Chapter 44: What a Big Tree

In late spring, all kinds of trees were stretching their limbs and spitting out their green leaves. Dongyi City is close to the sea, the moist sea breeze blowing day and night, even more so that the spring in this place than elsewhere earlier and faster, the spring of the hidden period of time is also a little longer.

The outskirts of the city of this big green tree do not know how many years has been growing here, the trunk is upright and not piercing the sky, countless thousands of pieces of melting green leaves in the crown of the tree gathered into a large umbrella, looks particularly beautiful, particularly compassionate, blocking the round of the sun in the sky, sprinkle a shadow, shading the people who come into and out of the city.

The tree was so big that the shadow covered even acres of land, and there were many pedestrians resting under the tree. Under the tree were those gnarled roots that protruded out of the soil, just like a thick dragon body, steady and solid, Four Gu Swords Fan Xian, the little emperor, the three of them were resting beside these roots, this strange combination, did not attract passers-by to look at them, probably because there have always been a lot of strange people in the city of Dongyi.

Fan Xian sat on top of the tree roots, feeling the shade under his buttocks, he didn’t know what kind of tree this big tree behind him was, and he didn’t bother to explore the roots, but just lowered his head to the roots to look for ants or dung-ball-carrying shitshells, but he didn’t find anything.

“How old was she then?”

“Five or six? Seven or eight?” Four Gu Jian sat in his wheelchair, frowning, thinking for a long time, as if his memory was a little fuzzy because of the age, spat a mouthful of phlegm on the ground, and said, “Anyway, it’s just a little girl.”

“How old were you then?”

“I think I was in my teens?” Four Gu Jian scratched his head and said, “You know that my brain has never been very good, and I can’t always remember such complicated questions.”

“I don’t consider my age to be any kind of complex issue.”

“Geniuses are always different from the masses in some ways.” Four Gu Jian clearly didn’t care about Fan Xian’s sarcasm and said with a cold smile.

“The other side of genius is idiocy.” Fan Xian gave him a lazy look and said, “Of course, the entire world knows that you were an idiot as a child.”

Si Gu Jian didn’t say anything, only meeting Fan Xian’s gaze in one place, as if trying to find some shadows of those days in the cracks by the tree roots.

The young emperor, War Doudou, stood indifferently at the side, watching this old and young duo in a fit of idiocy, and was rather unimpressed in his heart. The three of them traveled here, all the way is still calm, to the world in the theory of Taoism, the identity of the little emperor is naturally the most honorable, but it is obvious that whether it is the four Gu Jian or Fan Xian, do not care much about this.

Four Gu Jian and Fan Xian seemed to have gotten excited about looking for ants. They stayed under the green tree and seemed to have no intention of leaving. The young emperor frowned slightly, thinking that the courtiers outside the sword hut were only still worried about themselves, plus there was no telling what would happen next, and worrying that this old and young duo would not reveal their destiny, his heart was slightly worried, and he said softly, “Ms. Ye is no longer here, and it is impossible for you guys to count on her coming back to life even if you watch here for another three years. ”

This sentence seems to be stating something, but there is some thought of punishment, the wisdom and reaction speed of the young emperor, at this moment is the fullest embodiment. In the Sword Lodge, the Four Gu Swords only slightly mentioned the matter of persuading Fan Xian to rebel, and then she caught certain vague clues, and tried to point out a sentence here.

At these words, both Four Gu Swords and Fan Xian raised their heads and glanced at her, looking at her with some panic in their hearts. Fan Xian shrugged and said, “I just think ants are a bit more interesting than people.”

Four Gu Jian looked at Fan Xian and said in admiration, “When your mom accompanied me to look for ants back then, we were asked this and she answered the same way.”

As Si Gu Jian recounted with some pleasure, Fan Xian smiled, and that image from many years ago seemed to float before his eyes.

