Before the leaves fell, Chu Chou and Zhao Zhishui, the two masters and apprentices, arrived in Xijing, which is famous all over the world.

The first prosperous capital of the Xiji Empire is the core of this imperial dynasty, and the official roads extending in all directions wind and circle between the mountains and rivers, connecting this central city like a silver snake. In the land of the West Pole, no matter how remote the city is, as long as it is a big city, even if it is more than 100,000 miles away, there is still an official road to Xijing!

The population of Xijing is in the millions all year round, which is enough to make people smack, you know, in the West Pole, because commercial agriculture is not developed, there is a shortage of water all the year round, so the population is sparse, and there can be a city with a population of one million, and the entire West Pole land, there are only a handful of single digits! And in the past two years, Xijing has reached the peak period in the history of this city, and the population has reached 9 million!

This makes Xijing the second largest city in the world! The first place is naturally Chang'an City, the imperial capital of the Eastern Pole Empire, whose population has exceeded 10 million in the past two years!

Although the second place is the second place, it should not be underestimated at all, after all, it is the second in Kyushu in the world, and its weight can be imagined.

At the gate of the city, early in the morning, there was a queue of people entering the city, merchants, rich people, peddlers, pawns, monks, scholars, Taoist priests, witches, people visiting relatives, wandering people, stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, etc., all kinds of men, women and children crowded into this densely populated city. In the past two years, Xijing has continued to expand in order to accommodate so many people, and now it has expanded three or four times compared with previous years, but it is still almost impossible to meet the people squeezed into the entire West Pole. Those who used to live in a fixed place every day are now complaining every day, often quarreling over some open-air "feng shui treasures" to sleep in at night, and sometimes they will break their heads and blood.

This city, because of the rapid development in the past two years, actually seems a little crowded, which is unimaginable to people in this era.

However, even if there are many outsiders, no matter how crowded this city is, in the middle of Xijing, there is a large hall group built of precious glazed bricks and tiles with supreme majesty - the imperial palace - is still not affected in the slightest, and the four "imperial roads" outside the four gates of the east, south, west and north of the imperial palace are usually busy, but they are not crowded, because these four long imperial roads have the elite armor of the empire to maintain order at all times, otherwise the carriages of the princes and ministers of the court and the princes of Huang Zi will not be able to pull to the palace every day.

Chu Chou first took Zhao Zhishui to handle the official road guide in the Duting Xiyi outside the Xijing City, which belongs to the Honglu Temple, which is the official unit set up by the Honglu Temple outside the city to be responsible for the affairs of outsiders from all over the world who come to the Xijing City, and belongs to the Ministry of Rites. Of course, it's not something that anyone can do if they want to. Among them, Chu Chou inevitably spent some silver, but Chu Chou did not lack these at all - he didn't know how thick the silver ticket and how much silver and gold he had in his sleeve. These were all given to him by some big forces that gathered together in the form of officials, businessmen, and martial arts after Chu Chou walked the rivers and lakes to become famous, and he rarely refused, and he did not do anything bad about the silver in his hand, and he did not take it for nothing! And he used this silver and gold to do a lot of chivalrous things that "threw a lot of money" at all, and helped him with some "mundane things" that he encountered.

After a familiar handling procedure, Chu Chou got two official road guides, and then took Zhao Zhishui into Xijing City.

Zhao Zhishui was once again overwhelmed by the majestic momentum in the city, and looked around in surprise and curiosity from time to time, but then she saw Master's indifferent expression, and she suppressed some excitement - she didn't want to embarrass Master.

Chu Chou didn't notice the apprentice's careful thoughts, just squinted slightly at this world-famous super city, and some familiar and somewhat unfamiliar feelings constantly filled his heart. He lived here for a period of time when he first walked the rivers and lakes, and then when he was looking for Zhao Qiuyun, he came here again, so the impression of this world-famous Xijing in his mind only stayed in a few decades ago, and now he looks at the attic with carved beams and paintings twice as many as back then and the people coming and going, which is a little strange.

He didn't have any old friends in this city, and the first time he came here in the past was purely to admire the prestige of this majestic city. So now I don't feel much about the changes in this city. What does the vicissitudes of life have to do with him?

This time, I went here again, purely to take Zhao Zhishui for a walk, so that she could see the second city in the world.

However, at this time, Chu Chou suddenly stood up and looked at the end of the crowd coming and going.

There stood a tall, thin old monk with bright eyes, and the old monk came with a kind smile on his eyebrows.

Zhao Zhishui saw that the master stopped, she also stopped, and looked at the oncoming old monk with the master, she was a little curious, tilted her head slightly, and thought about which old man of the master was this.

"Donor, we meet again. The old monk clasped his hands together and said straight to the point.

When the old monk came, there was a deep Dharma that permeated Chu Chou, Zhao Zhishui and the three of them, isolating the noisy voices outside, and their voices could not be heard outside. The people on the side only felt that the three of them were standing there and didn't know what to do.

