For ordinary people, immortal cultivators are too ethereal.
After the fall of the Yue Kingdom, many books of immortal cultivators were burned. The "immortal" who helped the Yue Kingdom suppress the peasant army was besieged by five innate masters and died in the palace.
From then on, the idea of cultivating immortals became a legend in the land of Yue.
Three hundred years passed.
During these three hundred years, no one had ever seen an immortal cultivator. Generation after generation, no one believed in the idea of cultivating immortals. Only some large families with a long history still kept some records, and people still had some awe for the idea of immortals.
Qingya County also changed its name.
It is now called Beihe County.
The county town was as dilapidated as ever. Chen Luo walked along the street with his donkey. It was no longer like the old days. Even the main roads in the city had changed. The original county town was located in the north, leaning against the mountains, but now it has developed to the south.
The Beicheng District, which was backed by the mountains, was separated and became a district under Beihe County.
"Our place has been called Beihe County since ancient times. I have never heard of the name Qingya County." At the entrance of the alley, an old man sitting on a small stool looked Chen Luo up and down.
This old man was the oldest one Chen Luo had met in the neighborhood.
Originally he wanted to have a chat with the old man, but he found that the old man hated scholars very much. He started lecturing him before he could even finish his two sentences.
"I have seen many young people like you! Don't think you can rule the world just by reading a few books. As an old man, I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice."
Chen Luo laughed and ignored the man.
Leading the donkey out of the alley, he stopped in front of a house on the corner.
This road is still there.
Although the house has changed owners and its style has changed dramatically, the basic outline remains.
More than 600 years ago, Chen Luo learned martial arts here. Master Ma was sitting at the gate at the time, and it was Uncle San who pushed him into his tutelage. Chen Luo met Sister He here, and walked out a different life from Uncle San.
Later, he entered the immortal way and embarked on the path of cultivation.
Memories came flooding back like a tide.
"Who are you looking for?"
A vigilant voice sounded, pulling Chen Luo back from his thoughts.
The wooden door that was originally closed was opened at some point, and a woman in a flowery cotton jacket was looking at him warily.
"I'm looking for Master Ma."
Chen Luo smiled and said Master Ma's name.
"You've come to the wrong place. Our last name is Lu."
After the woman finished speaking, she closed the door with a bang. Chen Luo knew that the woman was still standing behind the door, and she was holding a rolling pin in her nervous right hand. In a place like the North City, there are countless ruffians, and if you show a little weakness, you will be bullied.
Chen Luo did not continue to disturb her, but led the donkey away.
He had already used his spiritual sense to see the scene inside the house.
The courtyard where he and Sister He practiced boxing in the past has now become a place for washing clothes. Rows of wooden racks are full of washed clothes, and even if he goes in, he can't find any traces of the past.
It’s better not to watch it.
"Are you really looking for someone?"
The woman opened the door a crack, glanced at Chen Luo who was leaving, muttered something, and then closed the door again.
Chen Luo walked on the street for half a day.
Except for the street where Ma Quezi lived, the courtyard where Uncle San lived and the place where the county government office used to be, all became residential houses. Not only the people inside, but even the orientation of the houses had changed.
Chen Luo just took a look from a distance and left.
Chenjia Village has become a wasteland, with some burnt soil on the ground. It is estimated that a fire broke out in this place a hundred years ago. All the people in the village have moved away.
It was getting close to evening.
Chen Luo returned to Qingya County and stopped in front of a noodle stall.
The noodle sellers were an old couple. Chen Luo chose to stop here simply because the couple gave him the same feeling as old friends from six hundred years ago.
"Your sauerkraut noodles."
The boss brought a bowl of hot beef noodles in front of me and also gave me two plates of pickles.
"Thank you very much."
Chen Luo thanked him, took the chopsticks from the bamboo tube and took a bite. It tasted delicious. Even after more than 600 years, some things have not changed.
Only the people have changed.
"Sir, are you from out of town? You look unfamiliar."
There weren't many guests at night. Beihe County had a very small population, and the boss had a fixed number of guests every day. It was inevitable that he was a little curious about the sudden appearance of Chen Luo, a strange face. Chen Luo's dress and temperament did not look like an ordinary person.
Ordinary people of this era are not as clean as him.
“I’m a local too.”
Six hundred years ago.
Chen Luo added silently in his heart.
"ah?"
The boss became interested and changed the Mandarin to the local dialect. The language was much more friendly and Chen Luo could understand it, but it was inevitable that there would be some changes after six hundred years. However, this was not a difficult task for Chen Luo, he only needed to learn a little bit to change.
"Looking at the way you're dressed, you must be doing something important outside."