A snotty idiot, squatting under a big green tree, watching ants move and fight, perhaps even unbuckling the belt around his waist and peeing on the ants’ nest. The pedestrians passing by in the surrounding area, the residents within Dongyi City, all knew the identity of this big idiot, and when they passed by him, they all had a look of pity and disgust in their eyes, but no one was willing to go up and talk to him.

Then a blind teenage servant holding the hand of a little girl came to Dongyi City from a far away place, came to the bottom of this big green tree, and found this …… idiot who was so focused that he didn t care what was happening next to him.

The little powdered girl curiously squatted beside this idiot and asked him, “What are you looking at?”

The idiot gave her a very impatient look and said, “I’m looking at ants.”

The little girl oohed and aahed, then began to watch the ants with him as well, and kept watching for a long time. Then someone beside her finally couldn’t look away and reminded that teenage servant that this idiot was the young master of a certain big shot’s family in the city, and was nothing more than a fool, so don’t let the young lady of your family be a fool with him.

After the little girl heard these words, she didn’t stand up and said with a smile, “I just think that sometimes, ants are much more interesting than people.”

Obviously, the implied meaning within this sentence was far too mature for the age presented by this tiny body. However, the pedestrians and citizens under the tree didn’t notice this, they just felt that it was a bit hard to look at this unknown young lady, who was so beautifully born, so clean, like a fairy daughter walking out of a painting, actually squatting with the most famous idiot of the City Lord’s family.

Then that little girl beckoned, the blind teenage servant who had been as cold as a block of ice, also squatted to the side of the two people, although he didn’t want to squat, but there was no difference between squatting and standing for him, since she liked to let herself squat, then squat.

“We happened to be three at that time as well.” Four Gu Jian was continuing his memories, scratching his somewhat itchy cheeks, and said hoarsely, “Just watched a half day of ant fights, and then I invited them to my house as guests.”

“Your house?”

“My dead old man is the former city lord of Dong Yi City, you don’t know?”

“Oh, I’ve heard of it, but it was many years ago, your dead old dad died under your sword long ago, I didn’t think about it for a while.”

“The City Lord’s Mansion is big and luxurious.” Si Gu Jian suddenly grinned, “But I live in a place that looks like a dog’s nest because I’m an idiot, my dead old dad hates me the most, and my mom is just a maid. You see what I’m talking about, right?”

“Well, I’ve read a lot of novels like this one.” Fan Xian nodded, no one in Dongyi City dared to discuss the Four Gu Swords’ past, but that didn’t mean that the Inspectorate hadn’t studied this aspect. He had long had a clear understanding of Si Gu Jian’s life, and knew what kind of days the idiot had lived within the City Lord’s residence back then, doubly abused and belittled, only for him to realize today that Si Gu Jian’s real mother was a maiden, and that maiden had only died many, many years ago.

“Your mom and Five Bamboo, are the first friends I’ve ever known in my life.” Four Gu Jian suddenly said very seriously, “Even though the place I lived in was so bad that I couldn’t even serve a cup of tea, they didn’t look down on me and still went with me.”

“Perhaps because I was an idiot at the time, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. But it was obvious that many people in the City Lord’s Mansion thought it was problematic, and it was impossible to accept two people of unknown origin living in the mansion, especially with the idiot young master. So a few days later, Ye Ci and Wu Zhu left the City Lord’s Mansion. It didn’t matter to me, anyway, during the day, I was going out to watch the ants, and on the way, I also went to the house rented by the two of them to have some fun.”

“This is really the first time I’ve known that you once had such an encounter with mother and Uncle Wuzhu.”

Four Gu Jian squeezed his eyebrows and said in a cold voice, “Could it be that Five Bamboo has never mentioned to you what happened in Dong Yi City back then?”

“No.” Fan Xian sat on top of a tree root and took a thin wooden branch, mindlessly picking at the dirt, and responded, “Uncle’s memory became much worse later on.”

“Oh, this kid, Wuzhu, actually has a poor memory?” Si Gu Jian suddenly laughed out loud, “Wouldn’t that be similar to how I looked like an idiot back then.”

