Before Chapter 83

A young man from the Yang family

This year is a leap year.

According to the ancient custom of the Great Wei Dynasty, every leap year, as long as a man or gamer who has reached the age of sixteen will ascend to the altar on the day of his birth (rì) in that year, and be tested for his talent in cultivating immortals to determine whether they are qualified enough to become an immortal cultivator.

For many people, especially children from poor families, the talent test of immortal cultivators every four years is a second chance given to them by God in addition to studying and participating in the imperial examination.

In addition to the fact that the big families can keep their own talents, once ordinary people are determined to have the talent of cultivating immortals, they will be recruited by the local government, recorded in the file, and transmitted to the national government for selection and appointment by the imperial court.

Among those who have been selected in the past few decades, the most famous is Xu Ruxian, the prime minister of the current Great Wei Dynasty. Xu Ruxian was poor at home when he was young, he had no teacher when he was young, and practiced alone to the second realm, and at the age of sixteen, he was able to measure the talent of cultivating immortals in the sixth section of the highest grade, and was favored by the emperor at a glance.

This is the famous "leap test" of the Great Wei State.

The leap test does not look at strength, only looks at talent, and can test the grade talent in the leap test, and is selected by the emperor or an official to become his protégé, which is called "middle list". Those who are on the list will be arranged to study in the country (diàn), and at the end of the three-year period, they can take up a post in the central government or the local Xianmen Administration.

Every leap year, the Great Wei Kingdom does not test out that there are not many people with the talent of cultivating immortals, let alone those with high-grade talents. Including those big families, on average in the past ten years, there are probably less than 1,000 people per year.

Among these thousand people, only about 100 people were selected in the end.

As for those who failed to make the list, that is, those who were not favored by the emperor or ministers, but had the talent of cultivating immortals, they would eventually be arranged to study in the "Xiuxian Hall" set up by the local government, or they would be sent to the frontier to lead the guards to carry out tasks.

Today is June 24 (rì).

For the Yang family in a small border town of the Great Wei Kingdom, it is a son worth celebrating. Three people in the Yang family are eligible for the test this year, and it just so happens

The three of them are the same age (rì), and superstitionally speaking, this is a sign of great luck.

As long as one of these three has enough talent to be selected by the imperial court, the Yang family will have a chance to regroup in the next few years and return to the forefront of local power to compete with the rest of the major families in the city.

Otherwise, they will continue to linger for the next leap year.

At this time, the lobby of the Yang family was on.

Yang Dingshan, the current ruler of the Yang family, is more than forty years old, his temples are slightly white, and he sits in the top position, with a powerful momentum. Below him, Yang Zhixue, who was wearing a practice uniform, presented the case records of her three children this year, her long eyelashes hanging down, and she looked like she was talking and stopping, obviously having something on her mind.

Yang Dingshan glanced at her and put the case record aside.

"The kids have arrived, right?"

"Yang A (jiāo), Yang Qianhuan, and Yang Zhou are all waiting in the ancestral hall."

"Hmm..."

"Big brother, there's one more..."

"Who?"

Xu Yan, he is also sixteen years old this year. The birthday is June 24th. ”

"Xu Yan? Xu Yan... Xu Yan..."Fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, Yang Dingshan muttered for a long time before exhaling, "He... Not for now. ”

"Big brother, although he is guilty of sin (shēn), the grudges of our generation should never involve the younger generations (shēn)."

Yang Dingshan didn't seem to hear it.

Yang Zhixue refused to give up, "Big brother, what if that kid has a talent that is one in a million?" Just like his parents..."

"If that's the case, count my Yang family as a blessing." Yang Dingshan's tone was calm, but his attitude was resolute.

"Big brother..."Yang Zhixue opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end she sighed and didn't say anything, "That's it." "Feel free to owe a debt (shēn), turn (shēn) to leave.

But her eyes suddenly became firm.

Leaving the lobby, turn (shēn) and walk towards the courtyard in my memory...

