At dawn.

In the bamboo pavilion in the backyard of the Feixue Inn, a green shirt sits on a stone bench, holding a red and white koi hosta in his hand.

Without the restraint of the hairpin, the girl in white had messy hair, her head was lying on his lap, and she slept sweetly.

The paper figure and the incense figure each lie on the edge of the pond, sleeping in a very different way, and even the frequency of snoring is very similar.

After eating the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner last night, everyone chatted in the courtyard for a long time, until the time of the child, Mrs. Song and Yang Ergou were embarrassed to leave, saying that although the burrow was small, it was also a place for her mother and son, and they should go back to keep vigil.

Master Chai didn't force him to stay, and gave the mother and son a ride.

The old gentleman of Jinhuai Bookstore returned to the bookstore to rest soon after dinner, the old man was weak and could not stand the wind and stay up late.

The fat cook drank a lot, got drunk in the lobby, and fell asleep all night.

Li Zijin breathed slowly and glanced down at the girl.

He also said that he would keep vigil with his senior brother, but as soon as he sat down in the bamboo pavilion, he fell on his lap and fell asleep.

However, when I learned that I was a little junior sister, it was good to pour the amount of wine in that glass.

In the future, she can't help it, and if she wants to drink, she can only think about it.

Looking at the koi in the pond in the backyard, the boy was also thinking, the little junior sister used to be like them?

What did you go through to cultivate your human body by chance?

If the worldly spirits want to cultivate as adults, the conditions are harsh, or the realm is high enough to imitate human beings to open up caves and holes in their bodies.

Either there must be a great creation coming to the body, the so-called "child of destiny", with the blessing of luck.

The former is both difficult and painful. Because the body of the yokai spirit is very different from that of humans. The muscles, bones, flesh and blood in the body, and the holes and points in the cave are all very different.

A flesh and blood body, forcibly changed, naturally has to suffer a lot of suffering, the body and the soul are void to go through layers of tribulations, many hardships and dangers, before they have the opportunity to cultivate into a human form with the body of a monster spirit. And such opportunities do not exist all the time, and once they fail, they can only start all over again.

Therefore, the monster spirits who have cultivated in human form over time cherish their hard-won human body very much.

Therefore, back then, Su Hu would be in the dilapidated temple, and he was subject to the female sword immortal Tang Yin everywhere.

She is far from her strength, and under such a gap, no conspiracy is enough to hide from the world.

Just like the martial immortals who have stepped into the top of the martial arts, they can drop ten times with one force, and there are many martial arts in the world, and there is no shortage of exercises for four or two thousand catties, but the martial arts climb to the top, and the weight of the punch is like the weight of the mountains falling to the ground, not to mention the weight of a thousand catties?

Wufu can reduce ten meetings with one force, and the sword immortal is even more unreasonable, it is that sword that breaks ten thousand laws.

Su Hu faced Han Qian, Lao Gui, and Wan Liang, and she could still disobey the yang and the yin, and win by means and wisdom, but in the face of Tang Yin, she tried, but she had no chance.

If you can't fight, you can't escape, and you don't want to die, so you can only beg for mercy.

Therefore, Li Zijin at that time, with the strength of the female sword fairy Tang Yin, took advantage of the "fox fake tiger might" and accepted a cheap maid.

Accompanied by Su Huyi, Li Zijin learned a lot of secrets about the spirit of monsters from the mouth of the fox demon, such as how difficult it is to cultivate into a human body.

Li Zijin can see that Hongshao has not yet opened up the sea of knowledge, so it must be impossible to follow the "orthodox path" of cultivating a monster and a demon like Su Hu. But the second kind of walking, destiny returns, luck is added, and by chance, the original charm of an ordinary koi in the pond has been transformed into a human body.

And such a transformation, there is no pain at all, it is a good thing that falls from the sky.

But is it really "good" if it's so good?

Li Zijin remembered the old man Sui, who inexplicably appeared in the back mountain of Taiping County, and inexplicably said a lot of words to himself that he didn't understand at all.

What a book from heaven, what a sword master's.

also said that as long as he nodded, he would immediately become the owner of a fairy sword.

