When he woke up the next day, Li Zijin sat up from the bed in a daze, sleepy-eyed, and suddenly caught a glimpse of a face close at hand, staring at him motionlessly.

"Hongshao?!You scared my senior brother. ”

The girl in white squatted on the edge of the bed, holding a ...... in her hand Some buns are ridiculously large, and there is still heat on them.

Hong Shao smiled and narrowed his eyes, swallowed his saliva, and said, "Senior brother, the crab roe buns in this store are delicious, can you eat them?"

The young man shook his head, put on his clothes casually, pulled out the Cuiqu sword from its scabbard, put his two fingers together, wiped across the sword body, and smiled: "Senior brother has something he wants to do now." ”

Hong Shao's face was full of curiosity, but she didn't delay her and gnawed it down, the crab roe bun was bitten out of a big gap, the soup was rich, and the aroma was compelling.

Li Zijin was not affected at all, but focused all his attention on the sword.

Earlier in the city of Hongzhou, Li Zijin washed his sword on a rainy night, and found that the Cuiqu sword was not only rustless after being stained with rain, but became more and more brilliant.

I have never gotten the allusion of this ancient sword from Su Hu's mouth, but judging from the name of its sword and the fact that washing the sword on a rainy night makes the sword sharper, it is not difficult to conclude that the Cuiqu sword is "hydrophilic".

Li Zijin took out the "black cloth" from the baggage again, opened the black cloth, and inside was a thumb-sized quenching swordstone.

It was a parting gift from Cao Shen to the young man at the time of the B-word account.

Quenching the sword stone is the world's sword cultivator's dream of the treasure, the size is very small, easy to carry, the use method is also extremely simple, only need the refiner to run the aura in the sea of knowledge, and then pour the aura into the quenching sword stone, quenching the sword stone at the beginning of the building, there is a small magic circle at the core, the aura enters the magic circle, the magic circle is urged, after the magic circle is triggered, it will "quench the sword" by itself.

The two brothers and sisters who have never seen this magical scene will wait and see.

The young man held the quenching sword stone in one hand and the Cuiqu sword in the other, operating the aura in the sea of knowledge.

The aura passed through the cave holes, and a warm current appeared in the body, flowing slowly.

When the aura flowed to the palm of his hand, the quenching sword stone in Li Zijin's palm gradually moved.

The pitch-black stone seemed to gradually become transparent at that moment, and the pocket circle in the center of the stone was faintly visible.

The ancient and obscure circle inscriptions were infused with aura, slowly shining with light.

The vast ancient meaning is about to come out, and Li Zijin seems to be able to listen to the voice from "far away" through the stone in his palm, which is the call of the years.

The moment the magic circle was triggered, the body of the Cuiqu sword in his right hand trembled, and the trembling sound continued, echoing the "ancient rhyme" on the other palm of the young man's hand.

Subsequently, the quenching sword stone was full of light, changing from a completely black stone to a crystal clear, brilliant appearance, and the pocket magic circle in the stone exuded a strange brilliance, turning into a continuous light, slowly flowing to the Cuiqu Sword.

Injected into the hilt, it flows through the blade and ends at the tip of the sword.

A Cuiqu sword looks dazzling against the backdrop of the continuous light, and it is not allowed to be looked at directly.

In the sound of quenching the sword stone and the trembling sound of the cuiqu sword, a "ritual" is underway.

This ritual of the sword fell into a brief silence in the long roar, the light slowly disappeared, and the stone returned to pitch black, and the aura in it was gone.

The inscription on the pocket circle in the center of the quenching sword stone has also been shattered, and it is powerless to support it.

"Wow. Hong Shao glanced at the brand-new Cuiqu Sword, which was shining in his senior brother's hand, and then at the Wen Sword Cangjie that he had placed on the table.

Li Zijin slapped the little junior sister's head with a smile and said, "It's okay, if you can find the immortal shop in Honghu Prefecture later, the senior brother will also buy you a quenching sword stone." If Honghu Prefecture doesn't have it, then let's wait until Sangro Prefecture to see. In fact, if you can take the Xianjia ferry, those Xianjia ferries can't say that there are also this quenching sword stone for sale. ”

The girl in white nodded her head as a chick pecked rice.

What the young man said was still a little more subtle, but in fact, there were far more ways to get the quenching sword stone than he said.

