Chapter 4 You Know More A month has passed since Mei Cheng'an moved to Zhuangzi. After breakfast, Mei Cheng'an came to the plum blossom pile with a wooden sword in hand. He used the method of using true qi taught by Wang Qinian to infuse true qi into his legs. He bent his legs slightly, and jumped onto the plum blossom pile in the blink of an eye. After standing still, he took a deep breath and began to practice swordsmanship on the plum blossom pile in coordination with his footwork. I practiced it three times before stopping. Now he is still used to walking on the plum blossom pile, as if it were flat ground. "Old Xie, how is it?" "So-so?" "Have I passed this level? Can I proceed to the next step?" "That's right, the next level is to practice with me!"
After saying that, Xie Bian also jumped onto the plum blossom pile. The two stood facing each other. "Watch out, I'm about to make a move!" Mei Cheng'an was indeed a little flustered. After all, he had never fought against anyone since he learned sword. Upon hearing this, he focused his mind and stared at Xie Bian. Xie Bian stabbed Mei Cheng'an in the face with a sword. The speed of the sword was beyond his expectation. Mei Cheng'an was startled and subconsciously raised his head and swung his sword to block it. It’s not known whether Xie Bian’s sword could block it, but Mei Changan slipped. Just as he was about to fall off the plum blossom pile, Xie Bian stepped forward and grabbed him at the critical moment. The two stood still again. "Are you scared?" Mei Cheng'an is talking nonsense. Your sword is so fast, who wouldn't be afraid? "Kind of!" "Don't rush into sparring yet. Your mind isn't calm enough, and it's not strong enough." "Then what to practice?" Xie Bian dodged and flew down the plum blossom pile, returned to his residence, and came out after a while holding a black cloth strip. He jumped onto the plum blossom pile and handed him the black cloth. "Put it on and blindfold yourself." "Ah? I'm scared even with my eyes open, wouldn't it be even scarier if I covered my eyes?" "Don't practice with me yet. Wait until you learn how to practice sword moves on a wooden stake with your eyes blindfolded." Mei Cheng'an nodded, blindfolded himself, and tied the cloth strip tightly behind his head.
Without the aid of vision, he felt that the plum blossom pile, which he had thought he was extremely proficient in, became extremely unfamiliar, and he didn't even dare to move a step. After standing for a long time, he took a tentative step, but he stepped on empty air. In panic, he grabbed onto two wooden stakes and managed to avoid falling. After he stood firm again, he tried again, this time stepping on the wooden stake he had just held, silently memorizing the positions and heights of the stakes in his mind, and then he stepped on the next one. After countless times of stepping on empty air and falling off the wooden stake. Before dinner, Mei Cheng'an was finally able to walk slowly on the wooden stakes with his eyes blindfolded. A week later, Mei Cheng'an was finally able to practice swordplay blindfolded on the plum blossom pile proficiently. He overcame his fear of the unknown and the dark. Next, Xie Bian's training for him was to make him stand on a wooden stake with his eyes blindfolded. Xie Bian waved the sword in front of him. "Feel good!" A sword thrust out. "Where is the sword? From which direction is it coming?" “Ah, this…” “Stay focused and feel it with your heart!” Another sword stabbed. "Stab in front of you." "Wrong, try again!" After Xie Bian stabbed more than ten times, he finally felt a little bit of pattern. There were slight differences in the sound of breaking through the air from different directions, and the direction of the weak wind caused by the sword was also different. He stabbed in the direction he felt with his wooden sword, and sure enough, he hit Xie Bian's sword. "Here is the sword, stab me from behind!" "Not bad!" Mei Cheng'an finally guessed it right and was almost moved to tears. "continue!" "The sword is here, stabbing from the front." "Correct, keep going!" As the trial progressed, Mei Cheng'an's five senses became increasingly sharp. Later on, as soon as Xie Bian's sword moved, he could accurately sense where the sword was coming from and stab in that direction with his own sword. His sword was also getting faster and faster.
There were several times when Xie Bian almost couldn't hold on. "Okay, now you've passed this level. Do you have the courage to spar with me now?" Mei Chengan nodded. Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Two people were fighting fiercely on the plum blossom pile. Their figures flashed everywhere on the plum blossom pile. The crisp collision sounds produced by the crossing swords were extremely dense but distinct. Mei Cheng'an blocked the sword that was stabbing at his back with a wave of his hand, bent his left leg slightly, squatted down suddenly, and snatched away Xie Bian's sweeping sword again. Xie Bian calmly drew his sword again and stabbed Mei Chengan's left leg. Seeing that he couldn't dodge in time, Mei Cheng'an simply pulled his left leg off the wooden stake, twisted his body, and suddenly supported the wooden stake with his left hand. Then, with the recoil force, he dodged to the shorter wooden stake on the other side. While standing firmly on his right foot, he immediately twisted his body and stabbed back. The long sword was against the left side of Xie Bian's neck, but at this time, Xie Bian's sword was much farther away from his neck. The two men put away their swords and stood up again. "Old Xie, are you letting me?" Xie Bian shook his head and jumped down the plum blossom pile. Mei Chengan followed closely behind. "Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean by shaking your head?" Xie Bian looked at Mei Chengan helplessly: "I didn't give in, I did lose!" How could Mei Chengan possibly believe it? "Are you kidding? How long have I been learning from you? How can I beat you?" Xie Bian's face was not very good. After hesitating for a long time, he said: "You are more talented than me!" Mei Chengan couldn't help but think when he heard this: "How come I don't know that I have talent?" Then he looked at Xie Bian with a smile: "Old Xie, you have learned bad things from Wang Qinian. It's really hard for you to come up with such a reason to praise me. Tell me, what do you want to ask for?" Xie Bian shook his head: "I'm leaving!" "Go? Where to?" "There is a noble mansion looking for retainers, I want to give it a try." Mei Cheng'an was really stunned. When the words "noble guest" and "retainer" were put together, it was hard not to associate them with the second prince. "Are you serious?" Xie Bian nodded. "when are we leaving?" "Now!" "So urgent?"
