Sword of Coming

Although the sky was dark, it was actually not too late. In addition, the courtyard of Qiulu Inn was exquisitely and elegantly decorated. Li Huaicai touched the east and west and felt no sleep at all. While Chen Ping'an was carving the hosta, the child simply moved out. Place the wooden box presented by the Land Master of Qidun Mountain across the table. Put the painted puppets and the five clay figurines presented by Wei Jin, the swordsman of Fengxue Temple, into it. Then put the book purchased from Hongzhu Town. "Broken Water Cliff" is also thrown in.

After the "move", this long box made of delicate yellow and dark wood still had room to spare. The wooden box turned red. Qidunshan Wei Bo said that it was because it had been buried in the soil for countless years, and the color gradually turned from yellow to red. , the wood not only did not rot, but produced a strange fragrance. At this time, Li Huai put his head on the wooden box and smelled it carefully. The fragrance was still the same and had not faded, no worse than when he took it out to smell it at the Pillow Station.

Li Huai started to crack his fingers, left his hometown and small town, traveled far away to study, and slept in the open air all the way. He Li Huai relied on hard work and still gained a little. In addition to the most precious small green bamboo bookcase in the corner, there was also this charming little bookcase. The yellow wooden box, puppets and clay figurines actually housed a few valuable silverfish in the book "Broken Water Cliff", as well as the green fish that was slapped into the book by A Liang, but Li Huai I don't like reading, so I rarely read this book, which cost Chen Pingan nearly ten taels of silver.

At this moment, looking at Chen Pingan, who was concentrating on carving words on the hairpin, Li Huai thought that he had spent so much money, but he didn't read the book much. When buying the book, he vowed to tell Chen Pingan that he would definitely read the book, which made the child a little agitated. Feeling guilty, Li Huai took out the seemingly brand-new "Broken Water Cliff" from the wooden box, opened a page at random, and began to read the text silently. Li Huai planned to make his conscience feel better.

Li Huai patted his head and remembered something. He quickly reached into his collar and touched a pocket sewn by his sister Li Liu. He twisted out an oil paper bag, shook it towards Chen Pingan, and grinned: "Chen Pingan, Do you know what this is?"

Chen Pingan carefully put down the hairpin and carving knife, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "What is it?"

With a proud face, Li Huai took out a neatly folded piece of paper from the oil paper bag and explained: "At that time, people kept leaving the school, and in the end only me, Li Baoping, Lin Shouyi, Shi Chunjia and Dong Shuijing were left. Five. In the last class, the teacher gave each of us a copybook with the word "Qi" written on it. We were asked to copy it carefully, saying it was homework. Later, the teacher did not take back the original copybook. During this study tour, my mother I think the word "sir", even though it is neatly written, is not as good as the big characters on the Spring Festival couplets next door, which are heavy and powerful. But at least I have a master-disciple relationship with Mr. Qi, so I can keep it as a thought. I asked my sister to secretly sew a pocket inside the clothes and put them in oil paper bags. Later I asked Li Baoping and Lin Shouyi. Li Baoping said he didn’t know where he had thrown them, but Lin Shouyi said he had put them at home. I’m afraid it might get lost or damaged if I take it out.”

Li Huai opened the folded paper and gently smoothed the wrinkles, only to see the small copybook, which was square and about the size of a palm.

Li Huai stared at the word for a moment, then raised his head and said seriously: "Chen Ping'an, I'll give this word Qi to you. It's useless for me to keep it. Besides, I often forget about things."

Chen Pingan shook his head and smiled: "If you are afraid of losing it, I can help you keep it temporarily before arriving at Sui Academy. But since this is the homework given to you by Mr. Qi, then as Mr. Qi's student and disciple, you can keep it for you temporarily. It should be treasured well, even if Mr. Qi is gone, there is no need to copy it, but as your mother said, keep the copybook to yourself, at least it is a thought."

Li Huai nodded, casually placed the copybook between the pages of the book, then closed "Broken Water Cliff" and threw it into the wooden box.

Little did he know that among the pages of the book, the three silverfish and the green fish hidden in different pages left the text somewhere in the original book, swam quickly through the gaps between the lines, and finally quickly entered the picture of the same-character poster. A true fish in water, extremely happy.