The small courtyard is located at the back of the entire Yang family.

As a family with dazzling glory in the ancestors, the Yang family's mansion is quite large, but it has not been repaired for many years, and it is generally slightly dilapidated.

This is even more true of this small courtyard at the back. In addition to the surrounding walls are broken and incomplete, even a few tiles on the roof have fallen off. The only thing that can be sure that there are people living here is the well-tended flowers and plants at the base of the surrounding walls.

In the courtyard, there was a young man in plain clothes, who was holding a dust, carefully sweeping the cobwebs and some insects in the eaves and room.

His god (qíng) and every action are serious, earnest to the point of paranoia. It was as if what he was dusting under was not a web of insects, but a piece of beautiful art. He's dusting the artwork from it. From the inner room to the outhouse, and then from the outhouse to the courtyard, the boy finished cleaning and made sure that there was no residue, and then he put away the dust satisfactorily.

Then he looked up at where the tiles had fallen, and figured it out

If it was not repaired, the roof would become more and more dilapidated, so he folded (shēn) and went to the ear room to bring a wooden ladder, leaned against the wall, and slowly climbed up with a wooden barrel carrying half a bucket of soft mud that had been reconciled in advance. When he came to the eaves, he stuck the corner of the barrel in the tile ditch with his right hand, and plugged it with a ball of mud so that the barrel would not slide off.

It is not difficult to repair the rain and repair the leakage with the thin mud, the difficult thing is how to gain a foothold on the roof lined with tiled ditches and ensure that it does not fall from above.

Fortunately, the boy is already proficient in all this. Climbing onto the roof, he naturally straightened up (shēn), his eyes swept around the roof, and after roughly estimating the areas that needed to be repaired, he bent down and lifted the bucket, step by step from the slope-like roof to the broken place...

The young man's name is Xu Yan, he has no father and mother since he was a child, and since he was very young, he has been living in this small courtyard and has hardly left. The farthest place a teenager has ever been in this life is only an ancestral hall not far from here.

For more than a decade, he has become accustomed to living alone. For self

He is also familiar with things such as cooking, laundry, insect repellent, and repairing leaks, and there is nothing he has not practiced. Even how to treat his illness and heal it, he slowly found some ways to find out from it.

Xu Yan continued to walk, and finally stopped at a leaky tile, and his eyes involuntarily glanced at the most brand-new place in the entire Yang family, which was the ancestral hall of the Yang family, the place where the ancestors of the Yang family were enshrined.

Standing on the roof, he could clearly see that there were a lot of people gathered on the side of the ancestral hall. Something big should be happening. But no matter how big it is, it has nothing to do with him. After just one glance, the boy bent down (shēn) and continued to work, digging a mass of mud with his hands, pasting the larger cracks of the tiles, smoothing them gently, and then repeating the same motion.

It took about half an hour for the roof leak to be repaired. There was just enough mud in the barrel. Xu Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned (shēn) to the eaves, and walked down the stairs with the eaves.

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside the silent courtyard.

I just want to live well

Who's coming? Uncle?

No, the knock on the door is not light, not heavy, not hurried... It's not like Uncle's style.

In Xu Yan's memory, Uncle has always been a serious, unobtrusive, and somewhat barbaric person. When he came, he always pushed the door open. Ping (rì) is also extremely harsh on Xu Yan, except that the place where he lives is slightly larger, in terms of food and clothing, he is not even as good as a subordinate in terms of food and clothing. Of course, he has not enjoyed the treatment due to the bloodline of the Yang family since he was a child, and he has long been used to it, and he has no complaints about it.

It's just that there are a few places that make him puzzled, why is he the only one in the Yang family who is confined to his courtyard all the year round and can't go out half a step without permission? Also, Where are his parents? I heard that he died, but why? Where did he die again? Why can't he go to the grave?

None of these questions were answered to him, and none of the Yang family was willing to tell him these things (qíng). After a long time, Xu Yan's words became very

Less, I began to like to immerse myself in my own world, read a book or be in a daze.

