[Xianjian + Ancient Sword Colleague] Being a master is also a kind of practice

Walking and admiring in the forest, after about half an hour, the bushes gradually thinned out, and the ground gradually showed the bluish-yellow color at the junction of the woodland and the grassland, passing around several flowering trees that cuddled each other, Shen Bailing suddenly felt a bright light in front of him However, it has already walked out of this flower forest, and returned to the bright sunlight again.

Walking out from under the shade of the tree, suddenly saw the sunlight, Shen Bailing felt sour in front of his eyes, hurriedly raised his sleeves to cover his face, squinted his eyes and looked forward through the shadow cast on his face, only to see the blue and clear sky like a stream of light The colorful crystals are ethereal and clear, reflecting the verdant green grass below. The willow wind blowing on the face is like warm mist and gentle waves, blowing silently by its own shoulders, only bringing up the flowers hanging on the shoulders There are a few strands of long hair, the grass is low when the wind blows, and the weeds that are more than a foot long fall to the end of the line of sight in rows and waves with the wind, and there is a faint shimmering light flickering in the farther place, and the refracted light and shadow are heavy. The buildings are like a mirage, standing row upon row in the sky.

"Ziying, look!" Shen Bailing's eyes lit up when he saw the small town, and he secretly thought that what the Zhen'er girl said was true, it seemed to be a city where the descendants of the ancient survivors lived together, and turned around to look at Murong Zi excitedly. Ying smiled and said, "I didn't expect that there are people on this island, let's go over and have a look." Said the pace a little faster, and walked ahead in a blink of an eye.

Murong Ziying shook her head slowly, and seemed to be quite helpless in answering: "Okay." However, he himself did not notice the indulgent smile unconsciously raised on the corner of his lips.

Shen Bailing was a little excited in his heart, and he couldn't help but use his real strength. The speed was naturally much faster than the previous stroll, and the two of them arrived in front of the small town in a short time.It was only when I got closer that I saw that the shimmering waves just now turned out to be a small river. The river was only a foot wide, but it was manually dug around the entire city. It is clear and transparent, clearly reflecting the blue and white stone bricks below it and dozens of fish swimming around, it is very beautiful and generous.

Behind the moat is the towering city wall, which is also made of blue and white square stones. There are some patterned totems lightly chiseled on the stones, which are simple and elegant, only the faint moss marks seeping from the corners of the stone cracks and walls. Vicissitudes.There is an endless stream of pedestrians under the arched city gate, which is very lively.Shen Bailing and Murong Ziying followed these people to the city, not forgetting to observe their appearance curiously along the way, and found that most of these survivors were fair-skinned, handsome, and pretty dressed, especially the women were often dressed in bright thin The gauze dress reveals a white neck and shoulders and two arms, and the slender feet that are occasionally exposed under the flying skirt are also bare, with many flower strings on the head, neck, wrists and ankles as decorations, It is completely different from the women in the Central Plains, and has a different style.

Shen Bailing sized them up with great interest, but he didn't know that in the eyes of these survivors, he and Murong Ziying were truly different.Especially those young girls, while sweeping their eyes undisguisedly, they pulled the little sisters beside them to lean over their heads to talk softly, and they were still very nervous when they met their back glances. They grinned generously, not aware of any misbehavior, and some bold ones even grabbed a bunch of flower strings from the small basket on their arms and stuffed them into their hands, then ran away smiling.

Looking at the girl's slender figure leaving like a gust of fragrant wind, Murong Ziying's expression was very solemn, she frowned and reprimanded in a low voice: "Immortal!" If the sisters in his family are so presumptuous, they must be unwilling to forgive her. Have a good lecture.

Shen Bailing smiled and said: "It's just that the folk customs are not the same as those in the Central Plains, and besides...that girl is just happy with you, why should Ziying care about it like this?"

The corners of Murong Ziying's lips were tightened, and she stopped answering, Shen Bailing glanced sideways, just saw a trace of embarrassment flashing across his face, and couldn't help but sniggered.