Compared with Li Huai's bumper harvest, Lin Shouyi is actually not bad. He has a large pile of ancient talismans with high and low grades and good and bad materials. The "Searching Mountain Picture" with more than a hundred kinds of mountain spirits and ghosts was a gift from the blind old Taoist. Because Chen Ping'an gave the lame boy a snake gallstone of excellent quality, as a gift, the old Taoist took it out. This painting claimed to be an ancestral treasure of the master's family, and was donated to Lin Shouyi by Chen Ping'an.

As for Li Baoping, there are more famous sword auspicious symbols and silver sword-raising gourds. There are not many things, just two pieces, but they are all important weapons of the immortal family that are coveted by monks in the world.

Only Chen Ping'an, who contributed the most, seemed to end up with only that slightly withered and shriveled pale golden lotus seed. Now he doesn't even know what use it is, and now he is in debt with the boy in white.

Li Huai lay on the table and repeated his old tune: "Lin Shou's family is very rich, but the identity of the illegitimate son is very embarrassing, so this guy may be more sensitive. Chen Ping'an, don't be like him."

Chen Ping'an nodded, "I'll go back and tell him and it will be fine."

Li Huai said out of nowhere, "Good people and honest people suffer. My father is like this, and so are you, Chen Pingan. Otherwise, you should stop being a good person in the future and think more about yourself in the future. There is no need to tolerate others in everything." . Otherwise, if you don’t do anything, Li Baoping, who recognizes you as his junior uncle, will be furious to death.”

Mentioning Li Baoping, Chen Pingan couldn't help laughing and asked: "Baoping always bullies you, why do you never fight back?"

Li Huai blurted out in a matter-of-fact manner: "I don't dare, I can't beat her!"

Chen Ping'an laughed loudly, and the fatigue of working hard to carve the words was instantly gone.

Li Huai looked at Chen Pingan, who was laughing happily, and the child also laughed happily, because in his impression, Chen Pingan did not smile like that. Normally, Chen Pingan, no matter what he did or said, was always very restrained and reserved, for fear of saying something wrong. Did something wrong.

Li Huai then thought of his father, who seemed to have the same virtue. He pursed his lips, even if he was happy, and drooped his eyebrows, but he was not happy.

Li Huai hesitated for a moment, but still planned to tell Chen Pingan what was deep in his heart. The child, whose head was resting on the table, stretched his neck, lowered his voice, and asked mysteriously: "Do you know why I always let Li Aquarius?"

Chen Pingan joked: "Do you like her?"

Li Huai rolled his eyes, "How is it possible? I'm only so young! Besides, I'm not Lin Shouyi and Dong Shuijing, two perverts. Every time my sister comes to school to help me bring things, those two guys My eyes were so wide open that they dropped to the floor. Especially Dong Shuijing. Every time he found an excuse to go to my house to play, he would become very sick when my sister was not around. As soon as my sister came home, Dong Shuijing felt as if he had been injected with chicken blood. Yes, I can't wait to fill two large water tanks for my family. My mother likes Dong Shuijing more and thinks he is honest, just like my father. My sister probably prefers Lin Shouyi, who is gentle and elegant. Like a scholar."

After saying bad things about Lin Shouyi and Dong Shuijing, Li Huai turned back to the topic with a gloomy expression: "Everyone in the school laughed at my father, saying that he was the most useless man in the town. He was a wife-in-law and had no future. The son of a mouse can dig holes, so his son, that is, me, is the most useless in studying. Every time my husband takes exams, I am always at the bottom. .”

Li Huai grinned and narrowed his eyes, "Li Baoping's family background is the best in the school, but she doesn't play with anyone, including Lin Shouyi. She just flies around like a gust of wind every day, forever. She was the last one to come to class and the first one to disappear after class. Although she would find me noisy and like to beat me up whenever something happened. But she never laughed at my father. Once my father came to the school to see me, everyone disliked me. Only Li Baoping was willing to lead the way for my father and even called him Uncle Li, which made my father happy for many days. Every time someone deliberately made a joke about my father in front of me, Li Baoping would always stop them and not allow them to do so. They said bad things about my dad."

