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Chapter 242 Engagement?

The Gongsun family is not like the Murong family. The Murong family is famous for music and swords, and its courtyard is located in the misty area of ​​Jiangnan. The Gongsun family is located between the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River. The architectural style connects the north and the south, and it looks like a large manor.

After the mechanical boat stopped, there were already carriages and horses waiting for it.

Yaoguang was rather weak at the moment, and she sat in the carriage. Li Guanyi drove the car himself. The horse was quite understanding of human nature, and especially when a unicorn transformed into a long-haired cat lay on the carriage, the horse became even more obedient.

Li Guanyi drove the carriage himself, and he recalled the days when he was with Zhao Dabing at the Xue family. He suddenly missed Zhao Dabing's salt-baked peanuts. At that time, Brother Zhao would definitely take out salt-baked peanuts and strong tea.

Along the way, he chatted about how good his wife's cooking skills were and how delicious the salt-baked peanuts were.

But those days are gone forever.

If the world were at peace, Li Guanyi would be willing to just be a guest official and live a leisurely life like this.

Li Guanyi drove the carriage for a while and passed through two gates.

After getting off the car and looking forward, I saw pavilions, towers, streams, ponds, and rockery, everything you could imagine. In the middle was a tall pavilion that looked more like a family of civil and military officials from the Central Plains than a family of the Jianghu. There were already some servants waiting there.

Judging from his strong muscles and agile steps, he had obviously undergone special training and had martial arts skills. He led all the carriages and horses down swiftly. Li Guanyi and others were led inside by these servants.

However, this group of courtyards has both the simplicity and grandeur of the Central Plains families and the exquisiteness of the south. There is a new scene with every step, and there are hidden ingenuity. Walking across several bridges, Li Guanyi could only see that there seemed to be some key to the formation.

Li Guanyi's attainment in formations is not worth mentioning in the world, but it is still pretty good among the younger generation. It can be seen that there are many formation artifacts in this courtyard. Putting them together, there is a conclusion -

rich!

He is so rich!
At a time of such great changes in the world, there were many powerful warriors in various places, but among the merchants traveling around, there were also a large number of people who had no ability to practice martial arts. For these merchants and their girls, the mechanism of Piaomiao Pavilion of the Gongsun family was a powerful weapon for self-defense.

When it comes to their own lives, many people are very generous.

Gongsun Feixue led her friends to another place and said to Li Guan, "Brother Yaoshi, please come in. Grandma knows you are coming and has already postponed all other matters. She is waiting in the main house. Feixue has to go entertain her friends and will not accompany you."

"Come back and apologize later."

She bowed, quite gracefully, and then left with her friend.

A maid led Li Guanyi and Yaoguang to their place of residence first. Yaoguang and Qilin rested first, and Li Guanyi went to visit the senior. When he entered the house, he saw that the four directions were quite elegant. He heard laughter and said, "Pharmacist came here without telling anyone."

Li Guanyi retracted his gaze and looked over, only to see a woman walking out. She seemed to be in her thirties or forties, with a clear and bright brow, a natural demeanor, a strong internal energy, and sixth-level skills. She wore a long sword on her waist and looked at Li Guanyi with a smile.

Li Guanyi took the initiative to greet him and said:

"Master Li, the youngest disciple of the Grandmaster, pays his respects to the senior."

Gongsun Wuyue said gently: "People in the martial arts world, why do we need to pay attention to these etiquettes?"

She looked at the young Taoist in front of her, wearing a Taoist robe that was a little white from being washed, with his hair tied up with a wooden hairpin. His brows had gradually grown longer, and he looked relaxed and at ease, yet at the same time, he had a kind of calmness that was hard to match by his peers.

It seems to have gone through storms and trials.

This calmness is extremely outstanding among the younger generation.

Gongsun Wuyue asked Li Guanyi to sit down and said with a smile:
"Last year in Zhenbei City, I heard Chengbi mention you, and I wanted to meet you at that time, but then Zhenbei Pass became chaotic, the city lord was killed, and Liufeng returned to Xuelou. It was so chaotic that I didn't have time to look for you."

