Chapter 126 What is sought

Fan Li pulled the cart.

Chen Daole's old mother and the sword servant sat on the cart.

Chen Daole led the book boy beside them.

Next to them was a middle-aged man carrying a stick of candied haws for sale.

The sword servant liked to eat candied haws, but if she bought too many at once, they would lose their flavor.

Therefore, Fan Li had brought along a middle-aged man who specialized in selling candied haws, following everyone on the road. Whenever the sword servant wanted to eat one, she would take out a copper coin and buy a skewer from him.

Chen Daole's book boy would also occasionally come over and spend some money to buy a skewer to satisfy his cravings.

Fan Li pulled the cart very steadily, and Chen Daole's old mother, Sun Shi, lay on the bedding and fell asleep.

The sword servant, however, was a little bored. She held a candied haws in one hand and stroked the precious sword that Zhang Yiqing had given to Chen Daole, which the sword servant had now taken for herself.

She asked:

"You had an official position but you didn't want it, and you insisted on following us to Xuehai Pass. What are you after?"

Chen Daole was not restrained. In fact, he and the middle-aged man selling candied haws were both prisoners, but he still answered with a smile:

"If I stayed in Yingdu, I could only be a clerk, doing some tedious copying work. So I actually think that following you on the road, maybe I can have a bigger future.

Besides, you are people of the Earl of Pingye. Following you back is to my advantage, no matter how you look at it."

"Heh, interesting." The sword servant spat out a fruit pit, licked her lips, and said, "You are so vulgar."

"Where am I vulgar?"

"I can't say, but you're just vulgar."

"Is it because I'm a Jin person?"

"I guess."

"People have to eat after all. Since they decide to sit at the table, naturally they'll eat at the table with the best dishes."

"The Zheng family's food isn't so easy to eat."

"Eating has always been about skill."

The sword servant rolled her eyes. She had kindly wanted to remind this scholar who had also saved her, but since he insisted, she didn't care.

After all, the sword servant had a skill. Don't look at her young age, she was very clever and could almost see through a person's thoughts by observing them.

Chen Daole's concealment might seem good to himself, and it fit his image. He also gave a justifiable reason.

But whether he was a pure scholar, whether the edges in his heart had been smoothed out by reality, whether his coming to Yingdu earlier and now going to Xuehai Pass together was really for food, the sword servant could see clues.

However, it was difficult for even Yama (the King of Hell) to save someone rushing to their death. If you want to go, go. Do you really think Xuehai Pass is so easy to get along with? When that blind man screens you, do you really think he can't see what you're really made of? Although he's blind.

The group traveled during the day and camped out at night, without deliberately looking for nearby villages or manors to stay in.

They set up two tents, one large and one small. Chen Daole's mother slept in the large one, and the sword servant slept in the small one.

The other four men slept on the ground.

Tonight's dinner was flatbread with vegetable soup. The vegetables were wild, and the flatbread had been bought a long time ago, as hard as a rock.

The sword servant ate candied haws on the side. Chen Daole's old mother ate some flatbread and drank a bowl of soup, then went back to the tent to sleep. The old woman was weak, and although she sat on the cart all the way, she still felt tired.

"When we pass through the forest tomorrow, I'll pick some fruits, and then boil some syrup at night, and we can fill them up again."

The middle-aged man's surname was He, and his name was He Chunlai. He used to be a porter in Yupan City. Later, when the Wildmen and Chu people attacked, he fled to Yingdu with the refugees and switched to the candied haws business.

"It's almost winter, where can you find fresh fruits?" the sword servant asked.

He Chunlai shook his head and said, "Frozen fruits are also delicious."

"Oh." The sword servant nodded.

Chen Daole held a flatbread in his hand and said as he gnawed on it, "The further east we go, the fewer people we see."

The sword servant said, "It'll be lively when we get to Xuehai Pass."

Chen Daole nodded and said, "Yes, so I have always admired the Earl of Pingye. He launched a surprise attack across thousands of miles and took Xuehai Pass, trapping the dogs behind closed doors and burying hundreds of thousands of Wildmen beasts. This is truly the act of a great man!"

"Don't think so much, or you'll be disappointed when you meet him in person," said the sword servant.

"No, no, Chen is not flattering you. To look at a person, you shouldn't focus on what he says or what he looks like, but on what he does."

Fan Li chuckled.

