Two days before Qi Jingchun put down the pair of chopsticks, there were some bad signs in the town, the water level of the iron lock well dropped very much, the locust branches broke and fell from the trunk, the branches and leaves were all yellow, obviously not in line with the rules of spring and autumn, and there were many clay wood carving statues lying outside the town, and there were often firecrackers-like explosions in the middle of the night.

The ox carts and carriages that set off from Fu Lu Street and Tao Ye Lane have never been broken, and on the large bluestone paved streets, the sound of cows and horses' hooves can be heard even in the middle of the night.

Those foreigners who were beautifully dressed and full of wealth and nobility also began to hurry out, most of them looking displeased, and some people often pointed in the direction of the small town school, quite resentful.

Zheng Dafeng, the bachelor at the east gate of the town, was gone, and the Kiln Supervision and Construction Office had no intention of finding someone to replace him, so the town was like a person without two front teeth, and his speech was easy to leak.

Liu Baqiao and Chen Songfeng returned along the same road, when the two could see the outline of the covered bridge, it was already dusk, Liu Baqiao walked along a path to the side of the stream, squatted down and took a handful of water to wash his face, probably disgusted not enough to be hearty, simply pouted his butt and lay on the ground, sinking his whole head into the stream, and finally suddenly raised his head, shouted happily, turned his head to look at the sweaty Chen Songfeng, Liu Baqiao quipped: "A weak scholar, there is no power to restrain the chicken." ”

Chen Songfeng just took a sip of water and drank the stream water, and said in a hoarse voice: "The reason why I worked hard to become a qi practitioner at the beginning was just to strengthen my body, live a few more years, and read a few more books, how can I compare to your sword cultivation, not to mention that in this small cave of Lizhu, the qi practitioner outside the sword cultivation suffers the most, if you are not careful, you will lose the qi, the higher the realm, the more you will lose, I never thought that my cultivation was low, but it became a good thing." ”

Liu Baqiao patted his shoulder, "It's better to change the courtyard and join us in the Wind Thunder Garden to practice swords, and I will cover you in the future." Do you want to become a sword cultivator, the sword is in the wind, thousands of feet in the sky, the wind is galloping, especially during the thunderstorm, stepping on the sword and shuttling among them......"

Chen Songfeng suddenly smiled and said, "I heard that the sword cultivator who has been struck by lightning the most times in Wind Thunder Garden is named ......."

Liu Baqiao stretched out a palm, "Stop!"

Sword cultivation is also one of the qi practitioners, but compared with ordinary qi practitioners, the physique is closer to the pure martial arts on the other road, simply put, it is the muscles and bones and the spirit of the spirit, the sword cultivator pursues both, other qi practitioners, the physique, as long as it does not lag behind, and does not deliberately temper, of course, the qi practitioner is in the cultivation of qi, At the same time of refining qi, the perfection of the body is actually like a spring breeze and rain, always grinding and grinding, but compared to sword cultivation, the matter of tempering the body, whether it is strength or frequency, is far inferior, and it is impossible to be as single-minded and tireless as a martial artist.

For qi practitioners in the world, there is a consensus that the body and skin are constantly decaying after all, as long as they are enough. To be able to cultivate into the invincible body of King Kong and the body of unsullied glass is the best, and it doesn't hurt if you can't, don't drill the tip of the horns and miss the root of the avenue.

Liu Baqiao asked casually: "That distant relative of your family, what is the martial artist of the first realm?"

Chen Songfeng said helplessly: "How do I know such confidential matters?"

Liu Baqiao remembered the conflict that broke out in the main hall of the government office that day, and said with emotion: "Song Changjing is really too strong, the most terrifying king of the Great Li Domain is still so young, the average eighth and ninth realm martial artists, who are not half a hundred, Jiazi age is up, even a hundred years old is not considered an advanced age, but if I am not mistaken, Song Changjing is only nearly forty years old." No wonder the man laughed at him and said, 'You need to suppress your arrogance'. ”

Chen Songfeng said softly: "It came into being and is unique. ”

The monks of the Upper Five Realms, the Divine Dragon is difficult to find. However, the eighth and ninth realms among the warriors are often known to the whole world, and they are not far from the secular dynasties. What's more, the ascent of martial arts depends on the battle of life and death, on the line of life and death, and only after seeing life and death can we break through life and death and obtain a transcendent state of mind similar to Buddhism's "freedom" and Taoism's "purity".

