Volume 1 Chapter 33: When will we meet again? The deserted mountain road is deserted
Doctor Cheng nodded and said, "Yes, if we can get this person's help, there will be a way to solve the problem of the internal energy in Lan'er's body. But the previous generation of Baiyun Temple had exchanges with people in the martial arts world. The Jiedoutai on the mountain was where the heroes would exchange martial arts. Now that the temple master has been replaced, he no longer has any connection with the martial arts world. People in the martial arts world have speculated about the character and temper of this temple master, but they are all groundless and cannot be taken as accurate. It will probably take some effort for the gang leader to take Lan'er there and ask him for help."
Lin Longqing clapped his hands and said, "As long as we meet the abbot, everything is up to us. Doctor Cheng just needs to wait for my good news."
Things have taken a turn for the better, and Lin Longqing was naturally very happy, but he saw Lin Jianlan exclaimed "Ah", with tears on his face, he said: "Uncle Qing, Grandpa Cheng, I have something to tell you."
He had been following Lin Longqing since the fight in the daytime, picking up flying arrows everywhere in the yard , surrounded by smoke and fire. Now he was crying again. The two of them saw that his little face was black, but there were a few white streaks from his tears, and they couldn't help but chuckle.
Lin Jianlan said anxiously: "Uncle Qing, Grandpa Cheng, please don't laugh at me." The two nodded and said: "Lan'er, go ahead."
Lin Jianlan then told them in detail about the daytime battle with Ding Lei and Ding Shui, how he led them to the folding bridge, and how they were very familiar with the mechanism on the bridge. The more they listened, the more serious their expressions became. Lin Jianlan added, "I wanted to say it just now, but there are so many people in the hall, I dare not say it, for fear that there are spies inside who can reveal the mechanism."
Lin Longqing said, "Lan'er did the right thing. Doctor Cheng, I'm afraid someone in the main hall has been bribed by the court. After this incident, the organs in the hall will have to make changes. Leader Xiao is very familiar with this. When he comes back from Taihu Lake, you two should discuss it together."
Doctor Cheng twirled his beard and said in a deep voice, "In my opinion, changing the mechanism is secondary. We still have to find a way to lure that guy out and kill him. Otherwise, the safety of the headquarters cannot be guaranteed."
Lin Longqing said: "I am afraid that the imperial court has planted more than one or two people in the Kuangyi Gang. I hope that Doctor Cheng, Master Fang and the two guardians can discuss carefully how to deal with it. In addition, since this is the case, the address of the branch hall can only be controlled by you. If there is any contact in the middle, you must send someone who is absolutely safe. Alas, I brought Cao Shujian into the gang, and I don't want to raise a tiger to cause trouble!"
Doctor Cheng said: "Don't worry, Master. As the saying goes, there is always a loophole. Master, go ahead and rest assured. I will do my best for the Kuangyi Gang."
Later, the two of them took Lin Jianlan to the flower hall, where there was already a lively atmosphere of toasting and chatting. Both the host and the guests left happily.
There seemed to be only a few things to do in the Kuangyi Gang, but they were very complicated to handle. Lin Longqing was busy for a few days without a trace, and then he set a date to leave the gang. When he told Lin Jianlan about it, he was very happy and had already started to pack up the things he wanted to take. Seeing him busy, Lin Longqing found it funny and said, "Lan'er, don't take those clothes. They are very cumbersome." Lin Jianlan was still running around in the inner and outer rooms, saying as he walked, "I won't take those things." Lin Longqing was curious instead, and flipped through the packages packed by Lin Jianlan, but he picked up a package of his own boxing and sword manuals. There were also a dozen loose pages in it, with paintings and words. He looked at them slowly, but the more he looked, the more strange it was, and thought to himself, "This must be what Lan'er drew with reference to those boxing manuals. It seems that he is extremely talented, but it's a pity that he can't practice internal skills." Seeing him flipping through the experience he wrote, Lin Jianlan was very embarrassed, and snatched it away and said, "Uncle Qing, I wrote it randomly."
On the day the two left the gang, everyone in the gang saw them off outside the dense forest, and they were all very reluctant to let them go. Qin Tianxiong was almost crying, but he forced a smile and said, "Why are you all so fussy? Wouldn't it be better if the gang leader could come back earlier after finishing his work?" Lin Longqing said, "Brothers, please don't see me off any further. This is a time of trouble for the gang, but I insist on leaving. Please forgive me for being willful. Lan'er, go and say goodbye to them."
