Walking among the barren hills and graves where foxes and rabbits were infested, the man carrying the sword suddenly stopped in front of a tombstone. He walked to the tombstone in front of an inconspicuous little earthen bag. He squatted down and reached out to brush away the vines and grass entwining the stone monument, revealing it.
The original true face, the handwriting was blurry, and only half of the words could be vaguely recognized. The man sighed, "The divine way has collapsed, rituals and music are at their peak. The struggle of a hundred schools of thought is about to begin."
After the man got up, he saw the apprentice who had not yet entered Zhenwu Mountain to formally worship his master and worship his ancestors. He was facing the direction he came from. Blood was bleeding from the corners of the young man's mouth, ears and nose, making the dark face look particularly hideous and terrifying. The young man raised his head.
He wiped his arms randomly and continued to stare there.
The man said: "Ma Kuxuan, according to the reason you gave before, you learned that the foreign girl used flying swordsmanship in the alley, teamed up with the Sui prince and the eunuch, and killed your first master, so
You have a knot in your mind, and you must avenge yourself before leaving the town. I think this makes sense, so I don’t stop you and let you live and die on your own terms. After all, a practitioner can encounter such an enemy of the great road.
, is both a crisis and an opportunity.”
But the man emphasized his tone, never favoring the disciple in front of him because of his outstanding talent, and said in a deep voice: "But why are you eyeing your peers in Mud Bottle Alley? I have told you before, I am a military monk of Zhenwu Mountain, especially
Those who practice swordsmanship must never kill innocent people indiscriminately!"
The young man answered the question, "Are military monks the most capable of not caring about karma and luck?"
The man nodded and said: "Looking through the history books of thousands of years, most of them are our military saints who can single-handedly turn the tide. It is not because I, as a military monk, deliberately sing praises to the sages."
The man stared at the young man and had no intention of letting him off easily.
If Ma Kuxuan is murderous and uses his power to bully others, then what does he do to recruit such disciples for Zhenwu Mountain?
In the secular dynasty, military monks rely on fighting on the battlefield to improve their realm. They are closest to the line of life and death. Once they cannot keep their true intentions, they can easily fall into the devil's way. Just imagine, a cultivator with military power slaughters cities and annihilates them.
Country, how easy is it?
Military strategists and Confucianism are the two pillars that support the worldly peace of the Yamashita dynasty. Once a respected military strategist monk himself is not upright, the higher the person's realm and the higher the status of the temple, the greater the influence of the entire secular dynasty.
The impact will naturally be greater. In history, the lessons from the past are vivid. How difficult it is to win the hearts of the people, and how easy it is to lose them. Although this sentence was said by a Confucian saint, there are many Confucian generals who are well-read in military strategists and books.
This is deeply believed.
The young man may have felt the solemnity of the atmosphere, but he was not in a hurry to argue. He stretched out his hand and gently covered his ear with the palm of his hand, touching the injured area. He immediately bared his teeth and took a breath of cold air. After a while, he took his hand back and looked at the palm of his hand.
He looked at the blood stains and said: "The guy's name was Chen Ping'an. His father died when he was very young. That man was a famous kiln worker in the town. He was very skilled and honest, but he suddenly died suddenly.
The body was not found. Although my grandma has been unwilling to admit it, I remember it very clearly. It was a rainy night with lightning and thunder. I was woken up by the thunder, and then I found that my grandma was not around. I just pushed the door open.
, I saw my dad running back sneakily, surprised and scared at the same time, looking very strange. My mother slapped my dad on the back hard, smiling from ear to ear, she was so happy."
The young man frowned subconsciously and tried hard to remember those bleak scenes from his childhood. "Only my grandma didn't say anything. She didn't seem to be very happy. Instead, she got angry at my father. 'Do you think that child's father is dead and you can have a child?"
If you have a chance to marry her? Why don't you show off your own virtue? The Chen family in Mud Bottle Alley has been a one-person family for several generations, so you are not afraid of harming one person, and ultimately the whole family of three.
