It was the darkest moment before dawn. Although the canyon was not wide, it was bottomless. Gu Shengchao had no choice but to use the Nine Heavens Blue Falling Palm, using his strong internal force to continuously strike at the bottom. Fortunately, the canyon was not deep. I was just scared because I couldn't see below. Gu Shengchao landed safely.
He looked up at the sky, and the sky above him suddenly became bright. The ancient sage was so happy that he climbed up using his hands and feet.
Birds began to chirp in the dense forest, and apes cried one after another. Gu Shengchao took a few steps forward and felt the heavy breath of the man who had broken his right arm. He walked over quietly and stood in front of the man.
The man ran wildly all night and was gasping for air. He felt something strange in front of him. He looked up and saw Gu Shengchao as if he had seen a ghost. He said "Ah" and shivered all over. The man stood up to run, but turned around and struck Gu Shengchao with his sword.
The ancient sage was overjoyed. He had just mastered the Feng Wu sword technique and was about to find someone to compete with him to verify his understanding. He held the sword in his left hand and stabbed straight at it.
The man was stunned. He didn't want to fight desperately, so he twisted the sword in his hand and tried to twist the sword out of Gu Shengchao's hand. The ancient sage's super long sword moved with the situation and easily defeated the threat of the broadsword. Both of them held swords in their left hands and fought together with one sword after another.
Gu Shengchao was not in a hurry to win and worked steadily and step by step. The two fought for more than a hundred rounds. Gu Shengchao slowly figured out the opponent's sword skills and gradually gained the upper hand. Seeing that he couldn't win, the man turned around and ran away with a feint.
There is nothing strange about that man's moves, the key is his strong internal strength. If someone else had run all this way, he would have been unable to run. It is really not easy for him to still have the strength to compete with the Ancient Saint Chao.
This is proven by the fact that Shanqun, the faint king of the Four Kings Valley, has great martial arts skills and cannot recover after being hit by his poisonous palm.
Gu Shengchao made up his mind to keep fighting with him until he was convinced, until he agreed to detoxify Shanqun. If you are a person with a strong personality, you are too powerful. If he pretends to be dead and lets you be slaughtered, he will not be able to achieve the ultimate goal.
The two of them ran from sunrise to noon, from noon to sunset, and from sunset to the east of the next sunrise. Gu Shengchao followed him unhurriedly, but the man finally lost his strength and fell down again. Not moving either.
Gu Shengchao sat next to the man and said sincerely: "What do you call brother?"
The man was out of breath and gasped for breath. After a while, he lost his breath and said, "My name is Zhuang Lutao, from Xileng country."
"Why did the Xileng people come to our Dawu Dynasty?" Gu Shengchao was surprised and confused.
Zhuang Lutao got up with difficulty, sat aside and said, "If you want to kill me, behead him, don't talk so much nonsense."
Gu Shengchao cupped his fists and cupped his hands and said, "Brother Jing is a man. I intend to get acquainted with him without any ill intentions."
Zhuang Lutao snorted disdainfully: "No malicious intent? We just want to collect more herbs. You guys will kill us as soon as you see us, as if we are three-year-old children!"
At this moment, the red sun is rising, and the whole mountain is shrouded in soft pink light, looking peaceful and comfortable.
Gu Shengchao took out a big cake from his arms and handed it to Zhuang Lutao: "Brother Zhuang, have a bite of dry food."
"No, I have it." Zhuang Lutao was still wary of Gu Shengchao. He took out his own dry food, chewed it, took off the water bottle from his waist and took a sip.
The ancient sage's super big cake was dry and hard. He found that the water bag had been left in the wooden house, so he discussed: "Brother Zhuang, can I borrow your kettle to quench my thirst?"
"Aren't you afraid that my water is poisonous?" Zhuang Lutao smiled half-heartedly and placed the kettle between the two of them.
