Chapter 67: Traveling Far Away

Two days before Qi Jingchun put down the pair of chopsticks, some bad omens appeared in the town. The water level in the iron lock well dropped sharply, the locust branches broke and fell from the trunk, and the branches and leaves were all withered and yellow, which was obviously not in line with the spring and autumn. There are dry rules, and there are many clay and wooden statues lying around outside the town. There are often explosions like firecrackers in the middle of the night. The good-hearted people run to take a look. Near the town, the clay statues must still be alive last winter. Most of the Bodhisattva Wood Immortals have disappeared.

The oxcarts and carriages starting from Fulu Street and Taoye Lane have not stopped. On the street paved with large bluestones, you can hear the disturbing music even in the middle of the night. The sound of hooves from cows and horses.

Those foreigners who were gorgeously dressed and full of wealth also began to walk out in a hurry. Most of them looked unhappy, and they were in twos and threes. Some people often pointed in the direction of the small town school, quite angrily.

Zheng Dafeng, a bachelor at the east gate of the town, disappeared, and the kiln superintendent and office had no intention of looking for someone to replace him. Therefore, the town was like a man without two front teeth, and his words were easily leaked. .

Liu Baqiao and Chen Songfeng returned along the original road. When they could see the outline of the covered bridge, it was already dusk. Liu Baqiao walked along a path to the bank of the stream and squatted down. I washed my face with a handful of water, and probably because I didn’t feel comfortable enough, I just put my buttocks up and lay on the ground, sinking my whole head into the stream. Finally, I suddenly raised my head, shouted happily, and turned to look at Chen Songfeng and Liu Baqiao who were sweating profusely. He joked: "A weak scholar has no power to tie a chicken."

Chen Songfeng just took a sip of water from the stream, and said with a hoarse voice: "The reason why I worked so hard to become a Qi practitioner, is I just hope to keep fit, live a few more years, and read more books. How can I compare with you sword cultivators? What’s more, in this Lizhu Xiaodongtian, Qi practitioners other than sword cultivators will suffer the most if they are not careful. To operate the qi machine, you will lose your Taoism. The higher the realm, the more damage you will do. I never thought that my cultivation level was low, but it turned out to be a good thing."

Liu Baqiao patted his shoulder, "It is better to change the door. Join our Fenglei Garden to practice swordsmanship, and I will protect you from now on. Think about it, become a swordsman, wield a sword in the sky, fly like lightning, especially during thunderstorms, and walk through it with your sword..."

Chen Songfeng suddenly laughed and said: "I heard that the swordsman who has been struck by lightning the most times in Fengleiyuan is named..."

Liu Baqiao stretched out a palm and said, "Stop!"

For the Qi practitioners in the world, there is a consensus that the body is skinny, after all, it is a constantly decaying thing, just use it enough. If you can be lucky enough to cultivate into an invincible vajra body and a stain-free glass body, that is the best. If you can't, it's okay. Don't go too far and miss the foundation of the great path.

Liu Baqiao asked casually: "What level of martial artist is your distant relative?"

Chen Songfeng said helplessly: "How do I know such secrets? A secret matter?"

Liu Baqiao thought of the conflict that broke out in the main hall of the government office that day, and said with emotion: "Song Changjing is really too strong. The most terrifying king of the Li clan is still so young. The eighth and ninth level warriors are all in their mid-100s and upwards. Even a hundred years old is not considered old. But if I remember correctly, Song Changjing was only nearly forty years old. No wonder he was killed by that person in the first place. He joked that he needed to suppress his arrogance. "

Chen Songfeng said softly: "I was born at the right time and was blessed by nature."

It is difficult to find a monk in the upper five realms. . However, the eighth and ninth realms among warriors are often known to the world, and they are not far away from secular dynasties. What's more, climbing the martial arts relies on life and death battles. Only by seeing life and death on the line between life and death can you break through life and death and gain a transcendent state of mind similar to the "freedom" of Buddhism and the "purity" of Taoism.

