What do I want to learn?
Hearing the serious words of Master Zishan, Xu Xian was slightly startled, thinking, doesn't this mean he agrees to cultivate immortality?
Master Zishan glanced at him, then turned his back, looked at the bright moon outside the window, and said proudly: "Master has been practicing for more than 460 years. In addition to practicing Qi cultivation and ascending to heaven, I am also proficient in all worldly skills."
"If you are reluctant to leave this world and do not want to return to the mountains with me to practice in seclusion, I will not force you. I can teach you everything, whether it is music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers and tea, astronomy, geography, classics, history, and literature!"
“…”
Hearing the heroic words of Master Zishan, Xu Xian opened his mouth wide, staring blankly at his tall back shrouded in the moonlight, and suddenly an indescribable shock and admiration surged in his heart.
The skills of the mortal world are all perfect...
Are there really such powerful hidden masters in the world?
If his master was really as he said, a master of classics, history, and literature, then wouldn't he be able to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous teacher, follow his master in annotating scriptures and explaining texts, and then pass the imperial examination and enter the palace in one fell swoop?
Just when Xu Xian began to enjoy his future, he suddenly came back to his senses and frowned tightly.
...Wait, could this be a test from his master?
Although bringing honor to his family through studying is his biggest dream, compared with his master who can go to heaven and earth, fame and fortune in the mortal world is still too insignificant.
Does he really want to give up the opportunity to become an immortal just for fame?
But then again, if practicing Qi to cultivate the Tao meant abandoning the worldly world and returning to the mountains to practice in seclusion, he would be reluctant to do so.
In this way, the young Xu Xian fell into an unsolvable tangle for the first time.
Master Zishan looked at Xu Xian's expression with his spiritual sense and couldn't help but smile in his heart.
At present, Xu Xian is still a young man with uncertain values. Faced with such an important choice at the crossroads of life, it is naturally difficult for him to make a decision.
Master Zishan threw the question to him just to make him think carefully about the consequences of each choice, and at the same time to retreat in order to advance, so that Xu Xian would take the initiative to throw the question back to him, so that Xu Xian would willingly accept his suggestions and arrangements.
Sure enough, after hesitating for a long time, Xu Xian lowered his head and said with a guilty look on his face: "Master, I... I don't know, what do you think I should learn?"
Master Zishan smiled and said, "Do you want to hear my advice?"
Xu Xian nodded repeatedly: "Yes."
Master Zishan said decisively: "Then let's go with martial arts."
Xu Xian was stunned when he heard this: "...Huh?"
Master Zishan turned around, with his back to the moonlight, and said with a smile: "Martial arts are skills of the human world, between immortals and mortals. They can be used as a means to strengthen the body and even gain fame, or they can be used to enter the Tao and ascend to immortality."
"To practice martial arts, you don't need to abandon the secular world and return to the mountains to live in seclusion. If you still want to study, it can complement each other."
"You are an apprentice of Baozhitang and you know some medical skills. You should understand that the stronger the body, the clearer the mind."
"As the saying goes, sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood..."
Under the moonlight, Master Zishan talked eloquently. Xu Xian listened attentively, nodding from time to time, and felt that what his master said was very true.
But deep down in his heart, he always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell the specific reason...
At this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside, and seven or eight hurried footsteps were heard, as if passing by the gate of the courtyard.
Xu Xian was startled and quickly walked past Master Zishan and closed the doors and windows.
Master Zishan glanced out the window, his eyes lit up with a clear light, and through the window he saw the scene in the courtyard.
Xu Xian's brother-in-law Li Ren opened the door, holding a knife in his right hand, and came to the gate of the courtyard angrily.
His clothes were in disarray and his hair was disheveled. It was obvious that he had put them on in a hurry and had not tidied them up.
After the gate was opened, Li Ren called the officers and soldiers outside the hospital and asked them the reason with a stern look on his face.
Master Zishan was curious and listened attentively, then he couldn't help but smile.
He glanced at Xu Xian, who was lying in front of the window and peeping through the crack, and said:
"Good disciple, do you want to know what happened?"
“…”
Xu Xian was slightly startled, and then suddenly realized that he had a master with great magical powers by his side.
He quickly turned around and nodded expectantly, "Yeah!"
Master Zishan laughed softly and said, "The official silver in the Lin'an Prefecture's treasury was stolen. It is suspected that a big thief was responsible. The government is currently trying its best to hunt him down."
...Official silver was stolen, a gangster?
Xu Xian widened his eyes, obviously very curious about this.
Looking at the expression on his face, Master Zishan couldn't help but smile slightly.
It is inevitable that a teenager of this age will become rebellious if he is fooled by moral principles.
It would be better to take him to see it with his own eyes, maybe he will become interested in martial arts.
It would be a pity if a person with lower martial arts talent did not start from martial arts...
Thinking of this, Master Zishan suddenly asked, "Want to go and see it?"
Xu Xian was startled, and subconsciously asked: "What do you want to see?"
Master Zishan smiled slightly and said leisurely, "Jianghu."
