Volume 2: Winter Lake Chapter 278: Flag Exhibition
Between the cliffs on the mountain behind the academy. The sanctuary
The Master was wearing a black smock, sitting on the edge of the cliff, looking at Chang'an City in the distance, where heavy snow was falling. From a distance, it looked like Haotian was giving salt flowers to the world.
"Fifteen years ago, I was sitting here, looking at the woodshed of Dr. Tongyi's mansion."
The master said: "I watched your little junior brother walk out of the woodshed with a pale face and a hatchet in his hand. I watched him grab the rope and hide in the well. I watched him climb over the courtyard wall and walk into the crowd. I watched him.
Leaving Chang'an City... I feel like I saw your little uncle from long ago."
The senior brother stood aside and asked: "How do junior brother and junior uncle resemble each other?"
The master shook his head and said: "I can't tell clearly, maybe it's a strong desire for freedom?"
"I can understand why the teacher said so about Junior Junior Brother." The senior brother asked in confusion: "But what does the tragedy that Junior Junior Brother suffered back then have to do with the word freedom?"
The Master said: "The so-called freedom is the right to choose. Choose to live, choose to die, or choose not to choose. Back then, your junior brother chose to pick up that hatchet and kill the housekeeper and his best playmate.
At that moment, he took the first step towards freedom."
The senior brother said honestly: "Teacher, I can't understand."
The Master said: "You are the clearest stream in the world. You have been flowing freely in the mountains and fields for these years. You may have encountered dangerous shoals and rocks, but you have never encountered a real fork in the river. You have never encountered what your junior brother did back then."
Choices faced.”
"No one is qualified to judge the right or wrong of the choice your junior brother made back then, but the fact that he was able to make this choice is already different from ordinary people. Just like your junior uncle did back then, no matter what situation he faced,
They all just do what they want to do.”
The eldest brother said: "That's why the teacher wants to admit the junior disciples?"
The master said with emotion: "In the spring, when I met your junior brother at Songhe Tower and talked to him in the thatched cottage, I found that he was different from your junior uncle. I felt regretful at that time."
"But that's how things are in the world. Where can you find two identical leaves?"
The Master looked at the snow clouds in the distance and Chang'an City shrouded in the wind and snow, and said happily: "But your junior brother's choice today still surprised me. I never thought that he would have such courage to challenge Xiahou head-on.
I really like the clumsiness of this choice.《》》
He turned to look at his eldest disciple, smiled and said: "You are the clumsiest among the disciples in the academy, so I like you the most, but in some aspects, you really have to learn from Jun Mo and my junior disciples."
The senior brother accepted the instruction with awe, but just looked at the wind and snow in the distance. He could not suppress the worry in his heart. After hesitating for a moment, he said: "If the junior brother really loses to Xiahou, what should I do?"
The words "if" and "true" in this sentence are very meaningful, which shows that in the eyes of the academy senior brother, Ning Que and Xiahou are not without the ability to fight.
"I don't believe in God or fate, I only believe in myself."
The Master glanced at the gray sky in the cold winter and said: "Everyone can only believe in themselves. This is your junior brother's own choice. It is his mockery and contempt for the fate of heaven. So apart from a fair environment, what else can he do?
None are needed.”
…
…
The dead silence in front of the imperial city lasted for a long time. The increasingly violent wind and snow covered the blood flag, causing the big black umbrella to sway slightly, and the faces of everyone seemed to be frozen.
Li Qingshan, the Imperial Master of the Tang Dynasty, looked at Ning Que with complicated eyes and said, "That's it?"
Ning Que remained silent.
Li Qingshan sighed softly, shook his head helplessly, and said: "Your Majesty has said that if you insist on continuing this duel, then you must hand over your things first."
He stretched out his hand to Ning Que and said, "You know what His Majesty is talking about."
Ning Que raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "Why?"
Li Qingshan said: "Is this a personal enmity?"
Ning Que said: "Yes."
Li Qingshan said: "How can we use state weapons if we have a personal vendetta?"
Then he said seriously: "If this battle is over and you are lucky enough to survive, then I will return the things to you. The latest chapter of the Holy Temple"
Ning Que looked at the thick snow under his feet. After a moment of silence, he took out something tightly wrapped in cloth from his arms, but did not hand it to Li Qingshan's hand.
Li Qingshan frowned slightly and said, "Could it be that you can't even trust me?"
"I never trust anyone but myself, I'm sorry."
Ning Que said, and then handed the thing wrapped in cloth to Chen Pipi's hand behind him.
Li Qingshan smiled slightly, no longer paying attention to the matters in the room, and walked towards the palace.
The people in front of the palace gate didn't know what Ning Que took out from his arms, and couldn't help but be curious. Xia Hou clearly felt the faint aura fluctuations coming from the thing. He frowned slowly and looked at Ning Que and said
: "It turns out that the center of the formation is really in your hands. No wonder you have such courage to challenge me."
Ning Que said: "As I said before, I still have many powerful methods."
