Chapter 9: Apprenticeship

There is an unwritten saying among the people that only those who have experienced the polishing of the wind and waves will truly become mature in their minds, and Tu Gu undoubtedly belongs to this category. The fugitive career that took more than half a year, and the life experience of nine deaths made Tuguhun completely transform from an ignorant teenager who was just in love to a "veteran" who was old and downlived about life and death.

The southeastern team that set out from Youxiong Village, under the unfavorable situation of the road ahead and the chasing troops behind, united as one, overcame countless difficulties and obstacles along the way, and finally entered the territory of the Kyushu Kingdom, one of the four major human slave reservation areas, at the end of January of the 58th year of Taijia.

After arriving in the Kingdom of Kyushu, after discussion, most of the tribesmen unanimously preferred to settle in Jingzhou Province, where the levy tax was relatively light and the area was vast, and after several setbacks, the Youxiong clan was finally able to settle in Dashishan, Lengshui Town, Jiangxia County, and for safety reasons, it was no longer called "Youxiong Village" to the outside world, but "Dashishan Village".

Looking back on the life and death tribulations of the past six months, the southeast line team set out from Youxiong Village with a total of 857 people, and after only three days of walking, the team encountered a small group of horse bandits blocking the road and robbing, the two sides did not agree with each other, and the other party broke down and fled, killing three people and injuring seven people.

When the team was in distress for the second time, the team had entered the territory of the Uzi domain, unfortunately encountered a rebel team of 30 people, the rebels wanted to sack the bear villagers, the villagers fought back, a large-scale gun battle broke out between the two sides, the rebels retreated without the intention of fighting, and counted the losses afterwards, 23 people were killed, 55 people were wounded, 70 yaks and property were taken away, and the losses were not small.

The third distress was in the Black Forest in the territory of the Khaldan Domain, where our team strayed into the "Valley of Evil Wolves" and struggled with mutant wolves for four days and four nights without finding a way out. On a rainy night, the mutant wolves took advantage of the dark and high wind to attack, and Tugubo, who was the main person in charge of the southeast front team, was unfortunately seriously injured, and the clansmen suddenly fell into a state of leaderless dragons and fighting for themselves, and the temporary defensive circle was about to collapse. After dawn, the frightened people finally found a way out and escaped.

The Battle of Wolf Valley was also regarded as the most dangerous battle on the way of escape on the southeast front, after which the number of troops plummeted to more than 400, the loss of yaks reached 60%, and Tugubo lost an arm, but fortunately his family was safe.

The final danger occurred in the Death Swamp in the territory of the Donghu Domain, where the team first entered the Swamp with 408 people, and when they left only 320 people, the yaks were almost completely killed and wounded. After exiting the Death Swamp, the road was smooth, and the southeast team was finally able to enter the territory of the Kyushu Kingdom smoothly.

The incense of Tu Gu Hun and Hong Yi was established in the battle of the Evil Wolf Valley, before that, Tu Gu Hun even hated this old man of unknown origin, he felt that this bad old man who called himself "Hong Yi" was a complete waste, all day long, lifeless, cheating and drinking in the team, and was greedy for life and fear of death, several times there was danger, the tribesmen fought fiercely with bandit rebels, women and even children were doing what they could, such as transporting ammunition and treating the wounded, but he hid far away and never helped.

What makes Tu Gu even more angry is that this bad old man still plays missing from time to time, the missing time is as short as a few hours, as long as a day or two, and then returns inexplicably, and never explains after returning, as a matter of course, he climbs into the yak cart and continues to sleep, and does not wake up for several days, so that Tu Gu Hun is disgusted, if it weren't for his parents to stop him, Tu Gu Hun would have carried a gun and drove him away.

However, after the battle of Wolf Valley, Tu Guhun completely changed his opinion, and the more he looked at the old man who was chattering all day long, the more he looked like a "magician" with boundless magic in myths and legends, so he pestered the old man every day to learn the "magic" that could kill the first wolf and drive away the wolves.

Unable to withstand the vomiting of bones for many days, the old man said that if you want to learn, you can also learn it, and apprentice first. As long as you can learn "magic" as soon as possible to protect the clansmen, let alone apprentice, it is not negotiable to ask him to vomit Guhun life, so he let his parents choose an auspicious day, kowtow to the old man and offer tea to the old man under the witness of many clansmen, and officially worship the old man as the ancestor.

