"Is there a visible sword or an invisible sword?" Liu Ling seemed to have some realization.
"Ten years ago, the unknown swordsman carried a sword. Liu Xia asked, it was for the sword-controlling style." Xie Xuan said, "And there is another kind of person, like me, who cultivates the invisible sword, which is the air sword."
"That's it." Liu Ling nodded.
"Yuan Fang, follow me to practice sword practice tomorrow. Make sure to keep every move in mind." Xie Xuan first ordered Yuan Fang, and then said to Bai Ze: "Tomorrow, you go to the Xuanquan Waterfall in the back mountain, and come back in the evening and tell me that you What did you see?"
"Do I no longer need Liu Jian?" Bai Ze asked.
"How can a swordsman be without a sword?" Xie Xuan smiled lightly, "Until you learn the invisible sword, you must not abandon the sword."
"Okay!" Bai Ze agreed, then touched his stomach, "Have you had dinner? My stomach is growling with hunger!"
"Ah, this is for you!" Caiyun ran to Bai Zeqian, took his right hand, stuffed a green fruit candy into his hand, looked at the boy who was about the same height as her, and said: "There are all the children in the village. The old god gave me two, and I will give you one!"
"Thank you, Miss~" Bai Ze grinned, looked at Caiyun's little face as white as a glutinous rice dumpling, reached out and pinched it, threw the fruit candy into his mouth, and chewed it wholeheartedly, "It's so sweet!"
"Yeah!" Caiyun smiled with crooked eyebrows and ran away jumping, "I'll see you tomorrow, I'll go home for dinner, bye!" waved vigorously.
"Bye~" Bai Ze said.
One night without words, the next day.
"Master, I'm going out!" Bai Ze finished breakfast, rushed out of the room with Liu Jian, and headed straight for the back mountain.
"Well, you don't have to come back at noon. You can eat by yourself." Xie Xuan sat in the yard drinking tea with Liu Ling and asked him: "Can you play Go?"
"The old boy is scared and doesn't know why." Liu Ling said.
"Let's do this," Xie Xuan saw Chen Yuanfang going out and said, "I'll teach Yuan Fang how to practice swordsmanship first, and then I'll teach you how to play chess. How about that?"
"It's up to you." Liu Ling nodded.
Xie Xuan took a sip of wine, placed the gourd on the stone table under the ancient locust tree, stood up, and motioned Yuan Fang to come forward: "Come, from now on, for daily homework, raise the sword in your right hand, level with your shoulder, and tie your legs Horse step, one hour."
"Yes!" Yuan Fang had no doubts and followed the instructions.
"Okay, in an hour I will teach you the Taoist Thirty-Six Tiangang Sword Techniques. How much you can understand depends entirely on luck." Xie Xuan said, picked up the wine pot, hung it on his waist, and said to Liu Ling: "You follow me. Go across the river and find a flat bluestone to make a chessboard. Then pick some black and white pebbles to make chess pieces."
"Okay." Liu Ling followed Xie Xuan out of the firewood gate of the courtyard and walked for more than ten feet. Finally, she couldn't help but asked, "Dare you dare to ask me, my dear friend, that sword you made last night was really useless?"
"Excellent talent, but evil ways." Xie Xuan commented, shaking his head with a smile.
"What do you think, the Taoist Master, is Yuan Fang's qualifications?" Liu Ling asked again.
"No surprise, it's acceptable." Xie Xuan said.
"Where do you think, Taoist Master, Yuan Fang can reach on his path of cultivation?" Liu Ling thought for a while and asked.
"Earlier, Bai Ze asked me a similar question." Xie Xuan said, standing on his staff, "He asked me, between the geniuses and mediocre people, who can reach the peak of heaven."
"How does Taoist Master give the answer?" Liu Ling's heart moved, her eyes brightened, and she asked.
