When Zhang Xiaoyu felt the sword intent in the snow in front of him, he thought that waiting for him there would be Senior Brother Zhong Puxue who had been watching from the beginning.
But no.
It was the black-robed swordsman whose sword was neither famous nor famous.
The disciple of the Sword Sect who had fought with Qing Xiang on the Youhuang Mountains five hundred years ago and then left was standing quietly by the big lake in the valley, not knowing what he was looking at.
Although the valley is covered with snow, a large lake cannot be frozen overnight.
Therefore, the lake is quiet, but still clear and deep.
Very much like the watery eyes of some girls in the world.
Who says there can't be a girl looking at the sky in this world?
Zhang Xiaoyu thought that he would have gone far away, but he did not expect that he would still stay in the East China Sea.
There were sword lights passing through the snow on the top of the mountain not far away, and some rather prosperous Jianzong buildings on the snowy peaks could be vaguely seen.
This place is not far from the East China Sea Sword Sect—or in other words, this is the territory of the East China Sea Sword Sect.
The sword intention on the letter in Zhang Xiaoyu's arms was still circulating quietly. The young swordsman in white walked over calmly, stood by the lake, thought for a while, and said, "Senior brother?"
This sentence is quite similar to Zhong Saoxue's previous sentence.
Naturally, no one would know the disciples of the Sword Sect from five hundred years ago.
Not to mention Zhang Xiaoyu, even if Li Shanhe came, he would not recognize him.
People like them often hang out in the human world, and then occasionally leave behind some long-lasting sword fairy legends, and then change places to continue living quietly.
But maybe I have lived quietly for too many years and want to move around. Maybe I am really moved by something in the current world, so I step out and make some waves from time to time.
The black-robed sword cultivator said calmly: "Yes. A disciple of the Sword Sect with the 478th year of Dafeng calendar."
Zhang Xiaoyu squinted his eyes and thought, that is really a very old senior brother.
Older than the senior fellow student who once lived outside Nanyi City, older than Zhong Saoxue.
Such an old person with a young voice can only be a demon cultivator.
Just like the woman in white dress on Mojian Cliff.
After such a simple conversation, the two of them said nothing more, just looking down at the lake.
There are a few trees with all their leaves standing sparsely beside the lake.
The branches are covered with snow like white plum blossoms.
Zhang Xiaoyu raised his head and looked at those trees quietly. Those sword lights in the snow, viewed from this perspective, looked like they were just trapped between one tree, flying from one snowy branch to another. The branches are covered with snow.
Maybe life is like this too.
Never different.
I just stepped on the branches and flew away, but I didn't know that I couldn't live without those green snow trees until I died.
"What was the Sword Sect like five hundred years ago?"
Zhang Xiaoyu asked.
Perhaps this question really touched some soft spots in the heart of the black-robed sword cultivator. He raised his head and looked quietly at the sword light flying away in the distant snow.
It's like looking at some time.
"The world at that time was far less prosperous than it is now." The black-robed swordsman said softly.
"The war that swept through the entire human world forced the world to start from scratch. Even though hundreds of years had passed, many places in the world were still deserted. Just like you are looking at the snow, you have Sometimes you can hear voices in the mountains in the distance, but you have to walk a long way to see those sparse homes."
"Sword sects are like this too. Not only sword sects in the world, but all sword sects in the world are sparse. I heard that before April this year, there were 80,000 sword cultivators in Lingnan, but at that time, there were only a few thousand people in Lingnan. That’s all, not to mention the sword sect in Nanyi City.”
"But prosperity has the splendor of prosperity, and desolation also has the advantages of desolation. At that time, people worked hard and played cards, but they were not as addicted as they are now. The old man Qing Xiang is still in the south, and his Xuanxieyuan has not yet opened. Come this way to Da Ze. And Master, Master has always been like that, lazily sleeping on the bridge. Sometimes he would leave the Sword Sect and go to the south to have a drink with the old man Qing Xiang - not leaving with sword light, but From the Nanyi River, he took a small boat - he said that this was his master's favorite thing to do in the past. The boat drifted all the way across the river, crossing the swamps and walking through the green mountains. So during the long journey, he The pot I brought also contained Shidi wine, which was brewed just right by the wind, rain and scorching sun in the world."
