Chapter 15: The Red Dust Trial
With his right hand spread out, Lin Fan gestured back and forth a few times, and then pointed to the door of the main hall, signaling that if there was nothing else, he would leave.
"Well, there's nothing to explain, if you need help, take this token, the big and small sects on the Purple Star will help you, go ahead", Zhou Zhongchen patted Lin Fan's shoulder and said.
Returned to the cave in the back mountain, packed up a few sets of clothes, and threw them into the bronze ring, with this bronze ring on his body, Lin Fan didn't have to be like the previous senior brothers, dragging a large bag of salutes to Hongchen to practice, saving a lot of trouble, and this bronze ring in addition to being a space magic weapon, actually has its own fresh-keeping function, cooked meals are placed in the bronze ring for a month, and it is still steaming after taking it out, but once it exceeds a month, it is mildew and disgusting.
I wanted to say goodbye to my master, a few senior brothers, and Xuanwu Qingjiao, but Lin Fan gave up after thinking about it, he was going to practice, and it was not that he would not come back.
The next day, when the sky was just dawning, and there were still some dewdrops on the leaves on both sides of the ethereal gate, Lin Fan had already appeared on the stone road.
"Good apprentice, don't say goodbye to your master when you go to practice", Lin Shi leaned against the pillar of the small pavilion and said with a smile.
Lin Fan spared his head and looked at Lin Shi in wonder, what was this master doing here early in the morning.
"What kind of eyes are you, I'm here to send you warmth"
Lin Shi saw Lin Fan's suspicious eyes and said slightly angrily, taking advantage of the fact that the two rotating disciples behind him were not paying attention, he took out three fist-sized blue spirit stones from his arms and quickly stuffed them into Lin Fan's arms.
"Hide it quickly and don't be discovered"
Lin Shi whispered, this blue spirit stone was secretly taken out by him from the treasury, who let Lin Fan be his only apprentice, although Lin Shi is now a supreme elder, but he can only get ten fist-sized white spirit stones and a fingernail-sized blue spirit stone every year, for this apprentice, he can be regarded as free.
"Don't don't, don't, you make me feel like I'm dying and worshipping, if you have the heart, just bring some roast duck and roast chicken back when you come back, okay, let's go, the Red Dust Trial is what our disciples above the Ethereal Sect Gathering Period must go through, maybe you will have a big harvest."
Lin Fan, who was moved, was about to kowtow to Lin Shi when he was stopped by Lin Shi.
Lin Fan put the three sapphires into the bronze ring, waved his hand at Lin Shi and Xiaoting's two nephews, glanced at the ethereal door, and then turned around and left in the direction of the mountain.
Lin Fan has been staying in the ethereal door since he was eight years old, in fact, he didn't know if he was eight years old at the time, he was set as eight years old because he looked almost eight years old at that time, he had been a chef for more than eight years, and he was in a coma for three years, if he was in a coma for three consecutive years, Lin Fan was nearly twenty years old, maybe because he was in a coma for three consecutive years, he was only five feet tall, and his body was thin, but he was not skinny.
The first time he went down the mountain, Lin Fan seemed extremely excited, and when he arrived at the foot of the mountain, he stopped and looked at the scenery, because of Zhou Zhongchen's instructions, he did not use any spiritual power, and only relied on a pair of legs to walk for a full five hours and hundreds of miles before arriving at a mortal town.
There is a stone tablet erected next to the entrance of the town, on which the three words of Qingfeng Town are written, although it is a small town, its population and scale are not large, the population of the whole town is only more than 2,000 people, it is said that it is a small town, it is better to say that it is a village, it is estimated that it is because there is a restaurant, so it is called Qingfeng Town, not Qingfeng Village.
The main road of Qingfeng Town is deserted, it is estimated that it is late autumn, the residents of the town are busy harvesting all kinds of crops, and there are no stalls on the street.
"Hey guest officer, come on, please sit, do you want to play sharp or live in the hotel, look at this guest officer's eyes are very raw, outsiders, then you have to try the store's special roast suckling pig, the taste is a must."
A chubby man in his fifties saw Lin Fan stepping into the restaurant and greeted him warmly with a smile.
This chubby man is the shopkeeper of this restaurant, although the business is not good, but he can barely survive, but he will suffer himself, the spoon, the dishwasher, the table wiping, the mopping, the debt collection and so on He took it all by himself, if it weren't for the old age, and he is a person from this town, he would have gone elsewhere to reopen the restaurant.
