Sword comes

Two days before Qi Jingchun put down the pair of chopsticks, there were some bad omens in the town. The water level of the iron lock well dropped sharply, the locust tree branches fell from the trunk, and the branches and leaves were withered yellow, which obviously did not conform to the rules of spring prosperity and autumn withering. , and outside the town where there are many statues of clay sculptures and woodcarvings, there is often the sound of firecrackers cracking in the middle of the night, and those who are good go to see, near the town, the mud bodhisattva wood gods that must have survived last winter. They have already disappeared for the most part.

The ox-cart and horse-drawn carriages leaving from Fulu Street and Taoye Alley have never been broken. On the street paved with large bluestone slabs, even in the middle of the night, the disturbing sound of ox and horse's hooves can be heard.

Those outsiders who were gorgeously dressed and full of wealth and wealth also began to rush out, most of them looked unhappy, in twos and threes, there were often people pointing in the direction of the small town school, quite resentful.

Zheng Dafeng, a bachelor at the east gate of the town, disappeared, and the kiln superintendent and manufacturing office had no intention of looking for someone to replace him, so the town was like a person without two front teeth, and his words were easy to leak.

Liu Baqiao and Chen Songfeng returned along the original road. When they could see the outline of the covered bridge, it was already dusk. Liu Baqiao walked along a path to the stream, squatted down and took a handful of water to wash his face. It was because he was disgusted that he was not full enough, so he put his butt on the ground and sank his whole head into the stream. Finally, he raised his head abruptly, exclaiming, and turned to look at Chen Songfeng, who was sweating profusely. Liu Baqiao joked: "A weak scholar. , the hand has no strength to bind the chicken."

Chen Songfeng just took a sip of water and said with a hoarse voice: "The reason why I worked so hard to become a Qi trainer was that I wanted to keep fit, live a few more years, and read a few more books. How can I compare to you? Jianxiu, not to mention in this small cave of Lizhu, Qi practitioners other than Jianxiu suffer the most. If they are not careful, if they run the Qi machine, they will lose their Taoism. The higher the realm, the more damage. , it turned out to be a good thing.”

Liu Baqiao patted his shoulder, "It's better to change the courtyard, join our Fenglei Garden to practice swordsmanship, and I will cover you in the future. You think, become a sword cultivator, master the sword in the wind, the sky is high, and the wind is galloping, especially during thunderstorms, step on your feet. The sword runs through it..."

Chen Songfeng suddenly smiled and said, "I heard that the sword cultivator who has been struck by lightning the most times in Fenglei Garden is named..."

Liu Baqiao stretched out a palm, "Stop!"

Jian Xiu is also one of the Qi practitioners, but compared to ordinary Qi practitioners, his physique is closer to the pure martial artist on the other road. For other Qi practitioners, as long as they don’t hold back their physique, they don’t deliberately temper them. Of course, Qi practitioners, while nourishing and refining Qi, are actually like the spring breeze and the rain, and they are always tempered, but Compared with sword cultivators, the matter of tempering the physique, whether it is strength or frequency, is far inferior, and it is impossible to be as single-minded and tireless as Wu Fu.

For qi practitioners in the world, there is a consensus that the body and skin are things that are constantly decaying, and they are enough.It is the best to be able to cultivate into an invincible body of a vajra and a body of unsullied glazed glass by chance, and it is fine if you cannot.

Liu Baqiao asked casually, "What kind of warrior is that distant relative of your family?"

Chen Songfeng said helplessly: "How do I know such a confidential matter?"

Liu Baqiao recalled the conflict that broke out in the main hall of the government office that day, and said with emotion: "Song Changjing is really too strong, and the most terrifying thing is that the King of Dali is still so young, and the average eighth and ninth realm warriors are not half a hundred , Jiazi's age goes up, even a hundred years old is not considered old, but if I remember correctly, Song Changjing is only close to 40 years old. No wonder that person laughed and said, "I need to suppress my arrogance."

Chen Songfeng said softly: "It came into being and is uniquely blessed."