After establishing the relationship between master and apprentice, the old man dug out a beast skin with strange words written on it out of nowhere, and then he translated it according to the script, and made a transcript of it. After making the transcript, the old man asked Tuguhun to copy the translation of "Xuanwuding" ten times a day, and then trace the human demonstration on the back of the animal skin ten times after he was done.

"Aren't you going to teach me magic? Why do you want to copy books every day? Why copy it ten times? When the words came to his mouth and he swallowed them back into his stomach, he thought that what a "great magician" like Master told him to do must have his reasons, so he could only start copying it honestly.

What is "concentrating", "latent breathing", what is "really determined", "out of determination", these terms similar to professional terms make him feel as obscure and incomprehensible as a book from heaven, and it seems that he has nothing to do with the so-called "magic".

The old man basked in the sun on the wheel, and listened to the chatter and complaining until he had enough of complaining, and he seemed to turn a deaf ear to pick his feet, then put his hand under his nose and sniffed, and then pointed to the sky, and said, "Read a book a hundred times and see its righteousness." Child, you copy it first, don't be in a hurry, don't be in a hurry! ”

If you say it, you don't say it! But the old man's attitude of ignoring the spitting bones completely provoked him, and he suddenly scolded in his heart: "Okay, you old immortal Hongyi, Lao Tzu has endured you for a long time, and only then did I call you a master, if I don't respect you, that's what I said, 'old and immortal is a thief', yes, you are an old thief." ”

Seeing Tu Gu's angry expression but not daring to attack, the old man smiled, pointed at his father Tu Gubo, and then pretended to raise his face and reprimanded: "Hun Qiu, what are you doing, lazy, why don't you hurry up and copy the book?" ”

"Old Thief !!" Angry, he spat out his bones and walked into the distance, then looked up to the sky and roared.

The stubborn temper finally came up, he copied frantically, painted crazily, and didn't have enough pen and paper on the way to escape? It's okay, Lao Tzu just copied on the rocks, on the trunks of trees, and on the beach; Can't remember? Lao Tzu remembers eating, bathing, and sleeping; Copy it ten times? Lao Tzu copied twenty times and thirty times!

copied and copied, and after a few days, Tuguhun had already mastered the obscure "Xuanwuding" in his chest and even memorized it backwards; Blindfolded, he was able to score exactly the human demonstration on the back of the hide. Now, the more obscure long sentences such as "quiet in nothing, determined by nature, ignorance and spirit, but people are really determined", the more exciting he is, the more he chews under repeated pondering, the more flavorful it is, and when he has an epiphany, he beats his chest and clapps his hands.

One night, after a hard day's trek, the people were exhausted, and after a hasty dinner, the tribesmen went to bed early around the campfire. I saw him sitting on the ground, writing and drawing on the ground with branches by the light of the fire, stopping from time to time frowning and thinking, reaching out and kicking his legs up and down from time to time, and occasionally getting up and dancing when there was a harvest, like madness.

In this way, I don't know how long it took, I threw the branch in my hand as if I had been evil, stood up straight and sat cross-legged again, the upper body was upright, the left thumb was pressed on the base of the ring finger of the right hand, the thumb of the right hand was pressed on the tip of the middle finger of the right hand, and then the two hands were hugged in front of the lower abdomen, the two eyes were hanging down, the eyes were looking at the nose, the nose was looking at the mouth, the mouth was looking at the heart, the tongue was against the upper crotch, the heart, the mind, the mind was guarding the umbilicus, the mind was unswerving, and the action process was the same as the human body demonstration diagram drawn on weekdays.

This strange behavior of spitting bones is naturally no more than the old man's eyes, he is lying by the bonfire, his face is happy, and he secretly praises in his heart: "This son has a very high understanding, and the son can be taught." ”

Tu Gu Hun unconsciously has entered the realm of "concentration", over time he feels that his heart is falling at will, the whole body is like nothingness, only a little bit of true breath in the belly button is in and out, and it does not move.

"W-What is this?" Looking inward, Tuguhun was shocked by the trace of true breath that appeared in the abdominal umbilicus out of thin air, "Is it a hallucination?" Or mana? ”。

Soon, he was woken up by the morning bird in the forest, and when he opened his eyes, it was already dawning, and he continued to hurry with his people with questions, and he didn't say anything all the way. In the evening, after the team set up camp again, he ate early, found a secluded place by himself, and soon entered the concentration realm again.

Looking inside, it was still in yesterday's abdominal navel, and Tu Gu Hun saw it really this time: like a small light blue spark in the center of the dark secret room, weak and magnificent, ethereal and real, like a weak girl swaying and dancing in the wind, he couldn't help but gather all his strength to care for her.