Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

"Wow woof woof"! "Squeak squeak"! ... The barking of dogs intertwined with the screams of monkeys, echoing on the Dazhu Peak of Qingyun Mountain, breaking the tranquility here.Holding the black fire stick in his hand, Zhang Xiaofan rushed out of the kitchen door, furious: "Dead dog! Dead monkey! Don't run away!" The monkey Xiaohui jumped on the back of the big yellow dog with a whoosh, and the long-gained big yellow spread his legs and ran away. Zhang Xiaofan couldn't catch up, and watched Xiaohui make a grimace, and put a piece of fragrant meaty bone on the big yellow dog's back. mouth.Rhubarb was so excited that the dog's face was happy, if it wasn't for the two rows of teeth biting the fleshy bones, the dog's teeth would have fallen out of laughter.

"call!……" Zhang Xiaofan looked frustrated, walked back to the kitchen indignantly.Since he was in charge of the kitchen when he was fourteen years old, his craftsmanship has amazed everyone, and Rhubarb, with his "old dog", can't help coveting the delicious food in Zhang Xiaofan's hands, especially the meat and bones that Zhang Xiaofan uses to cook soup. Delicious, it is the dream meal of rhubarb. But Zhang Xiaofan cooks soup for people to drink. Although rhubarb is "old" (Tian Buyi raised him from a young age) and has more senior qualifications, he doesn't get the treatment he deserves, and he often covets it but can't get it.After it got acquainted with the monkey Xiao Hui, the above scene often appeared on the Big Bamboo Peak, and it lasted for two years, no matter how secretive Zhang Xiaofan kept his bones, as long as he had Da Huang's nose and Xiao Hui's flexibility, This battle of flesh and bones often ends in Zhang Xiaofan's defeat.

Two years passed by in a hurry, in fact it was a year and a half, Zhang Xiaofan has grown into a sixteen year old boy, taller, now half a head taller than his senior sister Tian Linger.During this time, because of Tian Buyi's original strict order, all the disciples on the Big Bamboo Peak practiced hard behind closed doors, except for the sixth son Du Bishu who went down the mountain to travel, only Zhang Xiaofan, the cook, was the most leisurely. In the past two years, Zhang Xiaofan has been practicing alone without anyone's attention, but what he himself can't believe is that according to the formula taught to him by his elder brother Song Daren, he only used one year, it seems that The practice has completed the second layer of Jade Clear Realm - Qi Refining.

He had doubts in his heart, but he didn't ask Tian Buyi after all, and Song Daren, Tian Linger and others had been concentrating on practicing behind closed doors, and had no time to care about other matters, and his best friend Du Bishu went down the mountain again, so he only asked this question Hidden in the heart.But then there was a big and difficult thing before him. Tian Linger privately gave him the third level of the formula. When a person stands in a small courtyard and looks up at the night sky, he will think of a sentence: No matter how much you practice, you will be better than senior brother Qi Hao!

After ten nights, he began to practice the third-level formula! In Taiji Xuanqing Dao, the first to third layers of the Jade Clear Realm are the foundation of all spells, and the difficulty gradually increases. Unlike the first two layers of "Entraining Qi" and "Refinement of Qi", the third layer of the magic formula "Vital Qi ", has focused on the cultivation of Tai Chi vitality.Fajue says: "Tai Chi Yuan Qi is composed of the three as one. Ji means the middle; Yuan means the beginning and travels on the twelve celestial days.... This is the combination of Yin and Yang, the Qi clocks in the child, and it is the one that transforms all things." (Note : The words come from "Han Shu Lv Li Zhi")

When the disciples of Qingyunmen reach this level of practice, there will be a clear watershed, and the level of aptitude is clear at a glance: intelligent people are often invincible, and break through to a higher level of "dispelling things" in one fell swoop, laying a solid foundation for cultivating immortality , and the slightly inferior disciples often stagnate, and there are many who waste their lives. It has been five years since Zhang Xiaofan got started, naturally he heard these things countless times while talking with his seniors, but obviously, all the seniors put him in the category of "slightly worse".

