Dry mountains, cold water, white rocks and shallow streams.
The Qingtian Taoist uncle who used to play cards in the noodle shop under Shanheguan stopped there.
In front of him, there was a sword without a name. The sword was slender, about four feet long, and the sword was dark, like a fine piece of calligraphy. But from different angles, there were some features on the dark sword. The flowing dazzling silver light.
The sword was inserted into the white stone.
Qingtian Taoist uncle's name is Qin Chulai. He also learned swordsmanship for a period of time many years ago - maybe thirty years ago, maybe forty years ago.
During that time, he left Qingtian Taoist Temple and traveled to some sword sects in the north of the human world.
But perhaps because he was born in Qingtian Dao, most of those who use swords can't stand his eyes.
So he returned home sadly.
But on his way back, he met a middle-aged man sweeping snow in a small yard at the foot of Renjian Mountain.
In winter, there are naturally many people sweeping snow in the small yard at the foot of the mountain, but Qin Chulai noticed this person.
It was because when he was resting in his yard, he saw the sword hanging under the eaves of the yard.
"Are you also a swordsman?"
Qin Chulai was a little surprised.
There are very few people in the north who have hanging swords in their courtyards. Such people often went to the south of the East China Sea line when they were young, or they were in some scattered small sword sects.
The middle-aged man who was clearing the snow in the yard just turned to look at the sword, smiled, and said: "It used to be true, but later he was not good at learning and was expelled from the school."
Qin Chulai felt a little pity at the time, because the sword was very beautiful, with a slender blade, about two fingers wide, which satisfied his young man's yearning for a physical sword. Although the Taoist sword was good, it was still lacking. Somewhat interesting.
Is it about the sound of iron clanging?
After getting the middle-aged man's consent, Qin Chulai took the sword from under the eaves, but just pulling it out felt a little less interesting.
Because the sword is black.
All pure black.
When the cold winter light reflected on the snow, it failed to leave any light on the sword.
As if he knew Qin Chulai's doubts, the middle-aged man stopped, leaned on the broom in his hand, and said with a soft smile: "This is a dumb sword."
"Matte sword?"
The middle-aged man tilted his head, as if reminiscing, and then said slowly: "It used to be very beautiful, with a cold light like water, but unfortunately later, maybe because it was too beautiful, my mind was focused on that light, so the sword I wasn't very good at studying. So the master kicked me out."
"Then how did he become like this?"
"I used those very small nails to smash out many tiny pits on the sword body little by little, so the light was trapped in those small pits - in fact, it was still very bright, but You just can't see it. I call it snow clearing."
“Why is it called snow plowing?”
The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Because the snow is not gone, it's just hidden in the corner."
Qin Chulai nodded thoughtfully.
Just looking at a lot of dust on the scabbard, I felt a little confused.
"You haven't practiced sword practice for a long time?"
"Yes, because I haven't finished plowing the snow yet."
Qin Chu looked at the snow that had just swept half of the yard, and then looked at the sword in his hand. He didn't know where the snow he was talking about came from.
The middle-aged man began to sweep the snow with his head down again.
Qin Chulai waved the sword in the yard. Perhaps because of the lack of light on the sword, it felt heavy when he swung it.
"Although it looks very mysterious." Qin Chulai returned the sword to its sheath and hung it under the eaves again. "But it's not a good sword."
The middle-aged man was not annoyed, he just smiled and said: "Yes, if he was really good at swordsmanship, he probably wouldn't be expelled from the school."
Qin Chulai thought about it and felt that although he was younger than him, he was also someone who was about to enter the Dao Dao, so he should be able to give a few words of advice as a senior.
"I think your master's intention is not about the sword, but about the mind. You are probably too attached to the sword and ignore the human being. That's why your master asked you to come out and meditate in the human world. .....”
Qin Chu stopped strangely as he spoke.
So what does it mean to travel all over the world learning swordsmanship?
But the middle-aged man didn't seem to realize Qin Chulai's embarrassment. He just smiled and said, "Maybe that's true?"
