The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

When Ding Ning returned to Wutongluo Wine Shop with a cart full of wine jars and wine-making utensils, the afterglow of the setting sun had dyed the green tile eaves dark blue. The roll of silver-gray silk just floated in front of the wine shop and gently landed on his shoulder.

Ding Ning stretched out his hand and grabbed it. It felt cool and delicate, like a piece of jade as thin as a cicada's wing, but it carried an indescribable vitality, as if he was holding a living world.

Zhang Sun Qianxue leaned against the door frame of the back kitchen to peel a pear. The peel cut by the frost blade swirled and fell into the pottery jar, just landing on the surface of the fermenting mash. The mycelium enlightened by the "Taixu Planting Jade Secret" suddenly jumped up and decomposed the pear peel into fine jade stars.

Hearing the door open, she looked up, her eyes fell on the silk in Ding Ning's hand, and her eyebrows raised slightly: "Is this from Zhao Qing?"

Ding Ning nodded and unfolded the fungus silk. The silver mycelium trembled slightly in the air, emitting a faint spiritual light.

He glanced through it briefly: "This is the second level of the 'Taixu Seeding Jade Technique'. It is more profound than the first level. It focuses on condensing a yin and yang symbol and simulating thousands of changes in true qi..."

He paused halfway through his words, a smile appeared on his face, and he bent down to pull out a bundle of bacon wrapped in oil paper from the bottom of the basket. The steaming hot air wrapped in the aroma of pepper and salt spread over the counter, but when it reached within three feet of Changsun Qianxue, it condensed into frost and fell to the ground.

"The smoked ham freshly made by Zhang the butcher in the west of the city." Ding Ning pulled open the hemp rope, and the grease-soaked paper sheets peeled off. "Now I can finally show off my wealth, so I went to the East City to buy 300 kilograms of bitter buckwheat, and Lao Hu's camel hump charcoal in the West Market. When I passed by, I also bought some food."

Zhangsun Qianxue used the tip of her knife to pick up a piece of translucent pear flesh. "The sound of the tiger and wolf army's iron hooves has been making noise for three hours." She stared at the boy's profile illuminated by the firelight. "You have the leisure to wander around."

Ding Ning broke off a piece of pine wood and threw it into the stove. Sparks splashed in the cracks between the blue bricks and made crackling sounds. "The patrol camp has closed seven streets. Even the fishmongers at Zhushui Bridge are saying..." He suddenly lowered his voice and imitated the slang of the market, "It is said that the Chu barbarians are being punished by heaven!"

White mist rose from the earthenware jar on the stove, and the sourness of the fermented koji mixed with the new spiritual energy spread through the window lattice.

Ding Ning scooped up the fermented mash, which was transforming, and found silver light like star sand floating in the amber liquid. "Seventeen silk shops on Chuguan Street were sealed with red lacquer seals, and I don't know how many merchants from other dynasties were arrested. It is said that secret letters colluding with Qi people were seized."

"Are you trying to torture him into confessing? Having lost Li Lingjun as a chess piece, are you going to use the interrogation to bring disaster upon the Qi Dynasty?"

Zhang Sun Qianxue watched as the other party poured another half bag of millet into the jar. The originally gray grains took on a bronze luster the moment they touched the fungus blanket. "A torture instrument tempered with red flame sand, what can't be obtained under Sanmu?"

"Zheng Xiu often uses this method to fill in the gaps for Yuan Wu and squeeze out the last bit of value from the dead..."

Ding Ning smiled coldly, flicked the fungus with his fingers, and the jar rang with a rustling sound like a spring silkworm eating mulberry leaves. "At 3:30 pm, the storyteller in the south of the city began to sing "Li Ling Li Hun Fu", saying that many members of the royal family of the Chu Dynasty were insane, from beggars in the East City to foreign merchants in the West Market. All 27 versions emphasized that 'when the disease attacks, they are like two different people.'"

"Li Lingjun usually does good deeds and accumulates virtues. He only does dirty things when he is sick. Do you believe it?"

"I've heard it before. He's really good at making up stories, but the theory of two souls happens to explain his fickleness."