There are a lot of old books in his house, which were sent by his aunt Yang Qianxue last year. Every year that passed, the aunt would show up on time, and whenever she did, she would bring him a stack of books, telling him which one to start with and which one to end with, and to leave with the old books of the previous year.

The same thing has been going on for almost a decade. But now is not the time to change books, in the past six months, he has only carefully turned those books twice, and he still can't remember many places, and he needs to review them two or three more times. At this time, what does my aunt come to do?

He dried his hands and opened the door. Outside the door was indeed Yang Qianxue.

He called out respectfully.

"Come into the house and say."

Yang Qianxue hurriedly walked into the house, called Xu Yan to her, looked at him and asked:

"Do you want to leave?"

"Leave?"

Xu Yan didn't react for a while. Where to leave? Leave the house, or leave the Yang family? Away for a while and coming back, still far away

Fly high and never see each other?

"Leave the Yang family and never come back."

Yang Qianxue's tone was very serious and serious, which was different from Xu Yan's impression of her in the past. He was thinking about why, but Yang Qianxue's next words interrupted his thoughts.

"You want to know how your parents died, right? You also want to know why the entire Yang family treats you like this, right? ”

"Yes." Xu Yan thought about it seriously, seemed to have figured out something, and added, "But it doesn't matter if I don't know, I didn't think about revenge." The book says that it is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, but the book also says that when will he repay his grievances. ”

Yang Qianxue was stunned.

Is this the state of mind that a sixteen-year-old should have? Or did he have no concept or sense of his parents, and he couldn't think of revenge in his heart, or did he deliberately provoke her to say such things?

Yang Qianxue thought a lot in an instant, and when she saw the bright, deep, and sincere eyes of the young man, she realized that she was wrong.

This is just a simple teenager, like a blank piece of paper, he has not seen the world, he does not know the viciousness of people's hearts, so where will be born

What a weird idea? Whatever he says, he should be thinking in his heart.

"That's... Do you want to get out of the yard and leave the Yang family? Yang Qianxue asked the question just now, this time she asked very carefully, for fear that if the voice was louder, it would frighten the young man.

"I don't want to."

Xu Yan's answer once again surprised Yang Qianxue.

"Why?"

"Because... I want to live. He thought for a moment, probably satisfied with his current situation, and a smile gradually appeared on his face, "Live well like you are now." ”

Wei is a very small country on this continent. Compared with the big countries of the Central Plains, it is like ants and giant elephants. But there are already groups of immortal cultivators on the ants (shēn), and how many flying swords should be rampant on the body surface of the giant elephant?

This is something that ordinary people in a small country, even immortal cultivators like Yang Qianxue can hardly imagine and estimate. Can an unarmed ordinary mortal go to a world that he has never been exposed to in sixteen years, and survive better and safer than cowering in the Yang family? Can you ensure that you are not bullied and your life is not threatened?

I'm afraid not.

No, absolutely not.

Yang Qianxue clearly knew the cruelty of the immortal cultivation world, and also clearly knew what kind of low-end existence ordinary people without cultivation were in the eyes of immortal cultivators. Sometimes, the law is only for the weak. For example, there is a conflict between immortal cultivators and ordinary people, and the government is definitely biased towards immortal cultivators. Even if an immortal cultivator kills an ordinary person, in the calendar decrees of the Wei State, this is nothing.

She was too eager to take this layer into account.

"That's... What do you want? Yang Qianxue asked again.

"Cultivating immortals!" The two words were said without hesitation, Xu Yan's clear and plain eyes suddenly had a lot of brilliance, he thought of the immortal cultivators who flew away from the sky in the book, and thought of the (shēn) body that was becoming more and more out of his control, and his eyes became more and more hot (rè), "Auntie, can you teach me to cultivate immortals?" ”

"No way!" Yang Qianxue shook her head resolutely.

Why?

