Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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At this time of year, in Taxuelu, it was still spring and bright scenery. Taking a small boat and drifting among the reeds, his depressed heart gradually calmed down.
“Hoola!” The water surface suddenly rose, and a young boy wearing a thin shirt emerged from the water, grabbed Lin Xin’s bow, and asked in a sweet voice: “Where are the guests coming from?”
At this time, children who were not afraid of the cold had already begun to fish in the water. Even with a head full of water weeds, he still pretended to be elegant, very much in the style of the Lin family.
The eastern region was close to the sea, and those who stayed in Taxuelu had excellent water skills. His father should have fished and caught shrimps in this clear and shallow swamp when he was young, but it was a pity that Lin Xin lives in Luqitai, which had no sea, and was still a landlubber.
Lin Xin bent down and snatched the fish from the child’s hand with quick eyes and hands, “I came from the Northern Territory and wanted to pay homage to your prince.”
The young boy was suddenly robbed of the fish was stunned for a moment and forgot what to do and say next.
“Visitors come from far away, and there are fish to give to them. Don’t rob the children.” Lin Qu, dressed in Tsing Yi[1], stepped on the sand and landed lightly on the boat. He looked at Lin Xin with a gentle smile, and then looked at the fish in his hands.
Lin Xin tossed the fish casually, and the young boy sprang out in an arc in the air like a cat, holding the fish in his mouth and sinking back into the water again.
The imperial edict had been issued long ago, and Lin Qu was now in charge of the Lin family. Lin Yedan was practicing swordplay on the waterside pavilion. He saw Lin Xin from a distance, snorted coldly, turned around and left, unwilling to say a word to him.
“Father has always been like this. Ever since I advised each family to exchange Luli for their fiefdoms, he has been annoyed with me. He hasn’t spoken to me for quite some time.” Lin Qu explained casually and invited Lin Xin to sit in a small pavilion surrounded by peach blossoms.
There was an unfinished chess game in the pavilion, with white stones made of transparent crystal stone and black stones made of introverted agate. Because the owner was away temporarily, a few peach petals had fallen on the chessboard.
“Looking at the entire Dayong, only Brother Shujing is really cultivating immortality.” Lin Xin sat down on the black side and sighed while looking at the chessboard on the table.
“Since you have called me brother, please don’t mention my name again.” Lin Qu said in a serious tone, adding a cup of tea to Lin Xin.
Lin Xin was stunned and took the cup of warm bamboo leaf tea. Calling him brother that day was really impulsive, but he didn’t expect that this man would actually take it seriously. He lowered his head to sip his tea and didn’t know how to answer, so he went straight to the point and talked about his purpose: “I came here to remind you that Wen Shilan is in Dayong and may come to compete with swords in the near future. He has a witchcraft spell in his hand, which causes all the spiritual veins of an immortal to be destroyed.”
“Pa ta ta ta ta”, Lin Qu brushed away the peach blossom petals and picked up the chess pieces back into the box, his face still calm, “Are you interested in talking to me about a game?”
This person seemed to never know “how to write the word “anxious”, and the black piece was put into Lin Xin’s hand without any explanation.
“You’re not like a person who is greedy for money. You want so much Luli, but it’s all for Shen Qingque, right?” Lin Qu dropped the word, cutting off Lin Xin’s path.
“Where did this come from?” Lin Xin’s eyebrows jumped slightly and he continued without changing his expression.
“He wanted to attack Beimo when he was thirteen, but it was a pity that the Northern Territory couldn’t afford it. He also tried to persuade my father to send people out to sea to find Luli,” Lin Qu said with a smile, holding his forehead with one hand, and his peach blossom eyes were shining, “I heard that you jumped down from Mogui Valley alone to save him.”
With a single move, a large number of black pieces were taken away. Lin Xin chuckled, “I didn’t know that the Eastern Region, which is said to be blind and deaf, is so well-informed.”
