Chapter Eighteen You Taught Me Shamelessness

  Da Xi Langru walked up to Li Xian's black horse and examined it carefully, becoming increasingly curious about this horse that didn't seem particularly special at first glance. On the surface, this black horse didn't appear any more majestic or powerful than other fine horses, and even using the techniques of horse divination, nothing out of the ordinary could be discerned. Yet for some unknown reason, the warhorses of the Blood Riders would always appear somewhat constrained in front of the black horse; whether they were eating fodder or drinking water, whenever the black horse approached, the other horses would lower their heads and voluntarily make way.

  Daxi Changru couldn't see anything special about the horse, and Li Xian was unable to give him an answer. All Li Xian knew was that this horse had been specially selected by Zhang Zhongjian from a distant grassland, chosen from among dozens of horses and given to Li Xian as a gift. Daxi Changru had ridden horses for many years and considered himself knowledgeable about horse selection. So every time he saw the black horse, he couldn't help but ask: was Zhang Zhongjian's ability to select horses much stronger than his own? Li Xian didn't know that this unremarkable-looking black horse had indeed been selected from among dozens of horses, but it had been chosen from among the most valuable and renowned breeds in the stables of the Turkic royal family. Of course, Zhang Zhongjian hadn't bought it - he had stolen it.

  He patted the black horse's neck and walked over to Li Xian, who was practicing his sword.

  Strange boy, strange horse.

  Li Xian has been practicing chopping wood for more than five months, and Da Xi Chang Ru never asked Li Xian about his experience, because he knew that this basic exercise had no profound secrets, only perseverance was needed.

  The young man turned his back on him and continued to swing his sword down.

  Da Xi Zhang Ru walked over, wanting to pat the young man's shoulder and say "haste makes waste", but his mouth opened wide uncontrollably and gradually grew bigger. He was shocked that a whole egg could fit in his mouth, and his eyes bulged like two cow eggs.

  Li Xian stood in front of a flat stone, on which were placed twenty or thirty small wooden sticks. Li Xian chopped down with one knife after another, and the wooden sticks split open and jumped to one side. Obviously, Li Xian was not yet able to achieve the level of Da Xi Chang Ru, where the wooden stick would be split open without being shaken. But what shocked Da Xi Chang Ru was that Li Xian's knife moves were extremely fast, and each knife move made only a sound of breaking wind, with no other noise!

  Every knife did not cut on stone!

  For these five months, Da Xi Chang Ru had gone on several long trips and hadn't paid attention to Li Xian's knife practice. Although he had beaten that young man before, he clearly knew that the young man still had some natural talent for knife skills, and he had perseverance, great perseverance, so Da Xi Chang Ru didn't need to urge him on. However, Da Xi Chang Ru never thought that the young man would reach this level in less than half a year!

  Each knife fell like a rainbow, every knife cut down was a straight line, without any deviation halfway.

  The young man grasped the knife with both hands, chopping down swiftly and fiercely like the wind. The small wooden sticks jumped apart, sometimes knocking aside adjacent sticks, but Li Xian's knife would immediately adjust, changing direction to follow the jumping sticks. This made the difficulty of chopping even greater, distinguishing it from shooting at a target, the difference between moving targets and fixed targets.

  Daxi Changru slowly closed his mouth, and a smile gradually spread across his face. More than five months ago, he had told Li Xian that there was no such thing as a genius in this world. But now Daxi Changru had to admit that Li Xian was indeed one of those geniuses, and what's more, the biggest and most fragrant piece of dog shit!

  "I think I should teach you something more useful now."

  He raised his hand and gently patted Li Xian's still slightly immature shoulder: "As your master, I must admit, An Zhi... you are indeed a genius."

  Li Xian turned around, revealing a bright and sunny smile: "Master said that there is no such thing as genius in this world. This sentence is correct. If you don't work hard, even geniuses will become worthless."

  Daxi Changru smiled, standing beside Li Xian with his hands behind his back. The two people, one big and one small, stood side by side on the mountain slope, looking down at the foot of the mountain, their shadows stretching out in the sunlight, surprisingly similar. The leaves were blown by the wind, and the long hair of the two people was also gently blown by the wind. A small wooden stick broken off from a rock was blown away by the wind, and one of them happened to be blown down at the same time, hitting the horizontal knife standing on one side, making a clear and cheerful whistling sound.

  "Master, you're going out again?"

  Two men, one big and one small, walked back along the mountain slope, with smoke already rising from the distant camp.

  "Uh-huh, went a few times to Qingniu Lake, trying to find that piece of meteorite that sank to the bottom of the lake."

  "Found it?"

  "No."

  Daxi Changru looked at Li Xian's eyes with a faint sense of loss and comforted him with a smile: "Don't worry, before I leave, I will definitely give you a one-of-a-kind straight knife in the world."

  Li Xian looked at Da Xi Chang Ru and said seriously: "The weather has turned cold."

  Daxi Changru didn't understand what Li Xian wanted to express, he just nodded subconsciously and said: "Yes, it's going to snow again."

  Li Xian said: "I remember Shifu saying that from here to Qingniu Lake is over 200 miles, and a round trip of 500 miles. Shifu, you've gone five times in half a year. I remember Shifu saying that the lake water of Qingniu Lake is cold and bone-piercing, even on summer days it will emit cool air. In half a year, you have already been to that lake five times."

  "He said seriously: 'It's getting cold, don't go anymore.'"

  Da Xi's heart warmed up, and he smiled with relief. For the first time, he reached out to ruffle Li Xian's hair, messing up that head of long hair that made girls jealous. He laughed more and more freely, his voice growing louder and more carefree. Since leaving Hong Hua, this was the first time he had laughed so comfortably. For the first time, he felt like the dark clouds in his heart were being torn apart by a ray of sunshine. It was a very comfortable feeling, one that made him want to shout out loud.