At that time, Li Zijin felt that even in those Jianghu interpretations, the content in them would not be more outrageous and unrealistic than what the bad old man said. This guy must be a liar, and he can't see himself coming out of the county guard's mansion, so he mistakes himself for the young master of the county guard, and his family is rich and profitable.

On the back mountain, Li Zijin, who was still a child at that time, looked at the bad old man who was holding a wine gourd at any time and could never finish the wine inside, claiming that no one could beat the right in swordsmanship, and was full of nonsense, blowing all the cowhide into the sky.

Naturally, he didn't believe it.

Until ······ The bad old man really called a sword from the sky, and half a volume of the so-called "Book from Heaven".

After that, the young Li Zijin, who was more curious than the sky, often saw the old Sui senior.

There is no need for him to look for it, the old man can always appear at the right time, and every time he happens to appear in front of Li Zijin when Li Huairen and Lu Zhixing are not there, and the county guard master Li Jianyi and his wife are not aware of it.

Then the old man would open up a small world with his sword qi and talk with the young Li Zijin.

Naturally, most of the time, it is the old man who speaks, and the children who listen.

It doesn't matter if you don't understand, it's all a sword fairy who has no friends, so he has to complain to a boy who doesn't know the world and doesn't know him.

At least that's what Li Zijin thought at the time.

But later, he realized that things were far from so simple.

On Li Zijin's fourteenth birthday that year, the old man told him a story.

It is said that there is a small vassal country, and in the face of a powerful enemy country, it can only continue to cede land or send the prince as a proton to survive.

Send a city in sixteen years, and send a prince in another sixteen years.

At that time, the young man smiled and said: "Then this small vassal country is too pitiful, it will be sent to the city for a while, and the prince for a while." If you want me to say, it is better to fight head-on with that powerful country, and there will be no regrets if you lose, it is better than boiling a frog in warm water. It was only a matter of time before the country died. ”

The old sword immortal of Sui neither agreed, nor did he say that the young man was wrong, but just said something that seemed inconsequential and "pulled the topic away".

In the small world of sword qi, he made a move casually, and summoned a pitch-black long sword that was faster than the eyes of the young man, and there were countless cracks in the sword body, and the old man said: "This sword, named Chengying, the rank of the fairy sword, became famous very early, and people who arrived tens of millions of years later have almost forgotten its name." Therefore, today's Chengying can be regarded as a 'nameless sword', but the nameless sword does not mean that it is not powerful. ”

The young man looked curiously at the bleak Chengying Sword, and it was really difficult to agree, feeling that those rumored divine weapons in the rivers and lakes should be shining and colorful. This sword doesn't shine, and it looks tattered, the sword body is full of cracks, obviously not very good, so he asked: "Bad old man, your sword doesn't look very good, how powerful can it be, can it sharpen iron like clay?"

The bad old man sneered, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, "Sharpen iron like clay? If the realm of the person holding the sword is high enough, and he does not insult the prestige of the fairy sword, he can ······ in the sky."

In the end, Sui Lao Sword Immortal just smiled and didn't say any more.

Li Zijin asked at the time: "Then even if this Chengying Sword is as powerful as you say." How did you end up like this? And what does this have to do with the story you are telling?"

Sui Lao Jianxian began to answer the previous question again at this time, "If that small vassal country does what you say and directly fights with the powerful country, the final outcome will be the displacement of millions of people, the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and in the end, it will definitely be a fate of thousands of miles of blood and millions of corpses." Of course, that strong country will also pay a lot of price, and it will probably lose 30% of its troops. After relying on the annexation of small vassal states, it slowly recovered. ”

The young man said as a matter of course: "Sancheng? It's already a lot, so as long as there are three such small countries joining forces, won't it be possible to eradicate that ambitious powerhouse?" ”

"If you were the monarch of one of these three small countries, would you be willing to take the risk? If you exchange what you have for 30% of others, you will not be able to win, and maybe you will still lose if you give everything you have, and all your efforts will be in vain in the end. The bad old man was expressionless, although he was refuting the young man's thoughts, but even he himself didn't know what to do in the face of such a situation.

At that time, Li Zijin, although he was smart, was far from being able to look at such a major event from a truly neutral and peaceful perspective, and after listening to Sui Lao Jianxian's words, he fell into a long silence, as if he was thinking, and he seemed to be in a daze.

