72. Fire and Powder

Night, hour of Hai.

Everyone in the clinic was fast asleep, except for a beam of light in the main hall.

The flame of the oil residue lamp flickered on the counter, illuminating only a small area of ​​light.

Chen Ji stood behind the mahogany counter with his sleeves rolled up, his hair tied up on top of his head with a wooden hairpin. He concentrated on grinding each piece of charcoal into powder, then mixed it with the jar of strong Shaodaozi liquor he had bought and spread it on the counter.

He pushed the oil residue lamp a little further away and waited quietly for the alcohol, hydride and oxide to evaporate.

While waiting for the smoke to evaporate, he fanned himself gently and looked up at the beams.

There was a small spider on the beam slowly weaving a web. A fly hit the web and struggled hard. The spider crawled towards the fly, but did not notice that there was a gecko waiting at the edge of its own web.

At this moment, a voice came from behind him: "Why does the room smell so strongly of alcohol? Have you been drinking?"

Chen Ji stood up and turned around, looking at the old man Yao who suddenly appeared, and said with a smile: "Master, you are still awake?"

Old Man Yao had a blank expression on his face: "My apprentice is leaving for another country, how can I sleep well?"

"Did you predict the outcome?"

Old Man Yao sneered: "You're cooking for everyone, and you look so sad. I can guess it even without fortune-telling. I can not only tell fortunes, but I can also use my brain."

"oh……"

Old Man Yao stood opposite him, casually examining the charcoal powder on the counter. "Tell me, where are you going?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "I'm not leaving. You guessed wrong this time."

Old Man Yao was stunned for a moment. He pulled out six copper coins from his sleeve and threw them on the counter. While interpreting the hexagram, he said, "Hey, you really haven't left yet... Why aren't you leaving?"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Heaven created me to be ignorant and in danger, to live in the face of death. Isn't this the sign you predicted for me? I am not suitable for running away."

"Suitable for committing suicide? The twelve zodiac signs of the Secret Service of the Ning Dynasty in the south are watching you, and Si Cao of the Military Intelligence Department of the Jing Dynasty in the north wants to kill you. Why are you staying here if you don't leave?"

Chen Ji didn't respond. He just looked up at the spider and gecko on the beam again, wanting to see if the gecko had eaten the spider.

Old Man Yao followed his gaze and asked, "So this time, are you the spider, or the gecko? Or are you the fly that has fallen into the spider's web?"

Chen Ji did not answer, but gathered the dried charcoal powder and picked up the copper scale to weigh it.

He took out the sulfur, saltpeter, and sugar that had been purified and prepared earlier, mixed them evenly together and poured them into a bamboo tube, then mixed in a small amount of iron sheets.

At this moment, a dark cloud crept in through the crack in the window. In this solemn atmosphere, it looked first at Old Man Yao, then at Chen Ji, and meowed, "Just as you guessed, the Golden Pig has already found out something from the craftsman's supervision."

Chen Ji didn't look up. He carefully sealed the bamboo tube, leaving behind a wick made of thin paper and gunpowder.

Only at this moment did Chen Ji place the bamboo tube on the counter, looked up and replied with a smile: "Master, I am not a moth, nor a spider, nor a gecko."

He looked at the oil-slag lamp on the edge of the counter: "I am the fire."

A fire that does not belong to this era.

Chen Ji took out a piece of cloth, wrapped the three bamboo tubes in it, and tied them to his back.

He waved to the dark clouds, turned around and was about to go out.

Old Man Yao stared at him for a long time. "How much ice flow is left in your body? How many ginsengs can it absorb?"

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "Six."

Old Man Yao walked over to the medicine cabinet and opened the drawer: "Convert all the ice flow first."

Chen Ji's eyes lit up. It turned out that his master had bought ten ginsengs that morning, and he wanted to keep them for him. "Thank you, Master."

"One ginseng root costs thirty taels of silver, or three golden melon seeds."

Chen Ji's expression froze: "I thought you were going to give it to me."

Mr. Yao

The head sneered: "Give it to you? I can't live like this anymore?"