Fan Xian glared at him, then shook his head with a bitter smile and asked, “Do you know …… where my mother and Uncle Wuzhu …… came from?”

This was a matter that had plagued him for more than ten years, and although he could vaguely guess a little bit about it and had mentioned some of it before Sean’s death in the Western Mountain Jedi outside of the Upper Capital, Sean’s old man’s dying narration only stated where his mother came from, but did not mention Uncle Five Bamboos.

In Sean’s narrative, back then, the two of them, he and Bitter Lotus, had traveled thousands of miles to enter the periphery of the temple, and then saw Ye Qingmei. The two of them saved Ye Qingmei from the temple, but they were separated halfway through. At that time, Ye Qingmei was only four years old, and there was still a period of two years or even longer before the Four Gu Swords saw her in Dongyi City.

During this period of time, what was Ye Qingmei doing? How did Uncle Wu Zhu come to her side?

Sean’s memories, once mentioned, Ye Qingmei seems to be deeply worried about someone in the temple, the heart is a little unable to let go, so it will be determined to leave, that person …… is Uncle Five Bamboo?

Hearing Fan Xian’s question, the Four Gu Swords suddenly became extremely quiet, and only after a long time did he say quietly, “At that time I, naturally, couldn’t possibly know where they were coming from and where they were going …… but then naturally and slowly came to know.”

He turned his head slightly, staring at Fan Xian with those deep, bottomless, ethereal eyes, and said, “Could it be that you still don’t know where the Five Bamboos came from people?”

Fan Xian lowered his head and was silent for a long time, Uncle Five Bamboo is a monster, Uncle Five Bamboo doesn’t age, Uncle Five Bamboo doesn’t know internal martial arts, Uncle Five Bamboo is very good and powerful, so Uncle Five Bamboo …… He let out a bitter smile and said, “Even if Uncle Five Bamboo came out of the temple, but what about my mother? ”

“Nonsense, blind people are messengers in the temple, your mother is his master, of course, she is a fairy in the temple, otherwise with her alone, how can she straighten out so many things in this world?” Si Gu Jian cursed out irritably, as if he felt that Fan Xian’s question was really a bit redundant.

However, Fan Xian didn’t feel self-conscious about the redundancy, he smiled bitterly as he thought that his mother, Ye Qingmei, obviously had a soul that didn’t belong to this world just like himself, and what kind of relationship could it have with the temple?

Fan Xian and Sigu Sword talk vigorously, memories of sighing, but the voice is naturally bound in one place, did not affect anyone below the tree. However, the little Emperor of Northern Qi had been standing at the side of the two of them, quietly listening to all of this, hearing her face gradually turn pale, the hands in her sleeves trembling.

She hadn’t expected that under this big tree, she would be able to hear such a chilling secret. She also finally understood why a young man like Fan Xian possessed a confidence and even arrogance that the world could hardly reach from the very beginning of his present life; he dared to be so disdainful of an earthly emperor, dared to sit on an equal footing with a great master like the Four Gu Swords, and dared to speak so boldly and presumptuously about the world, trying to control everything in his hands.

The young emperor knew that Fan Xian’s mother was Ye Qingmei, and she also vaguely knew that there was a blind master behind him, but it wasn’t until today that she realized that the Ye family lady and that blind master from back then had an unexplainable relationship with the divine temple.

What is the Temple of God? It is a deity that floats on the clouds of the nine heavens, indifferently watching the sufferings of the world, but does not move at all, a will beyond the mundane, the legendary guardian of the earth. Yet no one knew where the temple was or what it was, except for Master Bitter Lotus, who had once seen the temple with his own eyes.

