That method was taught to him by the master with a stick on the terrace of the Pine Crane Tower, and the elder brother had vaguely reminded him of it in the wasteland, and he had thought of it when he was imprisoned in a cave.

That method is simple and clear, full of power, but from another angle, it can be said that it is so stupid and clumsy, which is completely inconsistent with Ning Que's outlook on life that is sunny on the surface but actually gloomy.

Standing on the streets of Chang'an in the twilight of spring, Ning Que was thinking about the things after the autumn, sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes gloomy, and he didn't notice that a rain cloud was drifting from the north.

"Excuse me, but Mr. Chizo?"

Ning Que looked back and saw a man saluting respectfully to him, the man was wearing an ordinary civilian uniform, but he couldn't hide the solemn aura unique to a soldier on his body.

Since last spring, he has been a celebrity in Chang'an City, but not many people who have really seen his face and can recognize him on the streets of Chang'an.

Ning Que was a little wary, especially because of the identity of the other party.

The man confessed his identity in the next sentence.

"General Xu Shi is invited. ”

The Tang Empire dominated the world with iron armor and swept the ** by force, so it naturally attached great importance to revering soldiers, especially the status of the four generals.

Xu Shi, the general of Zhenguo, has been fighting for decades, with great achievements, and has opened up countless territories for the empire, even Xiahou, who has been extremely famous in the past ten years, can only be expected, no matter in terms of military qualifications or prestige, he is the first person in the emperor.

Ning Que knew that the old general with the most powerful power in the imperial side had no good impression of him, and he didn't know the specific reason, but he knew that he would meet with the other party sooner or later, but he didn't expect that it was today, and he didn't expect that he had just left the palace and was watched by the Tang military.

General Xu Shi did not choose to be in the military department, but chose to meet Ning Que in the general's mansion not far from Suzaku Avenue, which seemed to indicate that this was a private conversation.

Following the man into the imposing general's mansion, Ning Que frowned slightly, excited by the murderous aura emanating from the cold stones of the poplars in the mansion.

Walking into the depths of the General's Mansion, in a quiet platform, he saw the old general sitting by the desk.

The old general did not wear court clothes, official uniforms, or armor, but wore a very ordinary cloth coat, did not grow cabbage, did not sharpen knives, but was eating with a rice bowl.

The meal on the table was simple, two bowls of brown rice, a bowl of pork belly, and three boiled greens.

The man who had led Ning Que into the mansion left quietly.

Ning Que stood outside the stage, was silent for a moment, and then walked up the stairs to the old general and bowed slightly.

The old general said, "Sit." ”

Ning Que lifted the front of his hospital uniform, sat down as he said, and looked at the opposite side.

The old general said: "I didn't expect you to come so soon, let me finish the meal first, Mr. Thirteen don't blame me for losing hospitality." ”

Ning Que bowed his head and saluted: "The general's words made the juniors panic. ”

The old general didn't say anything more and continued to concentrate on eating.

The old general's hair is gray, his slightly dark cheeks are full of wrinkles, his figure is a little rickety, and he looks like an idle old man everywhere in Chang'an City, wearing those ordinary cloth clothes, but when he picks up chopsticks and grabs the piece of meat, it is like holding a spear and stabbing the enemy general's chest with a domineering aura.

The general, although old, is not an old general.

A general is a general.

Especially when facing enemies.

The pork belly gravy mixed with brown rice smells a little fragrant, and the taste must be just average, but what the general eats is extremely sweet and gray, and his beard shakes from time to time, and the three boiled greens are even more crispy and crispy by him, just like the legendary demons in the underworld are gnawing human bones.

Probably a habit developed in his military career, the general ate quickly, swept away the food on the table like a whirlwind, and then he picked up the teacup and rinsed his mouth.

Ning Que said: "Eating too fast and drinking tea in a hurry is not good for your health. ”

The general looked at him quietly and said, "You don't have to pretend to be anything in front of me. ”

Ning Que was silent, so he no longer pretended to be a junior, pretended to be gentle, and pretended to be considerate.

The general said, "A cultivator should be born, not enter the world. ”

Ning Que didn't expect that this conversation would go straight to the most critical stage without any foreshadowing or any previous text, and he couldn't help but be a little caught off guard.