In addition to the competition between the two great masters, the martial artists of the eighth and ninth realms like to bully the top qi practitioners in the middle five realms the most, especially the strongest in the ninth realm like Song Changjing, who can almost be said to be invincible under the upper five realms, and only the sword cultivators among the qi practitioners can fight with one, but they can only strive to make their losses less ugly and win a saying that although they are defeated, they are still honored.

However, there is an obscure reason for this, which makes the martial arts powerhouses of the ninth realm unscrupulous, that is, the last floor in the middle five realms, the tenth floor of the great monk, has no intention of secular disputes at all, and even can't care about the survival of the family and the rise and fall of the dynasty, just for the word "avenue".

Liu Baqiao was still immersed in his thoughts, "Song Changjing wants me to go out of the town and take away the Fu Sword with my own ability, do you want to say hello to the Wind Thunder Garden, and let them set up a celebration banquet early?"

Chen Songfeng couldn't cry or laugh, looking at the gurgling water that was no deeper than his knees, thinking of Song Changjing and the merry young man beside the vassal king, Chen Songfeng vaguely felt a sign of general cohesion, and decided that after returning to the ancestral house of the Chen family in Longwei County this time, he must persuade the family to bet on the Dali Dynasty, even if there is no way to make a desperate bet, let the children of the Chen family integrate into the Dali temple as soon as possible.

Chen Songfeng muttered: "The weather of Dali is already the time when heaven and earth are working together. Therefore, I, Chen, want to support the dragon, and I can't compete with others to attach the dragon. ”

Liu Baqiao asked, "What are you muttering?"

Chen Songfeng stood up, shook his hand, and said with a smile: "You seem to be very close to that boy in Mud Bottle Lane." ”

Liu Baqiao got up and said with a big grin: "Pingshui meets, gathering and scattering, God knows if we can see each other again in the future." ”

The two walked ashore on the spring grass by the stream together, and Chen Songfeng asked: "I heard that the blessed land under the jurisdiction of Nanjian Country will be opened to the public this winter, and dozens of people will be allowed to enter, aren't you still unable to break the bottleneck at the moment, do you want to go down and try your luck?"

Liu Baqiao sneered: "Resolutely don't go, go to the ant pile to be a blessing, Lao Tzu is panicked." ”

Chen Songfeng shook his head and said: "My Mr. Liu once said that the state of mind is like a mirror, the more you polish it, the brighter it is, so the state of mind cultivation, being able to sit on the Daozu Lotus Platform is of course very beneficial, but occasionally crawling in the small mud pond may not be beneficial." Go to the blessed land to be an immortal who has abandoned his predecessor and forgotten his previous life, whether he enjoys happiness or suffering, it is more or less ......"

Before Chen Songfeng finished speaking, Liu Baqiao had already shouted: "I am too heavy in my heart to win, once I go to the blessed land where the aura is thin, if I can't break the taboo and return to my hometown by my own ability, then I will definitely leave a knot in my heart, and the gains will outweigh the losses, and the disadvantages will outweigh the benefits." Besides, if I accidentally bully the 'locals' in the blessed land, it will be another heart disease, and after I come back to my senses, even if it costs a huge price, I will definitely have to come into the world as a 'real person' in order to be happy, but in this way, isn't it against my original intention?"

