The spring sunshine in Changzhou City, thousands of miles away, is bright, but Qianzhou, located in the southwest of the Central Plains, has been raining for several months. People here have almost forgotten the feeling of the sunshine shining on their bodies. It is rainy in March, so this is true in the Qianzhou area.

Qianzhou has many mountains and dense forests, the terrain is dangerous, rugged, cloudy and heavy clouds, and the drizzle is even colder. At this moment, on a muddy path among the mountains and ridges in Qianzhou, there is a thin horse and two figures staggeringly walking with difficulty.

The horse was so thin that it was only skinny that it was left with bones. It was no exaggeration to say it was skinny, but it was a good horse, at least it could be seen from its limbs and skeletons.

But the two men were both old and young, both wearing hats and straw raincoats, but their shoes and pants were already soaked in mud and trembling with cold.

"I said, Master, how long will it take to walk before you can get out of the mountain?" The young man suddenly spoke. He was about fourteen or fifteen years old, with a thin body and a beautiful face, eyebrows and eyes, but he was also thin and had no 2 taels of meat. He looked malnourished. He took off his hat and looked up at the towering mountains. His face, which was a little childish, was filled with helplessness and fatigue.

"Did you remember the wrong way? We have been walking for two days in a row and haven't walked out of these mountains. The weather is wet and cold, and my feet are almost broken." He muttered and added, deliberately showing his dissatisfaction.

"Mingchuan, I told you yesterday that if a person has given great responsibilities, he must first suffer his mind and mind, toil and to hunger his body. How much more tired is this, you can't stand it?"

The old man who was about sixty years old, his body was also thin and thin. He wore a shabby green sleeves under his straw raincoat. Although his face under the hat had already left traces of time, he had the quiet and scholarly spirit of a scholar. Judging from his appearance outline, the old man must have been a handsome young man with great capital when he was young.

When the thin young man named Mingchuan heard this, he was immediately angry. He turned around and stared at the old man angrily, saying loudly: "I have to work hard, my body hungry, and my body is empty. I can recite these principles you taught me backwards when I sleep, but there is another sentence behind it: "Waying and shaking up what he does. Look at what we are now, it really corresponds to this sentence."

He stepped heavily on the muddy road and continued angrily: "I just said that you are old and have a bad memory. Don't walk around the mountains casually. You don't believe it. You don't leave the clean road. Now you're fine. I haven't seen a way out after walking for two days. I think we will starve to death in the deep mountains and forests even if we don't die of cold."

The more he spoke, he became more and more angry. He didn't care that the road was covered with mud, so he simply sat on the side of the road and stopped walking, staring at the old man with a pair of bright eyes.

"Oh, you can apply what you have learned. You guys have made great progress. In this way, it is not in vain that the teacher taught you sincerely." The old man stopped holding the thin horse and looked at the boy with a smile.

Mingchuan rolled his eyes, looking helpless. He pointed to the thin horse and shouted, "There is this horse. I'll get angry when I see it. Do you think it's still a horse? It's hard to walk by itself. What's the use of it besides wasting our strength? I've asked you to sell it for a few dollars and keep it? You just don't listen. Look at it, and it doesn't matter if you slaughter it, it's just a burden."

The old man seemed to have been used to the temperament of this young man. He didn't care. He just patted the thin horse beside him and said with emotion: "This old guy has been with us for several years. He has worked hard without credit. Don't dislike it. The last time you were sick, it carried you away for several days. Do you have no feelings for it?"

Mingchuan couldn't help rolling his eyelids again, sneered, and said, "Then why didn't you tell me that it almost threw you down the mountain when you rode it last time? If I hadn't pulled you quickly, you would have gone down the mountain and died. Didn't you say that one day you would have slaughtered it and eaten meat to replenish my body?"

The old man laughed dryly and covered his embarrassing expression and said, "I am saying something that is so angry. How can I take it seriously? Besides, we should not be as knowledgeable as beasts. We should be open and honest and able to hold a boat. Even if I was really knocked to death by it that time, it would be my fate of business intentions, no wonder it."

The original name of the old man was Shang Yixing.

If there were other people with little knowledge present, especially those in the martial arts world in the martial arts world, they would be very shocked when they heard the name "Shang Yixing".

But the young Mingchuan only knew that the old man in blue clothes and Confucian clothes was Shang Yixing. As for what this name meant, he didn't know anything. In his eyes, his master was a poor man who always liked to preach him with those great principles he didn't understand. He was really poor and sore, and he was a liar.

