In the early afternoon, the male wooden bird slowly landed on the open lawn of a cliff at the end of the South Island.

The sun is abundant, the warm breeze is pleasant, and more than a dozen seabirds occasionally land in front of the flat to pacing and peck, and the atmosphere here is like a world away from the bloody fierce battle in the dense forest yesterday.

The stone tower was built into four tiers, and there was no one to act as a doorman.

The main entrance of the tower was closed, but a small door opened on the side, which was discreetly half-hidden.

"There are not enough people in the town, and the schoolchildren have to farm, work and practice martial arts during the day before coming to school at night. Elders are usually supposed to rest in the afternoon, when they are not disturbed by outsiders. ”

Wang Qitai explained to us, and pushed the door with Wang Qinian's corpse on his back. We followed him as he picked up a stone staircase spiraling around the foyer on the first floor.

He pulled down the bell in the foyer, and the wooden door of the inner room opened, revealing a fat-headed, big-eared attendant.

We listened to Wang Qitai's advice and took off all the human skin masks - he said that the stone pagoda was full of people who kept secrets, and there was no need to worry about revealing their true appearance.

"The two elders are really rare. This pair of boys and girls are new seafarers, and it is rare that a few decades later, a fellow Chinese will also come to this island. ”

The attendant smiled, and he looked at me and Murong Zhi curiously.

Wang Qitai sighed.

The attendant then noticed that Wang Qinian was no longer alive.

He was stunned for a long time, and his expression turned solemn,

"Something big has happened?"

Wang Qitai nodded,

"You wait in the hall, and I will go with Brother Xueren to report the situation to the old patriarch Wang Xiangfu first. ”

He and the attendant named "Xueren" carried Wang Qinian's body into the inner room, leaving Murong Zhi and me in the hall.

I was not a quiet person, but I sat for a while, waiting for them to come, and my legs dangled in the air for a long time, and I couldn't help but itch. He jumped off the bench and walked around the hall to see the decorative calligraphy and paintings on the furnishings, all of which were signed by Wang Xiangfu himself.

The content of calligraphy and painting is also mediocre, what is written is nothing more than the five virtues of Confucianism's "benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and faith", and the painting is nothing more than the ancient pastoral scenery of "Taoyuan escaping the world, male ploughing and female weaving".

My mother was born in an official family in the imperial capital, and since she was a child, she has been immersed in the extravagant skills of nobles and scholars, qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, if she hadn't forced me to spend time learning those pretending things, maybe my martial arts would have reached the upper level of internal martial arts now.

However, it is also an additional gain for me to be able to show off this knowledge in front of Murong Zhi, a girl. One person focuses on learning some things, and others are always not good at it, because people's time and energy are limited.

"Murong Zhi, do you know? "Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Famous Paintings" has talked about calligraphy and painting, and it can be seen from the above that the author's temperament and character are the same as those of the face. We're bored anyway, can you guess what kind of character Wang Xiangfu is from calligraphy and painting? I bet he's a stubborn and tenacious old man, maybe he lacks interest and doesn't know how to be flexible—"

I talked proudly for a long time, no one responded, and the scene was a little cold.

I looked back to see what she was doing.

Murong Zhi was stroking the skull of a beast hanging from the stone wall with her hand, the skull was the size of a giant bull's head.

This is obviously the beast that Wang Xiangfu hunted when he was young.

In the Central Plains, many warriors above the foundation were fond of hanging the mountain spirits and water monsters they killed with their own hands and the fierce beasts on the walls to commemorate them. I was used to the fact that there were five or six shark skulls hanging in the cabin of my father's ship.

"What did you just say? I didn't hear that. ”

She asked.

"Forget it. I'm farting. ”

I was angry.

"Oh. Can you tell what kind of beast's skull this is?"

Murong Zhi then asked me,

"I can tell the fish clearly, but the beasts on the land are hard to say, after all, my family does not do business in the woods. ”

The partition wall has ears, and it is inconvenient to say "we are pirates" in the Confucian field.

"The beast's skull is as hard as the armor of the middle grade. And—"

Murong Zhi's fingers tapped lightly on the beast's skull, and the sound of gold coins falling one after another sounded in my head.

She blew into the hole in the beast's head again,

The animal bones vibrated like wind chimes, crisp and pleasant, and lasted for a long time, just like the porcelain bottles fired in the famous kiln.

This is undoubtedly the skull of a spirit beast, comparable to Adamantite Mithril.

"I got information that Patriarch Wang Xiangfu was also a warrior in the Central Plains when he was young, and he was the leader of the rebel army, and killed many invading armies of pseudo-Qi and Rakshasas. After middle age, he gave up martial arts and studied Confucianism, and studied the economics of how to let more people survive in troubled times. It's not surprising that he can do martial arts, and he can also kill spirit beasts. ”

"Oh, I always thought that their old patriarch would only rule the country with the Qi family, but I didn't expect to know martial arts, you say, will he be a Jindan martial artist?"