Lin Jianlan nodded and bowed respectfully to everyone to say goodbye, but he could not help crying. Qin Tianxiong was very sad. Although he was unhappy with Lin Jianlan many times when he taught him that day, he cared about this young master from the bottom of his heart. He just waved his hand and said, "Young master, go quickly. You must practice hard and don't learn from Master Yue to be a bookworm. When you come back, I will test your martial arts." Lin Jianlan looked up for a long time, but there was no sign of Yue Lingfeng. He was disappointed, but saw Master Fang slowly walking over and said, "Young master, Master Yue has returned to Jiangning to plan to rebuild a branch hall and cannot come to see you off, so he asked me to give this to you." It was a square cloth bag. Lin Jianlan opened a corner and saw the words "Lingfeng Sword Technique" written on the page. The handwriting was extremely elegant. His heart ached again. He sniffed and ran back to Lin Longqing. Lin Longqing bowed to everyone and said nothing more. Then he took Lin Jianlan's hand and walked away.
Everyone looked far away and saw two figures, one big and one small, slowly walking away. Although they had made an appointment to meet again someday, they didn't know when they would see each other again.
South of Sanyuan City, at the foot of Baiyun Mountain, there are still a few villages in the distance. At the foot of the mountain is a lush pine forest, seldom visited by people. Looking up, the Baiyun Mountain is as its name suggests, with the peak hidden in the clouds and there seems to be a Taoist temple on it. This is the place where Li Jing, a founding hero, practiced. It should have been a very solemn and dignified place, but most of the pine trees on the edge of the forest have been cut down and look of varying lengths, which is somewhat out of tune with the atmosphere at the foot of Baiyun Mountain.
It was already dusk. Two people slowly walked in from outside the pine forest, following a path overgrown with weeds. They were a middle-aged man leading two horses and constantly using a whip to push away the grass . The young man next to him looked around, with a look of surprise on his face for a moment. He ran to a bush in front and said, "This is the entrance to the mountain. Why is it so desolate?"
The middle-aged man walked to the front and saw a long staircase behind the bushes winding into the mountain. He was filled with emotion. He vaguely remembered that the mountain road was lined with colorful flags, fluttering in the wind. But now there are only a few old trees and withered grass. It seems that it has not been cleaned for many years. He couldn't help but sighed to himself: "When I first came here, it was the hero gathering. At that time, I was still in my prime, holding a long sword. I was the young master of the world's largest gang. Everyone envied my family background and no one took me seriously. I challenged more than ten young talents of the same generation with the Qianyuan sword technique. I had a high opinion of myself and was determined to do something. But now the world has changed so much. Who could have predicted it?"
This man was none other than Lin Longqing. After several years of hardships, his beard had turned increasingly gray. After leaving the Kuangyi Gang with Lin Jianlan, he first returned to the house where he lived in Yangzhou, took the books left by Lin Jianlan's father with him, and brought the joint letters from various sects that day to Shushan, then rushed to Sanyuan County, Jingzhao. Fearing that Lin Jianlan would be tired, he walked slowly, and it was already midsummer when they arrived.
He also asked Lin Jianlan whether she wanted to go back to her hometown in Liaodong to visit her grandmother first, but Lin Jianlan had his own ideas and said to Lin Longqing, "It will be useless if I go back. I have to say goodbye to my grandmother again. Coming out to dispel this internal energy in my body will make her worry for nothing. It is better for me to go back after I get better. But I am really worried about my grandmother. If it is not too much trouble, can Uncle Qing find someone to go back and take care of her first?" Lin Longqing naturally agreed, and immediately sent a letter to Doctor Cheng to ask him to send someone to Liaodong overnight. If Lin Jianlan's grandmother agreed, he could take her to Kuangyi to help take care of her.
Although he brought Lin Jianlan to Baiyun Mountain, he was really unsure whether the Baiyun Temple Master was willing to help. He knew that it would take a lot of internal energy to dissolve Lan'er's internal energy. For a young man he didn't know, no one in the martial arts world would be willing to do that. With this in mind, he still had to bite the bullet and give it a try. He tied the two horses to the pine tree next to the mountain pass and said to Lin Jianlan, "Let's go up the mountain!"
Lin Jianlan nodded and jumped over the bushes. His figure was no longer as embarrassed as when he was avoiding Ding Lei and Ding Shui's pursuit. On the way, Lin Longqing gave him instructions whenever he had free time. His moves were very delicate. Sometimes he would fight with Lin Longqing. When he could hit Lin Longqing occasionally, he would be very happy and showed his approval. However, no matter his fists or weapons, they were soft and without any strength. Lin Jianlan was not discouraged. He read all the books that Lin Longqing brought with him. After his guidance, he had a general understanding of the movement of internal energy in the body. He practiced secretly for a few days, but felt a little stuffy in his chest. At that time, Lin Longqing stopped him from thinking about moving his internal energy. However, after a glimpse of the channel, he felt a little reluctant to give it up. Today, he used his tiny internal energy to jump over the woods again, but turned back to look at Lin Longqing, afraid that he would blame him.