Chen Daole continued: "In today's world, the Yan people are powerful, and Qian and Chu can only unite to resist the Yan army's southward advance. But the biggest problem is that Qian and Chu are great powers, and the Yan people, after annexing the Three Jins, will not be able to digest them in a short time.

If the stall is spread too large, it is easy to lose everything with one wrong step."

The sword servant yawned. She was not interested in listening to this scholar rambling about the big picture in front of her. She'd better go back to sleep.

Fan Li silently continued to eat the flatbread. Unlike that night when he forced Chen Daole to save the sword servant, he had said very little in the past few days of leaving Yingdu.

Tonight, the wind was a little strong, but even louder were the footsteps.

After putting the last bit of flatbread into his mouth, Fan Li silently picked up the axe beside him. The axe was usually wrapped in cloth and rarely opened.

Chen Daole was stunned when he saw this, and immediately ended his reverie. He subconsciously wanted to find some weapons, but found that the sword Zhang Yiqing had given him was in the sword servant's tent.

In desperation, Chen Daole could only pick up a stone and hold it in his hand.

He Chunlai on the side did not ask anything when he saw this, but instinctively sensed that something was wrong, and silently raised his stick of candied haws.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

The footsteps were very clear. The other party didn't seem to intend to hide them. Perhaps, in their opinion, at such a close distance, it was already a done deal.

"Buzz!"

A man in black came out of the forest, came to the bonfire, and shouted:

"Hehe, Yan dog, do you know who your grandfather is!"

"Bang!"

Fan Li's axe smashed over,

The speed was very fast,

A large axe in his hand was as light as a feather.

The black-clothed man's head was directly cut off by the axe. The body without a head stood there, and the neck was still gushing water.

After chopping the man,

Fan Li seemed to have recovered,

and asked:

"Who is it?"

It was a pity that the black-clothed man could no longer answer.

Perhaps because this axe was too decisive, and the black-clothed man whose head was chopped off should be a leader, the seven or eight black-clothed men who rushed out next did not rush up to fight, but began to retreat unconsciously after watching their boss's headless body standing there.

Soon, led by one person, the others also ran backwards and fled directly.

They came suddenly and left suddenly.

Fan Li put the axe on the ground, patted his knees, and said:

"Time to sleep."

He was not interested in who the black-clothed man who rushed out earlier was, was it a robbery team secretly sent out by a nearby manor? Or were they members of the Jin Restoration forces? Or were they spies planted by other countries in Jin?

Fan Li was too lazy to know these things.

The bonfire was still burning, and Fan Li lay down next to it, resting his left hand under his head and his right hand on his chest.

After a while,

The sound of snoring had already started.

Chen Daole and He Chunlai looked at each other, and a hint of fear flashed in their eyes.

However, Chen Daole still took action to clean up the corpse and head, for fear of scaring his mother when she woke up tomorrow morning.

The rest of the night was peaceful.

The next morning, everyone got up.

The sword servant walked out of the tent, squatted next to her, and brushed her teeth with green salt. Although she wholeheartedly aimed to kill Zheng Fan when she grew up, it did not prevent her from liking Zheng Fan's little exquisite and clean lifestyle.

Breakfast was still flatbread, monotonous to the point of numbness.

The group continued on the road,

Fan Li only cared about pulling the cart and didn't ask about what happened last night.

Today, Chen Daole and He Chunlai were also much quieter.

The sword servant, sitting on the cart, played cat's cradle with Chen Daole's old mother. The old woman's skills were better than the sword servant's, and the old and the young laughed from time to time.

Chen Daole and He Chunlai would occasionally peek at Fan Li while walking, because they were very uncomfortable, uncomfortable with Fan Li's "absolute coldness and composure".

If it were someone else, they should be nervously discussing what happened last night today, and even knock on and suspect that they were the two.

But Fan Li didn't.

Because after the strength is high enough, poetry is at your feet, not in the distance.

Chen Daole couldn't help but take a few more glances at the sword servant,

Others of her age were still laying the foundation, and they would have to take one step at a time after they grew up.

As a result, this girl in front of him had to advance because the foundation was too strong,

The most terrible thing was that,

After the advancement,

She shed tears of regret.

Fan Li and the sword servant only told him that they were going to Xuehai Pass and that they were people of the Earl of Pingye. As for the rest, the sword servant deliberately didn't say it, and Fan Li was too lazy to say it.

