Following.

In the courtyard of the Lotus Peak with the word 'Ruoshui' engraved on the plaque in front of the door, the owner of the courtyard, Zhao Bailian, is destined to be an extremely busy day, for example, around the time of the morning when he stepped into the morning, his small courtyard ushered in a man wearing a night suit.

The man's face was covered with a coarse blue cloth, making it impossible to see his appearance, but the eyes that were as deep as an ancient well could vaguely make people see that he should not be the kind of dead man who was good at hiding in the dark, or assassins and the like, but an extremely calm person. But no matter what his identity was, and no matter why he was wearing this vigilant night robe at the moment, in front of the middle-aged man in front of him, who had taken over the entire Lotus Sect at the age of a sixtieth birthday, he could only sit upright.

Those who are familiar with Zhao Bailian know that his aura is not strong, and even his temperament is elegant, like a teacher in a private school.

After the man in Tsing Yi sat down, he said respectfully: "Sect Master, my subordinates have learned that this Baishan Spring Hunt is very different from the past, and they even don't hesitate to take out the things of the Zhenzong over there, but also exchange them for entering the cultivation quota of my sect's Qixingdun, if my disciples lose again in this spring hunt, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

When Zhao Bailian heard this, she locked her eyebrows, and couldn't help sighing: "It's only been fifty years, and they can't wait to fight the idea of Qixingdun so impatiently, they can't help but be too composed." ”

The masked man didn't dare to answer indiscriminately.

After a while, Zhao Bailian tried her best to show a light smile to him, and said, "I know about this, you did a good job, I will make a deal in the short term, you go back first." ”

When the masked man heard this, he got up to say goodbye, but when he approached the threshold, a hint of complexity flashed in his exposed eyes, and he stopped his body and stopped talking. Zhao Bailian, who was still sitting quietly on the main seat, saw this, and still said with a smile: "What's the matter? ”

The masked man hesitated for a moment, and finally truthfully said the question that had been sunk in his heart for more than ten years, "In fact, my subordinates have always not understood that the sect master knows that he is being pushed out as a scapegoat by those old things, but he does not hesitate to bear the infamy, and he has to struggle to grab the last fig leaf of the Lotus Sect, what is it for, besides, the current Lotus Sect is already like an old man in the twilight, and he can't be saved, is it really worth it for the sect master to do this?"

Seeing that the elegant-looking Lotus Sect Master in front of him fell silent, the masked man sighed, and continued: "We all know that Sect Master, you have done well enough, and you have paid a lot for it, but in fact, you don't owe anything to the Lotus Sect. ”

Zhao Bailian shook her head at this, and said meaningfully: "Actually...... It's not enough. ”

When the masked man heard this, he sighed again, but he didn't say anything more, just clasped his fists and saluted, and when he walked out of the study and came out of the courtyard, his body disappeared in a flash, and disappeared from this courtyard.

......

After the man left, about a quarter of an hour or so, another guy dressed exactly like the man before broke into this Ruoshui Courtyard, who was also familiar with the road and came directly to Zhao Bailian's study.

Zhao Bailian has long been surprised by this, in the past ten years, he has been able to continue to maintain the position of the Lotus Sect, the Sword Sect of one country and two sects, and it is inseparable from the chess pieces laid by him in front of him who are secretly helping each other, it can be said that they are the real pillars in this matter.

In Lingzhou, as we all know, the Lotus Sect, which has the longest inheritance, can no longer be compared with when it was the first sword sect in the five states, the reason is that fifty years ago, a major event occurred in the Lotus Sect that shocked the whole world, and that incident not only caused the current decline of the Lotus Sect, but also forced the sect to change five sect masters in a row in just fifty years, but without exception, the five sect masters who took over in the future could not prevent the Lotus Sect from continuing to decline.

This kind of decay of the Lotus Sect has little to do with individuals, such as the current sect leader Zhao Bailian, after he successfully broke through to the upper three realms under great pressure, he didn't think about using the power of one person to save the entire Lotus Sect from the fall, but then he found that it was impossible, because the decline of the Lotus Sect was not only to compete with other sword sects that were also Hundred Mountain Ancestors for cultivation resources, but also to control the sect' The elders of the four sects, the disciples of the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, also seemed to have no hope for the revival of the sect, and they had become inseparable from each other.

Therefore, only those chess pieces arranged by Zhao Bailian knew that for this Lotus Sect, only Zhao Bailian never gave up, but as more and more things were lost in the Lotus Sect, they gradually understood that this master of the sect who seemed to be only in his forties, but in fact, he had already entered the age of antiquity, was just blindly holding on.

Compared with the temperament of the previous one, the current man is undoubtedly more resolute, he said very little, took out a codex from his arms, and then handed it to Zhao Bailian who was on the main seat, and said: "The information I can learn from there is in this letter, in order not to reveal my identity, I have to rush back as soon as possible, I have been watching me very closely recently, and it is inconvenient for me to stay here for more time." ”

Zhao Bailian took the letter, nodded, and replied: "You go back, everything is based on the overall situation, and you remember to be careful on weekdays." ”

The man nodded and quietly left.