"When everything was settled, it took a month or so to find you, and no one saw you."

Li Guanyi smiled and replied, "I heard about the chaos at that time. My martial arts skills were average, so I found an opportunity and left quickly."

Gongsun Wu Yue looked at Li Guanyi.

Sensing a mellow inner energy from Li Guanyi, which was faintly majestic, although he didn't know how many levels it was, it was already more mellow and domineering than the inner energy of many old martial artists. He smiled and said:
"This level of skill is definitely not considered ordinary martial arts. If this level of skill is considered ordinary, then what have I cultivated over the past few decades?"

"With such martial arts skills, it's no wonder Chengbi is obsessed with you."

Li Guanyi just held his tea without answering. Curious, he took the initiative to ask:

"But where is Mr. Chen Chengbi? I haven't seen him for a long time."

Gongsun Wuyue smiled and asked, "Him?"

"What can he have?"

"More than a year ago, I chased the great elder of the Yin Yang Rotating Sect for hundreds of miles, and then I got involved in several martial arts events. I had a few good fights and got rid of the frustration I had in Jiangzhou City, Chen State for these years."

"The top ten martial arts masters in recent days have all been included in the list."

"He was originally planning to rub his fists and continue to fight his way up the list of the top ten masters. But then he heard about the sword maniac Murong Longtu challenging the whole world to a fight. With his temper, how could he resist?"

"He just sent me a letter and then ran off to the academy."

"What else is there? 'It will be some time before the Sword Maniac arrives. During this time, Zhongzhou City must be full of experts. Apart from this opportunity, there will be no other good opportunity in the world to gather so many experts together.'"

"'Just thinking about it makes my fists itch. No, no, I have to go there first and fight a few times before the sword maniac...'"

"Then he left. With his stamina, he should have already gone to the academy."

"They should have found a few experts and started fighting."

Gongsun Wuyue seemed to be helpless about the character of his old friend, but when he mentioned it, there was still a hint of smile on his face. Li Guan said, "Mr. Chen Chengbi is like this, he likes martial arts."

"Yeah, that's how it was back then. I liked to find people to fight with and learn from."

"How did you and Zu Wenyuan meet?"

Li Guanyi concealed part of the situation and only said that he and the ancestor had met for a long time and the ancestor taught him the art of divination. He also obtained one of the volumes of "Huangji Jingshi Shu" and the ancestor's inheritance.

Gongsun Wu Yue remained silent for a long time, then said in a gentle voice, "So that's how it is."

"My dear friend, can you let me see your sword?"

Li Guanyi took out the ancient pine-patterned sword from his waist, held it up with both hands, and placed it on the table.

Gongsun Wu Yue stretched out her hand and gently stroked the sword. Although she was over seventy years old, her internal strength was extremely strong, and she seemed to have practiced some secret method. She looked young, and her fingers were also white and slender. She stroked the pine lines on the sword with a hint of sigh in her eyes.

Gongsun Wuyue placed the sword on the table and said:
"Did he... mention me at the end?"

When Li Guan saw the woman in front of him, he didn't say much about the ancestor's final attempt to break the Jiangzhou City with his own strength. However, he felt that if he really said that, it would inevitably hurt others.

So the young Taoist replied gently: "My ancestor never said this to me."

"But when he was gambling with the old Living Buddha of the Western Regions, he mentioned that Miss Gongsun was kind-hearted. It seemed that the two old men got angry about this and started arguing with each other."

Gongsun Wuyue laughed and said, "Given his personality, I think he would never say anything about me. It's hard for you, a child, to rack your brains to think about whether the old Taoist priest mentioned me in a few words."

After all, they were close friends back then, and he could tell at once that Li Guanyi was lying.

Li Guanyi had no choice but to play dumb for a while.

Gongsun Wuyue smiled and said, "But it's no use for him to mention me."

"We are already this age, there is no point in talking about the past."

"But the fact that he gave you the Lingyun Wood doesn't mean he has completely forgotten me." Gongsun Wu Yue also placed his own sword on the table. The Lingyun Wood sword that Li Guanyi owned had an ancient feel, and there were faint pine patterns on the sword body, as well as a clear aura.

