On a high slope in a deep forest, in the drizzle of autumn rain, a man, wet all over, sat on the ground, with his hands behind his back, smiling faintly.

In the basin below, there is a lively little fox demon chasing blue fireflies. It is wearing red clothes and carrying a small green bamboo bookcase.

"Zhao Rong, are you crazy?" the sword spirit asked patiently.

"People hiding from the rain laugh at people who don't hold umbrellas in the rain and call them crazy. Then in the eyes of the latter, people who hide from the rain are also crazy. Why should they hide?" He asked with a smile in the rain.

"Oh, that's really philosophical." The sword spirit praised sincerely, "Then when will our great sage Zhao achieve enlightenment and ascend to heaven?"

Zhao Rong wiped his wet face again, the smile still on his lips.

"Is there something wrong with my heart recently?" he suddenly asked.

"What went wrong?" The sword spirit played dumb.

"It's just... a somewhat strange feeling." Zhao Rong lowered his eyes to look at the little fox demon below, while trying to organize words to describe a certain change, "I didn't feel guilty about anything before, but these past few days, I've been thinking about it so much that I'm even uneasy."

Gui Yi was silent for a while, then he wiped his face again and said with a smile:

"It wasn't like this when Qingjun Qian'er and I were together before. I was content to eat the free food from you guys, but it's been a little strange these past few days. I even felt guilty and had the idea of ​​escaping from them. The idea was very clear and strong. I wanted to go south with you to cultivate myself."

Gui curled his lips, "Oh, couldn't it be that Young Master Zhao had experienced a desperate situation and his ideological awareness had improved? His moral bottom line had moved up a bit? And isn't this a good thing?"

"It's not a good thing. I can't be the master of the Peach Blossom Sword anymore. I don't even like the soft rice anymore. I have no appetite to eat it. Gui, can you tell me the reason?"

Gui nodded, "Oh, I understand. You said so much because you suspect that I have played tricks on your heart? All to seduce you to go south?"

Zhao Rong reached out to put away the sachet, fearing that the poem inside would get soaked. After thinking about it, he felt that the word "seduce" was not right.

He shook his head and said:

"No, it's not like you forced these thoughts into me. At most, you are just fanning the flames. The thoughts I had in the past few days were all thoughts that came naturally from my heart. There is no trace of artificial carving. Everything happened naturally."

Gui raised his eyebrows.

Zhao Rong was quiet for a while, then stretched out his hand to catch the rain. "Well, to use your words, I have indeed become more of a 'saint', and... the progress bar has suddenly moved forward a lot."

He made a strange metaphor, out of curiosity, "Progress bar?"

Zhao Rong tried to explain: "Since I realized my true nature, my self-cultivation has been gradual. My knowledge and actions have been slowly and orderly integrated. Every time my knowledge improves a little, my actions slowly catch up and I make some small changes. In the process of practicing the increased knowledge, I integrate knowledge and actions, and cultivate myself in this way... Even if my knowledge is a little contradictory to my current life, I can calmly make changes through my actions and cultivate myself slowly."

He looked at his palms, tilted his head in the rain, and tried to describe:

"But in the past few days... have I cultivated one of the aspects of 'self-cultivation' too deeply? My 'knowledge' has improved a lot. I looked around and found that my 'knowledge' and my current life were in great conflict. I felt that it was difficult to reconcile. I even had the strong thought of 'feeling very guilty towards Qingjun Qian'er and feeling that this kind of life is not what I want'. I felt so guilty that I even wanted to escape from this home."

Gui thought for a moment and asked curiously, "I understand a little bit. What Mr. Zhao means is that your moral level has improved too much all of a sudden, which has caused a conflict with your current life. That's why you have been thinking nonsense and running around these past two days? Do you want to take action to make changes?"

Zhao Rong nodded, then shook his head. "That's why I wanted to go south to practice self-cultivation. I felt that my self-cultivation was not enough... Oh, my 'knowledge' suddenly improved in a very strange way, almost overflowing, but my 'action' didn't keep up, and I didn't improve my life to what 'knowledge' wanted."

He laughed at himself.

It is precisely because of this that there is a serious gap between 'knowing' and 'doing'. He has been running around like a headless fly in the past few days, trying to find the 'doing' that can make up for the gap between 'knowing' and 'doing'!

Zhao Rong originally wanted to use the experience gained from going south to make up for the gap between his knowledge and his actions, but Zhu Yourong proposed another method...

Zhao Rong paused and murmured two words.

Gui said expressionlessly: "Oh, you explained so much to me, just to find an excuse for you not to leave now?"

Zhao Rong smiled.

Gui sneered.