"Okay, I'll only exchange five." Chen Ji counted out twelve gold melon seeds from his sleeve and placed them on the counter. He then took out thirty taels of silver from the apprentice's dormitory...

At this time, all he had saved with great difficulty was left with only sixty-three taels of silver.

"Master, I'm leaving." Chen Ji picked up five ginsengs and transformed them into transparent crystal beads, feeding them to Wu Yun one by one.

He walked into the backyard with his bag on his back, climbed onto the roof, and blended into the night.

Beside the apricot tree, Old Man Yao looked in the direction he left and casually threw down six copper coins: "Great bad luck."

The crow caaked.

Old Man Yao said impatiently: "You choose the road yourself, so go on your own... If you want to go, go and take a look, I won't stop you."

…

…

At night on Zhenghe Street, a charcoal cart was being pulled by two oxen, slowly heading towards the East Market.

Winter is about to arrive, and firewood and charcoal have become necessities. For example, the capital city distributes as many as 720,000 pieces of firewood and charcoal to officials every year.

Red basket charcoal was used in the imperial palace, officials praised Xishan silver silk charcoal, wealthy families burned tung charcoal, and ordinary people used black charcoal. Without charcoal, winter would be particularly difficult to endure.

This was the peak time for charcoal merchants. Charcoal was burned in the mountains and forests, then transported to the East Market in Luocheng by canal, and then sold to every household in the East Market. There was a constant stream of cars coming and going every day.

The charcoal cart is different from an ordinary ox cart. It is sealed on all sides but open on the top.

The charcoal seller was driving his ox cart, humming a little tune along the way, and he didn't notice at all that there was a cat squatting on someone's shoulder in the shadows on the side of the road, waiting for him to pass slowly.

When the charcoal cart passed by the shadow, Chen Ji took two quick steps and easily flipped into the cart bed without making any sound.

The charcoal dealer noticed the car body shaking slightly, and looked back at the cobblestone road in confusion, thinking that he had run over a small stone.

Seeing that there was nothing wrong with the wheels, he continued to hum his little tune: "Standing on the steps, there are more people, and marriage is destined to happen. Call out for guests, light the lamp and come upstairs, it's late at night and we must go to the east..."

Chen Ji recognized that this was a risqué song from Red Dress Alley...

These traffickers make money during the day and spend it in brothels at night, either gambling or prostitution, and there is always nothing left.

He smiled, embraced the dark clouds, nestled in the dirty charcoal cart, closed his eyes, and let the charcoal cart take him to the Red Lane in the East Market.

The closer he got to the East Market, the calmer Chen Ji felt. He touched the dagger in his sleeve again and slowly closed his eyes.

Return to the battlefield in the dream.

"Brother Feng Huai, what's the name of that move you just made where you spun your sword around?"

"Xingyuan."

"Brother Feng Huai, what's the name of the move you used just now when you pressed your blade against mine and forced me to drop my sword?"

"spark."

"Brother Feng Huai, what was that move you used to chop the back of my knife just now? It hurt my wrist a lot, but it didn't seem to be of any use."

Feng Huai smiled shyly and said, "That move is called 'Wrong Gold'. It should have cut your sword in half with one strike, but it's because your sword is too good that it can't be cut."

Every movement of the sword, every step forward and backward of the swordsman Feng Huai is as exquisite and impeccable as art.

The opponent was like a heavy hammer, hammering down on the steel billet that was Chen Ji, forging it into shape. Chen Ji died again and again, acquiring one skill after another.

Chen Ji had never fought with outsiders with a knife, so he didn't know if his skills were good enough. He could only practice continuously so that he could slowly approach Feng Huai's skills and then surpass them.

At the beginning, Chen Ji would die twenty or thirty times in an hour, but now, he only dies three or four times in an hour.

At the beginning, he was full of flaws, but now, both sides have been countering each other's moves, and often within a hundred moves, neither side can find the other's flaw.

Those sword techniques seemed to have been engraved on his bones tens of thousands of years ago, carved into complex and exquisite totems, and were being

Gradually wake up.

