Chapter 61

In the small Taiping Medical Hall siheyuan courtyard, crows on the tree branches bounced around, as if they had seen something incredible.

Old Head Yao stood up from his bamboo lounge chair, so shocked that for a moment he could only stammer, "You, you, you."

Chen Ji sat cross-legged on the ground, feeling the subtle sword qi within his body.

Old Head Yao bent over and twisted Chen Ji's ear: "Snap out of it, what was going on just now!?"

"Pain, pain, pain," Chen Ji grimaced.

Originally, he was still feeling complacent and high-spirited, but Old Head Yao's twist immediately brought him back to reality.

Just like all children after they grow up, no matter how successful they become outside, they will still be nagged by their parents when they go home.

Chen Ji quickly asked: "What happened, Master?"

Old Head Yao released his ear-twisting hand and stood up straight, saying in a bad mood: "I'm asking you, was what you were cultivating just now the Sword Seed technique?"

"Ah!"

Old Head Yao stroked his beard, momentarily at a loss for words.

It wasn't that he was inexperienced and thus shocked by this matter.

It was precisely because he knew what the Sword Seed technique meant that he was shocked.

Old Head Yao pondered for a long time: "How did you cultivate the Sword Seed technique?"

Chen Ji said innocently: "Didn't you say that cultivating the Sword Seed can chop officials and princes, and that the two techniques complement each other!"

When Old Head Yao heard these words, he was shocked again. He stared with wide eyes and said: "You mustn't talk nonsense, I was just saying that, you mustn't mess around, I'm telling you, the best way to cultivate the Mountain Lord technique is to wait for those high officials to die naturally, only then can you avoid bringing disaster upon yourself."

He then patiently advised: "The whole cabinet doesn't have ten teeth left, those are some old things about to rot away, they won't live much longer, just wait a bit more, there's no need to be so impatient."

Chen Ji realized that his master was genuinely worried he would do that.

He quickly smiled and said: "I was joking with you, I won't randomly kill innocent people."

Old Head Yao corrected him: "Those cabinet elders are not innocent people, but if you kill too many, there will always be a time when the horse loses its front hooves. Which cabinet elder doesn't have high officials guarding them?"

"Yes, yes, I know!" Chen Ji nodded.

By this time, Old Head Yao had calmed down. He sat on the bamboo lounge chair and asked seriously: "Where did you learn the Sword Seed technique? This is the biggest secret of the Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple, how could you possibly learn it? Could it be that the person the Jing Dynasty has always been looking for is you. No, the age doesn't match, you weren't born yet!"

"Could it be that your uncle or your mother passed it on to you? That's not right either, how could they have had the opportunity to contact the Sword Seed technique?"

Chen Ji answered frankly: "Master, an immortal in a dream entrusted me with it!"

Old Head Yao rolled his eyes: "If you don't want to say, you don't need to make up lies. Get over there."

However, Chen Ji said seriously: "Master, I'm not lying. The immortal in the dream is named: Xuanyuan. I've been dreaming of him often since I can remember, I just couldn't see him clearly before. And I couldn't talk. Now I can converse with him properly."

Old Head Yao carefully observed Chen Ji's expression, the youth was extremely sincere.

He took out six coins from his sleeve and scattered them on the ground, but this time, no matter how many times he scattered them, the hexagrams were all different.

"The hexagram image is chaotic, could it really be an immortal helping you?" Old Head Yao smacked his lips: "Didn't expect your connections to be quite extensive."

Old Head Yao sighed a long breath: "You can even learn the Sword Seed from this, where is the logic in that? Do you know, if you were to divide the cultivation techniques of this world into three, six, or nine grades, the Sword Seed technique would be called second, and no one would dare to call it first."

"Do you know, Lu Yang indulged in martial dao his whole life, never married, had no children, how many young talents of the Jing Dynasty entered the Martial Temple just waiting for Lu Yang to pass down the Sword Seed technique when he lost hope in the great dao, and how many people waited from youth to old age, empty-handed, waiting until their hair turned white."

