At noon, the north of Yunning Mountain rose with ink-colored clouds, with the lead-gray clouds spread out for thousands of miles, covering the daylight, the Jingfu Academy, which was already depressed in autumn, was even more dim under the shadow of the clouds, and the faint wind through the hall also became trembling under a layer of shadow, picking up the dead leaves and flowers scattered on the ground, like the final dance of butterflies before the death of life, until it fell weakly.

Although the accommodation in the outer courtyard of Jingfu is not as quaint and chic as the inner gate, the accommodation allocated to each disciple is not comparable to the homes of ordinary people.

In the outer court, there were three hundred and eighty-four registered disciples, and they were divided into four equal parts, which is one point and ninety-six.

The accommodation of the outer courtyard is located at the western foot of Yunning Mountain, which is divided into four courtyards, namely Bamboo Garden, Plum Garden, Chrysanthemum Garden, and Orchid House.

With the four gentlemen of Meilan, bamboo and chrysanthemum, it is also the meaning of the gentleman's wind.

........

The cool breeze rose slightly, and the dark sky floated out of the rain, and the rain was wrapped in the bleak autumn mood, falling lightly into the world, falling into Jingfu, and falling into the bamboo garden.

The slanting wind and drizzle blew a figure sitting quietly in the verandah of the Zhuyuan house, and the breeze blew a few strands of long hair on his forehead, and the rain fell, but when it was a few inches in front of him, it turned into a transparent ice line like thin silver needles.

Perhaps feeling that the autumn was getting stronger and the rain was rising again, the eyelashes on the eyes of the person who sat quietly trembled slightly, and the closed eyes slowly opened.

He raised his head to look at the dark sky, wanting to stretch out his hand to feel the coolness in the rain, but none of the rain could fall on his palm, all of them condensed into ice in mid-air, and some dissipated into spiritual energy scattered between heaven and earth.

He slowly withdrew his hands and placed them on his lap, and after a moment of silence, he stood up and walked under the eaves, the plain white loose robe he was wearing floated slightly in the wind, and the bamboo garden in the gray tones made his figure even more pale and lifeless.

Gu An sighed lightly with some emotion, and said softly:

"It's raining again......"

There is no one around, except for the sound of some rustling insects in the flowers and grasses in the single courtyard, it seems that this world is only gray and rainy.

Gu An leaned lightly on the railing, looking into the distance, and in his eyes, he seemed to be thoughtful.

Ever since he learned something from Master Qin five days ago that wasn't very good for him, he had become even more reticent since he didn't like to talk. Except for the subjects that had to be taken in order to take some scriptures and books, and he had to go to the medicine pavilion every three days to take a medicinal bath, he basically did not step through the door of his residence.

The first is that he has always been like this, and the practice of the Tao taught in the outer courtyard does not seem to be of much benefit to him, and from the first day he enters the outer courtyard, skipping classes is a daily thing; and the second is that he always feels that communication and noise are very annoying to him, and in this case, it is better to cultivate alone than to do some superficial work that is not beneficial.

But the most important thing is that he doesn't know how to deal with his current situation.

Although he has the cultivation of the second realm, but a second realm without a natal weapon is like a tiger that has lost its claws, in addition to playing the role of being humiliated in the fight of the same kind, it will only lick the wound with his tongue afterwards.

Gu An slowly closed his eyes, and the next moment he appeared in the sea of knowledge, he looked at the vast snowfield in the depths of the sea of knowledge, stretched out his hand and shook it in the void, and the wisps of cold ice spirit yuan flowed into his hand like a cold wind transiting.

These spirit elements are very weak, very complicated, and do not belong to him.

Gu An dispersed casually, and reunited, going back and forth several times, each time he could only absorb the number of spirit elements that were not too much, but he seemed to be tireless, repeating the boring technique.

It was not that he had been idle in his residence for a few days, on the contrary, because of the urgency of survival, his pursuit of the power of the present was not only to achieve his own ends, because this was what he had to do, and if he died, his future and his past would have no ifs.

And what made him have to do this was that the cold qi that he could use in his body had disappeared. He vaguely knew what the reason was, since that day he had overdrawn the little cold qi left in the Ice Ring, and after fighting Lin Qubai once, the Ice Jiao Spirit in the Ice Ring seemed to fall into a deep sleep, although he could clearly feel the existence of the Ice Jiao Spirit, but he could no longer receive its spiritual feedback.

He kept repeating the method of absorbing the spirit element, just to consider how much power he could exert to the greatest extent now, this snow field spirit yuan was still a foreign thing after all, and could not be used to perform the Dao method at will, he could only make it play its maximum effect by mastering the technique again and again.