Lin Longqing smiled helplessly, and also passed by the bushes, saying: "Don't do that next time. You don't know how worried Uncle Qing is about you."
Lin Jianlan nodded, looked forward, and said in surprise: "It looks very high. I wonder how long it will take to walk this mountain path."
The two men walked up. Lin Jianlan was young at heart after all, so he hurried up again. Lin Longqing said, "If you run so hard now, you won't be able to walk in a while. Climbing a mountain is not something that can be done overnight. Only if you walk slowly can you persist and not get tired." He recalled the time when he and other young heroes climbed the mountain together. Everyone was vying for the first step and rushing to move forward. It was also because young people love to play and win that he even counted the number of steps, but he forgot how many steps he had and could not start over.
After hearing what he said, Lin Jianlan returned to Lin Longqing's side and walked slowly with him, counting "sixteen, seventeen..." in his mouth. Lin Longqing couldn't help but smile. After about an hour, the two walked and stopped, and counted to 334 steps. Seeing a path extending from the steps, Lin Longqing stopped and slowly walked towards the path. After walking about ten feet away, he saw that the front suddenly opened up and it was a huge platform, half of which was located on the mountain and the other half was suspended in the air. At the entrance of the platform stood a stone tablet with three big characters "Jie Doutai" engraved on it. Lin Longqing walked to the stone tablet and slowly stroked it, feeling very emotional. Lin Jianlan followed Lin Longqing and walked slowly over. When he reached the edge of the platform and looked down, the dense forest and deep ravines below were no longer clear. The sound of the mountain wind whistling sounded a little sobbing. The stone platform was surrounded by railings, but they were very old, and some of the railings had long been broken and leaning. Seeing that he was in deep thought, Lin Jianlan asked softly, "Has Uncle Qing been here before?"
Lin Longqing nodded and said, "This is where I participated in the Heroes' Meeting when I was sixteen years old. It has become so vicissitudes now. The scenery is still there, but things are no longer the same." Lin Jianlan said, "Oh," and said, "Even if it is the place where the Heroes' Meeting is held, why is it still called the Fighting Stage?" Lin Longqing said, "This is the painstaking effort of the White Cloud Temple Master that day. He hopes that we, the competitive martial artists, can stop at a certain point, aim to learn from each other, and make progress together, instead of harboring the idea of fighting." After a pause, he continued, "The Heroes' Meetings before and after were all held on the highest peaks of famous mountains and rivers, but you see that the Fighting Stage is built on the mountainside. I'm afraid this is the only time, but it also has other intentions. First, it implies that there is no end to martial arts. Even if you are the best in the world in martial arts, you have only climbed to the mountainside. Second, it is to advise people in the martial arts world that even if you reach the highest peak, there will be no enemies or friends around you. This is the truth that masters are lonely."
Lin Jianlan said: "But who in the martial arts world doesn't want to be invincible? It's like this in the martial arts world, in the officialdom, and in the business world. Officials want to be high-ranking officials, and businessmen want to be the richest people in the world. Step by step, it's never enough."
Lin Longqing nodded and said, "Yes, let's keep going. It's getting late, so don't waste time." The two came out of the Jiedoutai and continued to walk up the stone steps. Lin Jianlan took a few steps and said, "Ah!" Lin Longqing smiled and said, "Lan'er is just like me back then. He forgot while counting, but he can't run down the mountain start over. But Uncle Qing is remembering for you this time. You just counted to three hundred and thirty-four." Lin Jianlan nodded and continued to count in a low voice.
The two walked less than a few dozen steps, but heard a loud "clang" from above, and two huge iron barrels rolled down the steps. Lin Longqing hurried forward and blocked the two barrels with his palms. The barrels seemed to be made of tinplate. Although he blocked them with his palms, he left two clear palm prints on them. He also heard someone yelling and cursing from above: "Damn it, I will never serve you again! I hope you die of thirst!" As soon as the voice fell, a young man about the same age as Lin Jianlan ran down.
The young man had thick eyebrows and big eyes, dark skin, and was dressed as a Taoist child. He had an axe on his waist. His legs were very long, and he could take three or four steps with each step. He must have done this often, so he was very steady and never missed a step. He arrived in front of the two men in an instant.
The Taoist boy saw that the two iron barrels were blocked and did not roll down. He was surprised and picked up one of them. He saw the palm print on it. He sighed and pointed at Lin Longqing and said, "It was you who blocked the barrel, wasn't it?"
