Evening banquet morning delight

  In the mountains at night, it's not quiet and soundless. The sounds of insects, wind, and unknown animals are faintly intertwined, making the night even more profound.

  The two men started a fire, put in some lemongrass, and rested in their sleeping bags not far away. The door of the watchtower was blocked with wooden bars. Nothing happened that night. In the morning, they got up, walked down the mountain for a while, washed their faces by the stream, ate some dry rations, and Cheng Zhen took out the map. He had done a lot of preparation work for this trip into the mountains. In comparison, Liu Zhi knew almost nothing about this kind of adventure travel.

  Two people drew a route on the map for today, crossed over a small hill, and spent the night in another relatively large mountain. After deciding on the route, the two packed their bags and set off. There was no road along the way, but there were not many vines and weeds in the forest, and in some places, the rocks were exposed, making it easier to walk. The two reached the top of the small hill before noon and found a direction with relatively sparse vegetation to go down the mountain towards another peak.

  At the bottom of the valley, a stream runs through it, which is not wide now and is not in the rainy season. Many stones are exposed on the edge of the stream, and many places in the stream have rocks protruding from the water surface, making it possible to cross the small stream by stepping on the stones.

  The two were about to pass by, when there was a rustling in the grass opposite them. A tall reed-like plant swayed back and forth without any wind, as if something was moving. The two became tense, putting down their backpacks. Cheng Zhen readied his crossbow, loading an arrow and aiming at that direction. Liu Zhi knew drew out his dagger, entering a state of high alert.

  The grass opposite was divided in two, and a large python faintly appeared, its head just poking out of the grass thicket, seemingly preparing to swim towards the stream. Cheng Zhen had never seen such a creature before, his mind went blank, his fingers tightened, the bowstring burst into sound, and the steel arrow shot out a white line, piercing into the python's body.

  Liu Zhi heard the sound of the string and knew something was wrong, but it was too late to stop it. He knew that Cheng Zhen had shot an arrow due to tension, and unfortunately, it hit its mark, not intentionally harming anyone.

  The giant python had just emerged, not yet clear-headed, when it suddenly felt a sharp pain on its body and found itself hit by an arrow. Seeing the two people across the small stream, the python, although not very intelligent, knew that those two creatures were attacking it. In a fit of rage, it increased its speed and charged towards them.

  Cheng Zhenqian's whole body went limp, staring at the giant python that darted across from the other side of the small stream like lightning. His mind was blank, and he had lost his ability to think. Being able to stand without falling to the ground was already not easy.

  Liu Zhi's mind was also struck by a loud noise, this python was over ten meters long, thicker than a person's thigh, its body was gray and black, and its scales seemed to have a faint blue color.

  A huge python darted over like lightning, and Liu Zhi knew that after a moment of stunned expression, his hands tightened on the Miao knife. At this critical juncture, he entered a special state, with a surge of fighting spirit in his heart, forgetting fear, even forgetting himself. He took one step forward, and at the same time, a flash of knife light shot out from his waist like a dragon.

  The two people present didn't notice, but as the knife was unsheathed, the Miao Dao emitted a faint white glow. Liu Zhi's entire spirit and energy were concentrated on the knife, and through countless practices, it had become second nature to him. Not only did his strength originate from his feet and borrow the subtle rotation of his waist, but his whole body's energy was also condensed onto the knife. Moreover, Liu Zhi wasn't an ordinary martial artist; he was also a cultivator of magic. Although his Wu Gui magic directly inherited from his grandfather, and he had previously practiced hypnosis techniques as well, his spirit was much stronger than that of ordinary people. Unbeknownst to him, his spirit had also gathered onto the Miao Dao.

  It can be said that at the critical moment, Liu Zhi knew for the first time to achieve a state of unity between man and sword. His swordsmanship entered a new realm, under the stimulation of his vital energy, the entire sword resonated, emitting a faint white glow, which is already considered as the legendary "knife edge".

  A flash of the knife, and Liu Zhi knew nothing of any resistance. The knife had already pierced seven inches into the python's body. The knife was too fast, and with its sharp edge, the snake's head was severed, but it did not immediately fall off. The snake's body continued to move forward due to inertia for a few meters before the head fell off. Blood spurted out of the snake's neck, and it crashed heavily to the ground.

  At this time, Liu Zhi's mind was turned upside down. When the knife was forged, its experience flashed in his mind like lightning. It was as if he himself was a piece of iron, heated to red-hot in the furnace, then hammered by a hammer, quenched in cold water, and then put back into the furnace, tempered hundreds of times, finally becoming a fine sword.