Zhang Xiaoyu quietly looked at the Sword Sect brother hidden under the black robe, and said slowly: "What about you?"
"Me?" The black-robed swordsman lowered his head and looked at the reflection in the lake quietly.
"I don't have any story, I'm just a small, inconspicuous demon cultivator in the Sword Sect."
"So sometimes ordinary things just need to wait."
The black-robed swordsman said calmly.
Of course, the ordinary he talks about is only the ordinary among the sword sects in the world, not the ordinary in the entire world.
"If I were young and saw my junior brother like this, I would have been very envious." The black-robed swordsman should have been smiling and gentle when he said this, but the meaning behind his words turned cold. Come down. "Having light in your eyes is really the best look in the world. Whether it's admiration or envy, as long as it can light up the light under your eyes, it's all good."
The black-robed swordsman just said this, and did not say whether there was still light in his eyes. That was something that the world could not see.
There was a brief moment of silence by the lake, and the black-robed swordsman looked at Zhang Xiaoyu, who was standing silently under a tree not far from the lake.
"Your sword must be faster, faster, junior brother."
The black-robed swordsman walked through the wind and snow toward the other end of the valley.
"Only in order to survive in those green mountains and rivers can he kill us."
This time he probably really left.
Zhang Xiaoyu stood silently by the lake with his sword on his back, and then walked towards the south without saying anything.
The big lake, which looked like the watery eyes of some girls in the world, was forgotten in the wind and snow.
...
It is November 5th, one thousand and three years in the calendar of Dafeng.
It will probably take some time for the wind and snow in the East China Sea to reach the southernmost mountain range of Huai'an.
Compared with Lingbei, Lingnan is still much warmer. Unless, as recorded in the book, the tide of the Styx River blows the cold wind from the Yellow Mountains to Huaian once every few decades, Lingnan has always been warmer than Lingbei. Some.
But such warmth is naturally limited.
Le Chaotian hadn't gone to sword practice for a few days, so he asked Wu Dalong to build a stove for him, and placed it in the middle of the small building. He warmed himself there all day long, played music and fell asleep, which was so uncomfortable.
After Nan Dao went to practice sword practice for a while, when he came back, he saw Le Chaotian still holding a pillow and sleeping on the second floor of the small building. The doors and windows were not closed, otherwise Nan Dao and the others would inevitably worry that this junior brother would get burned by the fire. Suffocated inside. Although there was a lot of chill in the November wind, after all, a warm stove was set up, so it was not very cold.
Nan Dao walked to the edge with his sword on his back and opened the movable door leaves a little further.
Le Chaotian woke up in a daze when he heard the sound. He raised his head and looked at Nandao, rubbed his eyes and yawned, and said, "Senior brother, are you back from sword practice?"
"Um."
"Would you like to warm yourself by the fire?" Le Chaotian sat up and made room for the area facing the stove.
Nan Dao shook his head and walked to the corridor outside. While blowing the wind, he said, "I'm not cold. Junior brother, you can bake it."
"Oh, okay then." Le Chaotian twisted his butt and sat back there, rocking there holding the pillow.
Nan Dao sat quietly on the corridor with his sword on his back, the wind making the money bags above his head rattle.
Le Chaotian looked at Nan Dao's back, thought for a moment, hugged the pillow and walked out. He chuckled and said, "Senior brother, are you still thinking about the snow in the East China Sea?"
Nan Dao was silent for a while, nodded and said, "Yes."
Naturally, Lingnan also knew about the snowfall in the East China Sea after such a long time.
Le Chaotian looked at Nandao for a long time with his head tilted, and then asked curiously: "Brother, do you think he will win or lose?"
Nan Dao looked at the dry mountains outside the building quietly and said slowly: "He won't ask about the sword. Although I don't know what he wants to do, he won't ask."
Le Chaotian raised his eyebrows and said, "Why?"
Nan Dao said softly: "In March, my senior brother said that it was extremely stupid to go to the cliff to ask for a sword. A person like him who prides himself on being smart and chic would never do such a stupid thing."
