. After Pangu created heaven and earth, the mountains and rivers were treacherous, making it difficult for humans to survive. Fortunately, a small number of people possessed the ability to communicate with the gods, gaining their favor and abilities at critical moments. These abilities couldn't change the course of nature like Pangu's, but they repeatedly helped protect their tribes from danger. After Da Yu controlled the floods, disasters gradually decreased, and humans lived more stably on this land after the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. However, as natural threats diminished, selfish desires arose, from Da Yu's son, Xia Qi, abolishing the abdication system to establish a monarchy, down to your era, where people secretly schemed against each other. This carving tells many stories from ancient times to the present!"

  As expected, the further back Luosi walked, the more familiar it became. She began to see scenes of Qi Huan Gong's conquests and Tang Taizong's Wu Zetian coup, and as she went further back, she got closer to modern times. She even saw scenes of Chinese people rising up against Japan, until finally, there was a painting with nothing but countless skyscrapers and cars flowing endlessly below, people rushing to and fro with different expressions, but not one person had a smile on their face.

  Luosi stood in front of the painting, feeling very uncomfortable. She turned to Qingyuanzi and said: "Qingyuan, is this what's depicted on this painting the final outcome for humanity?"

  Qing Yuanshi shook his head, pointing to the blank wall about ten meters away and said to Luosi Qi: "I don't know what will be painted on this wall in the end, maybe it's up to you!"

  "What?" In Rosicky's confusion, Qing Yuansu opened a stone gate ten meters away. As the stone gate slowly opened, Rosicky and Tang Xiaoxia followed Qing Yuansu into a world similar to a limestone cave.

  In the cave, there was a small river that flowed slowly from the far end of the cave towards this side, disappearing under a boulder after flowing past. Qingyuanzi pointed at the small river and said: "This small river is the source of the small river you saw outside." The three people walked another few dozen steps into the cave, and Luosiqi saw that the small river had formed a small lake inside the cave. The lake was only about ten or so meters in length and width, with a small platform at its center that was less than three meters long and wide. At one end of the platform, there was a simple stone bridge leading to the lakeside, on top of which stood a small stone monument with a flat base and a pointed top.

  The small stone monument was entirely green, emitting a faint cyan light. Qingyuanzi beckoned the two to follow him across the stone bridge to the front of the monument. Luosiqi saw that the monument had some exquisite but incomprehensible patterns, which seemed familiar to her, as if she had seen them somewhere before.

  It suddenly dawned on him that the pattern on top was exactly the same as the one on those seven black stones!