Chapter 72: Full of Storm, I Came from the Sea (I)

Fan Xian looked at Sigu Sword, and after a little bit of silence, he moved in the direction of the head of the bed, reached under the head of this great master, and reached under the pillow. This movement was extremely slow, and the skin on the back of his hand and wrist could clearly feel the wheat husk stuffed in the pillow, as well as the fine, withered hair that was scattered on the pillow in a messy and feeble manner.

His fingertips touched a hard object, and Fan Xian’s fingertips gently touched it, realizing that it was a small booklet wrapped in coarse cloth.

Closing his hand and taking the booklet out, Fan Xian did not immediately lift the coarse cloth, but instead stared at the booklet in a daze, corroborating with his heart’s suspicions. This is a relic left behind by the Bitter Lotus State Master, solemnly handed over to himself …… through the hands of the Four Guards Sword, and I think it must be a rare treasure. Such a thin booklet, probably the truly valuable thing is what is recorded on the booklet.

The Four Gu Swords didn’t rush him, just calmly and indifferently looking at the corner, as if he wasn’t at his side, as if he hadn’t reached behind his head earlier.

After all, Fan Xian couldn’t help that intense curiosity and lifted the cloth in front of Si Gu Jian, and then saw what was inside – unlike what was imagined, unlike what Si Gu Jian had said, there wasn’t one pamphlet inside.

Instead, it was two pamphlets.

Fan Xian shook his head and laughed, casually flipping open the booklet on top, looking at those Heavenly Dao supreme heart methods that he knew so well that he could recite them backwards and forwards, and couldn’t hide that helpless smile.

Four Gu Jian had personally instructed himself on the knowledge of the mind of the sword before his death, and Bitter Lotus had never forgotten to deliver the heart method of the Heavenly Dao to his own hands before his death. Fan Xian’s mouth was a little bitter, it seemed that these old monsters of the older generation were truly a bunch of monsters, and would actually place their last hope of resisting His Majesty, the great Emperor of Qing, in their own bodies.

Before the Great Patriarch left this human world, he wanted to leave behind a strong enough enemy for Emperor Qing, and enemies outside of the Qing Kingdom were no longer enough to be feared, so this candidate had to be chosen from within the Qing Kingdom.

By allowing his second disciple to forcibly extend Chen Pingping’s lifespan and laying down chess pieces in the Western Liang Road, Bitter Lotus had calculated that in the world after his death, this young man, Fan Xian, would surely be able to appear with his cheap father, because of what happened back then, and because of what is happening now, there would be some seams that could be utilized by Northern Qi.

Si Gu Jian gave Dong Yi City to Fan Xian with both hands, but he also gave Fan Xian a big package on his back, very heavy, very heavy.

“You guys really look up to me.” Fan Xian shrugged his shoulders, his fingertips lightly tapping on the Supreme Heart Technique that the Green Mountain lineage regarded as a treasure, and said, “Or rather, you guys are also too bold to actually place vain hopes on me.”

“Your mother is from our Dong Yi City, it is only natural for me to pin my hopes on you.” Si Gu Jian said in a hoarse voice, “But Bitter Lotus, this dead bald head, is actually willing to give you a great gift as well, which is really a bit out of my expectation.”

Fan Xian looked at the Heart Method of Heavenly Dao in a daze, thinking that when Bitter Lotus was dying, he was afraid that he still thought that what he had learned from Haitang was only a modified version of the Heart Method of Heavenly Dao, but he did not know that Haitang, because of her worry about his injuries, had disregarded her teacher’s order and passed the true Heart Method of Heavenly Dao’s inner sect to him, and that was in the distant past, in the faraway Jiangnan province.

I don’t know what Haitang is doing in the grassland now, Hu Ge has already made a fuss over there, the civil unrest in Western Hu has already started, she is no longer talented, but far away from the border of Northern Qi, she can’t play much of a role.

Before Bitter Lotus died, she gave Fan Xian the true Heart of Heavenly Dao, naturally hoping to gather the strength of several people to create another great master in this world.

“Learning too many different things isn’t necessarily a good thing.” Fan Xian said.

Si Gu Jian squinted at him and said, “I did know that you had long ago learned the things of the Green Mountain lineage, it seems that Bitter Lotus had never met with you and so did not realize this, and this booklet he sent really isn’t of much use.”

“But this booklet is still of some use to the disciples of the Sword Lodge.” Fan Xian looked at him quietly. Of the four great patriarchs in heaven, only Bitter Lotus and Four Gu Swords had accepted disciples widely, and with Four Gu Swords’ ability to excel at teaching disciples, and having suddenly acquired the secret treasures of the Heavenly Dao, there was no reason not to make great use of them and pass them on to his disciples.

