On the official road of Lutong, a dusty young man in the green mountains, his bag was covered with ashes, and he was carrying a roll of straw mats on his back.

This is a very common outfit for many passers-by who travel alone. Not all travelers have the money to stay at the inn every day. Under the fence, there are many people who exhibit the eaves of the corridor.

It's not that Ren Pingsheng has no money to stay, but since he can't use a sword at the moment, he can only use a roll of straw mats to disguise the shockingly big but clumsy iron sword.

The construction site of the eastern city wall of Tongchuan Castle, which has been expanded for ten miles, stretches out on both sides of the avenue, and there is no end in sight. I saw countless folk craftsmen working back and forth on the half-built high wall, like thousands of ants.

Around the new city gate with a high shelf, soldiers have been stationed, and overseers and people have come and gone.

In the past two days of his life, Ren Pingsheng has been boarding at an old farmer's house outside the new city wall; but every morning, he will come to the construction site of the new city wall empty-handed, and pay attention to the various merchants and pedestrians who come in and out, and the crowds of people in the city and outside the city in the morning and at dusk.

The soldiers stationed there would only inquire about the caravans that were escorting the carts and horses, or the vendors who pushed the carts into the city, and the rich merchants and nobles who had a large number of servants and horses would also ask for a customs clearance document. As for other nearby villagers who have simple bags or enter and exit empty-handed, when the crowd is dense, they will basically not be checked.

So today he packed his bags and decided to go into the city.

As expected, there were many people in and out in the morning, and Ren Pingsheng just picked a local man with a simple face, and he followed him step by step, and the soldiers didn't even bother to look at him.

This is not the official Tongchuan City, through the construction site of the new city wall, there are still vast fields everywhere, but the village here is already very large, often hundreds of thousands of people. The villages along the avenue have many wide streets, many shops, all kinds of handicraft workshops, weaving and dyeing factories, and all industries are thriving.

The morning bell in Tongchuan City is heard for ten miles. Ren Pingsheng has never seen a bustling city, and when he lived in a villager's house, when he first heard the morning bell, he thought that there would be a grand sacrificial gathering here. In previous years, in Si'an Village, whenever this time is the happiest day for the teenagers in the village. It's just that in Ren Pingsheng's memory, he has no teenager.

Later, the villagers told him that the sound was the morning bell in the old city of Tongchuan to announce that the city gate of the people had been opened, and they could go out of the city to work and enter the city to open the market. The bell tower of Tongchuan Castle is four or five stories high, and it is separated by dozens of zhang from the drum tower of the same scale. The bronze bell on the top of the building is very large, the top is finely carved, it is the majestic and magnificent palace of the Taitian Garden, there are auspicious clouds, the immortals are flying, and the dragon is circling.

It is said that Ren Pingsheng is fascinated, and he looks forward to going to the old town of Tongchuan all day long, and he must visit the Bell and Drum Tower. In the past two days, he was convinced that his sword path had entered the bottleneck of imperial qi. It's just that he still can't understand why he has entered the first place before, and he has not experienced an obvious bottleneck.

It has been three years since the heart was consummated, but it has to go through an extremely embarrassing stage, and the sword at this time is not much different from the first time when he defeated Dabai. After descending the mountain, he first followed Yu Zige to rob Tongshan Zonggong Yin, and then singled out the Eight Mountain Ghosts of Wumo Cottage, and later followed Huang Baiding's caravan and encountered Jindan Taoist cultivators and military monks. Ren Pingsheng knew very well that even when he was at his peak, he would single-handedly challenge a Three Realms sword cultivator, and he would lose more than win. Not to mention that after going down the mountain for a few days, he had already met two Jindan monks.

At the moment, he just wants to hide in the city and find a way to break through the bottleneck quietly. One is that in a crowded city, it is not so easy to attract attention, and the other is that you can also take this opportunity to learn more about the people and customs of the Xuanhuang world, and behave in a proper manner. Otherwise, if he is too maverick, he may not be able to travel thousands of miles quietly and reach the savage mountain at the junction of the two plains.

After the post road after the new city wall, there are many pedestrians, and it is inconvenient for Ren Pingsheng to carry out his cultivation, so he can only walk slowly. When he arrived at a large town a mile or two away from the old city, he didn't want to leave. The east gate of the old city is called Longmen, and the nearest town to Longmen is called Longmen Town.

In the wilderness of Pingchuan, looking at the Tongchuan City Gate from Longmen Town, Rao is Ren Pingsheng has seen the construction site of the new city, and still feels that the towering arrow tower that cuts the sky through the layers of eaves is very shocking. Flags are displayed on the head of the city, Changge Yingzhuo, soldiers are killed, and the iron clothes are neat.

I haven't seen the mysterious Taoist sect on the mountain, and the city under the jurisdiction of the Taoist gate is already like this!

Under the warm winter sun, Ren Pingsheng suddenly felt a chill rise on his back! Carrying the 10,000-year curse of the Sorrowful Sky Sword, can he really go on this road he wants to take?

After thinking about it for a while, he decided to find a place to settle down first, anyway, he had to stay for a long time, and there were many opportunities to enter the city. Fortunately, with his outfit, it is not difficult to seek the identity of an ordinary teenager in Longmen Town, where all industries are thriving.

Ren Pingsheng wandered around the deep alleys of the town, asked one or two passers-by, and went straight to Jinji Alley, where the blacksmith shops were concentrated.