For example, if you can get the opportunity to enter a certain cave or a certain blessed land, you will also have the opportunity to "pick up" the quenching sword stone in the cave blessed land.

It's just that often in such a blessed land, there will not be only one person who enters, most of them have to find the qi refiners who come up from the door by other chances, and fight to the death, so that they can hope to get a treasure like the quenching sword stone that can be called a "hot potato".

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if you get the treasures in those caves and blessed lands full of chances, it is still a question whether you can come out alive.

Chance is often accompanied by risk.

Those caves and blessed places in the world are not only immortal magic weapons, exotic flowers and plants, panaceas, but also tricks, fierce beasts and birds of prey, mountain demons and water monsters.

In the face of unknown dangers, whether it is those lucky people who accidentally enter the Cave Heaven Blessed Land, or the Qi Refiners who deliberately go to the Blessed Land Cave Heaven to find opportunities, most of them will choose to go in groups of three or five in the early stage of entering the Cave Heaven Blessed Land.

Only by using the strength of your companions to overcome those dangerous difficulties can you increase your chances of survival.

However, such a "companion" usually collapses silently after getting a treasure or killing a fierce beast in the cave blessed land, which is not strong enough, and will create a gap in the face of major opportunities.

The world of the mountain people is often much more cruel than the people under the mountain, and there are many scenes where teachers turn against each other, brothers become enemies, and fathers and sons kill each other.

Li Zijin didn't want to do anything about the cave heaven and blessed land in front of the little junior sister for the time being, so that Hong Shao could understand these things too early, but it was not beautiful.

However, Li Zijin's words still gave the girl a hope.

After refining the sword body for Cuiqu Sword, Li Zijin felt hungry and took his little sister downstairs to eat, while tasting all kinds of special xiaolongbao in the inn, while chatting about sword practice and life.

The young man, a senior brother, deserves to be extremely competent, and feels that as a senior brother of Hong Shao, there are still many things that should be taught to her in addition to sword training.

What's more, in Li Zijin's eyes, there is a relationship between himself and Hong Shao, in addition to the relationship between his brother and sister.

Humans, and demons.

What Mr. Yu Yang said is true, "Lead demons to goodness, and the road is long and obstructive."

Fortunately, Hong Shao's heart is excellent since he was a child, and he has pity for everything in the world, and many things don't need Li Zijin to worry about, and he, who is a senior brother, is just icing on the cake.

The girl is the best in the world.

Just as the two brothers and sisters were talking, there was a noise outside the street, and I saw a young man who stepped on straw sandals holding a cage of buns in his arms, galloping in the downtown area, and several people chasing after him.

It seems that what the young man is holding in his arms is a cage of crab roe buns snatched from the inn.

Most of the pedestrians on the roadside are gloating, and some people want to stop the thief, but they don't want to get entangled in trivial matters, so they are discouraged.

The guys at the Wind Inn chased all the way, but they couldn't catch up with the little thief with fast legs and feet, so they could only return in vain, and returned to the inn one by one dejectedly, still screaming and scolding.

Li Zijin said with a smile: "It's just a basket of steamed buns, you won't be so excited, you almost ran out of breath." ”

The guy who came back from outside heard this muttering, so he explained: "This guest officer doesn't know, a cage of steamed buns really doesn't have a lot of money, it's nothing more than a few taels of silver, if the thief just stole a cage of steamed buns from our inn and left, we won't shout at him and kill him." There is the kung fu of chasing people, it is better to sell a few more buns to be worthwhile, but the thief is three days and two ends here to steal buns, every time he hides aside, taking advantage of the gap when the brother is not paying attention, he picks up the steamer and runs, his legs and feet are as sharp as a monkey, and he can't catch up. ”

Another person next to him gritted his teeth and added: "The most important thing is that this is not a matter of money or money! The key is that the thief of the dog day has repeatedly taught and stumbled, staring at a sheep in our family to die, and after reporting to the official, because it was just a bun stolen, the amount is too small, and the government doesn't care, alas, ······."

Several of the guys were so angry that their teeth were itching, and the young man looked in the direction where the thief had gone, thoughtfully.

After breakfast, the brother and sister went to the street to buy dry food and new boots, and by the way, they saw if there were any satisfactory clothes.