Can't survive? When the time comes, the Chen family will have no descendants. Aren't they afraid of retribution from their ancestors? Take a step back and say, you really don't know that woman's temperament. Are you willing to remarry you? 'My father was then
I just smiled playfully, thinking that I had done it and would get paid soon, so I stopped pretending to be sorry and guilty in front of my family. My grandma finally pointed at my mother’s nose and scolded me. My mother is not a good tempered person either.
Yes, my mother-in-law and daughter-in-law almost had a fight in the main hall. My father is the kind of person who likes the new and hates the old. The small town neighbors of his generation didn’t like him. Of course he helped his wife but not my mother at that time. In the end, my grandma sat
On the ground, I beat my chest fiercely, crying and complaining to the plaque, saying that the Ma family had recruited such a broomstick woman into the house, and you would never die in peace."
The man followed the young man's train of thought and asked, "Are you trying to gather all the illusory retribution for good and evil and the sins committed by the previous generation on yourself, hoping that your grandma and your parents will end well?"
Ma Kuxuan grinned, "I really don't have any feelings for my parents. Only grandma is worried about it. She is not willing to go to Zhenwu Mountain with me. She said that she must be buried next to grandpa's grave in this life. What if she goes there?
I don’t know that Zhenwu Mountain, which is tens of thousands of miles away, wants to trouble my grandson to move a jar home. Secondly, she heard that the road to the world after death and before being buried will be extremely bumpy. She said that she is still alive.
I had suffered enough when I was alive, but I don’t want to have to suffer even more after I die.”
The man said: "It's excusable, but it's unreasonable. It's just this once, it won't happen next time."
Ma Kuxuan curled his lips and looked cold. He didn't shake his head or refute, but he also didn't nod in agreement.
The man smiled and rubbed salt on the boy's wounds: "How does it feel to be pushed to the ground and beaten by your peers?"
Ma Kuxuan said angrily: "If that bitch hadn't secretly given him a knife, would I have lost to Chen Ping'an?! I only exerted seven percent of my strength from the beginning to the end! If I hadn't felt that I wanted to play cat-catching mice
…”
The man sneered softly and said: "Playing with cats and catching mice? Come on, I am not only thinking of beating Chen Pingan to death with 70% of my strength, but also making the girl take it lightly and killing two birds with one stone. It's quite a beautiful idea."
The young man blushed slightly, stiffened his neck and said angrily: "Who the hell are you, Master?!"
The man laughed.
The two got back on the road and headed towards the town. The young man asked: "Compared to Zhengyang Mountain, is Zhenwu Mountain higher or lower?"
The man smiled and asked, "Do you want to tell the truth or a lie?"
The young man rolled his eyes, "Where are the lies?"
The man replied: "That's about the same height."
The young man sighed sadly, feeling that he was really in a bad way. He recognized two masters. One died inexplicably in Qilong Lane, a small town, and the other was not very capable and had many rules.
The man smiled and said: "On the surface, Zhengyang Mountain is the foundation of swordsmanship, but in the minds of the monks of Dongbaopingzhou, its status is far inferior to that of their mortal enemy Fengleiyuan, so Zhengyang Mountain is not regarded as a first-class sect.
Power, of course, is just an illusion on the surface. In fact, Zhengyang Mountain has a very deep foundation. It is just that after the grudge happened that year, there was a man in Fengleiyuan who had a swordsmanship that far exceeded that of his peers. He was so amazing and brilliant that Zhengyang
The mountain had to bear the humiliation for hundreds of years..."
Ma Kuxuan said angrily: "No matter how much you praise Zhengyang Mountain, you can't change the fact that Zhenwu Mountain is not as good as Zhengyang Mountain."
The man smiled and said: "Ma Kuxuan, you are mistaken. The difference between Zhengyang Mountain and our Zhenwu Mountain is probably the Zhengyang Mountain."