He went back to the kitchen, came to the stove, filled up the water, and then continued to add firewood to the stove, ready to boil some water.The bright yellow flames became vigorous again, Zhang Xiaofan took his pitiful black "fire stick" that had been used for two years, and fiddled with the firewood in the stove. This one is on a fire stick. But this is not what he discovered, but a very common thing - he was in a daze. The whole black fire stick is only about one foot long except for the ball on the head. The only abnormal thing is that under the black color of the fire stick, there are blood veins faintly, especially between the short stick and the ball. The interface is even more obvious, and sometimes it almost looks like the two things are connected together with human blood.

Zhang Xiaofan's whole body trembled suddenly, the thought of blood melting in his mind just now made him feel sick.Over the years, he has gradually forgotten that trip to the deep valley back then. He only occasionally dreamed back in the middle of the night, but he would suddenly dream of that strange experience, and he would sweat profusely after waking up. At that time, he felt that he was very lonely, facing the unknown ferocity alone, and facing the dark death alone.At this time, it was always difficult for him to restrain his inexplicable emotional agitation, with a trace of fanatical impulse, he couldn't help but feel the feeling of killing.Even, in the dark, he recalled the strange frenzy in the eyes of Monk Puzhi when he looked at him at the side of the broken grass temple many years ago!

Zhang Xiaofan didn't know why he had such a strange feeling, but fortunately he still had a way to calm his terrified heart: Dafan Prajna! This set of supreme Buddhist formulas has the magical effect of deterring evil spirits and purifying the mind. He has practiced it for five years, and its greatest use is to suppress the strange emotions that have inexplicably appeared in the past two years. "Snapped"! Zhang Xiaofan felt a pain in his head, and something fell to the ground, but it was a pine cone, Zhang Xiaofan was furious, turned around and said angrily: "Damn monkey, don't let me catch it... Eh, you are... ah! Sixth brother!"

Zhang Xiaofan jumped up, and saw a person standing at the door, with a medium build, a lean face, a smile on his face, and a small burden on his back, who wasn't the old sixth Du Bishu whom he hadn't seen for a long time? Du Bishu looked Zhang Xiaofan up and down, clicked his tongue and said: "Amazing, in just a few years, you kid is as tall as me." Zhang Xiaofan walked up quickly, grabbed Du Bishu's shoulder with all his strength, and said with a smile: "Senior Brother Six, why have you been away for so long, we all miss you very much." Du Bishu laughed and said, "I'm back, haven't I?"