The monks of the upper five realms, the dragon is hard to find.However, the eighth and ninth realms among the warriors are often known to the world, and they are not far from the secular dynasties.What's more, the rise of martial arts depends on the battle of life and death. On the front line of life and death, seeing life and death can break through life and death, and obtain a transcendental state of mind similar to the "freedom" of Buddhism and the "purity" of Taoism.

In addition to the sparring between the two great masters, the warriors of the eighth and ninth realms like to bully the top Qi practitioners in the fifth realm, especially the strongest ninth realm like Song Changjing, who can almost be said to be in the top five. In this situation, he was invincible, and only Jianxiu among the Qi practitioners could fight against it, but he could only strive to make his loss not so ugly, and to win a saying that even though he was defeated, he was still honored.

However, there is an obscure reason for this, which makes the ninth realm martial arts experts unscrupulous. That is, the last floor in the fifth realm, the tenth floor great monk, has no intention of secular disputes, even the survival of the family and the rise and fall of the dynasty. Don't care, it's just the word "dao".

Liu Baqiao was still immersed in his own thoughts, "Song Changjing asked me to go out of the town and take away the talisman sword according to my ability. Would you like to say hello to Fengleiyuan and let them set up a celebration banquet early?"

Chen Songfeng couldn't help laughing and laughing, looking at the gurgling water that was no deeper than his knees, thinking of Song Changjing and the romantic young man beside the feudal lord, Chen Songfeng vaguely felt a sign of the general trend, and decided to return to the Chen family's ancestral house in Longwei County this time. The family must be persuaded to bet on the Dali Dynasty, and even if they can't make a desperate bet, the children of the Chen family must be integrated into the Dali temple as soon as possible.

Chen Songfeng murmured: "Da Li's weather, it's time for heaven and earth to work together. Therefore, my Chen family wants to support the dragon, and I can't compete with others to attach the dragon."

Liu Baqiao asked, "What are you mumbling about?"

Chen Songfeng stood up, waved his hand, and said with a smile, "You seem to have a good relationship with that Mud Bottle Alley boy."

Liu Baqiao followed and got up, and said carelessly, "We meet by chance, but we are not sure whether we will meet or leave. God knows if we will see each other again in the future."

The two walked ashore together on the spring grass by the stream, and Chen Songfeng asked: "I heard that the blessed land within the jurisdiction of Nanjian State will be opened to the public this winter, allowing dozens of people to enter, are you still unable to break the bottleneck? , do you want to go down and try your luck?"

Liu Baqiao sneered and said, "Resolutely don't go, go to the ant pile to make a fortune, I'm ashamed to panic."

Chen Songfeng shook his head and said, "My family's Mr. Liu once said that the state of mind is like a mirror, and the more you polish it, the brighter it gets. Therefore, when you practice your state of mind, being able to sit and forget on the Taoist lotus platform is of course a great benefit, but occasionally in a small mud pond, you may not There is no benefit. Going to the Blessed Land to be an exiled immortal who has abandoned his predecessor and forgot his previous life, whether he enjoys happiness or suffering, more or less..."

Before Chen Songfeng could finish speaking, Liu Baqiao had already shouted: "I am too concerned about winning and losing. Once I go to the blessed land with thin spiritual energy, if I can't break the taboo and return to my hometown by my own ability, then I will definitely stay. If I have a heart knot, it will outweigh the gains, and the harm will outweigh the benefits. Besides, if I accidentally bully the 'locals' in the blessed land, it will be another heart disease. After I regain my soul, even if it costs a lot, I will definitely Only when I come into the world with a 'real body' can I be happy, but isn't this going against my original intention?"

Liu Baqiao clasped the back of his head with both hands, and said with a face full of disdain: "To say something ugly, who doesn't know that the three blessed lands in East Treasure Pingzhou have already changed their taste, and they have become the pride of those secular dynasties. Boy, it’s no wonder that it’s a place where you spend money to find fun, and it’s said to be the place where the brothel is under the rule of the Xian family.”