Lin Fan pointed to his mouth, waved his hand to the shopkeeper, indicating that he was a mute, and pointed to the main road, bending the two fingers of his right hand back and forth.
What are you going to eat? I don't understand."
This shopkeeper is not Lin Fan's senior brothers who get along day and night, and he can't understand the meaning of Lin Fan's gestures at all.
Lin Fan felt inexplicably depressed, scratched the seeds on his brain with his right hand, and saw that there was paper and pen on the counter, so he stepped forward to pick up the brush, dipped it in the ink that the shopkeeper had just sharpened, and wrote the word map on the paper.
"Oh, the map, I don't have a map, where are you going, sue me, the neighborhood is familiar"
The shopkeeper glanced at the words written by Lin Fan and said.
"You just have to go all the way along this main road, and there are still a hundred miles to go."
Lin Fan wrote the word "big city" on the paper again, and the shopkeeper glanced at it and said.
Lin Fan rolled his eyes, how could there be a hundred miles away, he walked a hundred miles and came a hundred miles, thought about it and wrote on another piece of paper.
"Okay, two jars of wine, a roast suckling pig, four side dishes, and a guest room"
After more than ten days, a single business finally came, and the shopkeeper led Lin Fan to a guest room on the second floor with a smile, and asked Lin Fan to stay in the guest room for a while, and he immediately went to get wine and food.
"This shopkeeper makes the roast suckling pig taste really good, and this wine is also good, well, I have to let the shopkeeper get more"
Lin Fan sat on a chair, eating roast suckling pig and drinking wine.
"Yo, guest officer, is there anything else you want to order?"
The shopkeeper, who was wiping the table at the counter on the first floor, saw Lin Fan who came down from the second floor and smiled.
As the saying goes, reaching out and not hitting the smiling person, Lin Fan also smiled back at the shopkeeper, picked up the pen and paper and wrote.
Fortunately, this shopkeeper is well-informed, otherwise Lin Fan's smile would definitely scare the shopkeeper, because the twenty-year-old boy in front of him didn't have a left hand, but there was actually a long centipede-like scar on his face, and he grinned at him and made his hair straight.
"Guest, you didn't make a mistake, are you sure?"
The shopkeeper took the paper Lin Fan had written, looked at the contents on it and asked in surprise.
I can't blame the shopkeeper for being so surprised, because Lin Fan wrote on the paper: 100 jars of fine wine, 30 roast suckling pigs, and 10 servings of other dishes.
"But even if I really prepare it for you, can you finish eating, and then talk about ......?"
Before the shopkeeper finished speaking, Lin Fan picked up five pieces of gold the size of a fingernail and put them on the counter.
"Okay, the old man is staying up all night tonight, and I'll prepare it for you to send it to the guest officer."
Picking up one of the pieces of gold and taking a bite, the shopkeeper said with a smile, this single business is worth all his expenses and income for half a year, and he doesn't care if the guy in front of him can eat it or not.
The shopkeeper of the restaurant was really busy from the sun before setting until the dawn of the next day, and then he prepared all the food he needed and sent it to the guest room on the second floor, and after the shopkeeper left, Lin Fan took out the bronze ring in the collar on his chest, and waved it towards the dense wine jar, roast suckling pig and other wine and vegetables in front of him, and even the plate was put into the bronze ring.
This bronze ring is really a treasure, with the improvement of the realm, Lin Fan found that the space in the bronze ring, actually expanded, now the area in the bronze ring has nearly five square meters of space, under the movement of consciousness, the bronze ring can take out and store any item, except for living things, Lin Fan has tried many times, can only be probed into the consciousness to see what it is, any living thing can not be stored in the bronze ring.
"Huh, guest officer, are you leaving, don't rest for a while?", the shopkeeper looked at Lin Fan in confusion.
Lin Fan nodded, and stepped forward in the direction that the shopkeeper said yesterday, in order not to attract attention, his bronze sword had already been put into the bronze ring, and he would never take it out unless necessary.
And the shopkeeper was in Lin Fan's resting room on the second floor of the restaurant at this time, looking at the empty room in a daze, "But he has eaten and drunk everything?"
The shopkeeper shook his head, fortunately, he was also well-informed, and there was an immortal cultivation sect nearby, and the young man must be the immortal.
