Chapter 5: First Out of the Thatched Cottage

  In March, spring is in full swing.

  The beauty of the mountains is beautiful, but there are no people, and it's also a bit desolate.

  Fireworks in March, originally worth ten thousand yuan around the waist, riding a crane down to Yangzhou is the best season. Because of this, it does not disappoint the young and reckless, romantic for a while.

  Meng Chong Mountain has always been treacherous, and except for skilled and brave hunters, there are usually no people around, it's desolate. But today, on this mountain peak, there is a rare sight of a man and a woman.

  The man stood at the edge of the cliff, facing the mountain wind, as if overlooking the wonders of the world on Meng Chong Mountain.

  The young man wore white clothes, and his upper lip had just grown a mustache. His face looked still slightly immature, but his cheeks were as stern and cold as the mountains.

  It can be seen that he should be a man who is not careless in his words and actions.

  His physique was originally tall and straight, his back was even more upright, like this mountain, no matter how the years beat him, he couldn't be crushed.

  He didn't like wearing white clothes because they were really inconvenient, easily getting dirty and too eye-catching. If it weren't for the woman's repeated insistence that white clothes made people look more spirited, he would have preferred to wear a black cheongsam.

  Because it's not only comfortable but also durable. However, he couldn't resist the woman's request after all, because that woman was his only friend.

  He has always been bad at refusing his friends.

  He stood there, with a sword hanging from his waist. The scabbard was black, the hilt was also black, and the carvings were very simple. The sword looked ordinary to the extreme, but when he lightly moved the scabbard with his index finger, the glint of light that came out of it made people's hearts feel a chill, because the blade was too cold and too bright.

  Even the woman who was extremely familiar with him couldn't help but be shocked at the sight of that cold light.

  The woman wore a green shirt, set off by the beautiful scenery of the mountains, and was beautiful to the extreme. Especially her eyes, which seemed to have concentrated all the spiritual beauty of the dream-like mountains into that one point of blackness.

  "Tang An, can you hear me?"

  The woman asked again, her expression having changed from excitement earlier to a slight unease.

  "Hmm, I'm listening. The Jade True Person of the Heavenly Mountain Sect passed through Yanzhou and wants to take you as a disciple. Does she want you to go with her to the Heavenly Mountain?"

  Tang An slowly retreated a few steps from the edge of the cliff, and every time he stood in this position, he could very clearly understand what he was doing and what he had on his back.

  But today's wind was really cold, standing in that position was also very lonely. So he turned around and walked back to the woman's side.

  Miao Hongyu lifted her toes, gently adjusted Tang An's clothes, and smiled brightly before continuing: "I asked the Palace Master, and she said I can take you to Tianshan with me. You know, for eight years now, we've been inseparable, and I'm used to your occasional pretentiousness. If we were to suddenly part ways, I'd really miss you. You don't need to say anything; I know that despite your easygoing appearance, you've already made up your mind. Right? You're not saying anything only because you care about me too much."

  "You won't follow me, I know that. But even if there's just a glimmer of hope, I still want to try my best. Alas, I'm already 24 years old, an old spinster! If this life stops at the fifth stage of cultivation, in a few more years, I'll become an old lady! I'm not like you, a monster who relies on myself to cultivate and has achieved such formidable martial arts skills in just eight years. It's not easy for me to get Tian Shan Palace Master to agree to take me as his disciple, you should know how rare this opportunity is for me!"

  "I'm leaving tomorrow, I know you'll miss me too, but I also know that you would never say such polite words. So let me just say it for you."

  Then, Mu Hongyu began to imitate Tang An's tone and said: "Hongyu, if you have already made up your mind, why bother telling me these things. I know you want to leave, from the first time I saw you having dealings with the Tian Shan Sect, I knew it. You don't need to worry about me, for the past eight years, it has always been my turn to take care of you more often. However, once you arrive at Tian Shan, be careful in all things. If anyone dares to bully you, just remember it in your heart, next time we meet, I will naturally avenge you."

  Tang An felt a little better when he heard her imitation, and his melancholy mood also improved slightly.

