There is killing in the world, but there is also peace; there are quarrels, but there is also the ceremony, Yin Xiu and the Ma family gathered in the ancestral hall again to have dinner. This meal was a special thank-you banquet held by the people of the town to thank the Ma family for their service in the festival. Therefore, the meal was particularly rich, with chicken, duck, fish, beef, mutton, and even a few bottles of wine on each table. This wine has been used for sacrificial offerings, so it is also placed here. As the "town hero", Ma Xinyi was specially allowed to attend this time and sat on the right hand side of Ma Xiaoyu. Thanks to her, Yin Xiu finally no longer had to sit with the men or children of the Ma family, but sat on the left side of Ma Xiaoyu. However, the two of them could not sit on the same bench with Ma Xiaoyu, because Ma Lan, as usual, sat at the upper seat with Ma Xiaoyu. At this time, she stood up first and thanked everyone for their hard work in recent days in the name of the elders. Everyone in the ancestral hall respected her and believed in her, and just listened silently. Yin Xiu had heard about some of Ma Lan's deeds from the Ma family before. They were all magical, difficult and dangerous experiences. Even someone like Yin Xiu who was often in danger could not help but be in awe after hearing them.
After she finished speaking, everyone started eating. "You are the guest, please go first." Ma Lan signaled Yin Xiu to start eating first. After some hesitation, Yin Xiu finally realized that Ma Lan was not being polite to him and could not give in half-heartedly, but it was some kind of "iron rule". So Yin Xiu smiled at everyone and picked up a chicken leg with chopsticks. He habitually handed the chicken leg to Ma Xiaoyu. "Ahem!" Ma Xiaoyu coughed twice, with a look of surprise on her face. Yin Xiu was alerted by the dry cough. He turned his hand 90 degrees in the air and placed it in Ma Xinyi's bowl very naturally. "Eat more meat, and grow taller quickly." "Yes, yes, eat more." Ma Xiaoyu also nodded repeatedly. Ma Xinyi rolled her eyes and said, “This chicken drumstick had better be given to me.” As soon as she finished speaking, Ma Lan glared at her, "People give you chicken legs to eat, it's fine if you don't thank them, but what are you talking about?" "Aunt, don't you know what I'm talking about?" Ma Xinyi muttered softly, but finally tore off a large piece of meat from the chicken leg and swallowed it. Ma Lan looked at her again and just smiled helplessly. Then she gestured to Yin Xiu, “We in the Ma family don’t drink alcohol on normal days, but this is for the sacrifice, so we’ll make an exception. And it’s best for everyone to drink a little to stay safe.” After she said that, Yin Xiu picked up the bottle, opened the cap, and poured a glass for everyone except Ma Xinyi.
Ma Xinyi glanced at Ma Lan and whispered, "Aunt, I don't think I'm a child anymore." Ma Lan nodded, “You can think so.” Hearing her "affirmative" answer, Ma Xinyi knew there was no hope, so she could only continue to focus on her chicken legs. Ma Lan picked up the cup and smelled the wine in it. This is a local Malaysian liquor, brewed with sweet potatoes and then passed through a distiller. Its strength is only about half that of whiskey. A sip of it will give you a light sweet taste of sweet potatoes. Because there are so many sweet potatoes here that they can't be eaten up, this kind of wine is produced in abundance locally. It is said that people also make wine with sugarcane, but it's very spicy and most people can't get used to it. Ma Lan took a sip, and a faint blush immediately appeared on her face. She glanced at Ma Xiaoyu out of the corner of her eye and saw that Ma Xiaoyu drank the wine as calmly as if she was drinking water. So she looked at Yin Xiu again. Yin Xiu was also looking here at this time. When his eyes met Ma Lan's, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. "How about local wine?" Ma Lan asked. "It's a good wine, but I'm not used to it." Yoon Soo shook his head in annoyance. …… After dinner, Yin Xiu was not taken back to his residence by the servants as usual, but was kept by Ma Lan, along with Ma Xiaoyu. At this time, everyone else had left, and Ma Lan went to the inner room, leaving only Ma Xiaoyu and Yin Xiu sitting on the chairs. After thinking about it, Yin Xiu decided to move the two closer. "Aren't you afraid of being seen by your aunt?" Ma Xiaoyu glared at him, feeling quite uneasy. "Well, for your safety." Yin Xiu closed the distance again. Ma Xiaoyu glared at him again, her eyes wider than before, then she moved towards Yin Xiu and finally sat down shoulder to shoulder. "Didn't you say you were afraid of being seen by your aunt?" Yin Xiu said with a smile. "Hasn't she seen it yet?" Ma Xiaoyu touched the earring and said, "Just separate them when you see them." "Since she hasn't seen it yet, it doesn't seem too much to kiss her and then separate, right?" Yin Xiu reached out and gently put his arm around Ma Xiaoyu's waist, and they smiled at each other. cough! ! The two of them stopped laughing. Yin Xiu quickly withdrew his hand, stood up and looked at Ma Lan behind him, not knowing what to say for a moment.
