Chapter 178 A Small Boat Sailing on the Green Waves
Chapter 178 A Small Boat Sails on the Green Waves
Human desires are endless.
He Huai'an put down his teacup, looked at a bunch of early-blooming winter plum blossoms outside the window, and his thoughts drifted back to a long time ago.
When he was on his sickbed, he thought about the day when he wouldn't have to take medicine, wear thick clothes in the summer, or stand in the wind, because his body couldn't withstand the dampness and coolness of the wind.
Before he comes of age, he wants to pick a sprig of winter plum blossom from a branch and row a boat on the lake to watch the first lotus leaves budding in summer...
These wishes, which seem insignificant now, were almost impossible back then.
The doctors all said he wouldn't live to adulthood.
Even with mountains of gold and silver, and countless riches, they couldn't buy him, a sickly man, to live to adulthood.
The affairs of the world are always so ironic.
Only Luo Song was an exception: "Lian Xu, you will live to be a hundred!"
They grew up together.
Luo Song was lively, while he was reserved; Luo Song was not only physically strong, always running around since childhood, but also had excellent physique, making him suitable for martial arts training, while he was a sickly person who could hardly even get out of bed.
But they grew up together.
He couldn't pick the plum blossoms, so Luo Songhui would pick them and put them in his room, filling the room with the fragrance of winter plum blossoms all winter long.
The winter plum blossoms in the vase were almost withered, so Luo Song brought new branches to put in his room.
He wanted to see lotus flowers, so Luo Song secretly carried him out.
Two teenagers, not quite grown up, boarded the swaying little boat.
It was his first time on a boat. He was excited but also scared. As someone who had been bedridden for many years, he was afraid even when he was away from familiar surroundings, let alone on a swaying lake.
He immediately felt a little scared.
I don't know whether I should grab Luo Song or hold on tightly to the small boat.
Luo Song laughed and said that he had secretly learned how to row beforehand.
He felt a little relieved.
Soon, after a flurry of activity and some initial clumsiness in front of Luo Song, the small boat was finally able to move steadily into the depths of the lotus pond.
The two of them burst into laughter.
That kind of laughter comes from secretly doing something naughty together, only to find out that it's not all that great, or rather, from the unspoken understanding and joy of knowing that the other person has always been there for you.
"Quick, put on your cloak, don't catch a cold!" Luo Song reminded him!
He hurried.
The two continued to laugh.
So this is what the book meant by "a small boat sailing on the green waves"...
He went from being apprehensive at first to being relaxed now, his eyes filled with anticipation and longing.
"Let's go, to the very center of the lotus pond!" Luo Song rowed the boat with all his might.
The boat carried him into a "world" he could never have imagined. He reached out, his fingertips touching the lotus flowers, and he also reached out, brushing the lake water along the edge of the boat...
If this is a dream, he hopes he will never wake up!
He looked at the lotus flowers in the pond with a smile.
Luo Song also burst into laughter.
The two of them laughed like fools among the lotus flowers, laughing so hard that they lay down together on the small boat, put their hands behind their heads, and looked up at the sky.
"Lian Xu, you will live to be a hundred!"
He closed his eyes. He didn't care about living a long and healthy life; he just wanted to finish everything he wanted to do…
That year, Luo Song went to Kunlun.
Kunlun is the number one sect in the world. Luo Song has excellent aptitude for martial arts and is also very clever and cunning. Luo Song told him that Kunlun's library contains all the ancient books in the world, and he wanted to go and search through all the books in the Fengzhong Pavilion to cure his illness.
He's gone, don't think about him!
He smiled as he looked at the letter, as if he could see Luo Song's back, and then suddenly turn around and wave at him!
He looked at the letter in his hand, and the smile on his lips gradually faded.
Luo Song was very talented, and he was happy for him when Luo Song went to Kunlun. But Luo Song was gone, and his world consisted only of that sickbed. There was no one left to pick winter plum blossoms for him in winter, or to secretly carry him out to row a boat or pick lotus flowers in summer...
Several months later, he received a letter from Luo Song.
