Chapter 35: Opening a Village and Discussing Swords (Part 1)
Time flies, and it’s already midwinter in a blink of an eye.
At this time of year, the people, the rivers and lakes, and the green forests are relatively calm.
There is no special reason. It is simply because in ancient times, when the weather got cold, there were fewer people active outside. With fewer people, there would naturally be fewer things going on.
But this year, the 19th year of Yongtai, on the day of "heavy snow", something big happened.
On this day, an earth-shattering news spread throughout the martial arts world——
Xiao Zhun, the owner of Wujian Villa, will open a "Sword Discussion" in half a month. All swordsmen in the world, no matter their origins, age, or martial arts level, as long as they can get the approval of Master Xiao in the sword discussion.
Become Xiao Zhun's "true disciple" and gain the essence of his lifelong swordsmanship, as well as the treasure of Wujian Villa - Shenxia Sword.
In addition, in order to "show fairness", Master Xiao will not only let "swordsmen from all over the world" enter the village on the day of the sword discussion, he also specially invited four famous martial artists to be "witnesses" to this event.
These four people are: Song Wudi, the owner of Liaodong Shen Dao Villa; Wang Shilian, the leader of Wudang; Jiang Shouzheng, the "big middle and most upright"; and Di Bujue, the leader of the Cao Gang.
This list...actually has some problems.
What level of characters are the first three?
Song Wudi is one of the few top martial arts masters who has not yet retired. His swordsmanship has already reached the state of perfection. The Magic Sword Villa he leads is also powerful in Liaodong and famous in the world.
Wang Shilian, known as the "Dao-Sword-In-One Wang Zhenren", is considered to be the leader of Wudang whose martial arts skills are closest to those of the former "Zhenzhen Zhang" in the past thirty years. It goes without saying much about the background of his sect.
Jiang Shouzheng, nicknamed "Dazhong Zhizheng" in the world, is a hero who has become extremely famous in the past ten years. He is known for his impartiality and selflessness. I think back then, Jiang Daxia and the "Seven Star Sword" Fan Zhengting were both known as "Seven Star Sword".
"Fan Jiang Erzheng", many disputes between sects or individuals in the martial arts community like to come to them to mediate, until Fan Zhengting suddenly disappeared a few years ago and disappeared from the martial arts world. After that, Jiang Shouzheng became the only "right".
Compared with the above three, although Di Bujue is the leader of the strongest gang among the four gangs, his martial arts skills and status in the world seem to be a little bit behind... If the last "Seven Heroes Meeting"
At that time, he succeeded in becoming the "general sect leader", which was easy to say. However, due to the trouble caused by Shuanghui, this matter has been shelved until now.
But no matter what, Di Bujue was very happy to be invited to be one of the four "witnesses" this time. He also felt: I didn't expect that Master Xiao thought so highly of me. He actually asked me to follow him.
Those three are tied? Then I have to seize the opportunity to make friends with him. If I can become an ally with Wujian Villa, I will be able to dominate the martial arts world just around the corner.
That's what he thought...
In Xiao Zhun's mind, this was not the case at all.
Friends with good memories may still remember that a few months ago, when Sun Yixie was performing "Er Opera Kang Haijiao" in Weihai, he passed on some wrong information to the spies of Wujian Villa, and that information was transferred to Xiao
There, Xiao Zhun interpreted it again...
Master Xiao’s thoughts are meticulous and his ideas are sophisticated, as we mentioned before when we talked about how Mr.
After a few years, he suddenly made great progress in martial arts, and then came to seek refuge with him. After analyzing this series of information, he came to the conclusion that "Kang Haijiao may be a long-term undercover agent assigned to him by Di Bujue."
On the basis of this conclusion, Xiao Zhun naturally regarded Di Bujue as an enemy who had been secretly coveting him from the beginning.
This time Xiao Zhun invited Di Bujue to come, just to drag the enemy from the "dark place" to the "open place" to deal with it. From Xiao Zhun's perspective, his method is called "taking advantage of the enemy's plan" and "countering an army"
, and had no intention of showing any favor to Di Bujue.
As for the other three, Xiao Zhun had a purpose in inviting them.
Needless to say, Song Wudi was said to be "the second best in the world", but everyone also knew that the Divine Sword Villa had always been slightly superior to the Wujian Villa. The martial arts of "Song Wudi" was also recognized as being better than the "Sword Master".
"If it's higher, it's called an "old enemy"... If Xiao Zhun successfully becomes a "Sword Demon" this time, is there anyone more suitable to test the sword than this one named Song?
