Chapter I

[Liu Cong] was born in a family of blacksmiths, and Liu's father and ancestors have been engaged in the iron business for many years in the county on the edge of the capital. On this day, there was an old man with half-black and half-white hair, the old man was wearing a white robe with a black pattern similar to the sun tattooed on the back, the pattern was as if the black sun was sucked away by something, just like the old man's face was also sucked away by the years, round and smooth, leaving thousands of ravines, and the middle of the circular pattern was hollow, and the world called them "Kongyang Gate".

"The guest officer came down from the mountain?" asked Liu Cong.

"This sword has been with me for many years, and today I happened to see a blacksmith shop passing by here, helping me to repair and rest. The old man squeezed his eyes out of his thick white eyebrows and spoke, as if the words were coming from his eyebrows.

The sword was like a living being, and when it left the old man's hand, it was as if it had lost its life, and it had become an ordinary sword, lying there like a piece of iron, and its strength could be felt only then when it was held carefully. The old man said that he would leave his sleeves after throwing away the silver taels, the clouds were light and the wind was light but in one go, the pace was steady and powerful, and he didn't feel that he was an old man just by looking at the back.

Liu Cong took the sword and handed it to his father, Liu Cong's father took the sword and weighed it twice: "Good sword, this has to be dealt with carefully, and you can't slack off." Touching the mustache with his hand is like confirming whether the beard is intact, Liu's father's face is a little darker than ordinary people, I don't know if it's because of the black face or something else, but the eyes are very bright, revealing the luster of early morning dewdrops, laughing and revealing neat and white teeth, the face is fleshy but not fat, there are large muscles on the arms, and the overall look is very capable.

"It has not been peaceful recently, the new king has ascended the throne, there are frequent wars, and there is a lot of turmoil, which is really unpeaceful. A group of people chattered in the tavern next door.

"I heard that no, the sword gods of the rivers and lakes haunt here, and the imperial court sent a lot of people to recruit this person as the general of Zhengxi. Passers-by chatted without a word.

It is said that this man has been proficient in swordsmanship since he was a child, and he has no master to know a set of his own swordsmanship, and he is very fast with swords, and he claims to be a god in the sky, and no one in the earth can match him. ”

"I heard from the people of the rivers and lakes that he uses witchcraft, blinds people's eyes when he shoots, and is also good at using poison?"

"Villains, this group of people is really villains, their skills are not as good as people, just say that people use hidden weapons, these are all hearsay, the people who lost the test with him have also drunk here, and people don't say that poisoning is a trick. ”

"How do we ordinary people understand this, we have to drink! "The tavern is full of people, and there is an endless stream of people coming and going, all waiting for a good show to be staged in a small place, as the saying goes: it is not a big deal to watch the excitement.

"Dad, did you say that we are going to have a sword god here?" Liu Congda was listening from the beginning, and while working on his hands, he didn't forget to listen there with his ears sideways, muttering a few words from time to time.

Liu's father was beating on the iron and couldn't care about anything else, Liu Cong saw that his father was unmoved, so he raised his voice: "Dad!"

Father Liu put down the hammer and wiped his sweat: "What do you care about? It's better to give birth to you than to give birth to a piece of iron, and you don't think about serious things all day long." ”

Beads of sweat came out of his head, as if the seeds in the field had sprouted, one by one, Father Liu took a sip of the kettle next to him, the beads of sweat still kept coming out, and then he picked up the towel on his neck and wiped off the beads of sweat on his forehead, and the fruits in the field were taken away. The swarthy face carefully looked at the white-haired old man who left the long sword just now and said to himself: "It seems that something is really going to happen in the past few days, let me tell you about the stinky boy, this can only mean that our business will be good in the next few days, be prepared to work all night, and it will not be your turn to worry about the rest." ”

The moonlit night soon fell, and the bustling crowd gradually decreased, and the group of three or five was alone. The moon showed half of its face in the clouds, and the thin clouds came to cover the moon again, as if a foreign woman covered her face, as if she was holding a pipa and half covering her face, and the small animals in the woods of the county began to rustle in the grass, and everything began to become silent. Only Liu Cong's blacksmith shop is still brightly lit, and the sound of iron, quenching, and human voices is in the ears. The chimney beside the stove was like a white mist, and the spirits dancing in the fire were so agile and so unquenchable that they burned and danced. The long sword left by the old man lay quietly on the desk, waiting for his fate to be reborn next. The hollow part of the ring of this object seems to be sucked away by something, so the pattern is made like a basin of water pouring out, and this part is just to the hilt of the sword, echoing from the end to the end, holding the sword from a distance looks like a hand pinching the pouring water, I have to say that this design and construction is very careful, even if it is imitated, it is difficult to create the same feeling. The long sword is seventeen inches and nine minutes, and the sword body is slender, and it looks even more sharp in the moonlight. Just looking at the sword body is not particularly worn, it can be seen that the owner of the sword is particularly meticulous in the maintenance of the sword, Liu's father can roughly speculate that this sword should not be used very often, this time out of the sheath I am afraid that there will be a battle, Liu's ancestral craftsmanship can restore the sword to the edge of the sword. Father Liu poured a cup of water and drank it all: "Ah, it seems that it must be repaired tonight." ”

"Oh, Dad, what's so urgent? We can't exhaust our bodies just because people give us too much silver, and we can't ask for silver when we are tired to see a doctor?" Liu Cong muttered.