Qin Chulai was a little embarrassed, so he nodded and hurriedly left the yard at the foot of the mountain and headed towards Qingtian Road.
Of course, after returning to Qingtian Dao and practicing for a few more years, Qin Chulai, who entered the Dao, could probably hear more rumors in the world.
Only then did he roughly realize who had expelled the middle-aged man who was in the courtyard.
Cluster blade.
Because that person was the once famous human sword sect Baimo Jianzhong Sweeping Snow.
then.
In front of a shallow stream with dry mountains, cold water and white rocks.
Qin Chulai stopped and looked at the sword in front of him quietly.
Some swords, even after they disappear into the world and have their names erased, are still difficult to forget.
The White Ink Sword is one of them.
This sword clearly shines as brightly as snow, but because of the many small pits on the blade, it often looks black to the world.
Qin Chulai sometimes couldn't tell whether it was black white light or white black light.
So he raised his head and looked towards the lower reaches of the shallow stream, where there was a middle-aged man quietly washing the mud from the hem of his robe.
"It might have rained when we came here, so there was a bit of mud on the road." The middle-aged man raised his head and looked at Qin Chulai and said.
Today we will not clear the snow, but today we will wash the mud.
But Qin Chulai didn't understand, and he seemed to understand something, so he looked at the middle-aged man not far away who was exactly the same as before, and said slowly: "Senior, has he turned into a demon?"
Zhong Saoxue chuckled and said, "Yes, it's the Snow Demon."
Sweep the snow with your body and observe the snow with your heart.
So he became a snow demon.
Qin Chulai fell silent.
In fact, sword cultivation is the same as swordsmanship, the older you get, the stronger you become.
It was only their bodies that became weak.
But after transforming into a demon, there is no such restriction.
It just gets stronger as you get older.
Just like the Cluster Blade.
Zhong Saoxue washed the mud off his hem, then wrung out the water and said to himself: "This road should go to Qingtian Road. Is it another fifty miles or a hundred miles?"
Qin Chulai said slowly: "One hundred and fifty miles."
Zhong Saoxue said with some shame: "Sorry, I haven't been to Qingtian Road, so I don't know very well. I just made an estimate and walked here for a while. But I thought you would go to the East China Sea to see swords."
Qin Chulai was silent for a while and said, "Why should I go to the East China Sea to see swords?"
"Then why did you go to Shanhe to watch the sword?"
Qin Chulai said nothing, and his eyes fell again on the white ink sword in front of him that was stuck on the white stone by the stream.
The hem of Zhong Suoxue's clothes was not fully wrung out, so when he walked towards this side, it was still dripping with water.
"I thought people like Senior should disappear into the human world and stop caring about worldly affairs."
Zhong Saoxue said calmly: "You are wrong. We in the Human Sword Sect have never been in the human world, and we have never talked about worldly affairs. What's more, you also know that my name is Zhong Saoxue. When winter is coming, , I always have to go out and sweep away the snow."
"For example, when someone wants to pour some snow on the Sword Sect, the junior brothers are helpless, so I have to come out and help the junior brothers sweep away the snow."
Qin Chulai probably knew why Zhong Saoxue came.
"There should be more than half a century of human life between you."
People in the world always say they will wait for me a hundred years from now, a hundred years from now.
There may always be some meaning that I don’t want to pursue after a long time.
Zhong Saoxue said softly: "But you also know that the Human Sword Sect is a little special. We don't have any uncles or masters. The last masters all died a thousand years ago, so even if we are five hundred years behind, it still means nothing." Fellow."
"Senior, do you know why I went there to watch?"
"I don't know." Zhong Saoxue held the sword on the stream stone. "But what does it matter? I'm just a snow plow and don't care why it snows."
The sword, which was both snowy and ink-like, was pulled out from the stream stone with a clanging sound.
"You see, this is our philosophy."
The cold wind blows from the dry mountain, and countless yellow leaves are flying at the foot of the mountain.
Zhong Saoxue held the sword and smiled slightly as she looked at the silent Taoist in front of her who was once younger than herself but now older than herself.
"Don't worry, this place is not far from Qingtian Dao. In the Dao Sect, people from our Sword Sect still know the importance of what we do."
