Miserable life can sometimes really stick to you alone like a dog's skin plaster, until it tortures you to the point that you no longer believe that there is something beautiful in this world.

This is Li Yi's clearest understanding of the world these days.

Since the summer of a year ago, Sizhou, where he lives, has been in the grip of drought.

At that time, the hot sun was like a wanton tyrant angrily swaying its heat, and even the wind that had been caressing became an accomplice to the drought under the coercion of the sun.

Li Yi watched as his originally green hometown began to slowly turn yellow, and Sizhou, which was originally the land of fish and rice, soon fell into a famine.

When the plants died, the earth cracked like an old man who had been weathered.

Even if there are occasional light rains or two, they will evaporate and dry up as soon as they land.

This can't help but remind Li Yi of the poems he memorized when he was a child: There is no thunder in the sky for a long time, and there is no order to be obedient. The rain does not wet things, the fertile fields rise yellow, the birds die of bitter heat, and the fish in the pond dry up their mud. Ten thousand people are still redundant, and only Artemisia Lai is raised.

But this is not the most terrible, after all, the crops can be held up for a while when they are gone.

But as the drought grew, all the rivers and lakes dried up, and even the wells in the village could only dig mud.

It is said that natural disasters will be followed by human disasters, and as drought and famine continue, a large number of people have become homeless.

Once the group of displaced people is formed, it is inevitable that some of the displaced people will become mobs, and the latter will be bandits.

These poor people, who were originally tormented by disasters, will soon join the perpetrators of disasters called disasters.

After suffering from hunger and drought, these former obedient people quickly abandon their morals and values.

So robbing homes, killing people, and setting fires will soon become their best choice.

And the unfortunate Li family became the target of these people.

His father and brother were killed, his mother and sister committed suicide after being humiliated, and the Li family, which was originally quite wealthy, collapsed completely overnight.

With the collapse of Li Yi's heart, mourning is greater than heart death, Li Yi at this time only has hatred and vigilance for this world.

"Don't worry, we have no bad intentions!"

Liu Yu brought a small bowl of porridge to the child.

Looking at the porridge in the bowl, the child snatched the porridge bowl and poured it into his mouth.

Even though the porridge was still a little hot, he still devoured it.

"Eat slowly, don't rush."

Liu Yu handed him two more wheat bran cakes.

The boy was not polite, and put the empty bowl aside beside the bed, and then took a piece of bran cake in one hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

The bran cake was already rough, and he ate it more quickly, and soon the bran cake choked in his throat.

He craned his neck to swallow the bran, but tried several times to no avail.

Soon his face turned red.

The Taoist handed him the teapot in his hand at this time.

He didn't dislike it, and poured it into the spout, and it took a while to smooth the wheat bran cake that was choking in his throat.

It wasn't until he had finished eating the two wheat bran cakes that the dish spoke leisurely.

"Li Boy can kowtow now!"

"Daddy! Are you playing for real? ”

Liu Yu originally thought that his father was joking, but he didn't expect him to be true.

"Can I avenge my parents by worshipping you as a teacher?" The boy spoke again.

The Taoist smiled, stroked his beard, and shook his head.

"Any grudge is cause and effect, you need to understand it yourself, I don't interfere."

"What's the use of worshipping you as a teacher!"

Although the child was still childish, his words were firm and resolute.

"Worship me as a teacher, I can teach you the ability, only if you have the ability can you get away with this heaven and earth, and only then can you have the ability to end this cause and effect."

The boy didn't give his first answer, but frowned and pondered.

Liu Yu on the side was a little anxious.

Although his father seems to be unreliable, his ability to cultivate disciples is admired even by his own master, Yu Zhenzi.

"Although my father seems unreliable, the apprentices he has cultivated are indeed rare masters."

After thinking for a while, the child climbed out of bed, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to the Taoist.

"Master is above, please be bowed by the apprentice Li Yi!"

After the bow was completed, Li Yi held the teapot above his head and offered it to the Taoist.

The Taoist took the teapot, wiped the spout with the sleeve of his robe, and muttered, "Why are one or two so unhygienic." ”

Seeing the Taoist people wiping the teapot, Xiao Li Yi felt a little panicked in his heart.

"Don't care, my father is such a person, and he was also such a virtuous person when your senior brother apprenticed."

Liu Yu helped Xiao Li Yi, who was kneeling on the ground, up.

