There was something wrong with my past life

Ever since I was very young, my favorite thing to do was to listen to the stories of the old people in the village, the immortal practitioners who could fly through the sky with their swords, move mountains and seas, and slay demons and demons with long-lasting vision. s story.

In the eyes of us ordinary people, these practitioners are no different from immortals.

So, when I was still young at that time, I silently set a big ambition in my heart. I wanted to become a very powerful immortal in the future, because after becoming an immortal, I could fly with a sword and go wherever I wanted. No matter where, you can also defeat the vicious dog raised by Yuanwai.

But the most important thing is that if we become immortals, we can eat whatever we want, and our family will no longer have to be hungry all day long.

In my young imagination, the rice jars in the homes of those immortals must have been filled with white rice, just like the rice barns of the family members of the Shanxia family. You can enjoy the fragrant white rice with every meal. Eat until your belly is round and full.

When I thought of such a wonderful scene, I couldn't help but swallow my saliva, and my stomach growled even after drinking only a little porridge.

Being able to have a full stomach every day, in my opinion at the time, was the greatest happiness in the world.

Later, when I ran home excitedly and told my brother about my lofty ambition to become an immortal with great excitement, my brother just touched my little head lovingly, and then put the thin rice in the pot. The thickest part of the porridge was served to me silently...

Many years later, when I finally became the immortal I had admired and admired since I was a child, sitting alone on the top of Sword Peak, gazing at the vast starry sky in the distance, I felt no happiness at all.

Because the brother who stayed with me back then and was willing to secretly share the thickest part of the thin rice porridge with me is no longer here.

Even if you are invincible in the world, glory, wealth, fame and wealth are like the flowing mist on the top of the sword peak, you can easily get it by just stretching out your hand.

But everything seemed so boring and lifeless, and the original state of mind and desire no longer existed.

Even if all the delicacies from mountains and seas in this world were added together, they could not compare to the bowl of thin rice porridge in my memory that was cooked with bad rice that was almost moldy and could not even fill my belly.

Because this bowl of thin rice porridge contains the brother's selfless care for his younger brother.

…

…

Born in this poor and run-down mountain village, my name is Fang Li.

I like this name very much, not only because it sounds very nice, but also because other children of the same age in different villages have similar names such as "Chen Ergou", "Li Goudan" and "Er Zhuzi".

The more important reason is that this name was chosen by his brother himself, and it matches his brother's name.

Fang Mo Fang Li.

Together they are Mo Li.

The elders in the village said that if my brother, who was smart and could read and write since he was a child, was born into a wealthy family, he would definitely be able to gain fame and honor his ancestors.

But it is a pity that not only was he born in this dilapidated and deserted mountain village, but also in such troubled times, even entering a school was a luxury, not to mention having to raise a young brother alone.

Well, my brother and I have always been dependent on each other.

In fact, it's not a big deal. It's just that shortly after my youngest son was born, my father went into the mountains to hunt to solve the food problem, and then never came back. As for our mother, not long after our father died, she ran away with a steward who came to the village to buy wild animal skins, and then never came back.

When I say I hate the woman who cruelly abandoned us brothers, I don’t really hate her that much.

Because hateful people all have pitiable qualities.

Just like what my brother said, in this troubled world, it is very difficult and hard for a woman to survive with two children. Since her father passed away, she has been hard enough and has almost reached the end of her life. She can no longer go on, and it is a relief for her to be gone now.

After all, it is better for two people to die than three people to die together.

At that time, when I was young, I raised my head and asked my brother very scared and nervously: "Brother, will you also leave one day? Just like my mother abandoned us, brother, you will also abandon Xiaoli."

"Don't worry, Xiaoli, brother won't leave!"

My brother touched my head, smiled and comforted my brother who was thinking and frightened: "Because Xiaoli, you are the younger brother, and I am the older brother. Except for life and death, nothing else in this world can separate us. .”

That night, even though my stomach was burning with hunger and the wind and snow outside were as cold as a steel knife inside the house, I had an extremely warm dream.

