Yan Zhengming felt as if all the bones in his body had been shattered. For a moment, all his five and six senses failed, and he could only see Zhou Hanzheng's condescending gaze, as if he was just an insignificant ant lying in the dust in his eyes.

Several people ran over, maybe they were fellow apprentices or their own Taoist children, they all tried to help him up, but Yan Zhengming had no strength in his legs and he couldn't put in any effort at all.

Yan Zhengming didn't know if he fainted at that time. He felt a little dazed, and in his daze, he seemed to hear the voice of his master: "Zhengming, you were born into a wealthy family, you don't know the sufferings of the world, you don't know what adversity is, it is not a good thing for a cultivator, today I will give you the word 'ponder' as a warning."

That was eight years ago... no, almost nine years ago, when he had just joined the Fuyao Sect and received his first ordination in the Unknown Hall.

Yan Zhengming had been lazy about studying and practicing martial arts since he was a child, so he didn’t understand what he heard at the time and asked, “What do you mean, Master? What do you want me to think about?”

Master Mu Chun said, "Jade is a stone. At first, it is no different from the sand and hard stones on the road. After years of being burned by fire or forged, it solidifies and hides in the mountains and under the water without anyone knowing. It needs to be polished and polished in various ways, and even with knives and axes, before it can become a tool. Zhengming, you are the founding disciple of my Fuyao Sect. When you encounter adversity in the future, you should use disaster as a knife and your body and mind as jade."

Yes, he also asked at that time what was meant by "founding disciple".

The master's answer was: "Opening a mountain is the beginning of bloodline inheritance. You are the first person in my Fuyao Sect who has no predecessors and no successors."

A fishy smell rushed to his eyebrows. Yan Zhengming pushed away the hand of someone who was blocking him and vomited blood. He didn't want to know what he looked like now. He felt the burning pain on his head and face a little late. He reached out and touched his face and forehead, and felt blood mixed with sand and dust. His white clothes had been rubbed like a mud monkey. The belt on one side was loose and stained with mud.

Yan Zhengming heard Zhou Hanzheng's voice coming from not too far away: "Everyone, you started from Qinglong Island. In the future, you may be able to form your own sect and teach and recruit disciples. Then I have to advise you that now is the time to work hard. A sect cannot really rise to prominence just by giving it a good name."

Yan Zhengming's arms, which were supporting himself on the ground, trembled constantly. His indignation and shame collided with each other, like water and soil mixed into a swamp, trapping him completely in it, and uttering a sorrow deeper than hatred and self-blame.

"Brother, what's wrong with you? Say something, Brother!" Li Yun shook his shoulders hard.

Yan Zhengming's eyes finally began to focus. He looked blankly at Li Yun, Cheng Qian, and Han Yuan, thinking to himself, "Master is wrong. What kind of jade am I? I am not even a stone. I am just a pile of mud that cannot be supported by a wall."

The master must be getting old and confused, otherwise why would he pass the seal of the headmaster to him?

Yan Zhengming felt that the two words "Fuyao" were like two huge mountains, pressing on his shoulders respectively. He was exhausted both physically and mentally, and he did not have the backbone to carry these two mountains.

"I..." He opened his mouth to say something, but his tongue seemed to be blocked by the bitterness in his heart and he couldn't even form a complete sentence.

And just at this moment, Cheng Qian spoke.

Cheng Qian asked, "When are we going back?"

When these words were spoken, several people were stunned.

Yan Zhengming might want to escape from the battlefield, Han Yuan and Li Yun might not be so persistent. Everyone could have said this, but it should not have come out of Cheng Qian's mouth.

These three junior brothers have always been the outliers in Fuyao Mountain. Their single-minded focus on cultivation is obvious to all. If you open the door to the Sutra Building for them, they will be at your disposal. How could they personally ask to leave...

Han Yuan asked in a low voice: "Little Senior Brother, what are you talking about? Where are you going back to?"

"Let's go back to Fuyao Mountain," Cheng Qian said calmly, "help Senior Brother go back first. I don't have anything to take with me except the books in the Sutra Building. I can run errands to call a boat later. Give me the money first."

Cheng Qian said this, and without further delay, he stood up and walked to the other side of Yan Zhengming. He and Li Yun helped him up from the left and right, and walked out of the crowd first.