  The scenes were many, but extremely fast. Liu Zhi knew that he felt it, but didn't think much of it, thinking it was just an illusion. When he opened his eyes again, there was a hint of strangeness in his heart. At this critical moment, he suddenly became distracted for a moment. He didn't know that this was entirely due to his own luck. Those weren't illusions, but rather his spirit resonating with the sword, sensing the nature of things. This state of his was similar to the Sword Immortal's mental cultivation of the sword, and could be considered a kind of preliminary refining technique.

  Neither of them noticed that when the knife beheaded the snake, a faint wisp of black air floated out from the snake's corpse and merged into the knife. Unbeknownst to Liu Zhi, it was also a coincidence that the Miao Dao in his hand had transformed from an ordinary knife into a magical tool, albeit a very low-grade one. However, if practitioners on Earth were to find out about this today, they would probably become targets for others to rob immediately.

  Liu Zhi knew that with one slash of his sword, the giant python was beheaded. Cheng Zhenqian had been so frightened that his soul had almost flown out of his body, but in an instant, his mood changed from icy to fiery, and after calming down, he didn't feel weak-kneed anymore, and directly rushed over, staring at Liu Zhi with a gaze as if looking at a monster.

  "Little brother, I didn't expect you to be a great hero, no wonder you insisted on bringing your sword!"

  His gaze shifted to the giant python on the ground, and he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. Liu Zhi also came back to his senses, and this one knife made him suddenly enlightened. He was no longer puzzled by the feeling that something was missing when he practiced with his knife before. Now he understood that what he lacked was a kind of spirit, a spirit that dared to go straight forward without hesitation. This must be the legendary "knife intent". Today, with just one knife, he finally grasped the essence of knife techniques. He didn't notice the change in his knife and how he had unintentionally entered another realm during his cultivation. Instead, he was thrilled that he had finally understood the essence of knife techniques. Up until now, although he possessed magical abilities, he still considered himself a martial artist, and he looked at problems from this perspective.

  Cheng Zhenqian's nerves were quite thick, just now he was still out of his mind, but now he was sizing up the python corpse, and his mouth was still chattering away: "Younger brother, this is a great thing, you see this snake skin, it's definitely good stuff, so thick, the meat must be plentiful, I've eaten snake meat before, but never python meat, it must be extremely delicious!"

  Liu Zhi knew was somewhat crying and laughing, he didn't know that Cheng Zhenqian was like this, completely venting the fear in his heart earlier. Liu Zhi responded casually and took out the sharp Miao knife to start skinning. The more than one-foot-long sharp Miao knife was extremely sharp, but it was still very laborious to skin. Liu Zhi secretly admired the toughness of the python's skin. Earlier, he had used all his strength for that one knife, but hadn't felt how tough the python's skin was. It seemed that the knife technique had indeed reached its essence.

  Liu Zhi Zhī peeled off the snake skin, took out the snake gallbladder. This is a technical skill, when picking, take down the bile duct together with the separated bile duct, and tie the bile duct naturally or with a thread to prevent the bile from overflowing. After taking out the snake gallbladder, it's not suitable to place it for too long, there are many processing methods, such as soaking in wine, Liu Zhi Zhī used the drying method, using a thin thread to tie up the bile duct of the snake gallbladder and dry it, these methods were learned from a medicinal herb collector over the past two months.

  Liu Zhi Zhi hung the snake gallbladder on a nearby tree, and the snakeskin was also temporarily hung on a branch to dry. He took several large pieces of snow-white snake meat, weighing over ten pounds, wrapped them in large leaves, and then tied them with thin vines. The rest couldn't be taken away, so he pulled out one python tendon, and everything was ready. Cheng Zhenqian helped while chattering nonstop, and by this time, his mood had finally stabilized.

  "Little brother, your kung fu is so good, teach big brother knife skills, that one knife of yours is really fierce!" Cheng Zhenqian said.

  "My knife technique is simple, it's just a combination of one-second three knives and three-and-a-half knives method. Brother Cheng wants to learn, I can tell you now! Liu Zhi didn't keep it secret either, he explained how to practice the knife, these things aren't some kind of exclusive secret skills, they can even be found online, but to reach Liu Zhi's level, without years of foundation, it's impossible. Liu Zhi is a master of Ming Jin after all."

  Cheng Zhenqian listened to Liu Zhizhi finish explaining the exercise method and couldn't help but feel a bit skeptical: "Is that it?! There's no trick or anything?"

  "Cheng Ge, do you think real combat knife techniques are for show? Those moves are just for practicing body coordination and strength reaction. If it's for actual combat, these three and a half knives are enough!"

  "I'll go back and practice properly, I bought so many knives, if I don't know how to use them, it's too embarrassing!"

  Liu Zhi knew smiled, looked up at the sky, and pointed to a bamboo forest about half a mile away on the left front side of the small stream, saying: "Let's go over there, cook and roast meat in the bamboo forest, take a rest, what do you think, Brother Cheng?"

  "Alright, I'll do it just like little brother said!"