――Now I know that there are many kinds of Jindan realms, and I finally understand

――Not all Jindan can fight.

Cultivation is entirely a personal matter, and the realm is only a measure of a specific person's achievements, not a uniform, assembly-line machine-like standard.

A person has three layers of external power, three layers of internal power, and three layers of foundation. The first step to the Jindan is called the Xiao Cheng of Cultivation, which is the "Xiao Cheng" relative to the goal of his personal distance from the Dao.

There is a big difference between each Jindan.

Although the Jindan realm is close to the Cheng dù of Jinshi in the physical body, it has a huge scale of qi, and the state of mind is something that ordinary people do not have, and it is indeed an unshakable Dao heart. But they don't have the same focus.

Jin Dan like my father, Wang Qinian, and Aung San Baoyan follow the path of pursuing stronger and faster martial arts, and they have incredible magical powers in killing people with their bodies and blades. They are Jindan warriors.

And Jin Dan like Wang Qitai is rarely matched in the secular knowledge of medical skills, naturalism, and machinery, and pursues the way to help the world and save the people. He belongs to the Jindan Confucians.

As for those Jindan people who fly to the heavens and escape to the earth and have mystical spells, the Tao they pursue is outside the world, and they belong to the cultivators of the Jindan realm.

A Jindan Confucian like Wang Qitai can't fight with a Jindan warrior.

The Jindan martial artist and the cultivator of the Jindan Realm will also fall behind when they fight.

――What kind of golden pill does Wang Xiangfu belong to?

In addition to the martial arts of the foundation level, it seems that any kind of golden pill can be done to kill spirit beasts - cultivators and martial artists can use spells and martial arts, and Confucians can also use tricks and medicines.

"Keep you two waiting. ”

The wooden door was pushed open again. The fat man's face seemed to be much lighter than just now, but I could still see a quiet sadness between his eyebrows: obviously grief over Wang Qinian's death. Although Confucianism also talks about being happy and knowing one's fate, Xueren, like us, has not reached the level of joy and sorrow without taking things seriously.

"Are you looking at the old patriarch's collection?"

He saw Murong Zhi looking at the beast bone,

"This skull belonged to a one-horned black smoke beast before his death, it used to be the mount of the prince of the pseudo-Qi prince Gongsun Shanjun, when the old patriarch chopped off the head of the fierce beast with a golden dragon sword, the little grandson was so frightened that he rolled in the dust, and the army of the pseudo-Qi retreated for hundreds of miles, and he did not dare to fight in March - you see that there is a big hole on the forehead of the skull, this is the original position of the single horn, the single horn can clear the water, the old patriarch sawed it down and dedicated it to the emperor to apply for the military salary of the righteous army, and the faint king ignored it, and since then the heart of the patriarch has been cold. ”

- Wang Xiangfu is both a Jindan Confucian and a Jindan warrior!

I gasped.

Murong Zhi's hand stroking the skull also trembled slightly.

How much strength and skill is required to cut off the head of this spirit beast with one sword.

From the size of the skull bull, I thought of a copper-hoofed beast shrouded in black smoke, white horns, and flames erupting from its nostrils.

"Sure enough, this fierce beast is the one-legged black smoke beast mentioned in "The Legend of the Rakshasa Ping Demon", this is a beast spirit born in the Great Northern Wilderness, and it is at the same level as the Rakshasa lion who is your fierce armor. ”

Murong Zhi said to me suddenly.

- Is it true that Wang Xiangfu was (at least once) as strong as my father?

"This girl is really knowledgeable, and she is indeed a fierce beast produced in the Rakshasa Kingdom. The Jindan warriors cultivated by the lord of the Rakshasa country all need to pass the twelve trials, and kill twelve kinds of different fierce beasts of this grade in a row. The pseudo-prince of Qi recognized Yi Di as his father, and he also passed the twelve trials. This one-horned black smoke beast was the strongest of this beast, so the lord of the Rakshasa country gave it to the pseudo-prince of Qi. Who knew that he would be cut off by the old patriarch with a knife, haha, it really extinguished the arrogance of those Chinese traitors......"

Xueren digressed as he spoke.

There was a cough from the inner room,

"What happened back then, what are you nagging with the little doll, please invite the guests in!"

It was the voice of an old man in good spirits.

"Ah, I'm rapping again. ”

Xueren's face was ashamed.

"Please, two of you!"

The wooden door was pushed open, and we saw an old man in a wide robe sitting in front of the screen, and Wang Qitai was sitting respectfully on the east seat.

On the side of the room, there is a large sword with a golden dragon inlaid with a handle.

There are two futons left for us in the west seat.