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "It can't be generalized. I don't talk about us outsiders, but only those locals. There are many amazing people."

Liu Baqiao rolled his eyes and said, "In a blessed land with so many people, how many people can stand out every year? There may not be one. These people who have successfully come to us will eventually be remembered by us in a hundred years, and how many can there be? There are only a handful of them. So I don’t understand why these blessed places are so highly regarded, and some people say that as long as you have a part of a blessed land, the benefits are no less than having a monk in the upper five realms, crazy. "

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "Blessed land benefits, the water will flow, and occasionally there will be one or two surprises. The most important thing is that all the benefits belong to sit and enjoy. Who wouldn't be happy to take a piece of it?"

Those who go out of the cave will probably have a good life.Those who ascend from the blessed land have a particularly hard life.

Liu Baqiao asked, "You don't seem to like that boy named Chen very much?"

Chen Songfeng thought about it and chose to reveal his heart, "If it's personal, I don't have any opinion on the teenager. But if it's a matter of fact, his existence actually embarrassed our entire family. Lizhu Xiaodongtian's children of Chen's family are A joke from this continent. In the small town, there is only one person with a surname that is not too small. The rest have become slaves from other families and become a joke. It is normal. The person with the surname Chen, although the distant ancestors are the same, but they are the old yellow calendar many years ago, and there is nothing to talk about. Next, it would be fine if the young man in Mui Pingxiang also became the servant of a big family. After a big laugh in the world, it would be difficult to continue to be a topic of conversation for many years, but this young man's gritted teeth persisted, and the existence of loneliness was enough. It is particularly eye-catching, and many people outside are even betting that this Chen family in this small town will no longer be the 'only one'."

Liu Baqiao frowned and said, "It's not the boy's fault."

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "Of course, there is nothing wrong with the young man, but after all, there are some things in the world, and it is difficult to explain the truth."

Liu Baqiao shook his head and said, "It's hard to tell if it doesn't make sense. In fact, it's because you didn't make sense. It's just because the young man is too weak, so you can appear righteous, plus your Longwei County Chen clan's momentum is stronger than that of the young man. He is much bigger, but he is very ordinary compared to the people who watch jokes around him, so the situation becomes more and more embarrassing. In the end, he is unwilling to admit that he is incompetent, so he has to suggest to himself that the boy is the culprit. I believe that if it is not This Lizhu Cave is not easy to enter. The boy in the back street who embarrassed the Chen clan in Longwei County has long been secretly found by the children of the Chen clan in Longwei County. already."

Chen Songfeng's face flushed, and for a while he was a little bit angry.

Liu Baqiao hugged the back of his head, raised his head and looked up at the sky, still with a leisurely look, "I know you, Chen Songfeng, are not such a person, but unfortunately there are very few people like you, not like you. , after all."

"Let's just say that the mountain ape at Zhengyang Mountain can't get the sword script by himself. I'm afraid that if I get it in Fengleiyuan, I will punch the boy named Liu to death. Do you think it's reasonable? I think it's very unreasonable. But Does it work? It's useless, I don't even dare to provoke the old ape head-on."

Liu Baqiao sighed, let go of one hand, patted his stomach, and laughed at himself: "I have a clumsy mouth, my fists aren't hard enough, and my sword isn't fast enough, or else my stomach will be really stupid. I have accumulated a lot of truth, and I want to talk about it with this world."

Chen Songfeng exhaled, "So you think that boy is good?"

Liu Baqiao turned his head to look at the mountain in the west where the sun fell, "I think it's good? How is it possible."

Chen Songfeng was a little puzzled.

Liu Baqiao smiled and said, "As soon as I saw that young man, I felt ashamed."

Chen Songfeng felt unbelievable, shook his head and smiled: "Why is this?"

Liu Baqiao swallowed some of the words that came to his mouth, so as not to hurt his feelings.This guy, Chen Songfeng, although not so likable and temperamental, is much better than the average scholar, so he can be content with it.