The old sword fairy flicked his hand, and the dark Chengying sword with the sword body left in a hurry, and returned to the sword pavilion to repair the sword body, and the old sword fairy's sword qi small world was like building a bridge between Taiping County and the sword pavilion, which was enough to make the distance between the two not a "distance".

He raised his head and took a sip of wine, and said, "Old man, I am a cultivator, and I don't like to pay attention to these mundane things. What you said may not be wrong, and I don't know how to be right, but the practice of that small vassal country has been to pay tribute in exchange for sixteen years of stable development, and today, compared to other countries that once chose to fight with the powerful country, this small country has grown into the existence of that state second only to the powerful country. And even in some ways, it's even better. ”

"Li Zijin, don't underestimate sixteen years of stability. The kings of secular dynasties have neither the time nor the energy to cultivate the Tao, let alone be allowed by the rules, and an ordinary man, even if he is a king of heaven on earth, can have 16 years? In secular dynasties, most people who are in high positions still believe in 'not seeking merit, but seeking no fault', so as not to bear the infamy of the ages. It is very tempting to live for a hundred years, but once you make a wrong decision, you will become a faint king who has been stinking for thousands of years. Even if you can really seal the 'mouths' of the government and the opposition and those barnyard officials and the history of the barnyard and the public in this lifetime, what will happen a hundred years later? Is it possible to hear someone scolding you, and you can jump up from the loess and ask someone to cut off his head. In this world, even if you never do a wrong thing, there will be people who will go out of their way to help you find something wrong, not to mention those poor guys who have become hated for thousands of years when they make a mistake, and who happen to be stared at by countless pairs of eyes when they do something wrong. ”

The young man was still silent, and for some reason, he felt pity for the small vassal country that he didn't even know the name of.

And this time is the beginning of his empathy.

The old-timer whose swordsmanship was unsurpassed finally took a sip of wine and said, "What are you doing so seriously, the vitality of a young man is gone." As for the joys and sorrows in the story, why should people like you and me be obsessed with it? ”

"Hmm. The boy no longer thinks nonsense, but thinks that today's bad old man is a little strange.

Although he usually talks a lot, the bad old man never likes to tell himself these truths, and the old man said that he is an unreasonable person.

Because, when you meet a reasonable person, you don't need to be reasonable at all.

It is useless to be reasonable when encountering unreasonable people.

As long as the swordsmanship is high enough, it doesn't matter if it's reasonable or not. You can do whatever you want and do whatever you want.

This point is exactly the opposite of Xie Yufeng's kendo that the boy encountered later.

Sui Lao Jian Xian's swordsmanship is superb, although Li Zijin has not seen him fight with others, and he only saw the old sword fairy sword out once in his memory. It was he who used his finger as a sword and soared into the sky. But that scene alone is enough to leave an indelible impression in the young man's mind.

Mortals have a saying that "the heavens are above".

But in the eyes of Sui Lao Sword Immortal, people can still go to the sky, which is really romantic.

And such an old sword immortal, who doesn't even care about "heaven", how can he be confined to rules and truths.

Therefore, Sui Lao Sword Immortal did whatever he wanted, did it recklessly, and killed people only to see whether he wanted to kill or not, not whether he could kill or not. Doing things only depends on what you want to do and whether you want to do it, not whether you can do it or not.

He didn't teach Li Zijin much swordsmanship, only taught a sentence of unorganized swordfighting.

Xie Yufeng warned the young man, "Sword cultivators in the world think that the sheath is on the sword. But in fact, man is like a sword sheath. The one who holds the sword is the scabbard. Some people say that the sword is a murder weapon, which can cut off people's heads, hands and feet, and is ominous and evil. But I don't think so, I think that a sword is a sword, and it is pure. The difference is only in the 'scabbard', and the person holding the sword is the 'scabbard'. The person who holds the sword kills innocents indiscriminately, so the unsheathed sword is equivalent to a murder weapon and an evil thing. The person who holds the sword has good thoughts, knows how to exercise restraint, and knows when to draw the sword and when not to use the sword. Then there is a sheath on the sword, and regardless of good or evil, only the result. Think about whether the other party will die after the sword is released? If he dies, will the world be better? If the sword is not released, is there a better way to solve the problem? Regardless of whether the sword is released in the end, the person holding the sword should think about such a question, and make sure that before the sword is released, he should first ask his heart and have a clear conscience before he draws the sword. ”

In fact, Xie Yufeng said a lot at that time, which can also be summed up in one sentence.

