A small boat floats quietly on the lake.
"It seems like I haven't been here for a long time..."
Xia Zhichan stood on the bow of the boat, looking at the mirror-like smooth water and the long blue water flowing in front of her.
He sighed a little.
Ever since he accidentally lost the wine gourd on this lake, he spent a long time looking for the irreplaceable magic weapon, but in the end he found nothing.
Later, because of the heavy files and the gradually drying up of his energy, he never came again.
Without Qi, he is just a mortal.
It's no wonder that Taoist Chimei looks down on me. You said that we are all Taoists from well-known and upright families, but everyone is at least an entry-level practitioner, and as for me...
"Looking for a needle in a haystack, I don't know if it will work..."
Xia Zhichan picked up the fishing rod he had just prepared from the boat. He did not prepare any bait. He had no intention of fishing in the first place. He wanted to catch himself today.
I have lost my Taoist heart.
…
On Queryong Mountain, the chess game played by four people is endless.
The old man holding black, the man holding red, the young man holding white, and the child holding green.
The chess pieces of four colors are constantly fighting and devouring each other on the chessboard, but like water of several different colors, they cannot escape from the chessboard no matter how magnificent it is.
The old man holding the black man seemed to be asleep. He was leaning sideways on the bamboo chair, snoring with his mouth open.
Only the right hand holding the chess piece was still raised to the side normally.
Although the other three people had different expressions, surprisingly they did not disturb the old man's sound sleep, and the fighting on the chessboard continued.
The number of black chess pieces did not increase, so they were constantly being swallowed up by the other three types of chess pieces. It was seen that there were fewer and fewer black chess pieces on the chessboard.
But when the number of chess pieces on the chessboard decreases to a certain number, it is like a skinny bullied person retreating to a corner, with no way out.
But those three violent chess pieces found that their opponent had changed from a weak and bully piece of sand into a hard and rugged rock.
No matter what kind of rough waves it is, it cannot cause any damage to it.
"Haha, what a wonderful move. To put it bluntly, I am already invincible..."
The middle-aged man holding the red chess piece smiled while stroking his hands. His red piece took the lead in stopping the pursuit of the black piece and turned to attack the other two pieces.
"Huh! It's just a turtle."
The boy with the white stones wanted to fight again, but all his attacks had no effect on the black stones, and now he had to face the invasion of the red stones.
"Eh? Why not..."
The cyan chess piece subconsciously hid back, leaving the fighting on the chessboard to the white chess and the red chess, allowing them to have a free showdown.
The young child pursed his lips and threw the chess piece in his hand into the chess box, making a snapping sound.
Although he couldn't understand the rules on the chessboard, he could always compete with the other three families by directly landing on the position that was most beneficial to him.
Now facing black, he had no choice.
He could only act like a child. His big eyes were filled with mist, and he was about to burst into tears. Tears kept rolling in his eyes.
But neither the man nor the boy noticed that they were fighting on the chessboard.
The white piece's attack is more severe, so the boy currently has the upper hand, but the man's red piece is not far behind. His pieces always have strong cohesion, and no matter how many times they are scattered by the boy, they can quickly regroup.
"Young man, don't be so impatient. Your chess moves are very sharp, but it can easily reveal your intention to attack. That's why I can prepare in advance."
The middle-aged man didn't seem to care about winning or losing on the chessboard. He taught the young man how to play chess earnestly.
"Stop talking nonsense and let's fight to the death!"
The young man shouted loudly, and his tense face relaxed into a smile, and then he seemed to have a chance to win.
On the chessboard, things had changed while the middle-aged man was nagging.
The young Baizi successfully forced Hongzi into a corner, leaving the opponent with no chance to escape and had no choice but to fight him head-on.
Bai Zi launched a charge as usual, but Hong Zi, who had already retreated, suddenly separated from the middle, like a bloody mouth with sharp teeth exposed.
All the white chess pieces were wrapped up, and in the end they could only be wasted little by little in the siege of the red chess pieces.
"you!"
The young man slapped the table and looked at the smiling middle-aged man in front of him.
Seeing that he was being lured into the trap little by little without knowing it, the young man who thought he was in sight of victory looked furious.
The middle-aged man smiled and said nothing.
But his happiness did not last long, as a bunch of green chessmen suddenly rushed in from a corner that he had not noticed, and tore a hole in the trap he had laid with the red chessmen.
Already one of the few white chessmen managed to take this opportunity to escape.
"Little guy, you actually helped him?"