Zhao Rong suddenly asked: "Is it related to the nine-headed evil dragon that died in the depths of my heart?"

The sword spirit was startled.

"Is that so?" Zhao Rong narrowed his eyes.

"So you're still thinking about this? I thought that after you survived the disaster, your mind was all on those 'giants'."

"Of the eighty-one evil dragons in the Heart Lake, nine died. Where did they go?" He shook his head.

"Where else could it go? You saw it that day. It was eaten by the demon dragon that was a fusion of the evil dragon and the Great Dao dragon carp."

"What about the dragon?" Zhao Rong asked.

"I beheaded it with my sword, and it transformed into an evil dragon and a dragon carp, and returned to the bottom of the lake and the surface of the lake."

"What about the nine-headed evil dragon that it ate?" he insisted.

The sword spirit thought for a moment and said seriously, "It was digested in the dragon's stomach."

"Digested into what? Or dissolved into what?"

"Power, pure power, this power from the origin of the Great Dao, allows you to become a top-grade warrior in nine breaths, and kill Qin Jianfu in the underground palace of the imperial mausoleum." Gui replied with a frown.

"I know you said that the more powerful the power in the world is, the more it is accompanied by extremely negative emotions. The evil dragon helps me devour all the evil thoughts and negative emotions in my heart and feeds back to me the pure power of the dragon carp. The evil dragon and the dragon carp check and balance each other and become stronger together, but..."

"But now the nine evil dragons are dead," he said.

The sword spirit suddenly fell silent.

"The source power provided by the nine evil dragons after their death allowed me to advance to the ninth level of martial arts." The man sitting on the ground in the heavy rain was extremely calm. "But what about the evil thoughts and negative emotions they represented? Where did they go? Why did they disappear without a trace in the heart lake after the demon dragon died?"

The sword spirit seemed to be thinking as well and did not speak for a while.

Zhao Rong wiped his face again, stood up, and looked up at the rain which was gradually getting lighter.

In fact, he had wanted to ask this question for a long time. Zhao Rong has always had his own understanding of the magical heart lake that the sword spirit built for him.

The original ninety-nine and eighty-one evil dragons in the heart abyss should represent the collection of all the evil thoughts and negative emotions in his heart that are contrary to his conscience and kindness.

After realizing the true nature of their mind and opening up this heart lake, there are eighty-one of them in total, and they are constantly growing, but there are corresponding dragon carps suppressing them.

But now, after the magic dragon ate the nine-headed evil dragon and died, nine of its evil thoughts and negative emotions disappeared out of thin air, leaving only seventy-two, which is equivalent to one-ninth being gone.

According to the simple principle of correspondence and complementation, if the "ultimate evil" in one's heart is reduced by one-ninth, then the "ultimate good" will be increased by one-ninth.

This was also the reason why Zhao Rong and Gui had just analyzed that the progress bar of his "knowledge" had increased significantly, and it was also the reason why he had concluded that his mind was abnormally fluctuating in the past few days after calmly thinking in the heavy rain.

All of this was questioned by Zhao Rong at this moment.

Because both the Nurturing Dragon Heart Lake and the Magic Dragon Manifestation Technique were provided to him by the sword spirit, he should know them best.

At this time, Gui Mama Huhu also gave an explanation.

It pondered and said, "I am not too sure. The two sets of outer-world skills I gave you came from that outer-world warrior and the magic dragon. I just modified and improved them to make them suitable for our Xuanhuang people to practice. Logically, their great path should be feasible."

The sword spirit nodded, "I think... maybe their great ways complement each other! After you practiced two sets of skills at the same time, at some point, they offset the evil thoughts and negative emotions represented by the nine-headed evil dragon itself."

"Really?" Zhao Rong frowned and asked, "Will there be any unknown hidden dangers?"

Logically speaking, a normal person should be happy if the evil thoughts and negative emotions in their hearts can be reduced. After all, being able to become more kind and upright is what people hope for.

Although in the past few days, his character has improved a lot due to the sudden disappearance of evil thoughts and negative emotions, which has led to various contradictions and troubles.

But for Confucian scholars, it is a dream come true.

As long as Zhao Rong can properly handle this contradiction between knowledge and action and resolve or alleviate the sequelae of the sudden elevation of his conscience, his self-cultivation will be greatly improved, and he may even be more perfect than some gentlemen who have cultivated themselves for many years in Confucian academies. It can be said that he has reached the realm of self-cultivation of a Confucian gentleman.

Therefore, Zhu Yourong's admiration and sincere praise for his self-cultivation in the tomb passage not long ago was enough in a sense.