He did not ask whether Chen Luo was an official. After the overthrow of the Great Yue Kingdom, the newly established Chu Kingdom had its own official system. As long as they were court officials, their clothing was clearly different from that of ordinary people.
"If my mother hadn't been in poor health, I would have gone out to explore the world."
Chen Luo ate noodles and listened silently to the boss's chatter.
The shop owner's name is Chen Liu, and his wife's name is Du Lan. Both of them are native locals. In his words, the Chen family has been from Beihe County for hundreds of years. At that time, Beihe County was still called Qingya County, and Da Chu had not yet been established.
"Do you know Qingya County?"
Chen Luo was a little surprised.
He didn't expect that the noodle stall owner actually knew about Qingya County. He had walked around the city all day and asked several elderly people, but none of them knew about Qingya County.
"Of course, our Chen family has had some great figures in our family, but it's a pity that our generation has fallen into decline." The boss must have said this to many people.
It’s a pity that no one believed it. When Chen Luo asked, he immediately started to explain.
"Can you tell me about it?"
Chen Luo took out two copper coins and placed them on the table.
If you delay someone's business, you must compensate them. These copper coins were borrowed by Chen Luo from the county magistrate's house. In the basement of the county magistrate's house, copper coins were piled up like a mountain, and many ropes were gnawed by rats and scattered everywhere.
"If you are willing to listen, I will tell you everything I know."
Chen Liu did not take the copper coins, but moved a small stool next to him and sat down, and began to tell the legend of his ancestors.
The Chen family was also a big family in the county in the past.
According to the stall owner, his great-grandfather was a famous landlord. Even the county magistrate had to visit his family first when he came to Beihe County. But later he got addicted to gambling and lost all his family property and the fertile land. When his grandfather took over the family, there were only two ancestral houses and some worthless family pedigrees left.
It is said that the old man wanted to sell the ancestral house at that time, but when he had this idea, he suddenly fell ill and died, so the ancestral house was preserved.
The story the stall owner was telling was what he found in the family tree when he was a child.
"Don't look at me as selling noodles here now. I also knew how to read when I was a child." After saying this, the stall owner dipped his index finger in water and wrote his name on the table.
Chen Liu.
The name is simple, but being able to read and write is one of the few things the stall owner is proud of. Most of the people living in this alley are illiterate, and many of them don't even know how to write their own names. The stall owner's ability to write his own name is enough to make him stand out. When he was young, it was with this calligraphy that he was able to coax his wife and not remain single.
"The years recorded in our Chen family tree are longer than those in the history books of the Great Chu court."
The stall owner then talked a lot about his ancestors. Chen Luo got a general idea from this information. When he looked at the stall owner in front of him again, he finally understood where this sense of familiarity came from.
Descendants of the Chen family.
"Say less. You believe the nonsense made up by your ancestors. Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by the guests?" Seeing that the head of the family was talking more and more, the old woman could not help but picked up the soup spoon and knocked it on the table twice.
Seeing his wife getting angry, Chen Liu subconsciously shrank his neck.
But he reacted quickly, and perhaps because he was afraid of losing face as a man in front of the guests, he stiffened his neck and said something again.
"We are the men who are talking, when is it your turn as a woman to interfere?"
"Your Chen family's genealogy is just made up stuff. The first chapter is about immortals. Why don't you talk about this?!"
The old woman's eyes widened when she saw this.
The stall owner who had just stood up sat back down immediately.
"Maybe our Chen family's ancestors really were immortals." He muttered, but this time he spoke in a very low voice.
Obviously he himself did not believe in the existence of gods.
If immortals really do exist, why didn't a single immortal appear during the three hundred years since the Chu Dynasty was established and several generations of kings have searched the world for them?
"Perhaps."
Chen Luo stood up and patted Chen Liu's shoulder. A ray of spiritual energy invisible to the naked eye flowed through his palm and merged into Chen Liu's body. The old illness that had accumulated in his body for many years disappeared without a trace under this ray of spiritual energy.
After doing this, he placed another copper coin on the table.
Then he left the noodle stall, picked up the donkey next to him, and left the ancient alley.
Chen Liu is the descendant of his younger brother Chen Lin. When his father left Qingya County, he went to the capital to become a high-ranking official. Later, he gave Chen Luo a younger brother and a younger sister, and Chen Lin was his younger brother.
Chen Luo has a deep impression of his younger brother Chen Lin.
When he left Yue State, he met Chen Lin once, but that was many years ago. Chen Lin did not have the talent to cultivate immortality, and Chen Luo's methods at that time could not change his fate, and all he could do was to ensure his prosperity for the rest of his life.
Looking back now, Chen Luo found that he could hardly remember Chen Lin's appearance, and even his name had become a little vague. (End of this chapter)
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