"Hey, you have killed many people with this knife."
While chewing the meat buns that were still warm, the middle-aged man pulled out a long knife to cut off the horse and observed it carefully.
"This...the people you killed were all prairie people? Are they from Jibei?"
"Where did you see it?"
Du Chengfeng couldn't help but become curious.
Although he could feel that the middle-aged man had deduced it by looking at the marks on the knife, he could tell who the knife killed with just his eyesight... This was really a bit outrageous.
You know, even if he wants to know something else, he still has to sharpen his knife.
How did the strange middle-aged man in front of me know this?
"trace."
The middle-aged man pointed to some scratches on the blade.
"There is a shortage of craftsmen on the grassland, and armor is expensive to make, so most soldiers like to wear cheaper hard leather armor or thick leather jackets to resist damage... If it is iron armor, it will leave metal scratches, that It’s easy to be confused with the marks from the collision of weapons, but for leather armor, because most of them are thicker, the marks will be wider.”
"……good eyesight."
Du Chengfeng couldn't help but raise his hand.
Master, this is where you meet a master. Unlike his way of directly connecting with the evil aura of the sword and sensing the passing of the weapon, this man was actually able to achieve this by just observing with the naked eye.
Different from the methods he had learned before about sharpening knives by writing or using moonshine to sharpen knives, the middle-aged man in front of him may be the most reliable-looking grinder he has ever seen.
"So, do you really know how to repair this knife?"
At this moment, Du Chengfeng suddenly felt that if it were this man, he might really be able to do it.
So the bun he just gave out was quite worth it?
"I know, I know, but I need to know first how far your process has progressed."
After eating half of the bun, the middle-aged man raised his head.
"Since you are a student here, you should have shown this knife to the mountain chief here, right? What did he say?"
"this……"
Du Chengfeng scratched his head and roughly told the story Ruan Shantao had told him.
This is not something that needs to be kept secret. After all, looking at Old Ruan, although this story is not a household name, many people know it - of course, there are also people like Liu Bolun and Du Chengfeng who don't know. In Old Ruan's opinion, this is a sign of ignorance.
"So, if I want this knife to be resurrected, I have to sacrifice a friend...but I don't want to do that."
"You are right in your idea. Courageous, resourceful, affectionate and righteous, this is the true nature of a man."
The middle-aged man nodded repeatedly.
"What a great talent...Boy, do you want to learn from me?"
"...Learn from you?"
Du Chengfeng frowned slightly.
Although he also admitted that this middle-aged man might have some abilities, but if he opened his mouth and said that he wanted to learn from him... what could he learn?
"Yeah, learn from me."
The middle-aged man smiled.
"You can indeed learn a lot here, but the teaching here is still a bit... superficial. Just like what you just said, haven't you ever been curious about the story that the mountain chief told you? , how did the young man who wanted revenge meet the King of Chu?"
"……Well?"
Du Chengfeng was stunned when he heard this.
Isn't this a direct attack into the palace? Is there any other way to say this?
able.
There really can be other explanations for this.
From the middle-aged man's narration, Du Chengfeng gradually understood another aspect of that story.
The initial process was still the same. After the cruel King of Chu got the sword, he killed the skilled swordsmith. The orphan and widowed mother had no choice but to hide in the mountains for refuge. More than ten years later, the orphan's mother threw the sword into a furnace and sacrificed it. The orphan also went to Yingdu, the capital of Chu State, to avenge his parents.
And the story also diverges here.
Unlike what Old Man Ruan said, the orphan directly fought against the King of Chu. According to this middle-aged man, the orphan could not even see the face of the King of Chu - this was the capital of the Chu State and the most heavily guarded in the entire Chu Land. In this place, there are not only numerous soldiers and armors, but also groups of sharp warriors. There are also nine strong generals who take turns guarding the place. There is no loophole to exploit.
An orphan with a sword might not even be able to get close to the city wall, and he would be beaten into a sieve by the spears and arrows of the sharp warriors.
Even if he has great martial arts skills and can face the difficulties, his head will be cut off by the fierce generals who come after hearing the news.
Again, how could the King of Chu be a fool if he could hold a rare sharp blade and conquer for more than ten years?
"It was at this time that a man in black found this orphan."
After taking the gourd of wine handed over by Du Chengfeng and taking a sip to moisten his throat, the middle-aged man continued.
The man in black found the orphan and claimed that he could help him get revenge. So, full of hatred, the orphan obeyed the man in black's arrangement - the orphan used the sword made by his mother and cut off his own body with his own hands. The head, and then handed the sword and the head to the man in black.
Even if it loses its head, the headless corpse is still carrying out the process of revenge. This is the embodiment of hatred reached to the extreme.
And the head itself naturally turned into a terrifying monster under this extreme ferocity.
The man in black nailed the orphan's sword to the monster's head, and took the monster to the Palace of Chu. He declared to King Chu that he had found the remnant of the past, but the other party would rather be turned into a monster by the evil spirit to avenge the blood. . Although the monster has been controlled by him now, if he wants to completely destroy the monster, he must find a big cauldron and cook the monster completely.