Saying this, he looked at Chen Ji and said leisurely: "If the Jing Dynasty knows you are cultivating the Sword Seed technique, they will surely mobilize the entire military intelligence department to kill you, aren't you afraid?"

Chen Ji said in a low voice: "Master, I'll cultivate quietly! Will Lu Yang personally come to kill me?"

"That's not the case, Lu Yang cultivated his whole life not for the vision of eternal life after achieving the great dao, but to seek new opponents."

Old Head Yao shook his head: "He will even expect you to cultivate to the Divine Path realm, and then fight you once! But even if he doesn't act, you still won't live, come, let me see your lifeline, perhaps I saw it wrong before."

Chen Ji said: "Master, I won't let others know that I'm cultivating the Sword Seed technique."

Old Head Yao looked directly into Chen Ji's eyes: "But I know."

The small siheyuan courtyard became quiet, the crows no longer bounced around, as if a big hand covered this place, even the air pressure became tight.

Old Head Yao slowly said: "I can see, you are a very cautious person, so cautious that you held that broken porcelain piece all the way from the Zhou residence back to Taiping Medical Hall. I asked you if you killed anyone, and you said no. But since you are cautious enough, why dare to cultivate in front of me? Don't you know that the most unpredictable thing in this world is the human heart. How dare you affirm that I won't betray you? If I tell this news to the Jing Dynasty, I might even get ten thousand taels of gold, maybe even have the Jing Dynasty build me a golden house!"

Chen Ji sat cross-legged on the ground, lowered his head and thought for a moment: "A person carrying too many secrets is like carrying a big mountain, they will be crushed and unable to breathe. I am willing to believe you won't harm me, you saved me twice anyway, if you really plan to exchange me for gold, then exchange me!"

Old Head Yao sized up Chen Ji for a long time, and finally said in a soft voice: "Don't tell anyone else, not anyone!"

The crows also sized up the old and young people under the tree, always feeling that the relationship between these two people had finally improved a little, with more trust.

Old Head Yao said: "Aren't you cultivating the Sword Seed technique? Let me see your sword qi!"

"Okay!"

Chen Ji urged the sword qi within his body to wander through his meridians, and finally shot out from the tip of his right finger, hitting the ground and stirring up some dust.

"Heh…"

Old Head Yao laughed: "So a person who is speechless really will laugh a little. She Dengke's fart is even more powerful than your sword qi. Liu Quxing is no good, he always farts like a child!"

"You're too harsh, didn't I just cultivate for less than an hour?"

Old Head Yao thought for a moment: "Lu Yang nurtured his sword with the North Sea of the Jing Dynasty, what did you nurture your sword with? That year, Lu Yang's father took him to travel all over the mountains and rivers, and it took a whole year to select the North Sea. You were too casual in selecting the place to nurture your sword just now, could it be that you chose my Taiping Medical Hall?"

Speaking of this, Old Head Yao was angry at his incompetence: "Since you have the Sword Seed technique, you should have told me earlier so I could take you out to travel and select the best place to nurture your sword. Whether it's the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains of the Southwest, or the Seven God Mountains of the Esoteric Sect, they are all better than here. How can such a thing be decided casually."

Chen Ji pointed to the east and said: "Master, I chose the sun as the place to nurture my sword!"

Old Head Yao's face froze, and he slowly raised his head to look at the rising sun: "You…"

At this time, there were sneaky sounds from outside the courtyard wall: "Bai Li, Bai Li, step on me and climb up, slow down, don't fall."

The crows flew up into the sky and left early.

Chen Ji turned his head to look towards the courtyard wall, and saw Princess Bai Li poking her head out, quietly sizing up the courtyard.

"Wow, Chen Ji, Imperial Physician Yao, you're awake? Good morning!"

Bai Li stepped on the prince's shoulder and waved her hand to greet them.

Chen Ji was puzzled: "Princess Bai Li, you and the prince are also up so early?"