Changsun Qianxue frowned slightly and casually took two bundles of newly purchased purple fern: "But Zheng Xiu dared to use such a heart-piercing statement as 'many princes of the Chu Dynasty were disabled'. Isn't she afraid that the Emperor of Chu will be furious?"

"This is exactly the brilliance of it." Ding Ning spread the fungus silk on the table soaked in wine. The silver sand revealed the annotations of the second level of the skill along with the water stains. He read it and said, "This morning, I mentioned to you the thirteen county kings that the Emperor of Chu had conferred in recent years..."

Chang Sun Qian Xue's pupils shrank slightly. "I remember you pointed out that seven of them died before they reached adulthood?"

"To be precise, six people died suddenly and one person is missing."

Ding Ning nodded, his expression solemn: "The newly circulated prophecy of 'Li Zhu turned into poison, swallowed the stars and killed himself' is nothing more than Zheng Xiu exposing the most feared secret of the King of Chu to the public. It not only confirms that Li Lingjun is crazy, but also makes the people of Chu suspect that their own royal family, especially the blood of the current King of Chu, is different and contains a curse."

"At the same time, such theories of soul-separation hysteria and schizophrenia leave plenty of room for future reversals. When the deceased Chu hostage became a poor man who was sometimes crazy and sometimes insane, no one could explore his true position. Madman, loyal minister, martyr, it all depends on Yuanwu's needs."

"Both holy and crazy - holy enough to gather the hearts of the people of Chu, crazy enough to throw dirty water at any time." The evening wind brought the noise of the market and squeezed into the window. Changsun Qianxue listened to the night watchman knocking the gong at the hour of Xu in the distance, and suddenly raised her eyebrows: "If this Liling Jun has a posthumous child..."

"To be precise, it is certain that there will be a posthumous child, whether it is genuine or a fake."

Ding Ning seriously corrected the "aunt's" wrong statement: "The dead can no longer speak, and only the living can inherit hatred and power. Therefore, the orphan of Liling Jun will surely appear in due time and become a banner raised by the Qin Dynasty."

Zhangsun Qianxue nodded thoughtfully and dipped the peeled purple fern in the wine: "So, the next move of Yuanwu and Zhengxiu is to bring out this 'orphan'? But will the Emperor of Chu cooperate and believe and acknowledge his existence?"

Ding Ning sneered: "It's not to make the Emperor of Chu believe it, but to give the powerful and powerful families in Chu with ill intentions a suitable excuse - who knows, the hostage orphan who was fabricated this time will be jointly packaged as a rare person who is not contaminated by the 'curse', and become the only 'hope' to cleanse the pure bloodline of the Qing Dynasty."

From deep in the wine cellar came the rustling sound of mycelium growing, and the newly cultivated Taixu yeast was gnawing on the ceramic jars.

After a while, Ding Ning finished reading the entire text and annotations of the skill. "I didn't expect that this second chapter used the wine-making process to explain the movement of the meridians. In the appendix, it also wrote some methods of selecting and cultivating 'different yeasts' and brewing medicinal wine and dew, and they are all low-cost recipes."

"The 'Qinghua Yuzhen Liquid' corresponding to 'Shaoyang Biochemical Bacteria', the 'Dimai Huangting Jiang' corresponding to 'Dunfu Zhenyun Bacteria', and the 'Sutian Mujiang Li' corresponding to 'Shaoshang Sujiang Bacteria' are all more in line with the techniques you and I are practicing... It seems that I have to buy some more mulberry branches and sorghum tomorrow to serve as raw materials for brewing."

He suddenly approached a wine jar nearby and drew the "three steaming and three brewing" runes required for winemaking in the void. The mycelium suddenly burst into brilliant silver light, and the liquid in the jar began to stratify.

The top layer was as clear as glass, the middle layer was covered with light golden mist, and the bottom layer was precipitated with black jade-like crystals. Ding Ning scooped up a spoonful of the middle layer of golden mist and poured it on his left hand. The wine condensed into a soft jade-like cream, exuding a refreshing fragrance.

"Is this the first jar of spiritual wine brewed using the 'Taixu Jade Cultivation Technique'?"