  Goodbyes are always hard to accept, but the world is too big and there's never been a banquet that didn't disperse. As long as he knows it's not just a fleeting encounter like a flowing water banquet, that's enough. In the future, they will meet again. They're all still young, aren't they?

  "Hongyu, you understand me, just as I understand you. If someone bullies you, you will definitely take revenge on the spot and won't hide it in your heart like I do. We are both young, I'm only 15 and you're only 24, so this goodbye isn't for long. When you break through the bottleneck and enter the sixth level of Tianren, from then on, you'll be forever young. At that time, I'll ask you to accompany me to do something."

  Muhong Yu's eyes flashed with intense interest at this point, and the white jade long sword in his hand also began to hum, as if expecting something.

  "Have you finally decided to go home? Alright, wait for me! In these eight years, I have also touched the edge of the sixth layer of Tian Ren. Within a year, I am confident that I will definitely break through into the sixth layer of Tian Ren. At that time, we two will be the two greatest innate experts, unless the leader of Jun Tian Sect comes out personally, otherwise, this Yangzhou will still be our own backyard, allowing us to stroll around at leisure!"

  "You're so confident in me?" Tang An asked.

  Mu Hongyu suddenly smiled, and even her delicate eyes curved into a crescent moon shape.

  "Of course!"

  …………

  After Mu Hongyu left, Tang An was alone in the mountains to cultivate. Although he was lonely, his cultivation became more diligent. Today, after completing a day of cultivation, he suddenly felt something was off and began to flip through the Shu Mountain Sword Manual again, carefully studying it.

  "The essence of the sword manual lies in the two words 'understanding the sword'! After mastering this Shu Mountain Sword Manual, I realized that those sword moves were just the most basic things. Only when I create my own unique sword moves can I truly leave a mark on this page of Jianghu with a bold and colorful stroke!"

  Tang An put the sword manual into his bosom and walked slowly on the way back home as the sky had already darkened.

  Tang An's right hand rested on the hilt of his long sword as he strolled through the mountains. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, and he seemed to have gained some insight!

  He patted his back and the scabbard, the long sword suddenly came out of its sheath, and in an instant, his figure was floating on the small path.

  "Withdrawing sword in frosty moonlight, walking alone in an empty courtyard"

  He lightly called out the sword mantra, and a cold glow flashed in and out of his hand as he executed the first form. His feet then tapped out the Nine Palaces pattern, retreated three steps, and launched into the second form.

  "The flying sword decides the floating cloud, all the princes come from the west"

  This sword, emphasizes momentum, an unstoppable momentum! The person wielding the sword must have the aura of Qin Wang sweeping across the six directions, with all under heaven paying homage. Once the sword is unleashed, no one can stop it. This is the grand momentum of heaven and earth, human strength has its limits, avoid, how long can you avoid?

  This sword, nowhere can escape!

  As soon as the sword was drawn, a burst of sword energy shot out and landed on the broken stones on the ground, causing them to shatter instantly.

  In an instant, the void reversed, Tang An's sword tip lightly touched, his body leaped, and in that fleeting moment, a dazzling radiance burst forth like a meteor shower, leaving onlookers dazzled!

  "Brilliant light shines across heaven and earth, thunder rages and cannot be withstood."

  Tang An suddenly changed his sword stance, pointing his sword at the sky, and the sword light burst into the air in an instant.

  His figure followed the sword's movement, flashing through the air like an eagle swooping down, leaping and pouncing like a giant roc, with swift and fierce momentum, one sword stabbed out!

  This sword is the most particular about the speed of drawing the sword, but it is also the most testing place for human nature. However, it is Tang An's most proud move.

  Because his speed was originally extreme. This move made him and the sword fall from the sky, as if a flying immortal from outside the sky. With his current swordsmanship, just the sword intent contained in these three moves would allow him to roam freely under the Five Realms of Heaven and Man!