In addition to the competition between the two great masters, warriors in the eighth and ninth realms like to bully the top qi practitioners in the middle and fifth realms, especially the strongest in the ninth realm like Song Changjing. , can almost be said to be invincible under the upper five realms, and only the swordsmen among the Qi practitioners can fight with him, but they can only try to make their defeat not so ugly, and win a saying that even if they lose, it is honorable. .

However, there is an obscure reason why the martial arts masters in the ninth realm are unscrupulous. That is the last floor in the middle five realms, the great monks on the tenth floor, have no interest in worldly disputes at all, and even He doesn't even care about the survival of his family or the rise and fall of his dynasty, all he cares about is the word "Dao".

Liu Baqiao was still immersed in his own thoughts, "Song Changjing asked me to go out of the town and take away the Talisman Sword by my own ability. Do you want to say hello to Fengleiyuan and let them come early?" Have a celebration banquet set up?"

Chen Songfeng couldn't laugh or cry. Looking at the gurgling water no deeper than his knees, thinking of Song Changjing and the romantic young man next to the vassal king, Chen Songfeng vaguely felt a sign of the gathering momentum and decided to After returning to the Chen family's ancestral home in Longwei County this time, they must convince the family to bet on the Dali Dynasty. Even if they can't make a desperate move, they must let the Chen family's children integrate into the Dali temple as soon as possible.

Chen Songfeng murmured: "The great Li weather has come, and the heaven and the earth are working together. Therefore, I, the Chen family, want to support the dragon, not just compete with others to attach it."

Liu Baqiao asked: "What are you mumbling about?"

Chen Songfeng stood up, waved his hand, and said with a smile: "You seem to have a good rapport with the boy from Mud Bottle Alley."

Liu Baqiao stood up and said carelessly: "We meet by chance, and we gather and disperse uncertainly. God knows whether we will see each other again in the future."

The two of them stepped on the spring breeze by the stream together.After walking ashore, Chen Songfeng asked: "I heard that the blessed land under the jurisdiction of Nanjian State will be opened to the outside world this winter, allowing dozens of people to enter. Aren't you still unable to break the bottleneck? Do you want to go down and try your luck? ?"

Liu Baqiao sneered: "I won't go and act like a bully in the ant pile. I'm so embarrassed."

Chen Songfeng shook his head and said: "My Mr. Liu. It has been said that the state of mind is like a mirror, the more it is polished, the brighter it becomes. Therefore, it is of course very helpful to practice the state of mind by sitting on the lotus platform of the Taoist ancestors, but occasionally crawling around in a small mud pond is not necessarily useless in going to a blessed place. The banished immortal who has given up his past life and forgotten his previous life, whether he enjoys happiness or suffers, more or less..."

Before Chen Songfeng could finish speaking, Liu Baqiao had already shouted: "I am a person who is too obsessed with winning and losing. Seriously, once I go to a blessed land with thin spiritual energy, if I can't break the taboo and return to my hometown by my own ability, then I will definitely be left with a knot in my heart, and the gains will outweigh the losses. Besides, if I accidentally end up in the blessed land, I will do more harm than good. Being bullied by 'locals' here is another heartache. After I come back to my senses, even if it costs a huge price, I will definitely have to come to the world as a 'real person' in order to be happy. But in this way, there is no way. Is it against my original intention?"

Liu Baqiao held the back of his head with his hands and said with disdain: "To put it bluntly, who doesn't know the three blessed lands in Dongbaopingzhou now? , has long since changed, and has become a place where the rich and powerful children of those secular dynasties spend their money to have fun. No wonder it is said to be a place of brothels and bars under the rule of the Xian family, with a smoky atmosphere. ”

Chen Songfeng said with a smile: "It is not appropriate to generalize. Not talking about us outsiders, just talking about the locals, there are many amazing and talented people."

Liu Baqiao rolled his eyes and said: "A blessed place, With such a large population, how many people can stand out every year? Not even one. How many of these people who have successfully come to us will be remembered by us in the past hundred years? So I can't count them. Understand why these blessed lands are so highly respected, and some people claim that as long as you have a part of the jurisdiction of a blessed land, the benefits will be no less than having a monk in the upper five realms, you are crazy."