Princess Bai Li smiled and explained: "We all finished our early class at Mister Wang's place. Mister Wang is very strict, my brother's palm got hit by the board again this morning!"

Outside the courtyard wall, the prince urged: "Bai Li, flip over first, then chat."

Bai Li supported herself with both hands and flipped over, then came down the ladder into the courtyard.

Old Head Yao looked at her familiar entrance and way, raised his eyebrows, and his face sank as he looked at Chen Ji.

Chen Ji quickly said: "Master, I'll give you the toll."

"Almost forgot!" Old Head Yao's eyebrows relaxed. He stood up and carried a bamboo stick into the apprentice bedroom: "You chat, I'll go wake up She Dengke and Liu Quxing."

A moment later, the two senior brothers' ghost cries and wolf howls echoed from the room.

One covered his butt and went to fetch water, the other covered his butt and went to sweep the ground.

Liang Cat happily drilled into the kitchen to make food.

Surprisingly, Princess Bai Li actually rolled up her sleeves, entered the kitchen, skillfully scooped a spoonful of lard and threw it into the pot, looking like she was preparing to help cook.

Chen Ji was puzzled: "Why is the princess so skillful?"

Bai Li laughed: "We were all like this in the academy, sir didn't let us bring book boys, everyone had to be self-reliant."

"Everyone is self-reliant?"

"Not everyone!"

Bai Li thought for a moment and said: "Some families with extremely good backgrounds would pay money to classmates with not so good backgrounds to help wash clothes and cook, so they could live more comfortably! My brother also wanted to do this, but I wrote a letter to my father and reported him."

The prince leaned against the kitchen door frame and said powerlessly: "Bai Li, if you think that way, some scholars from fallen families who want to enter the East Forest Academy have already used all their family's strength just for the tuition silver... But afterwards they still want to die, after the township exam they still go to the capital to participate in the palace exam. If they score high in the palace exam, they still need to buy houses and land in the capital, which all requires spending silver. We save effort, they earn silver, what's wrong with that?"

"Anyway, no."

With a sizzle, the princess skillfully turned the pot and heated the oil, then poured the washed and cut cabbage into the pot, making a dish of sour and spicy cabbage, the aroma floating into the courtyard.

The former Taiping Medical Hall was like a corner forgotten by the world, but now it was like a large, bustling courtyard full of human warmth.

This human warmth pulled Chen Ji back to the human world from the official world. He struggled to stand up, lay on the bamboo chair, and tiredly closed his eyes.

Chen Ji gathered the molten flow within the Sixteen Lamps Furnace Fire, and once again fell into the depths of the dark cloud sea, returning to that ancient battlefield.

Chen Ji fell onto the green mountain, opened his eyes, and saw Xuanyuan wearing golden armor, holding a king's flag, sitting on the mountaintop.

"We communicated well!"

Xuanyuan slowly stood up: "You weren't lying before... you chose that star, let me guess, with your character you should have chosen the brightest star in the sky - Sirius. But even Sirius, divine sense would take several years to reach, how could you possibly complete it in an hour?"

Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "I chose the sun, it's quite close, you might not realize, the sun is also a star."

"The sun! You actually chose the sun? You once picked away the brightest star in the sky, yet didn't cherish it, now you pick away another one."

"Huh?"

On the green mountain, the breeze brushed over the banners, Xuanyuan stood firmly on the cliff, as if he had turned into a statue.

Chen Ji asked seriously: "I borrowed the sun's fire and cultivated the first wisp of sword qi. But the power of the sword qi is extremely small, and it's gone after use. I saw your sword shuttle like a shuttle on the battlefield before, it was incredibly sharp and indestructible, how can I forge that kind of sword?"

Xuanyuan suddenly said: "Go back, I don't want to teach!"

Chen Ji raised his head: "You say you won't teach, then you won't teach? People must have integrity."

"An hour ago you said you could teach, an hour later, you say you won't teach again, isn't that a bit too casual?"

"Whatever you say, I'm not teaching anyway." Xuanyuan held up the king's flag and walked down the mountain: "Don't come again later."