Gongsun Wu Yue's sword was as clear as frost and snow, with a straight blade and a faint chill. She said, "This sword is mine and was given to me by him. It is called [Fu Xue Zhi].

【Lingyun wood】

[Ode to Snowy Branches].

Two similar swords, one is like the green pines in the south mountains, the other is like the cold plums in the north. These two swords are similar in length, aura, and blade width. They seem to correspond to each other and be connected in spirit.

Li Guanyi had been with Murong Longtu for more than a year, and he had learned how to appreciate swords. When he saw these two similar swords, he immediately had some guesses. Seeing the melancholy in Gongsun Wuyue's eyes, he pondered for a moment and said hesitantly, "Senior Gongsun and Grandpa..."

Gongsun Wu Yue closed his eyes slightly, brushed his fingers lightly across the sword, and smiled:
"We were almost husband and wife."

Even though Li Guanyi was prepared, this still caused ripples in his heart.

Gongsun Wu Yue stroked the blade of the sword with his fingers, and said in a leisurely tone: "In fact, if you think about it carefully, the fate between him and me was determined when the five of us were traveling together in the martial arts world."

"We are all like-minded, we are chivalrous and willing to live and die together. As for the remaining three people, Brother Zhou is the eldest son of a noble family. He already had a fiancée. He is bold and unrestrained. He is good at using the sickle spear and can defeat anyone who comes his way."

"His descendants are all very promising."

"Among the young generation today, there is Zhou Pinglu in literature and Zhou Liuying in martial arts. Both are considered outstanding. One is a prodigy in the academy at a young age, and the other is a well-known young military officer in Jiangzhou City."

"Chen Chengbi is a martial arts madman, and that little monk is a monk."

"On the contrary, it's me and Zu Wenyuan."

"He is a Taoist disciple, but he doesn't know martial arts. I am from a family of martial artists, the Gongsun lineage, who are experts in swords and mechanical devices, but I don't know swordsmanship. When we fought in the past, Brother Zhou was at the front, the little monk ran around, and Chen Chengbi, the martial arts madman, charged headfirst."

"We both hid in the back, I set up the trap, and he tried to figure out the status. Over time, some feelings emerged, and later we got engaged, which seemed to be a natural progression..."

"only……"

Gongsun Wu Yue looked at the sword for a long time without saying a word. He seemed to be thinking of what happened in the past, the sudden death of his brother, the changes in Taoism, and the young Taoist who laughed loudly towards the sky and ran out with a sword in the falling rain.

At that time, she was dressed in red and stood in the rain, crying like a tearful person.

She said nothing. The Taoist priest did not turn around.

When I was young, I felt that the world was vast, the world was free, I had friends all around me, and the end of the world was at my feet.

But later, when I grew up, the books said that promises should be kept and hair should grow to waist length. However, the books did not say that it is common sense that it is difficult for young friends to continue, that the world is full of storms, and that they will gradually drift apart and disappear.

The five friends who had shared life and death together raised their glasses and drank under the moonlight. They were young and the wind was gentle. They killed a big thief in the city, and the people in the city held a lantern festival. The lotus lanterns swayed in the water, and seemed brighter than the stars in the sky.

They sat by the river, listening to people's laughter and drinking.

The young man's high spirits and the knight's joy in the martial arts world are no worse than anyone else's.

But later, later...

One of them had to return to the palace. The emperor's throne would be unsettled if such a prince with superb martial arts skills were away. The eldest brother had to return to the battlefield and fight with his spear.

His body was damaged several times, and he was the first to die despite his great martial arts skills.

After breaking the Iron Pagoda with his hook-and-sickle spear, the old general returned to the south of the Yangtze River where he and his friends lit lanterns together. In a trance, he heard a piece of music played by a girl at that time on the piano. The old general, who had been a soldier all his life, burst into tears, and this is how the song "Breaking the Formation" came into being.

The little monk wanted to return to his hometown, saying that many people in his hometown did not have enough food to eat.