Changsun Qianxue came over curiously, and saw the "wine jade" in the other's palm gradually melted and seeped into the pores along the skin texture. She couldn't help but look surprised, "Can it be absorbed directly? Is it the kind you just mentioned?"

"It's the 'Guangyin Harmony Fungus' that Senior Zhao Qing left behind this morning, which brewed the best 'Taixu Chonghe Drink'..."

Ding Ning felt the warm current of the wine flowing through his meridians and qi sea, and a look of satisfaction flashed in his eyes: "This spiritual wine can harmonize the yin and yang of the internal organs, and is most suitable for your condition of practicing the Zhihan Jue Fa. One spoonful of it is probably worth a magic pill that costs a hundred taels of gold in the 'fish market'."

"But the fire in Li Lingjun's mansion has not been completely extinguished." Changsun Qianxue suddenly said.

Ding Ning added some newly bought Polygonum multiflorum to the wine yeast and looked up when he heard it: "But the people of Changling have already smelled the aroma of the wine." He flicked open the window frame with his fingers, and the evening breeze rushed in with the hustle and bustle of the market...

"Have you heard? When Li Lingjun was ill, he tore off his own skin!" The old man selling wontons at the corner of the alley was knocking on the edge of the pot with a slotted spoon. "It is said that red tentacles drilled out from under his skin, and he was possessed by a demon! He had to burn more than ten stacks of cinnabar 'rebirth mantras' every day!"

"I heard that Li Lingjun will turn into a woman after he gets sick?" Three porters squatted under the eaves opposite and ate pancakes, spitting and pancake crumbs flying everywhere. "A headless corpse floated in the dead river this afternoon, wearing a python-patterned brocade robe from the Chu Zhizi Mansion! This must be a cicada escaping from its shell!"

"You are an old almanac!"

The peddler shook his rattle loudly. "The immortal Li Banxian in the south of the city has made a divination and said that the prince of the Chu Dynasty must be born at the junction of yin and yang... Every one of them is hermaphrodite! Haha, they are simply a group of inhuman monsters! That's why the heavens are angry and sent down fire from the sky."

"No wonder Chu Shang secretly prepared a secret medicine for him..."

"Mrs. Moon hangs the silver shuttle, and a black crow flies out of the Chu Palace..." This is the nursery rhyme sung under the eaves of the neighbor's house.

The man selling pancakes parked his cart opposite the wine shop, and under the tarpaulin there was the faint light of a monitoring array.

Changsun Qianxue suddenly sneered, and frost flowers condensed on her fingertips, freezing all the noise that seeped into the wine jar. The cold air of the Nine Netherworld King's sword quietly climbed up the opponent's shaft, but was stopped by Ding Ning before touching the talisman formation.

"Is that the Liling Lord who assassinated someone last night?"

He winked at his aunt, and wrote "taking advantage of the situation to spread rumors and confuse the audience" on the table with a piece of wine, while deliberately amplifying his voice a bit - with Ding Ning's current cultivation level, he was not able to take care of both voice transmission and normal speech at the same time:

"In my opinion, the red tentacles growing on his face may not be fake. Three years ago, there was a case of a worm fish corpse in Julu County, and Chen Moli, a retainer of the mansion, happened to go there..."

"Is there such a thing?"

"Didn't Chen Moli have a fight in front of my house a few days ago? I went to check it out." Ding Ning explained.

Zhangsun Qianxue sneered knowingly, picked up a piece of pear flesh with her fingertips and threw it at the wine jar: "The other day, the wife of the blacksmith of Dongcheng was possessed by evil spirits. She said that she saw a three-eyed crow flying out of the palace of Lord Liling in the middle of the night. I'm afraid that the ghost witchcraft of the Qi Dynasty has really been learned by this group of Chu people."

The young man suddenly raised his voice and slammed the pottery jar to the ground: "If you ask me, the Chu people are always good at playing tricks!"

The secret agent of Shendujian who was selling steamed cakes was fiddling with the cakes with his right hand absentmindedly, while with his left hand he used the dipping sauce to draw an inconspicuous little hook on his sleeve. Then he continued to sell at Wutongluo for a while before pushing his cart slowly towards the alley.