A letter sent from the Kunlun School.
They said that there were many fellow disciples in the sect, from all over the country, with different accents. They practiced martial arts together and secretly went to the back mountain at night to catch wild rabbits to eat.
In an attempt to help them escape, the senior brother was caught by the elders and, being a repeat offender, was severely punished and sent to Siji Cliff.
It's a place for facing the wall and reflecting on one's mistakes.
He delivered food there.
His senior told him, "Take it easy. Judging from how often you cause trouble, you might be the next one to get into trouble."
No way!
He was going to Fengzhong Pavilion to read books.
The Wind Pavilion has nine floors, and its collection of books is more than he has ever seen in his entire life.
There must be a way to cure him here.
The best martial arts in the world are found in Kunlun; there is no better place than Kunlun!
Waiting for good news...
As he looked at it, a smile crept onto his lips. Luo Song's handwriting, like his own, always seemed to leap off the page.
Luo Song would write him a letter every month.
The elders wouldn't allow him to send more, but he wrote to them every month, telling them about his experiences on Kunlun Mountain, sending his greetings, and also telling them that he read in the Wind Pavilion every day, but there were just too many books there, he couldn't possibly read them all...
The letter that followed next month said he had drunk apricot blossom wine from the foot of the mountain.
Ugh, this is fake alcohol!
There are no apricot trees at the foot of Kunlun Mountain, so where did this apricot wine come from?
But he missed home. There was an apricot tree in his garden, and he imagined it as the wine brewed from the apricot blossoms of that tree.
The wine that evokes homesickness suddenly tastes quite nice...
He missed him too, and told him to take good care of himself.
Only the eldest disciple can enter the sixth floor of Fengzhong Pavilion. There are many classic books on the sixth floor that cannot be seen downstairs. He will soon become the eldest disciple of Kunlun.
The Kunlun Mountains described by Luo Song are a place full of imagination, and he longs to be with Luo Song one day.
Luo Song's letters kept arriving. Spring passed, autumn came, and winter snow once again blanketed Baiyun Mountain...
Several years later, the young man's back, with a sword behind him, appeared before my eyes.
The boy who once rowed the boat has now grown into a young knight-errant.
A sword lies behind him, a winter plum blossom is in his hand, the first rays of dawn fall on his head, he is weary from his journey, amidst the vast starry sky.
"Why are you back?" he asked, both surprised and moved.
The young swordsman strode forward, his increasingly mature face still faintly bearing traces of his earlier self.
"Three years ago, I had already mastered Kunlun's martial arts and passed the Elders' Hall's exam, qualifying me to enter the top floor of the Wind Pavilion and read top-tier martial arts manuals and books. Lian Xu, I've been reading books on the top floor of the Wind Pavilion for three years, and I've found a way!"
At that moment, besides surprise, he was mostly filled with emotion.
Little did they know what it meant for an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy to claim that he had mastered the Kunlun School's martial arts three years prior and passed the Elders' Hall's exam, thus qualifying him to enter the top floor of the Wind Pavilion...
He Huai'an poured himself another cup of tea, and the aroma of the tea rippled through the air.
Passing the Elders' Hall exam means being unanimously approved by the Elders' Hall as the successor to the Kunlun Sect leadership.
The members of the Elders' Hall all have their own ulterior motives and hidden agendas.
The person who could be unanimously approved by the elders must be a martial arts genius, capable of standing above the struggles between different factions.
He was unaware of this before.
But later he went to Kunlun and, following the traces in Luo Song's previous letters, retraced all the places he had been and stayed in.
Only then did I realize how much of a prodigy and martial arts genius Luo Song was in Kunlun's eyes back then.
But this genius, Luo Song, resolutely gave up his position as sect leader and left Kunlun.
At the age of eighteen, Luo Song began writing "The Classic of Longevity".
At that time, none of them knew what kind of extraordinary book the "Longevity Classic" would become.
All I remember is that Luo Song earnestly told him at that time, "The Marrow Cleansing Classic is selective. Only those with the right bone structure can undergo marrow cleansing. What we need to do is deceive it and make it think that we are the ones that meet its requirements, so that it will not reject us."