"I ate too much meat, and my throat feels a little uncomfortable." Ma Lan pretended not to see anything and waved to Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu, "Come in." Go in? Yin Xiu paused, not knowing what Ma Lan was talking about. "It's the Ma family's ancestral hall." Ma Xiaoyu poked his lower back with her finger and said, "Aunt wants us to burn incense for the Ma family's ancestors." So Yin Xiu put away his previous distracted mood, wiped his hands again and again, and after making sure there was no stain on his body, he followed Ma Xiaoyu inside. In the previous few times, he only ate with others in the courtyard of the ancestral hall and was not allowed to enter the inner hall. This was his first time entering the inner hall. Here, there were no tablets filled with tablets as Yin Xiu had imagined. There was only an altar in the middle with an incense burner on it. A portrait of the Ma family's ancestor was hung on the wall. Next to it was a sword and a vase with small yellow flowers in it. That was all. "The ancestor of the Ma family, Ma Ling'er." Ma Lan introduced. Yin Xiu looked at the portrait with respect, but found that under the light, the fairy-like Ma Ling'er in the image looked a bit like Ma Xiaoyu. Or it should be said that Ma Xiaoyu looked like their ancestor. "Nothing surprising." Ma Lan saw his doubts and said, "Every generation of Tianshi in the Ma family has this kind of charm. There is nothing surprising about it." As she spoke, she picked up the incense beside her and bowed three times respectfully towards Ma Ling'er's portrait. "I don't know if I'm lucky or not, but my sister became the Heavenly Master of my generation, not me." Ma Lan looked at Yin Xiu, "The Ma family's celestial master is destined to have a miserable life. Have you prepared yourself mentally before you come into contact with her?" When Ma Xiaoyu heard this, she also looked at Yin Xiu, waiting for his answer. "You said it's a bad fate?" Yin Xiu just asked back. "That's right, this is the curse of the female celestial master of the Ma family. As long as you have anything to do with a man, no matter how you take precautions, you will end up with a bad fate because of a man. Even if that was not the man's intention, it was a fact, a predetermined fate." "But I heard from Xiaoyu that the thing the women of the Ma family least believe in is fate." Yin Xiu said seriously: "I think even if everyone has not reached a consensus, or has not said it, in fact, the Ma family's Tianshi of all generations will not succumb to the so-called fate. The misfortunes of their predecessors, the foreseeable and unforeseen fate, did not bind them. They just keep moving forward step by step, building on the shoulders of their predecessors. Even if they encounter a high wall, they will sacrifice themselves to move forward and open a gap for future generations. This is the responsibility of the Heavenly Master and also their personal persistence. " "I think Xiaoyu didn't tell you this. This is purely your own understanding." Ma Lan was quite concerned about Yin Xiu's words, "So, this is also the reason why you decided to come here?"
