Sword of Coming

Two days before Qi Jingchun put down the pair of chopsticks, some bad omens appeared in the town. The water level in the iron lock well dropped sharply, the locust branches broke and fell from the trunk, and the branches and leaves were all withered and yellow, which obviously did not comply with the rules of spring and autumn. , and there are many clay and wooden statues lying around outside the town. There are often explosions like firecrackers in the middle of the night. Interested people run to take a look. Near the town, there must be those clay Bodhisattva and wood gods that still exist last winter. Most of them have already disappeared.

The oxcarts and carriages leaving from Fulu Street and Taoye Lane have never stopped. On the street paved with large bluestones, the sound of oxen and horses' hooves can be heard even in the middle of the night.

Those foreigners who were gorgeously dressed and full of wealth also began to walk out in a hurry. Most of them looked unhappy and were in groups. Some people often pointed in the direction of the small town school, quite angrily.

Zheng Dafeng, a bachelor at the east gate of the town, disappeared, and the kiln superintendent's office had no intention of looking for someone to replace him. Therefore, the town was like a man without two front teeth, and his words were easily leaked.

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 bank of the stream, squatted down and took a handful of water to wash his face. Because he didn't feel like he was hearty enough, he simply put his butt up and lay on the ground, sinking his whole head into the stream. Finally, he suddenly raised his head and shouted happily. He turned to look at Chen Songfeng who was dripping with sweat. Liu Baqiao joked: "A weak scholar." , I don’t have the strength to restrain a chicken.”

Chen Songfeng just took a sip of water from the stream, and said with a hoarse voice: "The reason why I worked so hard to become a Qi practitioner was just to keep fit, live a few more years, and read more books. How can I compare with you?" Sword cultivators, not to mention that in this Li Zhu Xiao Cave Heaven, Qi practitioners other than Sword Cultivators suffer the most. If you don’t pay attention and run your Qi machine, you will lose your Taoism. The higher the realm, the more damage you will suffer. I never thought that my cultivation level is low. , but it turned out to be a good thing.”

Liu Baqiao patted his shoulder and said, "Why don't you change the family and join our Fenglei Garden to practice swordsmanship? I will support you from now on. Think about it, become a swordsman, wield a sword in the wind, fly high in the sky, and fly with lightning, especially during thunderstorms. The sword shuttles through it..."

Chen Songfeng suddenly laughed and said: "I heard that the swordsman who has been struck by lightning the most in Fengleiyuan is named..."

Liu Baqiao stretched out a palm and said, "Stop it!"

Sword cultivators are also one of the Qi Practitioners, but compared to ordinary Qi Practitioners, their physique is closer to that of a pure martial artist on another path. To put it simply, it is muscles, bones, flesh and spirit. Sword cultivators pursue both. For other qi practitioners, as long as they don't hold back their physical fitness, they don't deliberately train. Of course, while qi practitioners are nourishing and refining their qi, they are actually just like the spring breeze turning into rain. They are always working hard to improve their bodies, but Compared with sword cultivation, physical training is far inferior in terms of intensity and frequency, and it is even less possible to be as single-minded and tireless as a martial artist.

For qi practitioners in the world, there is a consensus that the body and skin are things that are constantly decaying after all, and it is enough for use. If you can be lucky enough to cultivate into an invincible vajra body and a stain-free glass body, that is the best. If you can't, it's okay. Don't go too far and miss the foundation of the great path.

Liu Baqiao asked casually: "What level of martial artist is that distant relative of your family?"

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

Liu Baqiao thought of 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. The most terrifying king of the Li clan is still so young. The average eighth or ninth level warrior is not half a century old." , Jiazi's age is upwards, even a hundred years old is not considered old, but if I remember correctly, Song Changjing is only nearly forty years old. No wonder he was laughed at by that person and said, "You need to suppress your arrogance."

Chen Songfeng said softly: "It came into being at the right time and is uniquely blessed by nature."

For monks in the upper five realms, the divine dragon has its head but not its tail, so it is difficult to find it. However, the eighth and ninth realms among warriors are often known to the world, and they are not far away from secular dynasties. What's more, climbing up the martial arts relies on life and death battles. Only by seeing life and death on the line can you break through life and death and gain a transcendent state of mind similar to the "freedom" of Buddhism and the "purity" of Taoism.

In addition to the competition between the two great masters, warriors in the eighth and ninth realms like to bully the top qi practitioners in the middle and fifth realms, especially the strongest in the ninth realm like Song Changjing, who can almost be said to be the top five. He is invincible in this situation, and only the sword cultivator among the Qi practitioners can fight with him, but he can only try to make his defeat not so ugly, and win a saying that even though he loses, it is honorable.