The young man was stunned for a moment, and after hearing the implication of the man's words, he immediately smiled and said: "That's pretty much it!"
The man reminded: "The sect is the sect, and you are yourself."
The short boy smiled and said: "You are mistaken! What I mean is that since Zhenwu Mountain is so high, then when I become a master of martial arts and want to find someone to learn from, it will save time and trouble, and I won't be surrounded by a bunch of embroidered pillows and
Wine sack and rice sack!”
The man laughed it off and said, "Would such bold words be more convincing to a boy from Mud Bottle Alley?"
The young man said angrily: "Do you think you are a master like this? Be careful if you beat someone to death in the future, I won't help you avenge you!"
The man reached around his back, patted the scabbard, and said with a smile: "Except for this sword, Master is alone, and his body will disappear when he dies. What's the use of revenge?"
The young man asked doubtfully: "Isn't there another sect called Zhenwushan?"
The man gave a pass and said, "Zhenwu Mountain is different from other sects in Dongbaopingzhou. You will understand after you go up the mountain."
The tiger talisman on the man's waist jumped slightly. The man held the tiger talisman for a moment, and quickly said in a deep voice: "You and I will return to the town quickly! I, a military monk, seek good luck and avoid disaster, and predict the future, almost instinctively."
The young man rolled his eyes and said: "Even if there is chaos over there in the town, and the outsiders and the people in the town are bleeding like rivers, it is none of my business. We have agreed, I can promise not to take human lives lightly, but I will never do anything.
An act of chivalry and righteousness, helping those in danger and rescuing those in distress."
The man's face was solemn, he grabbed the young man's shoulder and ordered: "Don't talk, hold your breath!"
The two figures disappeared in a flash, and the next moment they had appeared more than ten feet away. This cycle was like a series of water floats made by the young Ma Kuxuan on the stream.
————
Except for the wound on Chen Ping'an's back scratched by Ma Kuxuan's stone, there were not many external injuries. However, this definitely does not mean that Chen Ping'an was suffering well. The most troublesome thing was the palm of his left hand, which was delayed when he went into the water to touch rocks to catch fish.
Healing speed, this time he had a fight with Ma Kuxuan and fist bumped, which made matters worse. When he tore off the old cotton strips, even Chen Pingan could only open a bag on his waist, take out a porcelain bottle, and drink
The thick medicinal soup inside is exactly what Yang's shop prescribed back then. It's useless except for the pain relief.
After Ning Yao took back the simple-looking clothes-pressing knife, he cut off a large section of the cuffs of his underwear, tore it into strips, and helped Chen Ping'an, who was covered in cold sweat, to wrap it up and asked: "The earthwork of Yang's shop
Son, is it really useful?"
Chen Pingan gently shook his left hand and smiled, "It's very useful. It really hurt just now. I've had this pain twice before."
Ning Yao scolded: "You can see the bones in the flesh in the palm of your hand, does it not hurt? Do you really think that you have cultivated the golden body of an Arhat with an undefeated Vajra, or a Taoist true king with an unsullied body? Let you be brave! Follow me.
That Ma Kuxuan is so stubborn. Didn’t he say that he would challenge us to a duel? It’s okay. He challenged the two of us in a duel. There’s nothing wrong with that. Even my majestic Ning Yao doesn’t find it embarrassing. You’re addicted to trying to be a hero. Otherwise, I’ll wait for you.
If you choose to move the orangutan in Zhengyang Mountain, I will continue to applaud you?"
Chen Ping'an just planned to discuss his opinions and principles with her.
The girl suddenly stared, and the boy immediately nodded and said, "Miss Ning is right."
Ning Yao squinted his eyes angrily and said, "You don't feel upset if you say it? You think I don't know?"
Chen Ping'an chuckled and kept glancing at the clothes-pressing knife in her hand. At first glance, it looked small and cute, but upon closer inspection, it was sharp and cold.