The talker Liu Baqiao went silent all the way.

----

In the dark of night, Chen Pingan made three torches, and the three walked with the fire.

Finally, at the foot of a high mountain, Chen Pingan wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Ning Yao, "Miss Ning, tell her, this is a mountain banned by the imperial court. Does she have any taboos?"

After Ning Yao told Chen Du, the latter shook his head.

Chen Duo looked up, she was very sure that the ancestral tomb of the Chen family in Yingyin must be here.

The wanderer returns to his hometown, and he has a feeling in his heart.

Chen Dui slowly closed her eyes. After a while, she squatted down and wrote a long string of characters on the ground with her fingers. After writing, her lips moved slightly.In the end, she slowly wiped away all the traces with her palm. After getting up, she walked around the place where the runes were destroyed, and took the lead in climbing the mountain without even needing Chen Ping'an to guide her.

The three of them came to a place halfway up the mountain, and Chen Pingan pointed to a small dirt bag growing not far away.

A tree with a strange trunk, extremely straight, even straighter than a green bamboo, Chen Pingan felt relieved, nodded and said: "This is it."

Chen said in a deep voice, "You guys go down the mountain and wait for me."

Ning Yao tugged Chen Ping'an's sleeve and motioned to go down the mountain together.

Chen Dui put down the bookcase, one by one, carefully took out the carefully prepared sacrifices to worship the gods and ancestors.

In the middle of the journey, Chen Yu was in a trance for a moment, and looked at the small tree with tears in his eyes.

In the end, the woman devoutly faced the small dumpling and bowed three times and nine bows.

Afterwards, Chen couldn't bear to fall to the ground, and said in a trembling voice: "I, the Chen family of Yingyin, thank the ancestors for their protection!"

At the foot of the mountain, Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao sat alone on the back of the basket, facing each other. Ning Yao asked, "There is a long way to go before, why did you deliberately detour?"

Chen Ping'an was stunned for a while, then said in shock, "Miss Ning, can you even see it?"

Ning Yao shook hands with the scabbard, pushed it back, and the top of the scabbard hit the boy's lower back, "Remove the 'hyphen'!"

The straw-shoe boy grinned, rubbed his waist lightly, and said in a low voice, "Didn't I tell you that there is a cliff with the boss, all of which are the kind of black stones you call the Dragon Slaying Terrace, I'm afraid I'll show her. , and then she also knows the goods, what if she has malicious intentions at that time? The intention to harm others is indispensable, and the intention to guard against others is indispensable, I still understand this principle. "

Ning Yao smiled and said, "Mistress, you're not worried that she'll find a way to move it, leaving you empty-handed."

Chen Ping'an laughed foolishly: "Miss Ning, you are so honest, you must have many friends, right?"

Whoops.

Suddenly, Chen Pingan was in pain again, and quickly freed up one hand to rub the other side of his waist.

Chen Pingan suddenly touched Ning Yao's back lightly with his elbow, and asked, "Do you eat wild fruits? I picked three of them on the way here, and I hid them in my sleeve pocket. She should not have seen them."

Ning Yao said angrily, "Can the mountain fruits in this season be delicious?"

Chen Ping'an turned around, handed over two peach-sized red wild fruits, and smiled: "Miss Ning, then you don't know, this kind of fruit really can only be eaten in spring, it will be strong in late winter and mature in early spring. It will be thoroughly cooked in a while, tsk tsk tsk, the taste will bite off your tongue if you are not careful. What's even more strange is that there are so many mountains here, and the fruit is only here. I also came to find it with old man Yao A kind of soil, he told me, and other places, there are some wild fruits that taste good, but I eat and eat, and I feel that it is not as good as this."

Ning Yao took the two fruits, and if he made up his mind that it was unpalatable, he must return the remaining one, "You still eat and eat, are you a wild boar in the mountains?"