However, there is an obscure reason why the martial arts masters in the ninth realm are unscrupulous. That is the last floor in the middle five realms, the great monks on the tenth floor, have no interest in worldly disputes at all, and even the survival of the family and the rise and fall of the dynasty. I don't care, it's just for 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 by my own ability. Do you want to say hello to Fengleiyuan and let them prepare a celebration banquet early?"

Chen Songfeng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He looked at the gurgling water that was no deeper than his knees. Thinking of Song Changjing and the romantic young man next to the vassal king, Chen Songfeng vaguely felt a sign that the general trend was condensing. He decided to return to the Chen family's ancestral home in Longwei County this time. The family must be persuaded to bet on the Dali Dynasty. Even if they can't make a desperate move, the Chen family's children must be integrated into the Dali Temple as soon as possible.

Chen Songfeng murmured: "The great Li weather has come, and the world and the earth have come together to work together. Therefore, I, the Chen family, want to support the dragon, not just compete with others to possess it."

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

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

Liu Baqiao stood up and said carelessly: "We meet by chance, and we gather and disperse indefinitely. God knows whether we will see each other again in the future."

The two stepped ashore on the spring grass by the stream. Chen Songfeng asked: "I heard that the blessed land under the jurisdiction of Nanjian State will be opened to the outside world this winter, allowing dozens of people to enter. Aren't you still unable to break the bottleneck? , do you want to go down and try your luck?"

Liu Baqiao sneered and said: "I will definitely not go. I will go to the ant pile and show off my power. I will be ashamed."

Chen Songfeng shook his head and said: "My Mr. Liu once said that the state of mind is like a mirror, the more it is polished, the brighter it becomes. Therefore, for the practice of state of mind, being able to sit and forget on the Taoist Lotus Platform is of course of great benefit, but occasionally crawling around in a small mud pond may not necessarily be beneficial. There is no benefit. Go to the Blessed Land and become a banished immortal who has given up his past life and forgotten his past life. Whether he enjoys happiness or suffers, more or less..."

Before Chen Songfeng finished speaking, Liu Baqiao had already shouted: "I am too obsessed with winning and losing. Once I go to a blessed land with thin spiritual energy, if I cannot break the taboo and return to my hometown by my own ability, then I will definitely stay If I have a knot in my heart, the gain will outweigh the gain and the harm will outweigh the benefit. Besides, if I accidentally get bullied by the 'locals' in the blessed land, it will be another heartache. After I come back to my senses, even if it costs a huge price, I will definitely do it. Only when I come to this world as a 'real person' can I be happy, but if I do this, doesn't it go against my original intention?"

Liu Baqiao held the back of his head with both hands and said with disdain: "To put it bluntly, now our three blessed lands in Dongbaopingzhou, who doesn't know full well, have changed their taste a long time ago and have become the rich and powerful of those secular dynasties? The place where you, the son of a rich man, spend money to have fun, is no wonder it is said to be a place with brothels and bars under the rule of the Xian family, and it is full of smoke and smoke."

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "It's not appropriate to generalize. Not talking about us outsiders, just talking about the locals, there are many amazing and talented people."

Liu Baqiao rolled his eyes and said: "In a blessed land with such a large population, how many people can stand out every year? Not even one, right? How many of these people who have successfully come to us will be remembered by us in the past hundred years? ? There are only a handful of them. So I don’t understand why these blessed lands are so highly regarded by others. Some people claim that as long as you have a part of the jurisdiction of a blessed land, the benefits are no less than having a monk in the upper five realms. Are you crazy? "

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "The benefits of the blessed land are long-lasting, and occasionally there are one or two surprises. The most important thing is that all the benefits are just for you to enjoy. Who wouldn't be happy to take a piece of it?"

Most people who go out of the cave will have a good life. Those who ascend to the blessed land have an especially hard life.

Liu Baqiao asked: "You don't seem to like that young man named Chen very much?"

