As the autumn came to an end in the third year of Shending in Dazhou Empire, an autumn rain finally fell in Baiyu Town.
It was just an autumn rain and it was not supposed to be a big deal. But rain was scarce in Baiyu Town and it was even rarer during autumn. This time, however, it had rained for three days straight.
The rain did not seem like it was going to stop anytime soon.
In the autumn rain, there was a teenager holding an oil-paper umbrella, strolling at an alley in front of a small yard, located just at the east of Baiyu Town. Not many people were around this deserted alley and if people happened to pass by him, they would notice that the teenager beneath the oil-paper umbrella was actually frowning.
“This stupid weather is just so damn… rare.”
He was clenching his teeth.
Baiyu Town was located at the southwest border of Dazhou Empire. It was a small and veritable remote town. There were around a few hundred households in that ordinary-sized town. Though there were quite a lot of families there, after so many years, it would not be a stretch to say that everyone in that town was somewhat related to each other.
However, this teenager did not have a relationship with any of the families in the town. He had no relatives and no friends, and he wasn’t from the local families in Baiyu Town. The people in town only knew that someone had dropped him off at the town during a winter when he was seven or eight years old. The person left a pouch of silver ingots and had bought a house for the teenager, who was still a kid back then. After leaving some silver taels behind, the stranger left by himself. The people in the town were puzzled because they thought that there was no way the kid could live through the winter season but they were mistaken. Not only did the kid manage to survive the winter, he even managed to find a job after he had finished spending the remaining silver ingots.
It was rumoured that in the years of Chuping in Dazhou Empire, this Emperor of Dazhou had a conversation with an imperial messenger of a great dynasty which was many times bigger than the Dazhou Empire in the city of Shaoliang. The Emperor told him, “If you give me a hundred years’ of time, I will expand the Dazhou Empire’s territory by tenfold.”
These were ambitious words, and the messenger just smiled.
Perhaps he did not want to destroy the Emperor’s dignity or maybe he just did not take the Emperor’s words seriously.
Some people respected the Emperor’s bravery while some just mocked the Emperor for overestimating himself by comparing him to an ant that tried to shake up an entire tree.
So how did the story of Shaoliang City manage to reach Baiyu Town in the Dazhou Empire which was thousands of miles away?
Of course it had to do with those storytellers.
The people of this country loved listening to the storytellers because those mighty human cultivators in the stories would never appear and show their strengths in front of them. Plus, the appearance of the cultivators of this country was always a rare sight to begin with. Thus, they could only use their imagination based on what was told by the storytellers.
Moreover, there weren’t just cultivators involved in the storytellers’ tales.
Baiyu Town had a few restaurants and there was a storyteller in each restaurant. These storytellers would share their stories every afternoon in a restaurant and the storytellers in each restaurant were very different. They had different personalities and characters so some of them could have three to five sessions per day, some two to three sessions while some only had one session in a day. Their stories were mainly about mountain fairies and wild demons; and how the human cultivators fend off evil and spread kindness. Even if the stories were different, their plots were still similar.
The Dazhou Empire was in the southwest and was located in a remote area. Its territory was not that big and Baiyu Town was even smaller. These storytellers did not have the chance to broaden their horizon or see for themselves what was outside of Baiyu Town. Once they kept repeating the same hearsay stories, their same old stories could no longer capture the people’s hearts and they were bound to get sick of those few stories that were just too cliché.
Thus, the young kid sold the stories from his memories to those storytellers back then like some form of commodity and that was how he managed to survive.
The people of Baiyu Town knew that this kid was not a local and that he was a foreigner but they did not understand how a seven or eight-year-old kid could retain so many memories in his mind. He had shared his stories for a whole five years.
During those five years, the storytellers were amazed by the teenager’s stories. The stories he told had never been heard before and none of the stories were similar to one another. Through these stories, the kid managed to survive in this small town.
As he grew older, the teenager had become a storyteller himself.
Now, everyone in Baiyu Town knew him as Li Fuyao.
He was the youngest storyteller in the town and he was not even 16 yet.
To officially reach adulthood at the age of twenty in the Dazhou Empire, Li Fuyao was still four years away.
His surname was Li and his name Fuyao was taken from a sentence in the Taoist Classics ‘Free and Easy Wandering’ [1], “When the Peng (a type of bird) journeys to the Southern Sea, the waters are roiled for 3000 miles. He beats the whirlwind and rises 90,000 miles.”
Li Fuyao knew about these legends when he picked that name but he did not care about it.