When I was six years old, there was a severe drought. There was no harvest from the farmland, and people died of hunger. In some places, people even changed their sons to eat.

And in the village where I live, all the food that can be eaten, including grass roots, tree barks, etc., has long been eaten up.

Many old people I knew well and who often told me stories about immortals also died of hunger.

Some old people among them were eaten.

Just like the family at the foot of the mountain.

In fact, even though the family was very stingy on weekdays, and even though they had a vicious dog that guarded the house, their hearts were not made of stone after all. When the famine was at its worst, the family also set up a porridge shed. To help the refugees who are about to starve to death.

However, there were so many refugees in the world, and this member was not from a wealthy family, so it was impossible to provide relief for a long time. After more than a month, the porridge relief shed was closed because there was no rice in the granary.

Then that night, a large army of refugees who came from all over the country to receive soup broke into Yuan Wai's house, rushed up and robbed the remaining food in the rice warehouse, killed Yuan Wai's family, and took away everything in the house. Gold and silver utensils and other valuables, and the member’s beautiful wife and ten-year-old daughter were also brutally murdered during the turmoil that night, and were raped to death by a group of refugees...

Hunger makes a person lose his mind and become like a monster.

And in desperate situations, without the constraints of the law, all kinds of ugly desires in human nature seem to be unchained. This is the appearance of all living beings.

The above are what my brother said after hearing what happened to Yuan Wai's family and after being silent for a long time. He felt unworthy, sorry and angry for what Yuan Wai's family had experienced.

This feeling is almost like I have suffered the same betrayal.

Of course, it's just an illusion, because I have been with my brother since I can remember, and I know very clearly that he has never experienced these things.

In my brother's words, if the police officers had been more hard-hearted and had not cared about the life and death of the refugees outside, but had hired more thugs to look after the homes with food, and had not set up any relief porridge shacks, there would not have been so many refugees gathering here. , and all these tragedies would not have happened.

Perhaps our mother who abandoned us never thought that even though many strong adult men starved to death one after another, my brother and I survived.

Or to be more accurate, it was under the protection and care of my brother that I survived as a young child.

In my eyes, my brother is an omnipotent hero.

Although he is only five years older than me, my brother has always been very smart and can learn everything at once, such as hunting.

In just a few days, my brother became a skilled hunter, comparable to an old hunter who has been hunting in the mountains all his life. It is precisely because of my brother's superb skills that we have been able to successfully survive in this famine-filled world.

However, even hunting has its limits, and soon all the wild beasts on the mountain are hunted down by hungry people.

Faced with this situation, my brother had no choice but to pack his bags and take me, who was seven years old, to join the refugee army and walk to the prosperous cities in the south in search of a chance of life.

Because so many people died in this severe drought and famine, and it was a scorching summer, there were so many corpses lying on the road filled with starving corpses, and there was a stench of rotting corpses all over the road.

Then, a terrible plague broke out.

The refugee army that originally numbered tens of thousands, after more than three months of long journey to Qingyun City, only less than a thousand people were left.

In fact, I was supposed to die on the way, because one day I woke up feeling weak all over, and there were pus and malignant sores on my arms, which were symptoms of the plague.

The plague is highly contagious, so when others noticed my condition, they wanted to burn me to death along with other plague victims to prevent more casualties.

At this time, it was still my brother who stood up and protected me.

Maybe it’s because gold shines wherever it is. When my brother took me to join the refugee army, I soon became a small leader among the refugees because I could read and understand a lot of things.

Just like my brother's answer to me that night, except life and death, nothing in this world can separate us. Brother, he will never leave and abandon me.

Even if you know it, this plague is highly contagious, and once you are infected with the plague, you will die, and there is no cure.

He knew all these brothers, but he still chose to stay and left the refugee army with me, his younger brother. He was so stubborn that he wanted to find a way to cure me, even if the hope was extremely slim or non-existent.

Regardless of the risk that I might be infected with the plague, my brother once wanted to take me to those fairy mountains and find those immortals with magical powers who could fly in the clouds and mists to save me.