The young man felt that this clothes-pressing knife and its owner seemed to be exactly the opposite.
Ning Yao asked Chen Ping'an to raise his right hand, gently put the clothes-pressing knife back into the sheath tied to his arm, and warned: "Don't push too far, and don't have any inappropriate thoughts about this knife!"
Chen Pingan said helplessly: "Miss Ning, you are thinking too much."
Ning Yao suddenly reached out and pointed to the earliest statue of the broken-arm spirit official, "That jet-black stone pedestal, do you know what kind of stone it is made of?"
Chen Pingan nodded and said: "I know, Miss Ning, you have asked the right person. We only need to walk along the stream into the mountain. It will take a long way. I estimate that it will take at least a long time to walk before we can see a piece of black stone."
The cliffs are all made of this kind of stone, which is so hard that even a hammer can't break even a little bit of gravel, let alone a hatchet. There are several long sunken grooves on the other side of the cliff, and there is a slight slope inside.
, and it’s not flat either. Every time Old Man Yao passes by there, he will ask him to take out a hatchet and sharpen it. Not to mention, after sharpening, the hatchet will be really shiny, which is very different from before.”
Ning Yao rubbed his forehead, wondering whether to laugh or cry: "It is used to sharpen the hatchet for chopping trees and wood..."
Chen Ping'an's eyes lit up, "It's valuable?!"
Ning Yao said angrily: "No matter how valuable it is, can you get even a tiny bit of that entire stone cliff? I tell you, ordinary gods can't do it! Unless it's a great sword fairy with huge killing power,
In addition, if you are willing to give up a magic weapon, you can crack out about two three-foot-long stone bars, which will be specially named 'Dragon Slaying Platform' by the swordsman, and each piece is of course worth a fortune."
Chen Pingan fell into deep thought.
Ning Yao's eyes suddenly lit up, "Isn't there a ready-made sword-sharpening stone under the feet of the Lingguan statue? It's so big that it can be split into two pieces on the Dragon-Slaying Platform."
Chen Ping'an felt as though his butt was burning, and quickly persuaded him: "Miss Ning, we can't tear it down and move it home! That Lingguan Master is already aggrieved enough, if we take away his footing again...
"
Ning Yao stood up suddenly and snorted coldly, "Grab?! Am I that kind of person?"
Then Chen Ping'an followed the girl towards the Taoist spirit official statue. Standing in front of the clay sculpture and painted statue, Ning Yao took a step forward, holding the scabbard and scabbard with both hands respectively. She looked up and shouted: "My name is Ning."
Yao! As long as you give me these three feet of footing today, then I, Ning Yao, will definitely repay you a hundred times a thousand times if you become a swordsman in the future!"
Chen Ping'an opened his mouth wide, thinking that this is okay?
Sure enough, the clay statue remained motionless.
The girl did not give up and continued: "You don't want to give it to me, so I, Ning Yao, can borrow it from your head office? You can borrow it and pay it back."
Ning Yao did not forget to turn around and wink at Chen Pingan, "I am borrowing, not robbing, do you understand?"
Chen Pingan shook his head vigorously and replied sincerely: "I don't understand!"
Ning Yao was about to explain to Chen Ping'an the completely different differences between "stealing" and "borrowing" when Chen Ping'an suddenly shouted: "Be careful!"
While speaking, Chen Pingan moved and pulled Ning Yao behind him.
It turned out to be the statue of the Spiritual Official. After thousands of years of wind and sun, it finally fell to the ground on this day. It fell forward and was completely broken. It didn't show a leg here or a leg there.
The remains of the arms and even the originally lifelike bearded head were shattered.
Come from the soil, go to the soil.
It seems that this time in this world has truly come to an end.
Moreover, the mystery of this incident lies in the height of the Lingguan statue. The distance between the young girl and the stone pedestal of the statue is much greater than the former. It stands to reason that even if Chen Pingan and Ning Yao were not crushed, they would not be crushed.