In Luo Song's world, martial arts techniques and mental cultivation methods are all alive.
They have their own consciousness and will choose suitable practitioners according to the wishes of their creators.
Therefore, to deceive the "Marrow Washing Classic", one must first understand its judgment mechanism, do the opposite, and make it believe that one's physique is suitable for marrow washing.
Luo Song spoke with great enthusiasm, and his words sounded like a wildly imaginative fantasy.
Luo Song was writing down his vision of the "Scripture of Longevity," and his personification of all the techniques allowed him to progress at an almost unbelievable speed.
— Lian Xu, you will live to be a hundred!
Therefore, this cultivation method is called the "Longevity Scripture". Luo Song wrote all his expectations, wishes, friendships and ties into this "Longevity Scripture".
Once Luo Song leaves Kunlun, he can no longer use the Kunlun techniques he possesses.
When Luo Song was writing the "Longevity Classic", he used his martial arts talent to create a set of internal and external martial arts techniques based on the "Marrow Cleansing Classic".
This set of internal energy cultivation methods allows the "Marrow Cleansing Classic" to recognize him as having suitable physique and does not exclude him from using the "Marrow Cleansing Classic" to cleanse and regenerate his marrow; Luo Song also created corresponding external energy cultivation methods on top of this set of methods, allowing him to progress step by step.
And so, the two of them practiced martial arts and swordsmanship together under the wintersweet tree.
Many years passed, spring after spring, autumn after autumn. Luo Song created martial arts techniques every day, and finally he came of age, defying all the doctors' predictions that he would not live to adulthood.
But as he went from knowing nothing about martial arts to gradually gaining some understanding.
He gradually discovered that Luo Song was not only a martial arts genius, but also a martial arts prodigy that others said was a once-in-a-century or even once-in-a-millennium talent!
Human desires are subject to change.
From wanting to pluck the winter plum blossoms outside the window, to feeling utterly inadequate compared to Luo Song, he suddenly thought, if only he had enough time…
He Huai'an picked up his teacup and took another small sip.
I remember asking Luo Song back then, "Can people really live forever?"
Luo Songzheng was closing his eyes under a big tree, trying to comprehend a new technique. He had been trying to understand it for several days, but none of them were the Silver Dragon Jade Belt he wanted.
When asked, Luo Song closed his eyes under the tree and said, “I have really thought about this question. Immortality cannot be achieved, but if you keep deceiving the Marrow Cleansing Classic, and it judges that you have suitable bone structure and have not undergone marrow cleansing, then in principle, a person’s meridians, bones, appearance and voice will be continuously improved through marrow cleansing. Therefore, people cannot achieve immortality, but they can achieve immortality in another sense by continuously cleansing their marrow.”
He was surprised.
But Luo Song slowly opened his eyes: "Lian Xu, the 'Longevity Scripture' is not for achieving immortality. Everything has its beginnings and ends, and humans are no exception..."
— Lian Xu, I've discovered that the *Longevity Scripture* drastically alters the temperament of martial arts practitioners, making them extreme, even to the point of demonic possession. Knowing full well that immortality is impossible, I still wrote a method for continuous marrow cleansing under the spell of the *Longevity Scripture*. Volumes two and three of the *Longevity Scripture* must no longer exist and must be destroyed.
— Lian Xu, the copy cannot be kept. Humans cannot live forever. Even if you did, all your friends, relatives, and deceased loved ones would pass away. What would be the point of living?
He Huai'an closed his eyes slightly. How could they be the same?
Time stops when someone dies.
He will not, and cannot, create anything more.
But for the living, time continues...
He could continue even without Luo Song.
Even with all the trouble, even with emptying the underground palace beneath the Bewitching Town and using countless people as test subjects, even with him personally killing Luo Song...
[Author's Note]
I have to go out temporarily today, so this is the last chapter. I'll resume a large update tomorrow.
There's a red envelope in today's chapter too! All holiday red envelopes will be sent out together tomorrow at noon.
Good night~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com