At that time, I felt that my two arms and body were completely uncoordinated, and I moved like a big crab, and it was good if I didn't walk sideways.

But my master actually showed a very satisfied look, and said to himself with a smile: "Well, yes, it seems that I haven't practiced in vain in the past few years, and I have also understood a little bit of the essence of Tiangang Suo." ”

I don't know what my master was thinking when he said this.

After I had stumbled over the Tiangang lock routine five or six times, Master came up and began to carefully correct my movements.

Master also said before that the trickiness contained in the Tiangang Sword can only be understood through perennial practice of routines, but later he said that the routine of Tiangang Sword is that there is no routine.

When Master helped me correct my movements, he also told me that there were only two moves in the Tiangang Sword: offensive and defensive. Such a statement is also too general, which kind of martial arts moves are not composed of attack and defense. It's just a generalization, but my master later said that there are retreats everywhere in the attack style of the Tiangang Sword, but there are often hidden killing moves in the defensive style.

The master also said that there are two completely different uses of the Tiangang sword, when dealing with people, there must be no advance or retreat, and attack instead of defense; When dealing with evil corpses, it is necessary to advance by retreating and attacking by defending.

Although I can now use the Tiangang Sword skillfully, when I first heard these words, I always felt that my master seemed to be at a loss for words, and I was dizzy when I said something.

I asked Master, "What does it mean to advance without retreating, and what does it mean to defend instead of attacking?" ”

The master smiled and said, "The first six actions of the Tiangang lock are to advance without retreating, and to attack instead of defending. ”

Speaking of the first six actions of the Tiangang lock. The footwork used is all used to close the distance between the opponent and facilitate hand-to-hand combat. Every time I take a step, I have to shoot at the same time, and at the same time as the soles of my feet hit the ground, my fingers are about to ****** and then the master said to me: "The last eight movements of Tiangang Lock are to retreat as advance and defend instead of attack. ”

The last eight movements of Tiangang Lock are used to quickly retreat and widen the distance between the opponent and the opponent when one blow is missable. However, when you retreat, you must also attack your opponent when you withdraw the ball of your foot. It's just that unlike the first six actions, the last eight actions of Tiangang Lock pay attention to fast hands and slow feet, which means to shoot first and then retreat.

But even though Master said so, I still felt like I was in the clouds.

Probably seeing my puzzled expression, Master explained to me again: "Let's put it in a nutshell, if your opponent is a human and when he attacks you, if you want to dodge, you have to use the close-fitting footwork of Tiangang Lock to stick to his body, but remember that when you kick out, you must make a move." If your opponent is an evil corpse, when you want to stab it with your sword, you will need to use the footwork of Tiangang Lock to retreat to open the distance, but also remember to strike first before retreating. ”

So I asked my Master, "What if my opponent is neither a human nor an evil corpse?" ”

When I asked this, my master was stunned on the spot, and after a while, he said to me very unhappily, "Then you can leave the rest alone, and just kill it with a sword." ”

I nodded, and Master didn't think much about it, and continued to correct my movements.

From the beginning to the present, what the master has done is to let me cooperate with the footwork of Tiangang lock to stab the green steel sword out, every time I stab the sword, I was instructed to look at two points and a line when the sword is released, and when the sword is released, I take a deep breath, there is no distraction in my heart, the sword must be fast, and there must be no superfluous movements during the period.

The so-called two points are where I want to pierce and where the blade is currently located, and a line is the shortest straight line between these two points. Master said that the Tiangang sword should go straight and straight, without dragging mud and water, and every time the sword is stabbed, it is the straightest straight line.

In the Tiangang sword attack style, the attack techniques are all "stabs" without exception, and the master said that when the sword is stabbed out, instead of cutting out or splitting out, it is the fastest and most difficult to defend.

In the defensive style of Tiangang Sword, there are only two defensive techniques, one is picking, and the other is racking, both of which are from the bottom up.

After a while, he asked my master, "What if my opponent is very strong and I can't beat it?" ”

Master was explaining to me the benefits of these two movements, when I was suddenly interrupted, and he became a little impatient: "If you can't beat it, it's nonsense, how fast and fast you can run." ”

I asked, "What if I can't run?" ”

The master suddenly glared: "Concentrate on practicing your exercises!" ”

I didn't dare to speak, so I honestly made all kinds of movements under the guidance of the Master.

For me, the routines are clear that Tiangang lock is only a consumption of physical strength when practiced, but like Tiangang Sword, which is completely out of the routine, it is more by feeling when practicing, and after a few times of practice, I feel physically and mentally exhausted.