Liu Baqiao hugged the back of his head with both hands, and said with disdain on his face: "To put it mildly, now the three blessed lands in our Dongbao Aquarius Continent, who doesn't know it, have long since changed their taste, and they have become the children of those wealthy lords of the secular dynasty, spending money to find a place to have fun, no wonder it is said to be the place of the Qinglou under the rule of the immortal family, and the miasma of black smoke." ”

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "Don't generalize, don't talk about us outsiders, just say the words of those locals, there is no shortage of amazing talents." ”

Liu Baqiao rolled his eyes and said: "A blessed land, so many people, how many people can stand out every year? Not a single one, these successful come to us, in a hundred years, we will finally remember the name, how many can there be?" So I don't understand why these blessed lands are so highly respected, and some people threaten that as long as they have a part of the jurisdiction of a blessed land, the benefits are no less than having a monk of the Upper Five Realms, which is crazy. ”

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "The benefits of the blessed land, the water flows for a long time, and occasionally one or two surprises can pop up, the most important thing is that all the benefits belong to sitting back and enjoying the results, who is not happy to get a piece of the pie?"

Most of the people who go out of the cave have a good life. The life of those who rise up from blessed land is especially hard.

Liu Baqiao asked, "You don't seem to like that young man surnamed Chen very much?"

Chen Songfeng thought about it for a while and chose to reveal his heart, "If it's personal, I don't have any opinion on the teenager. But if we talk about things, his existence actually makes our whole family very embarrassed. The children of the Chen family in Lizhu Xiaodongtian are a joke in this continent, in the town, there is only one person left with a surname that is not small, and the rest have all become slaves and maids of other families, and they have become jokes, which is normal. In the eyes of the Chen family in Longwei County, we and the people surnamed Chen in the town, although the distant ancestors are the same, but they are all old Huang Li many years ago, not to mention the slightest affection, but all the opponents of the Chen family in Longwei County, how can they look at it like this, in this case, if the boy in Mud Bottle Lane simply becomes the descendant of a big family, it will be enough, after a big laugh in the world at that time, it is difficult to continue to become a talking point for many years, but this young man's gritted teeth and insistence, the lonely existence, is particularly eye-catching, and many people outside are even betting that when the town is a child of the Chen family, when will it no longer be that'Unique'. ”

Liu Baqiao frowned and said, "It's not the boy's fault. ”

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "Of course, there is nothing wrong with a young man, but there are some things in the world after all, and it is difficult to explain the truth clearly." ”

Liu Baqiao shook his head and said: "It's not that it's difficult to explain clearly, in fact, it's because you are unreasonable, it's just because that young man is too weak, so you can appear reasonable, plus your Longwei County Chen clan's momentum is much bigger than the young man, but compared to those around him who watch jokes, it is very ordinary, so the situation is more and more embarrassing, and in the end, he is unwilling to admit that he is incompetent, so he has to hint at himself in turn, thinking that the young man is the culprit." I believe that if it weren't for the fact that this Lizhu Cave was not easy to enter, the young man in the alley who embarrassed the Chen family of Longwei County would have been killed by the children of the Chen family of Longwei County, who quietly found a guy to do it from the beginning, or a guy from a vassal family. ”

Chen Songfeng's face turned red, and he was a little annoyed and angry for a while.

Liu Baqiao hugged the back of his head, raised his head and looked at the sky, still with a lazy look, "I know that you Chen Songfeng are not such a person, but unfortunately there are few people like you, and there are many people like you." ”

"Let's just say that the mountain moving ape in Zhengyang Mountain, I can't get the Sword Sutra, I'm afraid that if I get it in Fenglei Yuan, I'm going to kill the young man surnamed Liu with one punch, do you think this is reasonable? I think this is very unreasonable. But is it useful? It's useless, I don't even dare to provoke the old ape head-on. ”

Liu Baqiao sighed, let go of a hand, patted his stomach, and laughed at himself: "As for me, my mouth is clumsy, my fists are not hard enough, and my sword is not fast enough, otherwise I have really accumulated a lot of truth in my stomach, and I want to talk about it with this world." ”

Chen Songfeng let out a sigh, "So you think that young man is good?"

Liu Baqiao turned his head to look at the mountains in the west where the sun fell, "Think it's good? ”

Chen Songfeng was a little puzzled.

Liu Baqiao smiled: "As soon as I saw that young man, I was ashamed of myself. ”

Chen Songfeng felt incredible, shook his head and smiled: "Why is this so?"