When the two entered the city, they saw pedestrians bustling with each other, which was ten times more lively than what they saw at the city gate.As the crowd walks, the shops and stalls around gradually increase, and there are also various aromas in the air, or the charcoal aroma is tempting, it must be a food stall, and there must be diners next to it, or incense. Tangy, with a lot of soft words, it must be a rouge jewelry stall, surrounded by a group of young women, and there are also flower decorations, swords and daggers, although it cannot be said to have everything that one expects, but it can be regarded as dazzling, incomparable Those bustling cities in the Central Plains are still pretty impressive.

When Shen Bailing was young, he often practiced on the mountain, but he had no chance to go down the mountain to play. Later, when he left the Qionghua School, he was traveling around, covered in travel and dust, and lost the mood of wandering. This time, he happened to catch up with the market. It was dizzying to watch, and several times I came across something that I had never seen before, and even stopped to look carefully, if Murong Ziying hadn't been looking back from time to time to take care of him, pulling him away by the sleeve in time, the two of them would have been separated. In the crowded sea of ​​people.

However, before passing by a shop, Shen Bailing turned around, but Murong Ziying was nowhere to be seen. He looked around, only to see the hem of the blue and white Taoist robe disappear behind the curtain raised by the shop, and hurriedly chased after him and followed into it. In a small shop.

There is no signboard outside the small shop, and the inside is very small, if it weren't for the copper and iron utensils placed on a row of shelves against the wall, it would be hard to tell that it was an iron shop at a glance.The island has a warm and pleasant climate, but the fire in this house is extremely hot, and there is a lot of tinkling and clanging noises. It is no wonder that there are no other guests in the house except them.Murong Ziying, on the other hand, regarded these as nothing, bypassed the huge iron furnace in the hall, and went straight to the tall blacksmith swinging a sledgehammer beside the anvil in the corner.

This man was wearing a small jacket and thin trousers. Although he was tall, he didn't look very sturdy, but when he swung the hammer high, the muscles in his arms swelled up, showing the effortless strength contained in his muscles and bones. A pair of tiger eyes only stared at the red-hot piece of metal on the anvil. It was clear that there were two more people in the room but they had no time to pay attention. .

The blacksmith struck dozens of times up and down, left, right, and right. The piece of metal on the anvil gradually took shape, showing the shape of a short soldier. Look, shake your head and tap a few times, and back and forth a few times to be satisfied, then pick up the iron tongs and pinch the short soldier and dip it into a bucket of water that has already been prepared beside the anvil.The water in the bucket was as black as ink, exactly the same as the sea water of the Underworld. Once the red-hot short soldiers dipped into it, they made a hissing sound, and the transpiring white mist filled the air, gradually submerging the entire iron bucket.

When the work came to an end, the blacksmith stopped to put the tools in his hands properly, raised his head calmly and glanced over with sharp eyes.His eyes were like lightning, and he just glanced over Shen Bailing's face, stopped on Murong Ziying's body, and finally landed on the huge sword box that Murong Ziying was carrying on his back.

"Brother Tai is also a person who knows the art of smelting, but he doesn't know what to do in my small shop?" The blacksmith said suddenly.

Murong Ziying cupped her hands calmly: "There are so many strange people in the market, and your casting skills are extraordinary. If you want to become famous, how can this place be just a 'small shop'? Murong Ziying has been very interested in sword casting since she was a child. I only wish to collect famous swords from all over the world and learn how to forge swords, so when I heard the sound of iron forging, I couldn't help but come in and have a look, it really was a worthwhile trip."

Shen Bailing heard it in his ears, and the way he looked at the blacksmith also changed.He had known Murong Ziying these days, and it was the first time he heard him say so many words in one breath, and the tone was quite friendly, which was really rare. I think this blacksmith must have some great skills to make the iron tree bloom... No, Bingshan spoke.