Probably because the wooden corridor under him was a little cool, Le Chaotian stuffed the pillow in his hand under his buttocks, sat up and shook it twice, and was very satisfied, and then said: "So that's it, but since senior brother knows that he won't go Compared with the people from Mojianya, what are you still thinking about?"
Nan Dao was silent for a long time, watching the green mountains die and turning into painful yellow. It seemed that he also saw Zhang Xiaoyu's painful look on the bridge at dusk a long time ago.
"Senior brother is a very painful and struggling person." Nan Dao said. "If even something like Wenjian is used as a cover, then what we have to do is definitely something more dangerous and decisive."
Le Chaotian didn't think so much. Although he heard the news about the snow in the East China Sea, he didn't think anything about it, and it's still the same now.
"Maybe he just feels bored and wants to amuse the world? Or maybe he really wants to give it a try, but he is afraid of being knocked off a cliff and it will be embarrassing, so he might as well try it out a few times first and wait until everyone in the world thinks He is joking, he is quietly climbing up the cliff to see why the sword on Mojian Cliff is so high."
Nan Dao was silent for a while and said, "I think you are talking about you, not senior brother."
Le Chaotian laughed there.
This does sound like something Le Chaotian would do.
But maybe Le Chaotian prefers to sneak up to the top of the cliff and play music all night long, making everyone unable to sleep.
Several times when I woke up from training in Nandao, I saw Qingjiao dressed in red standing quietly under the moonlight and cold wind in the canyon, or practicing with her sword.
Nan Dao initially thought that she was still worried, but later she discovered that it was just because Le Chaotian fell asleep while playing music there, but still holding the cucurbit silk in his mouth, so his snoring turned into playing music.
It was so noisy that Qingjiao couldn't sleep, so she would go out for a walk and practice sword practice.
So later, a rule was set for Le Chaotian that he was not allowed to play music before going to bed.
Le Chaotian was a little unconvinced at first.
Until one night, when he was sleeping there, Lu Xiaosan took a suona and played it in his ear.
So everything was solved smoothly.
However, Le Chaotian still felt a little aggrieved, thinking that I didn't play the suona...
The two of them sat there, Nan Dao cultivating his sword intent while listening to Le Chaotian say some strange words.
After a long time, perhaps because he felt that Le Chaotian was too noisy, Nan Dao turned to look at him and said, "How long has it been since junior brother practiced sword practice?"
Le Chaotian sat on the comfortable pillow with a smile, took the Die Lianhua from the side that he had idled for who knows how many days, and while flicking the sword casually, he said: "Although I haven't practiced swordsmanship for a long time. , but I have a sword in my heart. Having a sword in my heart is naturally better than having a sword in my hand."
Although these words are very reasonable, sword cultivators naturally need to have a sword in their hearts to cultivate their sword intent.
But no matter how much Le Chaotian tried to quibble, he couldn't change the fact that after the temperature dropped at the end of October, he sat upstairs warming himself by the fire all day long.
Nan Dao was silent for a while and said, "Junior Brother, how do you feel about the Heart Sword?"
Le Chaotian looked at the world with a smile and said: "The sword in my heart is not in my hand or in front of me, but when I think of it, it goes with the wind and can travel 80,000 miles in the world."
Nan Dao looked at him with raised eyebrows, and then the Peach Blossom Sword was unsheathed. The sword strike was extremely sudden. Le Chaotian raised the sword in a hurry, but Die Lianhua was still carried downstairs by the sword.
Le Chaotian lowered his head and glanced downstairs, then turned to look at Nan Dao and said, "Senior brother, what do you mean?"
Nan Dao said softly: "How can you walk 80,000 miles in this world without even caring about the three feet in front of you?"
Le Chaotian pushed the peach blossom sword in front of him, chuckled, stood up and walked downstairs.
"Senior brother, he's probably tired. He's so merciless. That's all. I'm going to practice sword practice, junior brother."
Nandao: "..."
Le Chaotian greedily warmed himself in front of the stove for a while, then went downstairs, picked up the butterfly love flower stuck in the ground, and headed towards the canyon.
There are not as many maple leaves in the canyon as before, and they look a little sparse.
Le Chaotian dragged his sword clanking and walked into the canyon. Among the fallen leaves in the cold wind, he saw Green Pepper walking back from the top of the canyon.