"Is it important?" Xie Xuan said, sighing leisurely, "Of the Nineteenth Heaven's Dao, who is really sure that he can seize that glimmer of heaven to prove the Heaven's Dao? Everyone's obsession with the Dao is endless. Same thing, we can just let the two of them deal with this problem, why should we care?"
"I understand." Liu Ling felt relieved.
In the evening, Xie Xuan and Liu Ling were playing Go in the courtyard of the village chief's house. The evening breeze carried the scent of tea. They filled half of the chessboard with one piece and one piece.
Bai Ze stepped on the sunset and whistled to Chaimen. He saw that Yuan Fang was still practicing sword moves one by one. His whole body was wet with sweat, his legs and hands were shaking faintly, and he was still gritting his teeth and persisting.
"Come back?" Xie Xuan heard the whistle stop and asked Bai Ze: "What did you see in the back mountain?"
"The hanging springs and waterfalls are as silver as dragons." Bai Ze replied.
"Yes." Xie Xuan nodded and said, "Go to the back mountain tomorrow and have a look. Come back in the evening and tell me what you saw."
"Okay." Bai Ze knew as soon as he heard the master's tone that this answer was not what he wanted.
"Yuan Fang, you should take a rest and practice again tomorrow." Xie Xuan added, "Clean up and get ready for dinner."
"Okay!" Yuan Fang stopped, stuck the willow sword on the ground, took a deep breath, sweated like water, and his eyes were stained by the salty sweat and hurt.
"Bai Ze!" Caiyun waved to him from the other side of the fence, holding five slices of green onion pancakes, "My mother asked me to give them to you. They are just out of the pan and they are delicious!"
She stood on her tiptoes and handed the green onion pancake over the fence.
Bai Ze ran over, took the big cake that had just come out of the pan, smelled it, and was full of praise: "It smells so good! Mother Caiyun's craftsmanship is so good. When Caiyun grows up, she will definitely be as ingenious as mother."
"Humph, of course!" Caiyun was elated by the praise and said, "Then when I grow up, will you still be in the village? I heard from the village chief's grandpa that you and the old god traveled around the world, and I don't know when you will leave Liu. Where is the village?"
As she said this, the little girl became a little sad.
Bai Ze stretched out his hand to silence the little girl's head and said, "What does it matter? When I reach my peak cultivation, I can travel three thousand miles in the wind! Isn't it easy to come back to Liuzhuang and eat the green onion pancakes you made?"
"Wow, so awesome!" Caiyun looked at Bai Ze with admiration, her face flushed, and said, "Now that brother Yuan Fang has achieved great success, can we also fly with swords and come to your house to find you?"
"Of course." Bai Ze said, greeted Yuan Fang and shouted: "Did you hear that, Yuan Fang! In order for me to be able to eat such fragrant scallion pancakes in the future, we both have to work hard!"
Chen Yuanfang smiled firmly and nodded, "Yeah!"
"Then I'm going home. See you tomorrow!" Caiyun trotted all the way back home for dinner.
The next day, Bai Ze went out early in the morning as before and returned to Liuzhuang in the evening under the sunset. When he opened the door, Yuan Fang was still practicing his sword, still as tired as yesterday.
"What did you see?" Xie Xuan asked him directly.
"It's just a waterfall." Bai Ze replied.
"See you tomorrow." Xie Xuan said after taking a sip of wine.
"Okay." Bai Ze nodded.
On the third day, Bai Ze lay on the big bluestone beside the pool in the back mountain, bathing in the morning sun, listening to the birds chirping, and watching the dogs in the white clouds.
"The day before yesterday, I said that the waterfall was like silver and like a dragon. After thinking about it later, practitioners should not be fooled by the appearance of things, but should go straight to the essence. So yesterday I said that a waterfall is a waterfall, but why is Master still not satisfied?" Bai Ze was puzzled. The answer is, "Could it be that what I see is not a waterfall, but water? Water is indeed more primitive than the word waterfall, but is this the answer that Master wants?"
He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice anyone approaching quietly.