Xu Yan couldn't figure it out, and he didn't ask why. According to Yang Qianxue's concern for him, if he could be taught, he would have been taught a long time ago, so why wait until now? When he asked just now, he was just holding on to a fluke

Finish.

She must have something to suffer, otherwise it wouldn't be like this.

Seeing Xu Yan's slightly disappointed appearance, Yang Qianxue (yù) stopped talking, and finally said nothing. Before leaving, she gave Xu Yan a large bag of money (shēn) and told him that if he needed anything in the future, or did any hard work, he would give money for his subordinates to do. She should have seen the scene of Xu Yan repairing the roof herself, so she deliberately emphasized it, especially to find leaks. Xu Yan had no choice but to take it.

Holding the money bag, the burning (rè) in the young man's eyes began to fade, the watch (qíng) on his face gradually became cold and cold, the force in his hand gradually increased, and the coins in the bag were squeezed and deformed, and finally crumpled into a ball, and he casually threw them at the foot of the wall.

After a while, he (shēn) was stunned, covered in cold sweat, and seemed to react to what had happened.

"I can't control it again..."

The boy frowned, glanced at his hand, and whispered to himself.

Looking at the pinched money bag, I felt a little guilty in my heart, after all

It was given by my aunt... I walked over and picked it up again, and put it in my arms.

Finally, he hurried into the house and closed the door shut.

Raw as a cook

Leaving the small courtyard, Yang Qianxue came to the ancestral hall.

A teenager and two gamer children, a total of three kneeling on the ground, following the mountain cry of the Yang family priest, kowtowed to the ancestors in a formal manner.

On both sides of the ancestral hall, headed by Yang Dingshan, stood the most powerful group of people of the Yang family. Some of these people are old and young, the old ones are in their old days, and the youngest ones are only in their early twenties.

Such a strange age combination is naturally due to the difference in realm levels. The strongest strength of the Yang family is Yang Dingshan, which is now the realm of Xuanmen, and the corresponding realm of immortal cultivators is the late stage of the second realm, and he is only one step away from stepping into the third realm in one fell swoop and obtaining the title of little grandmaster.

As for the young man in his early twenties, his name is Yang Xiao, who is the leader of the younger generation of the Yang family, and he is also the son of Yang Dingshan.

When Yang Xiao was eighteen years old, he was intercalated, and he was measured to have a talent in the middle grade, and in the end he was not selected by the imperial court, and after he came back, he was arranged to enter the Qingzhou Xiuxian Hall and served as the deacon of the Xiuxian Hall.

If nothing else, in another ten or eight years, the title of the Yang family's number one immortal cultivator may slip from his father Yang Dingshan to his head.

After a pillar of incense was burned, the mountain cried out.

Under the guidance of the priest, the three children stood up (shēn) and bowed to Yang Dingshan and the others.

"Bless!"

The priest shouted, and then handed a white porcelain vase containing "fairy dew" to Yang Dingshan. Yang Dingshan skillfully picked it up, dipped it in the "fairy dew", and then tapped it from right to left to the three people (shēn) in front of him.

The three of them said in unison: "Xie Xuanmen! ”

Xuanmen refers to the realm of Yang Dingshan.

This is the "blessing".

From the emperor to the leaders of the common people, they liked to represent the gods in this way, and bestowed the blessings of the gods on those who were below them.

The whole process is completed, the blessing is considered to be over, and the next step is to ask

Personally escorted by Yang Dingshan, a family member, the three people who participated in the test were sent to the Xiuxian Sacrifice Platform hundreds of miles away from Qingzhou, and the trip took about a month.

"Xiao'er, come here." Walking to the door, Yang Dingshan suddenly remembered something, and waved his hand to call Yang Xiao who was behind him (shēn).

"Father." Yang Xiao bowed, he was dressed in white, heroic (bī), and his eyebrows were somewhat similar to Yang Dingshan.

"You don't have to go on this trip, you just take care of your home. Remember..."Yang Dingshan took a step forward and said a word in Yang Xiao's ear.