"Master, why do I always think you are a little hypocritical?" Mingchuan sighed and shook his head and said disappointedly: "When I met you, you said that you could eat delicious food and drink spicy food with you, and there were still three taels of silver a month. I didn't know that after following you in the mountains for the past few years, I didn't even see any oil and meat, let alone silver. I really thought of you, an old sour scholar, as my teacher."

The old man in green clothes simply sat next to Mingchuan. He reached out and gave the boy a trembling sound and said angrily: "Those are things outside of your body. How can you be willing to be profitable at the same time? You must learn to be honest and be virtuous, and don't worry about gains and losses. What's wrong with growing vegetables and carrying water? At least you won't be starved to death by your own efforts. Besides, I've taught you that "Haoran Ming Volume"? That's something that is under the guise of being a teacher. If others want to learn, I'm too lazy to teach you. You can't be ungrateful."

Mingchuan was knocked out by him and reached out to hug his head. He grinned and shouted, "Don't mention books to me anymore. I feel a headache when I see those words. Besides, what are the uses of the principles you taught me? Just two of us, where can I go to quote and confirm those principles?"

"It is better to travel thousands of miles than reading thousands of books." Shang Yixing looked up at the haze sky, "Aren't I going to take you out and gain knowledge?"

"It's just called growing knowledge?" Mingchuan widened his eyes, gestured from head to toe, made a gesture to show his whole body, and then spread his hands to Lao Qiu's sorrow, "Follow you and I became this miserable appearance. Do you call this a growing knowledge? If I had known this was learning, I would rather stay on the mountain to grow vegetables. Speaking of which, the vegetable sprouts on the two fields at the door had just emerged, and now they have been out for a few months, and I don't know how they are." He suddenly slapped his thighs and said suddenly: "Oh, why didn't you remind me to clean up the annoying birds on the mountain before leaving? Now, my two fields are definitely cheaper." He cursed while saying that, looking very upset.

Seeing him as anxious, Shang Yixing couldn't help laughing a little. His eyes became gentle when he looked at Mingchuan, and he said softly: "You won't even forget the food at home, so how could you bear to lose this old horse? The so-called acquaintance of people lies in knowing each other, and the knowledge of others is intimacy. Although you are a little sharp-tongued, how can you not know what kind of teacher you are in your heart? The principles of being a person I taught you are not to tell others, but to understand yourself. No matter how big the principles you tell others, you can't do it even if you don't understand them, then it becomes the ridiculous and unreasonable." He suddenly lowered his head, seemed to sigh in secret, and said: "I'll take you out. This road is a little harder, but it's not completely unhealthy. You don't understand it very much now, but when you get older, you will naturally understand it."

If he wanted to speak like this normally, Mingchuan would have jumped up and fucked him against him with various rogue reasons. But now Mingchuan could clearly feel the meaning of the old man's tone, so he did not refute for the first time, but only curled his lips.

Shang Yixing looked at the mountains that were invisible in the distance and murmured: "Mingchuan, you can be lazy in other books I have read, but you must experience the "Haoran Mingjuan" every day. While I can still breathe for a few days, I can give you some advice and guidance if you don't understand. You have a good baby, don't waste your talent randomly."

Mingchuan winked and said, "Master, I have a question I have been asking for for a long time. Today I have to ask. You teach me to read the books of sages to make me understand the principles of being a human being. I understand this. But you said that "Haoran Ming Scroll" is a martial arts mind method, but I don't understand it. I am not the martial arts world, so what's the use of learning this kind of thing? You said that "Haoran Ming Scroll" is the most righteous martial arts in the world. Can you get twice the result with half the effort after learning it after learning it?"

Shang Yixing smiled bitterly when he heard this. He reached out and prepared to give the boy a thunderous thunder, but his hand stopped halfway. He sighed slightly, put his palm on the boy's shoulder, and said softly: "I teach you the books of sages, that is, you must be wise and righteous, and be righteous; let you practice martial arts, to strengthen your body and establish the courage to face unknown difficulties alone in the future. As the saying goes, heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement." He paused, his expression gradually became a little solemn, and continued: "For martial arts, it is not just the exclusive ones of people in the martial arts world. In ancient times, the most sage masters used the courage of gentlemen to teach the six arts of gentlemen, and there was the way of "control" and "shooting". Therefore, even scholars practice martial arts, it is normal."

He looked at Mingchuan again and said, "Although I am indeed a poor and sore scholar, my mind is not pedantic. I don't want my apprentice to be a nerd who is powerless in the future."