Today I washed the mud and cleared the snow.
...
The most annoying thing about the Sword Sect in the world is those senior brothers who left the Sword Sect after reaching the age of forty.
Who knows where to meet such a person?
...
Zhang Xiaoyu walked on the streets of Muyu Town holding his sword, not knowing what he was looking for. The streets were noisy and swords were everywhere.
There are actually many people like Zhang Xiaoyu.
What the waiter said isn't quite right either.
Because he saw several people who had just entered the Tao and were wearing white clothes.
It's just that their white clothes are obviously cleaner than Zhang Xiaoyu's, and they look more chic.
After all, the blood on Zhang Xiaoyu's white clothes had dried up and turned into black ink spots, looking like he had stepped in a puddle on the road.
Zhang Xiaoyu looked at them, then looked down at the ink spots on his robe, shrugged, and didn't care, just wiped them away calmly.
Those sword cultivators in white probably had something to say, but when one of them saw Zhang Xiaoyu's appearance, he felt that it looked familiar, so he stopped his companion and stood there frowning and thinking for a long time, but he probably didn't think of anything. Who was it, so he turned and left.
After all, here in the East China Sea, the person who gossiped was still lying in the wine shop. He probably had to wait until he could move again before he walked out with a bruised face, holding a handful of melon seeds, and went to chat with the old man and old lady under the tree.
Zhang Xiaoyu walked all the way and finally left the town by a stream bridge. Standing outside the town, Zhang Xiaoyu put the sword in his arms behind his back again for some reason, and then walked through the forest and stopped. At the foot of a mountain beside a clear stream.
Here you can see across the green mountains at a glance and see the East China Sea beyond the high cliffs.
The sun is getting late, the sea is full of smoke and clouds, and the sea breeze is coming slowly. At a glance, the infinite glow is soft.
Zhang Xiaoyu sat down by the stream.
I was supposed to bring wine.
It can only be said that the wine in that wine shop was too bad, so Zhang Xiaoyu forgot about it for a while.
This clear stream has no name.
Never.
Maybe the world has forgotten to pick a name, maybe it has been picked before but forgotten.
There are many such clear streams in the world, flowing quietly at the foot of the mountain.
The sound of water gurgled, and the grass blades disappeared with the swimming fish.
After staying in the town for a while, there was some sweat on Zhang Xiaoyu's face, but he did not lower his head and hold water to wash off, but quietly followed the light flowing in the stream.
Until I saw the East China Sea.
I don't know why, but this young man who has always been lazy and dissolute actually has some piety in his eyes.
Someone from behind handed him a wine gourd.
"what's on your mind?"
Zhang Xiaoyu took the wine gourd, pulled out the stopper, and poured it toward the stream.
As the sun sets, even the wine is tinged with a gentle orange color.
Like a golden thread.
"I'm wondering why my name is Zhang Xiaoyu and not Li Xiaoyu, senior."
Cao Weiying, a young man in Qingshang who was wandering in the world and didn't know when he came here, just smiled softly.
So Zhang Xiaoyu continued: "So seniors are much luckier."
This sentence is very confusing.
But Cao Weiying naturally understood what this meant, and sat down by the stream and said with a smile: "There is no one named Cao in the world."
Zhang Xiaoyu also laughed, and after pouring most of the bottle of wine, he finally picked it up and took a sip.
"Senior's wine doesn't seem to taste bad."
Cao Weiying took the gourd back and said with a smile: "Because this is the wine from Laogou Town mixed with human water, not the wine from Donghai Town."
"So why did senior like to drink that kind of wine back then?"
Zhang Xiaoyu was very puzzled.
Cao Weiying looked down at the gourd in her hand. After looking at it for a long time, she said softly: "Because we are people living in Nanyi's era."
Zhang Xiaoyu turned around and looked at the Qingshang boy quietly.
Cao Weiying's expression rarely became serious.
"You know? Zhang Xiaoyu, that was the first time that the world saw such a frightening era. At that time, when we were living in the world, we all felt that the wind was bitter. So when you drink wine, no matter it No matter what kind of wine, you will find it sweet."