At this moment, this teenage storyteller was holding an oil-paper umbrella as he crossed the road to go to the restaurant. He reached the restaurant’s entrance but he suddenly stopped in his tracks; he did not seem to be in a hurry to enter the restaurant.
There was a young male servant in front of the restaurant entrance holding a green, long gown in his hands; he had been waiting there for quite some time.
The servant saw Li Fuyao standing outside the restaurant for quite long and did not look like he was planning to enter the restaurant. The servant did not know why he was behaving in such a manner but he knew that the owner of the restaurant was nagging him to hurry. So, the servant put on a bold face, went up to him and asked politely, “Mr. Li, the people are waiting for you upstairs, is there something you have yet to settle?”
Li Fuyao was standing under the roof while he closed his oil-paper umbrella and passed it to the servant beside him. He then asked the servant, “How long is this rain going to last?”
He was met with silence.
The servant was troubled because how could he know how much longer it was going to rain for?
He glanced at Li Fuyao but he did not respond to his question.
Fortunately, Li Fuyao did not utter a single word and just took the green, long gown from the servant and went into a changing room that was reserved specially for him.
…
The decorations at the second floor of the restaurant were minimalistic. Besides a long wooden bench and a huge elm-wood table in the middle of the grand hall, the other decorations were similar to the ones on the first floor. There was a small jug of wine and a gavel on the elm-wood table but the storyteller had not arrived yet.
People of all ages and genders were there at the restaurant. The small town was only that big and of course they knew about the teenage storyteller’s temperament so they did not dare to complain about it. It was already getting late and they were just wondering why the teenager still hadn’t showed up.
The restaurant customers who were there to listen to the storyteller made those teenage girls among the crowds who weren’t initially there for the storytelling stand out. The girls looked antsy but their hands were just under the table, rubbing the corners of their clothes nervously as they tried to suppress the look of urgency on their faces.
The other people were there for the storytelling while these girls were there for the storyteller.
Time slowly passed and Li Fuyao finally showed up fashionably late, wearing a slightly oversized green gown. He walked to the centre of the grand hall and sat on the long bench.
The teenager turned his head calmly to face the restaurant crowd and apologised, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Bang!
The sound came from the gavel banging forcefully onto the elm-wood table.
The clash between the table and the gavel gave everyone a startle and their attention turned to him.
This was what the gavel was for.
Li Fuyao cleared his throat and raised his voice slightly. “Previously, I talked about those demon foxes that loved seducing the poor scholars who spent the night in the woods. So does anyone know how those demon foxes seduce them?”
After he asked the question, the second floor’s crowd quickly became tumultuous. Some said that those scholars were fakes and they could not resist the temptation while some said those demon foxes only loved preying on scholars. All of them had their own opinions and they just talked non-stop.
The teenager who was sitting in the middle of it all waited for the chattering to calm down then he slowly cracked a smile. “Why would they seduce those poor scholars? Because they were poor; if they had been rich, why would they be spending their night in the wilderness? If they were not staying in the woods then stories like this will not exist in this world anymore.”
The crowd burst into laughter after hearing Li Fuyao’s explanation. They had heard so many stories from storytellers but they had never heard such an explanation before.
The few teenage girls blushed after they heard his explanation but they gazed into Li Fuyao’s eyes with a look of pure admiration.
Li Fuyao chuckled and he raised his bowl of wine to have a mouthful before he continued.
He had been telling stories in this restaurant for quite some time and he knew the ropes here. Also, the stories in his mind were far more than the other storytellers and that was why people in Baiyu Town loved to listen to him.
...
At the second floor, Li Fuyao improvised the stories in his mind and brought them to life. His stories captured the attention of so many people but the owner of the restaurant did bother to listen to them. He was leaning against the door at the entrance, staring at the autumn rain. He was calculating inside his heart how much silver taels he was going to pay Li Fuyao after this. Although that teenager brought in business for him every time he came here to tell his stories, he was also splitting quite a huge amount of the silver taels with Li Fuyao.
After being silent for quite some time, the restaurant owner suddenly spat out his saliva for some unknown reason. Just as he lifted his head, he saw two oil-paper umbrellas, a big one and a small one, getting closer toward the restaurant in the rain.
A middle-aged man who was wearing a green gown held a young lady’s hands as they walked underneath the roof.
The middle-aged man looked at the restaurant owner who was guarding the entrance and asked calmly, “Are there any seats left?”
On usual days, the restaurant owner would welcome customers with open hands but he was now stunned after looking at these two unfamiliar faces. He only nodded after some time and replied, “Yes.”