"Good morning, senior sister." Le Chaotian greeted with a smile.
Seeing Le Chaotian's appearance, the woman in red hesitated a little, and then said, "Hello, junior brother."
Although his voice still had that cold and distant air, it had become much gentler.
Le Chaotian nodded with satisfaction.
Then he dragged his sword to the canyon where there was a gleam of cold light in winter. He stood with his head tilted for a while, then looked back out of the canyon.
Nan Dao seemed to have no intention of supervising him.
Le Chaotian then found a maple tree, swept the fallen leaves everywhere, and piled them together.
"Spring is sleepy, summer is tired, autumn is hibernating, shuriken is not as easy to practice as the heart sword."
Le Chaotian sat down on the fallen leaf cushion with a smile, held his sword and began to doze off again.
Maybe he is actually practicing the Sword of the Heart.
Because Nan Dao didn't hear the sound of swords, he went downstairs and took a look into the canyon.
As a result, he saw Le Chaotian taking a nap there.
Junior brother, junior brother.
Nan Dao sighed softly.
But I didn't bother to wake him up.
Maybe Le Chaotian could stay quietly in Lingnan for the rest of his life, and he really wouldn't need those swords to fight with those who hit him.
Qingjiao was holding her sword and looking at him.
"Are you worried about your junior brother?"
Nan Dao turned around, thought about it, and said, "Shouldn't it be right?"
Qingjiao didn't say anything, but just glanced at Le Chaotian sleeping in the canyon and said softly: "It is indeed the right thing to do."
Nan Dao looked at the woman in red who seemed hesitant to speak and asked, "You seem to have something to say."
Qingjiao walked towards the stone flat at the edge of the canyon. Early winter had gone, and even the sparse moss on the stone edge had dried to death, leaving only some brown vein-like things clinging to the edge of the flat.
"Maybe there is, but there is really nothing to say." Qingjiao said calmly.
She could tell that there was something wrong with Le Chaotian.
But he had no ill intentions, at least that was the case with these two small sword sects and the young man holding the umbrella.
It is not a good thing to say something that can only be vaguely guessed.
Nan Dao didn't ask any more. He stood aside with an umbrella, looked at the woman in red in front of him, and then said softly: "The whole of October is very peaceful."
Of course, what he is talking about is the green pepper staying in the canyon.
Qingjiao just looked at the dry mountains under the canyon quietly.
"I sometimes leave the canyon." Qingjiao said this.
Nan Dao then stopped talking.
Of course he wouldn't always pay attention to what the woman in red was doing, so did Qingjiao really leave the canyon and Jianzong to deal with some troubles.
He doesn't know either.
Qingjiao looked back at the young man under the umbrella and said calmly: "There is some blood under the mountain gate. If you look carefully, you can see it."
Nan Dao was silent for a while and said, "Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because this is unnecessary." As Qingjiao said, she also remembered some things that happened at dusk, so she narrowed her eyes and looked down the mountain quietly. "Although those people have some strength, there is nothing difficult about them."
"What if there's something tricky?"
"If there is anything difficult, I will leave directly." Qingjiao said simply. "I'm just asking for help, not selling my life."
The woman in red said, looking back at Nandao, and said calmly: "If you suddenly find out one day that I have disappeared for a long time..."
"Who are those people?" Nan Dao asked this question before Qingjiao finished speaking.
"People from Heavenly Hell."
Nan Dao was not surprised.
In fact, he had guessed it was them early on.
Either Heavenly Prison or He Zong.
He Zong may be a bit far away, but Heavenly Prison is very close.
Qingjiao looked back at Nandao, this time for a long time, and then said slowly: "Twelfth floor?"
Nan Dao turned around and walked towards the small building, saying calmly: "I don't know."
Or maybe you actually have the answer in your heart.
I just don’t want to say it.
No one knows whether they are or not until they remember something.
Qingjiao himself didn’t know.
So this is the reason why people in Heavenly Prison are so unpleasant. When you see this name, you will easily think of some dark speculations.
When they doubt you are, you better be.
The Twelfth Floor is well-known in the world, but few people mention it.
It sounds a little scary to say it.
Some were given by Heavenly Hell.
Some are given by oneself.
...
Are you?
...