Yin Xiu's expression was very firm. "In fact, I should have come here a long time ago, because no difficulties can stop me. Whether it's prophecy or hexagram, I don't care about those things." "So, you are still an atypical Taoist priest. You don't even believe in divination and ironclad judgments." Ma Lan became more and more interested in Yin Xiu, "Is this why you provoked Xiandu?" "Xiandu, what kind of organization is it?" Ma Xiaoyu asked: "After they came to visit that day, you just pretended that nothing happened, and you didn't answer me no matter how I asked." "If I don't tell you, won't you check it yourself?" "I checked, but found nothing," Ma Xiaoyu confessed. "Of course you should get nothing. If you knew, it would only mean that there is a traitor inside Xiandu." Ma Lan narrowed his eyes. “As for Xiandu, I should be one of the few people in the Ma family, and even among the Taoists today, who knows it relatively well.” "Didn't you say that unless a traitor appeared in Xiandu?" Ma Xiaoyu asked doubtfully. "I said so, but I didn't tell you that I happened to meet the traitor." Ma Lan's eyes became a little blurry. After a pause, she threw away all the memories and myths about the past in her eyes and just murmured, "Everyone thinks that Xiandu is a place where Qigong practitioners gather, a fairy mountain far away from the world, but it's actually not that simple. Xiandu is deeply involved in the world. It is more like a giant beast lurking under the water, or a shadow puppet artist hiding behind the scenes. At the forefront of history, we saw the Peach Garden Oath of Brotherhood between Liu Bang, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the battle between Liu Bang and the Overlord of Western Chu for the world, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the establishment of the country by Emperor Hongwu. We thought that was all of history. But in fact, that is just the tip of the iceberg. A great scholar once said that the so-called rise and fall of a dynasty is ultimately nothing more than a struggle of luck. One dragon rises, and another dies. This is often the case in the world. Behind these great disturbances, there is often the shadow of Xiandu. You may have also heard of a legend that says the First Emperor sent Xu Fu to the fairy mountain to seek a panacea in order to achieve immortality. Most scholars today believe that the fairy mountain Penglai at that time was today's Japan, but some people also believe that he actually wanted to reach some kind of agreement with the fairyland at that time, which would allow him to achieve immortality and make the Qin Dynasty last forever. But for some reason, Xiandu rejected his agreement. It could be because Xiandu did not think that the First Emperor was qualified to make a deal with them, or it could be for some other reason. In any case, the First Emperor did not live forever to continue to rule his vast and powerful empire. " Yin Xiu thought for a moment, "Then Xiandu allowed Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu to take turns to take the stage, and finally destroyed the Qin Empire, right?" “Maybe there is a possibility.” Ma Lan looked at the portrait of the ancestor, "It is said that our ancestor was the imperial grand master of the First Emperor at that time, in charge of the Feng Shui of the world. Therefore, there is an unsolvable feud between us and Xiandu. Originally, after the Ma family moved to Malaysia, this hatred was temporarily put aside due to the distance, but a month ago, the visit of the Xiandu envoy made me feel that the situation had become not good. " “The root of all this is me.” Yin Xiu said frankly: "If I hadn't joined the fight for the dragon veins in Kyushu, perhaps the immortals would never reappear in the world, and would never find Malaysia." "Of course it's because of you."
Ma Lan was blunt, "But so what? In the final analysis, it is the Ma family's Heavenly Master who can decide the fate of the Ma family and where it will go, not Xiandu or the imperial court." She looked at Ma Xiaoyu and said, "As long as the Ma family's Taoist priest decides, we will do whatever he wants. No one else has the right to interfere." "So what do you think I should do, aunt?" Ma Xiaoyu was a little hesitant for a moment. Although she was thinking about following Yin Xiu back to Jiuzhou to deal with the unfinished business of last night, this would also mean bringing the Ma family back to the center of the vortex. Yin Xiu looked at her gently, hoping to give Ma Xiaoyu some support. No matter what decision she made, it would not change the relationship between them. Ma Lan looked at this scene, and a layer of mist covered her eyes. After a moment, her eyes returned to normal, as calm and steady as usual. After a pause, she said, "I'm not asking you what you want to do. I'm only asking you, do you want to go back with him? Or stay in Malaysia?" "I want to go with him." Ma Xiaoyu did not hesitate. "So are you going to give up your position as the Ma family's Heavenly Master?" Ma Lan asked seriously. "I also don't intend to give up the position of Heavenly Master, because this is my responsibility and my foundation. When I received the Celestial Master's Order, I knew that slaying demons and defending the Way would be my life's mission." "Exorcist and Defender..." Ma Lan murmured, “Is this also the reason why you want to follow him back to Jiuzhou?” "Yes." Ma Xiaoyu said firmly: "I will not become a Buddha until hell is empty. It is not enough for us to only fight those zombies and vampires in Malaysia, because the root of all decay and darkness is in Kyushu, and not anywhere else. Only by going to Kyushu can we truly touch the source of that dark fate. more importantly……" Ma Xiaoyu looked at Yin Xiu and somehow, tears started to fall from her eyes. "I am willing to be with him, no matter where we go. As long as we are together, I feel that even mountains and seas cannot stop us." Yoon-soo just smiled and gently wiped away her tears with his fingers. Ma Lan looked at them, just sighed and shook her head. "I'm not the kind of person who wants to break up a couple. Why do you make me sound like a bad guy?" (End of this chapter)