Chen Ping'an sighed: "So that's it. By the way, Li Huai, do you have the person you hate the most?"

Li Huai was stunned, "No, every time I get home, I eat a delicious and fat chicken drumstick, and listen to my mother scolding my father and my sister over trivial matters, all my unhappiness disappears."

Chen Pingan directly twisted the wick with his fingers to make the light brighter, and said with a smile: "You are awesome."

Li Huai asked doubtfully: "What's so great about me? I don't think you're afraid of getting burned badly. You don't need to wear straw sandals when going up mountains and rivers. If you can cut firewood and fish, that's what's so great. A wild girl like Li Baoping is very good." When I was little, I liked to climb trees, and then shout, "Fly, fly, fly," and then fall to the ground with a plop. I never cried, but stood up on my own, and finally limped home. In order to avoid walking wrong and being noticed by the elders in the family, She will deliberately delay going home until very late, and even someone like her, who is not afraid of anything, thinks you are the most amazing person in the world."

Chen Pingan picked up the carving knife again, "When you grow up, you will know why you are so powerful."

Li Huai didn't understand what he heard. He looked at the hairpins with growing envy, "When will you give us the hairpins?"

Chen Ping'an stopped carving and said, "Let's go to Sui Academy."

Li Huai asked: "Why did you give that painting "Searching Mountains" to Lin Shouyi? I can see that you like it very much."

Chen Ping'an held up a jade hairpin and carefully stared at the fine lines on the hairpin by the light. "I'm afraid that I can't hold the good things. You are not outsiders. I give it to you. I don't feel bad."

Li Huai didn't open any pot, and asked tentatively: "You spend two thousand taels of silver in one night, don't you feel bad?"

Chen Ping'an put down the hosta and carving knife, put them back into the box, and said with a straight face: "I have to go for a walk. If I take a few more steps to see the scenery, I can think of it as earning a few taels of silver."

Li Huai turned to look at Chen Ping'an's back, and the child was secretly happy.

Li Huai waited until Chen Pingan closed the door and silently told himself that he must give Chen Pingan something of the best in the future.

Because this guy has walked through so many mountains and rivers along the way. He just accompanied his timid self to pee and poop in a distant place, and then stood not far away to talk to him. I don’t know how many times.

Chen Ping'an didn't dare to wander around and walked towards the pavilion. He saw Lin Shouyi sitting there as expected. He didn't dare to disturb the mountain god who was the first to stand out among the team. He watched from a distance for a while and was about to turn around and leave. When he went, he saw Lin Shou stood up and waved to him.

Chen Ping'an walked into the pavilion. Compared with the handsome young man before walking into Qiulu Inn, Lin Shouyi seemed to be more elegant now.

Lin Shou picked a topic that was not embarrassing, "That Cui Dongshan borrowed a talisman from me, broke the rules of the inn, walked out of the pavilion, jumped into the old well, and disappeared."

Chen Pingan said softly: "Whether Cui Dongshan is dead or alive, I can't care about it, and I won't care about it."

Lin Shouyi held it in for a long time, then turned to look at the well, "I know you have good intentions about staying at Qiulu Inn, but you should have said hello to me in advance."

Chen Pingan nodded and said: "I will do it in the future."

Lin Shou turned his head and carefully looked at the straw-shoe boy's face and eyes, "That's it?"

Chen Pingan asked back: "Otherwise?"

Lin Shouyi laughed at himself: "I thought you would reason with me, or be straightforward, roll up your sleeves and hit me before you say anything. I'm actually ready to fight back or scold you."

Chen Pingan shook his head and said nothing. He leaned against the pillar of the pavilion and looked at the well at the ruins of the Old City God. Chen Pingan could not see anything special about it.

Lin Shouyi looked at Chen Pingan and said, "I'm sorry."

Chen Pingan smiled and waved his hands, sat cross-legged, and then stared at Laoshuijing without blinking.

Lin Shouyi was relieved, and then asked in confusion: "What are you doing?"

The straw-shoe boy said seriously: "I want to get my money back!"

The stern young man who was already a practitioner quickly reached out and rubbed his cheeks vigorously, just to prevent himself from laughing.

On the bank of Hanshi River, Dashui Mansion.