Zhang Xiaofan immediately asked: "Does Master and Mistress know that you are back?" Du Bishu said: "No, I just came back and saw smoke in the kitchen here, so I came over to take a look first, hehe, I knew you work here, kid. I haven't seen you for a few years, do you miss me?" Zhang Xiaofan was happy and nodded repeatedly.Du Bishu touched his head, and suddenly whispered: "Go, accompany me to see Master." Zhang Xiaofan froze for a moment, said: "Why do you want me to accompany you?" Du Bishu made a bitter face, and said: "Master let me go down the mountain at the beginning, and agreed to limit it to one year, but I played a lot, er, no, I searched for half a year, and then I found a good material to refine the magic weapon. I'm going to be scolded by the master. You can go with me." Zhang Xiaofan glared at him, and said: "Then you still said that you came to see me first, by the way, Sixth Senior Brother, what kind of magic weapon are you cultivating?" Du Bishu said with a dry smile: "Hehe, of course I came to see you first, junior brother, let's go, let's go." Then he pulled Zhang Xiaofan and left. After a while, Rhubarb, who was hiding in a certain corner, and Xiaohui, who was leaning on its back to catch lice, heard a roar from Shoujingtang at the same time: "Unworthy person, you are so mad at me!" !" ※※※ At dinner time, everyone in Dazhu Peak had a big reunion for the first time in two years and sat at a table to eat.After everyone sat down, Tian Buyi still had an angry expression on his face. After greeting Du Bishu, all the disciples couldn't help asking him quietly: "Lao Liu, why did Master get so angry when he saw you?" Du Bi's expression was awkward, talking about him from left to right, but Zhang Xiaofan who was sitting next to him had a smile on his face, but he didn't dare to laugh, his appearance was rather weird. At this time, Tian Linger who was sitting opposite finally couldn't bear it any longer, and was the first to ask Tian Buyi: "Father, Sixth Senior Brother finally came back, why are you still so angry?" Du Bishu quietly raised his eyes to look at Tian Buyi, Tian Buyi glared at him, scared Du Bishu hastily lowered his head.Tian Buyi snorted and said, "Lao Liu, show everyone your magic weapon?" Du Bishu opened his mouth, nana couldn't speak, raised his eyes to look at his wife Suru, but saw Suru smiled and said: "Bishu, you can show it to everyone, and let everyone know why your master is angry ?” Seeing that he couldn't postpone it, Du Bishu took his small baggage slowly, shook it twice, took out a few things from the middle, and put them on the table. Everyone stared at each other without blinking their eyes, for fear of missing something, the dining hall was extremely quiet for a while.On the dining table, there were three objects about the size of half a fist that seemed to be made of some kind of hard wood, forming a six-sided square, the whole body was white, and there were various numbers engraved on them, but they were three dice. Everyone was stunned, speechless, and laughed out loud after a while. Du Bishu's face was flushed, Tian Buyi looked at him with an angry expression on his face, and said angrily, "You can't carve rotten wood!" At this moment, Suru shook her head with a smile, and said, "Forget it, it's not a big deal, let's just roll the dice, anyway, this magic weapon is also used by him." Tian Buyi glared at his apprentice, and said to Suru: "How do you know he didn't use this to cheat?" Du Bishu was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Master, teacher wife, this disciple will never dare to do such a shameless thing. I just found a thousand-year-old three-bead tree (Note 1) by the Chishui River in the south a few years ago, which is very spiritual. I carved these three dice out of their essence, completely on a whim, and never thought of anything else..." Tian Buyi was furious, and said: "You're happy, hmph, it's all right for you to practice other things, now you have refined a pair of gambling tools, and when you come to the stage for the martial arts competition in a month's time, I will Do you still have a face?" Du Bishu didn't dare to say any more, Suru shook his head, and said in a low voice: "It's not easy, this is something he likes, don't force him. You still remember Senior Brother Wan..." Tian Buyi was shocked suddenly, turned his head to look at Suru, Suru sighed lightly, and said to Du Bishu: "Bishu, you know that your master and I have never forced you to be like other branches of art." Brothers and sisters practice fairy swords, but magic weapons often have a lot to do with it, so you have to be careful when doing it yourself." Du Bishu took a sneak peek at Tian Buyi, but saw that his master was sullen and sullen, he didn't dare to talk too much, he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes." Suru glanced at her husband again, and then said to everyone: "Time flies so fast, next month will be the Qimai Martial Arts Test. At that time, we will go to Tongtian Peak where Nagato is. You should prepare early." , " Speaking of