Ask your heart before you take out the sword.

Therefore, one of the reasons why Li Zijin's kendo has gone so slowly so far is that in the final analysis, it is "contradiction".

The boy often asked himself how to practice his sword.

Is it to implement the sword and disorderly law, do whatever you want without restraint?

Or do you remember to ask your heart first when you come out of the sword, so that you can have a clear conscience, and you can be one step ahead of others when you come out of the sword?

It's like two forks in the road, one to the left and one to the right.

Was Sui's predecessor wrong? Was his kendo too arbitrary, and he regarded human life too much?

Li Zijin doesn't think so, of course, he can't understand the realm of not looking at whether to kill or not, and only looking at wanting to kill or not wanting to kill.

Because only after truly entering the realm of "swordsmanship in the world, no one can beat it" like the old man, can the young man understand what kind of mood the old man has, looking at the relationship between the sword and the swordsman, and the relationship between the sword and the soul under the sword.

At that time, he would be qualified to judge Sui Lao Sword Immortal's concept, whether it was wrong or right.

So, is Xie Yufeng wrong? Is his kendo too indecisive and lacks the core qualities of a sword? Shouldn't a swordsman act rashly? Is it too tiring to restrain himself with morality all the time, pay attention to the sword before asking the heart?

Li Zijin also thinks so.

He recognized Xie Yufeng's "empathy in the world", to have good thoughts about all things, to fear the gods, and to restrain his kendo concept.

But sometimes I feel that many times, I can't get a result by asking my heart, but I miss the best opportunity to play the sword, resulting in the damned people not dying, and more innocent people dying for no reason.

When a swordsman comes out of a sword, does he really need such a cumbersome conscience?

Is it wrong to kill by mistake rather than let go?

Under such a contradiction, what kind of kendo to choose in the future has become an inevitable problem for Li Zijin.

Why did the aura in the body fight with the martial arts true qi before, it was precisely because the young man at that time did not keep his mind and "think wildly", thinking about whether to choose a sharp kendo or a kendo hidden in the sheath.

And the aura and martial arts true qi in the young man's body at that time became the embodiment of two completely different kendos.

Spears and shields will eventually collide and sparks.

It will also hurt both sides.

The young man in the green shirt who did not carry a sword in the bamboo pavilion felt for the first time that under the original thought, there was no difference between himself and the little junior sister from the spirit of the spirit.

It turns out that they all know very little about human affairs.

After taking a deep breath, Li Zijin came back to his senses and happened to look down to see those bright and clear eyes.

He was surprised, "When did you wake up?"

The girl who was lying on the young man's lap with her head on her back blinked and smiled: "I've been awake for a long time, and I've been watching my senior brother in a daze." ”

"I have something to look at. Li Zijin pouted.

Hong Shao raised his eyebrows, "It's because it's good-looking, that's why I look at it!"

The young man in the green shirt instantly became nervous, and suddenly got up, as if he remembered a great event, and hurriedly instructed: "Hong Shao, something is wrong with you." Don't say such things in the future, lest others misunderstand!"

The girl thought so, nodded and said, "Senior brother, don't worry, if you see your sweetheart, Hong Shao will definitely not let that sister misunderstand!"

This ······ Li Zijin frowned slightly, always feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't say it.

Looking at the innocent appearance of the little junior sister, I don't think that her words will have two meanings, is she thinking too much?

When a ray of golden light fell on the backyard of the Flying Snow Inn, it shone so brightly that the boy and girl couldn't open their eyes.

The snow in the backyard is melting very quickly today.

It's time for them to leave.

Li Zijin turned his head to look at the still sleeping nothing, and after hesitating for a moment, he suddenly said, "Hong Shao, go back to the room and pack up your things." ”

The girl in white, who was a little sluggish, froze in place, and wondered, "What are you doing when you pack your things?"

"Farewell. ”