As the night deepened, the mycelium on the eaves of the wine shop began to secrete clear dew. This spiritual dew containing the energy of the void fell into the pottery jar, transforming ordinary well water into marrow-washing spiritual liquid.

Ding Ning set up the newly bought bronze steamer in the backyard, and the bacteria surging in the steam were transforming buckwheat into the spiritual rice for building the foundation.

When the morning light pierced through the clouds and the last grain of silver sand seeped into the wine, the sparrows on the entire parasol tree suddenly chirped in unison. The metallic luster of their wings startled the cavalry guards patrolling the city and they stopped their horses and looked around - in this ordinary alley, a glimmer of light that could overturn the world was brewing.

…Thousands of miles away, the moonlight was like frost, soaking the misty fog of Yunmengze.

Waist-high reeds rolled up waves in the night wind, revealing the dilapidated beacon tower in the depths - its rammed earth exterior had long been mottled like a python's molt, and only the sixteen bronze rings under the base glowed faintly in the darkness.

As soon as Zhao Qing's fingertips touched the last beast head mechanism, the heavy bronze door slid open silently, and the Pan Chi pattern suddenly came alive: the scales of the Chi beast with a long tail entangled fell off and stood up one after another, as if tens of millions of silver snakes suddenly raised their heads, greedily sucking the moonlight leaking through the gaps in the clouds.

In a moment, green light burst out from the crack in the door, and the blue brick corridor seemed to sink into a glacier, with countless tiny sharp edges roaming on the stone surface.

After passing through the twelve-meter-long dripping corridor and stepping into the inner room, the condensed sword energy flowed over the ankles like a cold spring.

Thirty-six copper pillars with dragons entwined around them rose from the ground, and a bronze lamp tree held by a dragon's mouth hung in the air. Thousands of copper lamps inlaid with gold and snakes suddenly lit up one after another, and the wicks turned out to be fragments of sword tips wrapped in red talismans.

The flame was not an ordinary orange-red color, but rather like extremely cold silver stars jumping on the edge of the blade, illuminating the four walls with a cold and bright glow.

The blue bricks on the dome are covered with dark patterns. Three thousand six hundred Bixi totems are holding their heads high and breathing out. Spiritual sand like broken gold is flowing slowly along the tortoise shell patterns, like a frozen star map.

The jade pendant in the middle was humming, and seven crisscrossing sword marks ran across the plain jade surface, just like the skeleton of a dragon nailed to death in the air.

Back then, the ancestor of the Lu family used three drops of his heart blood to awaken the evil spirit Chiwen. The jade pendant can absorb the sword intent from a hundred miles away. At its peak, the fluorescent light can almost illuminate the entire Yunmeng Lake.

Now the sword marks are still there, but only a faint green mark remains, winding like a dead vine in a tomb.

Occasionally, a firefly would float close, but would be instantly crushed by the black air from the cracks in the jade beads, breaking into pieces that turned into ice crystals that scattered as soon as they touched the ground.

Below the jade beads lay three gilded boxes with animal feet. The seals with coiled dragons on the lids had decayed to a coppery green, but they still held the Lu family emblem - a pair of dragons holding swords.

The black dragon on the left has a single eye as red as fire, and the sword in its mouth is actually outlined with dragon blood ink. Upon closer inspection, the golden lines on the sword are still flowing slowly; the green dragon on the right has its scales standing upside down, and the shadow of the onion sword pierced by its fangs is so faint that it is almost transparent, as if it will collapse in the old dust at any time.

The cover of the "Tai'a Sword Forging Manual" in the box was cracked, revealing the remains of half of the hilt wrapped in gold foil, and the East China Sea crystal embedded in the scabbard had long been covered with spider-web-like white clouds. The silk book, which was more than a foot thick, was covered with cinnabar annotations, and the red dragon blood annotations at some footers were still slowly spreading.

In the main room, where the floor was gilded, a three-foot-thick silk curtain half-covered the seven-layered pinewood sword niche. Several volumes of ancient sword manuals were hanging in the air, turning the pages in a certain rhythm. Tens of thousands of fireflies condensed from sword energy drilled out from the pages, weaving a flowing Milky Way above the Qingshuang Sword Tomb.

