This is a small garden with pleasant scenery in the bell of Biluo City.

Although this place is not big, it is exquisite and elegant, and it is part of the Su family garden in Biluo City. It's just that I don't know when this garden has become a forbidden place for the Su family, except for the head of the family and a few people in the know, the rest of the people are told not to approach at will.

It is summer, the clear pond in the courtyard is full of patches of water lotus, and the green leaves and light flowers line the winding corridor by the pool, which has a special meaning. At the end of the cloister there is a water pavilion, which happens to be surrounded by the clear pond on three sides, and there is a mountain scenery behind it, which looks like the scenery in the painting scroll from a distance.

In the water pavilion, a young man sits.

He looked to be in his early twenties, with a sword on his eyebrows and eyes like stars, and even though he was covered by a golden mask, he could still see his handsome face. It's just that because of the injuries he received a few days ago, his exposed skin looks a little pale.

The black robe was draped casually over his shoulders, and the young man wore only a white undershirt, but his hair was neatly tied into a high ponytail, which made him look very energetic.

At this time, the young man was sitting in the uninhabited water pavilion around him, and a silver-striped civet cat was lying on his lap. The cat was born with an unusual intelligence, fluffy snow-white fluff glowing □□with a little silver in the light, and its smart eyes were a different color of gold and blue, which made people love it very much at first sight.

The young man gently stroked the silver-veined tanuki, his eyes drooped slightly, and he was stunned as he looked at the scroll on the low table in front of him.

He looked at the painting for a long time, but he couldn't put pen to paper. In the end, he had no choice but to be silent, and put aside the brush that still had a little wet cinnabar in his right hand.

The faint sound of footsteps came from the corridor outside the water pavilion, and soon stopped outside the water pavilion, as if it was afraid of disturbing the tranquility of this side.

The young man raised his eyes and said softly, "Xingbla, come in." ”

"Demon Lord." Xing Chi, who appeared outside the Water Pavilion, was dressed in dark blue, it was none other than the man in black that Gu Ziyan had seen in Linglong Pavilion before. Holding a stack of sorted books in his hand, he walked to the low table in the water pavilion, knelt on one knee, and continued: "This is this year's Cangtianzhou exam paper...... Do you really want to see it for yourself, though? ”

Half a month ago, when the Zhaoming Demon Lord was about to kill Xuanjing, he was accidentally injured by the head of the Tianhua Sword Sect who rushed over after hearing the news. Among the materials needed for the healing elixir, there is only one Blood Yellow Spring that is more than three hundred years old.

In order to find this medicine, he and the right envoy of the sect came to Biluo City, the production area of the Blood Yellow Spring, and while borrowing land from the Su family to cultivate, he was looking for suitable medicinal materials in the city.

It's just that although the blood yellow spring is common, there are almost no ones that are as long as 300 years old. Therefore, it was not until two days ago that Xing Chi found a three-hundred-year-old Blood Yellow Spring, refining it into a spirit pill to gradually restore the Demon Lord's heart.

It was only after this that he had time to take time off to deal with the matter of recruiting disciples this year. However, he still didn't understand why the Demon Lord, who hadn't asked about it for a long time, suddenly told him that he wanted to see this year's exam papers.

"Recently, I've been too leisurely, and it's just a whim." The young man smiled suddenly, and reached out to tease the tanuki on his lap. The smile is clear and sunny, and people can't imagine that he is the Zhaoming Demon Lord in the world's mouth.

This reason didn't clear Starblaze's doubts, but he didn't ask any more.

He was about to put down the stack of scrolls in his hand, but Xingbla found a picture scroll on the desk in front of him.

It was an unfinished picture scroll, and the person on the scroll was dressed in a robe with silver stripes on a black background, with long hair like snow, and the blade of the sword in his hand was as blazing as fire, as bright as a red lotus.

It's just that the person in the painting has no face.

On that blank face, there were no facial features. Only a red mark on his forehead is particularly conspicuous, like a scar on the human heart.

Xing Chi naturally knew who the person in this painting was, even if he didn't have a face, just looking at the ancient fierce sword in his hand, which ranked second on the artifact list, the Red Lotus, he should recognize it. But I don't know why, this time, Xing Chi felt that the red marks on the forehead of the person in the painting were somewhat familiar...... But it's also a bit glaring.

The young man suddenly stretched out his hand, closed the scroll and lay it back in his hand: "Look at my memory." ”

This time, Xing Chi finally put the scroll in his hand on the low table. After hesitating a few times, Xing Chi couldn't help but ask: "Why is the Demon Lord, suddenly drawing ......?"