But the fairy mountain is a fairy mountain, so how can it be so easy to find it? And even if they are found, those cultivators who soar in the clouds and have magical powers are already close to immortals. How can they beg the other party to take action to save a refugee.

These brothers understood it very clearly, but other than that, he had no other choice but to gain this slim chance of survival.

However, there is a gap between immortals and mortals. Practitioners in this world are extremely rare, and those who can come into contact with them are almost always rich or noble. However, refugees like me and my brother, who are hungry and have a life as low as grass, simply cannot Without being able to contact such beings, it would be extremely difficult to even meet them.

More than ten days have passed, and we still have not been able to find the fairy mountain, nor have we seen the legendary fairy who walks in the clouds, rides on the mist, and wields a sword.

And not only the water and food I carried, but also my body was about to be unable to support it. The time I spent in a coma was less and less than the time I was awake every day.

I was worried that I would infect my brother with the plague. During these ten days, I begged my brother countless times to give up on me and let me fend for myself.

Because since I was a child, my brother has paid so much for my younger brother. If he gets infected by the plague, I think I will feel guilty even if I die.

However, once my brother decides something, no one can shake it.

Fortunately, even though we had been together for so many days behind my back, my brother, who has always been in good health, was not infected by the plague. This was probably the most fortunate thing for me who was about to die at that time. I feel very happy when I think about it. It's happiness.

I originally felt that my body was getting weaker and more painful, and I was about to die. Even my consciousness was blurred. I felt myself being held tightly in my brother's arms in a hazy state, and some hot liquid droplets slid to my lips and entered. There is a bitter and slightly salty taste in the mouth.

Is it my brother... he's crying?

With these thoughts in mind, my brother's painful cries could be heard in my ears, roaring like a wounded beast.

I know that my brother must be extremely guilty of not being able to protect my younger brother.

I really want to tell my brother that he has really done well enough and is the best and most powerful brother in the world. Being able to become his younger brother in this life is the luckiest and happiest thing for me!

However, at that time, I was so weak that I didn't even have the strength to open my eyes and look at my brother, let alone make a sound to comfort him.

Finally, my consciousness was swallowed by darkness...

I thought, this must be death.

I don’t know what the world after death will look like, whether there will be a place like the hell those people talked about, but then I thought about it, if there really is a hell, then isn’t the human world also a hell?

Just thinking and worrying like this, a miracle... actually happened!

When I woke up from my sleep the next day, apart from being a little weak, all the symptoms of the plague had disappeared.

Maybe it was my brother’s persistence that even moved Tiandao!

I thought like this and thanked God for showing mercy to us two brothers.

Later, my brother carried me, who was still very weak after recovering from a serious illness, to Qingyun City, which in the legend of refugees is a paradise on earth without any hunger or cold.

But in fact, although Qingyun City, with its Immortal Sect as its guardian, is still singing and dancing, scrawny refugees often freeze to death or starve to death on the streets every day.

How come the so-called paradise is nothing more than natural selection and survival of the fittest?

Because the plague had just recovered and my body was still very weak, my brother first found an uninhabited temple and took me to settle down. This would be our new home from now on.

During those days of living in a dilapidated temple, although my brother and I lived in poverty, we lived very happily.

Because there were so many refugees pouring into Qingyun City at once, and there were many people who were willing to do anything for a bite of food, the competition was fierce.

But I have confidence in my brother. I believe that with his talent and wisdom, he will definitely stand out in the future, because he is the best and most powerful in the world, and no one can compare with him!

I was so convinced, but what I never expected was that my brother would stand out so well.

After we came to Qingyun City and lived in the ruined temple for half a year, one day an old man with immortal style and long sleeves suddenly came to the ruined temple to find his brother. Although he had tried his best to control his emotions, that kind of A little excitement was still revealed, and he looked at his brother as if he was looking at a rare treasure.

The old man asked his brother if he would like to join his sect and follow him back to understand the great ways of heaven and earth and practice the method of immortality.