As for Wang Shilian, it was not Xiao Zhun who wanted to invite him, but one of Xiao Zhun's "friends" who asked him to invite him - after seeing this, you may have guessed that this friend of the owner of Xiao Zhun is the gangster mentioned in the previous article.
The person he gave Xie Run the title of "Stealing Ming Yu" was also the master of Shi Xuanzi, with the Taoist name "True Lord Fire Lotus".
This person can be regarded as a "demon" with some great abilities...
Shi Xuanzi's title of "Great Immortal Fire Lotus" was given to him by himself, and it was just a nickname at most, but his master's "True Lord Fire Lotus" was a true Taoist title, and just from the name, one could tell that he was much more powerful than Shi Xuanzi.
ah.
But how he and Xiao Zhun got together will be explained later, but let’s continue talking about the third person...
The third person, Jiang Shouzheng, plays a very important role.
If Xiao Zhun wants to become a sword demon, he must go on a killing spree on the day of the "Sword Discussing", and in this way, there is no guarantee that one or two fish will slip through the net and leak the truth of that day. At this time, he needs someone
People like Jiang Shouzheng came forward.
Speaking is an art.
To be a hero, you only need to know martial arts and be benevolent.
But when you are a sanctimonious hero who everyone respects and responds to every call, you have to be able to speak.
Jiang Shouzheng was very good at talking, and people liked to listen to him and were willing to believe what he said.
His upright and selfless face, his smooth and unashamed tone are both a natural talent and the result of continuous training.
As long as he is willing to speak for Xiao Zhun and "testify" for Xiao Zhun, there is no need to give any more evidence, and other people's testimony cannot be compared with his.
Then why did he speak for Xiao Zhun?
It's very simple... Although most people in the world don't know it, Xiao Zhun knows very well that the so-called "Fan Jiang Erzheng" back then were both hypocrites.
Fan Zhengting has been missing for many years. He is probably no longer alive and no one cares about him. However, Jiang Shouzheng has been active in the world these years.
At his core, Jiang Shouzheng was a man who was greedy for life and afraid of death, loved money and was lustful. Externally, he was a hypocrite who was greedy for vanity and overjoyed success. For a person like this, Xiao must have many ways to get him to do things for him.
To make a long story short, as soon as the news about Wujian Villa was released, the martial arts community in the Central Plains exploded.
Those disciples from high-level sects are okay, they are under the control of the sect and will not act recklessly, but those from small sects and stragglers in the world... there are many thick-skinned ones, regardless of whether they know swordsmanship or not.
Anyway, if you buy a sword and hold it, you can call yourself a swordsman.
Most of them didn't really think they could be favored by Xiao Zhun during the "sword debate", but just wanted to join in the fun. After all, people said that if you are a "swordsman" you can enter the village.
In the past few days, weapons shops and blacksmiths everywhere have undoubtedly made a lot of money - not to mention the short sales of inventory in the stores, there are so many urgent orders for sword making that they can't be queued, and people are willing to pay for the price increase of twenty times.
Fortunately, Dashu's officers, imperial guards, and troops were all equipped with knives or long weapons, otherwise even the armory might have been stolen.
Of course, this trend did not last long, only half a month in total. Many people had to rush to Lingnan from where they were. Not only was the time on the road very tight, there was no spare time to get swords. Some actually bought them.
If it doesn't come, let it go.
But there is also the iron one, who has to go without a sword, so one can only imagine what they will do...
In the past half month, all the roads leading to Wujian Villa, as well as the villages and shops near the Villa, were full of swords and swords, bloodshed, and "sword seizing" incidents happened one after another.
Some are secret thieves, some are outright robbers...
If you are a famous swordsman, you may be safer. If you are not very famous, or you just bought a sword and came here a few days ago, then you have to be careful. You may sit down to rest and eat.
You will be attacked or even besieged when you are eating, or even taking a shit; and most of the people who can do such things will not talk about benevolence and justice, and will most likely kill you if they grab the sword.
It is in such an atmosphere that the day of "sword discussion" is gradually approaching.
It’s the winter solstice, which is... the day before "Sword Discussing".
A small group of people arrived in a village near Wujian Villa in the wind and snow.
There are six people in this line, and everyone knows them: "The Young Master of Caotang" Wen Yuzhao, "Sword and Sword" Xiao Wuji, "Canglong Hidden Peak" Haicangfeng, "Blunt Sword" Jiang Muchan, "Hunyuan Shen"
Sword" Lin Yuancheng, and the killer "Three-Character King".
When you see this, some people may want to ask, where are Linghu Xiang, who went to Beijing with Xiao Lin before, and our two protagonists now?
This will depend on our later document - Linghu Xiang secretly set up a manhole trap to arouse the public's anger and kill Shuanghe with a hundred swords.