The blacksmith naturally heard the sincerity in Murong Ziying's words, so he couldn't help but look at him a few more times, and his tone softened a lot: "It's just a small skill, I'm not worthy of it. I see that Xiongtai is carrying the sword box on his back, and the box is full of vigor. It's obviously a hidden weapon, I think my brother's skills are far superior to mine, so it's really a joke to talk about learning to forge swords."

Murong Ziying was quite serious, and said solemnly: "The ancients said that three people must have my teacher. Your casting technique is quite unique. You should ask for advice. You don't have to be too humble."

The blacksmith raised his eyebrows slightly, a smile flashed in his eyes, and his expression calmed down completely: "Brother Tai is really... well, since you have blue eyes, it's okay to discuss with each other." Looking around, he said, "This place is messy. , let’s go to the backyard, you two please come with me.” After saying that, he didn’t even care about the business of the store, and walked straight to the backyard with big strides.

"I don't think the two of you are from Penglai Island?" The blacksmith said first as soon as he entered the backyard room.

Shen Bailing was stunned, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency, could it be that you are asking me so because I see that the clothes of the two of us are different from your local people?"

The blacksmith nodded slightly, and looked at Murong Ziying again: "It's not all because of this, this brother Murong is dressed in white... I felt strange when I saw it, but in this Xun City and even the entire Penglai Island, people dare to do whatever they want." There are only a few people walking around in white clothes, and the description of the two brothers is not quite the same as us, so I have this guess."

Shen Bailing recalled carefully, the bereaved clans had seen colorful fresh clothes just now, but none of them were dressed in white. She was even more surprised and couldn't help asking: "Why aren't there many people wearing white clothes on the island?"

The blacksmith smiled and explained: "Brother Tai doesn't know something. In Xun City, white is the most respected. People who are not of high status are not allowed to wear white clothes. If civilians dare to offend, the patrolling guards in the city will not easily forgive them."

Shen Bailing thoughtfully said: "But we didn't see anyone obstructing and intending to punish us during our journey just now?"

The blacksmith suppressed his smile, sighed softly and said, "There are other reasons." After a pause, he elaborated, "Do you know that the current royal family in our Xun City is actually not directly related to the royal family? Decades of years A while ago, the royal palace was in chaos, and the previous king and other direct royal families were brutally killed in the civil strife. I heard that there was a prince who was able to resist the rebellious officials and escaped with his outstanding swordsmanship, but he has never been whereabouts since then. The royal family was able to ascend to the throne with a side blood, but these years, the behavior of the new king has been really disliked by the people, and the people are also quite dissatisfied with the current royal family. It is rare for someone to push him out to be punished, and if the guards patrolling the city didn’t happen to come across them, they would ignore these things. You have never been troubled by anyone along the way, presumably because of this reason.”

Shen Bailing had heard about these old things on Penglai Island before, so she wasn't surprised. He just heard "Xuncheng", "White Clothes", and "Prince with Excellent Swordsmanship" repeatedly mentioned by the blacksmith. A scene flashed, but it was a picture of a young man in white coming from the sea to save people with a sword. At that time, the man told himself that his name was... Xun Heng...

He lives overseas, is dressed in white and looks different from the Central Plains people, and has an aloof and noble demeanor...

Could it be! ?A strange look flashed in Shen Bailing's eyes, and he hurriedly asked: "The ancestor royal family you mentioned...is the surname Xun?"

The blacksmith nodded: "Exactly. The Xun clan was the surname of the royal family when they built the city, and Xun City got its name from this."

Shen Bailing sat blankly on his seat, looking down at the ground, a burst of indescribable pity welled up in his heart.It turned out that the man had such a past, no wonder he never mentioned the past when he was on Kunlun Mountain, no wonder his temperament became so indifferent, no wonder...

Over there, Murong Ziying had already talked about him with the blacksmith, but Shen Bailing sat at the side but never spoke again, he just quietly and deeply fell into the past.