Since the opening of the Ethereal Sect, Lin Fan is the most comfortable Hongchen cultivation disciple, and the other disciples have gone down the mountain to try, all of them are penniless, except for Lin Fan, many disciples have finally fallen to begging all the way back to the Ethereal Gate, and there are also examples of so-called immortals who were almost starved to death on the street, and the white spirit stones and gold nuggets that Zhou Zhongchen gave to Lin Fan were not prepared for the trial disciples, but he got them for Lin Fan himself.
It's also thanks to Lin Fan that he walked fast, otherwise many of his senior brothers had prepared a bunch of items for him, including clothes, cloth shoes, broken silver and gold, and the big grinning Gu Feng prepared a large bottle of bone-setting wine, as for Meng Jianshan, even the crutches and bandages were prepared for Lin Fan, and Meng Jianshan was on crutches back then, with thick bandages wrapped around his head, limping back to the ethereal door.
"A hundred miles is a big city, I am your uncle"
Lin Fan couldn't help but scolded angrily in his heart, following the path that the shopkeeper said, from sunrise to sunset, what came into front of Lin Fan's eyes was an endless sea.
The sea breeze with a slight fishy smell kept blowing on Lin Fan's body, as if he was laughing at his ignorance, and he wanted to turn around and go back to Qingfeng Town, but after thinking about it, he gave up.
"Wherever you go, it's where you go," Lin Fan thought.
"Hey, there's a boat?"
On the sea in the distance, several small wooden boats were swaying and rowing, Lin Fan squinted and saw that the wooden boats had docked on a pier, and couldn't help but rejoice, and spread his feet and rushed along the seaside towards the pier.
"Where did you come from, young man?"
Lin Fan ran for half an hour, and as soon as he arrived at the dock, he saw dozens of fishermen unloading all kinds of sea fish on the wooden boat, a bronzed man about twenty-five years old with knotted muscles on his upper body, holding a fish more than four feet long on his shoulder, saw Lin Fan who was raw and sneaky, and asked.
Lin Fan pointed to his mouth, and then pointed in the direction of the forest, and the palm of his right hand was against his head with his eyes closed.
"Oh, you're from the depths of the land, the nearest populated place is hundreds of miles away from here, do you want to rest here for the night? No problem, you are brothers all over the world when you go out, but then again, why are you a dumb person, little junior brother? Why are you still missing a hand? That's it, why is there such a terrifying scar on his face?", the thick man's three consecutive questions made Lin Fan not know how to respond for a while.
"You stunned tiger thing, can you speak human words?
A lean old man who was directing the fishermen to unload the fish at the dock and smoking a dry cigarette, heard the words of the big man, and couldn't help but kick on the big man's cheek, and smiled at Lin Fan with embarrassment: "This little brother, I'm really embarrassed, this tiger's head is my grandson, his parents were killed when he was a few years old, he has been uncleaned since he was a child, don't go to heart."
Lin Fan smiled and waved his hand, indicating that he didn't mind, and then put his hand into his pocket, secretly took out a piece of gold from the bronze ring, and handed it to the old man in front of him.
"Hey, I can't help it, why don't you just spend the night for one night, what a big deal", the old man refused the gold handed by Lin Fan.
Lin Fan's right hand was hooked, he scratched the edge of his mouth a few times, and then put his right hand under his right cheek, repeating it back and forth a few times, and then handed the gold in his hand to the old man.
"You mean you want to stay for a long time?", the old man wondered, and Lin Fan nodded.
"Well, I'll take your gold, it's half a year's rent," the old man said, taking the gold.
"My surname is Zhou, you can call me Zhou Laohan, because my name is Zhou Laohan, that stupid person is called Zhou Zhongyu, I just told you that it is my grandson, you stay here for a while, we will be busy immediately", Zhou Laohan continued to instruct the fishermen to hurry up and load the fish into the fish Kuang, otherwise it will be completely dark.
"Zhou Zhongyu and Senior Brother are only one word", Lin Fan thought, Zhou Laohan crossed his waist with his left hand, and his right hand holding a cigarette stick kept directing on the dock, it seemed that he should be the leader of these fishermen.
"Little brother, let's go", tying the fishing boat to the rope, Zhou Zhongyu showed a bright smile, pulled a two-wheeled wooden cart full of eight baskets of fish, and said to Lin Fan.
Zhou Laohan was in front, Zhou Zhongyu was pushing the wooden cart in the middle, Lin Fan was close behind, followed by other fishermen pushing the wooden cart.