Later I found out that this old man turned out to be a big shot at the level of an immortal sect elder. The reason why he found his brother was because he came to Qingyun City to visit friends and accidentally discovered that his brother was a rare gifted jade. The future achievements of spiritual practice are limitless.

Faced with the opportunity to enter the Immortal Sect, change his fate of being starved of food, and become an immortal with the power to soar into the clouds and ride on the mist and move mountains and seas, my brother did not directly agree with joy and excitement on the spot. Instead, he glanced at me, and then faced this person. The old man said: "I still have a younger brother, and I can't leave him behind."

After testing, it was found that I, who had longed to become an immortal since I was a child, had extremely poor qualifications. I was unable to absorb spiritual energy into my body and could not practice cultivation at all.

Due to the rules of the Immortal Sect, the old man said that he could leave me a large sum of money so that I could enjoy all the glory in Qingyun City without any worries. Moreover, he was also persuading his brother, saying that once he steps into cultivation and enters the gate of immortality, he must cut off the worldly ties and devote himself to the Tao. Only in this way can he attain the Great Way of Heaven and Earth.

The old man took out a mountain of gold and silver utensils. Even though he was impoverished and had nothing to offer, his brother didn't even look at it.

Although I was there to persuade my brother and this old immortal to go back to the Immortal Sect to practice Taoism and not to worry about me, my brother still chose to refuse in the end. In other words, between becoming an immortal and me, a younger brother who has accomplished nothing and cannot do anything well, He still chose my younger brother who is like a burden.

The immortal old man left sadly, saying that he would go back and discuss the matter with the sect master before making a decision.

Later, the old man came several times, trying to persuade his brother, but without exception, he was flatly rejected by his brother.

In the end, it seems that he sensed his brother's determination. The old man compromised and agreed that he did not need to return to the Immortal Sect. He could stay with me in Qingyun City to practice Taoism, but the premise was that he must successfully reach the Foundation Establishment Realm within one year. , to shut up some people in the Immortal Sect.

My brother is the most powerful genius! I've always thought so!

This is indeed the case. It did not take a year at all. It only took less than half a year for my brother to condense his energy and successfully build the foundation. Moreover, the Tao foundation he built was still of the highest quality. Even the current master of the Immortal Sect Not even comparable.

The old man who became his elder brother's master was extremely happy to see his elder brother's qualifications. He felt that he had made the right bet. The disciple he had accepted would definitely lead his own immortal sect and Taoist alliance to rise in the future.

Although he was practicing Taoism in the middle, his brother's cultivation improved rapidly. In less than three years, he became the well-deserved number one among the young disciples in his immortal sect, and was also elected to participate in that session. Ascension Conference.

Seeing my brother so dazzling, as a younger brother, I am really happy for him from the bottom of my heart, and I am also proud from the bottom of my heart to have such a brother!

However, my brother is becoming more and more outstanding and dazzling. Although his feelings for me as his brother have not changed, as his younger brother, I am always compared with him by outsiders. I suddenly feel that my brother is getting closer and closer to me. Far, it feels like it is so close yet so far away that it feels like the world is beyond your reach.

My brother, who has always had a delicate mind, soon noticed that my younger brother was feeling somewhat lost and depressed.

That day, my brother went to the forest with his own hands to select a tree, cut it down, brought it back and carefully carved it into the shape of a wooden sword, and gave it to me as a gift in the courtyard.

"This sword is a gift from my brother to you, Xiao Li, and it is also my wish for you. After my brother has participated in the Immortal Ascension Conference and obtained the ranking, he can ask for elixirs from those great immortal sects so that Xiao Li can practice. , I have fulfilled the dream I have wanted to achieve since I was a child, and become an immortal with a sword in the sky."

My brother's gentle voice came to my ears.

I raised my head and looked at my brother. It turned out that... my brother had always remembered what I said when I was in the small mountain village. He had always kept my childish dream in mind. The reason why he practiced so hard to deal with the immortal The conference is to help me realize my dream.

