Chapter 77 – Opening the Lodge

Fan Xian wanted to laugh but couldn’t, the expression on his face was as if it was frozen by the wind and snow outside the temple, he looked blankly at Wang XIII Lang in front of him, looked at the calm but stubborn face of this young friend, and after a long time sighed deeply, also feeling the coldness deep inside himself.

He knew that Thirteen Lang was speaking the truth, and that the other party was a real and true person, which was why he felt the chill.

If future developments were different from what Fan Xian and the Four Gu Swords had estimated to have planned, if it seemed to the world that Fan Xian had only seized the strength of Dongyi City without taking into account the interests of Dongyi City’s populace and merchants, perhaps Thirteen Lang would really strike out at him at all costs.

The legacy of the Four Gu Swords, the Peaceful Money Bank, and the disciples of the Sword Lodge had already given too much of their interests and strength for this gamble, and if Fan Xian really backtracked in the future, these people would surely be angry and hateful to the bone. Without having to think, Fan Xian also knew how thrilling it would be for the thirteen sons of the Sword Lodge to retaliate in a frenzy.

What’s more, with this close, extremely close young friend by his side, Fan Xian did not wish to fight for his life with Wang Xii Lang.

Especially since the sword lodge’s frantic retaliation, even if it couldn’t directly harm Fan Xian, who had the protection of the Supervisory Court, the surprise attack of so many ninth-grade powerhouses would surely be able to harm the loved ones, friends, subordinates, and the like that Fan Xian cared about.

His Majesty, the Emperor of Qing, could bear this kind of loss because most of the time, he didn’t treat most of his loved ones and subordinates as human beings, but Fan Xian couldn’t, and he knew that the attitude presented by Wang Xulang at this moment represented how determined the disciples of the Sword Lodge were, and it was impossible for him to not be secretly vigilant and fearful.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes, the cold aura in his eyes gradually flourished, but gradually dispersed, looking at Wang XIII Lang calmly said: ”Those senior brothers of yours have to be clear about one thing, this thing is what your master begged me to do, not what I begged him to do. The so called cooperation is also your unilateral idea …… I don’t accept any form of coercion.”

Wang Thirteen Lang was silent, knowing that Fan Xian was telling the truth.

Fan Xian stared into his eyes and said, word for word, “This is the point I’ve always wondered about, the Four Gu Swords gave me twelve swords, so how on earth can I trust your loyalty without having to worry night after night that you’re going to stab me in the back.”

“If someone wants to stab you, naturally, I’ll be there to block it.” Wang Thirteen Lang lowered his head somewhat glumly, “As long as you don’t betray your trust.”

Fan Xian said with a slight mocking sneer, “I have a shadow behind me, what do I need you for? I’m just so sick of this feeling. What kind of person am I? I’m not a person who can be coerced into doing things, Jianlu must put his attitude straight, if Yun Zhilan or Li Bohua doesn’t believe in me, then there’s no need for us to continue talking, let’s call it quits, and just come back to talk again in a few months, leading a large army.”

Wang XIII Lang looked up at him with some misgivings and pain and said, “You are also making threats.”

“It’s not polite to come but not to go.” Fan Xian looked at him seriously and said, “I’m head over heels in love with the willingness you present, and I don’t want anyone to use you to control me.”

“We don’t have that luxury, but …… honestly, we don’t understand Master’s legacy. Especially since the senior brothers don’t have too much deep contact with you, they don’t know what kind of person you are, and they simply can’t believe that you would …… disregard the interests of the Kingdom of Qing and instead look out for the death of Dong Yi City.”

“Whether they believe it or not is their business, I only need them to accept it.” Fan Xian stood up and gently patted his shoulder, “We’re friends, and I don’t want you to become a friend who stands by my side, always watching my every move.”

“Friends should trust each other and support each other without asking for reasons.” Fan Xian looked at Wang Thirteen Lang and said seriously, “You are the attitude that the Four Gu Swords show to me, and you are also the attitude that I show to the Four Gu Swords, and it is because of you that I was able to establish this trust between the Four Gu Swords and I. But I hope that from now on, you will learn to have your own attitude …… People are bound to live for themselves , In this world, there are already enough people who carry the so-called national hatred and people’s righteousness, your nature is not suitable for this kind of thing.”

“You are suitable for it?” Wang XIII Lang understood his words and asked quietly.