At the very least, it would be hit hard. But in the end, the clay statue turned into dust, and the farthest it could reach was only the feet of the two of them.
The well-informed Ning Yao swallowed his saliva, feeling a little guilty. He looked down at the flying dust and muttered: "Are you too stingy? If you don't want to borrow it, you won't borrow it. Are you going to fight me to the death?"
Chen Ping'an suddenly shook his head and said, "This is called a Bodhisattva's nod, which means he agrees to you."
Ning Yao stood side by side with the young man, looking at the debris and dust, then at the bare black dragon-slaying platform further away, and finally turned to look at Chen Pingan, and asked tentatively: "Are you sure?"
Chen Pingan smiled and said: "I'm sure!"
Ning Yao believed it without any doubt.
Even she herself doesn't know why.
Finally, under the leadership of Chen Pingan, Ning Yao helped move the mud debris into a pit that had been dug nearby and covered it with soil.
Chen Ping'an lowered his head and recited silently: "Whether it is human or divine, it is best to rest in peace."
Ning Yao also lowered his head and whispered: "I will rest in peace."
After doing all this, Ning Yao asked curiously: "Chen Ping'an, is this the custom of your town? Is it the rules passed down from your ancestors?"
Chen Pingan shook his head and said: "No, I think so myself."
Ning Yao raised his eyebrows.
Chen Pingan smiled and asked: "Miss Ning, don't you feel very comfortable after doing this?"
Ning Yao also shook his head, "I don't feel it."
Chen Ping'an scratched his head, looked at the black stone pedestal, and asked, "Is it called the Dragon-Slaying Platform?"
Ning Yao hummed, "People in the martial arts might call it a sharpening stone or a sword sharpening stone. Only swordsmen on the mountain would call it the Dragon Slaying Platform."
Ning Yao turned his head to look to the southwest, his eyes were dazed, and he whispered, "My hometown is also called a sword-sharpening stone. Everyone has one, of different sizes, usually only as big as a fist. Some even have declining families.
A swordsman with a low level of cultivation only has a sword-sharpening stone the size of his thumb, which he values more than his wealth and life. It's not like he has nothing. I have one at home too, it's very big..."
Chen Pingan asked softly: "How big is it?"
The girl murmured: "It's probably bigger than your house on Mud Bottle Lane."
The young man's face was full of shock, and then he said with great envy: "Miss Ning, your family is really rich! And with such a big sword grinding stone, you don't have to worry about being stolen. It's great. Unlike me, I finally saved a few copper coins.
I won’t be able to sleep well no matter where I hide.”
The originally sad girl who left her hometown suddenly lost her sadness and said with a smile: "This sword-sharpening stone is half for each person!"
The young man waved his hand and said, "What do I need it for? I have a hatchet at home, but there is no need to use such an expensive whetstone. Every time I sharpen the knife, I feel distressed. Why bother. So Miss Ning, take them all."
Okay, by the way, don’t you want to ask Master Ruan to help you make a sword? You can use the other half as money to make the sword..."
Ning Yao said helplessly: "Chen Ping'an, are you really stupid or are you short-sighted?"
Chen Pingan thought for a while and said with a smile: "Miss Ning, just think of me as a bad guy."
Ning Yao suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed at the young man, with a look of realization on his face, and said with a squinted smile: "Chen Ping'an, tell me honestly, are you plotting something evil and thinking about turning 'Miss Ning' into your wife in the future? That's not all."
Is it your own? This little calculation is crackling, it’s amazing!”
The young man wanted to cry but had no tears, and the corners of his mouth twitched. What did Song Jixin say before? Why bother to accuse him?
Ning Yao laughed loudly, "Look, I scared you. I was just kidding."
Chen Pingan sighed, feeling a little tired.
Ning Yao suddenly said seriously: "Be careful! My flying sword is already on its way back!"
Chen Ping'an felt like he was facing a formidable enemy.