It wasn't until I had basically mastered the essentials of the three movements of stabbing, picking, and racking that my master breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, these few tricks should be enough for you." Go to bed, it's not early. ”

I beckoned Liang Houzai over and asked my master, "Where are you going to sleep, do you want to go back to the hotel?" ”

My master frowned fiercely and said, "Zhenmen Hall." ”

For that place in Zhenmentang, Master has always shown special disgust.

It was also that night that I learned that it was not the place in Zhenmentang that disgusted my master, but the senior brothers and nephews of Tunmeng and Yuxian, to be precise, the red tape embodied in the senior brothers and nephews.

In the town gate hall, in addition to the hall facing the entrance of the hall, there is also a kitchen, two latrines, and two rooms for the door to rest, each room has a long bunk, men and women separate rooms, at night, everyone has to sleep on these two bunks, except for me and my master, and Liang Houzai.

Because we are responsible for the safety of the entire Soul Village, Master and I can only make a bunk in the hall and guard the doors of the two bedrooms, and Liang Houzai sleeps with us on the floor because he doesn't want to stay with the living.

I always thought that the so-called etiquette of Tunmeng and Yuxian was just to hug hands and say a few kind words when I met the elders, and it was on this night that I realized that things were far from being as simple as I thought.

My master has always slept very late, and he often doesn't sleep for more than three or four hours a day, and I have asked Master in the past why he sleeps so little, and Master said that people who keep the right line will become like this after planting the coffin for the second time because of the damage to the yang god to varying degrees, and I am a very special case.

In the middle of the night, Liang Houzai and I had already fallen asleep, and Master sat in the hall smoking, and some people had to get up at night at this time, but no matter who saw my Master when they passed through the hall, they had to hold their urine and salute to my Master, and asked me why my Master was still not asleep, and after a short period of greetings, they said that they wanted to go to the toilet, and it was not until my Master nodded that they ran to the toilet in a panic.

It's as if I have to get my master's permission to go to the toilet.

There weren't many people who got up all night, two or three people all night, but everyone had to talk to my master like this, and every time I was woken up, and when the last one greeted my master, my master's tone was obviously impatient.

My master usually gets up between four o'clock in the morning and five years, and asks me and Liang Houzai to get up for morning exercises at half past five, and this time is no exception, my master originally planned to guide me to play the Tiangang Sword again, but he just woke me up, and many senior brothers and nephews also got up one after another.

Each of them is still sleepy-eyed, and there is a nephew named Li Renfeng who is in too much of a hurry to get up and even wears his shoes backwards, and they are obviously not used to getting up at this point in time.

One by one, they saluted to my master, who was obviously impatient, but he had to pretend to be very patient and loving to talk to them.

In the crowd, I saw Senior Brother Zhuang and Senior Brother Feng, the two of them also looked very helpless, but in front of other disciples, they still had to meticulously salute and greet my master.

Because most of the people got up, Master didn't have time to watch Liang Houzai and me do morning exercises, so he went to the kitchen alone to prepare breakfast.

In ancient times, our gatekeepers were not only the gatekeepers of the Soul Village, but also the men of the Soul Village, and this rule has been extended to my generation.

It wasn't until many years later, when I was preparing breakfast for the first time in place of Master for the entire Soul Village, that I was too tired to choke.

That's thirty people, but only I cook alone, in addition to making staple food, each table also has to prepare two meat, two vegetarian four dishes, plus six cold side dishes, the kitchen pot stove is small, can only be fried one dish at a time, think about it is a very troublesome thing.

Fortunately, lunch and dinner don't need us to prepare them in the same vein, otherwise the three meals of these more than 30 people would have exhausted me to death.

And for my brothers and nephews, because of my master, Zhenmentang is also not a place to be liked. Let's take the matter of picking up the bed, my master, as an elder, gets up early, and there is no reason for them to continue to sleep, whether they want to or not.

It was also at this time that I understood why Senior Brother Zhuang and Senior Brother Feng envied the "unruly" nature of our vein when they saw me.

During the time when my master was cooking, Uncle Zhao also got up, and when everyone saw him, they all looked very sad expressions, but they still had to salute him, and Uncle Zhao was very open to these complicated etiquettes, and after greeting the juniors one by one, he came to the entrance of the hall and stretched a long lazy waist, and still muttered in his mouth: "It's better to be alive." ”

I know why those people have that kind of expression, it must be that my Uncle Zhao "cheated on the corpse" when he went to bed last night, I heard Master say that Master Zhao is like that every night after falling asleep, and this problem has been with him for many years.