Chen Songfeng thought for a while and chose to reveal his heart, "If it is a personal matter, I have no objection to the boy. But if we look at it as a matter of fact, his existence actually embarrasses our entire family. The children of the Chen family in Lizhu Xiaodongtian are originally It is a joke in this continent. In a small town, there is only one person left in a small town. The rest have become slaves of other families and become a joke. It is normal. In the eyes of the Chen family in Longwei County, we and the small town Although the people with the surname Chen on the table have the same distant ancestors, they were all from the old Huangli years ago, and there is no relationship at all. However, how can all the opponents of the Chen family in Longwei County treat it this way? Next, it would be fine if the boy from Mud Bottle Alley simply became a servant of a wealthy family. After a big laugh in the world at that time, it was difficult to continue to be a topic of conversation for many years. But this young man gritted his teeth and persisted, and his lonely existence was enough. It seems particularly eye-catching, and many people outside are even betting on when one of the Chen family members in this small town will no longer be the 'only one'."

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

Chen Songfeng smiled and said: "Of course, young people can make mistakes, but after all, there are some things in the world that are difficult to explain clearly."

Liu Baqiao shook his head and said: "It's not that it's hard to explain clearly. In fact, it's you who are unreasonable in the first place. It's just because that young man is too weak that you can appear righteous and confident. In addition, the Chen family in Longwei County is more powerful than the young man." Much older, but compared to the people around me who were watching the jokes, he was very ordinary, so the situation became more and more embarrassing. In the end, I was unwilling to admit that I was incompetent, so I had to insinuate myself that the boy was the culprit. I believe that if not It is not easy to enter this Lizhu Cave. The boy from the back alley who embarrassed the Chen family in Longwei County had long been killed by the Chen family's children in Longwei County quietly, or by someone from a vassal family who wanted to take credit for his death. ”

Chen Songfeng's face turned red, and for a moment he was a little angry.

Liu Baqiao hugged the back of his head, raised his head and looked at the sky, still looking carefree and lazy, "I know you, Chen Songfeng, are not such a person, but it's a pity that there are so few people like you. People who are not like you , after all, there are many.”

"Let's just say that the mountain-moving monkey at Zhengyang Mountain cannot get the Sword Sutra. He is afraid that Fengleiyuan will get it, so he will punch the young man named Liu to death. Do you think this is reasonable? I think this is very unreasonable. But Is it useful? It’s useless. I don’t even dare to challenge the old ape head-on."

Liu Baqiao sighed, let go of one hand, patted his belly, and laughed at himself: "As for me, I am clumsy in speech, my fists are not strong enough, and my sword is not fast enough. Otherwise, my stomach is really full of energy." I have accumulated a lot of truths, and I want to explain them to this world."

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

Liu Baqiao turned to look at the mountains to the west where the sun was setting, "Do you think it's good? How is it possible?"

Chen Songfeng was a little confused.

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

Chen Songfeng found it incredible, shook his head and said with a smile: "Why is this so?"

Liu Baqiao swallowed back some of the words that came to his mouth to avoid hurting his feelings. Although Chen Songfeng is not that palatable or temperamental, he is much better than the average scholar, so just be content with that.

The talkative Liu Baqiao remained silent all the way.

As the night fell, Chen Pingan made three homemade torches, and the three of them held the fire while walking.

Finally arriving 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 Dui, the latter shook his head.

Chen Dui raised her eyes and looked, and she was extremely sure that the ancestral grave of the Chen family in Yingyin must be here.

When a wanderer returns home, he feels something in his heart.

Chen Dui slowly closed her eyes. After a moment, she squatted down and wrote a long string of characters on the ground with her fingers. After writing, her lips moved slightly. Finally, she slowly smoothed out all the traces with her palms. After standing up, she walked around the place where the runes were destroyed and took the lead in climbing the mountain without Chen Ping'an's guidance.

The three of them came to a place halfway up the mountain. Chen Pingan pointed to a tree not far away, growing on a small earthen bun. The trunk was weird and extremely straight, even straighter than a green bamboo. Chen Pingan felt relieved and nodded: "This is it. ”

Chen said in a deep voice: "You guys go to the foot of the mountain and wait for me."

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

Chen Dui put down the book box and carefully took out the carefully prepared sacrifices one by one to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors.

In the middle of the journey, Chen Dui was in a trance for a moment. He looked at the small tree with tears in his eyes. He cried with joy and murmured: "It's true, it's true."

In the end, the woman bowed three times and bowed nine times to the little earthbag with great piety.

After that, Chen Feng fell to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "I, the Yingyin Chen family, thank our ancestors for their protection!"

At the foot of the mountain, Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao were sitting on one side of the basket, with their backs facing each other. Ning Yao asked: "There was a long way to go before, why did you deliberately take a long detour?"

Chen Ping'an was stunned and said in shock: "Miss Ning, even you can 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 word 'lian'!"