Chen Ji was anxious.

He followed behind Xuanyuan, following him all the way down the mountain.

Xuanyuan took steps of over ten zhang, as if walking on flat ground, while Chen Ji could only stumble and chase down the mountain path.

Fortunately, in this dream realm, he had no sickness or injury, otherwise just running down the mountain would be painful to death.

"Hey, walk slower, let's discuss it again!"

Chen Ji shouted: "Why won't you teach? Is it because I chose the wrong place to nurture my sword, or because of our past enmity?"

"You don't need to know." Xuanyuan said as he walked: "You and I have enmity, I don't want to teach my enemy."

Chen Ji quickly said: "Although I am indeed not the person you know, I see you are handsome and majestic, upright and selfless, I think the enmity between you and him is probably his fault. If he did anything inappropriate, I will apologize to you on his behalf."

Xuanyuan suddenly turned around at the bottom of the mountain, his face calm as he looked at Chen Ji: "?"

He was stunned, unable to believe it: "You apologize to me? Apologize so easily?"

Chen Ji nodded: "Very sincere!"

Xuanyuan laughed heartily: "Did you all hear? He apologized to me, he actually apologized to me."

"Do you want to learn the Sword Seed technique this much?" Xuanyuan asked with a condensed voice.

Chen Ji: "I want to learn!"

"Good!" Xuanyuan waved his big hand.

The solidified battlefield came alive, and a majestic soldier walked out from the battle array, holding a long halberd, kneeling on one knee: "King, what is the matter?"

Xuanyuan pointed at Chen Ji: "Kill him!"

Saying this, he looked at Chen Ji again: "I won't take advantage of you, his realm has been suppressed low, only a little higher than yours now. Defeat him, and I will teach you."

"This?"

Chen Ji looked at the burly man holding the halberd swinging at him. The huge bronze long halberd drew a whistling wind sound in the air, making his eardrums hurt.

Hiss…

Chen Ji sucked in a cold breath and woke up from the bamboo lounge chair.

Before he could react, he had already been killed by the giant halberd soldier.

The pain was so real, as if everything just now wasn't a dream, but he had really died once.

Did this Xuanyuan really use the opportunity to take revenge and vent his hatred?

At this time, Bai Li was still stir-frying in the kitchen, while the prince sat on the bamboo lounge chair cracking melon seeds. When he saw Chen Ji wake up, his soul unsettled, he curiously asked: "What, had a nightmare?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "Nothing!"

Saying this, he actually gathered the molten flow again and quickly fell into the dark cloud sea, falling onto the green mountain.

However, this time, the giant halberd soldier was already waiting here.

Before he could react, he was once again stabbed through the heart by the bronze halberd.

Xuanyuan laughed: "You even forgot your fighting consciousness? In all battles in this world, soldiers never tire of deceit, using all their strength. If you even forget your fighting consciousness, what's the use of learning my Sword Seed technique?"

However, Chen Ji let fresh blood spray from his mouth, turned his head and laughed towards Xuanyuan: "Again."

"Huh?"

Xuanyuan raised his eyebrows, and a light lit up in his eyes.

The next moment, Chen Ji calmly opened his eyes on the bamboo lounge chair, and then closed them again, returning to the battlefield.

As he fell into the dark cloud sea, he crouched down instantly, avoiding the whistling wind sound overhead.

The iron halberd chopped horizontally from above, but it hit nothing.

Chen Ji actually picked up a piece of stone from the ground and held it in his hand.

Taking advantage of the moment when the momentum of the bronze halberd had declined, he pounced towards the giant halberd soldier.

When he approached, he saw the giant halberd soldier suddenly abandon the bronze halberd, draw a bronze short knife from his waist, and stab towards him.

The giant halberd soldier thought this knife would hit Chen Ji, but it didn't.

He suddenly lifted his head and discovered that Chen Ji had actually picked up the abandoned bronze halberd on the ground and was running down the mountain.

For the first time, Xuanyuan showed a hesitant expression.

"Admit defeat?"

.