The mountain roads I walked before, I ate all the stored grain, and the boots on Li Zijin's feet really wore out the last layer of skin, and it was rainy in spring, the soil was soft and glutinous, and the boots were too worn and easy to get into the water, so it was not easy to walk. His boots should have been changed a long time ago.

While wandering around a cloth village, the young man raced twenty taels of silver into the hands of the little junior sister, and according to the market price here in Windy City, he was able to buy clothes of quite good quality. Li Zijin told her to go shopping here by herself, while the young man went to the pharmacy opposite Buzhuang to buy a few herbs.

There are those that prevent wind and cold, there are those that cure bruises, and there are some medicinal herbs that stop bleeding. Li Zijin bought a top, purchased it properly, and only when he walked the rivers and lakes could he not panic.

After all, in such a small place as Honghu Prefecture, it is difficult to find a fairy shop, and it is not easy to buy fairy flowers and fairy grass, so I have to use these ordinary herbs first in case of emergency.

When I walked out of the pharmacy, it was crowded, and when the people were rushing to the market, there was a guy who was unsteady on his feet, bumped Li Zijin, and then blended into the crowd, and it was difficult to find it.

At first, Li Zijin only thought that it was an unintentional mistake by the man, but when he put his hand on his waist, he found that his nightless jade plate and money bag were gone.

The money bag was specially prepared by the young man when he walked the rivers and lakes, and there was no fairy money in it, it was all broken silver, and now there are probably more than ten or twenty taels left.

As for the jade plaque that never sleeps, needless to say, it has been "identified" by Cen Tianchi and Qin Xuanzhi, which shows the preciousness of the jade plaque.

The whole world is only ten. It is a rare and rare immortal item in the world.

And for Li Zijin, this is the first time he has received a jade medal from others, the young man who prides himself on being half a scholar, has heard a sentence since his career as a scholar, "The gentleman has no reason, the jade does not go to the body", for the jade ornaments, especially the first jade ornaments given to him by others in his life, the young man takes it very seriously and should be valued.

Thinking of this, Li Zijin exerted his strength under his feet, his body rose vertically, jumped over the street, stepped through the bustling people, and entered the cloth shop, only letting the little junior sister wander around for a while longer, don't walk around, be sure to wait until she comes back.

After that, he turned around and flew over the sea of people, flying through the streets of Windy City, looking for the trace of the person who stole the jade plaque.

After Hong Shao responded, the senior brother disappeared.

The boy is like a gust of wind.

Folding willows with the wind, coming and going without a trace.

————

Fang Cai just glanced at it in a hurry, but fortunately, the jade plate that never sleeps is an immortal thing, and the jade card contains a lot of aura, and Li Zijin, who is a qi refiner, is extremely sensitive to aura.

You only need to use the aura in the sea of knowledge, plus lift a mouthful of martial arts true qi, and raise the aura and true qi to your eyes, it is like having a pair of fiery eyes.

In the vast sea of people, it is not easy to find a person who is just a quick glimpse, but if it is among a group of ordinary people, it is not too difficult to find a wisp of aura.

In the midst of people's comings and goings, the jade plaque will be as dazzling as the moon on the sea, just like a bright light in the darkness, dazzling.

Li Zijin was dressed in black and red brocade, with a sword behind his back, standing on the eaves overlooking a windy city.

This is the highest place in the whole Windy City, named Wangjiang Tower, fifteen floors high, standing here, even if it is the Bailongjiang River that is still ten miles away from Suifeng City, it can still be seen, so this place is called Wangjiang Tower.

Standing at this height overlooking the city, those people come and go, although not as small as ants, but they are not much different.

When he took the Xianjia ferry for the first time, Li Zijin looked down on the earth and found that all living beings were like ants.

Just ask the immortals in the sky, fly into the clouds higher than the immortal ferry, and look down again, are all living beings like mustard seeds?

If you make a bold assumption and think that "there is still heaven outside the sky", there are immortals above the immortals, and the immortals outside the heavens, overlooking the world, are all living beings not as good as mustard seeds?

There is no form in the heart, and there is no form in the eyes.

Everything is just a dog, and life and death are naturally fateful.

Almost a little bit, the young swordsman was about to enter the mysterious state of "enlightenment", but at this moment, in the crowd below, the "bright light" finally appeared.