The straw-shoe boy bared his teeth, rubbed his waist gently, and lowered his voice: "Didn't I tell you, there is a cliff full of the kind of black stone you call the Dragon Slaying Platform. I'm afraid to show it to her. , and she is also knowledgeable. What if she has evil intentions? You must not have the intention of harming others, and you must have the intention of guarding against others. I still understand this truth. "

Ning Yao smiled and said: "Scrooge, are you worried that she will find a way to move it away, leaving you empty-handed?"

Chen Ping'an chuckled silly and said: "Miss Ning, you are so upright, you must not have many friends, right?"

Ouch.

Chen Ping'an suddenly felt pain again and quickly freed up a 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 want to eat wild fruits? I picked three on the way here and hid them in my sleeve pocket. She probably didn't see them."

Ning Yao said angrily: "How delicious are the mountain fruits in this season?"

Chen Pingan turned around, handed over two red wild fruits the size of peaches, and said with a smile: "Miss Ning, you just don't know. This kind of fruit can only be eaten in spring. It is strong in late winter and ripe in early spring. It will be completely ripe in a while. Take one bite and tsk tsk tsk. The taste can be chewed off by your tongue if you are not careful. What’s even more strange is that there are so many mountains here, but the fruit is only found here. I also came here with Old Man Yao back then. It's a kind of soil. He told me that there are some wild fruits in other places that taste good, but I ate them here and there, nibbling here and there, and I didn't think they were as good as this one."

Ning Yao took the two fruits and made up his mind to return the remaining one if it was unpalatable. "You still eat it here and there. 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, so we didn't just eat whatever we caught. Don't tell me, one time I really hurt my stomach because of eating blindly. It hurt me so much." Rolling all over the floor in the alley. That was the first time I heard my own heartbeat, like thunder and drums."

It's a pity that Ning Yao was busy eating the fruit and didn't hear clearly what the boy said at the end. When he took the first bite, he felt that the fruit was extremely sweet. After eating the fruit, his whole body felt warm, and his body was like a stone paved with earth dragons. In the house, wild fruits are bags of charcoal. Ning Yao closed his eyes and felt his internal organs. Although his whole body felt comfortable, there was nothing unusual about the rest. 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. It could definitely be found in The secular dynasty can be sold at a high price, but it will not make the monks jealous.

For ordinary people at the foot of the mountain, it is undoubtedly a supreme treasure that can prolong life.

If he had known this, Ning Yao would have simply refused to accept the fruit.

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

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

Ning Yao gently kicked the backpack with both hands and asked casually: "Is it reserved for the woman named Chen Dui?"

Chen Pingan shook his head and said: "What to do for her? If it's not a relative or a friend, of course it should be left to Liu Xianyang."

Ning Yao suddenly asked curiously: "If Ruan Xiu was here, wouldn't you give it to Chen Dui instead of Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Pingan nodded and said: "Of course."

Ning Yao asked again, "Then if you only have two wild fruits in your hand, will you give them to me or to Ruan Xiu?"

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

Chen Ping'an was attacked by another sneak attack. He rubbed his lower back and said innocently: "Miss Ning, what are you doing?"

Ning Yao asked again, "What if there is only one?"

Chen Pingan chuckled and said, "Here you go."

Ning Yao: "Why?"

Chen Ping'an said with both slyness and sincerity: "Miss Ruan is not here, but Miss Ning is here."

The boy's lower back suffered two heavy blows in an instant. The pain caused Chen Ping'an to stand up quickly and jump up and down. In this way, Ning Yao fell into the big basket on his back.

Chen Pingan quickly pulled her out of the basket.

Ning Yao wasn't angry at all, he just glared at Chen Pingan.

Chen Ping'an adjusted the basket again, and the two sat back to back again.

Ning Yao asked: "Do you know what kind of tree that tree is?"

Chen Pingan shook his head and said: "I don't know. I've only seen it in this place. It doesn't seem to be found in other mountains."

Ning Yao said in a deep voice: "According to legend, if a regular script tree grows in a family tomb, it is an auspicious sign that a Confucian saint is about to be born, and this saint must be extremely upright and upright, so he will definitely be particularly favored in your world. "

Chen Pingan said oh.

What a Confucian saint, auspicious and righteous, this straw-shoe boy couldn't understand.

Ning Yao asked: "Don't you envy the woman on the mountain? Have you never thought about why this regular tree doesn't grow on the graves of your ancestors?"

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

Ning Yao stood up suddenly, and this time it was Chen Ping'an's turn to sit down in the carrier.