Chen Ping'an bit the wild fruit and said with a smile: "When I was young, my family was poor, but I didn't eat whatever I caught. Don't tell me, once I ate something blindly and broke my stomach, it hurt me. Rolling around in the alley. That was the first time I heard my heartbeat, like thunder and drums."

It's a pity that Ning Yao was busy eating the fruit, so he didn't hear what the young man said at the end. When he took the first bite, he felt that the fruit was very sweet and delicious. The house, wild fruit is a bag of charcoal fire.Ning Yao closed his eyes and felt the internal organs. Although the whole body was comfortable, the rest was the same. This meant that this kind of wild fruit could generally be ranked among the things on the mountain at the feet of the gods, but it was limited to this. The secular dynasty can sell high prices, but it will not make the monks jealous.

For ordinary people at the foot of the mountain, it is undoubtedly the supreme treasure of prolonging life.

Knowing this earlier, Ning Yao would simply not accept this fruit.

Ning Yao felt a little regretful, wiped his mouth, turned around and handed over the remaining wild fruit, "It's not delicious, I'll give it back to you."

Chen Pingan took it back angrily, feeling a little disappointed. He thought that Miss Ning would feel good.

Ning Yao kicked the basket lightly with both hands, and asked casually, "Is it reserved for the woman named Chen Dui?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said, "What do you do for her? It's not a relative, not an ancestor. Of course, it's left to Liu Xianyang."

Ning Yao suddenly asked curiously, "If Ruan Xiu is here, would you not give Chen Duo to Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Pingan nodded and said, "Of course."

Ning Yao asked again, "If you only have two wild fruits in your hand, would you give it to me or Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Pingan said without hesitation: "One for you and one for Ruan Xiu. I think you can eat it."

Chen Pingan was attacked again, rubbed his lower back, and said innocently, "Miss Ning, what are you doing?"

Ning Yao asked again, "If there is only one?"

Chen Pingan laughed and said, "Here you are."

Ning Yao: "Why?"

Chen Ping'an said sly and sincere: "Miss Ruan is not here, you are here, Miss Ning."

The teenager suffered two heavy blows on his lower back in an instant, and the pain caused Chen Ping'an to get up and jump up and down. As a result, Ning Yao fell into the big back basket.

Chen Pingan quickly pulled her out of the basket.

Ning Yao wasn't angry, but just gave Chen Ping'an a fierce look.

Chen Pingan helped the back basket again, and the two sat back to back again.

Ning Yao asked, "Do you know what tree that tree is?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said, "I don't know, I've only seen it in this place, and it doesn't seem to be found on other mountains."

Ning Yao said solemnly: "It is said that if there is a family mausoleum to give birth to a regular tree, it is an auspicious atmosphere for a Confucian saint to be born, and this saint must be extremely upright and upright, so in your world, he will definitely be particularly favored. "

Chen Pingan snorted.

What a Confucian sage, auspiciousness and righteousness, this straw-shoe boy can't understand.

Ning Yao asked, "You don't envy the woman on the mountain? Have you ever wondered why this regular tree doesn't grow on the grave of your ancestors?"

Chen Ping'an answered the question and said happily, "It's great that I can still visit my parents' graves on Qingming Festival this year."

Ning Yao stood up suddenly, this time it was Chen Pingan's turn to sit in the basket.

Ning Yao laughed aside.

----

There are only five Meng children left in the small town school. They are of different heights and ages. Among them, there is a little girl in a red cotton jacket. Although she was born in Fulu Street, she never bullied people in the school. I don't like to join in the fun either, I just like to wander around.The family in the far west of the town, Li Er's son, Li Huai, is also studying in this school. His parents left the town with his sister, but he was the only one left behind. Instead of crying, Li Huai was happy. It's broken, and finally no longer needs to be controlled. It's just that at night, this child who lives in his uncle's house wakes up from a nightmare, and starts to howl with heartbreak. As a result, he is jointly suppressed by the awakened uncle and aunt. Use a feather duster and one use a broom.

The other three were from Taoye Lane, Qilong Lane, and Xinghua Lane, two men and one woman.