Until many years later, Li Yi once said to his subordinates: The grace of the teacher is greater than the sky, but the grace of the eldest brother is not inferior to the grace of the teacher.

"Since you thought you were under my door, I will introduce you to the situation in our door."

The Taoist took a sip of tea and lay back on the chaise longue in style.

"The first teacher of this sect is Wang Chan, and he calls himself Guiguzi. Therefore, we call it the Guigu Gate. I sent from my ancestor to me for a total of 1009 years, a total of 31 generations. I am the 31st generation of the successor, and I am the master of the Tao Taijizi. ”

Li Yi listened carefully, for fear of missing a word.

"I sent the patriarch to put forward back then: those who break the shut, change the yin and yang, and open and close at the four times to nurture all things."

Hearing this, Li Yi was already a little confused, and he didn't understand the meaning of this sentence at all.

"Don't worry, my dad will explain to you what he means later."

Seeing the embarrassment that Li Yi couldn't understand, Liu Yu on the side comforted him in a low voice.

"So far, you are the fifth apprentice of the master, and you have four senior brothers before you."

Hearing that he still had four senior brothers, Xiao Li Yi looked at Liu Yu and then looked around.

"Liu Yu is not your senior brother, he is the son of the teacher, but he is not the apprentice of the teacher. He is a disciple of the Spirit Feather Sect. ”

Tai Jizi pecked at the tea again and said slowly.

"Your other senior brothers have all gone down the mountain now, and there are only three of us on the mountain at present." Liu Yu whispered.

"Master, where are they now?"

Because of the loss of all his relatives, Li Yi's desire for family affection at this time is far better than that of ordinary children.

So for his senior brother, he still wants to know more and get closer.

"Those five senior brothers of yours are now all going down the mountain to experience and look for their chances."

Tai Jizi's tone was flat, as if he didn't care too much about his five apprentices.

"Yu'er, you can introduce him to a few of your senior brothers, I want to take a break for my father."

As he spoke, Tai Jizi waved his long sleeves and went out and walked under the big tree at the door.

Li Yi got up and bent down to salute until he sat down on a recliner under the tree.

"Big brother, why doesn't the old man seem to care about the affairs of the senior brothers?"

"That's not it, it's just that my father is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, and he doesn't seem to care much about his disciples, but he actually cares about it very much."

"You don't know, my father ordered me to go out of the mountains every three months to inquire about these five people. I was able to meet you this time because he asked me to go out to find out about them. ”

Liu Yu looked bitter, he was really reluctant to go around every three months, but his father's life was difficult.

"Then big brother, you can introduce me to these five senior brothers."

The two sat down on the bamboo bed, and Liu Yu began to introduce the five senior brothers to Li Yi one by one.

"My father's first apprentice was named Fan Wensu, who entered the mountain at the age of fourteen and worshipped my father as a teacher."

"I was only five years old when he started, and he stayed in the mountains for three years before coming home, so I don't have a very deep impression of him, but I have the impression that he is a very elegant and steady man."

"Why does he have a family member who still comes up to the mountain to apprentice?"

Li Yi thought that the senior brother Fan Wensu should also be like himself, a homeless person who went to the mountain to apprentice.

"Among these five people, only the third senior brother An Siqi and you are generally orphans, and the other four have families."

"As for why he went up to the mountain to apprentice, it seems that my father went to show him on the day he was born, and then he went up to the mountain to apprentice at the age of fourteen."

Regarding his father's previous affairs, in fact, Liu Yu only heard his mother mention it word by word.

"But Brother Fan can be regarded as getting ahead now, when I came out of the mountain a year ago, he was already a high school jinshi, and he is currently an official in the imperial court."

"Senior Brother Fan is so good, I must work hard in the future to strive for the Jinshi and the first glorious lintel."

Li Yi was envious.

"Compared with Brother Fan, Second Brother Mu is what I yearn for the most."

Liu Yu was not very interested in the imperial examination and being an official in the court.

"Second Brother Mu's name is Mu Junhe, he has my father's true inheritance in Taoism and martial arts, and since he came out of the mountain, he has traveled all over the world to do chivalrous deeds."

"The master even knows martial arts?"

Li Yi really couldn't see that a lazy person like Tai Jizi, who had to lie down after walking two steps, could still do martial arts.