Zhao Bailian opened the letter left by the other party, roughly browsed it, and found that there was not much recorded in it, but through the description of the chess piece in the letter later, as well as the previous conversation with another chess piece, he found that although the information brought by the two chess pieces was different, he could still know exactly that the forces they were in now were no different from the previous ones for the real purpose of this Baishan Spring Hunt, because they all pointed the finger at the Lotus Sect, making the Lotus Sect once again the target of the public。

However, this is not a matter of once or twice, since Zhao Bailian took over the position of the sect master, almost every time after the spring hunt, the Lotus Sect will lose a lot of benefits, perhaps this is why in just fifty years, the previous sect masters have only tried to persist for less than ten years, and they have already disarmed and resigned.

Zhao Bailian burned the book candle to ashes, and his face was already full of gloom, but even so, he had already begun to think about the various response plans for this Baishan Spring Hunt, but in the end, he didn't seem to be able to come up with any good solutions, so he showed a trace of anger very rarely, and slammed his fist on the desk, making a loud bang.

Zhao Bailian said hatefully: "If you can give me another ten years...... No, even if it's only five years, I'll be able to do so much more than I have now. ”

......

By the time Xu Yan came to Ruoshui Courtyard, it was almost three minutes, and as soon as he walked into the courtyard gate, he saw his master Zhao Bailian in the Guanlan Pavilion in the courtyard, and at the same time, in addition to his master, there was also a middle-aged man sitting in the Guanlan Pavilion.

The middle-aged man was dressed in a blue coarse cloth sweatshirt that is very common in the market farms, and on his feet he wore a pair of simple straw sandals that were very suitable for climbing mountains and rivers.

Xu Yan walked along the stone path paved on the lawn into the Guanlan Pavilion, only to find that on the edge of the stone bench holding the drum where the man was sitting, there was a bamboo basket that he had seen many times, and he immediately understood that it was the time for this man named Lao Qiao to come up the mountain to deliver new tea once a year.

Xu Yan walked into the pavilion, first saluted Zhao Bailian, and then turned to Lao Qiao and saluted: "Old Uncle Qiao came a few days earlier than in previous years. ”

Lao Qiao smiled and said: "The little brother of the Xu family has a strong memory, and it is all because the temperature this year is much higher than in previous years, which makes my 'silver monkey' a little anxious, but fortunately, it is about a week different from previous years." ”

Xu Yan nodded and stopped talking.

Zhao Bailian said to Xu Yan with a smile: "Sit down, this pot of new tea on the table is the Ming Qiantou tea that Lao Qiao went to pick early yesterday morning, and after a sleepless night of stir-frying and drying, it is rare, you might as well taste it." ”

Xu Yan sat down in response, stretched out his hand to pick up the teacup that Lao Qiao had prepared for him, first took a slight sip, and suddenly felt that the tea was fragrant, and then after drinking it all, there were bursts of sweetness between his mouths, such as drinking mountain spring rain and dew, refreshing people's hearts and spleens, and it was really memorable.

Xu Yan, who thought that he didn't have any talent in taste, and was even a little sluggish, couldn't help but praise after drinking this cup of Ming Qian tea: "It's really good tea, but this tea should be brewed by Uncle Qiao." ”

When Zhao Bailian heard this, she immediately cried and laughed, "You are really a good mouth!"

Lao Qiao didn't care that the tea he brewed was compared by the other party, but he couldn't help laughing.

After a while, Zhao Bailian took out a white porcelain teacup, took out a few tea leaves from the bamboo basket and put them in it, and then brewed it directly from boiling water, and then handed it to Xu Yan and said: "You have been with the teacher for more than three years, but the master has not taught you any really useful skills, this cup of tea should be regarded as a compensation for the dereliction of duty in the past three years." ”

Zhao Bailian is extremely particular about drinking tea, so the shoddy technique of brewing directly like this is not common in him, but Xu Yan did not delve into these details, but just respectfully reached out and took the teacup handed over by the other party.

However, when Lao Qiao, who was sitting on the side, saw this scene, he couldn't help but feel a little more shocked in his heart, especially when he looked at Xu Yan, there was more meaning in his smiling eyes.

In the white porcelain cup, the tea leaves that were originally stir-fried in an iron pot and thoroughly dried by charcoal fire were curled together, and after being soaked and washed away by boiling water, they undoubtedly returned to a touch of new green, Xu Yan looked at the tea in the cup with only four tea leaves, but still didn't understand the meaning of his master's words.

Zhao Bailian saw that he was suspicious, so he smiled and said, "When you finish drinking this cup of tea, I will take you to another place for the teacher." ”

Hearing this, Xu Yan no longer hesitated, and raised his head to drink the tea in the cup, but the tea brewed from only four tea leaves did taste too bland, so he did not taste the rich fragrance of tea as before.

It's just that at the moment when the tea entered his throat, he clearly noticed that the four tea leaves in the cup turned into four rays of blue light at this moment and entered his body together.