Gu Shengchao picked up the kettle and took a sip, then put it back and said, "Brother Zhuang is a cheerful person, what should I be afraid of?"
The two of them ate their own food in silence. Zhuang Lutao ate quickly. He finished first and asked Gu Shengchao's name. Then he stared at him and asked, "Brother Gu, are you new here?"
"How does Brother Zhuang know?" Gu Shengchao was curious.
Zhuang Lutao gave a rare smile and said: "The swordsmanship is different, the accent is different, and the methods of doing things are even different."
"Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have been a miserable person since I was a child." Gu Shengchao explained. He thought for a moment and asked: "I still don't know why we have to take the risk despite all the hard work from the West Cold Country to us. Going to collect medicine?"
Zhuang Lutao sighed and said: "We are originally from the Central Plains. When the Dawu Dynasty unified the Central Plains, we were implicated and the entire clan was forced to flee to the West Cold Country. Now that the West Cold Country imposes taxes on us, life is even more difficult. Fortunately, they are in urgent need of blindly Herbal medicines are tax-deductible. We searched all over the mountains and found them when we found them. Who knew that your people killed one of us indiscriminately and chopped off my right arm."
"Isn't it okay if we don't collect medicine?" Gu Shengchao asked.
He continued with a sad face: "What can we do? Harsh government is fiercer than a tiger. We know the danger, so we have no choice but to take risks for the survival of our people."
"Then you can't sneak up and hurt people with poisonous palms." Gu Shengchao introduced the topic.
Zhuang Lutao was unconvinced and said: "One of us died. My right arm is gone. He will be bedridden at most. We paid for it with our lives."
Gu Shengchao found that this matter itself was a dead end with no answer. He thought again and again and stood up, showing his sword with his left hand.
Zhuang Lutao was scared, so he sat on the ground and took two steps back uneasily: "What are you going to do?"
Gu Shengchao cupped his fists and said: "Brother Zhuang sacrificed his life for the sake of his clan. I admire him very much. Seeing that Brother Zhuang has strong internal strength but average swordsmanship, I happen to have a set of left-arm sword skills here. I would like to ask Brother Zhuang for advice."
Zhuang Lutao immediately understood that Gu Shengchao wanted to teach him a set of left-arm sword skills. He stood up and said respectfully: "Our tribe's men farm and women weaver live a life without fighting against the world. Most of the martial arts are commonplace. I am also a coincidence. My inner strength has greatly increased, Brother Gu does not dislike me, I am very grateful."
"Brother Zhuang, you're welcome. We are just asking for advice." Gu Shengchao told Zhuang Lutao all about Fengwu swordsmanship without reservation. He did this mainly because he admired the other person's character of being willing to sacrifice for the sake of his clan, and hoped that Zhuang Lutao could do better. Do more good deeds for the people.
After noon, Zhuang Lutao finally fully understood Zhuang Lutao's seriousness in learning and the carefulness of the ancient sage's teachings.
The two of them parted, and Zhuang Lutao looked at Gu Shengchao's back and felt grateful. He couldn't help shouting: "Brother Gu, stay here." When he saw Gu Shengchao, he stopped and stepped forward and said, "Brother Gu, regardless of the past grudges, I will leave him alone right now." Let me tell you how to detoxify."
Gu Shengchao was overjoyed. This was the reason for his trip. He really wanted to plant flowers that would not bloom, but he had no intention of planting willows to create shade. Bailihuan once taught him the method of detoxification. With this foundation, he can learn other skills.
The difficulty of Zhuang Lutao's detoxification technique is to first reverse his own meridians, and the rest of the steps are almost the same as those taught by Bai Lihuan. The key is that if a person is accustomed to the normal operation of his meridians, he will suddenly become dizzy, feel dizzy, feel tight in the chest, feel nauseous, and feel like vomiting. All kinds of discomforts will come one after another. At the least, if he loses weight in martial arts, his life will be difficult to save. How can he still be in the mood to do other things?