Liu Baqiao swallowed back some of the words that came to his mouth, saving him from hurting his feelings. Chen Songfeng, although he is not so appetizing and temperamental, is much better than ordinary readers, so he is content.

Liu Baqiao was silent all the way.

————

In the depths of the night, Chen Ping'an made three torches, and the three of them walked with fire.

Finally came to the foot of a high mountain, Chen Ping'an wiped the sweat on his forehead, and said to Ning Yao: "Miss Ning, tell her, this is a mountain forbidden by the imperial court, does she have any taboos?"

After Ning Yao told Chen Zheng, the latter shook his head.

Chen raised her eyes and looked at her, she was extremely sure that the ancestral tomb of the Yingyin Chen family must be here.

The wanderer returned to his hometown, and his heart was sensitive.

Chen closed her eyes slowly, and after a moment, she crouched down and wrote a long list of characters on the ground with her fingers, and her lips moved slightly as she finished. In the end, she slowly smoothed out all the traces with the palm of her hand, and after getting up, her footsteps bypassed the place where the runes were destroyed, and she took the lead in climbing the mountain, without even needing Chen Ping'an to guide her.

The three of them came to a place halfway up the mountain, Chen Ping'an pointed not far away, there was a tree growing on a small dirt bag, the main trunk was strange, extremely straight, it was straighter than green bamboo, Chen Ping'an was relieved, nodded and said: "This is it." ”

Chen said to Shen Sheng: "You go to the bottom of the mountain and wait for me." ”

Ning Yao tugged at Chen Ping'an's sleeve and motioned to go down the mountain together.

Chen put down the bookcase, one by one, and carefully took out those carefully prepared offerings to worship the gods and ancestors.

Halfway through, Chen lost his mind for a moment, looked at the little tree stupidly, burst into tears, cried with joy, and muttered: "Sure enough, sure enough." ”

In the end, the woman bowed three times and bowed nine times to the small earthen bag with great reverence.

After that, Chen fell to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "I'm Yingyin Chen, thank the ancestor for his protection!"

At the foot of the mountain, Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao sat on one side of the basket, sitting with their backs to each other, Ning Yao asked, "There was a distance before, why did you deliberately take a long detour?"

Chen Ping'an was stunned and said in shock: "Miss Ning, even you can see it?"

Ning Yao shook the scabbard and pushed it back, and the top of the scabbard hit the young man's waist, "Remove the word 'connect'!"

The straw sandals boy bared his teeth, rubbed his waist gently, and lowered his voice: "Didn't I tell you, there is a mountain cliff in the boss, all of which are the kind of black stones that you call the dragon slaying platform, I am afraid to show her, and then she is also knowledgeable, what if she has evil intentions? ”

Ning Yao smiled: "Scrooge, you're not worried that she will want to move it away, and you will be empty-handed. ”

Chen Ping'an smiled stupidly and said, "Miss Ning, you are so upright, you must not have many friends, right?"

Oops.

Chen Ping'an, who was suddenly in pain again, hurriedly freed up his hand to rub the other side of his waist.

Chen Ping'an suddenly touched Ning Yao's back lightly with his elbow and asked, "Do you eat wild fruits?" I picked three on the way here, and I hid them in my sleeve pocket, she shouldn't have seen them. ”

Ning Yao said angrily: "The mountain fruits of this season, can they be delicious?"

Chen Ping'an turned around, handed over two peach-sized red wild fruits, and said with a smile: "Miss Ning, then you don't know, this kind of fruit can really only be eaten in spring, it is firm at the end of winter, and ripe in early spring. What's even more strange is that we have so many mountains here, and the fruit is only available near here, and I also came with Old Man Yao to find a kind of soil, and he told me that in other places, there are also some wild fruits that taste good, but I eat and eat, gnaw east and west, and I think it is not as good as this. ”

Ning Yao took the two fruits, and made up his mind that if it was unpalatable, he must return the remaining one, "You are still eating and gnawing and gnawing east and west, you are a wild boar in the mountains?"