A cold wind suddenly came from the mountains, which made Mingchuan's thin body tremble. Mingchuan wiped his nose, shrank his body, and said, "It's good to farm on the mountain. As long as we don't walk around the world, there will be no trouble. If there is no trouble, there is no need to practice martial arts. Master, don't you often say that you should win people with virtue?"

"Suppose people with virtue. That's right." Shang Yixing murmured: "Who doesn't want everyone to be virtuous and reasonable? But in this world, there are too many things that cannot be solved by reason, and there are too many people who don't reason with you. So there is the chaotic world now." He smiled bitterly at Mingchuan and said: "You are too naive and think there will be no trouble on the mountain? In fact, as long as we are still alive, we are already in the world."

He lowered his head, looked at the muddy road under his feet, and sighed helplessly, "And some trouble is not someone's trouble."

He seemed to be silent suddenly, and seemed to be recalling something.

Mingchuan looked at Lao Qiuxu with a strange look, sucked his nose, and said, "Master, you seem to be a little abnormal today."

Shang Yixing came to his senses and said something without any end: "This world is not normal, let alone a human being?"

Mingchuan was too lazy to think about these inexplicable things anymore. He touched his stomach and said with a bitter face: "Master, no matter how many principles there are, you have to have strength to fill your stomach. Look, there is no village or shop here, if you go down, I will starve to death."

As soon as he finished speaking, his stomach really started to rumbling.

Shang Yixing also frowned and said, "You are hungry, I am empty. Didn't you still have a few steamed buns yesterday?"

Mingchuan reached out and groped in his arms for a while, and took out a steamed bun that was already hard and cold.

"This one is left." Mingchuan suddenly turned his eyes quietly. He handed the steamed bun to Shang Yixing and said, "I am your apprentice, so I respect the elderly and love the young, I will give it to you."

Shang Yixing smiled and reached out to take the steamed bun. He was secretly happy and said casually that you are a little conscientious.

But before he finished speaking, Mingchuan stared at his face and said, "I have respected the elderly. Master, will you love the young?"

Shang Yixing almost passed away.

He rolled his eyes, stuffed the steamed buns into Mingchuan's hands, and looked at the thin boy with contempt, "Okay, I'll love young people, right? Anyway, I won't starve if I don't eat this bite." When he said this, he didn't have the elegance of a scholar at all.

Mingchuan smiled, but divided the steamed buns into two forcefully, and half of them gave the poor old man apprehension.

He chewed the cold and hard steamed buns and said to Shang Yixing: "Master, when you give me all the money you owe me in the future, I will definitely invite you to have a good meal. I will calculate that I will follow you for four years. Four years is forty-eight months, three taels of silver per month, and then there will be one hundred and forty-four taels in four years. Then you can make up an integer for 150 taels, and the extra five taels will be regarded as the interest for these four years. After all, we will not have much interest for one master or apprentice." He narrowed his eyes, chewing the steamed buns in his mouth, and said with a strange smile: "Look, I'm okay with you, I haven't sniffed you at all..."

"puff……"

Shang Yixing laughed so much that he almost vomited out half of the steamed bun. He shook his head with a sigh and said, "You little brat, you look honest, but you have so many colorful intestines in your belly. You really can't behave like a person. I don't know who met someone wrong."

The old poor man stood up with a grief, "For your 150 taels of silver, it seems that I have to live a few more years."

When he stood up, a three-foot-long thing wrapped in black tart cloth was revealed inside the straw raincoat on his back and shoulders, and he didn't know what was inside.

"Hurry the way." Shang Yixing patted his butt and walked to lead the horse.

On the side of the horse's back, there were also strips wrapped in oil cloth. As soon as the horse walked around, the handle of a sword was shaking from the end of the oil cloth.

The sword hilt is elegant in style, as if it also contains a quiet and bookish atmosphere.

Mingchuan also stood up, swallowed the steamed buns in his mouth and put them on his hat again. He looked at the things that Lao Qiu was carrying, and suddenly said, "Master, what kind of treasure is on your back? I haven't put it down since you left the house. Why don't I carry it for you?"

Although the two have been together for many years, the young man obviously does not know what the old poor person has on his back.

Shang Yixing looked at him and suddenly showed an indescribable look. He walked a few steps crookedly before saying, "It's not necessary now, but sooner or later you will be able to recite it. At that time, even if you don't want to recite it, you have to recite it. So I still hope I can recite it for a longer time."

The voice behind him became lower and lower, and Mingchuan almost didn't hear clearly what he was saying.