…
…
In Lin'an Prefecture, beside the military bridge and outside the Heizhu Lane, teams of soldiers in black clothes, holding swords and holding torches, hurried past.
Tonight, official silver was stolen from the treasury. Although the amount was not large, the thieves were extremely rampant.
After stealing the government silver, he not only stayed on the roof of the warehouse for a while so that he could be discovered by the patrolling officers and soldiers, but also left a note after leaving, verbally challenging the authority of the government.
It happened that Bao Zheng was appointed as the Censor-in-Chief a few years ago, and was in charge of supervising all officials and inspecting prefectures and counties. Now it was Lin'an Prefecture's turn.
At this critical moment, a notorious thief stole government silver at night and provoked the government. How could the people of Lin'an not be angry?
But unfortunately, without the right skills, no one would take on this porcelain job.
Under the siege of numerous officers and soldiers, the notorious bandit escaped easily.
His lightness skill was so superb that it was the best in the world, leaving all the government soldiers and constables only able to look up to him.
Soon, the black shadow quietly came to the alleys, like a breeze quietly passing over the eaves.
Every time he passed a house, the black shadow would take out a dime from his pocket, and then flick his finger, letting the silver coins fall into the houses on the street.
This went on repeatedly, and in just one street, the thief managed to get away with at least dozens of taels of silver.
When he reached the end of the street and was about to leap over from the roof, he suddenly discovered that there were two figures, one tall and one short, standing in another alley not far away.
Among them, the shorter one was a boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old, with a delicate face, a thin body, and an air of bookishness all over his body. At this moment, he was standing in the alley, looking at him with surprise and a little longing.
Behind the young man, there was a tall Taoist priest in purple robe.
He had his hands behind his back, looking calm, with a hint of a smile on his handsome face, and he just stared at him quietly.
The moment the purple-robed Taoist's eyes met, the bandit was startled and inexplicably felt a sense of tension.
But when he came to his senses and took a closer look, he found that this Taoist had flaws everywhere and did not seem to be a martial artist.
"…I guess I'm overthinking it, right?"
The thief looked at the two men suspiciously.
The purple-robed Taoist smiled slightly, suddenly raised his hand and pointed in the direction he came from.
The bandit was startled for a moment, and looked in the direction the purple-robed Taoist pointed. Sure enough, he saw another figure flying over from the roof. His lightness skills were superb and his footsteps were silent. He was only slightly inferior to him.
"Oh no, there's an expert!"
The bandit was startled and immediately prepared to leave.
However, before leaving, he did not forget to bow and thank the Taoist in purple robe, and at the same time, he flicked his finger and shot a piece of silver over.
"call out--"
The broken silver broke through the air and shot accurately towards the corner of the windowsill beside the two of them.
This was done intentionally considering that the two people might not have practiced martial arts.
But what the bandit didn't know was that before the piece of silver was about to hit the windowsill, two fingers suddenly stretched out and accurately clamped the silver in mid-air.
The young man reacted and turned his head quickly. He saw the Taoist in purple robe holding the silver pieces between two fingers, throwing them lightly, catching them with his backhand, and then looking at the young man and winking playfully.
"Ha, there's an unexpected bonus!"
“…”
The young man, or Xu Xian, took the silver in a daze, looked at the silver in his hand that was obviously cut off, and then looked at the back of the thief flying quickly on the eaves in the distance, and couldn't help but say:
"Is he the thief who stole the government silver?"
Master Zishan smiled and nodded, "That's right."
Xu Xian looked up and asked, "He stole the government silver in order to rob the rich and give to the poor?"
"Maybe." Master Zishan turned his head, looked at the black shadow in the distance and smiled, "From the current situation, it is indeed the case, but there may be deeper reasons."
Xu Xian looked puzzled and was about to ask further questions when he suddenly found that he couldn't open his mouth.
Just when he was a little frightened, he suddenly heard a very slight sound of wind.
The next second, a black shadow fell from the sky and landed in front of the two of them.
Xu Xian was startled and almost fell backwards. It was Master Zishan who reached out and held his shoulders to help him steady himself.
At the same time, the heroic young man who fell from the sky was also shocked when he saw this scene, and hurriedly said, "Sorry, little brother, I am a government official, and I am chasing a bandit. I wonder if you two have seen where this bandit has gone?"
Xu Xian was still staring at the other person in a daze, and Master Zishan behind him smiled slightly and pointed.
The heroic young man looked in the direction his finger pointed, immediately bowed to express his gratitude, then jumped up and chased after him.
After flying past several houses at high speed, the heroic young man felt something was wrong and was suddenly startled.
How could a Taoist priest and a young man appear in a place like this in the dead of night?
The heroic young man quickly turned around and rushed away, returning to the alley in the blink of an eye.
But at this time, the alley was already empty. The heroic young man frowned, bent his knees and squatted, reaching out to touch the place where the two had stood before.
"There is indeed a ghost..."
The heroic young man frowned tightly, he couldn't figure it out.
How could he not notice such an obvious weirdness at the first sight?