"I said can you take a hand, I'm the one who fishes, I'm the one who takes the helm, I'm the one who casts the net, I'm the one who loads the fish, even the cart is me, I'm the only one to do everything", Zhou Zhongyu pulled the wooden cart hard, and complained to Zhou Laohan dissatisfied.
"Yo yo yo, you dare to ask me to help, who raised you when you were a child? It's not your grandfather and me, in order to support your brothers and sisters, how many sins have I suffered in this body, and now it's such a big opinion for you to go out to sea to catch a fish and pull a car?", Zhou Laohan turned his head and glared at Zhou Zhongyu.
As soon as Zhou Zhongyu heard this, he immediately withered, and every time he complained, Zhou Laohan had to move out of this set, so choking that Zhou Zhongyu couldn't respond at all.
Lin Fan, who couldn't help but laugh, looked at his grandfather and grandson, took two steps and walked behind the wooden cart, stretched out his right hand and stuck it on the wooden cart, and helped Zhou Zhongyu push the wooden cart.
"Thank you, little brother."
Zhou Zhongyu secretly said that how could this wooden car break through a lot lighter, and it was Lin Fan who helped push it in the back.
The group walked only about three miles, and then arrived at Zhou Laohan's village, what greeted Lin Fan's eyes was a patchwork of earthen walls and black tile houses, the whole village was not big, it seemed that there were about 30 households, from Zhou Laohan's mouth, this village was called Yuangang Village, although there were only more than 30 households, but there were more than a dozen surnames, all because the village was moved here by Zhou Laohan's father and others.
Each house in Yuangang Village is separated by dozens of meters from the front and back, and it can be seen from the various dried fish hanging on the wooden shelves at the entrance that it is to leave space for drying fish.
At this time, the night has swept the land, and every household in Yuangang Village has lit an oil lamp and hung it at the door, because the people returning from the sea have to continue to kill fish and pickle fish.
"Sister, I'm back"
Zhou Zhongyu pulled the wooden cart to the door of a house on the far left of the village, and shouted into the door at the top of his voice.
"Grandpa is back, let's have a bowl of tea first."
A girl of seventeen or eighteen ran out of the house happily, still holding a steaming bowl of tea.
"Hey, hey, I'll do all the hard work again, grandpa and he sat from the sea to the return, okay, don't I have any tea?"
"It seems that this girl is the granddaughter that Zhou Laohan said, don't say it, she looks quite smart"
Lin Fan said secretly, looking at the face of the melon seed with a white complexion and upright facial features, a girl with long hair and a slender figure, especially when laughing, the pair of dimples appeared on Qingli's face, and it seemed to have a clear and delicate atmosphere, the candlelight in the room sprinkled on the girl's face, Lin Fan was fascinated, Lin Fan, who was standing behind the wooden car, smelled the faint sweet fragrance exuded from the girl, and couldn't help but be intoxicated.
Since Lin Fan was eight years old to the ethereal door, he has never seen any woman, at this time, a pair of eyes are staring directly at this girl, saliva is flowing from the corners of her mouth, but fortunately, the wooden car blocked the light of the oil lamp, and Zhou Zhongyu stood in front of Lin Fan, this girl did not see Lin Fan's idiot.
"Oops, I almost forgot, come on, come on, introduce you to a friend, uh, little brother, I don't know your name yet", Zhou Zhongyu pulled Lin Fan behind him to his sister, just wanted to introduce but remembered that until now I didn't know what Lin Fan's name was.
"Ghost~~"
The girl exclaimed when she saw Lin Fan, hid on Zhou Laohan's body, and looked at Lin Fan cautiously with her head exposed.
Lin Fan's reaction to this girl was also embarrassed, he just put on a smile that he thought was handsome and incomparably bright and sunny, who knew that this girl was scared like this.
But what the girl saw was not a handsome and dashing face, but behind her brother, a man's face with a centipede scar suddenly appeared, and he was smiling at her eeriely, and she must have been startled.
"What is the little girl talking nonsense, this little brother is going to live in our house for half a year, don't we have four rooms in our house, you go and clean up the empty room now, let this little brother live", Zhou Laohan said angrily.
"Little girl, I haven't seen the world, don't go to my heart, by the way, what's your name?"
After the girl pouted and entered the house, Zhou Laohan hurriedly apologized to Lin Fan.