“I heard with closed eyes what you miss is people, not places,” Lin Qu pointedly said, throwing all the white words in his hand into the chess basket, “You lost.”
Although he was proficient in Qimen Dunjia[2] and Five Elements Bagua[3], Lin Xin didn’t know much about how to play chess. When encountering a master like Lin Qu, all he had to do was throw in the towel and admit defeat.
“Tsk, come again, come again.” Lin Xin was not convinced, picked up the chess pieces and started the game again.
This time, Lin Qu changed his previous regular chess style and began to play wildly and randomly, with one piece on the left and one on the right, completely without any rules. Lin Xin was confused. Could it be that his cousin despised his chess skills and started playing tricks?
“You studied under Zhu Yixiao. It’s not difficult to defeat me. It’s just that you are too impatient. You can only take three steps to do everything.” Lin Qu said and suddenly fell down. The white pieces that were originally scattered here and there like bird droppings suddenly became one piece, and the situation where they were lying like a drunkard suddenly became sharper and sharper, and they made killing moves every step of the way.
Lin Xin was shocked. Just now it was a great land, but now he looked over and saw that the country had collapsed and there was no possibility of a comeback.
Lin Qu picked up the cup, took a slow sip of tea, and looked at him with a smile.
“No more playing, no more playing!” Lin Xin threw the black pieces in his hand on the chessboard, a little annoyed that Lin Shujing was testing his temper by playing chess, “Back to the topic, if Wen Shilan comes to the door, you have to wait. What do you think?”
“What do you think?” Lin Qu didn’t care about Marquis of Lu’s fierce expression. He raised his hand and asked his servants to remove the chessboard and bring him a plate of peach blossom cakes.
“Of course he wouldn’t. You are a junior, and he wouldn’t approach you for a sword fight.” Lin Xin picked up a piece of snacks and frowned at Lin Qu, who was coaxing him like a child.
“Father has already agreed.” Lin Qu shook his head slightly. When Wen Shilan left for the Northern Territory, the battle invitation had already been sent to Taxuelu.
Lin Xin stood up suddenly, wishing to grab Lin Qu’s collar and punch him. He had already responded, but he still talked nonsense like this for a long time, “He can’t even win against me, and he still wants to fight Wen Shilan? Your Lin family is really hopeless.”
These old stubborn heads all had the same moral character as Shen Qirui. They knew they couldn’t beat him, but they still accepted the challenge. He thought then Zhu Yangai must have also received a battle invitation, but there was no need to think about it. His uncle’s bad temper must have let him be ready to beat Wen Shilan into a dog.
Lin Qu lowered his eyes, slowly picked up the pastries that Lin Xin had dropped on the table and threw them into the fruit shell plate. “Wen Shilan has your father’s ashes in his hand.”
Lin Xin froze suddenly.
Going to the sword competition platform was a life-or-death competition, and it must have a purpose. There was no doubt that Lin Zhenghan’s ashes must be the reason why Lin Yedan agreed to the sword showdown.
At the end of the peach blossom forest, on the waterside pavilion covered with cherry blossoms, Lin Yedan was holding a bowl of cordyceps tea, hesitating again and again.
“The soul power has not been restored yet?” Lin Xin stopped in front of the waterside pavilion when he smelled the familiar smell of urine from a distance.
Xingcao[4] could warm and nourish the soul and store up soul power. Soul power and soul were two different things. If the soul was compared to tea leaves, then soul power was the tea brewed from the tea leaves. If the tea was taken away, it could be replenished again; if the tea leaves were taken away, it would become incomplete.
“You still have the nerve to say, who taught you such evil arts as soul-absorbing power?” Lin Yedan drank the cordyceps in one gulp and stared at Lin Xin with a cold eyebrow.
Seeing Lin Yedan like this, Lin Xin suddenly didn’t want to talk anymore and turned around to leave. Lin Yedan was so angry that he dropped the cup in his hand.