"Wait, Xiao Qian, listen to me!" Li Yun lowered his voice and said, "He is lecturing and will tell you a lot of cultivation tips. Are you not going to listen?"

"No, you guys listen first," Cheng Qian said expressionlessly, "I'm leaving. I don't care."

Of course, Han Yuan and Li Yun couldn't stay by themselves. The lecture hall had only been going on for less than an incense stick of time. Their departure would be very eye-catching. Even Zhou Hanzheng's eyes were on them. Li Yun had no choice but to turn around quickly and said to Zhou Hanzheng on the podium: "Excuse me, Left Protector. Our head brother is feeling a little unwell..."

Zhou Han was swinging his fan in a frivolous manner, and said to Li Yun with a sarcastic smile: "Oh, then tell your head brother to take good care of himself."

After saying that, Zhou Hanzheng's eyes turned and fell on Cheng Qian who had his back to him. He dragged out his voice and said lightly: "That kid... well, the kid who hit people in the face with a wooden sword, although you are also ordinary, your swordsmanship is quite interesting. If you want to go further, you might as well try to be my disciple. After passing the test, maybe you can find a place to learn swordsmanship properly."

Cheng Qian acted as if he hadn't heard anything. He walked out steadily, carrying Yan Zhengming without looking back.

Han Yuan looked at Cheng Qian's ugly face at a loss, not knowing whether he really didn't hear it or not, and whispered: "Junior Brother, the one with the surname Zhou..."

Cheng Qian squeezed out the first swear word in his life from between his teeth: "Bullshit."

Han Yuan had no choice but to shut up silently and followed his three brothers closely.

Half of the people on the hillside were looking at them, their eyes mocking or ridiculing, as if they were looking at a group of dejected dogs that had lost their homes.

Young people are fearless, but what they fear most is being looked down upon by others. In this regard, not only Cheng Qian, but also Yan Zhengming, Li Yun and even Han Yuan are the same.

Li Yun suddenly turned his head away and roughly wiped away the tears that had been rolling around in his eyes.

Just as they were about to leave the hillside where the lecture hall was, a loud shout suddenly came from behind them: "Stop!"

Then a figure rose and fell, standing right in front of the few people. It was the poor Taoist nun Tang Wanqiu who was as stupid as a club.

Cheng Qian benefited a lot from her futile battle with the great devil Jiang Peng in the East China Sea. He even thought that if they lived on Qinglong Island in the future, he would definitely find an opportunity to visit the self-willed Master Tang. However, he did not expect that Qinglong Island was not so easy to live on.

At this moment, he was filled with anger and did not like Tang Wanqiu. Seeing her blocking his way, Cheng Qian took the sword from Yan Zhengming's waist and held it in his hand, holding it across his chest and abdomen, and said rather impolitely, "Master Tang, what advice do you have?"

Tang Wanqiu said stiffly: "Is the lecture hall a vegetable market, where you can come and go as you please?"

Li Yun on the side barely suppressed his anger, clenched his fists at his sides, and pressed the tip of his tongue against his upper teeth for a while before he reluctantly said in a relatively calm tone: "We have informed the Dharma Protector Zhou Zuo to send the head brother to go..."

Tang Wanqiu interrupted him and said, "Could he have been so crippled by that blow just now that you need so many of you to carry him alone? Do you want me to call a sedan chair with eight people carrying it for you?"

Li Yun: "We..."

Cheng Qian suddenly took a step forward. He was extremely daring at this moment. Under Li Yun's frightened gaze, he said to Tang Wanqiu without any courtesy: "Get out of the way!"

Tang Wanqiu's eyes swept across Yan Zhengming and fell on Cheng Qian. He sneered, "Getting angry out of shame... Oh, I see. You guys are planning to escape from the island, right? You're a bunch of rubbish."

Cheng Qian's fingers holding the sword slowly moved upwards a few inches.

Tang Wanqiu seemed to have no idea what it meant to stop when enough was enough, and she continued to insist, "Why, isn't what I said true? Could it be that you also have a sense of shame and feel humiliated?"

Cheng Qian brazenly drew out Yan Zhengming's sword and threw his eldest brother's priceless scabbard to the ground without hesitation. He ignored the exclamations of his fellow disciples behind him and slashed at him with his sword without regard for the consequences.