  "This year, although my boundary hasn't risen, but my understanding of the sword has really deepened a lot. Creating new martial arts moves is originally an accumulation of thick and thin things, I didn't think that after this sudden enlightenment, I could understand these three killing sword moves. However, these three sword moves are powerful, but they can't compare to one ten-thousandth of their sword intent. But why does this sword have such a strong killing aura? It's because seeing the spring breeze reviving all things, I suddenly understood these few sword moves?"

  No!

  Before spring, it is still severe winter, all things are withered and dead. Nature is desolate and bleak.

  This sword has such a murderous aura, it's only natural.

  If one day this sword loses a hint of its killing intent, it's likely that Tang An's Sword Intent has reached great completion and he has broken through to the Sixth Realm of the Heavenly Man!

  Small Heaven Realm, Big Heaven Realm, Returning to Origin Realm, Opening the Wasteland Realm, Merging with Dao Realm — these five realms of heaven are truly the path of a great master!

  "It's time to meet all the heroes of the world."

  …………

  Tang An rode on a black horse, wearing a moon-colored scholar's long gown that made him look like a candidate going to the capital for the imperial examination.

  He wore a three-foot-wide purple jade belt around his waist, with the four-character small seal script "Fuk An Kang Jian" embroidered on the jade belt.

  This blessing is naturally hoping for the wearer's health and longevity.

  This jade belt was given to him by Mu Hongyu on his birthday three years ago, and the four characters "Fu An Kang Jian" were also embroidered by Mu Hongyu himself. This made Tang An couldn't help but praise, originally Mu Hongyu's hands that held swords, doing women's work, were also so nimble.

  Yanzhou has many mountains and rivers, high and steep, so it's naturally impossible to ride a horse up the mountain, only can detour in these mountains and rivers. He detoured for more than a month, finally arrived at the border of Yanzhou, he wanted to go north to Jizhou, to the largest city in the world, the imperial capital of the Great Yan Dynasty - [Yanjing City].

  Yanjing is under the feet of the Son of Heaven, and has been prosperous since ancient times.

  But even with all the hustle and bustle, it couldn't spark Tang An's interest.

  He went to Yanjing, just wanting to see how big the world was and how much strength he had gained.

  Ten years of seclusion, traveling alone for ten thousand miles, although the road to the edge of the sky is far away, he only wants to ask one question: how fast is my sword?

  Yanjing is the place where the imperial court's power is strongest, but it is also the place with the most struggles in the Jianghu.

  The Great Yan was founded by martial prowess, and the Taizu Emperor was once the greatest master in all the land. The way of martial arts has reached its pinnacle in the imperial capital.

  And Gaoshou is also highly respected in Yanjing.

  Thus, this Yanjing City became the most coveted destination for all those unnamed masters in the world.

  For just one battle here, perhaps tomorrow, you will be famous throughout the land!

  Rushing through the world of rivers and lakes, all for fame!

  One war made him famous, this temptation, how many people can resist?

  Tang An rode on horseback, but his eyes were closed, letting the horse run freely.

  As he walked along this road, he looked at it all the way, and had more insights into the swordsmanship.

  But as they walked for a while in the forest, suddenly, the horse stopped.

  The horse hesitated, shook its head, let out a loud snort, and refused to go any further.

  It turned out that the small path in the forest had forked into two even smaller roads. Both of the small paths were endless, and the horse didn't know which way to go, so it stopped.

  Tang An opened his eyes, and the two roads in front of him were almost indistinguishable. He didn't know which one to take either. In fact, he was even more pitiful than the horse. He was a road idiot. Even if his martial arts skills were high, it couldn't change this fact.

  Tang An easily gets lost in unfamiliar places, perhaps that's why he is extremely fond of familiar places.

  Tang An stood still at the entrance of the path for a long time.

  His mouth was a little dry, he bent down and wanted to take the cowhide water bag from his backpack. The water bag contained three kilograms of good wine, which was left by Mu Hongyu before she walked away.

  "When a man grows up, he will like to drink. Good wine can nourish life, while bad wine hurts the body. This wine is brewed by the best winery in Quzhou, and it also has a very beautiful name called 'Longing'. I'm leaving, if you ever miss me, just take a sip of this wine. As you drink the wine I gave you, I will understand that actually, we have never been apart."