The rain continued to fall densely, and the old horse continued to walk lightly and heavyly on the muddy road, looking very embarrassed.

Not far away, Mingchuan began to complain again: "Master, have you remembered the wrong way? I am becoming more and more confused."

“It shouldn’t be wrong.”

Shang Yixing put on a pergola and looked around, saying, "I remember this road I took more than 20 years ago. It's definitely true that I feel at ease."

"Twenty years ago?" Mingchuan almost dropped his chin on the mud. He glared at Shang Yixing again and whined: "You have walked this road once, or did it happen more than twenty years ago?"

"It's been more than twenty years, and I remember it very clearly." Shang Yixing looked ahead with a firm look and said, "Because many people who walked this road with me never had the chance to come back."

His eyes were firm, but his expression was extremely sad.

"Okay, I'll believe you again."

Mingchuan also saw the strangeness of his master and stopped complaining.

"I remember that after this mountain, there was a river stream, which was called Yingchou Jian by the locals. There was a suspension bridge on it. After crossing the bridge and passing two mountains, we could enter the realm of Xiang and Chu." Shang Yixing revisited the old place, and ripples appeared in his heart. He continued as he walked: "The reason I chose this mountain road was because I could enter Xiang and Chu two days in advance from here, which was half the distance from the main road. Besides, Qianzhou is now very chaotic, and walking on the main road will inevitably lead to some trouble and delaying the trip. Didn't you notice that as soon as we entered Qianzhou, many refugees appeared?"

Mingchuan thought for a while and nodded, "Master, I really remembered it when I mentioned it. I don't know what happened here, there will be so many refugees?"

"Hmph. I told you that reading thousands of books is worse than traveling thousands of miles. When you stop, you either eat or sleep. It would be strange if you can gain insight." Shang Yixing hummed twice, slapped the back of his head, and said, "I heard from those refugees that there was a heavy snowfall that was rare in ten years before spring. It was cold for nearly two months. After finally the snow was relieved, it rained for several months. Who can withstand such natural disasters? So now the situation in Qianzhou is very complicated, and there are chaos everywhere."

When Mingchuan heard this, he couldn't help but glance at Shang Yixing a few times and said, "No wonder Master insisted on taking the small path. In addition to saving time, he was also afraid of encountering robbers, right?"

"If there is natural disaster, it will cause man-made disasters. Aren't you afraid of trouble? This is not the right way." Shang Yixing said casually.

Mingchuan raised his eyebrows, glanced at the sword wrapped in oil cloth hanging on the horse, and said, "I'm afraid. But Master, didn't you tell me to practice "Haoran Ming Scroll"? Since you said that it is a very powerful martial arts technique, then you should be able to do martial arts? Otherwise, why are you doing a broken sword? If you don't hang a big sword, wouldn't it be more effective?"

When Shang Yixing heard this, he also looked at the sword a few times, suddenly curled his lips and said, "I have never been fooled by this broken sword for more than 20 years."

Mingchuan shook his head, feeling that his master was quite unreliable.

But when Shang Yixing looked up at the hazy sky again, he murmured to himself: "Natural disasters are unstoppable, but man-made disasters must be blocked."

The saying of Lao Guoshu was obviously not said to Mingchuan.

But Mingchuan really felt that Master was indeed abnormal today.

Man-made disasters? Are they those refugees who become bandits because they can’t survive?

The two continued to walk along the mountain road, and Mingchuan suddenly asked again: "Master, you suddenly went down the mountain this time. Are you going to meet someone?"

Shang Yixing suddenly slipped his feet and almost fell into the mud. He uttered a sigh of relief, grinned and exhaled, obviously dodging to his waist.

"It's just to meet a few old friends, or to say goodbye to them." Shang Yixing rubbed his waist, "I was hurting my waist at the right time. I haven't asked that person to relax my muscles for many years. His technique is still unforgettable to me, and I don't know where he learned it."

He said to himself that this time it was not only difficult to walk on the road, but also his waist was not easy to use.

Mingchuan couldn't stand it, so he had to stagger while supporting Lao Qiushuo, and then said helplessly: "I don't understand, why are you still trying to make trouble with this old bone?"

Shang Yixing turned his head and looked at his apprentice, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

Trouble? Yes, what are you trying to do? But if you don’t struggle, the bones of this world will probably be gone soon, right?

If one day Mingchuan told others that he was ranked at the top of the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism thirty years ago and was known as the Confucian master, the "Biographies of Gentlemen" and flashed on the mountain road, then others must think that he was talking drunk.
Chapter completed!