Lin Fan waved his hand, indicating that he was not going to his heart, and then squatted on the ground and wrote the word Lin Fan on the ground with his fingers.
"Your surname is Mu Mu Zhu?", Zhou Zhongyu's big head leaned forward and pointed to the two words on the ground.
"You shameful thing, that's Lin, Lin Fan"
Zhou Laohan knocked Zhou Zhongyu's head with a cigarette stick.
"Lin Fan, well, it doesn't sound like much at first glance, it's quite smooth to read it a few more times, let's go, let's eat first"
Old Man Zhou cordially led Lin Fan into the house.
"What are you doing in a daze, don't go to serve food", Zhou Zhongyu just stepped into the door, and Zhou Laohan shouted.
"I know, I know, I'm not too young, but I'm quite angry," Zhou Zhongyu muttered into the kitchen.
As soon as he entered the house, Lin Fan carefully looked at the surrounding environment, Zhou Laohan's home was quite large, there were four bedrooms on the left, and there were three rooms on the right, the first room against the door was the kitchen, and the other two seemed to be the grocery room.
"Sister, let's eat."
Serving the food to the square wooden table, Zhou Zhongyu shouted to the fourth room with a candle flame on the left.
"It's coming~~"
A pleasant voice came, and the girl walked lightly to the table, took the bowl on the table and walked into the kitchen, and each served four bowls of white rice, each of which was placed on one side of the wooden table.
"Come on, come on, let's go, you're welcome", Zhou Laohan said enthusiastically.
"Grandpa~~"
After eating for a while, the girl felt that someone was staring at her, and when she looked up, the young man sitting opposite was pulling the white rice while looking directly at herself, and she couldn't help but blush suddenly, and pulled Zhou Laohan's sleeve and said softly.
"Ahem~~Little brother~~~ Lin Fan, don't just eat, pick up vegetables, you're welcome"
Zhou Laohan, as a person who came over, how could he not know what Lin Fan was thinking, the reason why he intended to let Lin Fan live was that winter was coming, and the fish in the nearby sea would migrate to another sea area, and he might not be able to survive this winter only by drying dried fish, at this time, Lin Fan, the gold owner, appeared, he was not dressed well, and his shot was quite generous, and with the gold given by Lin Fan, he could let Zhou Zhongyu go to exchange rice, flour, oil, salt and winter clothes to come back, and although Lin Fan looked like an idiot at this time, Zhou Laohan could see from Lin Fan's clear eyes that he was not a traitor, so he dared to agree to Lin Fan's request。
"It's a pity, if this kid is not dumb, if he doesn't have that terrible scar on his face, and he has a broken hand, although he is not handsome, but he looks passable, otherwise he can match him and his granddaughter, it's a pity", Zhou Laohan glanced at Lin Fan and thought regretfully.
Lin Fan quickly calmed down, and after a few simple bites, he went to his room under the leadership of Zhou Zhongyu.
The room was very simple, with a wooden bed, a quilt, a wooden table with an oil lamp, and two benches, and nothing else.
In the blink of an eye, a month has passed, and Lin Fan walks around Yuangang Village every night, hunting game in the nearby mountains during the day, and occasionally teasing Zhou Chenxi, of course, he doesn't dare to go too far.
Zhou Chenxi is the girl's name, after more than a month of getting along, Zhou Chenxi didn't feel that the scar on Lin Fan's face was ugly, but the friendship with Lin Fan quickly warmed up, who let Lin Fan always catch hares and pick wild fruits to please Zhou Chenxi, especially the cooking skills, which made Zhou Laohan's family full of praise.
But Zhou Zhongyu felt weird, and there was always a feeling of luring a wolf into the room, especially when he said to Zhou Chenxi that he didn't want Lin Fan to get too close, but he was choked by Zhou Chenxi.
"Crippled boy, you'd better stay away from the morning tide and don't pee on the photo, are you worthy of her?"
As soon as Lin Fan walked out of Yuangang Village, a burly six-foot strong man about twenty-five years old stared at Lin Fan viciously.
This strong man's name is Lin Yongsen, and he is also a villager of Yuangang Village, he has always loved Zhou Chenxi, and he has expressed his love to Zhou Chenxi I don't know how many times, but Zhou Chenxi has rejected it, but Lin Fan has just been in the village for a month, and he has a hot fight with Zhou Chenxi, how can he not be angry, especially a disabled person who is dumb and has a terrible scar on his face, how can he be willing to lose to such a waste person.