The man in green robe on the main seat looked at the guests in the hall. People kept getting up to raise their glasses and toast, saying words of praise and praise, which inevitably showed some complacency.

Just now, a well-known literary man in both the government and the public stood up to toast again, saying that all the good weather in this county for so many years was due to him, the water god. In his words, the good or bad livelihood of the people in this county has nothing to do with the county governor named Wei. . The key point is this kind of naked flattery. There was a person here, wearing the official uniform of Huang Tingguo, a third-grade official. He stood up and toasted without hesitation, echoed the literary giant, and was full of beautiful words. As a high-ranking official of the third grade, he was from the same state. The person with the highest official rank in this sacrificial ceremony, facing him sitting high on the throne, kept talking about the water god.

Once you become a god who enjoys incense, your name and family during your lifetime are all taboo. As for the people who can meet the gods, they are taboo. Generally, you need to pay attention to this and will not name them.

The term "Master" is a relatively safe popular title. There are different opinions as to why this is so. One of the most conclusive theories is that one of the three direct disciples of Daozu likes to call his mentor "Laoye", and Daozu happily accepts it. , so it has been passed down to this day.

The green-robed man slowly withdrew his gaze. There were four confidants sitting on the left and right sides of the hall, following him to fight in all directions. The elders were more than three hundred years old, and the short ones were more than a hundred years. Before one of them transformed into a human form, he was A bright red carp has a sworn brotherhood with a carp spirit named Yexiu from the Chongdan River in Dali.

However, this carp spirit has a mission at this time and his position is vacant.

One is a water snake who has become a spirit. He uses a pair of iron maces, which are immortal relics he accidentally obtained. Every time he fights with someone, he likes to smash the opponent's head with the iron mace. He likes to devour boys and girls, but is restrained by the man in green robe. He only goes out to look for food occasionally and does not dare to be too unscrupulous.

There is another person who was born as a water-blocking toad. He has the best talent, but he is lazy by nature and has the lowest level. He is just gifted and can easily swallow a large amount of river water at the forks of the river. As long as he does not close his mouth, he can keep drawing water. Non-stop, never bursting your belly. Therefore, no one dared to bully him, and he was highly regarded by the man in green robe. Two river water gods who once joined forces to cause trouble gathered many forces and tried to overthrow the man in green robe. The Hanshi River God's right-hand man was ordered to sneak ashore and sneak into the source of a river. Then he revealed his true body, as big as a mountain, and swallowed the source of the river forcefully, forcing the River God to surrender without a fight, causing another The river god was left alone and helpless, and was finally beaten to pieces by a man in green robes. The temple and golden body were smashed, and all the pieces sank somewhere at the bottom of the Hanshi River, where he would never be reincarnated.

The last one is a bit out of place. He has a beautiful beard and a scholar's shirt. He is elegant and elegant. If his face were not dark and green, he looks different from the living people in the world. He looks like a middle-aged Confucian scholar from a scholarly family.

The Hanshi River is eight hundred miles long and passes through the boundaries of three states and eight counties. Therefore, the northern part of Huangting Kingdom needs to rely on the nourishment of this river. Although this person has never been known for his fighting prowess in this large water mansion, he is recognized as the chief military advisor. He always hides behind the scenes and makes suggestions for the water god. He does not like to form cliques and act independently.

Half of the beautiful maids serving tea and wine in the lobby are human beauties, and the other half of the women who apply special makeup to cover up the aura of the corpse are water ghosts who fell into the water and died.

Water ghosts in the world, whether they die by drowning or commit suicide, naturally not everyone can become a water ghost. After death, the anger must be difficult to eliminate, as well as the innate physique before death and the time of death. With the combination of the three, luckily the souls can be condensed together, and there is a possibility of being accepted as a maid in the Dashui Mansion. Among them, there are water ghosts who are destroyed by the strong wind and continue to disappear into smoke.

For example, the soul-beating wind and soul-blowing wind blowing in the golden autumn season. Among the five elements, gold is the main force. The two winds, one during the day and the other at night, take turns to drift. They are one of the natural enemies of ghosts and ghosts. What is called in the world "the souls are flying away". , this is one of the sources. The two winds generally only pose a threat to yin objects, but if a living person is extremely weak and has a thin blessing, he may also be injured by this wind.