He said that many people were bullied, and that the monks there had shallow roots and that he was the only one who could save people. He said that he wanted to become a living Buddha, and if they couldn't recognize him after receiving the initiation, don't blame him, because he didn't want that.

Just consider that the little monk at that time was dead.

The mad king drank and entered the court, and the general said, "It is a blessing for a soldier to die on his horse's hide."

The dark-skinned little monk scratched his head and said,
'If I don't go to hell, who will?'

When the Taoist priest and the girl got engaged, none of the three of them came.

Gongsun Wu Yue lowered his eyes, not thinking about these things, but said in a gentle voice:
"You're going to the academy?"

Li Guanyi replied: "I promised the ancestor that I would return his Taoist priest's talisman to tell the Taoist Xiantian that he had glimpsed the Xiantian path in this life, and finally looked back without regret."

Gongsun Wu Yue smiled and said, "I don't regret it. That's what he would say."

"Do you know the current situation?"

Li Guanyi thought for a moment and replied, "I know a little bit."

"Just a little."

"After all, I'm not that old."

Gongsun Wu Yue pondered for a moment, she looked at the young Taoist, and began to explain to Li Guanyi:
"The world has changed drastically. Chen and Ying were originally restraining each other, but at this moment, the Turks are restrained by the third most famous general in the world, and the Western Regions are sent away by the regent. The confrontation between Ying and Chen will not be too far away."

"My Gongsun family has the Piaomiao Pavilion and the mechanical arts passed down by our ancestors."

"For the past three hundred years, I have been wandering around the world, making a name for myself with my sword and mechanical skills."

"It was because our ancestor was feared by the princes and kings because of his power of mechanical devices, and was sentenced to death. The rest of his descendants fled into the martial arts world, hiding their identities for decades before they slowly gathered together and built a family business."

"Because of the teachings of our ancestors, our lineage does not enter the court, and the artifacts made by mechanical arts are also confined to the martial arts world. We do not participate in the struggle between our country and family in order to protect ourselves."

"So, even though I had a good relationship with Chengbi and Brother Zhou, one of them was a prince of the State of Chen, and the other was a general of the State of Chen, we did not side with the State of Chen."

"Under such circumstances, the Gongsun family relied on the Jianghu. Both the Chen State and the Ying State would purchase large-scale machinery and equipment from the Gongsun family through the Jianghu channels. This was also a tacit understanding."

"The two countries allow us to remain neutral. If the Gongsun family leans towards one of them, it will be difficult for us to continue to exist. However, I see that the era of many heroes coexisting is about to end. If the world is pacified, the Gongsun family will definitely not be able to remain unscathed."

Gongsun Wu Yue flicked his fingers over the sword, remained silent for a moment, and then explained:
"At first, my brother wanted to try to introduce powerful mechanical devices into the underworld, intending to use his status in the underworld to protect the family. However, he underestimated the evil of the people in the underworld, and instead led to a bloody massacre of innocent people."

"After that incident, I developed the habit of being the leader of the martial arts world."

"If a warrior has this kind of powerful mechanical device in his hands, it will pose a greater threat to the people."

"A Taoist master secretly tracked down the source of the bloodbath. In the end... my brother felt that he had handed over the public transport mechanism to the martial artists and was responsible for the bloodbath. He committed suicide to apologize. The Gongsun family suffered a huge blow and thus fell into decline."

"The Taoist master didn't expect my brother's reaction either, so he broke his sword and left."

"But he died under the mechanical device."

“That’s Zu Wenyuan’s uncle.”

Li Guan remained silent, but from just these few words, he could hear the turmoil and conspiracy in the martial arts world. He guessed that this incident happened after the old man and Gongsun Wu Yue got engaged. In the blink of an eye, Gongsun Wu Yue's brother committed suicide, and the Taoist master died at the hands of the Gongsun family.

Even Gongsun Wu Yue and Zu Wen Yuan could see the conspiracy and the whole story.

There is no way the two of them will ever be together again.

After a decade, they gradually drifted apart.

Sixty years have passed.

One is one of the twenty-four chief priests of Taoism, highly respected and virtuous, and the other is the female head of the Gongsun family in the martial arts world. In the academy, the Taoist who came from a distant world lowered his eyes to see if he can still see the female hero in this martial arts world.