After kowtowing in front of the temple for three days, Bitter Lotus achieved a great master’s skill. Under the Great Green Tree, Miss Ye family met Four Gu Swords by chance, and Four Gu Swords then turned from the old age idiot with a runny nose into a generation of strong swordsmen whose swordsmanship was unrivaled. Another example is that His Majesty the Emperor of the Kingdom of Qing ……

The young emperor’s short eyelashes fluttered with difficulty. From the beginning of the Great Wei until now, all the people under the sky have wanted to see what the temple looks like with their own eyes, wanting to seek the shadow of the Heavenly Dao from nothingness. Wasn’t it for the sake of immortality that the Emperor of the Great Wei back then sent a team of thousands of people north to seek the temple?

It turned out that behind Fan Xian, there was actually the shadow of the temple. The young Emperor of Northern Qi glanced at Fan Xian’s side shadow, his heart incomparably shocked and complicated.

Fan Xian took a deep breath and spoke, ”I should know some of what happened afterward. After living in Dongyi City for a few years, Lord Mother began to engage in business, which led to the Ye Family later on, as well as the present-day Nanqing Inner Treasury.”

“The development of anything is never this simple.” Si Gu Jian raised his only remaining arm and held up a finger, “Even if Ye Qingmei was a god, there’s no way for her to do everything she did back then without any help, she needs someone to help her.”

Fan Xian frowned and looked at Sigu Sword, “You?”

“It’s me.” Si Gu Jian said indifferently, “Although I am an idiot, I am after all the young master in the City Lord’s Mansion, so as long as I control the City Lord’s Mansion, the Ye Family’s merchant name, naturally, will be able to travel freely within Dong Yi City.”

“Understood.” Fan Xian lowered his head and said, “The chance encounter under the Big Green Tree wasn’t necessarily a chance encounter, to put it another way, before she entered Dongyi City back then, she already knew what was going on within the city, and that’s why she chose you.”

“No, a chance encounter is a chance encounter.” Four Gu Jian said indifferently, “At least that’s what I’m sticking to. If she was looking for a collaborator, there are too many people better than me, what she has in her head is enough to attract countless riches, and the existence of the blind man can ensure that she doesn’t have any real enemies in this world.”

“What exactly were you doing in those years before business?” Fan Xian did not argue about this.

“I was continuing to watch ants and then practicing my sword, and then one day, that old poisonous thing Fei Jie came.” Si Gu Jian yawned, as if the long reminiscing was really bothering him a bit.

“Oh, Master said that the most honorable thing he did in his life was to cure an idiot within Dongyi City into a Grand Master.” Fan Xian laughed.

Si Gu Jian laughed shamefully, “I’m merely a brain that’s prone to thinking pedantic thoughts, it’s not like I’m really an idiot, what does turning into a monster like a Grand Master have to do with Fei Jie?”

Fan Xian smiled with his eyebrows and said with a smile, “That naturally has something to do with my mom.”

Si Gu Jian was silent for a moment, and smiled as well, “Your mom was able to pass on the Heavenly Dao technique to Bitter Lotus, so of course she was able to pass on a set of swordsmanship to me …… However, I’m a person who is a genius, and that set of swordsmanship of your mom’s wasn’t very useful, and what was really useful was what I realized on my own later on.”

“Hmm, you seem to be a bit more narcissistic than I thought.” Fan Xian shrugged his shoulders, but knew that this great master was telling the truth, even if the Four Gu Sword Technique was one of Ye Qingmei’s feats stolen from the temple back then, but to be able to cultivate into the realm of a grandmaster in the position of a mortal, it was not a great genius, a great perseverance, and a great luck that was not enough to become a grandmaster.

“Genius has many meanings.” Four Gu Jian’s eyelids drooped as if they might close at any moment, never to open again, “Your mom once said that my genius lies in concentration and indifference.”

“Someone who can watch ants move their homes for ten years can’t just be found.” Si Gu Jian said hoarsely, “An idiot who has poked and killed tens of thousands of ants, one by one, with a thin wooden branch, is even less easy to find. I was lucky enough to run into your mom and Five Bamboo, and your mom was lucky enough to run into me in Dong Yi City.”

