Lin Nian's second visit to the Tamamo-mae Club gave Lin Nian a completely different intuitive feeling.
If the last time he opened the door he stepped into the enchanting forest of steles covered in gold powder, this time he undoubtedly stepped into the creek in the forest, and the fragrance of tea under the vermilion torii gate.
There is a long mulberry-red table on the crystal dance floor on one side of the vermilion railing. There is a six-piece tea set on the table. The fire is boiling water. The old man making tea is sitting at the end. Above his head are quaint wooden pillars and Red tooth cornice.
Today's Tamamo-mae Club looks particularly elegant, and the decoration has not changed at all, but for some reason, the impression it gives people has been completely changed. This place should have been a paradise for music and entertainment, but now it is more like a place in the Buddhist scriptures. A world of bliss without desires.
Lin Nian walked to the long table and sat down. Behind him, Mandy stopped not far away and did not come forward, because there was only one futon in front of the table, which meant that the Tamamo-mae Club only received one guest today.
"I see, I've learned a lesson." Lin Nian suddenly said after sitting quietly for a long time.
"Where are you talking?" Inuyama He held up the teapot with one hand and brushed his sleeves with the other. He poured the tea from high down, and the tea tips rolled and spread in the pot.
It kept swirling, and the scent of tea overflowed with the whirlpool, as if it was being taken up to the sky and smoked into the centuries-old red wooden pillars.
"Before, I was wondering that the atmosphere in the club today seemed a bit too elegant and peaceful, but later I realized that it was because there were fewer idle people." Lin Nian turned his head and looked around.
The world like the glass world has not changed in any way, but today there is no enchantress like the ubiquitous flowers reflected on the crystal ground when she first came here. The hands of those heavily made-up girls holding beakers are as white as ivory combs. The water-like waist and hip curves are moist and smooth, and the skin is as polished as grinding, outlining the words of luxury and desire.
Now that they are missing from this place, the whole space loses its gorgeous vitality.
Now there is only one old man left here quietly making tea, so he can only see silence and Zen.
"...So it is never the place that is dirty, but the people. People are always dirty, and people are dirty. The atmosphere of a place does not depend on its original appearance, but on the people sitting in it. The smell of the people there." Lin Nian said, "Things and events are ultimately given meaning by people."
"So it's normal during your stay in Tokyo. It doesn't matter what you did. Who's head was cut off or how many legs and feet were cut off? The thing itself is that these things have no meaning. What gives them meaning is the play. The man with the sword," Inuyamaga said.
Lin Nian said nothing, just listened quietly.
"Swinging the sword for justice? Then cutting off the head is for justice? Swinging the sword for hatred, then cutting off the head is for revenge? The more it is for justice, the more determined the knife is to cut off the head, and the more it is for revenge? The more the sword is cut off, the more it is for justice. The more fierce it becomes.”
"It is a very bad thing to wield a sword without purpose or belief. Only with belief can you be purer and able to go further." Inuyama Ga looked at the hot tea overflowing with water vapor in the teacup? The ripples in his eyes As sharp as a sword? "Miyamoto Musashi is regarded as the strongest swordsman, just because he uses his sword to win, and he does everything possible. In order to maintain the title of No. 1 in the world? He will only kill people faster and faster." Live in the divine realm until you cross the tenth level."
"To kill an enemy with my hands? I once jumped from the third-level moment to the fifth-level moment, cut through the withered winter leaves with one knife, and chopped off his head heartily. In order to pursue fame and fortune, I can jump from the fifth-level moment in the dojo The moment he cut through the seventh level with one sword, after the bamboo sword broke and the floor collapsed, he was recognized by Hilbert Jean Angers and became his student.”
Only with faith and strong desire can you break through the limits and climb to the top.
This is true for people, and so is the moment.
This is what Inuyama Ga wants to convey.
"The highest I have ever reached in my life is the seventh-level moment. That is a height where I can see most of the world at a glance. In this seventh-level moment, there are accumulated karma and stepping stones that have been cut over the past few decades. Now I am still striving for transcendence. That man stepped forward. You are seventeen years old? There are too many things you have not experienced? You chose to come to see me when you left Tokyo, but do you really have enough confidence to bulldoze this hill of mine?" The old man at the end of the long table stared at Lin Nian, his eyes suddenly filled with the shadow of swords and swords, and even the steam of the tea was blocked by his sharp words.