The atmosphere of winter had arrived, and tonight, the group would camp in this forest.

He Chunlai took out the brown sugar from his luggage, lit a bonfire, set up a pot, and then got up. He was going to find fruits in the forest.

The method of making candied haws has never been monotonous, and there are actually many things that can be used.

The sword servant asked curiously:

"Who are you going to ask for fruits?"

He Chunlai replied with a smile, "It's not necessarily just people who hide fruits."

He Chunlai was gone for more than an hour.

Fan Li did not continue to wait for him to come back to boil the sugar, but started to cook vegetable soup. At the same time, he stuck the flatbread next to the bonfire to bake it.

The soup was ready, and the flatbread was also baked, with a slightly charred crust.

The sword servant reached out and took one from Fan Li, but she didn't have much appetite, and said:

"I miss the steamed buns in the mansion."

The steamed buns in the Earl of Pingye's mansion were filled with fillings;

Radish shreds, red bean paste, snow vegetable, cabbage, three steamed buns were both vegetables and rice.

Fan Li nodded and said, "Next time I go out, I'll bring more."

In winter, steamed buns can be stored for a long time and are not easy to spoil.

"Okay."

Although she didn't like to eat them, she still had to eat them.

Because the sword servant found that since she entered the ninth rank that night, her appetite had become larger.

She didn't like this very much.

The reason for not liking it was not that she would become fat. In this era, too thin women were often not popular. The so-called big hips were good for giving birth was also based on the fact that women with poor medical conditions and small, thin bodies were prone to difficult labor in this era.

The sword servant felt that she was easy to raise in the past, and she didn't eat much. For example, when she followed her master Yuan Zhenxing, the master and apprentice had a meal or no meal in the capital. At that time, half a steamed bun could fill her up. No matter how big the famine was, it was difficult for her to starve to death.

Now, she was a little flustered.

It could only be said that childhood things were indeed easy to leave shadows on children. Facing the problem of her increased appetite, the sword servant couldn't help but start thinking about who could support her after she killed Zheng Fan in the future?

Finally,

He Chunlai came back,

He was holding a package in his left hand and was covered in blood.

He opened the package, which contained frozen fruits, all kinds of fruits.

But the blood on his body was not from a beast, although there should be wolves nearby.

Regarding the blood stains, Chen Daole wanted to ask, but he didn't;

Fan Li and the sword servant continued to eat. The little book boy dared not look, and the old woman had bad eyesight and went back to the tent to sleep after eating.

He Chunlai drank the last bit of the remaining vegetable soup,

Put down the bowl,

Smiled,

Somewhat freely,

And somewhat relieved,

and said:

"I just killed some people, those people are still haunting me."

"Oh."

The sword servant responded and went back to her tent.

"Oh."

Fan Li also responded. He was a little hungry and took out another flatbread to bake it again.

There were not many flatbread left, but fortunately, it was not far from Xuehai Pass.

He Chunlai felt as if he had punched cotton, which was very uncomfortable.

"I can make candied haws, but I wasn't a porter before."

"Okay."

Fan Li continued to bake the flatbread.

He Chunlai bit his lip and looked at Chen Daole, who lowered his head.

The two of them were still not used to this atmosphere, not like a confession, not like a showdown, not like a confrontation, like a group of lice on their bodies, scratching them desperately, not enough to make them cry out in pain, but enough to make them restless.

Fan Li took out the almost baked flatbread, divided it in half, and handed it to He Chunlai, who had only drunk the soup before.

He Chunlai had no temper at all, reached out and took the flatbread,

Then,

"Hiss, hot!"

The flatbread was just baked and was very hot.

Fan Li didn't care and continued to eat it in big gulps.

His physique was different from ordinary people. According to Xue San, if Ali was really hungry, he could swallow glass like Maltesers.

He Chunlai's words were not spoken after all.

In the evening, after Fan Li was full and lay down to sleep, He Chunlai began to boil the sugar with the only pot, and then poured it on the fruits.

By the next day,

His originally empty stick was filled with candied haws again.

The team set off again.

In the afternoon,

A cavalry team appeared in front of them. They were the scouts of Xuehai Pass.

About a quarter of an hour later, another team came to meet them.

The sword servant left the cart,

Fan Li re-tied the cushion on his shoulder and lifted the sword servant up to sit on it.