He originally thought that this would be a long conversation, he thought that this conversation would be like boiling chicken soup, and he needed to compare each other's fire, but he didn't expect that it would be fried quickly, and if he was not careful, the vegetables in the pot would become charred and could no longer enter his throat.

"Why shouldn't we join the WTO?"

Ning Que asked after a moment of silence.

The general looked into his eyes and said indifferently: "Because for cultivators, the world is too weak, like ants, and cultivators are prone to arrogance when they enter the world. ”

Ning Que raised his head, looked back at the general's calm and oppressive gaze, and said, "The general fought for my Tang Dynasty in all directions, and he also rolled in the world for dozens of times. ”

"Before I became a practitioner, I was first and foremost a soldier. ”

The general said indifferently: "This is the biggest difference. ”

Ning Que said: "I am also a soldier. ”

The general shook his head slowly and said, "You used to be a soldier, even a pretty good soldier, but unfortunately, you were not a cultivator when you were a soldier. ”

"What's the difference?" Ning Que asked.

The general squinted slightly, looked at him and said in a deep voice: "If you can cultivate when you are in Weicheng, I will definitely train you well and make you a great martial arts cultivator, so that you can really understand what is going on on the battlefield, so that those stories in the future will not happen." ”

Ning Que was silent for a moment and then said, "I don't understand what the general means. ”

"I've seen all your files.

The general's voice didn't have any superfluous emotion, just blindly indifferent and calm, "You are indeed a good soldier, but you have not experienced real battles, there are battles of cultivators. ”

Ning Que was silent again, he had been in the army in Weicheng since he was very young, but the Tang Dynasty was powerful, even the cavalry of the Golden Horde on the grassland did not dare to provoke the slightest real war, and he really had not experienced much in the real war, and in the past few years of military career, he had indeed not seen the appearance of a cultivator on the battlefield.

The general said, "The world thinks that cultivators are very strong, but they don't know that on the real battlefield, when facing the surging iron horse, cultivators are also weak. ”

Ning Que thought about such a strong person as the second senior brother, and couldn't agree with such a statement.

The general seemed to know what was going on in his heart, and said coldly: "Even if a strong man who knows his fate is facing the crossbow arrows in the sky and the charge of thousands of heavy horses, there is still only one way to die, which has been proven countless times in the history of war, do you know what the reason is?"

Ning Que shook his head.

The general said, "Because the cultivator's body is too fragile. Unless you can cross that threshold and break through the Five Realms and advance to the Boundless Realm, you can ignore the rain of arrows in the sky, or you can advance to the Heavenly Apocalypse Realm, comprehend the supreme divine power given by Haotian, and ignore any impact, otherwise a single cultivator will never be an opponent of the army. ”

"What about a peak martial arts powerhouse like General or General Xiahou?" Ning Que asked.

General Xu Shi said: "Martial arts practitioners use their mental power to summon the vitality of heaven and earth to practice physical strength, and when fighting, they use their mental power to condense the vitality of heaven and earth on the surface of the body, but as long as it is a person, there is an edge of knowing the sea, and when the mental power is finally exhausted, one person can't kill a hundred people, I can't kill a hundred people, I use ten thousand people to kill, I can always kill him, remember, if the peak of martial arts can be invincible, why does the empire still raise so many iron horses?"

Ning Que put his right hand on the desk, looked at the general's sunken eyes and said, "One cultivator can exchange 10,000 ordinary soldiers, is this not called powerful?"

The general looked at him expressionlessly and said, "Among the ten thousand ordinary people, there is not a single cultivator, and it is very cost-effective in a war to exchange the death of such a cultivator with 10,000 ordinary soldiers in exchange for the death of such a cultivator. ”

Ning Que was silent for the third time. He turned to look at the straight poplars in the garden, looked at the stones piled up randomly, and had to admit that the opinion of the first person in the emperor was correct and sharp, and he couldn't refute it at all. He knew very well what the purpose of General Xu Shi's conversation with himself was, so he was unwilling to be persuaded like this, he frowned slightly, and said, "But General, you and General Xiahou are also cultivators. ”

At this point in the conversation, it goes back to the beginning.