Chen Ji stood up straight again: "Come again."

On the huge rock, Xuanyuan was sitting cross-legged, still wearing the black royal robe, but the constellations embroidered with gold thread had changed, leaving only the Purple Palace Constellation.

Xuanyuan asked, "You seem to be in a hurry?"

Chen Ji said, "We are indeed in a hurry."

Xuanyuan wondered, "Is there someone outside who wants to kill you?"

Chen Ji responded calmly: "No, there is someone I want to kill."

Xuanyuan laughed out loud. "No wonder you made faster progress today than yesterday. Now is the time for you to practice with the sword! The sword is the heart of all weapons. Without the desire to kill, you can't practice well with the sword! But I suggest you stop and rest for a while before continuing your studies. Being exhausted will only make you restless and irritable, which won't help."

Chen Ji seemed to be lost in thought, and then he sat down cross-legged on the ground decisively: "Brother Feng Huai, you should sit down and rest for a while too."

Feng Huai put away his sword and sat down, his posture as straight as an apprentice.

The three of them sat on the ground on the green hills, with clouds rolling and flowing around them, as if they were in a fairyland, being touched on the head by an immortal and granted immortality.

Chen Ji sighed, "Brother Feng Huai, your swordsmanship is really good."

Feng Huai was wearing light armor, looked to be about twenty years old, handsome and a little immature. Just by looking at his appearance, you would never guess that he was a master with a knife.

Hearing Chen Ji praising him, he smiled even more shyly: "It's all because of your good teaching back then. When we were practicing swordsmanship with you, we also suffered a lot."

Chen Ji was stunned: "...I taught you? Then why do I feel that you are so excited when you chop me?"

Feng Huai hesitated for a moment: "Who wouldn't be excited?"

Chen Ji said calmly: "...That makes sense. Be polite to me when you are not practicing swordsmanship."

Feng Huai quickly responded, "Understood!"

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Xuanyuan, if I die tonight, can you return to the world through my body?"

Xuanyuan stared at Chen Ji: "Okay."

"If you really come back to this world, can you help me kill someone?"

Xuanyuan sneered and said, "Kill it yourself."

"Alright." Chen Ji turned to look at Xuanyuan, who was looking down at him from the boulder. "Um... I'd like to discuss this. Can I borrow the Whale tonight?"

"No," Xuanyuan shook his head.

"But I have to kill someone tonight. Without the 'Whale', the other knives aren't very handy."

Xuanyuan sneered, "Will the enemy negotiate with you? Can everything you encounter be negotiated? I've said before, being smart is a good thing, but there are always mountains in this world that you can't get around. If you want to take the 'Whale', you must first defeat Feng Huai."

"Understood."

At this moment, Chen Ji heard the dark cloud meow softly beside his ear. He stood up with his sword in hand and looked towards Xuan Yuan: "There is still a lot to do tonight. If all goes well, see you tomorrow."

Xuanyuan was silent for a moment: "See you tomorrow."

Chen Ji opened his eyes in the cart. The charcoal cart had slowly stopped outside Hongyi Lane. The driver was humming a little erotic tune and happily walking towards Hongyi Lane.

He and Wuyun quietly poked their heads out of the carriage, but were surprised to see a familiar carriage stopped beside them.

The next moment, the prince's voice rang out: "It would be great to borrow the road from the clinic. Chen Ji has already set up the ladder... Now it's all right. I dug it out from the back garden and my robe is torn to pieces!"

Princess Baili's voice followed closely behind: "I just don't want to leave the clinic, okay?"

“Okay, okay, okay…”

Chen Ji saw the two people jumping off the carriage and walking towards Red Lane. He wanted to stop them and tell them that it was dangerous here tonight, but how could he explain why he was here?

Seeing the prince and Princess Baili disappear in Hongyi Lane, Chen Ji hesitated for a moment, reached out to take some charcoal powder from the truck bed and rubbed it on his face.

"Come on, dark cloud, let's climb up to the roof together."

(End of this chapter)