  The two of them brought the snake skin, gallbladder, and a few pieces of wrapped snake meat with them. They stepped on the stones in the creek that were exposed above the water's surface, jumping over the creek, and soon arrived at the bamboo forest. Liu Zhi knew chose a newly grown bamboo shoot, and began to cut it into sections to make bamboo tube rice. He had rice in his backpack, while Cheng Zhen went to gather firewood. In the deep mountains, dry branches were everywhere, and they quickly started a fire. The two of them sliced the snake meat thinly, threaded it onto a branch, and roasted it over the flames. When it was sizzling with oil, they sprinkled salt and some wild fragrant leaves from the mountain on top. The two of them didn't have much skill in roasting meat, and the result was that the meat was half burnt and half raw, with one side still not fully cooked. However, the two of them ate with great relish. After a morning of hard work and fright, they now sat in front of a bamboo tube cup, drinking liquor from Liu Zhi's flask and eating their roasted meat. The two of them felt that life was truly wonderful.

  For this meal, the two of them ate for more than two hours, half of the meat was consumed, and there were still over five catties left, both of them were a bit tipsy.

  "Little brother, you've eaten too much. It seems like we won't be able to climb that mountain today. Now I'm unable to move, let's rest here for a while!" Cheng Zhenqian said lazily, leaning against a large bamboo tree with his hands behind his head.

  "Let's take a rest first!" Liu Zhi didn't seem like Cheng Zhenqian, he was a martial artist, after reaching Ming Jing, his appetite had increased significantly compared to before. After all, his body consumed more energy. He looked around and noticed something hanging on a tree about 100 meters away that caught his attention.

  He stood up and said something to Cheng Zhenqian, then walked towards the tree. Cheng Zhenqian was still leaning lazily, feeling a bit drowsy from the wine.

  Liu Zhi came to the front of the tree, which was full of fruit, like Osmanthus fragrans. There was a wild calabaza vine on it, with three wild calabazas that had turned yellow and were obviously ripe. The calabazas weren't big, and Liu Zhi's heart skipped a beat as he pulled on the vine and plucked the three calabazas from the tree. He also picked a fruit and peeled it open to take a bite. It was sour and sweet, similar to Osmanthus fragrans, but inside were two half-round pits, not Osmanthus fragrans. Liu Zhi recognized it as a type of wild fruit that locals called Huangpi Guo, which occasionally appeared in the market at a relatively cheap price.

  Liu Zhi brought three gourds and several branches full of yellow-skinned fruit back to the front of Cheng Zhen, who had already started snoring, but Liu's footsteps woke him up.

  Cheng Zhen opened his eyes, stretched and let out a satisfied sigh: "Ah, so comfortable! What fruit is this?"

  "Huangpi fruit." Liu Zhizhi told himself that he had discovered a calabaza and huangpi fruit, and heard that the fruit could be eaten. Cheng Zhenqian pulled out a branch, peeled it off and took a bite.

  "Delicious! I didn't expect there would be fruit after dinner." said Cheng Zhen as he ate.

  Liu Zhi knew then used a knife to twist open the calabaza mouth, and with a branch scooped out the seeds and other things inside, then made another wooden plug.

  "Little brother, what's the use of these calabashes? Give me one as a keepsake!" said Cheng Zhenqian.

  Liu Zhi Zhi threw one of them at Cheng Zhen Qian, who put it in his backpack. The two of them extinguished the ashes and began to develop further inside.

  In the luxurious private room of a high-end hotel in Qiannan City, Li Mingliang, the director of the Education Bureau, and his entourage were accompanying the municipal leaders for dinner. It was not just a meal, but a grand banquet with rare dishes that had been flown in from outside the province or even abroad. The wine alone cost thousands of yuan, and it was impossible to put such expensive items on the table.

  A group of officials raised their glasses to each other, one by one, with intoxicating fumes, red faces and ears, and the sound of toasting never left their ears.

  "Mayor Hu, I'd like to toast you. Under your wise leadership, our city's education is thriving and we're all having a great time!" Li Mingliang said as he raised his glass in a toast to Hu Changtian, his feet slightly unsteady.

  "I'm full, I've had too much to drink, really can't drink anymore, tonight there's still a dinner party! And then have to go to a high-end club, even the place for breakfast tomorrow morning is already arranged!" Hu Changtan was also swaying slightly.

  "Please, after you, I'll start!" Li Mingliang downed the wine in his cup in one gulp. Hu Changtai just touched the rim of his cup to his lips and then put it down. Suddenly remembering something, he beckoned to Li Mingliang, who came running over with a bit of a stagger, shaking and swaying, and arrived at Hu's side.

  "A few months ago, wasn't there a charitable foundation that donated some money to those mountain schools under your administration? Has the donation been deposited into your bureau's account?" Hu Changtan asked in a low voice.