Chen Songfeng laughed. Said: "The benefits of the blessed land are long-lasting, and occasionally there are one or two surprises. The most important thing is that all the benefits are to be reaped. Who wouldn't be willing to take a piece of it?"

Dongtianzou Those who go out will probably have a good life. Those who ascend to the blessed land have an especially hard life.

Liu Baqiao asked: "You don't seem to like that young man named Chen?"

Chen Songfeng thought for a while and chose to reveal his heart, "If it's for personal reasons, I don't like him very much." The young man has no objection. But if we look at the matter, his existence actually makes our entire family very embarrassed. There is only one person with the surname left, and the rest have become slaves of other families and become nothing more than a joke. In the eyes of the Chen family in Longwei County, we and the people with the surname Chen in this small town are distant ancestors.The same, but it was all from the old history many years ago, and there is no relationship at all. But how could all the opponents of the Chen family in Longwei County treat it this way? In this case, if the boy from Mud Bottle Lane simply It was nothing more than becoming a servant of a wealthy family. After a big laugh in the world at that time, it was difficult to continue to be a topic of conversation for many years. But this young man gritted his teeth and persisted, and his solitary existence was particularly eye-catching. Many people outside He was even making a bet on when one of the children of the Chen family in this small town would no longer be the 'only one'. "

Liu Baqiao frowned and said: "It's not that boy's fault. "

Chen Songfeng smiled and said: "Of course, young people can make mistakes, but after all, there are some things in the world that are difficult to explain clearly.

Liu Baqiao shook his head and said: "It's not that it's hard to explain clearly. In fact, it's you who are unreasonable in the first place. It's just because that young man is too weak that you can appear righteous and confident. In addition, you are the tail of the dragon." Jun Chen's reputation was much greater than that of the boy, but compared to the people around him who were watching the jokes, he was average, so the situation became more and more embarrassing. In the end, he was unwilling to admit that he was incompetent, so he could only hint to himself that he thought the boy was talented. is the culprit. I believe that if it weren't for the difficulty of entering this Lizhu Cave, the boy from the back alley who embarrassed the Chen family in Longwei County would have been killed by a child of the Chen family in Longwei County, or someone from a vassal family. , take credit for the killing. ”

Chen Songfeng’s face turned red, and he was a little angry for a moment.

Liu Baqiao hugged the back of his head, raised his head and looked at the sky, still looking at ease. With a lazy look on his face, he said, "I know you, Chen Songfeng, are not such a person. Unfortunately, there are only a few people like you, and there are many people who are not like you. "

"Just say that the Mountain Monkey at Zhengyang Mountain cannot get the Sword Sutra. He is afraid that Fengleiyuan will get it, so he will punch the young man named Liu to death. Do you think this is reasonable? I think this is very unreasonable. But is it useful? It's useless, I don't even dare to challenge the old ape head-on.

Liu Baqiao sighed, let go of one hand, patted his stomach, and laughed at himself: "As for me, I am clumsy in speech, my fists are not strong enough, and my sword is not fast enough. Otherwise, I really have accumulated a lot of truths in my stomach, and I want to talk about it in this world. "

Chen Songfeng exhaled, "So you think that boy is good? "

Liu Baqiao turned to look at the mountains to the west where the sun was setting, "Do you think it's good? How is it possible. "

Chen Songfeng was a little confused.

Liu Baqiao smiled and said: "As soon as I saw that young man, I felt ashamed. "

Chen Songfeng felt it was incredible, shook his head and said with a smile: "Why is this so? ”

Liu Baqiao swallowed back some of the words that came to his mouth to avoid hurting his feelings. Although Chen Songfeng is not that palatable or temperamental, he is much better than ordinary scholars. He himself is Be content.

The talkative Liu Baqiao remained silent all the way.—

As the night fell, Chen Pingan made three homemade torches, and the three of them held the fire while walking.