The gold-filled casket in the west pavilion has collapsed, and the silver-corroded crossbow mechanism is mixed with moss-covered gold.

The bone-eating leech swimming in the dark channel followed the fresh blood and came over. As soon as it flew into the air, Zhao Qing picked it up and handed it to Song Chaosheng and Guo Dongjiang who were waiting behind.

"The Lu family of Changling in the past should be the descendants of the royal family of Jiang Qi."

After entering this secret place that integrates the Bashan Sword Collection and the Lu Family Ancestral Library, she spoke for the first time:
"Before the current royal family of the Great Qi Dynasty, the Lu family was the ruler of Qi. However, due to the change of time, they had no choice but to flee to the territory of the Great Qin and became one of the old powerful families."

"Sixty or seventy years ago, the last head of the Lu family, Lu Wei, managed to support the previous Qin Emperor to ascend the throne. During this period, he even saved the Qin Emperor's life more than once. In the end, the entire Lu family entered the ranks of the four major families in Changling and possessed an extremely transcendent status."

"But status is ultimately based on strength."

Song Chaosheng sighed with emotion, "At that time, the Lu family only had one upper-grade seventh-level master and two ordinary seventh-level masters. Although they were powerful, they were not qualified to continue to be involved in the vortex of the princes' fight for the throne - the merits of supporting the throne in the past blinded Lu Wei's eyes."

"When the old Qin Emperor passed away, Yuan Wu didn't care whether he was repaying kindness with enmity or not. He immediately joined hands with Zheng Xiu to attack the Lu family and confiscate their property and exterminate their clan. Not only was the huge wealth accumulated by the Lu family coveted, but also because they had a trade conflict with the Zheng family of Jiaodong County."

"Finally, I'm afraid that the last head of the Lu family also knows some secrets of the Qin Ying royal family that cannot be revealed to outsiders."

Zhao Qing glanced at the "Tai'a Sword Forging Manual" and added, "A common man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure. Some secrets, if known, are the way to death. Judging from Yuan Wu's character and his father, the old Qin Emperor may not be an upright person. The Lu family may not be clean to be able to sit firmly on the throne."

"The past is like smoke. Now this ancestral library has been secretly transformed by Lin Zhujiu into the relics of Bashan Sword Field. It is no longer Lu's property." General Guo Dong shook his head and said, "But I don't know where Brother Lin is now, and whether he is still alive."

"Lin Zhujiu was imprisoned in Dafu Water Prison by Yuanwu. The senior told us about this before." Knowing that Brother Guo's brain disease had not yet healed, Song Chaosheng hurriedly reminded him.

"Ah, yes, that's true." General Guo Dong patted his forehead and smiled awkwardly, "Look at my memory, it's getting worse and worse... Last time, the senior said that there was no need for us to charge directly into Changling. What was the reason he used?"

"What she meant was that the sword hanging over the enemy's head is the most dangerous. There is no need to burn all the firewood at once."

Song Chaosheng patiently explained, "For those of us who are half a step into the eighth realm, as long as we are alive, we can occasionally stir up the wind and clouds with our swords to show our continuous improvement in cultivation. This is the greatest deterrence and threat to Yuan Wu and Zheng Xiu. They will always worry about whether a sharp sword will pierce their skulls one day."

“If we really rush into Changling City and try to kill the Qin army that is as numerous as a mountain and a tide, we will really be trapped in a dead end. Even if we can fight to the death with twenty or thirty seventh-level warriors, tens of thousands of tiger and wolf soldiers and the imperial city guards, it may not cause much damage to Yuanwu in the end - after all, the Qin Emperor has officially broken into the eighth level of Qitian.”

General Guo Dong nodded upon hearing this, and sighed, "Old Song, you are right. I was too impatient and always wanted to accomplish my goal in one battle... But why, I remember that it was you who first proposed to kill through Changling and break into the Qin Palace, and I just seconded the proposal and asked to go with you?"

Song Chaosheng's mouth curled up slightly, as if he was mocking himself: "People always change, big brother. Back then, I thought I was riding the highest tide and would soon face a trough, but after a long conversation with my senior, I realized that she could drive the entire sea level to gradually rise, beyond the limit of what I could have imagined in the past."

