The candle flame flickered, and the shadow on the wall moved, and suddenly a black shadow was formed, facing the heart-killing shadow. Xia Houlin was startled, and when he looked again, he realized that a person had been standing behind Xing Xin, and the shadows overlapped. Now that he moved away, there were two shadows.
Xiahou stood on tiptoe and walked a few steps to the right. Through the gap in the bookcase, he saw the man wearing a black cloak, his whole face hidden in the darkness.
"Hey, what's the trouble with you?" The man took the dossier from Heart Killer's hand and said, "You drew this thing for three days and three nights, and when Xiahou saw it, he laughed at you for three days and three nights. Finished laughing. Come and ask me, she looks exactly the same as the person in the little statue, how can she look in the mirror and feel different. How can that fool who only knows murder and arson know that there is only one other fool in Galan who thinks she is a woman."
The man's voice was a little hoarse, as if he was sick, with a thick nasal tone.
But Xia Houlin still heard it, the voice belonged to Uncle Duan. The uncle Duan who would bring a dagger to play with him from the outside and a notebook to show him.
His fingertips were a little cold, and his heart sank a little. He suddenly didn't dare to listen anymore, but he had to listen, no matter what they said, he had to listen.
"It's all in the past, so don't mention it again." The silent man finally spoke, and Xiahou Rong saw him slowly straighten up, his black robe swept across the grid like a dark butterfly's wings.
"Are you regretting, killing your heart?" Uncle Duan said softly, "Actually, it's nothing to regret. Xiao Rong doesn't know about it yet, Chi Yan has no feelings for Xiahou Pei, they are your sons. Now that you know, you can just push it to me, anyway, Xiahou's sheath is mine, and the person who watched her die in Liu Guizang's hands is also me."
"You're wrong," Heartkiller's voice was cold and cold, "How can we people have the qualifications to regret? We are walking on the road of Asura, stepping on the tip of the knife, and every step is stained with blood. Going forward maybe There is still a ray of hope, I always feel that a few more steps are the end, but once you turn around, it means you have to taste the pain of the past again."
Uncle Duan sighed softly and said, "You really don't recognize him?"
"I'm a sinner, Duan Jiu," Ji Xin looked at the candlelight in his palm, "If I hadn't been greedy for the love of my children and shrunk, the Eighth Division would not have buried their bones under the ice and snow, our master and our brother, I won't be the deserted soul of Shuobei forever, I can't go back to Jialan, I can't return to my homeland. The father's debt is repaid, since I have no chance, I will let my children go to the killing field, kill the fateful enemy, and bring back the ancestors of Jialan. .
"But since I want to send my child to the dead, how can I ask him to call me father? Besides, the head of Galan, be careful not to get in the way, so you can move forward. This is my lesson and his future."
"When are you going to tell him this secret?"
"Only the abbot can know all the secrets. He is not strong enough. When he is strong enough to be the first king of Galan, the secrets of Galan will be opened to him."
Uncle Duan was silent for a while, then said: "Mr. Heart, you said how good we were at that time, let's sit in front of the mountain gate and listen to you, Xiahou was sleepy, and the other assassins crawled out of the bed angrily. Get up and chase us. Why do you think it has become like this now?"
"It's because of me, it's all because of me."
"No, heart-killing," Uncle Duan smiled bitterly, "this is life. If you can't beat Xiahou, Xiahou won't challenge you every day, and you won't fall in love with her. If we weren't beggars living on the streets, we wouldn't Will be brought back to Galan to live like this. It's life."
"So you believe in fate, Duan Jiu." Xing Xin put his hand on Uncle Duan's shoulder and said.
"I always believed it, but you didn't know it." Uncle Duan held the heart-killing hand, "It is said that people who kill too much will be reincarnated and become animals in the next life. Heart-killing, we are all old and will soon change. I've become a beast. The wound on my body can't be healed. It used to hurt once every ten days and a half a month, but now it happens every three days. Qiuye is about to die. God's anointing is not good either. Old friend, you must hurry up, let Xiaoli succeed Garuda first, he will do well."
Xia Houlin was suddenly startled and turned to look at Qiu Ye.
The light was too dim, and he never noticed that Qiuye's expression was actually haggard. If the light from the candle came, he would see Qiuye's face was bloodless, like paper, only his lips were dark red like withered flowers.