As far as Zhao Rong knows, in Confucian temples and academies, in addition to focusing on the realm of learning and the realm of cultivation, they also pay great attention to the realm of self-cultivation. Scholars, first-class scholars, gentlemen, etc. all have corresponding self-cultivation requirements, so many academies have those gentlemen who have no spiritual energy cultivation...

But at this moment, even in the face of these foreseeable benefits, Zhao Rong was still worried.

Because this is inconsistent with his worldview that yin and yang coexist and good and evil go hand in hand.

At this time, Gui nodded and replied: "At present, your heart lake is still stable, the evil dragon and the dragon carp are doing their job, and the water in the heart lake is still as clear as a mirror. I have been watching you all day long, but I haven't found any hidden dangers. Besides, you are the only one in this world who takes this path. While assuming the benefits, you also have to bear the unknown risks. Be the first person to eat crabs."

Its motivation was not as strong as Zhao Rong's. He shook his head, feeling that the sword spirit still hadn't answered his most fundamental doubts.

"Gui, is there really such a good thing in the world? And I got it?" He asked doubtfully, "Using your heaven-defying magic dragon technique, not only can it allow me to enter the Nine Breaths Rank in a critical moment, but it can also completely destroy the evil dragon in the Heart Lake without leaving any hidden dangers?"

Gui Si also felt that what Zhao Rong said was a bit unreliable.

It glanced at the calm lake of its heart and whispered, "Well, it is very likely that the martial artist from outside the realm and the dragon's avenues really complement each other, resulting in the cultivation methods complementing each other, achieving this magical effect that can be called creation."

Gui nodded, and suddenly felt more confident. "Zhao Rong, why don't you thank me for my kindness? I think you are the only one in the world who has this kind of opportunity."

“…”

Why do I always feel like I’m the only guinea pig?

Zhao Rong frowned. For some reason, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that his own sword spirit was unreliable.

He is not that easy to deal with.

Just when the sword spirit was about to take the opportunity to proudly recall his past glory.

Zhao Rong suddenly asked, "Doesn't that mean that if I let the Dao Dragon Carp dive into the Heart Abyss and let the evil dragon eat it, and a demon dragon is born, and it comes out a few more times and consumes 72 breaths, then all the evil dragons in the Heart Abyss will die, and all the evil thoughts and negative emotions in their hearts will be eliminated?"

The atmosphere between the two of them suddenly became quiet.

This is a very bold idea, the results are very tempting, and there are no visible risks at present.

Wow, he really understands this set of skills.

Zhao Rong rubbed his face and said speechlessly: "Then I will become a saint, right?"

Directly cultivate oneself to the realm of a saint?

Gui raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Not entirely true, because in the end there will still be an evil dragon left, because it can't eat itself. But it's almost there. The evil thoughts and negative emotions in your heart have been reduced to the extreme. You can probably cultivate your character directly to a certain ceiling level..."

"Also, you can't let the magic dragon eat all the evil dragons at once. Its body can't handle it all at once. You can only let the magic dragon appear for nine or eight breaths each time, and then recuperate for a while, slowly..."

It paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement, "But it is very promising, Zhao Rong. How about... let's give it a try?"

For some reason, there was a hint of tentativeness in the sword spirit's tone.

Zhao Rong: “…”

Die if you try?

Why do I always feel that the advice from my own sword spirit is a little unreliable?

Zhao Rong felt like a creature called "programmer" in his previous life: Well, if the code can run, don't touch it...

The cheap sword spirit is probably thinking: Hey, I don't know how these two sets of skills can work so magically together. No, I can't touch it. Just let the sword master try. (Confident and arrogant face)

The corner of Zhao Rong's mouth couldn't help but twitch.

But their belief is "as long as one of the person or the code can run, it's fine", but you, a cheap sword spirit, are different from them.

The Sword Master warned the Sword Spirit earnestly, "Gui, you can't run away." It seemed as if he was afraid that it would forget that the two of them were deeply bound together.

Gui was immediately unhappy. "What do you mean you can run away? Are you still worried that I will run away? Will I harm you?"

Just as Zhao Rong was about to nod, it added in a muttered voice, "If I could run away, I would have run away long ago. Why am I serving you until now?"

“…”

The two then discussed for a while, but still no substantial results were achieved.

At this time, Gui Zheng said comfortingly:

"Let's put this aside for now. I will help you watch over the Heart Lake... The evil thoughts and negative emotions of the disappeared nine-headed evil dragon may just be temporarily existing in another form that we don't know about. After a while, it will reappear in the Heart Lake and transform into a new evil dragon... I just want to study this, so let's wait and see."

It sighed softly: "This avenue is so mysterious, there are many things I don't know, and it's hard to explain."

"OK."

Zhao Rong nodded.

But his brows were not relaxed.

He felt that something was wrong.

…