“This is for you, and it is the trust that Dead Baldhead had placed in me before.” Si Gu Jian said with slight pride, “I don’t care to look at his things.”

Fan Xian’s lips curled slightly as he nodded and said, “If I hadn’t told you about the Ten Villages, would you not have given me this booklet?”

These words perhaps spoke to the heart of Si Gu Jian, who had to judge just how much loyalty Fan Xian had to the Emperor of Qing, and how much he would probably look after Dong Yi City, before he could finally make up his mind, and handing over the Bitter Lotus Relic was naturally one of those resolutions.

But this Grand Master did not recognize this, and he merely said indifferently, “You would have learned this booklet, so what difference can it make whether I give it to you or not?”

“But there is another book below it.” Fan Xian’s eyes gradually calmed down as he picked up the second pamphlet and stared at the Four Gu Swords and asked, “The Four Great Masters have been known side by side for a long time, and you don’t care to look at the Heavenly Dao’s techniques, that’s because you’re very familiar with the Bitter Lotus lineage’s techniques, and you know that practicing them to whatever realm is possible again won’t allow the Sword Lodge to make a qualitative leap forward. But aren’t you curious as to what the pamphlet was that Bitter Lotus solemnly handed over to you, and put together with the Heavenly Dao’s inner sect mind method?”

The pamphlet was even thinner, only about two dozen pages, and Fan Xian’s palm was pressed down on top of the pamphlet as he looked at Si Gu Jian with a smile on his face, waiting for the other party’s answer.

“Of course I’m interested, because I never knew that Bitter Lotus, this dead bald head, had any other abilities other than those lousy true qi used to plant flowers and trees.” Si Gu Jian said in a hoarse voice, “What was the use of learning a variety of things you said earlier? Learning to be miscellaneous is certainly useful, even if you don’t use it, you can still senate it.”

“So you have senated.”

Si Gu Jian did not deny it and said indifferently, “I’m going to be a letter carrier, so it’s always okay to take a look.”

After a long moment of silence, Four Gu Swords slightly closed his eyes and said, “Unfortunately, I can’t read it.”

When he said this, Fan Xian had already curiously flipped open the pamphlet below, and he was greatly interested in what exactly was recorded inside. However, when he flipped through the thin pages, he was disappointed.

What the Four Gu Swords couldn’t understand, Fan Xian naturally couldn’t understand even more, and in terms of the realm of martial arts and enlightenment and spirituality, Fan Xian was far worse than this great master. He looked at the strange words on the top of the page with disappointment, strange combinations of vocabulary, and stared dead on, but came up empty-handed.

“Prima Vina, Prima Dog ……”

“Kick Amo ……”

“Dervish ……”

The sky above the sword hut has all darkened, only the distant sea is still flooded with dark blue ghostly light, reflected to the land after the dark blue has been light has gray.

A long time had passed.

Fan Xian sighed and put the booklet down. He had thought that if he didn’t understand the methods left behind by Bitter Lotus, he could also consult with the Four Gu Swords with each other, after all, monsters like the Great Masters, there would be one less if one died, and this opportunity to discuss the relics of Bitter Lotus with the Four Gu Swords would never come again, at least not in this world.

However, he helplessly realized that he actually didn’t even have the possibility to ask questions, because every word was so strange, the combination was so illogical.

The old and young were sitting and lying down in the room, both actually thinking about the last pamphlet that Bitter Lotus had left behind.

Four Gu Jian suddenly opened his eyes, a trace of doubt surging through his eyes as he slowly said, “Three years on the mountain top, Bitter Lotus once compared a hand gesture.”

The mountain top, naturally, was the top of the Great Eastern Mountain, that stormy battle of the patriarchs. Upon hearing this, Fan Xian’s heart immediately stirred, and he listened attentively. However, the Four Gu Swords coughed twice before falling into silence again.

“What hand style was that?” Fan Xian asked with a frown.

“It should be a …… western spell?” The rare Four Gu Jian was also not confident, because in his opinion, in the hearts of all the martial artists in this continent, western spells and the mages who practiced such spells were the chicken ribs amongst the chicken ribs, and with the strength of Bitter Lotus’s realm, how could he possibly spend his time practicing such useless things?

Then after hearing these words, Fan Xian, however, was blessed to the core of his heart and slowly closed his palms in front of his chest, a trace of a satisfied smile appearing on his face as he shook his head with difficulty and sighed with a smile, “I know what’s written on this.”