[1]: Free and Easy Wandering is a representative work of the philosopher and writer Zhuang Zhou during the Warring States Period. It is listed as the first chapter of the Taoist classic " Zhuangzi ·Inner Chapter", which can be used as a representative of the book "Zhuangzi" both in thought and art. The theme of this article focuses on pursuing an absolutely carefree outlook on life.
The man in the green gown walked up the stairs with the young lady and coincidentally they stumbled upon Li Fuyao who had just finished his first story. He was having some wine to quench his thirst when he saw the two strangers—the green-gowned man and the young lady—sitting at a table by the window and for this, he was surprised. Baiyu Town was such a small place and Li Fuyao had recognised almost every face in this town since a few years ago. Plus, the customers that came to the restaurants were always the usual people and even if there were newcomers once in a while, those were also the town locals. However, he had never seen those two people right in front of him. The man in the green gown sat by the window and looked to the center of the grand hall. His eyes met with Li Fuyao’s. As they stared at each other, the man in green greeted him with a nod and a smile. Li Fuyao returned the courtesy and nodded back. After that, he did not linger around and co
The tea on the wooden table had gone cold and the teenage storyteller had left a while ago. However, Yan Yu was still in his seat, sitting by the table as he thought about the last sentence the teenager had said. “Since it is fate that you and I met today, we can just talk our hearts out but I am not hoping to gain your sympathy through this nor am I proving my talent as a young successor of cultivation so that you can bring me along the path of cultivation. It is just that I have been staying at this place alone for so long, and to meet an outsider by coincidence, I can’t help but to recall my past. I felt a hint of regret not being able to enter the Confucian Temple at that time but now I am not that willing to try my luck anymore.” Those last words from Li Fuyao before he left seemed prosaic but Yan Yu could vaguely feel that there was a sense of pride behind his words. He turned his head to look at the autumn rain outside and his mind d
After living with Qing Huai for some time, Li Fuyao quickly realized this decent-looking girl was well-mannered and she was not as scheming as he had thought, besides the fact that she indeed had a good cultivation base. After living with her for a few days, Li Fuyao felt that Qing Huai was not so different from the girls at her age after all. Li Fuyao could breathe a sigh of relief because if she had been like the merciless demon in those legends, his life would be on the line already. He still went back and forth like usual between his house and the restaurant these few days. The autumn rain had yet to cease and Mr. Yan was still waiting for him at the restaurant every day. However, Li Fuyao did not engage in any conversation with him anymore and only gave him a nod as courtesy whenever they met. Li Fuyao had actually asked around secretly and found out that Mr. Yan was already staying in the hotel. He did not seem to be in a hurry to leave and Li Fuyao did not inqui
Yan Yu quickly realized he had been wrong all these while. He thought it was the presence of the snake demon which caused the continuous rainfall in this small town. However, he just came to his senses that the snake demon was only at the Fundamental Stage, and even if the green snake had become a demon, it would never reach the stage where it could command the Heavens and the Earth. Hence, this autumn rain was clearly not a phenomenon caused by the green snake. Nonetheless, he had checked the district annals and he knew that there should not be such a downpour during autumn for this place. The autumn rain was abnormal but it had nothing to do with the snake demon. Thus, it must have been caused by something else. However, Yan Yu could not figure out the real reason. He only knew that he was certainly no match for a cultivator who could cause such a phenomenon. This was why his face had turned ghastly. Nevertheles
Li Fuyao was holding the medicines and an umbrella in his arms as he fled. He did not even notice the autumn rain had stopped. He pushed open the wooden door to his yard and breathed a sigh of relief after shutting it. He leaned against the wooden door and was breathing heavily. After a while, just when he was about to lift his gaze, he saw Qing Huai standing right in front of him. He was unsure of how long she had been standing there as she just stared at him. He did not wait for her to initiate a conversation. Li Fuyao beat her to it and asked first, “Are you demons scared of swordsmen the most?” Qing Huai was slightly puzzled but she still nodded her head swiftly. Li Fuyao then followed up with another question. “There was a fish which turned into a sword causing the water to splash out of the river. After that, someone reeled it onto the shore with a rope made of willow leaves and finally, the sword was hung onto the person’s waist. If t