Finally arriving at the foot of a high mountain, Chen Pingan wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Ning Yao: "Miss Ning, tell her, this is a mountain that is banned by the imperial court. Does she have any taboos?"

After Ning Yao told Chen Dui, the latter shook his head.

Chen Dui raised her eyes and looked, and she was extremely sure that the ancestral grave of the Chen family in Yingyin must be here.

The wanderer returns home, feeling emotional in his heart.

Chen Dui slowly closed her eyes. After a moment, she squatted down and wrote a long string of characters on the ground with her fingers. After writing, her lips moved slightly. Finally, she slowly smoothed out all the traces with her palms. After standing up, she walked around the place where the runes were destroyed and took the lead in climbing the mountain without Chen Ping'an's guidance.

The three of them came to a place halfway up the mountain. Chen Pingan pointed to a tree not far away, growing on a small mound. The trunk was weird and extremely straight. It was actually straighter than a green bamboo. Chen Pingan was relieved. , nodded and said: "This is it."

Chen said in a deep voice: "You guys go to the bottom of the mountain and wait for me."

Ning Yao tugged on Chen Ping'an's sleeves and motioned for them to go down the mountain together. .

Chen Dui put down the book box and carefully took out the carefully prepared sacrifices one by one to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors.

In the middle of the journey, Chen Dui was in a trance for a moment. He looked at the small tree with tears in his eyes. He cried with joy and murmured: "It's true, it's true."

Finally, the woman bowed three times and bowed nine times to the little earthbag with great piety.

After that, Chen Ping fell to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "I, the Chen family of Yingyin, thank the ancestor for protecting me!"

At the foot of the mountain, Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao sat on the side of the basket. Sitting with their backs facing each other, Ning Yao asked: "There was a long journey ahead, why did you deliberately take a long detour?"

Chen Ping'an was stunned and said in shock: "Miss Ning, even you can see it. ?"

Ning Yao shook the scabbard, pushed it back, and hit the top of the scabbard on the young man's back, "Remove the word 'ligature'!"

The straw-shoe boy bared his teeth. Rubbing his waist gently, he lowered his voice and said, "Didn't I tell you? There is a cliff full of the kind of black stone you call Dragon Slaying Platform. I'm afraid I'll show it to her, and so will she." You know what to do if she has evil intentions? You must not have the intention to harm others, and you must have the intention to guard against others. I still understand this truth." Ning Yao smiled and said: "Scrounge, Are you worried that she will find a way to move it away, leaving you empty-handed?"

Chen Ping'an chuckled and said, "Miss Ning, you must not have many friends if you are so upright."

Ouch.

Chen Pingan suddenly felt pain again, and quickly freed up a hand to rub the other side of his waist.

Chen Pingan suddenly touched Ning Yao's back lightly with his elbow and asked: "Do you want to eat wild fruits? I picked three on the way here and hid them in my sleeve pocket. , She probably didn’t see it.”

Ning Yao.He said angrily: "How delicious are the wild fruits in this season?"

Chen Pingan turned around, handed over two red wild fruits the size of peaches, and said with a smile: "Miss Ning, you just don't know Well, this kind of fruit can really only be eaten in spring. It is strong in late winter and matures in early spring. Now it is completely ripe. If you take a bite, it tastes so good that you can even bite it off your tongue accidentally. , we have so many mountains here, but the fruits are only found nearby. I was looking for a kind of soil with old man Yao. He told me that there are some wild fruits in other places that taste good, but I ate them and gnawed them. I gnawed here and there, but I thought it was not as good as this."

Ning Yao took the two fruits and made up his mind to return the remaining one if it tasted bad. "He ate it again and again. Chewing here and there, are you a wild boar in the mountains?"

Chen Ping'an bit into the wild fruit and said with a smile: "When I was young, my family was poor and we didn't just eat whatever we caught. Don't tell me. One time, I was so sick from eating that I was rolling on the floor in pain. That was the first time I heard my heartbeat, like thunder."