After class, Mr. Qi gave each of them a letter, and asked them to keep it properly and copy it carefully, saying that he would check the schoolwork in three days.

That's a syllable.

After Meng Xue dispersed, the old man sweeping the floor, after bathing and changing his clothes, came to Mr. Qi's study and sat on the ground.

The old man asked a question about the Confucian classics of "Spring King and the First Moon".

Qi Jingchun smiled knowingly and explained his confusion, telling what is spring, what is king, what is right and what is moon.

This is the unique way of “holding scriptures and asking questions” in major Confucian academies. In the classroom, there will be an “ask teacher” who will ask the lecturers. There can be one question, several questions, ten questions or even a hundred questions.

This question and answer happened at the first meeting between Mr. Qi and the old man.

That was a thing of the past 80 years ago.

But at that time, Qi Jingchun was the one who asked the question, and the one who answered was the common husband of the two.

After the old man asked all the questions, he looked at Qi Jingchun, "Do you still remember the parting words from Mr.

Qi Jingchun smiled without saying a word.

The old man asked himself and answered, "The sentence I gave to me was, 'Heaven and earth give birth to a gentleman, and a gentleman manages the world'. The sentence I gave to you is, 'Learning is a must. Green is taken from blue, and green is from blue.'"

The old man was suddenly very excited, "Sir, how much you value you, I hope you will come out of blue! Why do you want to be here, don't hit the south wall and don't look back? Why do you want to give up a hundred years of cultivation for a small town with only 6000 or [-] people?" Don’t want anything with the Millennium Dao?! It’s fine if you’re an ordinary scholar, but you are Qi Jingchun, our husband’s most prized disciple! You are a scholar who is expected to make a difference, and even establish a teaching name!”

The old man trembled and said, "I see, it was the Buddhists who mistaken you! What is the equality of all beings! Did you forget what Mr.

Qi Jingchun shook his head with a smile, and said, "Although Mr. is a gentleman, he is naturally very knowledgeable, but the reason may not be entirely correct."

The old man was shocked beyond measure, his face full of astonishment, and then he shouted angrily: "Rite, so you are right!"

Qi Jingchun replied with a smile, "When a gentleman is accustomed, he accompanies him, and when he stretches, he stretches."

Seemingly for no reason, it was separated by [-] miles, but when the old man heard it, his face changed drastically and he was full of surprise.

Qi Jingchun sighed, looked at the fellow junior and junior fellow who had followed him here for a period of [-] years, and said solemnly: "This is the end of the matter. Those children will be entrusted to you to be sent to Shanya Academy."

The old man nodded, got up and left with a complicated look.

Qi Jingchun said to himself, "Sir, is there any real righteousness in the world?"

----

The two carriages set off from Fulu Street before dawn, and left the town early.

At dawn, a young man with straw sandals took two large cloth bags and set off to wait for people outside the kiln work superintendent's office.

One bag contained bags of gold refined copper coins, and the other contained the most valuable snake gallstones.

But when it was dawn, the yamen janitor came out with a broom to clean the street, and the boy didn't see the carriage.

He had no choice but to have the cheek to ask, when the group of guests named Chen Dui from the government office would set off from Fulu Street.

The porter said with a smile that they had already left the town.

The straw-shoe boy was stunned, didn't that guy Liu Xianyang set out after dawn after making an appointment with him?

At that moment, the boy's vision was a little blurry.

After thanking the concierge, the boy turned around and ran.

After running out of the town, the teenager ran for nearly [-] miles in one go, and finally along a slope, the exhausted teenager walked to the top of the slope, looking at the winding road, extending forward.

The boy squatted on the top of the mountain with copper coins and stones that hadn't been sent out at his feet.

A girl with a sword and a hanging knife sat quietly beside him, panting, and said angrily: "Aren't you a money fan in the eyes of losing money, why are you so generous? All your belongings are going to be given away? Even if Liu Xianyang is your friend, Not as big as you are."

The boy just held his head and looked into the distance.