“I was forced to do it.” Fan Xian’s lips were bitter, his heart was sad and bitter, the corners of his lips curled up, his eyes looked beyond the quiet room and sighed as he sang, “Look at that black hole over there, is it that thief’s lair? What’s the point of recognizing a thief? Is it a real thief? Am I a thief? I don’t want to catch up to the front, and I don’t want to kill cleanly.”

Wang Xulang looked at him quietly and suddenly said, “Who else in this world could force you to do this?”

Fan Xian was silent for a long time, then said, “I don’t know, maybe fundamentally, it’s just that I want to do this myself.”

Fan Xian had already made far-reaching enough considerations regarding His Majesty the Emperor, and just as he had said with his father, he did not want to turn his back on His Majesty until Uncle Wuzhu came back, and he did not have any reason to do so. Although there had been a tragedy like that decades ago, but as a soul drifting in this world, even if he wanted to avenge that woman, there would always be hesitation when facing his father in the flesh.

Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor was still as powerful as ever, so powerful that he was completely invincible.

Fan Xian just wanted to make this world a little gentler, a little more in line with what he had in mind, which was probably the first thing all travelers wanted to do when they came to another completely different world.

He didn’t realize that Ye Tao did this, Wu An Guo did this, even Ye Qing Mei did this, and probably only Shi Yue hadn’t done this.

In fact, this is just the destiny of the traveler, or the destiny of the good traveler, dude can never be a life, enjoyment can never be pacified spiritual needs, the human instinctive desire to explore and control will force to go in that direction, and anyone who has enough power and strength will try to use the power in their hands to change something.

It would take the stamina of an old monk to live his life in a brocade, but even an old monk on his deathbed can’t help but ask Shakespeare.

So people like Fan Xian, when he was already in a certain position in this world, he always had to put on beautiful clothes, stand under the sun, and do what he wanted to do according to his own ideas.

Not necessarily a good choice for the world, but at least a choice he thought was good. History was a dough to be kneaded by the strong, but the strong thought it would be best to knead it into a delicate little girl. Some think it should be kneaded into a big noodle knife and chopped in a bustling marketplace.

Who is right and who is wrong, hand over to history to judge well, anyway, before the conclusion of history, the strong people have long turned into white bones, and they must do, this is thorough enough, fast enough, enough not to be innocent and not in vain.

Fan Xian whirled round to live this second life, in the late spring of the Qingli ten years, finally climbed to the peak he could reach. At this time, the young minister of the Qing Dynasty, the hands of power, the Supervisory Yuan power, money, most of the money under the sky are in his hidden control, and he has a reputation, the reputation of the loud, the world does not do the second person theory.

The most crucial thing is that he has deeds. As white smoke rose all around Dongyi City, and white beckoning flags beckoned in the thick twilight spring wind, the funeral of the Four Guards Sword was about to take place. And the negotiations between Nanqing and Dongyi City had also ended, the world’s momentum had finally changed fundamentally, and from today onwards, the appearance of the territory map became unfamiliar.

Dongyi City finally nominally subordinate to the mighty state of Qing, the entire continent except for a touch of green in the west, the north of the country that has remained silent, all submit to the iron hooves of the state of Qing.

And without sending a single soldier, the Qing Kingdom achieved this goal. The one who facilitated all of this was naturally Fan Xian. His reputation had reached an all-time high at this moment. And what he had done would surely be written in the books of history.

Fan Xian stood calmly at the door of the Sword Lodge, Wang Thirteen Lang stood behind him, the rest of the eleven Sword Lodge disciples also stood quietly not far away, while the delegation of the Kingdom of Qing stood on the other side of him, and the secretive swordsmen of the Supervisory Academy, who did not show themselves, watched everything around them vigilantly from all directions.

Today is the Qingli ten years sword hut opening ceremony, originally this ceremony has been held a long time ago, but the four Gu sword has been seriously ill and will die, coupled with the sword hut today there is a big event to declare the world, invited the whole world a lot of important figures.

Today came too many people, too mixed, and recently Dongyi city around the vassals and small countries as well as some of the city between the city, vaguely some disturbing factors in the fermentation, and even a few places have already appeared in the volunteer army, so as a representative of the invaders of the figure of Fan Xian, naturally became the protection of the work of the most important.