King Chu didn't believe it just because he said this, but when he saw the sword nailed to the monster's head, King Chu was shaken again.
As for the reason, it was naturally because the once majestic Chu King Sword was now no longer useful.
Just like people, swords also have a lifespan. Although the lifespan of a weapon can far exceed that of a human body as long as it is well maintained, no matter how high the level of maintenance is, no matter how good the sword is, it cannot withstand more than ten years of uninterrupted use. Conquer the east and conquer the west.
Even speaking, the fact that the Chu King's sword could last for more than ten years under such violent use by the King of Chu is enough to show how skilled the swordsmith is.
So after seeing this other sword, the King of Chu naturally would not let it go. He would continue to fight, and he would plant the Phoenix flag of Chu all over the world.
So, even though he had doubts, King Chu still sent people to build a big cauldron and threw the monster's head with the sharp blade on its head into it.
He put a fire under the cauldron and cooked it for three days and three nights. Seeing that there was no movement in the cauldron, King Chu became a little anxious no matter how patient he was.
At this time, the man in black spoke again.
"Your Majesty, this cauldron should be almost ready. Why don't you take a look for yourself?"
After three days and three nights without a good rest, King Chu's spirit and physical strength were exhausted. At this moment, the man in black spoke, but King Chu did not doubt that he was there. He walked directly to the cauldron and lowered his head to take a look.
Then King Chu's head also fell into the cauldron.
It turned out that when King Chu looked towards the cauldron, the man in black pulled out King Chu's sword, raised the sword and cut off King Chu's head.
"Wait a minute."
Du Chengfeng suddenly felt confused after hearing this.
"Then King Chu's sword must have killed many people, right? With this sword..."
"That's right, King Chu himself became a monster."
The middle-aged man laughed.
But even though the two heads had lost their bodies, they were still biting each other desperately under the evil spirit. At this time, the man in black threw the body of King Chu into the cauldron. , with the help of the headless corpse, the head of the King of Chu was like a tiger with wings. After a while, the orphan was defeated and even torn into pieces.
However, at the moment when King Chu, who had turned into a monster, finally won, a sharp blade penetrated its head. .
That was the already dilapidated King Chu Sword.
After nailing King Chu to the cauldron, the man in black also closed the lid of the cauldron and continued to increase the firepower.
After the fierce fire burned for seventy-seven forty-nine days, the man in black opened the lid of the cauldron and pulled out a vicious halberd that looked like a twisted spine.
Then, the newly appointed King of Chu, holding this terrifying divination halberd made of two sharp blades, charged into the battle and was invincible.
After that, it was passed down by three generations of Chu kings. This terrifying Divination Halberd finally led the former Chu Kingdom to conquer the world and became the Great Chu Dynasty.
"...Would you wait a moment?"
After hearing this, Du Chengfeng came back to his senses.
"The man in black is actually the prince of Chu? Did he just push his own father into the blame?"
"There is nothing we can do about this. After all, the King of Chu at that time was indeed too cruel. He mobilized troops for more than ten years in a row and did not give the Chu people a chance to recuperate. What's more, there is no prince in the world for forty years..."
Having said this, the middle-aged man couldn't help but shake his head.
"Well, this statement is indeed a bit unpleasant, so it is generally not spread outside."
"this……"
Du Chengfeng was speechless.
It’s different, it’s so different. If the story told by Old Man Ruan might have made him feel a bit more passionate, then the other version told by the middle-aged man in front of him only made him feel cold all over. of.
Originally, he thought that using people to sacrifice weapons was outrageous enough, but it would be better to turn people into monsters first, and then use monsters to forge weapons... Thinking about it carefully, this is indeed a feasible way. ?
"In other words, as long as I find the monster and take out its spine, I can resurrect this knife?"
"Huh? You don't reject this method?"
The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, but the smile on his face became even wider.
"But things are not as simple as you said. After all, your knife is dead. If you want to make the dead weapon come alive, enough evil spirit is essential. Fortunately, in terms of materials, your knife It's just a mortal, it's enough to kill a few hundred people casually. At this time, you find a person with evil spirit in his body. When he turns into a monster, nail him to death with a knife, and then throw the body and the knife into the furnace. …”
The middle-aged man spoke seriously, and Du Chengfeng listened attentively. He was teaching and learning at the same time, and it was like preaching and imparting knowledge.
However, the good times did not last long.
"Don't teach my students your misleading things."
Under the heavy pressure, even the breeze blowing the grass and trees stopped.
"It's not your turn to take care of my students."
"Brother Ruan, after all, we are also former classmates. There is no need to be so harsh, right?"
Returning the horse-breaking sword to Du Chengfeng, the middle-aged man stood up and smiled warmly at the burly old man walking towards him.
"You and I both came from Taixue. What difference does it make if you teach or I teach?"
After hearing these words, Du Chengfeng on the side realized why he and this middle-aged man were strangers to each other, but he always gave him a subtle sense of familiarity.
It turns out that this person is the old man Ruan Shantao's old friend in the memory of the Founder's Sword.
The imperial student named Xiang Rong.