Zhang Xiaoyu was silent for a long time and said softly: "I still can't understand why people like you are so afraid of the name Nan Yi."
Cao Weiying said softly: "Suppose you are a person who lives in abjection and never knows what light is, so one day, you see something extremely bright in the dimness, and you raise your hand to touch it. , but got burned, you began to panic, and you wanted to stay away, but at this time, a man came over, touched the top of your head, pointed at the thing, and told you-honey, this is fire."
Zhang Xiaoyu asked still puzzled: "I can understand that people in the world will feel afraid when they see fire for the first time, but why are you afraid of that person?"
"Because after he told you that it was fire, he took your hand and walked forward, stopped in front of the cluster of flames, and told you that we can use it, so you began to panic, how could something like that be used? Being used by others?"
Cao Weiying looked a little sad.
"But we finally raised the fire, holding the things that burned us to pieces, broke through the darkness, and moved forward."
Zhang Xiaoyu stared at Cao Weiying blankly.
"You have to know! When people in the world hold up fire for the first time, what they see is never warmth or hope, but boundless panic and fear."
Cao Weiying drank wine and said sadly: "That's why we are afraid of Nan Yi, but you are not."
We are first timers.
And you are the latecomers.
Zhang Xiaoyu, holding his sword on his back, sat blankly by the stream, and then said softly: "So where is Li Er?"
Cao Weiying chuckled softly and looked at the clear stream in front of her.
"The master of the temple is the one who hides the fire."
Guanzhu was a title many years ago. At that time, Hangu Temple was still in the world, and there was only one person in the world who could be called Guanzhu.
"If people in the world are the ones who want to raise fire, then why will the person who hides the fire become a saint instead of Nan Yi?"
"Thousands of years ago was the peak era of Mojianya, but it was not the human world. It was extremely painful for us to raise fire, let alone the world? So hiding the fire was the most correct thing to do in that era. We can hold the fire and go away, But the world will be burned to death in the fire." Cao Weiying also looked solemnly and piously at the clear stream heading towards the East China Sea. "So the temple owner has lived for almost a hundred years, and he just wanted to hide the fire for a little longer."
Zhang Xiaoyu had naturally heard of the following story.
The master of the temple died of old age in the East China Sea, and Qing Yi no longer sits and guards the world.
So the fire brought by Nan Yi, with all the undercurrents surging, burned the entire world.
That fire came from Mojianya, and eventually burned almost all the people of Mojianya of that generation.
Only the young man in Qingshang by the stream and the demon ancestor who had been in the world for many years were left.
Zhang Xiaoyu looked down at the streamside where he was sitting cross-legged, and said softly: "Is it here?"
"It's here." Cao Weiying drank the wine with great sadness.
"It was here that I sent the old man off for his last journey, watching him slump and die with endless regrets, drifting towards the East China Sea amidst the joy of the small town in the world and the twilight glow of the world. .The world at that time still believed in the view of life and death on Zhuangsheng Island in the East China Sea proposed by Nan Yi. They felt that after death, the soul would drift away with the sea water until it landed ashore and sat in the infinitely beautiful peach grove on the island. See all the people who have passed away."
But not later.
Everyone in the world now knows that there is no Zhuang Sheng Island after death.
There is only the Styx River flowing in the Youhuang Mountains.
That is what Emperor Huai told the world.
This may also be a firebrand.
But the world cannot afford this truth.
"When the master of the temple died, I just felt sorry. I never thought that when the master of the temple died, there would be such a big change in the world. Otherwise, I would not have walked away from the world. When I came back, only the It’s all desolate.”
Cao Weiying was very sorry and melancholy.
Zhang Xiaoyu sat in silence for a long time, then looked at Cao Weying and said, "Holy...Did the conservator say anything when he left?"
Cao Weiying laughed, as brightly as a young boy.
So he stood by the stream with a wine gourd, looked at the dusk in the East China Sea, and said with a smile: "He said."
"Life is so beautiful, I want it to stop."
But he didn't stop.