"Martial arts practice is difficult and clumsy, without decades of hard work, there is no effect at all, the vast majority of people practice to some brute strength, some muscles will give up halfway, become the sword master Nian Shi's attendants, so for the cultivation sect, martial arts practice is almost like chicken ribs. ”

The general said: "Only in the years of travel, martial arts cultivators have the opportunity to grow up through bloody battles, and if they want to cultivate to the peak, they don't know how many people they have to kill and how many times they will be injured. ”

Ning Que asked, "What does this have to do with what the general is going to say?"

"What I want to say is that martial arts practitioners are all in the army, just as I told you at the beginning, whether in the eyes of the world or in their own eyes, they are first and foremost disciplined soldiers, and then they are so-called cultivators, they don't hold umbrellas in summer, they don't wear clothes in winter, and they have fewer selfish desires. ”

"I see. ”

Ning Que looked at the remaining juice of the boiled vegetables on the plate and said, "But I don't understand what the general is telling me when he says these things. ”

The general looked at him expressionlessly and said: "The thing I want to sue you is that you are very weak, even if your realm is improved quickly, but in my eyes, in front of my Tang military, you are still very weak, I give an order, the heavy armor Xuanqi can directly rush you to death, you only have thirteen arrows, like a knife like Liu Yiqing, how many strokes can you wield? So don't be arrogant, you must know how to fear Tang Lu." ”

Ning Que raised his head, looked at the general's old cheeks, and said, "I have always obeyed the law. ”

The general said indifferently: "I said, I have checked all your files and materials, since they are all, naturally not limited to the records of Weicheng, I have counted how many horse thieves died under your knife on the shore of Subi Lake, and I know that there are three hunters in Minshan who were set on fire by you." ”

"I said, don't pretend in front of me.

The general's voice was slightly cold and said: "It's okay to kill the horse thief and chop wood, because Tang Lu does not protect the people outside the country, but how can you explain those things in Minshan? There is also a newborn baby in one of the hunters, who also died in that fire, how can you explain?"

"No matter how you hide it in front of Master and His Majesty, no matter what image you have in the eyes of the world now, no matter how ridiculous you pretend to be light after you come to Chang'an, you can't change that fact, you are a shameless villain who is ruthless, greedy, and killing. ”

Ning Que bowed his head again and was silent. He didn't expect that once the Datang military tried its best to investigate someone, they would be able to find out such a long time ago, and at this time, he felt that his clothes suddenly disappeared without a trace, as if he was covered in **.

The feeling was not one of shame or guilt, but of wariness because he never considered himself a good person, nor did he want to be a good one.

In order to be able to live, in order to be able to let Sangsang live, he can do anything, killing people and setting fires is just idle, the evil deeds exposed by the general are just a very inconspicuous fragment of those bloody years in the past, how can a person like him be a good person.

Xu Shi looked at him and said with disgust: "Ning Que, you can't make a stroke." ”

There was a dead silence in the stage.

Ning Que suddenly raised his head, looked at Xu Shi on the other side of the desk, and asked with a smile: "General, is there really a person in the world who is as clean and sinless as snow?"

The general looked at him and said with a slight mockery: "You want to comfort your own uncleanness with the filth of others?"

Ning Que shook his head and said, "The general said earlier that martial arts cultivators are not easy, and that the suffering of the Tang Dynasty soldiers is actually a bit boring in my opinion, because you have not experienced my life, you don't know what hardships I have suffered, and naturally you can't understand my choice back then." He looked at the general and smiled and said: "In the reckless deep mountains and forests, you were caught by a hunter, I don't know why, maybe it was just because you stole a rabbit from his lasso ten days ago, or because the hunter was originally a damn rabbit, or maybe because the hunter was a relative of the old damn hunter before, in short, he wanted to kill you, what would you do?"

The general frowned slightly. Without waiting for the general to speak, Ning Que continued to smile and said: "Don't forget jì, you were less than ten years old at that time, you were tired and weak because of malnutrition, you still had a five or six-year-old girl by your side, and you were also injured, you didn't have a weapon by your side, just the fire hidden in your crotch, and then you happened to be locked up in the firewood room." ”

"I don't know what you're going to do, General. ”

"But I'm sure I'll set fire to the thatch and dry wood in the firewood house. ”

"I don't care if that Orion dies or if there's a baby in the room, even if there is an old man in his room who is more than a hundred years old and paralyzed, I will light that fire. ”

The smile on Ning Que's face was very gentle, and the expression in his eyes was very calm.

(The next chapter will come out before half past mid:00.) (To be continued)