"With your body and bones, can you strike iron?" The smallest blacksmith in Jinji Lane, the old blacksmith who was not strong himself, looked Ren Pingsheng up and down suspiciously. There's no way, those big shops that are in the market don't recruit apprentices. Only this small workshop, with a cold stove, has a sign for apprentices.

"I used to fight with my master for three years. Ren Pingsheng said.

The old blacksmith looked blank, and he could see that he was not surprised by this. Recruiting apprentices, that's because I'm getting older, my physical strength is exhausted, and I just ask for more labor. The shops are only some hoes, sickles, plowshares, iron rakes and other rough utensils, the price is not high, and the business is not good.

The sign has been placed for half a month, and this first one came to apply for a job, and the appearance of the body was extremely poor, and I couldn't help but feel that the old blacksmith was not secretly sad - if you really look good, will you look at yourself like this kind of broken face?

The old blacksmith asked some more questions such as his name and hometown, and when he heard that this young man who called himself Yuan Ping was from Peixiu Village in Yinduo Township, he couldn't help but sigh again, "Peixiu's side, that mudslide, is spreading, what kind of scene is it?"

"Of the more than 500 households in a village, there are only 20 or 30 families left. Ren Pingsheng said. All kinds of scenes about Peixiu Village are seen by himself, or Yu Zi told him, which is very credible. It was not easy for the old blacksmith to recruit apprentices, but when he thought of the poor background of the young man, he hired him.

There is no signboard in this iron sword shop, and the old blacksmith's surname is Liu, whose name is Ah Jin, and Ren Pingsheng called him Master Liu. Master Liu originally wanted him to try his hand at playing a sickle, after all, he claimed to have been an apprentice for three years, and it should not be a big problem to play a scythe that could be used.

Ren Pingsheng looked left and right, and saw a few kitchen knives and firewood knives on the stall at the door, covered with thick dust, obviously no one cared about it for a long time, "Master Liu, why don't I return those knives to the furnace for processing, how about it? In the previous master's place, I can fight knives alone." ”

Liu Ajin glanced at the few things that were already regarded as scrap metal, and was skeptical, but since the young man spoke, let him go. scrapped, just give yourself an excuse to be a scrap iron lump and recycle.

In Yuan Dazhui's shop, the sword cast by Ren Pingsheng is not low. Before coming to Liu Ajin's shop, he had looked all the way along Jinji Lane. These shops, even the largest and most prestigious Jin Feng, the swords displayed in the store, are extremely ordinary.

Therefore, those kitchen knives and firewood knives, Ren Pingsheng just spent half a day of effort, re-forging a steel clamp for the cutting edge; after burning the blade, he did two grinding, and the cutting edges of those knives were green and shining, and there was the benefit of blowing hair and breaking hair.

Master Liu has been watching, since Ren Pingsheng started the furnace, controlled the fire, and swung the first hammer on the anvil, he has been staring and stunned. Who is the master and who is the apprentice?

Ren Pingsheng put the knives back on the shelf and took off his apron, and the old blacksmith licked his dry lips and let out a long breath, "Little brother, I actually don't have anything to teach you." It's my shop, I've been doing it for decades, and in the end I'm still in the cold. The two of us, a lonely old man and a wandering orphan, can get together, that is also fate. Actually, with your skills, why bother to go all the way to your relatives? Let's take care of this shop together, add five to two, one and five, I was not there that day, and the shop is yours. ”

Ren Pingsheng wiped his sweat, smiled innocently, and was noncommittal. But this temporary refuge is perfect for me. Since then, he still calls Liu Ajin "Master Liu". Old man Liu, who has been holding his head up in Jinji Lane, has completely changed as if he is a person, going in and out with his head held high, and he can see his eyebrows happy.

In addition to how to keep Ren Pingsheng, what the old man was thinking about during this time was no longer how to sell things, but how to price them.

The knives that Ren Pingsheng had changed were all sold in less than three days. In the past few days, Liu Ajin has let Ren Pingsheng return to the furnace for refinery all the rough bumps such as plowshare nails and rakes that have been finished products, and make all kinds of knives. He, Master Liu, started to fight, and he also worked very hard.

Since settling down in Liu Ajin's iron shop, Ren Pingsheng still insists on sharpening his sword every night. Liu Ajin also persuaded him, "Yuan Ping, the iron bump in the shop, you can use it however you want; It's not that I'm talking about you, but you don't have as much of this thing as I did when I was an apprentice when I was younger. ”

Ren Pingsheng just responded lightly, "What the ancestor left behind is just a thought. ”

As soon as Liu Ajin thought of the young man's "tragic life experience", he stopped speaking, just shook his head and sighed. After experiencing great grief, it will become clear that such a half-grown teenager always has to leave a thought by his side to support himself to live alone.

It's just that in the early hours of every morning, Ren Pingsheng is alone looking for a no-man's place in the wilderness to practice swords, which is never discovered, including Liu Ajin.

Over the past month, every time the sword comes out, it feels worse and worse, not to mention that there is no sword intent at all, and even the original strength of sending and receiving is also bumpy and bumpy, and it can't penetrate the sword. In the past few years, before getting used to the sword, you must first observe the qi pulse and follow the qi machine. If the embarrassment in the kendo at this time is related to the disturbance of his hope, he has also tried countless times without distraction, and even when he is unconscious, there is still no improvement.

Fortunately, the stone-throwing attack, as well as the flying body, have not been affected in any way, and there are some ways to escape from the danger. It's just that in this way, he can only stay in Liu Ajin's blacksmith shop with peace of mind, and if he doesn't break through the bottleneck of kendo for a day, if he rushes on the road, the risk is too great.