  "Whether you're sucking up or being sincere, I'm thrilled!"

  Daxi Changru smiled brightly and said: "After next spring, I'll take you to Qingniu Lake. Zhang Zhongjian said that you're a lucky little guy. Maybe when I can't find it, you will."

  "So... until next spring, what do you plan on teaching me?"

  Li Xian smiled and asked with pursed lips.

  "Still, it's the basics. Your hands are now quite stable and your knife work is barely passable. But that's not enough, far from it. An... I won't deny you've made rapid progress, but remember one thing: don't be arrogant. Once that emotion appears in your heart, you're not far from falling."

  Li Xian nodded and said: "I know that modesty makes people progress, while arrogance causes people to fall behind."

  He said solemnly: "Humility, even a man of feces can make progress, let alone me?"

  Da Xi Chang Ru didn't hear his boring words, and said while walking: "Starting tomorrow, collect small things like pine nuts and hazelnuts, you can use them to practice your skills."

  Li Xian nodded and asked: "Why must it be those things? Wouldn't small stones and such work?"

  "No way!"

  "Master, give me a reason, okay?"

  Li Xian asked very rudely.

  "Alright, those things aren't just for chopping, they're also edible. You go collect them, and I'll teach you while we eat."

  Li Xian quietly stuck out his middle finger from his sleeve: "I knew it."

  After dinner, Li Xian waited until the food in his stomach was digested before going outside again. He ran a few laps in the cold north wind and then practiced several rounds of boxing according to Zhang Zhongjian's teachings. After warming up, he took off his clothes and started washing with cold water. On such a cold night, the biting wind blowing on his body felt like a knife cut, and adding cold water made it even more unbearable. But Li Xian only shivered for a while before calming down, as he had been doing this for half a year and it had become a habit. As the temperature continued to drop, his body gradually adapted to the cold.

  The water on his body began to freeze, and the fine ice threads stung as they pierced his skin.

  "I am a wolf from the north... roaming in the desolate wilderness... Sister, you dare to move forward, don't look back! Even if I die, I will love till the end, and not be satisfied until it's thorough... I am a small bird, wanting to fly... and I must fly high!"

  After a very inhumane self-abuse, Li Xian put on his clothes and returned to his own room. The charcoal in the brazier in the house had been replenished, and Li Xian knew that it must have been Chao Su Ge or Tie Lang who had come over. It was definitely not Dugu Rui Zhi, that guy always brought a bunch of herbs every time he came, and wouldn't remember to take care of this "child".

  On the charcoal fire, a small iron kettle was set up, and Li Xian waited for the water to boil. In his mind, he couldn't help but think again of that dying old nun, thinking of those Iron Floating Pavilion brothers who died miserably when they broke out of Daxing City, thinking of the bloody battle after being surrounded by Sui soldiers in Jiangnan, thinking of Chen Queer's blood-soaked body, and thinking of Da Xiong Ge who was shot into a hedgehog to cover Chen Queer.

  He hated the damned old nun who had long since died, yet he couldn't help but feel grateful to her.

  Without her, I wouldn't have survived being hunted down from a young age when I couldn't even speak. Without her, I might have frozen to death in the snowy wilderness long ago.

  Is it hatred or gratitude?

  Li Xian's eyes were very clear because he knew what to do.

  Just as I was lost in thought, the door burst open with a loud bang. With a gust of wind, Dugu Ruoshi rushed in, carrying a bunch of miscellaneous things.

  "Is the water boiling?"

  Du Gu Rui Zhi shivered.

  "The water has boiled, but there's only a very small piece of tea brick."

  Dugu Rui said indifferently, "That's your business. I've said it before, I have no problem teaching you how to use poison, but serving tea and water is something you must do. Although I didn't plan on taking a lazybones like you as my apprentice, you should at least show some respect when learning from me. Your tea is gone, go find your real master to get some."

  Put down what's in your arms, Du Gu Rui asked: "Is it enough for me to drink today?"

  "Enough!"

  "Then I'll teach you for another day today, and there will be no tea tomorrow, absolutely won't come."

  "How's the wine?"

  "Go! You have quite a lot of wine?"

  After arranging the bottles and jars neatly, Du Gu Rui Zhi asked: "How come I didn't see it?"

  Li Xian laughed happily: "There's only one bag of wine, but I have a lot of water. One bag of wine mixed with 10,000 catties of water, no problem?"

  Du Gu Rui Zhi stared at Li Xian and asked: "Is that still called wine?"

  Li Xian asked in return: "If you drop a single drop of pure cinnabar into the Weak Luo water, would it still be poisonous?"

  "It is natural."

  "So I poured a bag of wine into ten thousand pounds of water, and it was still wine."

  Li sat down because there was no tool to boil tea, so he could only make a simple tea. Moreover, he didn't know how to boil tea either. He handed the simply made tea to Du Gu Rui Zhi: "Little Poison Brother, what are we learning today?"

  Du Gu Rui took a sip of tea with a satisfied expression: "Still rosy cheeks."

  "Why? Yesterday you said it was Zhu Yanhong."

  Dugu Rui's eyes narrowed as he asked seriously, "Is Zhu Yanhong poisonous or not? Definitely is. If I say it for a day, it's poisonous; if I say it for ten thousand days, will it suddenly become non-poisonous? I only promised to teach you some knowledge about poison every day, didn't say that I would change my ways to please you every day."

  "Why are you so shameless?"

  Du Gu Rui Zhi: "I taught you how to use poison, but shamelessness was something you taught me."