There were three cultivators in the forest. Chen Sheng who had kept his sword in its sheath looked toward the teenager whom he had seen by the river earlier that day. Chen Sheng was interested to know him, and he cracked a smile when he saw Li Fuyao holding a wooden stick in his hands. Qing Huai, the snake demon was unfazed and did not portray any emotions. Mr. Yan from Yanling Confucian Temple, on the other hand, quickly figured things out and just looked at the teenager without saying a word. Li Fuyao was holding a wooden stick and his arms were trembling. He looked pale but he was still staring at Chen Sheng who had already kept his sword. Li Fuyao took a deep breath and took a step forward. Chen Sheng started to develop some interest in him and looked at the wooden stick that was in his hands. He smiled and asked, “Young man, are you that snake demon’s friend? Have you decided to risk your life for her?” Li Fu
Many years later, Li Fuyao was not a teenager anymore. But when he stood on an isolated peak and thought of that man who led him to learn swordsmanship, he still couldn’t help laughing.But at the moment, Li Fuyao had to think about how capable the middle-aged man was, who had a heavy moustache and was in front of him before deciding if he would learn swordsmanship from him.Late in the afternoon yesterday, he had seen Chen Sheng in the forest cut off that python’s head with his sword at one blow. Earlier, he found the rope Chen Sheng had made with willow leaves on the bank of the Baiyu River. The two things were enough to prove that Chen Sheng was not weak.He was even quite powerful.Under the sun early in the morning, Li Fuyao sat under the eave in his courtyard. In front of him, Chen Sheng looked at this teenager, with a big smile on his face.Chen Sheng stared at Li Fuyao who kept silent for a long time. Then he g
Watching the scenery described on the book was different from walking on the way in person, so when Li Fuyao wasn’t satisfied with what he heard of and started to take actions, he found the way was difficult to walk on. Although he was mentally prepared, he felt surprised.Chen Sheng led him to the way to practice, or rather the branch road. In Chen Sheng’s opinion, the way of swordsmanship was a rugged path, so when he took Li Fuyao to walk, he didn’t brag but told Li Fuyao that it would be difficult to walk on this path in the future.How difficult it was depended on what he felt, so Li Fuyao was wise and didn’t ask this question.Therefore, since Li Fuyao agreed to walk on this road, Chen Sheng kept making things difficult for him. This middle-aged man who looked easy-going at ordinary times was serious when he taught somebody swordsmanship.He told that teenager who didn’t know what swordsmanship was to stab one thousand times
When one makes up one's mind to kill someone, it is actually much easier than even before.You don't have to care about anything else, as long as you give full play to your strongest strength, all you have to do is to kill the other party.Li Fuyang's sword nineteen swept towards Qiushu, buying him little time, so he could only settle the fight with Sheng Yuan in the shortest possible time.That was why Li Fuyang's very first sword was an all-out effort.It's called opening the door.The sword light in the sky went towards Sheng Yuan, the sword qi was like a big net wrapping Sheng Yuan in it, Li Fushang's hand holding the sword didn't tremble at all.It was a matter of life and death, and he seemed calm.It was just that he had still misjudged Sheng Yuan's realm, and killing was not a simple matter.Even if you think it's not hard.Sheng Yuan's sword was a long sword with a ghastly white blade, and there were some weird patterns
Between swordsmen and swordswomen, they should have been divided by their sword cultivation.After Li Fuyang handed out a sword, he immediately handed out a second sword before that one sword qi was about to dissipate.This kind of sword striking before the old qi had been exhausted and the new qi had not yet been born was not something that an ordinary swordsman would be able to do.Fortunately, as early as before, the three master uncles at the foot of the Sword Mountain had taught Li Fushang, so that he could do this, it was not particularly difficult, on the contrary, it was Qiu Su, although there was a master teacher, but that master teacher had not really taught him that seriously.Therefore, in this instant, he was quite a bit worse than Li Fuyang.With this sword, a large gash was torn open in his belly.Only not half a drop of blood came out.The reason was still because there was still a sword qi seeping in there in the small of hi
Autumn is fading away.Demon soil climate than the mountains and rivers, is really much colder, counting the days, it should have been late fall, but Li Fushang this way towards the Qingtian City, has caught up with several small snow.By the time he had traveled a little more than half the distance, at the moment of dusk, he was greeted with his first heavy snowfall in the Demon Lands.The snowflakes drifted down like goose feathers, and soon the shoulders of Li Fuyang, who was reluctant to use his sword qi to drive away the snowflakes, were covered in white snow.As for Feng Lu, there were even snowflakes hanging all over his body.A man and a donkey walked along the riverbank with a calm demeanor.Li Fuyang this time traveled to that Qingtian City where it was expressly forbidden to engage in private fights, he didn't walk fast, in fact, from the words of Qing Tianjun, Li Fuyang knew something, one thing he could be sure of was that before he a