An important step in the retrograde meridians is to separate acupoints and meridians from each other. You must know that acupuncture points are like every gate in the meridians. If there is a problem with any gate, the entire meridians will be blocked and stop functioning.
After the two are separated, it does not matter whether the true energy flows normally or retrogradely in the meridians, and it will not cause any harm to the body. When the retrograde Qi is stable and the acupuncture points are gradually returned to their original positions, they will naturally not be affected. Of course, without strong inner strength, no matter how many principles you understand, it is just words on paper and will not have any effect.
Gu Shengchao gradually improved according to Zhuang Lutao's mental formula. It didn't take long, and the retrograde meridians could be converted in just an instant.
The two discussed what they had learned with each other before saying goodbye.
The ancient sage was very sleepy, so he randomly found a towering tree, jumped on it, and lay down in a place with dense branches to rest. When he woke up, another night had passed, but the clouds were gathering and he couldn't tell the time. Anyway, he felt happy that the event had come true, so he hurried back.
Not long after running, it started to rain, so we had to brave the rain and move forward. He galloped all the way, and after running for three days, he still couldn't find Chijin Mountain. He was extremely confused. According to the time and distance, it should be nearby. He searched frantically back and forth, and finally determined one thing.
He is lost.
What's even worse is that the weather is always gloomy, with rain falling from time to time, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the southeast from the northwest.
Gu Shengchao was annoyed, Zhuang Lutao knew the way, it would be better if he could lead the way. Now that things are like this, we can only admit that we are unlucky, and just walk in one direction, and we can always get out no matter where we are.
He traveled all the way over mountains and ridges for more than ten days. He had already finished his dry food and could only catch some hares and pheasants to satisfy his hunger. It was damp and cold everywhere and there was no way to make a fire, so he had to bite the bullet and eat them alive. Living in the open air, like a savage.
On this day when the sky cleared up, Gu Shengchao finally came to a town. He asked passers-by and accidentally arrived at a small border town in Xileng Kingdom called Huaming City. He asked again how to get back to the Dawu Dynasty, but a passerby told him: "There is a river next to Huaming City. It should be possible to go down the river, because I often drink cold tea from the Qixing Cliff of the Dawu Dynasty. It is said that it is transported up from the lower reaches. , you can go to the dock and ask."
The ancient sage was overjoyed, as long as he could return to the Dawu Dynasty, it would be equivalent to a trip from Qixing Cliff to the Four Kings Valley all over again. He first went to a local perfume store to wash off the dirt on his body, bought a brand new robe to replace the dirty clothes, and then went to the pier feeling refreshed to explore the way back.
"Wow, wow." A group of black birds flew in the sky, followed closely by a large number of black birds.
Gu Shengchao couldn't help but change his face when he looked up into the distance. Isn't this the kind of strange bird that looks like a crow but is not a crow that he saw in Luoya Bay? His first thought was to quickly find a place to hide, but the people around him turned a blind eye and continued to do what they were supposed to do, and no one was affected. He was curious, relied on his kung fu to make rapid progress, and followed the flock of birds in that direction.
Not far away, a large platform appeared in front of us. Those black birds swooped down in groups and scrambled for the platform. Many people stood solemnly under the high platform, all silent and serious.
The ancient sage became curious and quietly asked the passers-by what he was doing.
Passers-by were not surprised and said: "You are from outside, right? After people die, they are carried up there, and the cycle of life and death goes back and forth. The sacred bird can help them reincarnate."
It turns out that Gu Shengchao finally understood why the blackbirds he and Ding Ying saw in Luo Ya Bay gathered together. They spent the winter elsewhere and returned here in spring. Luo Ya Bay is like a stop for these birds to stay and rest.
He recalled that he and Ding Ying ate a lot of these black birds, and suddenly there was an inexplicable surge in their stomachs. They squatted aside and vomited. In the end, there was nothing in their stomachs, and they had to vomit out a lot of sour water.