Xia Hou slowly stroked the armrest of the chair, seemingly unaware of the nothingness there, and said, "Now that the center of the eye has been taken away, you still insist on killing me?"
Ning Que said: "You have killed many people, and I have killed many people. People like us should know very well that there are many ways to kill people."
Xia Hou said with an indifferent expression: "You insist on killing me even though you know you will definitely die, is it for revenge? How can a four-year-old boy's memory be so long-lasting? Can he remember the faces of your parents? I don't believe it at all. I thought you were just always
I just can’t get rid of the psychological shadow of that year.”
After listening to these words, Ning Que said: "I must admit that it is very uncomfortable to have the young master's blood on my hands. No matter how I wash them, I feel that they cannot be washed clean. There is always stickiness between my fingers. Maybe it is a psychological shadow.
The first time I killed someone, I used a hatchet, and then I became accustomed to using knives."
He looked at Xia Hou and said, "But so what? What's the meaning of what you said?"
Xiahou Tiemei raised his eyebrows slightly, with a look of ridicule and contempt on his face, and said: "At least it proves that your revenge is not as great and just as you imagined."
"Greatness and justice?"
Ning Que shook his head and said: "After escaping from Chang'an City, I have imagined countless times over the years. One day I will meet a strange person in the mountains, inherit a unique skill, and what should I say before I go straight to the military camp to kill you?
.”
"I will ask you why you are so cold and easy to kill. I will say that by killing you today, I want to seek justice from you for the wronged souls in the General's Mansion, the scorched corpses in Yanjing Village, and all the innocent people who died. The list is very long. It’s long, and finally a very good friend of mine was added to the list.”
At this point, he looked at Xia Hou and said with a smile: "These are some very righteous and awe-inspiring words, very powerful words, but... what does it have to do with me?"
The wind and snow chilled his body. Ning Que blocked his lips with his fists and coughed twice, then spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm into the snow. The pus-yellow phlegm was very dazzling in the clean white snow.
"I have killed as many people as you. I have also done many evil things that others cannot imagine. My hands are never clean. How can I be a messenger of justice?"
He looked at Xia Hou and said: "No matter how many innocent people you kill, it has nothing to do with me. As long as it has nothing to do with me, I can even applaud you from the side. But since you killed my whole family, I will naturally kill you. This is a matter of course and does not require any other reason."
Xia Hou was silent for a long time and suddenly said: "It's interesting."
Then he stood up from his chair.
It's like an indestructible mountain peak that suddenly appears in the wind and snow.
"Come and kill me."
He finally said: "Or be killed by me and end your painful life."
…
…
Chang'an City at dusk looked like it had fallen into an eternal night. Thick snow clouds blocked the last afterglow and the starlight in the sky. It was pitch black beside Yanming Lake. Only the torches in the distance illuminated the snowflakes falling from the sky. Those dense and whistling snows have become the stars in the world.
Xia Hou looked at the closed courtyard door in front of him with an expressionless face, reached back, took the military flag from the hands of the soldiers, walked to the courtyard door, held the military flag in his right hand and paused.
His movements were very casual. The ground in front of the courtyard gate was made of hard stone. When the flagpole fell, the stone ground shattered into pieces, splashing countless gravels, and the tail of the flagpole was deeply embedded in the mud.
Xia Hou slowly released his hand, and the flagpole was as firm as if it were born on the ground. The blood-red military flag buzzed in the snowflakes in the sky, swallowing up all the night.
This blood-red royal flag has accompanied Xiahou for many years.
Whether fighting with the Yan army or fighting with the cavalry of Zuozhang Royal Court, this general's flag always flew in the ranks of the Northeastern Frontier Army of the Tang Empire.
For decades, this bloody flag has never fallen.
Just like the powerful man under the blood flag.
The soldiers outside Yanming Lake, the vigilant ministers, and the Chang'an government officials who maintained order all had a strong feeling when they looked at the bloody flag in the night.
Tonight, this bloody general flag will not fall down.
Xiahou walked up the stone steps.
Then he opened the courtyard door.
So he walked into the night.
…
…
Ning Que was not in the house beside Yanming Lake.
He and Sang Sang were standing on Yanming Mountain on the southern shore of the lake, overlooking the distant other shore.
Sangsang held a big black umbrella to cover the increasingly violent snow.
In the eyes of the world, Ning Que's most powerful cultivation realm is the two characters of talismans and arrows. If he wants to fight against a peak martial arts expert like Xia Hou, it is natural for him to keep the fighting distance.
Although Xiahou didn't know where Ning Que was at this time, he could guess it if he thought about it, but he was so proud and confident that he didn't care about it at all.
It's just that tonight there is a strong wind and snow, and the night is covered with stars. In the dead of winter, Yanming Lake is like a frozen inkstone. No matter how sharp Ning Que's senses are, he can't clearly see the scene on the other side.
If you can't even see it, how can the Yuan Thirteen Arrow hit the enemy?
…
…
(There are no more today. I need to sort it out again and delete some. There will be two chapters tomorrow.)