Father Liu struck the hammer strongly, and the refined muscles were estimated to be practiced by hammer and hammer, Father Liu wiped his sweat and looked at the night sky, the moonlight had long disappeared into the dark night sky, leaving only the stars reflected on the black cloth in the sky for embellishment. Father Liu sighed: "The size is not a treasure, and the inch is a competition." My father felt that the owner of this sword was going to use this sword in the next few days, so he specially sent this sword that was not worn out to be polished carefully, and it seemed that the opponent was not an idle person. ”

In the early morning, the sun came out of the mountainside, and it was already in the sky when I looked down again. "The world says that the most beautiful and the shortest is dusk, but what does it compare to the sunrise?" said the man on horseback wearing an official-like hat.

"My lord, the person who is looking for this time is not only us, this person seems to have offended the people of Kongyangmen. The man on horseback next to him whispered.

The so-called 'Kongyangmen' is a sect that can be called a collection of many outstanding martial artists on the rivers and lakes, and there are only dozens of martial arts leaders in the world, nearly half of which are from Kongyangmen. The Kongyangmen is very mysterious, the world does not know where its sect is located, only from the black pattern on the back of the white robe to recognize people or have similar tattoos on the body are the Kongyangmen.

More than 10 people in the imperial court rode in the county seat, and the group went into battle lightly without wearing armor, but wearing ordinary officer clothes, wearing crowns on their heads, wearing silk robes outside, and wearing the middle clothes of the leaders of the Yuanyuan, the cuffs were printed with the unique gold trim pattern of the official family, and the waist was equipped with a ring head knife.

"Dad, look at how magnificent and majestic those people are! Riding a big horse with a crown and a sword! I want to do the same in the future!" Liu Cong said as he wielded a hammer.

Liu's father handed Liu Cong the noodles he bought from the restaurant next door: "You can't swing the hammer well, how can you swing the sword well?" Father hopes that you can spend your life in peace, instead of licking blood and trembling with the knife. After speaking, he moved his chopsticks and ignored Liu Cong.

The court party entered the tavern next to Liu's blacksmith shop, the tavern seemed to have been booked, and it had stopped receiving other guests since the morning.

"How about a pot of warm wine first?" said the shopkeeper with a smile.

"Shopkeeper, good wine and good meat, even if you come up, our brothers have been hungry for a long time. A bearded officer shouted at the top of his voice. The shopkeeper is obviously in front of him, but there is a feeling of transmitting sound thousands of miles away.

"Okay, everyone, wait a minute, let's fill up the wine for you first. The shopkeeper stroked his sleeve with one hand and poured wine with a wine jug in the other, and Xiao Er next to him was also busy helping.

The leading officer's beard, his eyebrows as rough as his beard, but his eyes, which had not lost their sparkle among the many hairs, were like the eyes of a wild beast, and they could not help but feel a little creepy when staring at people. The leading officer glanced at the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, I have come here from the capital to find someone, have you seen the person in this painting?" The officer took out a painting that looked like a young man.

"It's... There are so many people coming and going every day," said the shopkeeper, looking at the painting carefully.

After a while, the dishes came up, cooked beef, braised chicken, delicious fish soup, stewed pork... There is everything in the water on land, swimming in the sky and flying in the sky, and add one or two small dishes as side dishes, which can be described as a delicacy with delicacies from the mountains and seas.

"Shopkeeper, we've dedicated our life's cooking skills. The fat cook wiped his hands with a cloth wrapped around his waist and read to the shopkeeper.

"The hard work is high, the hard work is high, our small town here can make this dish, and there is no second one within a radius of ten miles. The shopkeeper patted the cook on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up.

And just when everyone was gobbling up at this time, there was a man wearing a hat in front of the door, there was a white tulle on the hat, and the hat took off the man's hair tied in the middle, and he didn't wear a crown but coiled his hair into a towering bun. The man smiled lightly: "Shopkeeper, can I stay in the hotel?"

The air froze, and time stood still. Everyone looked at this side, and then there was no follow-up, as if it would take another shout to wake up the group. At this time, the wine jar in the shopkeeper's hand fell to the ground, and the painting in the officer's hand also fell to the ground, and the painting fell to the ground and slowly spread out, and everyone looked at this person who was looking for the person in the painting.