Chen Ping'an bit the wild fruit and said with a smile: "When I was young, my family was poor, but I didn't eat whatever I caught, don't you say it, once I really ate my stomach because of blind eating, and I rolled all over the ground in the alley because of the pain." That was the first time I heard my own heartbeat, thunder and drums. ”

It's a pity that Ning Yao was busy eating the fruit, and didn't hear what the young man said at the end, and when he took the first bite, he felt that the fruit was unusually sweet, and after the flesh went down, the whole person was warm, and the body was like a house paved with earth dragons, and the wild fruits were bags of charcoal. Ning Yao closed his eyes and felt the internal organs, although the whole body was comfortable, but the rest was not different, which meant that this wild fruit could generally be ranked on the mountain at the feet of the immortals, but it was limited to this, it could definitely be sold at a high price in the secular dynasty, but it would not make the monks red.

For the ordinary people under the mountain, it is undoubtedly the supreme treasure of longevity.

Knowing this, Ning Yao simply didn't accept this fruit.

Ning Yao was a little regretful, wiped his mouth, turned around and handed over the remaining wild fruits, "It's not delicious, I'll give it back to you." ”

Chen Ping'an took it back suddenly, a little disappointed, he thought that Miss Ning would think it was good.

Ning Yao gently kicked the back basket with both hands, and asked casually, "Is it for the woman named Chen Zheng?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said: "What to do for her, it is not related to her, of course, it is left to Liu Xianyang." ”

Ning Yao suddenly wondered: "If Ruan Xiu is here, don't you give it to Chen and Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Ping'an nodded and said, "Of course." ”

Ning Yao asked again, "Then if you only have two wild fruits in your hand, will you give them to me or to Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Ping'an said without hesitation: "One for you, one for Ruan Xiu." I'll see you just eat. ”

Chen Ping'an was attacked again, rubbed his waist, and said innocently: "Miss Ning, what are you doing?"

Ning Yao asked again, "What if there's only one?"

Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "Here you go." ”

Ning Yao: "Why?"

Chen Ping'an said both cunning and sincerely: "Miss Ruan is not here, Miss Kening is here." ”

The young man's back suffered two heavy blows in an instant, and Chen Ping'an quickly got up and jumped up in pain, which caused Ning Yao to fall into the big back basket.

Chen Ping'an hurriedly pulled her out of the back basket.

Ning Yao wasn't angry, just glared at Chen Ping'an fiercely.

Chen Ping'an put the back basket back on, and the two sat back to back again.

Ning Yao asked, "Do you know what kind of tree that tree is?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said, "I don't know, I've only seen it in this place, and it doesn't seem to be on other mountains." ”

Ning Yao said in a deep voice: "According to legend, if there is a family mausoleum that gives birth to a Kai tree, it is an auspicious weather for the Confucian sage to be born, and this sage must be extremely upright and upright, so in your world, you will definitely get extra favor." ”

Chen Ping'an sighed.

What a Confucian sage, auspicious and righteous, this straw sandals boy can't understand.

Ning Yao asked, "Don't you envy the woman on the mountain?" and you haven't thought about why this Kai tree doesn't grow on the grave of your ancestors?"

Chen Ping'an answered the question and said happily: "This year's Qingming Festival, I can still go to the grave of my father and mother, it's good." ”

Ning Yao stood up suddenly, and this time it was Chen Ping'an's turn to sit in the back basket.

Ning Yao laughed heartily on the side.

————

There are only five Mongolian children left in the small town school, with different backgrounds and ages, among which there is a little girl wearing a big red cotton jacket, although she was born in Fulu Street, but she never bullies people in the school, but she doesn't like to join in the fun, she always likes to wander around by herself. The westernmost family in the town, Li Er's son Li Huai, also studied in this township school, his father and mother left the town with his sister, but left him, Li Huai not only did not cry, but was so happy, and finally did not have to be controlled, but at night, the child who lived in his uncle's house, after waking up from a nightmare, began to howl heartbreakingly, and was awakened by his uncle and aunt to suppress it, one using a feather duster and the other using a broom.