The last name, Starblaze didn't say in the end.

"Ah, it's just ...... Lately, I've been dreaming about something from the past. The young man closed his eyes silently, and the smile on the corner of his lips became a little bitter, "After all these years, I have forgotten what Master Jì looks like." ”

The young man was more free and easy than Xingchi thought, and said these words naturally—it was not a taboo, but a brief memory that he never forgot.

Xingchi lowered his head slightly, to hide the anger in his eyes.

He was brought out by the Demon Lord from the deepest part of the Heavenly Stele Forest in the "Ancient Domain", and he had never seen the appearance of the Cangshen Sect in the past. Taking a step back, even if he understood something later, he didn't care very much. Because in his concept, the Cangying Sect is the Demon Lord's single-handedly made it from decadence to prosperity, then only the Demon Lord is qualified to be high.

Therefore, Xingbla has a strong rejection of the master that the Demon Lord occasionally mentions.

Especially after learning from some other people that this master didn't treat the Demon Lord very favorably in the past, and even regarded it as harsh, Xing Chi felt even more unworthy. You must know that the Demon Lord was injured this time because he broke into the Tianhua Sword Sect and insisted on avenging the master who died that year.

Between the two, what they give and what they get is not equal at all.

This was the only thought that Starblaze had after learning about the whole thing.

The ghost sent the gods, and Xing Chi suddenly opened his mouth and said what he thought in his heart. "It's not worth it at all, it's not worth it for you to do these things," he said. ”

"Starblaze, you've been in the Ancient Domain for too long, so you don't understand." The young man carefully sorted out the scroll in his hand, and put away the idleness between the words, "There is a saying in the mortal world, one day is a teacher, and a lifetime is a father." ”

"Others think that Shizun didn't treat me well back then, but in my opinion, it was enough. If the master hadn't taken me as an apprentice back then, I might have lived a mediocre life, or I might have died in some unknown place. When the young man said this, there was a little star-like light in his black pupils, "I look down on Lin Jing, so I won't be like him, obviously getting so much, but never knowing satisfaction." ”

At this moment, the young man's expression seemed to have returned to a long time ago, as if he was still the young man who stood in front of the main hall of the Cangying Sect.

There is no trace of gloom in a pair of starry eyes.

Xing Chi pursed his lips, he didn't really understand what he said, he just felt that the Demon Lord was defending the master who only lived in memories again.

Just as he wanted to continue to say something, Xing Chi found that the silver-veined civet cat in the Demon Lord's arms, which was said to be psychic, had already begun to lick its paws and stare at him. Sharp nails peeked out of the balls of flesh, and they seemed to be able to hit Xingblazing's face at any moment.

Even this beast, who had always been taken by the Demon Lord's side, seemed to be defending the Cangyan Demon Venerable who Xing Blazing had never met.

Xingchi was depressed for a while, but he couldn't refute it face to face, so he could only silently unfold the scroll on the low table in front of him. Don't look at the Demon Lord, who usually seems to be very easy to get along with, once he touches some of his bottom lines, no matter how close people are around, they will inevitably be punished.

The young man did not continue to dwell on this matter, he put the picture scroll in his hand beside him, and looked down at this year's examination paper.

The Cangming Sect is the same as other demonic sects, and it doesn't pay much attention to the written exam, and many times it is symbolic to read it. As long as the answer is not too outrageous, it will not affect your entry, but if the writing is particularly outstanding, it will also be favored by the high-level, so that it is easier to become a disciple.

Looking through a few scrolls, the young man saw nothing more than similar answers to previous years, mostly compliments to the extremely high level of the Cangming Sect. Of course, there are also some people who are not good at writing skills, and they are particularly confident in the later martial arts test, so they directly handed in the blank paper.

"Cang Yan is a person with a cold and arrogant temperament, he founded the Cang Ming Sect four hundred years ago, and within a hundred years, he has become a demon giant, and he has not been shake......n for three hundred years" The young man who was originally just looking at the exam papers casually suddenly whispered such a sentence.

His expression was stunned for a moment, and then his eyebrows slowly relaxed. When he finished reading this exam paper, the young man stretched out his hand and stroked the paper: "Xingbla, pay attention to it for me tomorrow." ”

"Yes." Xing Chi couldn't help but raise his eyes curiously to look at the scroll - the font with the name "Gu Ziyan" written on the sign was clear and clear, which made people look amiable.

Gu Ziyan, who was resting at the inn at this time, probably wouldn't have thought that it was an unfinished painting in the Su family's garden in Biluo City today, and a conversation with a certain two people would make his original apprenticeship plan unpredictable.