In the Blade

At nightfall, Yizhou Governor's Mansion.

At Qian Jin's invitation, Du Chengfeng stayed overnight at the Governor's Mansion. This might be to reassure him, or as Liu Bolun said, Qian Jin might have other conspiracies - but Du Chengfeng didn't care about the potential dangers at all. Or maybe he was waiting for this.

As the saying goes, when the enemy comes, the general will stop him, and when the water comes, the earth will cover it. If there is no danger, how can he improve his strength?

Is it by daily training? That's too slow.

"So this is why you stayed?"

After hearing what Du Chengfeng said, Liu Bolun, who came over specially, frowned.

"To polish myself and make my strength go further?"

"Otherwise, you don't really think I'm crazy, do you?"

Du Chengfeng couldn't help scratching his head.

But Liu Bolun was still a little worried about this explanation. After all, he had known the other party's character during this period of time. It might be a bit too much to say that he had no ambition, but Du Chengfeng was indeed not the kind of person who would have any ambitions.

Perhaps this is why, even though Du Chengfeng had become a de facto traitor, he still did not really raise the banner of rebellion.

But that's where the problem lies.

If he doesn't even want to rebel, is it necessary to provoke this master of Dachen?

"Since you said you want to improve your strength... then I'll tell you a story."

Liu Bolun thought about it and decided to persuade him again.

"Tell me a story about a big tree."

"Oh? How do you say it?"

Du Chengfeng became interested.

And Liu Bolun continued to tell the story.

It is said that a long time ago, there was a big tree standing on the side of the road. On this day, two pedestrians passed by the big tree. One of the passers-by saw the tree and sighed at its luxuriant branches and leaves, while the other passer-by shook his head after hearing this.

"This tree is indeed luxuriant, but those branches are all crooked, and the trunk is twisted several times. Such a tree cannot be used as a beam, even if it is used as a purlin or even split into planks. It is simply a waste."

"You are right, this tree is indeed a waste."

Hearing his companion say this, the passer-by who just sighed at the tree first admitted the other party's statement, and then told another story.

It is said that there are many spirit turtles on the coast of the East China Sea. Those spirit turtles are different from ordinary turtles. These spirit turtles not only grow very fast, but also have neat patterns on their carapaces. Compared with ordinary turtles, the tortoise shells of these spirit turtles are simply the best materials for witchcraft.

Then these spirit turtles were caught by people. People would eat the meat of the spirit turtles and then use the tortoise shells to predict good and bad luck. The few remaining spirit turtles were also raised and faced the fate of death at any time.

After continuous consumption, these spirit turtles eventually became extinct.

"The spirit turtles made themselves useful, but died the fastest. The big tree on the roadside made itself useless, but it became lush and even survived until now, and was seen by you and me."

This is what the passerby wanted to tell his companion.

It is also what Liu Bolun wanted to say to Du Chengfeng.

"If you pursue the improvement of strength and find ways to make yourself useful, you will soon fall. You have already achieved the release of evil spirits and have a lot of skills. Why do you continue to pursue it?"

"Hmm..."

Du Chengfeng looked at Liu Bolun with a change of eyes.

No wonder, he was thinking before, why did Liu Bolun drink and play every day when he obviously had a lot of skills? It turns out that Liu Bolun has always thought this way.

And it sounds like there is some truth in it.

At least it should make sense to Liu Bolun, after all, Liu Bolun himself lives by this principle - even if this drunkard has a lot of skills, he will still choose not to use them when he can choose not to use them.

But if it comes to Du Chengfeng...

He has a different opinion on this matter.

"Let me tell you a story, also about a big tree."

Du Chengfeng roughly organized his words and continued to tell Liu Bolun.

A long time ago, there was also a big tree on the roadside, but unlike the big tree in Liu Bolun's story, this big tree can bear fruit - so, like the turtles in Liu Bolun's story, this useful big tree was finally discovered by people.

People took away the fruits of the big tree and trimmed the branches of the big tree, hoping that the big tree could be cut down one day and used as the pillars of the house.

"Then what?"

Liu Bolun was a little confused.

"Isn't this the same as what I said?"

"Listen to me first."

Raising his hand to signal Liu Bolun to calm down, Du Chengfeng continued.

After realizing that the reason for his misfortune was the fruit, the tree stopped bearing fruit. At the same time, just like the tree in Liu Bolun's story, the tree also grew itself crooked, making it impossible to be cut down and used as the beams of the house.

But this is meaningless. People will still cut off the branches of the tree for firewood, or peel off the bark to make paper. People say that the tree is useless waste, but they are thinking about how to make this waste continue to be useful.

"This..."

Hearing this, Liu Bolun was speechless.

And Du Chengfeng's story continued.

In order to survive, the tree continued to change itself. It made its branches more warty and scarred, so that people holding axes would frown at a glance. It made its branches moist and watery, so that even if it was used as firewood, it would only be the lowest quality. Even the bark on it gradually became tattered and could no longer be used to make paper.

It has become like this, so it can finally survive, right?

The tree felt that it had finally done everything.

However, it still made no sense.

The tree finally became completely useless, but people looked at this useless tree and felt more and more an eyesore. After discussion, people decided to uproot the tree, so that they could re-pave the road and make it stronger.

"Is this... what you want to express?"

Liu Bolun was silent for a moment. He felt that he felt something in this story.

"Even so-called uselessness has its limits. When it is completely useless, it is close to death."

Liu Bolun began to scratch his head.

"Isn't this a bit too pessimistic?"

"No, I haven't finished yet."

Du Chengfeng continued.

"Seeing people coming over with all kinds of tools, the tree finally realized that it had to do something after all, so the tree pulled up its roots, took a step, swung its branches, and beat those people to death."

Here, Du Chengfeng paused.

"Then it survived."

"..."

Liu Bolun was speechless for a long time.

What does it mean to pull up the roots? What does this nonsense mean?

"If it is just pure uselessness, then it can indeed survive temporarily, but what determines whether you can survive is not whether you are useful or not, but the thoughts and even the moods of others."

Here, Du Chengfeng couldn't help but sigh.

When he first arrived, he also thought about not fighting with the world, or, as a Taiping person, he was not used to fighting and killing. However, even if he didn't want to find trouble, trouble would always find him. There would always be times when he needed to fight with a knife, and there would always be times when he would die if he took a step back.

"So, at least you have to have the strength to pull up the tree roots."

Du Chengfeng picked up the halberd beside him.

"Even if you want to live a good life, you have to have the ability to protect this life."

While saying this, Du Chengfeng stretched out his hand to Liu Bolun.

"So, teach me."

"I have long wanted to know what your Taixue teaches."

The first update is here. Maybe because I was relaxed after the release, I slept intermittently all day yesterday and didn't wake up until midnight.

So I slept, and I can only add more chapters when I wake up. As long as I add a few more chapters, everything will be fine.

In addition: Thank you for your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Thank you for your encouragement and support.

I will continue to write, and there will be more today.