Although I know that crying is a shameful thing, especially for a man, as a crybaby, I once again became a tearful person.

Sometimes I wonder what blessings I cultivated in my previous life to meet the best brother in this world.

I took the carefully carved and polished wooden sword from my brother's hand and nodded vigorously: "Brother! Xiaoli will definitely practice his sword well and become the most powerful swordsman in the world. I will protect you in the future!"

"Become the most powerful swordsman in the world?"

Brother, he muttered this sentence softly, which sounded like childish words. Then he nodded to me with a confident look on his face: "In that case, Xiaoli, please stretch out your hand to brother!"

I stretched out my hand, and my brother placed the carving knife in my palm, then held my palm to control the carving knife, and carved a line of writing on the hilt of the wooden sword:

"The best sword in the world!"

This is the name that my brother gave to this wooden sword.

Use actions to support my dream of becoming the most powerful swordsman in the world!

However, because my brother was holding my palm and he carved it with my palm, the handwriting of "The Best Sword in the World" was not neat and perfect, but was slightly crooked.

However, none of this matters.

Because this is the dream that my brother and I carved together.

And, today, I got the most powerful fairy sword in the world.

I can't live up to my brother's expectations, so I must work hard in the future to become the most powerful swordsman, and then use this most powerful sword in the world to protect my brother, just like my brother has always protected me!

…

…

I thought that life would continue to be so happy and warm.

However, in that fiery night, everything changed.

The elder brother who went to participate in the Immortal Ascension Conference became the target of many people for some reason. Even the entire Qingyun City was caught in a fire, and a strange blood moon hung high in the night.

I accepted the last gift from my blood-stained brother, and promised him that I would never cry again.

After my brother died, I thought about it for a long time, but I never figured out one thing -

My brother is obviously such a kind and gentle person, why do those people want to take him away from me?

Because I couldn't understand this matter, I spent the following days one by one finding the people who had attacked my brother that night. I killed all the living creatures in their family, regardless of whether they were men, women, old or young, and then turned to their corpses. Ask this question that is destined to have no answer.

Yes, why exactly?

Why should I ruthlessly deprive myself of the only warmth I have in this world?

I don't remember how many people I killed with my sword during that period. I only know that the blood stains seemed to have been integrated into the sword body, turning into night purple and completely unable to be washed away.

I didn't dare to close my eyes, because as soon as I closed my eyes, the image of my brother's white clothes stained with blood would appear in front of me, as well as the warm memories of getting along with him in the past.

I don't dare to slack off, I don't dare to stop, I don't dare to recall everything in the past.

Because, I knew very clearly that after that night, I was the only one left in this world.

No one will ever secretly serve themselves the thickest part of rice porridge, and then cunningly pretend to be full; no one will cry timidly and fearfully when they are in danger. Stand up in front of yourself and block the danger for yourself; no one will ever take your childish words and wishes seriously and do everything they can to help you realize them...

Since there is nothing left in this world, what is the meaning of its existence?

I think this way and do this too.

Then, I met the two most important women in my life.

One is my sister-in-law, who is a true dragon in China, and the other is my cute and cute niece Xiaolian, the bloodline left in the world by my brother from his life thousands of years ago.

Knowing that my brother would return one day, I also found the meaning of my "life".

And that sword that cuts the sky is what I found, and it has the meaning of "death"!

Because in this world, I am the only one qualified to die for my brother!

It's like there is only one brother in this world who is worthy of everything I have to sacrifice for him!

Brother, from tonight on, you will be completely free.

Although Xiaoli can no longer see that scene, he has imagined such a wonderful scene many times. It must be very happy and complete!

Also, brother, please don’t feel sad. Xiaoli has never left you, brother. He just changed his posture and will always be by your side, brother...

I can protect my brother forever and prevent him from getting hurt in any way!

Xiaoli... is really happy!

The title is a poem by Bai Juyi, and the author changed one word. This chapter has more than 7,000 words and took me a whole day to write, from day to night. I hope you all will like it.