When Gongsun Wu Yue talked about the past, his tone was much calmer:

"I adopted my nephew as my adopted son. He is Feixue's father."

"The mechanical devices of the Gongsun family can make ordinary people a threat to the warriors who enter the country. If a warrior wants to enter the country, it will take several years or even more than ten years of hard training."

"No powerful ruler would allow Gongshu's mechanical arts to remain in the world."

"I will not allow this force to be out of my control. How do you think the heroes who have the courage and strength to pacify the world will treat us?"

Li Guanyi said, "Senior Gongsun is worried?"

Gongsun Wuyue asked: "How can I not worry?"

"My ancestors have already proven how the unified world will treat people who master mechanical arts. And my brother has paid a sufficient price to protect the family's path with the help of martial artists."

"Grandma, Brother Shi, did you have a good conversation? I saw some good fruits being delivered to the farm, so I brought some for you."

At this time, Gongsun Feixue had already settled her friends and came here to visit her grandmother. Gongsun Wuyue asked Gongsun Feixue to come in. The seventh most beautiful woman smiled lightly, looked at the two swords on the table, then looked at Li Guanyi, and said:

"It looks like grandma and Pharmacist Brother Shi are having a very happy conversation."

Li Guanyi asked how he knew that.

Gongsun Feixue pointed at the mysterious weapon [Fuxuezhi] on the table and said with a smile:

"Grandma, this sword is extremely valuable."

"Normally, he wouldn't even want to be touched, let alone put it directly on the table like this."

Gongsun Wu Yue was helpless. Gongsun Feixue smiled and moved closer to her grandmother. She stretched out her arm and held her grandmother Gongsun Wu Yue's arm, quite intimately. Gongsun Wu Yue patted her hair, looked at Li Guanyi, and said gently:

"The pharmacist probably doesn't know."

"The Emperor of Chen has already gone to Zhongzhou and seems to have sent a thousand-man army here. They must be here with ill intentions. The Motian Sect also wants to occupy the Central Plains and become the leader of the martial arts world. They are also on their way here."

"When the world is in turmoil, the martial arts world will also be in turmoil."

"The Gongsun family is caught in the middle of the waves of the martial arts world and the imperial court. It may seem like a prosperous family, but in fact, we don't know when it will collapse. That's why I asked Feixue to make friends with the children of various martial arts families and wealthy clans."

"I have a suggestion."

The most intelligent woman among the five members of the group smiled and said slowly, "I want to find a home for my family and also for my children."

She picked up the tea and said lightly:
"I will marry Feixue to you."

"How about the mechanical arts of Piaomiao Pavilion and Gongsun's lineage as a dowry?"

Li Guanyi was shocked.

Gongsun Feixue sat up straight, looking at her grandmother in disbelief, and subconsciously shouted, "Grandma?!!!"

Even though she was a woman of Jianghu who had been so graceful, calm, and even talked and laughed with ease before, Gongsun Feixue's temples were still red at this moment, and she looked at her grandmother with shame and anger. However, Gongsun Wuyue did not seem to be joking, and said softly:

"Today, the world is undergoing a great change. The Gongsun family is like a raging fire, and we cannot retreat. Although it may seem prosperous, it is difficult for our family to gain a foothold in the martial arts world or in the world. However, your presence here now gives me some hope."

"How should I call you? How should I call you..."

"He is Zu Wenyuan's disciple, Pharmacist Li."

"still……"

The woman who was once as famous as Chen Chengbi, the Living Buddha, the ancestor of the Zhou family, and Zu Wenyuan looked at the young Taoist sitting there and said softly:
"Marquis Qin Wu."

! ! ! !
Gongsun Feixue suddenly raised her head and saw the young Taoist sitting there, his back straight, a simple wooden hairpin, a bamboo flute hanging at his waist, his blue Taoist robe that was washed to a pale color hanging down, and he was holding a cup of tea. His originally gentle aura seemed to have changed when these three words were spoken.

Like a heavy sword without an edge.

Its momentum is fierce.

(End of this chapter)