Akiba gave him a reassuring look, shook his hand, and motioned for him to continue listening.
Xia Houlin's nose was a little sore, and he opened his mouth silently: "Master."
Xing Xin and Duan Jiu talked for a while before pacing away. The cave returned to absolute darkness, and the footsteps of Heart Killing and Duan Jiu slowly drifted farther, farther, and passed down the stone wall and the ground in an extremely muffled manner, and finally disappeared, a dead silence.
To Xia Houlin, the abbot was a dark shadow in the depths of his memory, and it was the faint handwriting in the old paper pile, old and fuzzy. He would always sit in the Mahavira Hall, either banging on the wooden fish that was missing a horn, or chanting sutras while flipping through the tattered scriptures. He sat quietly in the mountain temple, like a dull ancient Buddha, and Xiahou Lin ran wild outside the temple.
When his mother was not there when he was a child, he climbed up and down the mountains with bare feet, groping around, moss chirping softly under his feet, and running like a stone cut through the soles of his feet. He picked rushes and morning glory, put them on the altar, brought small drums from the junk pile, tapped them with chopsticks, and learned the chants of the abbot. Sometimes when the house ran out of rice, he quietly walked around the Mahavira Hall where the abbot was meditating, stepped on the crunching fallen leaves, and went to the meditation room in the backyard to steal rice. He remembered the thin iron wire he hid under the begonia tree, turned the lock to the right twice, patted it again with his hand, and it would open with a click. He ran after the setting sun, picked stones to hit crows, and sometimes hit the abbot's bald head. He chased chickens and ducks, and grew up disgusted with dogs. Every assassin heard the sound of footsteps running by outside the door, and knew that the little bastard from the Xiahou family was being naughty again.
The abbot never scolded him. He stole rice and oil, and later also stole the fragrant fruit on the altar of the gods. Later, he did not know how to know that the abbot was his biological father. He ran to the mountain temple, and the abbot was still the same dark figure facing him. He kicked all the buckets in the courtyard over, and the water was rushing through the moss. After passing the stone steps, the abbot's unmoving back and Xiahou's tearful face were reflected.
For many years, the abbot has always been the back figure. He used to be tall, but then slowly became thin and stooped, but as always, it was dark and cold. Xia Houlin didn't know what kind of person the abbot was. He never said much, never did much, and never asked Xia Houlin. Now he knew that the abbot was not the Buddha that Qiuye once said, nor the old bald donkey that Xiahou Pei said, but the most vicious demon and the most vicious ghost in Jialan.
The black-faced Buddha's top is on the top, and the Xun is blowing with disgust. The sound of Xun is tossing and fluttering, like the wind drifting in the valley, there is no trace when it comes, and there is no trace when it leaves.
"I'm tired." Xia Houlin called to him.
He turned his head away in disgust and looked at him quietly.
"I met the abbot and Uncle Duan below." Xia Houlin said.
"Um."
"You already knew, didn't you?" Xia Houlin's voice was surprisingly calm, "Back then, when you caught the Liu family disciples to practice swords for me, the abbot ordered you to do it, right?"
Nodding in disgust.
He never lied, and he answered nothing when asked by others. For no reason, Xia Houlin suddenly hated him for this, and suddenly hoped that he could tell a lie and do whatever he wanted.
Just don't let Xiahou Rin know that he also had a share in Xia Hou Pei's death.
"Did you already know the truth about my mother's death?"
"Know."
"..." Xia Houlin turned and walked away. After walking a few steps, he stopped again and asked, "If the abbot asked you to kill me, would you come?"
The mountain wind blew up his hair, his white sleeves fluttered. He sat on the edge of the cliff with the boundless starry night behind him. He looked at Xia Houlin's back, and there was a desolate loneliness in his eyes.
He said, "Yes."
"Okay, that's good." Xia Houlin said, "I'll kill you too, you and I don't have to be merciful."
Xiahoulin and Qiuye went down the mountain together. The wind was still blowing, filling his sleeves with coolness, holding Xun in his hands, looking up at the splendid galaxy in the sky.
"But I will lose to you, Xiaolin." He said softly, but no one heard.
————
Xia Houlin went back to his bamboo building, but he hadn't come back for a long time. The small courtyard was overgrown with weeds, some bugs were chirping, and grasshoppers were jumping on his feet. There were many fallen leaves on the stove under the shed, and there were also in the pot. When Xia Houlin walked by, a gray rabbit emerged from under the stove.