Chu Chou didn't think who it was at first, but then he didn't react until the old monk came over, "Abbot, this is the second time the two of us have met, I didn't expect you to recognize me at a glance as you did back then." ”

Back then, when he came to Xijing for the second time to look for Zhao Qiuyun, the old monk who claimed to be the contemporary abbot of the West Pole Buddhism had appeared and asked him what was wrong. Although it can be quelled by the imperial masters who secretly defend the city every time, the dead cannot be resurrected, so later the Son of Heaven of the West Pole Empire personally ordered to closely monitor all the masters of the rivers and lakes who entered the city, especially those masters of the upper three grades, no matter what the background, as long as they arrived in Xijing, they would be firmly monitored.

Compared with the last time Chu Chou appeared, this time the old monk was obviously much more serious, although he smiled kindly, but his heart was tense. Because he found that this young junior, whose appearance had always remained the same, had now improved a lot again, and he had reached the extreme! He was shocked to feel that this young man had almost reached the extreme of his cultivation!

"The donor is so unparalleled, how dare the poor monk forget the slightest?" The old monk has an extraordinary bearing, and now he is still smiling kindly, even if he thinks that even in this Xijing, he uses the national fortune of the West Pole Empire, plus the luck of the Buddha and Taoism in Putuo Mountain, he still can't beat this junior, but he still maintains a flat heart. This is a powerful psychological quality that has been given to him by his Buddhist scriptures for thousands of years.

"I see that the Dharma you are practicing is almost exactly the same as that Buddha, are you his disciple?" Chu Chou asked with some curiosity.

The old monk laughed: "Donor, all the monks of our Buddhist family are disciples of the Buddha. The old monk looked at Chu Chou calmly, and he had no choice but to continue, "Donor has good eyesight, I am indeed a personal disciple of the Buddha and the first generation of Buddha in Putuo Mountain. Of course, Putuo Mountain has existed for nearly 10,000 years, and there have been many recognized Buddhas, golden-bodied Arhats, and Buddhist holy monks, but the title of Buddha was personally sealed by the Buddha thousands of years ago, although I was the first disciple of the Buddha to personally 'recognize', but I saw the Buddha only a few times, the first time was when he accepted me as a Buddha, and the second time was when he taught Buddhism Buddhism, and it was from me that Buddhism really began to flourish. ”

"The Buddhism of Buddhism is really profound, and the internal power of the abbot's nine-grade realm is so deep and abundant, it is almost soaring into the sky. It's really amazing!"

The old monk was noncommittal to Chu Chou's words, but just smiled faintly, "If there is no one to stop the legend master of the level of the donor, then Xijing will be in ruins in a moment, since the poor monk is the national teacher of the Xiji Empire and the defender of Xijing, he must be responsible, not only for himself, but also for those innocent people." ”

"This female benefactor is talented, and he will become a generation of sword immortals one day. The old monk didn't wait for Chu Chou to speak, so he nodded and smiled at Zhao Zhishui beside Chu Chou, and sighed a little, "However, my apprentice thing, as well as my junior brother's apprentice Xiting, are not weaker than her, this generation of rivers and lakes is brilliant!"

After that, the old monk spread his sleeves, his white eyebrows fluttered lightly, and the strong aura of Buddhism was invisibly shrouded in the range of several zhang between Chu Chou and him.

Chu Chou smiled lightly, "I just passed by here and took my apprentice here for a walk, so that she could take a look at Xijing." ”

The old monk nodded when he heard this, clasped his hands together, and said to Chu Chou, "Amitabha, good, good" and turned to leave.

Chu Chou looked at the back of the old monk leaving, and smiled at Zhao Zhishui, who looked inexplicable on the side, "This is also an old-timer, so I have to save some face for him." ”

When Zhao Zhishui saw Master's smile, she smiled, which made many young men passing by around her fall for it.

When the old monk left this area and came to a place where no one was around, some sweat oozed from his forehead, and then he coughed a few times, wiped the trace of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, and smiled, "This young junior, his strength is really strong, I borrowed the national fortune of the West Pole Empire, and my strength briefly mentioned the peak of the Nine Grades, but I still can't compete with it." Presumably, this young sword immortal had already reached the level of Buddha, Dao Ancestor, and Holy Ancestor. ”

He took a deep breath and exhaled the aura of heaven and earth a few times, and after running the Dharma for a while, he returned to the same as before—Chu Chou's hands were not heavy.

He thought of the young man's palpitating strength again, and couldn't help but sigh: Fortunately, his dear apprentice and his nephew were not born in the same era as this young sword immortal! Otherwise, it would be the two of them, no! It should be the sorrow of all the geniuses of that era who aspired to be the pinnacle of the rivers and lakes and the first person in the rivers and lakes!

In the end, he looked in the direction of Zhongzhou, with a look of great compassion on his face, and he thought that it was time for him to resign from the status of the national teacher of the West Pole Empire and the identity of the gatekeeper of Xijing.

He clasped his palms together, with a sad and compassionate look on his face, and whispered in the direction of Zhongzhou, at the place where blood was about to flow into a sea and dry bones into a mountain: "Amitabha."