Yang Xiaoshen (qíng) was slightly dignified, bowed his head and said, "Father rest assured." ”

"Let's go!"

The priest shouted, and the Yang family's Hao Hao (dàng) (dàng) set off.

Seeing the team leave, Yang Qianxue walked back, but was stopped by Yang Xiao.

He bowed and asked, "Auntie, is he okay?" ”

Yang Qianxue nodded: "It's the same as before." ”

Yang Xiao smiled: "That's good." My father told me to stay at home

, presumably my aunt also knows the intention, so..."

Yang Qianxue asked, "Xiao'er is afraid that I will let Xuan'er go?" ”

Yang Xiao hurriedly said, "Auntie, I didn't mean that..."

Yang Qianxue shook her head: "Don't worry, my aunt assures you that he will not leave the Yang family for half a step." After saying that, he turned (shēn) and left.

Looking at Yang Qianxue's back, Yang Xiao fell into deep thought.

He was pondering what that meant.

My aunt had obviously communicated with Xu Yan, but why was she so sure that Xu Yan would not leave?

Shouldn't a sixteen-year-old boy who has been softened (jìn) have such a great opportunity to think of going outside or doing something conducive to gaining freedom?

Or is it that, just like a captive spirit animal, no matter how strong the wild (xìng) is, the water chestnut has been smoothed out in more than ten years?

Or is it just a ploy? (yù) The strategy of refusing to return the leave?

Yang Xiao wanted to ask Yang Qianxue the reason in person, but he was afraid that this would be too abrupt and not in line with his bearing as the future heir of the Yang family...

He glanced in the direction of the courtyard and finally decided to go and see it for himself.

……

In the small courtyard, the teenager sat cross-legged on the chuáng.

His god (qíng) had become very peaceful, but his forehead, the tip of his nose and cheeks, and the circle around his neck were covered with layers of fine beads of sweat. The beads of sweat pooled together and flowed down in streams, and within a moment, they had soaked through his clothes.

If you look closely, you can even see that the boy's entire (shēn) body is trembling slightly. The trembling was not large, but it could see what kind of pain he was experiencing under his calm appearance.

Since about ten years ago, every once in a while, his (shēn) body will do something strange (qíng) uncontrollably, such as suddenly becoming so strong that he can pinch a coin flat, as it did just now; Another example is that he can jump from the ground to the roof, and when the cool breeze blows on the top, he will suddenly wake up.

The uncontrolled duration of the (shēn) body is very short, and each time it appears, it does not exceed the cup of tea. It's just that the impact is very great, and every time this happens, there will always be a burning (rè) feeling in his body, from the dantian department

The division spreads out in all directions, and lasts for about an hour before it is withdrawn into the body in peace.

This is the time when that burning (rè) feeling is rampant. He sat on the chuáng, learned the cultivation methods he had seen in the books, and tried his best to suppress that energy with self (shēn) perseverance and so on, but with little success. After all, he didn't find a way to get started with cultivating immortals, and in the end, he was still a real ordinary person. I wanted to ask Yang Qianxue to teach him before, and the biggest purpose was to be able to control his body (shēn) all the time, no longer endure pain, and no longer do those things that made him jaw-dropping (qíng).

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye. The sweat on the boy (shēn) was ticking down like rain, and he stood up (shēn), looking very tired. He could feel those uncontrolled moments coming up more and more often, and over time, he didn't know what was going to happen in the end.

For the first time, he had an uneasy (qíng) feeling about his (shēn) body. It's intense.

Soon, however, this uneasiness (qíng) dissipated. Like a nobody, he took off his sweat-soaked clothes, found clean ones to change, and then began to boil water, ready to take a bath, and then, pulling out the vegetables grown in the yard, and cooking a good meal...

The smell of rice wafted out of the hospital and was smelled by Yang Xiao, who happened to be here.

He stood outside the courtyard gate and sniffed, involuntarily leaned over to the crack in the door, and sniffed again, it was indeed very fragrant.