Then,

Fan Li started running,

Running towards Xuehai Pass.

The rest of the people would be escorted by the Xuehai Pass scouts.

It was just getting dark when Fan Li ran into the south gate of Xuehai Pass. Without stopping, he continued to run towards the Earl of Pingye's mansion.

At the door,

The sword servant jumped down from Fan Li's shoulder. She did not return to the Earl's Mansion, but went next door, to her master's place.

Fan Li scratched his head and returned to the mansion, but after wandering around, he found that no one was in the mansion. He asked a servant and learned that his lord had taken the county princess to Fengxin City and had not returned yet.

...

Outside the small courtyard next door to the Earl of Pingye's mansion,

The sword servant knocked on the door,

It was Liu Dahu who opened the door,

When Liu Dahu saw the sword servant, his face immediately turned red.

At this age, especially in the academy, Zheng Man, who was a wolf cub picked up in the desert a long time ago, was the little bully in the school, and the sword servant was the dream lover in the hearts of all the young boys.

Everyone thought she was good-looking.

"Where's your dad?" the sword servant asked.

"Dad!" Liu Dahu shouted.

The Sword Saint walked over, touched Liu Dahu's head, and then walked out of the door.

Liu Dahu instinctively wanted to follow, but was scared back by the sword servant's glare.

The Sword Saint walked in front,

The sword servant followed behind.

The Sword Saint said:

"Dahu is an honest child."

The sword servant said, "Master, I really don't like your son. Don't try to set us up."

"That's not what I meant."

"Don't even think about it in the future."

The Sword Saint smiled.

"Master, I've advanced."

"I can see that."

The sword servant told the Sword Saint what happened to her on the way back.

The Sword Saint frowned slightly,

He originally thought that the sword servant couldn't help it and secretly advanced, but he didn't expect...

But in principle, it shouldn't be like this.

He knew the sword servant's physical condition, it shouldn't be like this, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to let Fan Li take the sword servant to Yanjing.

Originally, he thought that a swordsman should not only have a sword in his eyes, but should also have vast mountains and rivers, but now, he couldn't help but sweat coldly.

If something really happened to his disciple, or if she died, he would really regret it to death.

"Why is this happening? Did you eat something?"

"Ah, before we went back, the Sixth Prince asked us to bring some gifts to Zheng Boye, some Ganoderma lucidum and Tian Gan grass. I asked Big Guy to cook vegetable soup and eat it on the road."

The Sword Saint understood, the problem was here.

"It's too much."

"Huh?"

The sword servant didn't expect that this was the reason.

In fact, menarche was just a trigger, the essence was that she ate too many tonic herbs at once, which caused the blood in her body to be too active and stagnated.

The sword servant said disappointedly:

"Master, I'm at a loss."

"What's the loss?"

"I originally thought that when I grow up in the future, when I kill Zheng Fan, I would advance one rank at a time, and finally learn from you, Master, and forcibly open the second rank outside the city to take Zheng Fan's dog head.

Now, it's ruined, my dream is gone."

"Who did you learn from, but Zheng Fan?"

"No, Master."

"Yes, you did."

"No." The sword servant was angry.

"Okay, no."

"But Master, will this advance affect my future cultivation?"

The Sword Saint nodded,

Then,

He shook his head again.

"Master, what does that mean?"

"It has an impact, but it can also have no impact. Your path can't be impatient, it should be more steady. The original meaning of the sword is fast, but often the more steady, the faster."

"Then what should I do, Master?"

"It's easy."

The Sword Saint's index finger was placed on the sword servant's brow,

His back, which was a little hunchbacked, and his steps, which were a little vain, straightened up at this time.

The fingertip moved away,

Immediately,

A wisp of sword energy was drawn out from the sword servant's body and dissipated into the nothingness in front of her.

The sword servant felt her body soften,

And knelt on the ground with a "thump",

At this time,

There was no sword energy flowing in her body, as if the ninth-rank cultivation of the past few days was just a dream.

But soon,

The sword servant seemed to realize something,

Lifted her head,

and looked at her master in shock.

The Sword Saint hunched his back again, and his steps began to be vain again,

He even coughed a few times, seemingly because of the strong wind at night, and was still in the same sick and weak state.

"Master, Master, you..."

The Sword Saint interrupted her,

and said:

"Your dream is back."

——————

Don't panic, there's still more at one o'clock.