  "No, I was just about to look into this matter. It seems that during the summer vacation, those schools received a sum of money and bought new desks and repaired their buildings. Perhaps they directly transferred the money to the school. I was planning to collect this money and make unified arrangements. Conveniently, the mayor is concerned, so as soon as the long holiday ends, we'll go take care of it!" Li Ming reported in a low voice.

  "It's not that I'm saying you're not doing a good job, but this matter is not up to par. How can we let the school act on its own and do whatever it wants? Each principal is acting freely and disobeying the education bureau's plans. Donations were supposed to be coordinated and arranged to prevent any illegal situations from arising. What they're doing is not just disrespecting their superiors, but also the Party and the government. This kind of behavior must be stopped." Hu Changtan was very angry.

  "Hushi, I will definitely get to the bottom of this!" Li Mingliang hastily guaranteed.

  "Be clear and definite, we must grasp it tightly, can't be careless!" Hu Changtang said with emphasis.

  Liu Zhi and Cheng Zhenqian were heading deep into the mountains, but they didn't expect that the methods of the foundation he represented would provoke the anger of those corrupt officials, who were looking for an excuse to get their hands on the charity funds under his supervision. What Liu Zhi didn't know was that something related to him had also happened in his home in Shencheng.

  In previous years, the National Day holiday was a day for family reunions. This year is different, however. First, Liu Xingxu passed away, and now Liu Zhizhi is far away in the great mountains of southwest China. Liu Chuanyi feels an obvious chill in the house and can't help but let out a sigh.

  "What's wrong?" asked Lan Minzhu, who was talking to a young couple and heard Liu Chuan-yi sigh.

  "Father passed away half a year ago, and Zhi hasn't returned yet, making the home feel desolate." Although Liu Xingyi wasn't fond of Liu Zhiknow, he was after all his own son, so he couldn't help but have some lingering concerns.

  "Zhi Zhi really doesn't understand things, not even coming home for the long holiday, truly treating this family as nothing. On the surface, doing charity work, but in reality, hiding from family members, letting outsiders know and think that his parents are abusing him. Chuan Yi, all of these troubles were caused by charity, Dad is no longer here, there's no need to spend money on charity anymore. Besides, many charitable foundations nowadays embezzle donations, for example, the Red Cross, Song Qingling Foundation... if we want to do good deeds, it's better if we just do it ourselves!" Lan Minzhu said with some indignation.

  "Dad, mom is right. Now scold them to death online, all crows are black under the sky!" Liu Zhide acted like a angry youth.

  "It's alright, the money has already been donated this year, let's just forget about it. We won't donate next year!" Liu Chuan-yi also knew what kind of moral character those state-owned charity foundations had, so he nodded in agreement.

  "Rather than letting him do charity on his own initiative, it's better to strictly control the shares he should have, so that he doesn't have any extra money!" Lan Muzhu proposed another suggestion.

  "The shares of Zhi were originally managed by me, but this is his, and Father said before he passed away that no one was allowed to interfere with this matter, just like the case of Zhi De and Zhi Yan!" As the head of the Liu family, how could Liu Chuan Yi not know his wife's intentions? He wasn't someone who would be manipulated by others. Liu Zhi knew was his son, although he didn't like him, but he wouldn't mistreat him, and there was already a hint of warning in his words.

  "I'm just saying, also for your own good. Everything is up to you!" Lan Mengzhu's tone softened.

  Liu Chuanyi turned to Liu Zhide and Liu Zhiyan, asking about the situation at school. Lan Qinzhu took the opportunity to go to the courtyard of the villa, which was not the one where Liu Xingxu lived. Liu Chuanyi had his own villa, but it was a Western-style villa area, different from the traditional flavor of Liu Xingxu's side.

  Lan Mengzhu took out her mobile phone, dialed a number, and waited for a while. The call was answered: "Younger brother, you asked someone to do something last time, why haven't I heard any news?"

  "Older sister, it seems we've been cheated. Last time, I found three small-time hoods and paid them a deposit to get rid of that little brat, making it look like an accident or a disappearance. But those three small-time hoods took the deposit and then couldn't be contacted anymore. I reckon they swallowed up that money and ran off on their own. If I find out where they're hiding, I'll skin these three small-time hoods alive!" A man's flustered voice came through the phone.

  "I won't ask you how you did it, just make sure it's clean and let him die unexpectedly!"

  "Alright, elder sister! As the uncle of Zhide and Zhivan, I will naturally consider their future!"

  Liu Zhi didn't know what was happening, he and Cheng Zhen carried their bags and walked along the mountain ridge. In front of them, a small temple-like building appeared on the mountain waist, which had already collapsed and was overgrown with weeds and shrubs.

  Cheng Zhenqian gazed out at the sunset that had already turned reddish and said to Liu Zhizhi, "Younger brother, let's spend the night in this broken temple!"

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