In the claustrophobic space, he persistently manipulated people who did not belong to his spiritual element, and there was no impatience, but there was no way to get it.

He withdrew from the sea of knowledge and returned to the world.

He didn't know how long he had been in the dark, but he felt that the sky, which was just dark but still bright, had completely entered the night.

The iron-gray stratus clouds don't know when they dissipated, but there is no moon in the night sky, and it can be seen that there are still thick stratus clouds accumulated in the canopy, blocking the starlight and blocking the moonlight.

"Knock knock..."

The slightest sound is very clear to the ears in the quiet dwelling at this time, the insects chirp, the birds chirp, not to mention the knuckles falling on the solid wood and the footsteps.

"Who?"

Gu An's voice rose slightly, and he didn't mean to open the door.

No one responded, but after a few breaths, the sound of the door slamming came from outside the door.

This time, Gu An simply walked directly to a low table and sat down, picked up a cup of cold tea, took a sip, and then said lightly.

"The door is unlocked, come in. ”

The door opened softly, and a thin figure appeared in the room.

The blue plain clothes, but the corners are slightly threaded, and they look a little shabby in the poorly lit room.

Gu An saw that someone was coming, raised his eyebrows slightly, and doubted lightly:

"Where's the fat man?"

As the man approached Gu An, he found that he was also carrying a food box in his hand. He placed the food box on the low table, lit the hanging lamp, and then said.

"Senior Brother Liang said that he wanted to study Taoism, and said that if he fell, he would be repaired by his old man very badly. ”

Gu An bowed slightly, I was afraid that Master Qin would arrest him again to practice the formation technique.

The lights flickered, illuminating the things in the room, and the contours of the faces of those who approached were clearer, the eyebrows were clear, the eyes were like stars, although the body was dim, the eyes were still bright.

The person who came was Yu Mocun.

He opened the food box, took out the food inside, and put it on the table, and the heat rose, presumably as soon as it came out of the pot.

A dish of fried tofu with meat foam, a dish of drunken pork with three flowers, a plate of seasonal vegetables and vegetables, and a cup of sultry soup.

The color and fragrance are complete, although they are not entered, but depending on the sale, if there is no cooking for a few years, I am afraid it is difficult to make such a home-cooked dish.

Gu An looked at Yu Mocun and smiled, "You did it?"

Yu Mocun scratched his head embarrassedly, grinned and said: "Before entering Jingfu, I arranged all the meals at home, and it was extremely difficult for my father and mother to run around for a living on weekdays. ”

Gu An nodded and said, "Yes." ”

Yu Mocun smiled, but stood aside a little crampedly, and did not speak again.

"You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

Gu An glanced at him and suddenly asked.

"Ahh I've eaten and eaten, I've eaten in Lanting and come back......"

"Gurgling ......"

Yu Mocun said hurriedly, he waved his hand in a little panic, trying to justify something, but a voice came from his stomach and betrayed him, his face was full of shame, and then he hung his head in annoyance.

Gu An smiled and shook his head, he looked at this young man who was not good at hiding his emotions, and said slowly: "If you don't mind, let's go together." ”

Yu Mocun wanted to refuse, but thinking of the entanglement in his heart, he suddenly saw the fire reflected in Gu An's eyes in the chaos, his stiff body seemed to soften, and then he nodded in a ghostly manner.

"Good..."

The dim room was a little quiet, Gu An and Yu Mocun sat opposite each other, neither of them spoke, only the faint sound of picking vegetables and chewing food, Gu An has always been silent and silent, but with others here, it will inevitably seem not easy to get along with, and the chill in his body that cannot be retracted freely has been faintly emanating, which can't help but make Yu Mocun, who is restless, feel a burst of embarrassment and coldness.

The insects in the grass outside the house seemed to feel this inexplicable atmosphere, and their voices gradually lowered.

Yu Mocun swore that this must be the most difficult meal he had eaten since he was a child, although he had heard that this Senior Brother Gu in front of him was not easy to approach and had a cold temperament, but that day he came to the rescue and saved himself from the pain of his own flesh and skin, he thought that it was just a rumor, and hearsay was not credible, but now it seems that those gossips are indeed not groundless, he feels that he is not eating in front of a person, but against a cold blade.

"Just say it...... Wouldn't it be rude..."

Yu Mocun lowered his head and slowly pulled the food into his mouth, thinking about his own thoughts, his heart was stunned, but he was extremely eager.

He wanted to put down the dishes and chopsticks, but saw that Gu An had already put them down first, and the owner of those deep eyes looked at him, and after a while, he asked directly:

"Want to learn a knife?"

"Uh......"