It's a pity that Ning Yao was busy eating the fruit and didn't hear clearly what the boy said at the end. When he took the first bite, he felt that the fruit was extremely sweet. After eating the fruit, his whole body felt warm and his body was like a paved stone. In a house with earth dragons, wild fruits are bags of charcoal fire. Ning Yao closed his eyes and felt his internal organs. Although his whole body felt comfortable, there was nothing unusual about the rest. This meant that this kind of wild fruit could generally be ranked among the things on the mountain at the feet of the gods, but it was limited to this. It could definitely be found in The secular dynasty can be sold at a high price, but it will not make the monks jealous.

For ordinary people at the foot of the mountain, it is undoubtedly a supreme treasure that prolongs life.

Had he known this, Ning Yao would have simply refused to accept the fruit.

Ning Yao felt a little regretful, wiped his mouth, turned around and handed over the remaining wild fruit, "It doesn't taste good, I'll give it back to you."

Chen Pingan took it back angrily. , a little disappointed, he thought Miss Ning would think it was good.

Ning Yao gently kicked the backpack with both hands and asked casually: "Is it reserved for the woman named Chen Dui?"

Chen Pingan shook his head and said: "What are you doing for her? Of course, if they are not relatives, they should be left to Liu Xianyang."

Ning Yao suddenly asked curiously: "If Ruan Xiu is here, wouldn't you give it to Chen Dui instead of Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Pingan nodded: "Of course."

Ning Yao asked again, "Then if you only have two wild fruits in your hand, will you give them to me or to Ruan Xiu?"

Chen Pingan said without hesitation: "One for you and one for Ruan Xiu. I think you can eat it."

Chen Pingan was attacked again and rubbed his lower back. , innocently said: "Miss Ning, what are you doing?"

Ning Yao asked again, "What if there is only one?"

Chen Pingan chuckled and said: "Here it is. "

Ning Yao: "Why?"

Chen Ping'an was both cunning and sincere: "Aunt Ruan.Mom is not here, but Miss Ning, you are here. "

The young man suffered two heavy blows to his lower back instantly. The pain caused Chen Ping'an to stand up quickly and jump up and down. In this way, Ning Yao fell into the big basket.

Chen Pingan quickly pulled her out of the carrier.

Ning Yao was not angry at all, but glared at Chen Pingan.

Chen Pingan adjusted the carrier. The two sat back to back again.

Ning Yao asked: "Do you know what that tree is? "

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said: "I don't know. I've only seen it in this place. It doesn't seem to be found on other mountains." "

Ning Yao said in a deep voice: "It is said that if a regular script tree grows in a family tomb, it is an auspicious sign that a Confucian saint is about to be born, and this saint must be extremely upright and full of righteousness, so in this world of yours. , will definitely get special favor. "

Chen Ping'an said oh.

What kind of Confucian saint, auspicious and righteous, this straw-shoe boy can't understand.

Ning Yao asked : "Don't you envy that woman on the mountain? I have never thought about why this regular tree does not grow on the graves of my ancestors?

Chen Ping'an answered the question and said happily: "This year's Qingming Festival, I can still visit the graves of my parents. It's great." ”

Ning Yao stood up suddenly, and this time it was Chen Ping’an’s turn to sit in the basket.

Ning Yao was laughing beside him.

—— ——

There are only five Meng children left in the small town school, with different backgrounds and ages. Among them is a little girl wearing a red cotton-padded jacket. Although she was born in Fulu Street, she He never bullies anyone in the school, but he doesn't like to join in the fun. He always likes to wander around by himself. Li Er's son, Li Huai, from the family in the west of the town, is also studying in this country school. His parents take his sister. After leaving the town, he was the only one left behind. Instead of crying, Li Huai was so happy that he finally no longer had to be controlled. But at night, the child who was staying at his uncle's house had a nightmare and woke up. , began to howl heartbreakingly, but the uncle and aunt who were awakened joined forces to suppress it. One used a feather duster and the other used a broom.