Lin Nian paused and said with a faint smile: "Earlier, I heard that the Inuyama family had a relationship with Principal Ange. Now it seems that that time was not a good time for the Inuyama family. Is it really the case? Are you so afraid of being knocked over by young people under the table and turning the faith that has supported the Inuyama family’s progress for so many years into a joke?”
The smell of gunpowder smoke in the air suddenly became thicker, and even the water ripples in the tea cup tensed up like a mirror, waiting for the ripples to break up the light.
At this moment, the old man and the young man truly met each other.
From the moment he received the call across the ocean, Inuyama Ga knew the boy's purpose of arriving in Tokyo. Angers on the other side of the ocean wanted to sharpen his sword and consecrate his new collection, so he approached him in this forgotten gutter. Green mossy stones.
So he has been waiting, waiting for the moment when the boy at the end of the long table couldn't help but show his sharp fangs.
Teacher Ange, as your former student, is this kind of farewell too contemptible now? I have kept the passion of decades hidden in the scabbard, full of faith that transcends you and talks to you on an equal footing. What we ushered in was becoming The end of Whetstone?
"A moment is like climbing to the top of a mountain. The seventh-level moment is at best halfway up the mountain. Even though I have never given up the desire to rush to the top of the mountain." Inuyama Ga raised the teacup as if it contained burning liquor, "Because in the There is someone on the mountain still waiting for me, waiting for me to jump up and cut the bloody knife on his back."
Hilbert Jean Angers, the man at the top of the mountain.
Lin Nian was silent for a moment, and finally just showed a smile.
"Can you, a 17-year-old with weak desires, really climb over this short, flat hill of my seventh level?" Inuyama Heya smiled, his eyes blazing.
Even though his body is aging, he still has the strongest moment in the world, a seventh-level speed of 128 times.
This old man, half-lying in the dirt, could still draw the hazy trajectory of the white horse flying across the gap. If necessary, he could also cut off a shocking strike that would elude countless swordsmen.
There is still a flame of desire that has not been extinguished in his eyes, making the hot tea in his hand so steamy that it has not cooled down even after decades. His faith is not old yet, he still has to run towards the back of his heart, faster and faster. Before that, he is not allowed to fall in front of anyone, let alone the opponent's student!
"Master Inuyama, this era belongs to young people after all. Why don't you give me this opportunity to reach the top?"
It wasn't until the wisp of tea smoke rose to the rafters that Lin Nian's voice slowly sounded in the hall again.
Smoke dispersed from the tea cup.
—
"...No wonder, when I first came to Japan, I didn't see anything in your eyes." Inuyama He's voice gradually became calmer, "But when I looked at it from such a distance today, I suddenly realized that it was already full. Thing, it seems that your experiences these days have tempered you, what happened to you that could make you change so much?"
"These things are not something that the Inuyama family has to worry about... Elderly people still rarely do things like mountain climbing. It should be us young people standing on the top of the mountain." Lin Nian looked at Inuyama who was just around the corner. He said, "Although the head of the Inuyama family may still feel unwilling to do so, the unfinished mountain should be left to us who will continue climbing."
The hot tea is still there, but the futon at the end is missing the young people sitting quietly.
At the end of the long table, Inuyama Ga's right hand gently pressed on the waist of Kurohaori, revealing a dark red wooden handle, the national treasure alchemy tool "Onimaru Kunitsuna". Unfortunately, it was not unsheathed today. When he pulled out five inches, a young hand was already pressing on the back of the old hand, and he pushed it back inch by inch.
Inuyama raised his head and stared at Lin Nian who was standing on the table and clasping his wrist. After a moment, he slowly put down the tea cup he held high, handed it to the boy in front of him, nodded and said: "Hilbert Jean Angers's New student, good, good."
The blade made a sound as it passed through the sheath, until the sandalwood hit the scabbard and made a crisp sound.
Only then did Mandy, who was not far away, realize what she had missed.
What she missed was the new king taking off the old king's crown, the change of times and the replacement of old and new scepters, and the cup of hot tea that Lin Nian took from Inuyama Ga.
In the middle of the conversation between the old and the young, the confrontation between the speedsters had quietly ended.
This is how a battle should be in an instant, with waves rising and falling again.
The sixth-level instant versus the seventh-level instant wins, 128 speed versus 64 times the speed, Lin Nian wins against Inuyama He.
The strongest moment is defeated before it happens.