In the battle in the wine shop, before the woman selling wine said those words, the situation was tilted towards Qiu Feng Man and Sheng Liang, but after the woman selling wine came in and said those words, the situation started to tilt towards Chen Sheng.Sheng Liang's sword began to slow down, while Qiu Feng Man's sword was as it always was.The two senior brothers were both geniuses on Sword Mountain back then, their natural talent needs no introduction, if it wasn't enough, it wouldn't be enough to let Old Ancestor Xu Silence personally take in a disciple.One must know that at that time, Xu Silence was still the one considered by the world to be the most likely to become a Sword Immortal.Qinghuai didn't let Chen Sheng die because he didn't want to make Li Fuyang sad.Sheng Liang wanted Chen Sheng to die in order to live a more comfortable life.Once he realized that killing Chen Sheng himself would most likely kill him, he developed other emo
There was destined to be a big battle in the wine shop, three Chao Mu Realm swordsmen combined, even a Spring and Autumn Realm cultivator wouldn't dare to mess with them at will, if it wasn't for that talisman, I think the battle would have been even more noticeable.It's just that the striking consequence is also death.If you move your weapon in Qingtian City and are so blatant, you will naturally die.Qing Tian Jun's temperament was like the thick fog in this Qing Tian City, it was impossible to see.But since it was his word, it was the biggest rule in this Qingtian City.Qinghuai stood at the entrance of the liquor store. After hesitating for a long time, he finally didn't walk in, even though he knew that the young man he cared about was being counted on. Even knowing that there would be two Tai Qing Realm cultivators who were going to take his life.Her man, who was supposed to have the ability to eliminate all difficulties, was supposed to
The sword light was the sword handed out by Chen Sheng.Even though he had been drinking for days and reeked of alcohol, the moment he picked up his sword, he was a proud and powerful swordsman.His realm had long been on the verge of leaving the morning and evening and moving towards spring and autumn, only that it had never been revealed.At least no matter how you looked at it, he was in a much higher realm than this tall man in front of him.Besides, he was only standing within a foot of him.Within a foot in front of the swordsman is dead ground.Thus, when that sword light was born, Chen Sheng saw the fear in that tall man's eyes.He was amazed at Chen Sheng's kendo cultivation, and he hadn't thought that Chen Sheng would really draw his sword.This is Green Sky City, not some other place.It was a good thing that the sword light was heading towards his neck, but it ended up falling to be stopped by another sword.The
Qingtian City's autumn, the climate is strange, obviously before a few days are still high sunshine, these two days will be the autumn wind whistling, the temperature plummeted.Even yesterday night, there was a modest snowfall, only the snow is too small, has not yet paved the streets with snow, wait until after the light of day gradually rise, raise your eyes, you can only see the slightly wet ground.There is no other special light.Qingtian City, which entered the autumn light, was the foggiest time of the year, and before noon, the whole city would be covered with a large rainy fog.The city is not without realm cultivation not bad cultivators, not can not dispel this layer of rain and fog, but the fog covers the Qingtian City, who do not know if it is the Qingtian Jun deliberately, who dares to arbitrarily dispel this city full of fog?Located in the city of that restaurant, originally not many drinkers, now Qingtian City more so many people, thin
In the city of Luoyang, the fall rains continue.This is already do not know is Cheng Yusheng the first time to sit on the threshold of their own home to watch the autumn rain, in the beginning back to Luoyang City in those days, this Cheng family young master because like a certain woman, but not the other party to like, to be dazed will take a string of sugar gourds to a certain little girl's home, in her home on the threshold of the seat, the two people, eating sugar gourds.The little girl Li Xiaoxue will not think of anything big, but it is he Cheng Yusheng will be for his favorite girl despondent and lost in thought.Now that some years had passed, although he had always still thought about that girl, and from time to time he would still go to that mansion to look at the peach blossom tree that she had planted back then, he hadn't actually fallen that deeply into it.Besides, he, the knife hugger, really didn't have much time to spare.Ever since
Re-carrying the sword box out of the already devastated Green Rune City, Li Fuyang, soon returned to the city outside the boulder before the previous stone on the Green Rune City three words, before Li Fuyang into the city, the stone on the green word as ink, Fu character half ink, half green, the city word is already completely changed into green.Now out of the city and look again, the three words on the boulder, the color of all faded, leaving only the stone itself traces, looks unusually depressed.As for the two burly men who were guarding the city before, they had already disappeared.In just half a day, the Qing Fu City had a series of great battles, completely changing the appearance of this Qing Fu City, which was built on the banks of the Sang River, and Li Fushang felt a little sigh of relief when he even thought about the time spent on the establishment of this city at the very beginning.More still confused and unaware.Arriving at the dens