Fan Xian was unable to speak for a long time, secretly savoring these words, thinking that decades ago, the continent was in turmoil, and I don’t know how many geniuses of great skill emerged, such as those with great perseverance like Bitter Lotus, those with great dementedness like Siguru Sword, and those capable of ninjutsu like His Majesty, all of them appeared at that time of the year, and then Ye Light Eyebrows fled from the temple with Uncle Five Bamboos, and stumbled upon these characters.

Regardless of realm, regardless of luck, in terms of talent and will alone, in this world today, there is no one who can be compared to these powerful people who hadn’t yet become great masters back then. Haitang couldn’t, her master dared to eat human flesh, Fan Xian couldn’t, his emperor’s father could endure the supreme pain and despair of having his meridians shattered, and neither could Wang XIII Lang, his Sword Saint master didn’t take human life seriously at all. The young people of the current generation each had their own flaws, each was less than the other, and this gap, one didn’t know how many years and bumps in the road it would take to make up for it before they could touch the layer of paper between the heavenly and the human, and ultimately leap over it to become a truly great master.

“Everything is fate.” Fan Xian sighed as he looked at the Four Gu Swords.

Four Gu Swords looked at Fan Xian with a strange expression and spoke, “Do you want to learn? Just say it if you want to learn.”

Fan Xian’s heart was flabbergasted, knowing what this Sword Saint was preparing to pass on to him by opening his mouth at this time, and a bitter smile could not help but appear on his face as he said softly, “I think you should already know that I already know.”

The Four Gu Sword said indifferently, “I’m talking about the true Four Gu Sword.”

Fan Xian’s heart shook, and after a long silence, he suddenly spoke, “There is actually no difference, the key still lies in the people. The young people of our generation are always still not as good as your generation, of course, this gap may slowly narrow, but even if you move everything in the temple in front of me, what will I do if I practice?”

There were infinite feelings in his heart, those kung fu techniques that his mother stole from the temple back then, it looked like they were passed down to these great masters separately, except for Ye Liuyun’s Liuyun Scattered Hands, which was somewhat unclear as to where it came from, the others had already been proven enough.

Outside the temple, Bitter Lotus had paid the price of serious injuries to save Ye Qingmei, who was only four years old at the time, and then obtained the price from Ye Qingmei’s hands, precisely the supreme method of Ruyue Tiandao.

Although the sword technique of the Four Gu Swords was self-referred to by himself with excellent aura and demented qi, it was obvious that without the chance encounter under the Great Green Tree, an idiot would still be an idiot after all, and not being allowed to be inspired, how could he leap the ranks and advance?

As for the yellow pamphlet that has been following Fan Xian around, the upper book is the Hegemony, the lower book is the King’s Way, a follow twenty years, nowadays he naturally understands that this is what his mother left to the emperor’s old man back in the day, and then the emperor’s old man somehow left it to himself through the hands of the five bamboos.

It was the Hegemony Technique that caused a wave of frustration in Fan Xian’s heart, how he could not enter the realm of the King’s Way. And he had learned the true qi techniques of the Heavenly Dao, but there was no qualitative help, even if the Four Gu Swords really did have the so-called real Four Gu Swords to pass on to himself today, but what help would it be?

Ye Qingmei’s legacy scattered in this world had all been gradually picked up by Fan Xian, and one more piece seemed to be of no use.

“Ye Qingmei grew to become a heavenly green tree within Dongyi City back then, and it was by relying on the sword in my hand that I acquired a position within Dongyi City, becoming a partner in catching bugs beside this great tree of hers.” Si Gu Jian closed his eyes slightly and said softly, “If you can’t practice, you have to keep practicing, a tree has to grow up, where is it so easy.”

Fan Xian smiled, walked under the sky-scraping green tree, gently patted the trunk, and said, “I’m not afraid of chewing on my greed, since you must let me learn, I’ll reluctantly learn it as well.”