"Hey, Bai Ze, what are you thinking about?" Caiyun saw her coming for a long time. Bai Ze was still dazed, lying on the big bluestone, holding his chin with both hands: "I see brother Yuan Fang practices sword hard every day, why? You don’t need to practice, you are here to see the waterfall every day, what’s so good about the waterfall?”
Bai Ze suddenly came back to his senses, stood up, and said: "Master asked me to see it, and then I go back every evening and tell him what I saw."
"Ah, that's it." Caiyun understood.
"Caiyun, look at this waterfall, what does it look like?" Bai Ze suddenly asked her, but felt something was wrong, so he changed his words: "No, look at this waterfall, what does it look like?"
"A waterfall is a waterfall." Caiyun was confused by the question and said in confusion: "It's just Bai Ze. I'm very surprised. Can you practice your sword like brother Yuan Fang by watching the waterfall every day?"
"Sword practice?" Bai Ze was stunned and finally realized something was wrong.
The master agreed that day to teach two people how to practice swordsmanship, but why did he only teach Yuan Fang and not himself?
Xie Xuan, the Sword Emperor of Kyushu and the one who "breaks the secrets of heaven with one finger," would never do anything meaningless. He made himself watch waterfalls every day. What if this thing itself was teaching him how to practice swordsmanship? !
"Ah, I understand!" Bai Ze suddenly understood. He stood up and laughed loudly. He hugged Caiyun, lifted her onto the bluestone, held her waist and spun her around three times, and kissed her cheek happily. "Caiyun, thank you! I figured it out. Master asked me to see the waterfall, but he actually wanted me to see the sword! I understand, I understand!"
"Ouch!" Caiyun was startled by Bai Ze and struggled to push him away. Unexpectedly, the boy, who was about the same height as her, was so strong that he couldn't move at all when pushed.
"Put me down quickly!" Caiyun shouted.
"Okay!" Bai Ze put her down and said, "To thank you, I'll treat you to grilled fish! If it weren't for you, it might have taken me a long time to figure out the question Master asked me."
"Humph, I don't want it!" Caiyun said, pretending to be angry and clasping her hands, "How can the grilled fish you cook be as delicious as the food cooked by my mother?"
"It's guaranteed to be good!" Bai Ze vowed, "You must eat it. This is my thanks to you. If you don't eat it, you don't care about me!"
"Okay then." Caiyun reluctantly agreed and waved to Bai Ze, "Come here."
"What are you doing?" Bai Ze approached.
Caiyun took him by surprise and kissed Bai Ze on the cheek, and then said, "Just now you kissed me while I wasn't paying attention! Now I'm kissing you back, I won't suffer any loss, hehe."
Bai Ze: "..." I thought that no matter what I thought, you would be the loser, but I didn't dare to say it out.
In the evening, Bai Ze returned to Liuzhuang again under the sunset. Xie Xuan and Liu Ling were still playing chess, Yuan Fang was still practicing swordplay, and the village chief was busy cooking dinner in the kitchen.
"What did you see today?" Xie Xuan asked.
"What I saw today was a sword." Bai Ze said, "The hanging spring waterfall looks like a sword coming from the sky."
Xie Xuan smiled and said, "Okay. You can understand this in three days, not bad. Then let me ask you," pointing to the locust tree next to him, "What is this locust tree?"
"It's a sword." Bai Ze replied.
"The hanging spring waterfall has the shape of a sword. The locust tree does not have the shape of a sword, so why is it a sword?" Xie Xuan asked.
"The hanging spring waterfall has the agility of a sword. This tree has the tranquility of a sword. Therefore, it is also a sword." Bai Ze said.
"Does that mean that everything in the world is a sword?" Xie Xuan asked again.
"Yes." Bai Ze said, "Everything is a sword."
"Yes, qualified." Xie Xuan said, "Tonight, at midnight, come with me to the back mountain. I will teach you a sword as my master."