Ning Yao laughed heartily on the side.

There are only five Meng children left in the small town school, with different backgrounds and ages. Among them is a little girl wearing a big red cotton-padded jacket. Although she was born in Fulu Street, she never bullied anyone in the school. I don't like to join in the fun either, I just like to wander around by myself. The family in the far west of the town, Li Er's son Li Huai, was also studying in this rural school. His parents left the town with his sister, leaving him alone. Instead of crying, Li Huai was happy. It was broken, and finally no longer had to be controlled. But at night, the child who was staying at his uncle's house started to howl heartbreakingly after waking up from a nightmare. As a result, his uncle and aunt who woke up joined forces to suppress him. Use a feather duster and one a broom.

The remaining three people are from Taoye Lane, Qilong Lane, and Xinghua Lane, two men and one woman.

After class, Mr. Qi gave each of them a piece of calligraphy and asked them to keep it properly and copy it carefully. He said that he would check their homework in three days.

That is the same word.

After the classes were over, the old sweeper came to sit on the floor outside Mr. Qi's study after taking a bath and changing clothes.

The old man asked a question about the Confucian classic "Spring King's First Month".

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

This is the "asking questions" unique to major Confucian academies. In the classroom, a "questioning teacher" will be arranged to ask questions to the lecturer. He can ask several questions, ten questions or even a hundred questions.

This question and answer happened when Mr. Qi and the old man met for the first time.

That was already eighty years ago.

However, Qi Jingchun was the one who asked the question at that time, and the person who answered was their common husband.

After the old man asked all the questions, he looked at Qi Jingchun, "Do you still remember your husband's parting words before we went to Cliff Academy?"

Qi Jingchun smiled but said nothing.

The old man asked himself and answered, "The sentence I gave you is, 'Heaven and earth give birth to a gentleman, and a gentleman manages the world.' The sentence I gave you is, 'You can't stop learning. Green comes from blue, and green comes from blue.'"

The old man was suddenly very excited, "Sir, how much do you think highly of you? I hope you will excel! Why do you have to stay here and never look back? Why do you have to spend hundreds of years building a small town with only five or six thousand people?" Why don’t you want all of them for the Thousand-Year Dao?! If you are just an ordinary scholar, that’s all. You are Qi Jingchun, our husband’s most valued and proud disciple! You are a scholar who is expected to create something new, and even establish a religion and claim to be the ancestor!”

The old man trembled all over and said: "I know, it was Buddhism that misled you! Why are all living beings equal? ​​Have you forgotten what your husband said about nobleness and inferiority..."

Qi Jingchun shook his head with a smile and said: "Although you are a gentleman, you are naturally very knowledgeable, but the truth may not be completely correct."

The old man was extremely shocked, his face was full of astonishment, and then he shouted angrily: "The polite person, so you must behave yourself!"

Qi Jingchun replied with a smile, "A gentleman will make mistakes when he makes a mistake, and he will make an effort when he reaches out."

It seemed to be for no reason, thousands of miles away, but after the old man heard it, his expression changed drastically, full of surprise and suspicion.

Qi Jingchun sighed, looked at this junior fellow student who had been following him here for a decade, and said seriously: "The matter is over. I will entrust you to send those children to the Cliff Academy."

The old man nodded, stood up and left with a complicated expression.

Qi Jingchun said to himself: "Sir, is there any true justice in this world?"

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

At dawn, a boy with straw sandals took two big cloth bags and set off to wait for others outside the kiln superintendent's office.

One bag contained bags of gold and copper coins, and the other bag contained snake gallstones that he thought were the most valuable.

But when it was daybreak, the gatekeeper of the government office came out with a broom to sweep the streets, and the young man did not see the carriage setting off.

He had no choice but to shamelessly ask the group of guests named Chen Dui at the government office when they would leave from Fulu Street.

The concierge smiled and said that they had left the town long ago.

The straw-shoe boy was stunned. Didn't Liu Xianyang make an appointment with him to leave only after dawn?

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

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

After running out of the town, the boy ran nearly sixty miles in one breath. Finally, he walked along a slope. The exhausted boy walked to the top of the slope and looked at the winding road that stretched forward.

The young man squatted on the top of the mountain, with the copper coins and stones that he had not given away at his feet.

A young girl wearing a sword sat quietly next to him, panting, and said angrily: "Aren't you a money-loving person who loves money? Why are you so generous? All your belongings are going to be given away? Even if Liu Xianyang is your friend, I’m not as lavish as you.”

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