In the past six months, Cheng Qian has been practicing sword skills for five hours every day. Although he has made rapid progress, he has at least been able to integrate the sense of qi into his sword moves. It's just that he usually uses a wooden sword, so the power is always limited. This day, he touched a real sword for the first time, and he used the move "Shaonianyou" from "Pengcheng Wanli" with a ruthless murderous intent.

Tang Wanqiu: "Well done!"

She didn't even draw her sword, but used her scabbard to meet the attack. Before the sword arrived, the two sword energies of different strengths had already collided with each other. Cheng Qian's wrist suddenly felt numb, and a small wound appeared at the base of his palm. However, he did not drop his sword, but instead changed his moves to meet the attack.

This is a change of strategy in the process of seeking up and down, "over and over again".

The sound of metal and stone was heard again. Tang Wanqiu turned his wrist and the scabbard flipped in the air, suppressing Cheng Qian's sword moves that were not sure how to advance or retreat. The power of the right protector of the lecture hall directly suppressed Cheng Qian to kneel on one knee on the ground.

Li Yun: "Stop! Xiao Qian - Senior Brother, tell Xiao Qian to stop!"

There was no trace of blood on Yan Zhengming's lips. His mind seemed to be able to travel a thousand miles. A voice was shouting madly in his heart: "You let a child stand up for you! What's the point of you holding the seal of the leader? What's the point of you being alive?"

But his body seemed to be frozen and he couldn't move at all.

The wealth and splendor of the world are like floating clouds, coming and going without a trace. After stripping away the golden and jade surface, Yan Zhengming felt as if his vital parts were being ruthlessly cut open with a knife, exposing his rotten flesh to the world.

Tang Wanqiu laughed instead of getting angry: "Why, you still want to fight me, didn't your parents teach you how to write the four words 'overestimating one's own abilities'?"

The hair on Cheng Qian's temples were soaked with cold sweat. He suddenly let out a suppressed roar and turned the sword in his hand with great effort. The young man's still thin bones made a "crackling" sound, but he seemed to be unaware of the pain. The iron sword went back up and pointed at Tang Wanqiu.

The third move of the Fuyao wooden sword is called "Go All In".

Tang Wanqiu frowned fiercely, and the sharp sword came out of its sheath with a sharp sound. With a flash of bright sword light, Cheng Qian was thrown two feet away in a flash.

She snorted coldly and sheathed her sword. "Even if you practice swordplay without distraction, you will have to practice for at least a hundred or eighty years before you are worthy of being my opponent. But I don't think that day will come. People like you who are already afraid before even starting..."

"I'm not afraid of you, Tang Wanqiu." Cheng Qian used the tip of his sword to support himself on the ground, trying desperately to stand up again. He tilted his head to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth and said in a hoarse voice.

When he thought he was alone, he felt that he could go anywhere in the world.

A person is a person who climbs to the top of a mountain and falls into the abyss. Even if he loses his head, it is just a scar the size of a bowl. What is there to be afraid of?

However, he unknowingly developed a lot of weaknesses, and hitting any one of them was enough to make him feel so painful that he had to give in against his will.

Cheng Qian stared fiercely at the person standing in front of him, gritted his teeth and whispered: "I'm not afraid of you... I'm not afraid of anyone."

He tried to stand up several times, but fell back several times. The boy's slender body, which had grown slightly taller, kept trembling under his wide robe, but he did not show any fear.

Yan Zhengming's vision suddenly became blurred due to the shaking.

He suddenly roared, broke free from Li Yun's hand, stepped forward and picked up Cheng Qian.

"Are you rotten mud?" Yan Zhengming felt as if there was a knife in his chest, stabbing him fiercely over and over again. He asked himself, "Do you want the Fuyao Sect to become a rotten mud sect hiding in the mountains? Do you want to shame our ancestors in the underworld and in the nine heavens? Do you want to sever the bloodline that Master is trying so hard to pass on while he is lingering in the body of a beast?"

How can he be called the "first person to come who has no predecessors and no successors"?

Yan Zhengming took a few quick breaths, his eyes bloodshot, and suddenly turned his head away, looking back at Tang Wanqiu without flinching, and said word by word: "We didn't say we were leaving, and even if we were going to leave, it's not now."

Like a stubborn stone in late autumn of the Tang Dynasty, it was unmoved.

Yan Zhengming helped Cheng Qian up with some difficulty and walked out from beside Tang Wanqiu.