Xia Houlin moved out a bench, found an old clothes to wipe clean, and let Qiuye sit. He went back to the house and took two pots of pear blossom white, and hesitantly put it in front of Qiuye.
"Master, can you still drink?"
"Why not?" Qiuye smiled, bit off the stopper, and poured it.
Xia Houlin took a sip of wine, the spicy wine flowed through the cavity like a knife, and the heat all over his body came up, and Xia Houlin slowly exhaled. The night was a gloomy blue, there was fog in the mountains, and the surroundings were misty. The clumps of verbena and hydrangea looked like paintings on rice paper soaked in water, and the red and purple haloed into one piece.
"Master, you know that too, right?" Xia Houlin asked suddenly.
"Yes, I know."
"My mother also knows that since the twenty-sixth year of Qianyuan, her business has been in the rainy season. It is impossible for her not to notice."
"Well, she knows that too."
Xia Houlin laughed, but after all, there was no such thing as a smile, "I'm the only one who was kept in the dark."
"Don't blame your mother," Qiuye sighed, "Even if there is no deliberate arrangement to kill your heart, your mother won't be able to last long. What can make an assassin go to the end is not only the sword, but also the injury. Your mother's body is early It's already riddled with holes. She knew that she would leave sooner or later, but you know your mother, who is not very learned, clumsy, and doesn't know how to say goodbye to you... That's why she left so suddenly ."
"What's wrong with your sore, can it be cured?" Xia Houlin asked.
Qiuye shook his head with a smile, and said, "Xiao Rong, don't you want to know something else?"
Xia Houlin was silent for a while and asked, "What happened to you at that time?"
Akiba lowered his head, his eyes became very distant, as if he was caught in a long-lasting memory. He said: "I don't know much. I just entered Garan at that time. Six months before I entered Garan, there was a serious civil strife in Garan, with heavy casualties and withering assassins. The abbot chose children from Garan Village to fill the gap. While looking for outlaws with good martial arts skills from outside, I was one of them, and I was one of them. Outsiders like me were excluded from the beginning. Your mother is arrogant and has never been welcomed. Be cited as a confidant.
"At that time, the eight Galan tribes were very different from today's. They were all masters trained by the abbot first. Heart killing was the Garuda at that time."
Xiahou Lin was stunned for a moment and said, "Is he the twenty-seventh generation Garuda?"
"That's right." Qiuye said, "Although your mother is regarded as the number one knife in the world, at that time, the killing of the heart was truly unique in the world. Killing a person in one step, blood into a river in ten steps, and blood lotus in every step. The knife is called Bushenglian. Twenty-one years ago, your mother was pregnant with you and your brother. The first abbot suddenly issued a garan order, summoned the eight galans, and went to Shuobei together. This is more than three months, who I don't know what happened in Shuobei.
The day you were born, it was one night, the woman Wen from Jialan Village wrapped you and Chi Yan in a swaddling swaddling swaddling clothes, and Xian Xian suddenly came back. He was covered in blood, and Granny Wen almost died of fright. He didn't say anything, just picked up a child and left. Your mother resisted getting up from the bed and asked him what he was doing. He said that he was going to take a child away, and he was going to break up with your mother. "
"He's quite a man!" Xia Houlin sneered, "Bullying a woman who just gave birth, why didn't he die in Shuobei and don't come back?"
"Actually, he wasn't much better than your mother at that time. The heart-killing temper was originally very good, otherwise he wouldn't be able to be with your mother. But that day, he insisted on taking the child away, and your mother said, The child can't go, you come first and kowtow a hundred times for me. He said, can you exchange a child for a hundred times? Your mother said, after the kowtow.
"He knocked?"
"Knocked, a full hundred. Your mother didn't expect that he could really finish the knockout. But she still didn't agree to let him take the child away, so the two started fighting. Personal tempers are so hard, and in the end they beat each other almost without any tricks. Your mother didn't survive, so she lay down first. Xingxin said, I took the child away, and from now on, you can't see him. "
"What he took away was stubbornness." Xia Houlu murmured.