this, her beautiful and gentle face suddenly became serious, and she said quickly: "Don't let me and your master down this time, do you understand?" The hearts of all the disciples jumped, and they said in unison: "Yes!" "Master, Master's Wife." Amidst the loud replies of the crowd, an uncoordinated weak voice came out. Suru looked and saw that it was Zhang Xiaofan, the last seventh child, frowned, and said, "What's the matter, little girl?" Van?" Zhang Xiaofan said cautiously: "Then did you mean that I will go too?" Suru was startled, took a look at Tian Buyi, a smile appeared on his face, and said with a smile: "Yes, aren't you also a disciple of the Dazhu Peak lineage?" Zhang Xiaofan was overjoyed, jumped up for joy, and gave a high five to Du Bishu next to him, he didn't care about Tian Buyi's sarcastic remarks from a distance: "Anyway, there are nine places, even if I give one to an idiot, it's still a waste of one, it's useless." ※※※ At night, when Zhang Xiaofan returned to the house, he saw that Da Huang and Xiao Hui had already gone to his bed to rest.Since a year and a half ago, Da Huang moved to sleep in Zhang Xiaofan's room because he was on good terms with Xiao Hui. At the beginning, Tian Buyi was startled, and he couldn't find his beloved dog everywhere. Finally, when he realized the reason, he snorted and said nothing. Then he walked away, Zhang Xiaofan saw that Master didn't blame him, so he didn't drive Rhubarb out (actually, he couldn't get out, a bed was half occupied by Rhubarb and half by Xiao Hui, so you can know the mood of the owner of the house up). But after a long time, he probably got used to the crowding or got used to it, and Zhang Xiaofan no longer complained about Da Huang and Xiao Hui sleeping with him. This night, he was in a very good mood, walked into the room and sat at the table, glanced at the , but saw Rhubarb lazily lying on his stomach, but Xiao Hui went to the kitchen again at some point, stole his black fire stick again, and rubbed it on Rhubarb's body. His heart moved, and he faintly felt that Xiao Hui seemed to be very interested in this fire stick, but he was not in the mood to think about it so much now, his heart was completely filled with the joy that Master unexpectedly allowed him to participate in the Qimai Martial Arts Competition. If Da Huang and Xiao Hui looked at Zhang Xiaofan at this time, they would see a human with glowing eyes.Zhang Xiaofan looked at the monkeys and dogs, but his mouth seemed to be talking to the air: "Look, I have the opportunity to participate in the Qimai martial arts competition, it's really great. Master, he is really magnanimous, even if I'm stupid Take me to have a long experience, uh, maybe you can see Jing Yu then." Speaking of this, he seemed to think of something, and said to himself in a low voice: "But if you really go on stage to compete, I'm afraid it will embarrass the master. Forget it, just do whatever you want. Dahuang, Xiaohui, Don't you think so?" "Squeak creak!" Zhang Xiaofan looked up, but saw that Xiao Xinxin was in Dahuang's fur, carefully catching the lice, and only barked a few times to deal with him, while Dahuang was even more straightforward, even put his two dog ears down, and didn't even look at him look at him. "Dead dog!" Zhang Xiaofan cursed angrily, suddenly his eyes went dark, but it was Xiao Hui who suddenly smashed the fire stick in his hand.He was startled, and quickly dodged, the fire stick hit the table, jumped twice, and fell to the ground. "Squeak, woof, woof, woof!" This time the voices of the big yellow dog and the little gray monkey became a symphony, Zhang Xiaofan made a face at the two beasts, sat down angrily, for some reason, suddenly appeared in his mind It shows Qi Hao's heroic appearance on the Big Bamboo Peak two years ago. "Frozen into a wall!" Zhang Xiaofan said in a low voice, he was fine when he didn't practice, but these days his practice has deepened, but he has deeply experienced the difficulty and unattainability of reaching Qihao's level. He remembered that night again, Tian Linger's gentle but fiery eyes beside the light in this room! At that moment, his heart seemed to be pricked by a sharp needle. The fire stick lay quietly on the ground, and the sound of monkeys and yellow dogs playing next to it, Zhang Xiaofan suddenly felt that he was so similar to the fire stick, even if the fire stick fell on the ground, in his eyes, it was as if Also brought a bit of loneliness. "Alas", he sighed, trying to imagine the situation where he could reach that state, and then, in a completely relaxed and unconcerned posture, for the first time in his life, he did what the disciples of Qingyun sect did countless times. The action of "repelling things": waved to the fire stick on the ground. That moment seemed like forever. Zhang Xiaofan was very normal, he wasn't even sad at all, he was prepared to accept his failure as a matter of course, and then he saw the fire stick on the ground move. Just so lightly, slightly, as if he just woke up after sleeping for a long time, he moved a little bit!