  Tang An picked up the wine pouch, opened it, but found that the wine had been drunk dry, and only a faint scent of wine remained in the bag.

  "This wine is called Longing. When I drank it, I only felt that the wine was very sweet and mellow. But not until now when the wine is gone did I realize that the taste of Longing is bitter."

  The sweeter the wine is, the more bitter it will be after drinking.

  Suddenly, at this moment, a burst of "聿聿" horseshoes came from behind Tang An.

  Tang An didn't even need to turn around to know that there were definitely a lot of people coming.

  Tang An turned his head and saw more than ten fine horses galloping towards him.

  The knights were all majestic and extraordinary, with the leader being particularly robust and powerful, with a tiger-like back and wolf-like waist, and a pair of large hands like iron hoops.

  If Tang An wasn't mistaken, this person had also reached the peak of the fifth level of Tian Ren, with a body as tough as copper and iron, and after tempering his muscles and bones, his explosive power was probably even more terrifying than his own.

  "This is a master of the Quan Fa! The more than ten people behind him are also skilled in the fourth level of Tian Ren, with both hard and soft skills. These people, as long as they don't encounter an extraordinary master, can almost roam freely within the borders of Yan Zhou. Looking at their anxious expressions, glancing around, they must be searching for someone."

  "Who is he looking for?" Tang An was somewhat curious.

  The leading knight had a majestic appearance, and when he looked at others, his eyes would burst out with a sharp light, making the person being stared at feel uneasy in their heart. He was currently chasing after someone, simply because that guy had stolen the birthday gift he was going to give to his master, the great lord of Kunzhou, "Jade Hand".

  That is a jade Buddha carved from a whole piece of sheep fat jade, worth a city!

  However, he didn't even see the appearance of the thief, only a butterfly-shaped paper note left in the box with the jade Buddha, but the jade Buddha had already flown away. He followed the marks left by the person all the way to here, and suddenly saw a fork in the road ahead, but the person's marks could no longer be found.

  He suddenly realized he had been deceived.

  He hastily turned his horse around, gave its buttocks a severe lash and cursed loudly: "That damned little thief must have left these marks ahead of time on purpose to lead us into this chase. He's still inside the city right now and hasn't come out yet! Hurry back for me and order your men to search the whole city! Even if you have to dig three feet underground, I want him caught!"

  Several other knights followed suit and turned around, while those in front of them suddenly let out a "huh" sound, clasped their fists and quickly left.

  But when all those people had left, Tang An shook his head. He knew that those people must have been deceived again. Because he had already seen the person they were looking for.

  It was a young girl wearing a purple flower skirt, looking like she was only thirteen or fourteen years old. Her skirt still had several small bells on it, and whenever she moved, they would ring out loudly, making quite a lively noise.

  She still had a black hairband tied around her forehead, but in the middle of the hairband was a small green jade. The jade wasn't purely green; that color only gathered at the center and spread outwards like a butterfly.

  She saw that the group of people seemed to have left, so she poked her head out from the bushes, hopping and jumping around, and sneakily glanced outside with a thieving gaze.

  The green butterfly on her forehead fluttered in the grass, as if it were alive.

  She saw Tang An smiling at her, and her mouth suddenly curled up: "What are you looking at? That fool thinks he's something, lost his treasure, and it's not surprising that others would laugh! Originally, he just had to order a search of the surrounding area, and I hid in the bushes, of course, I wouldn't be able to hide. Who knew he was so stupid, didn't even bother to search, and hastily rode back. Such a foolish person, yet still thinks he's clever. A self-proclaimed smart person, got robbed, and it's not unjust!"

  She spoke of that theft with an air of complete innocence and self-righteousness, as if it were a most glorious thing.

  Tang An stopped looking at her, but she stared back at him instead. As she looked, she suddenly let out a loud cry as if she had discovered something earth-shattering.

  "Top-grade Shu embroidery, a peony and carp! You must be a rich man."