The other three people are from Peach Leaf Lane, Qilong Lane, and Xinghua Lane, two men and one woman.

After class, Mr. Qi gave each of them a piece of writing, asked them to keep it properly, and carefully copied it, saying that he would check their homework in three days.

That's a homogeneous word.

After Mengxue dispersed, the old sweeping old man, after bathing and changing clothes, came to Mr. Qi's study and sat on the ground.

The old man opened his mouth to ask a question about the Confucian classic of "the first month of the Spring King".

Qi Jingchun smiled heartily and explained what spring is, what is king, and what is the moon.

This is the unique "teaching and questioning" of the major Confucian academies, and there will be a "teacher" in the classroom to ask the lecturer, who can ask a number of questions, ten questions or even a hundred questions.

This question happened in the first meeting between Mr. Qi and the old man.

That was 80 years ago.

However, at that time, Qi Jingchun was the one who asked, and the person who answered was the husband of the two.

After the old man asked all the questions, he looked at Qi Jingchun, "Do you remember Mr.'s parting words before we went to the Mountain Cliff Academy?"

Qi Jingchun smiled and said nothing.

The old man asked himself, "The sentence given to me is 'Heaven and earth give birth to gentlemen, and gentlemen manage heaven and earth'." The sentence for you is, 'You can't learn.' Green is taken from blue, and green is blue. ’”

The old man was suddenly very excited, "How much importance does Sir take to you, I hope you will be blue! Why do you want to be here without hitting the south wall and not looking back? Why do you want to be a small town, but there are only five or six thousand people, so you don't want to give up all the hundred-year cultivation and thousand-year-old avenues? If you are an ordinary scholar, you are Qi Jingchun, the most important proud disciple of our husband! You are a scholar who is expected to be unique and even establish a religion and be an ancestor!"

The old man trembled and said, "I know, it was the Buddhists who misunderstood you! What is the equality of all beings? Have you forgotten what Mr. said about the noble ......and lowly?"

Qi Jingchun shook his head with a smile and said, "Although Mr. is a gentleman, his knowledge is naturally great, but the truth may not be all right. ”

The old man was so shocked that his face was full of astonishment, and then he shouted angrily: "Celebrant, so you are also upright!"

Qi Jingchun replied with a smile, "When a gentleman is a gentleman, he is a gentleman, and when he is extended, he is also extended." ”

It seemed that for no reason, it was 108,000 miles away, but after the old man heard it, his face changed drastically, and he was full of surprise.

Qi Jingchun sighed, looked at the fellow disciple who followed him here, and said, "The matter has come to this." Those children will be entrusted to you to send to the Mountain Cliff Academy. ”

The old man nodded, got up and left with a complicated expression.

Qi Jingchun said to himself: "Sir, can there be a real righteousness in the world?"

————

The two carriages departed from Fulu Street and left the town early before dawn.

At dawn, a young man in straw sandals with two large cloth bags set off to wait outside the Kiln Supervision Office.

One bag contained bags of gold and copper coins, and the other contained the snake gallstones that he thought were the most valuable.

But when it was dawn, the porter of the government office came out with a broom to sweep the streets, and the boy did not see the carriage that departed.

He had no choice but to be cheeky and ask, asking when the group of guests named Chen Zheng from the government office would set off from Fulu Street.

The porter laughed and said that they had left the town a long time ago.

The straw sandals boy was dumbfounded, didn't Liu Xianyang's guy make an appointment with him before he left after dawn?

At that moment, the boy's vision was a little blurred.

After thanking the porter, the boy began to turn and run.

Running out of the town, the boy ran nearly sixty miles in one go, and finally along a slope, the exhausted boy walked to the top of the slope, looked at the winding road, and stretched out.

The boy squatted on the top of the hill, with copper coins and stones at his feet.

A girl with a sword hanging from a knife sat beside him quietly, panting, and said angrily: "Aren't you a money fan in the eyes of losing money, why are you so generous? All your belongings have to be given away? Even if Liu Xianyang is your friend, he is not as generous as you." ”

The boy just held his head and looked into the distance.