Li Yun and Han Yuan hurriedly followed. This time, Tang Wanqiu did not stop them. She stood there like a tree stump for a while, and after they walked away, she gathered her messy long hair with an expressionless face. She was alone and looked sloppy.

A Taoist boy patrolling the lecture hall saw her from afar and hurried over to greet her in a fawning manner, saying, "Greetings to Master Tang. Why didn't Master Tang come in? Master Zhou is giving a lecture?"

Tang Wanqiu didn't even raise her head and said to him, "One of the greatest shames in my life is to be associated with this person, bah."

After saying that, she turned around and walked away like a crab.

The road from the hillside of the lecture hall to the guest rooms seemed to take forever. After all, Tang Wanqiu showed mercy. Cheng Qian did not suffer any injuries except for his hand, which was broken by his own stubbornness. He was fine after he took a breath, but he still walked in silence.

Finally, when they were about to reach the gate of the courtyard, Li Yun couldn't help but ask, "Big Brother, what should we do next?"

Yan Zhengming had no idea what to do and felt that the road ahead was long and endless, but he didn't want his fellow apprentices to see that he was at a loss, so he tried hard to put on an expression that was no different from his usual self and said nonchalantly, "Who knows? Let's just take it one step at a time."

Han Yuan was even less subtle and said bluntly: "Big Brother, when will we not be bullied by anyone?"

Yan Zhengming really couldn't answer this question, so he could only silently slap Han Yuan on the back of the head and went back with a heavy heart.

Some people may be born with the habit of having a lot on their mind, and even the smallest matter will worry them for ten days or half a month. Unfortunately, Yan Zhengming happened to be a person with a broad mind. He locked himself in the room, dismissed all the Taoist children and maids, and tried to live in peace with his rarely chaotic mood.

However, he failed, and until the sun set, he was still worried.

He knew clearly that he should get up immediately and go to the backyard to practice swordplay, or pick up his carving knife immediately, or he should meditate and accumulate true energy impatiently, but no matter which one... he couldn't calm down to do it.

Yan Zhengming had a thousand thoughts in his mind and he didn't know where to start. He finally sighed, fell on his back on the bed, stared blankly at his bed curtains, and racked his brains to think of a way out for his sect. Unfortunately, in his short life, he only paid attention to the surface. Even if he dug out the inside, he couldn't dig out any real stuff.

He sighed, feeling frustrated and wanting to scream and make a scene.

At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open with a creaky sound.

Yan Zhengming took a deep breath and said impatiently: "Zheshi, didn't I say I was already asleep?"

"it's me."

Yan Zhengming was startled, half-raised from the bed, and looked over: "Tongqian, why are you here?"

Cheng Qian was holding a small medicine bottle in his hand, probably for treating injuries from falls - ever since he had added an hour to his sword practice every day, he often had this faint smell of medicine on him.

"Come and see your injuries." Cheng Qian said simply.

Yan Zhengming fell silent for a moment, allowing him to torture the bruises on his body again with his rough hands and feet.

When Cheng Qian packed up his things, wiped his hands with a towel and prepared to leave, Yan Zhengming suddenly called him: "Xiao Qian, don't you have anything to ask me?"

Cheng Qian hesitated for a moment and said, "Today... when you fell off the platform, you called out 'Master'..."

As he spoke, he seemed to be at a loss as to how to comfort him. He hesitated for a moment, and finally tentatively patted Yan Zhengming on the shoulder.

He found that he was still speechless when it came to nice things. Cheng Qian felt a little frustrated and sighed softly.

Yan Zhengming: “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

Cheng Qian looked at him doubtfully: "...what else?"

For example, where will the sect go in the future? For example, when will you, the head sect master, be able to do better?

Yan Zhengming discovered at this moment that Cheng Qian was different from others - he never cared about what decisions he, the head of the sect, made, and never expected anyone to be stronger so that he wouldn't have to suffer so much on Qinglong Island. When he was bullied, he would increase his sword practice time on his own. No matter whether the sky fell or the earth collapsed, he only had a clear path in his eyes.

"Master demonstrated the whole set of Fuyao wooden sword to you?" Yan Zhengming suddenly changed the subject.

Cheng Qian nodded: "It's just that I haven't mastered the last three moves yet."

"Just remember it." Yan Zhengming put on his coat and picked up his sword that had brought him countless humiliations from the bedside, "Let's go to the backyard and help me memorize the Fuyao wooden sword into a sword manual.