The child pouted, looked at the equally surprised middle-aged man and young man, and said seriously:
"Master said, you can't see others being bullied and remain indifferent..."
"But you just gave up and gave up."
The rules in Go are that when it's your turn to play chess, throw the chess piece you already have in your hand back into the chess box. This action means you admit defeat.
"But...this is not Go."
The child was right. The game played by the four of them could have countless names, but it was not Go.
"you……"
Sometimes, only the innocence of a child can defeat the careful calculation of a middle-aged man.
He didn't expect that he would stumble in this place. It seems that the first person to quit on this chessboard may not be who he is.
"Even if you two join forces, the total number of chess pieces is just equal to my chess pieces, so the possibility of winning is very small."
Although the middle-aged man did not capture all the white pieces as planned, he now has the most remaining pieces on the chessboard, so he naturally has the greatest chance of winning.
"Hmph! That's not necessarily the case..."
The child climbed onto the table on hands and knees. He didn't want to play with the chessboard, but put his two chubby little hands on his mouth to make a trumpet shape.
The childish voice shouted:
"Grandpa, grandpa, wake up quickly! Wake up and beat up uncle with us..."
"I've become a bad uncle..."
The middle-aged man just smiled at the children's words and regarded them as children's words.
The snoring old man showed no sign of waking up. He didn't even wipe the saliva from his mouth.
"Grandpa!!!"
The child shouted with all his strength.
"Well……"
The old man seemed to have heard it, so he turned over in a daze, and even wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, but still did not open his eyes, smacked his mouth a few times, and then fell asleep again.
"Xiaosi...you can definitely do it...Master believes in you..."
The old man even said a few intermittent words in his sleep. He didn't know if he was really asleep and dreaming, or if there was another mystery behind it.
…
"Xiaosi...you can definitely do it...Master believes in you..."
Xia Zhichan, who was fishing with a fishing rod, seemed to hear something. Suddenly he raised his head and searched around him.
Just now, following the sound of the wind, I seemed to hear the voice of my master.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Longshan Mountain, and I haven’t seen my master for a long time. Since leaving the capital, the young Xia Zhichan has been living with his master on Kunlong Mountain. For more than ten years, those were perhaps his most leisurely years.
With the guidance of my master and the love of my senior brothers, I just eat, sleep and read every day. It would have seemed extremely boring at the time, but now all I can recall are happy things.
"I have been persisting for almost a month. I am working hard from an ordinary person's perspective. Except for rescuing Nan Er, I rarely use my true energy..."
The water was calm and the cold wind of late autumn was blowing gently.
The slight chill made Xia Zhichan feel more and more like an ordinary person. In fact, he has never been able to accept such a gap. After all, he used to be a spiritual officer who subdued demons.
As long as the wine gourd provides vitality, he can easily subjugate demons. Even if he encounters a very troublesome monster, the magic weapon on his body can definitely save his life.
Looking back now, he discovered many of his previous shortcomings.
Including being obsessed with people doing evil and demons doing evil, and losing the Taoist heart that I have always insisted on.
Xia Zhichan specially changed her clothes today and wore the most ordinary cotton clothes.
The damaged black and white mysterious robe was still in tatters because there was no real energy to repair it. He even took off his golden crown and emerald jade today, and now he is dressed exactly like everyone walking by the roadside.
He grabbed the bamboo fishing rod and watched the slender fishing line floating leisurely in the autumn wind.
He made the fishing rod himself, and there was no shortage of bamboo in the bamboo forest courtyard anyway. He randomly found a piece of similar length, cut it with a hatchet, and simply repaired it into a fishing rod.
No fish bit the hook because he had no bait to lure the fish to bite the hook, not even a fishhook.
At the end of the slender hemp fishing line, tied is a stone of the right size and shape that Xia Zhichan carefully selected.
Yes, it's a stone.
It is said that there was a sage in ancient times who once had white hair and beard and was still fishing by the water waiting for a wise king. Later, by chance, he assisted two generations of sages and achieved great success.
Of course, that was a story a long time ago, and Xia Zhichan naturally couldn't be the sage in the story, and his fishing rod wasn't for catching princes.
What he was fishing for was his own Taoist heart. If he lost it on this lake, he would naturally find it back on this lake.
Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly felt the bamboo pole in my hand sink, and then I saw the hemp fishing line tightening.
There were ripples on the lake.
Xia Zhichan held the fishing rod tightly in disbelief. He actually didn't know how to fish, so he could only pull hard.
"Did any fish bite the bait?"