Li Zijin came back to his senses and squinted at him, it was really him.

One step at a time, the figure plummets.

With his head on the ground, his feet on the sky, and his hands together at his waist, the boy was like a goshawk sweeping the ground and preying, cutting through the sky.

————

Wu Zheng hid in the alley, holding a money bag and a jade plaque in his arms.

The front of the jade plaque is engraved with "the heart lamp never sleeps", and the reverse seal is engraved with "Daoshu Changchun".

Although he didn't understand the meaning of the seal text, Wu Zheng still knew that this thing was worth a lot of money, and the young man who looked like a swordsman was wearing a brocade robe, carrying a sword behind his back, and hanging a jade plaque and a wine gourd on his waist, and at first glance he was a noble son of a rich family.

The good things stolen from him, can it be worthless?

Wu Zheng opened the stolen money bag again, counted it carefully, eighteen taels of silver, no more, no less, if they save some money, it will probably be enough for them to use it for more than half a month.

If the jade plate is pawned, it must be able to be exchanged for seventy or eighty taels of silver, so that today's "transaction" can be easily several months, no loss, no loss, no loss.

The young man was smiling and his heart was full of joy.

He put the broken silver back into his money bag, walked out of the alley, returned to the bustling crowd, and walked towards his home.

After walking through a few long streets and spending about a stick of incense, Wu Zheng entered a remote backyard, which was extremely far away from the center of Windy City, already on the edge of the city, and a little further out, the city wall.

The people who live here are all poor families, and there are no cloth houses that sell silk and splendid embroidery on the streets, and the poor families are busy with these needlework by themselves, where can they buy silk and satin from the cloth village with silver, and the torn clothes on their bodies are worn bad, worn when they are broken, and they are sewn and mended, three years and three years.

On this side of the street, there are no restaurants, restaurants and tea houses, and the only business activity may be the blacksmith shop and grocery store at the end of the road, by the way, there is a porridge shop on the street behind the grocery store and the blacksmith shop.

It is a veritable porridge shop, which only sells porridge, and the people here can only afford to drink porridge. The only difference between the white porridge cooked at home and the porridge sold in the porridge shop outside may be that half a spoonful of sugar will be added outside, and if you want to add a few pennies, you may be able to add another egg.

But whether it's sweet porridge or bitter porridge, there are always people who drink it.

For example, at this moment, the young swordsman standing on the roof of the remote backyard silently looked at the group of children in the backyard.

None of the children wore clothes that fit properly, but all old clothes much larger than themselves, and the one who tried to sew them must have done terrible needlework.

It's really a sparse craftsmanship, and I can't bear to look at it directly.

The children had bowls of steaming rice porridge in their hands.

The young swordsman was silent, standing on the roof, silently watching.

There is no doubt that the porridge in those children's bowls is bitter porridge.

There were more than a dozen children in the courtyard, one of whom looked to be the oldest, probably no more than ten years old, wearing pigtails and a small apron, looking lovely and pitiful, a little girl who was not very old, but who spoke with a straight face.

The little girl with pigtails holding the pot and spoon in one hand and the pot in the other, stepping on a small bench at her feet, stood on tiptoe and was busy cooking porridge by the stove in the backyard.

A group of yellow-faced and thin-skinned children held bowls in their hands and surrounded the stove in the backyard.

Some children had already filled the bowl with hot porridge, so they obediently took a step back, went to the bench outside the house, took out a bun from a steamer placed on the bench, and then carefully broke the bun from it, divided it into two, took only half of the bun for themselves, and left the other half in the steamer, waiting for the next child to come and pick it up.

The later children did not dislike the half of the bun that the child had touched in front of them, but first took the half that had been broken and ate it, then took the whole one clean, and then broke it.

While cooking porridge, she nagged and shouted what the third, fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, tenth, maybe these names are not names, they are all those children who have no names, and now they are names.

When Wu Zheng, who held the money bag in one hand and the jade card in the other, walked into the backyard with both hands, the child stopped drinking the porridge, and there was still a grain of rice on the corner of his mouth, and he opened his throat and shouted: "The boss is back, the boss is back." ”

Then, the children around the stove left the stove in a swarm and leaned towards Wu Zheng, chirping like birds.

"The Boss is back?"

"Coming back, Boss?"