"Then you don't know, my father's martial arts are extremely strong, my master once told me that when it comes to martial arts, my father is far above all the people of the Spirit Feather Sect."

Li Yi couldn't help but stretch out his head to look at Taijizi lying under the tree, and then secretly made up his mind that he must learn his skills hard to avenge his family.

"You may not know that Second Brother Mu is now respected as a "gentleman swordsman" on the rivers and lakes, and how many powerful families want to invite him to be called Keqing. But he didn't say yes. ”

Li Yi felt that when Liu Yu said Senior Brother Mu, his tone was full of admiration.

"The third brother An, named An Siqi, was an orphan brought back by my father when he first traveled in the mountains, he was a beggar at the time, I don't know who my parents were, I only know that my surname is An, and his name is also given by my father for him."

Hearing this, Li Yi was a little surprised.

He thought he was already pitiful, but now after hearing about Senior Brother An, he felt that he was even more pitiful than himself, after all, he still had memories of living with his parents, but Senior Brother An didn't even know who his parents were.

"Although Third Brother An is a beggar, his physique is different from ordinary people, although he is not outstanding in wisdom, but he is better than Second Brother Mu in martial arts."

"Then is An Shi also a famous hero in the rivers and lakes now?"

"That's not, Third Brother An's martial arts are very different from Second Brother Mu's, Second Brother Mu's martial arts take the route of dexterity and lightness, while Third Brother An takes the route of opening and closing mighty and strong."

"Senior Brother Mu is a swordsman, what kind of weapon is Senior Brother An using?"

"Third Brother An uses a mixed iron lance, which my father tailor-made for him."

"Lance? I've heard storytellers say that this is a weapon that can only be used in battles on the battlefield. ”

"That's right, so now Third Brother An has enlisted in the army."

"The master is really powerful, even the lance can be used."

For his master, Taijizi Li Yi now feels more and more unfathomable.

"Jing Fourth Brother, Natal Jing Zizheng, is the wittiest of the five, have you seen the chessboard under the tree? I used to play chess with him under the tree, but I never beat him. ”

Liu Yu pointed to a stone chess table under the tree, and then added.

"Not only can't I get down to him, but even my father couldn't get down to him two years before the fourth brother Jing left the mountain."

"The master can't get off him?"

Li Yi was a little surprised, originally he thought that Taijizi should be the strongest in both civil and military affairs.

"What's so strange about this, my father can't say that he can win the second brother Mu and the third brother An in the kendo and the use of the lance."

"But he's a master!"

"My father often told me that he told several brothers that the disciples are not inferior to the teacher, and the teacher does not have to be better than the disciple.

Hearing this, Li Yi immediately felt that it made sense, and he silently recited it several times in his heart and firmly remembered it in his heart.

"Then where is Senior Brother Jing now, and what are you doing?"

"Fourth Brother Jing is now preparing for the imperial examination in his hometown, and he lost his name in the last imperial examination, and Sun Shan failed to be named on the gold list."

Saying this, Liu Yu couldn't help but cover his mouth and snicker.

For Jingzi, it is really surprising that such a smart person is famous in Sun Shan.

For this reason, he also asked his father why Jingzi was falling behind.

And Tai Jizi's answer at that time was: Zizheng had no chance with the imperial examination in this life.

But Liu Yu didn't think so, he thought that Jingzi was such a smart and witty person would definitely be a scholar.

"The last brother surnamed Yang Ming Dongguan, and he also spent the longest time with me. Although he was the youngest of the five, he was my father's favorite. ”

"Let me tell you quietly, I once saw my father show the secret book he had written for many years to the fifth brother Yang to see, and the other four brothers had not read the secret book."

"What is written in the Secret Archive?"

Li Yi's curiosity was successfully aroused by Liu Yu.

"I haven't seen it either, I asked him for it, but unfortunately he wouldn't show it to me."

"Ahh You're his own son, and he won't show you? ”

"Not to mention the Mystical Books, he didn't teach me anything else. All my skills were taught by my master, and some of them I secretly learned while he taught his brothers. ”

"How so? Why does the master treat you so harshly? ”

Li Yi really didn't understand why his master Tai Jizi didn't hand over his skills to his son.

He secretly wondered: Isn't the eldest brother the master's son?

But looking at the faces of the two, they are so similar, no matter how you look at them, they are carved out of a mold, and you know that the two must be father and son.