However, the Dongyi City side wasn’t actually too worried about Fan Xian’s safety, as the person who was going to kill Fan Xian in this place shouldn’t have been born yet.

Of course, this judgment naturally excluded the only one in the world today, His Majesty, the Emperor of Qing, who, after all, did not think that the Emperor of Qing would be so crazy as to suddenly arrive to assassinate his own illegitimate son, who had just made a great achievement.

No one dared to stand side by side with Fan Xian. Today’s weather was extremely bright, with a beautiful spring day and a bright sun, which actually gave rise to some light summer air.

Wang Xulang was the one closest to Fan Xian, dragging half a foot behind him.

Fan Xian’s face was calm as he greeted the merchants from all over the world, and at the same time, in his capacity as a half-host, he picked up the South Qing and the North Qi’s missions, the South Qing’s mission officials had an unquenchable joy on their faces, whereas the North Qi officials’ faces were extremely hard to look at.

The open space in front of the sword hut had already set up a large shed, on which were hung countless white paper flowers as well as mantles, which did not look festive, and did not match with the opening ceremony of the hut, as well as the nominal declaration of submissiveness.

Fan Xian didn’t care about this, the Qing country’s Ministry of Rites officials were a bit unhappy in their hearts, but they didn’t dare to show anything, because everyone knew that the opening ceremony should actually be considered the funeral of the Four Gu Swords, and the Ministry of Rites officials didn’t want to anger those powerful people in the sword hut at such an important moment.

The sun slowly moved up to the middle sky, the air gradually became hotter, fortunately, Dong Yi City was located right on the shore of the East Sea, there were sea breezes blowing more than just day and night, it was still bearable. Together with the big shed covering most of the blazing sunlight, the guests from all over the world who came to watch the ceremony, apart from wiping their sweat, didn’t have much to complain about.

Suddenly, the sound of firecrackers rang out from outside the Sword Lodge, and an unknown number of hanged firecrackers exploded at this moment, the confetti was shaken to high heights, and smoke began to fill the air.

It seems that this is a signal, the entire huge Dongyi City, the entrance of every merchant house, the entrance of every residential house, all at the same time lit the firecrackers that have long been prepared, even those who usually hang red lanterns, night and day, more than the green house, also will be replaced with white lanterns, in front of the building set off firecrackers.

The girls have changed into plain clothes, looking at the direction of the sword hut with a hint of uneasiness and a hint of confusion.

The merchants and people stood underneath the white invocations in front of their houses, watching the firecrackers explode into shreds in front of them.

The baby in the woman’s arms was awakened by the loud firecrackers that sounded simultaneously in all directions in Dongyi City, regardless of north or south, east or west, and wailed.

The whole Dongyi City, all the sound of sounding whips, the sound of crying, slightly blinding sulfur flavor along with the smoke shrouded the entire city.

The cracking of the whip was like a person’s life, and the smoke was like a departing soul.

Fan Xian quietly watched this scene, suddenly thought of the burst of firecrackers he heard many years ago outside the upper capital of Northern Qi, and secretly fell silent, thinking that no matter whether it was Zhuang Da Zu or Si Gu Jian, in fact, it was all the same sublime for these ordinary people.

Under the shed outside the sword lodge, in Yun Zhilan’s voice, everyone knelt down towards the large black coffin.

Fan Xian also knelt, and then heard the Four Gu Sword’s last orders that Yun Zhilan had proclaimed on his behalf.

Unsurprisingly, while dying, the Four Gu Swords had finally forgiven Yun Zhilan for his dissenting thoughts and ordered him to take over the position of Lord of Dongyi City. Yun Zhilan had always presided over the mundane affairs of the Sword Lodge and was well versed in world affairs, and with him taking over as the city lord, with the kind of resentment he had in his heart, he could surely form a more complete constraint with the Southern Qing people who had come to accept Dongyi City.

Fan Xian did not care about this, he listened in silence, just thinking that the only way for the Four Gu Swords to pass on the Sword Lodge to Thirteen Lang, then he himself would be able to utilize the intimacy between the two of them to truly control the terrifying twelve swords.

Just as he was thinking, he heard Yun Zhilan’s last words, and his eyes couldn’t help but narrow.

“Fan Xian’s mother is from Eastern Yi, I personally teach sword skills, it is really a great talent, order him to preside over …… the opening of the hut.”