He looked at Zhao Qing, his eyes full of respect and trust: "Now our lives all depend on you, Senior. Since she said the time has not come yet, then it must not have come yet. Sometimes, living longer allows you to see more scenery, isn't it?"

Zhao Qing did not respond to the gaze, but walked quietly to the three gilded beast-footed boxes and picked up the ancient "Tai'a Sword Forging Manual" and the remains of the sword handle wrapped in gold foil. His white fingers gently stroked their weathered surfaces, as if reading the traces left by the years.

After a long while, she sighed and murmured, "The Tai'a Sword is an ancient divine weapon, its edge is unstoppable, its meaning is unpredictable. Now the refining method is still there, but the sword is broken. Isn't it fate playing tricks on me?"

In the world of Sword Dynasty, although it is quite different from normal history, the sword-making master Ou Yezi still left behind his own legend and forged many top-notch swords. But to this day, no one knows why these two items fell into the hands of the Lu family.

After saying that, Zhao Qing casually lifted the silk curtain, revealing the long-sealed pine sword niche, and took out the rolled up ancient sword manuals one by one.

Their covers are engraved with names and authors, and use ancient seal script to record the practice methods of a certain Bashan Secret Sword and the annotations of later disciples. The strokes are full of profound Taoist rhyme and profound artistic conception.

"The sword spirit here has already withered." She simply flipped through the pages for a moment: "But swords and sword manuals are nothing but dead objects. The one who can truly make them shine is the one holding the sword."

The bronze box on the seventh floor of the sword niche suddenly vibrated when Zhao Qing's fingertips touched it, and green smoke appeared between the bronze lines.

Song Chaosheng suddenly felt a sharp pain in his brow and shouted, "The sword energy is backfiring and has condensed into a sword evil..."

Before he finished speaking, the jade on the dome suddenly shone like a full moon, and the charred part of the dragon bone pattern in the center oozed dark red, like a wound that had not healed for a thousand years and was bleeding again. Zhao Qing frowned slightly, and the blood beads oozing from his fingertips were attracted by the sword intent in the box and turned into thin threads that sank into the lock hole of the Panchi.

"The moon shines on the cold river."

There was no sharpness in her thrusting fingers. The sword spirit that was about to explode was like a young animal meeting its mother, whimpering and curling back into the box. General Guo Dong watched intently as the half-foot-thick bronze box lid silently opened. It was melted by Zhao Qing's sword intent and turned into liquid gold and silver, flowing around the box.

A damp, cold smell of the sea suddenly filled the air, and it seemed as if the undried East China Sea was lurking in the shadows deep within the sword case.

The moment Zhao Qing lifted the dark blue silk, the candles in the entire sword tomb all bent towards the sword case. It turned out to be two ancient swords wrapped in seaweed, lying side by side, with the scabbards covered with coral-like crystals.

The bronze spine of the Que Sword on the left had forty-nine dark red blood grooves, and extremely fine gold threads were flickering under the red rust. The black jade bead in the mouth of the Pan Chi on the hilt was oozing black water.

Zhao Qing bent his finger and flicked it three inches above the sword. Fifteen layers of golden chessboard-like grids suddenly condensed in the void. Upon closer inspection, each longitude and latitude were actually made up of 96,000 incomplete sword symbols that were fitted together end to end.

"Duke Huan's Cong and Duke Tai's Que are indeed these two famous swords from ancient times, the most powerful magical weapons of the ancestors of the Lu family..."

Her eyes turned slightly and fell on the almost transparent shadow of the onion sword on the right.

To ordinary people, it was just a half-melted ice blade, but what was reflected deep in Zhao Qing's pupils were seven layers of overlapping crystal sword lights. Solidified at the core was actually a sea-blue sword ball, and every crack on the surface was entangled with colorful clouds.

There was a sudden thunder in the sky.

Above the abandoned beacon tower, the long-lasting fog was penetrated by the invisible sword energy, and the moonlight turned into a waterfall of light and blasted into the dome of the sword tomb. The jade pendant hanging in the air burst out a series of crisp sounds, and the seven sword marks on its surface suddenly melted away, flowing back to the cold light of the tips of the two swords.

……

(End of this chapter)