Yu Mocun was stunned, his heart was suddenly suffocated, he blinked, digested this sudden question, and after looking at the look of the person opposite seriously, he seemed to have received great encouragement, and he didn't care about the rice stuffed in his mouth, so he hurriedly put down the dishes and chopsticks, nodded frequently like a chicken pecking rice, and said vaguely in his mouth.

"Uh-huh, I... I think... Learn... Learn the knife!"

Gu An didn't seem surprised, and asked again, "What are you doing when you learn knives?"

Yu Mocun swallowed the food in his mouth with difficulty, and said with a slight gasp: "Of course, it's to become powerful, there is a skill that is better than fighting with bare hands......"

"Then you can go and learn the sword, since ancient times, the sword cultivator is a multi-talented person, the sword is the king of a hundred soldiers, why do you want to learn the sword?"

Gu An calmly looked at the young man opposite and continued.

He guessed the kid would have thought about it for a long time.

It's like hesitating for a long time.

But Yu Mocun didn't think about it for a moment, he was just stunned, and then subconsciously said:

"Because it's easy"

Gu An was stunned and a little confused: "Easy?"

"Yes. ”

Yu Mocun looked like this as soon as he copied it, he looked at Gu An with strange eyes, probably not thinking that this was a test of conscience, so he said to himself:

"From the time I was ignorant, I grew up in the kitchen with my mother, who was a cook in a small restaurant, because my father often had to go to sea to make a living, so it was inconvenient to take care of me, so I followed my mother to work every day, although it was hard, but it was also free from the sun and rain. ”

"Although my mother is only a woman's family, but the knife work has been a cook for many years, it is no worse than some cooks, she often told me that I must learn to cook when I am born, and the first step in cooking is to practice the knife work well. The children of the poor were in charge of the family, and when I was four years old, I picked up a ceramic knife for the first time, and it has been eight years now. ”

The young man said with some distress: "Although my knife skills when cutting vegetables are good, senior brother, you know that it is just cutting vegetables, even if it is cutting meat, it is pork, and I haven't even cut beef a few times...... So it's just that you can play majestic on the chopping board, and it's not countable. ”

"Besides..."The young man said with some frustration: "I seem to have used the knife for too long, I always feel a little uncomfortable when holding the sword, I have been in the outer courtyard for more than half a year, I have not been able to comprehend the introductory sword scripture until now, and I am about to go to the house to try, if I don't have some support, I'm afraid I will have to go into battle with my bare hands......"

"Hmm......"

The young man was a little depressed, and Gu An's face was a little weird.

He definitely couldn't imagine that Yu Mocun actually thought of learning knives for such a reason, and he thought that this righteous and heroic young man would definitely say something bold after thinking about it, but if it was like that, it would be a little untrue.

Although it is a conscience, he is very satisfied with this answer.

"Good. Gu An nodded.

"Huh?" Yu Mocun looked up blankly, stunned: "What's good?"

Gu An didn't answer, he said to himself:

"The knife technique is a killing technique, the anger is heavy, it is about moving forward, the most difficult is straight, fierce, so the person who practices the knife, if the heart is not true, twists and turns, not good at making choices, in order to protect the whole, although it can also be successful, but after all, it is difficult to climb the peak. ”

Yu Mocun listened in a daze, his lips and teeth slightly open.

He always felt that there was a lot of meaning in his words, but they didn't seem to mean anything.

Seeing this, Gu An smiled slightly: "But you are very good, straight enough, and very true, from beginning to end, you have never taken my promise to ask me to teach you, very upright and fierce." ”

Yu Mocun scratched his sideburns with his fingers, looking dazed.

Gu An didn't say anything more, shook his head with a smile, he got up and walked to the verandah, dressed in the night, and continued his cultivation.

"After eating your meal, no matter how you say it, you have to be polite, go back and prepare a knife, the material is not too good, novices use a good knife, it is not serious. ”

Yu Mocun heard the sound, came back to his senses after half a ring, his eyes were bright, he hurriedly packed up the dishes and chopsticks, quickly put them in the food box, and when he left, he didn't forget to look at Gu An's back, Fang stepped out of the door, poked half of his head in, and asked a little excitedly:

"Senior brother, please tell me the time..."

"Shen Shi Jiantang, don't disturb if it's overdue. ”

"Definitely, definitely!"

As the door closed, a little happy footsteps trotted away, and the room was deserted again.

Gu An took out an ancient scroll from his arms, his eyes fell on it, his lips were about to open lightly, and he seemed to feel too pretentious, so he calmed down.

"I've found a successor for you. He said softly.

"You'll be satisfied, right?"

"Daddy. ”