  But as soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly became uninterested again. She clapped her hands and returned to the grass thicket, where she dug out a jade Buddha. As soon as the jade Buddha appeared, Tang An's eyes jumped violently.

  A pure white sheep fat jade, it seems that many years ago, he also had a sheep fat jade pendant. The pendant was buried in his own backyard, eight years ago. Now, he suddenly wants to go back home and take a look, although it is no longer his home.

  His parents had long since moved away, and with no relatives around, it couldn't be called home anymore.

  It seems that she has discovered Tang An's change, the girl hurriedly held the jade Buddha tightly in her arms, not even letting Tang An see a bit of its jade color, fearing that Tang An would suddenly take action to snatch this jade Buddha that she had stolen with great difficulty.

  "Stealing is wrong, you're still young. If you really lack money, I can also give you some. That jade Buddha doesn't belong to you. However, since it's already been stolen and there's no point in returning it, just throw it away then." Finally, Tang An reminded him: "Taking it back with you is equivalent to bringing trouble back too, not worth it."

  Tang An finished speaking and stopped paying attention to the girl. After a while, he had already chosen the path he wanted to take, which was the left one.

  But just then, Tang An suddenly heard a galloping horse coming, and the dozen or so knights from earlier returned!

  More than ten knights rode in on their horses, the horses were fine steeds and the men were fierce warriors. The mere sight of them was enough to frighten the girl standing beside Tang An.

  Tang An saw her face suddenly turn pale, but the jade Buddha in her hand was held even tighter, refusing to let go.

  Tang An saw that although she was nervous, she had a greedy look on her face, which was quite interesting.

  "It seems you guessed wrong, he didn't pretend to be clever. The one who pretended to be clever is someone else."

  Looking at the woman's pale face, Tang An didn't dare to tease her anymore, but instead said seriously: "This group of people are from the Jin Yu Mantang gang in Yanzhou. They are the tyrants of this city, doing all sorts of evil and having a notorious reputation! You're just a little girl, you can't afford to offend them. Listen to me, return their things to them and I'll guarantee your safety!"

  "Really?" The little girl was obviously very scared. However, the jade Buddha in her hand did not show any intention of being handed over.

  And at this time, more than a dozen knights were riding horses and coming!

  "Urging..."

  More than ten horses stopped simultaneously. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the small hands holding the jade Buddha!

  "You little scamp, how dare you steal from your own grandfather! You're asking for trouble! Someone, take her away!"

  Two knights on either side of him dismounted with a "whoosh", pulled the reins, and instantly, a sturdy rope appeared in their hands. They were really too familiar with this sort of thing.

  But just as they were about to bind the woman, Tang An's sword suddenly appeared in its scabbard, blocking their path.

  "You caught her, and then what?"

  "Haha…… She dares to steal from our leader, catch her and naturally cut off her tendons, she looks pretty good. Maybe we can even sell her for a few bucks!" Someone said this, the other knights also burst into laughter. This is their usual practice.

  Tang An shook his head: "I promised her that as long as she hands over the Jade Buddha, I will spare her life. My words have always been trustworthy."

  Tang An spoke while his eyes remained calmly fixed on the leading knight.

  The girl, however, stared blankly at Tang An, completely bewildered as to why he would want to help her. In her heart, she couldn't stop asking herself: "Did he really stand up for me? I thought he was just talking big."

  In fact, the girl's lightness is very good, and she is also extremely familiar with this forest. Those knights who want to catch her are not so easy. She has already grasped a bag of lime powder in her hand, as long as those knights approach her, she will sprinkle the lime powder on their eyes.

  At this moment, looking at Tang An's cold face, she didn't know why, but her heart felt a strange and absurd feeling, and she actually handed the jade Buddha in her hand to Tang An.

  Tang An smiled slightly at her: "You're still young, it's wrong to steal things. Don't worry and go home."

  Tang An held the jade Buddha in his hand and looked at the more than ten people opposite him, who were as formidable as a great enemy. He shook his head, raised his hand, and threw the jade Buddha back.

  "She has already known her mistake. Can you, sir, magnanimously spare her this once?"