The remaining three people were from Taoye Lane, Qilong Lane, and Xing. Hua Xiang, two boys and one girl.

After class, Mr. Qi gave each of them a painting and asked them to keep it carefully and copy it carefully, saying that he would check their homework in three days.

That’s the word Qi.

After Meng Xue left, the old man sweeping the floor came to sit on the floor outside Mr. Qi’s study after bathing and changing clothes. >The old man asked a question about the Confucian classic "Spring King's First Moon".

Qi Jingchun smiled knowingly and explained what spring is, what the king is, and what the right month is.

This is the "asking questions" unique to the major Confucian academies. In the classroom, there will be an "asking teacher" who can ask the lecturer several questions, ten questions or evenHundreds of questions.

This confrontation happened when Mr. Qi and the old man met for the first time.

That was eighty years ago.

However, Qi Jingchun was the one who asked the question at that time, and the person who answered was their common husband.

After asking all the questions, the old man looked at Qi Jingchun, "Do you still remember your husband's parting words before we went to Cliff Academy?"

Qi Jingchun smiled but said nothing.

The old man asked himself and answered, "The sentence given to me is, 'Heaven and earth give birth to a gentleman, and a gentleman governs heaven and earth.' The sentence given to you is, 'Learning is impossible. Green comes from blue, and The old man was suddenly very excited and said, "Sir, I value you so much. I hope you will be better than the blue! Why do you want to stay here and fight for a small house?" There are only five or six thousand people in the town, so why don’t you give up a hundred years of cultivation and a thousand years of Dao? It’s just an ordinary scholar. You are Qi Jingchun, the most valued disciple of our husband! Is it possible to make a difference and even establish a religion? Scholar!"

The old man trembled and said: "I know, it is Buddhism that misleads you! Why are all living beings equal? ​​Have you forgotten what the teacher said about nobleness and inferiority..."

Qi Jingchun shook his head with a smile and said: "Although you are a gentleman, you are naturally very knowledgeable, but the truth may not be completely correct."

The old man was extremely shocked, with a look of astonishment on his face, and then shouted angrily: "Literary Master , so you should straighten your body!"

Qi Jingchun replied with a smile, "A gentleman always makes mistakes, and always stretches himself."

It seems to be for no reason, but there are hundreds of thousands of people. , but after the old man heard it, his expression changed drastically, full of surprise and suspicion.

Qi Jingchun sighed, looked at the fellow junior who had been following him here for a year, and said seriously: "The matter is over. I will entrust you to send those children to the Cliff Academy."

The old man nodded, stood up and left with a complicated expression.

Qi Jingchun said to herself: "Sir, is there any true justice in this world?"

————

Two carriages were far away in the sky Before dawn, we set off from Fulu Street and left the town early.

At dawn, a boy with straw sandals carried two big cloth bags and set off to wait for others outside the kiln superintendent's office.

One bag contained bags of gold and copper coins, and the other bag contained snake gallstones that he thought were the most valuable.

But when it was daybreak, the government office porter came out with a broom to clean the streets, and the young man did not see the carriage setting off.

He had no choice but to shamelessly ask the group of guests named Chen Dui at the government office when they would set off from Fulu Street.

The concierge smiled and said that they had left the town long ago.

The straw-shoe boy was stunned. Didn’t Liu Xianyang make an appointment with him to leave only after dawn?

At that moment, the young man’s vision was a little blurry.

After thanking the concierge, the young man began to turn aroundRunning wildly.

Running out of the town, the boy ran for nearly sixty miles in one breath. Finally, he walked along a slope. The exhausted boy walked to the top of the slope and looked at the winding road, moving forward. Extend out.

The young man squatted on the top of the mountain, with copper coins and stones that he had not given away at his feet.

A girl with a sword sitting quietly next to him, panting, and said angrily: "Aren't you a money-loving person who loves money? Why are you so generous? All your belongings are going to be given away? Even if Liu Xianyang is your friend, he is not as lavish as you."

The young man just held his head and looked into the distance.