Lin Xin refused to leave the Eastern Region and asked Lin Qu to teach him to fish in the water. The good-tempered Qing Guogong actually rolled up his trouser legs and pulled him into the water, touching loaches, catching small fish, and digging out bird eggs, without saying a word about how he was going to deal with Wen Shilan.
The young boy who greeted him that day while holding the bow of the boat looked at the clumsy Lin Xin curiously, “Didn’t your brother teach you when you were a child?” In the Lin family, these skills were taught to you by your brothers when you were young.
“What does it have to do with you?” Lin Xin curled his lips and stole a loach from the young boy’s basket.
Three days later, Wen Shilan appeared in Taxuelu where peach blossoms were in full bloom.
“My father is still injured, so I’m afraid he won’t be able to fight. We Han people are very particular about repaying the father’s debt, so we came here to ask for advice from our venerable master.” Lin Qu entertained Wen Shilan with the red tape of the Eastern Region, which made the Beimo man frown.
Lin Yedan was somehow persuaded by his son and actually didn’t come out to fight the challenge.
“You are no match for me.” Wen Shilan put the wolf-slaying sword back on his back.
“I am naturally no match for senior, because you have accumulated spiritual power for decades, and I have just reached adulthood. If you want to compete, requesting senior to remove the Luli. We will only compete in swordsmanship, not spiritual power. How about that? In terms of swordsmanship, I believe that I am not inferior to anyone, including Sirius on the grassland.” Lin Qu bent his peach blossom eyes with a half-smile, but there was no smile on his lips.
Sirius on the grassland was Wen Shilan’s nickname in Beimo. No one knew about in Dayong, so Lin Qu didn’t expect Lin Qu to come.
When Wen Shilan heard this, he immediately became interested, “Okay!”
“Wait a minute! If there is no need for Luli, I’ll compete with you!” Lin Xin jumped out of nowhere and stood in front of Lin Qu, “If I win, in addition to handing over the ashes, you have to answer me a question.”
Seeing Lin Xin’s face, Wen Shilan’s eyes suddenly changed, “What does it have to do with you?”
“I am also a member of the Lin family.” Lin Xin unsheathed Yanggu and the Luli was removed from the hilt.
Lin Qu looked at Lin Xin in surprise, quickly came to his senses, and said with a smile: “No, if I win, I will let him answer your questions.” After that, he tapped his toes and jumped onto the competition platform. On the sword stand, he threw away the Luli on the sword hilt and invited Wen Shilan to come on stage.
Wen Shilan was also very happy. He removed the seven Luli “dang dang dang”, turned over and jumped on, shaking the wooden platform three times.
Lin Xin was secretly worried and didn’t know where Lin Qu got his confidence. Even in the later stages of his previous life, Lin Shujing’s name was not on the list of top players in the world. With such mediocre qualifications, how could he defeat Wen Shilan, one of the top three in the world?
“Buzz–” The spiritual sword without Luli actually made a buzz. Lin Qu pointed the tip of his sword to the ground, gave a slight salute, and suddenly took action.
“Ding ding ding” In the light of the fire, the two of them had dismantled hundreds of moves, and the movements could hardly be seen clearly. The sword in Lin Qu’s hand seemed to be alive, flipping back and forth in his palm and around his body. One move after another, extremely precise and flawless, the spirit sword without Luli was used in a state as if Luli was activated.
Lin Xin slowly let go of Yanggu. If one were to ignore spiritual power and only focus on swordsmanship, Shen Lou would not be Lin Qu’s opponent.
Lin Shujing, who had always been a quiet person, was actually a genius no worse than Shen Lou!
He just had an indifferent temperament and didn’t like publicity. He didn’t participate in the leisure pool hunting in previous years. When he did, he did it casually and didn’t fight or grab kills, so that the world looked down upon him.
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[2] Qimen Dunjia is an ancient form of divination from China.
[3] The Five Elements, or Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device. Their chief relevance to the mystery of Chess Boxing is in their harnessing for the devastating Five Elements style.
[4] Those who have forgotten it can refer to Chapter 1.