“What is it?”

“Western writing, only it’s just a direct flip of our writing by syllable.” Fan Xian shrugged and said, “I was about seven years old when I used this method, and I didn’t realize that Master Bitter Lotus, who was such an awesome figure, actually used this childish method as well.”

Of course, what could make Fan Xian think of this was not just the strange vocabulary on top of it, which gave him a sense of familiarity with Western-style translated novels, nor was it just because he had once practiced three pieces of meat to feed your mom back then as well, but more importantly, it was because he thought of a novel he had once read in his previous life.

Written by Mr. Jin, about the Nine Yin True Scriptures, that fool Guo Jing, Uri smearing that human skin.

Si Gu Jian frowned and said, “Western writing? Is it really some kind of spell stuff? What’s the shit use of that.”

“Who knows?” Fan Xian had a bit of a headache and looked at the two pamphlets on his palm, thought for half a moment, and then seriously tucked them into his bosom, saying, “Master Bitter Lotus left them for me, so I guess they must still be of some use.”

“Don’t focus your spirit on these useless things.” Si Gu Jian opened his mouth and said, he still maintained an innate contempt for the barbaric things of the Western world, which was probably the natural way for an advanced civilization to look down on a backward civilization.

“Compatibility and fetishism.” Fan Xian responded, “Who knows what benefits I’ll get from learning it.”

“You can read these nonsense words?” Four Gu Jian frowned for the first time, looking at Fan Xian in a slight daze. It had been more than two years since this pamphlet had landed in his hands, and although endowed with the pride of a great master, he had not peeked at the heart of the Heavenly Dao, he had still delved into this ghostly pamphlet for a long time, and he also wanted to know what the deeper meaning of Bitter Lotus was by leaving such a thing behind, only that no matter how much he delved into it, he had made no progress whatsoever. If it is said to be the Western text, but the four Gu Jian ruling Dongyi City, the city officials and people deal with the foreigners, and have not heard of which foreigners are talking about this kind of language.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “I also have to guess slowly, I learned some before, but I’ve forgotten almost all of it.”

Yes, the pamphlet left behind by Bitter Lotus, the words on it were in Italian, and the foreigners who dealt with Qing Guo and Dong Yi City basically practiced a kind of deformed Spanish or English, which Fan Xian hadn’t studied very seriously, but it was roughly the same thing anyway.

Fan Xian had studied Italian, having taken it as an elective during his sophomore year in his previous life.

Was this coincidence or fate?

All was said and done, and the things that Si Gu Jian needed to hand over and transfer had been done with Fan Xian for mutual reference. Fan Xian stood up from the edge of the bed and was about to leave the room when he suddenly lowered his eyes slightly and asked earnestly, “I’ve never been able to understand exactly why you chose me.”

Ye Qingmei was indeed counted as half of the Eastern Barbarians, but it was obvious that she had put in more effort in the Qing Kingdom back then, and anyone who had seen that picture of the yellow-shirted woman frowning at the riverbank would think so. Just because of the so-called household registration, wouldn’t a reason be needed to place the free existence of the entire Dongyi City on Fan Xian, on this young powerhouse of the Qing Kingdom who had once made Dongyi City suffer countless bloody losses?

Sigu Jian said, ”It is said that one cannot make friends without a fetish. I once asserted that you have no heart for the world, and thus you cannot achieve greatness. However, a person’s lack of fetishes is no more than two, one is a saint and the other is a fake.”

“You are a person without fetishes.” Four Gu Jian continued, “But after the Great Eastern Mountain, as far as I’m concerned, you have steeply born some true character …… just has been hidden extremely deep. So I think that you should go towards the former way.”

“This world can there be such a person who does not act for one’s own selfish interests, a country’s selfish interests, and only acts for the tranquility of one’s own mind?”

Si Gu Jian looked at him with indifferent eyes, “There was once one in the past, and I hope there will be one in the future. If the gamble is wrong, then it is wrong, and I do not care. A man who is about to die is always the bravest gambler.”

Fan Xian was silent for a long time, then walked out of the quiet room and walked to the side of the sword pit, and saw Wang XIII Lang, who was sadly shedding silent tears and was wiping them with his sleeve like a child.

The thousand swords in the pit were cold.

Wang Thirteen Lang glanced at him and walked into the quiet room, and a moment later all the disciples of the sword lodge walked into the quiet room solemnly, including Yun Zhilan, no one made a single sound, no one bothered to glance at Fan Xian beside the sword pit.