"Have you scored two goals today?"

“······”

Everyone, you say a word, I say a word, stunned that there is no gap for the young man to speak, as if he can't even see the stitches.

Wu Zheng was surrounded in the corner of the wall, with his hands behind his back, smiled mysteriously, and shouted to the pigtailed girl who was still busy on the stove: "Second child, come here!"

The little girl rolled her eyes, knowing that the fellow must have stolen something good from somewhere, and wanted to brag about it in front of her, so she opened a small bottle, poured some sugar into the pot, and sweetened the younger siblings.

The sugar was boiled into the white porridge, and the little girl with pigtails waved the pot and spoon vigorously, sweating profusely, but smiled contentedly.

She was busy playing, took out a big bowl from the stove, scooped a few spoonfuls of porridge into it, and then slowly jumped off the small bench, holding the pot and spoon in one hand and the bowl in the other, and walked to Wu Zheng's side, and everyone made way for her.

She held the bowl high and asked, "Have you eaten?"

Wu Zheng, who was smiling before, wiped the corners of his eyes quietly as if he had broken the defense in an instant.

All the children asked themselves about today's harvest, and she was the only one who cared if they were hungry.

Although those younger brothers and sisters who are a little older are really ignorant, the second child's sensibility is inevitably a little too sensible.

She is so sensible that it makes people feel distressed.

Laundry and cooking, sewing clothes, sweeping and washing dishes, housework, basically the second child is doing, this child who is still a child even himself, just because of bad luck, he can't be a child early, and he has to pretend to be an adult to take care of a group of children.

Wu Zheng stopped selling Guanzi, took out the hand behind his back, and said with a smile: "Today, the boss is a victorious one, and I have scored twice! Not only did I bring you back with buns, but I also stole a treasure from a son-in-law." A money bag, with eighteen taels of silver in it, is enough for us to eat for more than half a month, and we don't need to drink white porridge, we can add sugar and meat!"

After speaking, Wu Zheng held up the nightless jade card again, and said: "As for this, that's amazing, this is real jade, and it's also a good jade, I estimate that I will get it to Master Chen's pawn shop, why do I have to exchange it for seventy or eighty taels of white silver, right?"

"Oh my God, seventy or eighty taels, won't we have to go hungry for a long time?"

"Third child, don't say half of what you say, how long is it?"

"Uh······ This, let me do the math, one by one gets one, two two gets four······"

The young man smiled and handed the money bag and the jade plate to the little girl with pigtails, and she was in charge of the money in this house. The latter trotted back to the stove, put the pot and spoon back into the pot, then went out into the sun, brought a small bench and sat down, poured out all the broken silver from the money bag, and counted it carefully, and it was indeed eighteen taels of silver.

As for the jade plate, the little girl took a look at it, but she really couldn't see a name, so she said helplessly: "Since the boss said that it is worth seventy or eighty taels, then let's take it as such for the time being." ”

She walked back to the house and put the money bag into a box with a few taels of silver, "broken silver" in the true sense of the word, broken to pieces.

The little girl had been placed under the bed, ready to use medicine for her younger siblings when they were sick, but even during the hard days when she was most hungry, she did not take out the broken silver to buy rice.

Right now, with an extra eighteen taels of silver, you can live a good life for a while.

The little girl thought about it, only put the money bag in it, then walked out of the house, handed the jade plate to Wu Zheng, and said, "After eating, please trouble the boss to go to the Chen Ji pawn shop again." In troubled times, real money is much more reliable than this bells and whistles jade ornaments. ”

She hasn't read a book, just in her spare time at night, in the scattered moonlight, she turned over half of the broken book picked up from the street, what is it called, the text on the book is obscure, she can only vaguely understand a small part of the content, intermittently, but it also makes the little girl read it with relish, relying on half of the broken book that she can't read, she was stunned to chew out a lot of "big truths".

Better than nothing.

Wu Zheng slashed a mouthful of hot porridge into his mouth, put down the bowl, took the jade plate and left, before walking out of the courtyard gate, he turned his head and said to the little girl with pigtails: "Second child, I will let you live a good life one day, eat fragrant and drink spicy, big fish and meat, and eat until you are tired of it." ”

The little girl with pigtails stood in place, smiling at him, without speaking, her eyes already representing everything.

She believed in him.