Xie Bian remained silent. Mei Cheng'an felt that Xie Bian should have made up his mind and there was no point in saying more. "Then wait!" Turning back and waving, Xiaomei stepped forward. Mei Cheng'an said a few words in Xiaomei's ear, and Xiaomei turned and left. After a while, Xiaomei came over holding a square box. Mei Cheng'an took it and handed it to Xie Bian. "I had originally intended to give it to you as a New Year's gift at the end of the year, but I didn't expect you to leave so suddenly. It's just right, I'll give it to you as a parting gift." "what is this?" "You'll know if you open it and take a look." Xie Bian opened the box and found a long sword inside. The scabbard and hilt are all black, covered with strange golden patterns, making them look noble and mysterious. Xie Bian carefully put down the long box, picked up the sword with his left hand, and held the hilt with his right hand. Canglang drew out his sword with a loud sound. The sword was three feet and two inches long, thin and narrow, and less than an inch wide. The patterns on the sword were extremely rare ice cracks produced by forging and folding. The whole sword was blue and white, and it looked extremely beautiful. Xie Bian's eyes were almost sparkling with stars, which showed that he liked this sword very much. He casually made a sword flower, and the sword made a strange and mysterious sound of breaking through the air, which was very pleasant to hear. Xie Bian raised his head and looked at Mei Chengan in disbelief. "Good sword. Are you sure you want to give it to me?" "Yeah, this is for you!" "It's not appropriate. No reward without merit!" Although he said this, the strength of his grip on the sword did not decrease at all. "Oh, forget it if you don't want it. Give it to me." As he was about to grab the sword, Xie Bian refused to let go, and Mei Chengan almost laughed out loud. "Alright, I know you like it, so I'll give it to you. Don't be so hypocritical. Besides, I can't use this sword if I take it back." Xie Bian was puzzled. "Look at the sword tail." Xie Bian lowered his head and took a closer look. Unexpectedly, I saw the three words "Xie Bian" carved in dark patterns on it. Then I suddenly realized what was going on and was deeply moved at the same time. When I turned to the back, there were actually five words on it, which were "One Sword Breaks Time."
"One sword breaks time, what does that mean?" "Aren't you wielding a fast sword? What sword is the fastest? The sword that pierces through time is the fastest. Do you like this nickname I'm giving you?" Xie Bian was so moved that he opened and closed his mouth several times but no words came out. He didn't know what to say, as if it was shameful to say thank you. Mei Cheng'an didn't bother this taciturn guy anymore. "Okay, no need to say more, have a nice trip." Xie Bian left so suddenly. When Wang Qinian came back from hunting, he saw that Mei Chengan had stopped practicing sword and was lying alone on a bamboo chair, sighing. "Where's Old Xie?" "I'm leaving. I'm going to the noble mansion to apply for a retainer." "So sudden?" "Who said it wasn't? It was so sudden." "You didn't keep him?" "Stay? How can I keep him? I can't provide him with what he wants. Besides, this old Xie deliberately lost to me just to leave, and then said that I am more talented than him. Isn't this bullshit? He can even make up such a reason. It doesn't matter whether I stay or not. He has made up his mind to leave." "I feel that what Old Xie said is right. Young Master, you are indeed very talented. Just talking about Qinggong, I, Old Wang, believe that my Qinggong attainments are among the best in Qing Country. You mastered and applied it incredibly quickly, much faster than I did when I was learning Qinggong." "Okay, Lao Wang, stop trying to fool me. If I fool you one day, where are you going to get money from?" "Hey, young master, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. How can this be called asking for money? Every gift from you is a token of your love for Qinian." Mei Chengan rolled his eyes. "Come on, Lao Wang, stop joking. Come on, is there anything else you haven't taught me? I've been so good to you, I can't hide it from you." "Qinian can't teach anything more about Qinggong." "really?" "really!" "Then why are you still hanging around here with me? Are you just collecting a salary for nothing?" Wang Qinian was anxious: "I'm still teaching you how to ride a horse and hunt!" "If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten. I always caught a lot of prey, but why is it that every time I come back, more than half of it is missing? Tell me, where did you hide the prey?" "Hey, don't talk nonsense. I distribute it fairly. The more you work, the more you get." “That mountain is my home!” "The mountain is yours, but the prey may not be yours. What if it ran to your place from another mountain?" "Hey, you're just trying to argue!" "Hehe, I know you don't care about this little thing, if you don't want to give it to me, you would have said so a long time ago. Why do you have to wait until now?"
Mei Cheng'an pointed at the grinning Wang Qinian in annoyance. "You know better." (End of this chapter)