There is also the so-called execution after autumn. The imperial government usually carries out executions in autumn. This is to prevent evil spirits from appearing.

In addition, the bursts of spring thunder that ordinary people have heard of are really like a drum to the evil and evil creatures, and they are even more difficult to pass.

It can be seen from this that if it is not easy to be a human being, it seems that it is not easy to be a ghost either.

In addition to the four close generals of Dashui Mansion, there were also guests who came to congratulate him.

The most pleasing figure to the man in green robe is of course the now-famous literary giant. Back then he was just a poor scholar who accidentally fell into trouble. It's a pity that this person is really not an official. Even with the support of his water god, he still only reached the sixth rank of official, and he couldn't survive. In the end, he simply announced his resignation and retired to the mountains of Hezhou in the north of Huangting Kingdom. , built a luxurious mansion, and became the prime minister of the mountains and forests. After resigning, after more than 20 years of management, he has been known as the gentle patriarch of the Northern Scholars of Huangting Kingdom. He has been advocating and building momentum for the Hanshi River Water God. There are more than twenty poems about the Hanshi River. Every two or three years, a large number of literati and poets are invited to hold poetry gatherings on the Hanshi River. They spend a lot of money, win and go, have courtesans and beautiful maids, and are extremely elegant.

As for the grandson of a literary tycoon who rose through the ranks in the Huang Ting Kingdom temple but who had mediocre abilities and became a spiritual practitioner, no one was willing to delve into it, or in other words, they didn’t have the guts to get to the bottom of it.

The leader of the literary world, who calls himself Huang Lao Taoist, is having a lively chat with Mr. Biejia, laughing heartily.

Biejia is the nominal third-in-command in a state. The top one is of course the governor, followed by the generals who are stationed in the local area and hold military power. Huang Ting's military generals were weak, and the temples valued literature over military affairs. Therefore, Biejia's official authority was often higher than that of a state general. The significance of Biejia's existence was mostly used by the emperor to restrain and balance the governor.

At this time, everyone subconsciously stopped talking and turned to look in the direction of the door. They saw an armored man with two long beards on his cheeks, striding into the hall, holding his fists and laughing: "Report to the master, that man who doesn't know the heights of heaven and earth." The casual cultivator is dead and his head was broken by me myself, no accident."

The man in green robe first glanced at the expression of a white-haired old man in the hall, and found that the burly man with a short halberd on his waist was hesitant to speak, so he smiled and said: "If you fart, let it go."

This man was the man who went to Qiulu Inn through Laoshuijing. He was a red carp. He grinned and said cheerfully: "Before the death of that young cultivator, he made a lot of scandals. Is it yours?" There are some big families in the county, and of course the most common one is the county guard named Wei. He is very unpleasant to listen to. His ancestors have scolded him back and forth several times for eighteen generations. If I hadn’t acted quickly, I’m afraid that guy named Wei , whether you peed your pants when you were a child, you have to tell this guy. If nothing happens, the county town will be full of trouble tomorrow, and it will all be a joke to Governor Wei."

The man in green robe was obviously surprised, "Oh?"

The burly carp spirit was about to speak when the green-robed man waved his hand, signaling him to return to his seat quickly and stop talking nonsense. The former had to sit down obediently and glanced at the man who looked like a scribe. The latter smiled and nodded, indicating that he should be calm and calm. The man then let go and ate large pieces of meat and drank wine from large bowls.

After hearing the news that the casual cultivator died suddenly in the county town, there was a young man with a sick face in the scene. He immediately couldn't hide his smile and drank frequently.

In the county town, the governor surnamed Wei was depressed, and the young casual cultivator died without a complete body.

The guests of honor were enjoying themselves in Dashui Mansion.

The contrast is stark.

The green-robed man suddenly raised his head and looked at the door. Hanshijiang Zhengshen had a gloomy look in his eyes.

There was a young man in white clothes with a beautiful tree facing the wind, standing quietly outside the door. He was reaching out to pat his sleeves and flicking away some water drops. Finally, the young man stepped across the tall threshold, looked around, and said with a playful smile: "There are no ghosts, no ghosts, no humans." No, it’s weird, weird, really weird.”