"That's right. Your mother lost. She kept her promise. In the past seventeen years, she has never seen Chiyan. No one knows about the tragic assassination 21 years ago, except for Xinji and his close friend Duan Jiu. What the hell happened. After that, Heart Killing took over as the abbot of Jialan, the new eight parts were selected, and Jialan was back on track."
"It seems that he backed away from the battle. The abbot and the other seven divisions were all slaughtered. Did he take the blame and come up with such a method to atone for his sins? It's ridiculous, ridiculous!" Xia Houlin buried his face in the palm of his hand. Li, said, "Master, you said, if I became stronger earlier, he wouldn't think about killing my mother?"
"Xiao Lan, it's not your fault. In fact, he should have chosen Chi Yan at first, but for some reason, he changed his mind again. Maybe it's because Chi Yan has no heart. People without heart, no matter how strong they are, can I can't be the leader of Jialan leading the assassins." Qiuye turned to look at Xiahou Lin, his eyes were as silent as water under the moonlight, "Xiao Lin, do you want revenge?"
"Of course, I'll kill him. As for the first place in Garan, whoever likes it should go." Xia Houlin stood up, his eyes were sinister and cruel, "What kind of heart-killing, his debt, let him go to hell Pay it back!"
Qiuye suddenly said, "Xiao Rong, have you found your mother's suicide note?"
Xia Houlin was stunned for a moment, and said, "No. She left her things in a mess. I searched for a long time and couldn't find it. Maybe she was bitten by a mouse."
Qiuye rubbed the ridges on the jug and said slowly, "Your mother left something for you outside..." He suddenly stopped, and after a while he said, "Little Lin, do you want to leave Jialan? ?"
"What do you mean? My mother she... "
"Xiao Rong, she told me when she was still alive that she hoped you could break the game." Qiuye walked to Xiahou Pei's tomb and poured all the wine on her tomb, "Your mother is very different from us, isn't it? Because of her excellent swordsmanship, but because she was born an assassin. The assassins of Jialan used to be homeless beggars, only your mother, who found Jialan by herself. She said that she has grasped her own destiny , she hopes you can too, and you don't belong to Galan."
"Does she want me to run away? She doesn't want me to take revenge, she wants me to run away?" Xia Houlin looked at the tombstone. On it are the words he carved by himself - the tomb of Xiahou Pei. His mother is not married and has no husband's surname. Thinking about it too, his mother was decisive and decisive all her life, how could she be subservient to her husband's surname after her death. Only the words Xiahou Pei written on the tombstone are enough.
"No," Qiu Ye raised his eyes, with swords and swords in his eyes, "There is more than one way to hold your own life, Xiaolin, you can destroy Jialan!"
"How can this be possible? Ruin Jialan, what to do in July and a half, you will all die!" Xia Houlin said in shock.
"It's not 'you', it's 'us'." Qiuye whispered, "Xiao Lian, do you know what kind of place Jialan is? Every year Jialan Village receives fifty children from outside, most of them are boys. , with strong hands and feet, no father or mother, and regard Jialan as their home. Every year, Jialan Village will send twenty children into the mountain temple, and the abbot will give them saber and hang their cards. After three days, half of the cards will be After being taken down, the half of the children died in the killing field. Every year, at least seven experienced and skilled assassins die, of which only three assassins' bones can be transported back to the knife mound. Year after year, the bones under the knife mound have already piled up like a mountain. Yesterday, there was another tomb there. I watched it stand up. Xiaolin, shouldn't this place be destroyed?"
"But!"
"You must have seen it just now, the black-faced Buddha's medicine cave. Others only said that I caught the defecting assassin and handed it over to the abbot for beheading. They were wrong, and the abbot sent them to the black-faced Buddha to be the medicine man who tested the medicine. I don't know what the abbot is developing, maybe it's August and a half, September and a half, but I know that he is a sinner. In this garan, everyone is a sinner, no one is unhappy with blood, no one is full of evil, no one Don't be damned! Including stubbornness, including me, including you."
"Master, you are not the same as Chiyan, and there are still books, he..."
"Nothing is different, we are all sinners, don't you admit it?" Qiuye laughed lowly, "Xiao Rong, your mother hopes that you will break the game and take control of your own life, the abbot hopes that you will be the head of Galan and kill that one. An enemy far away in Shuobei. And I hope you... destroy Garan!"
Silence, dead silence.
The fog was getting thicker and thicker, Xia Houlin seemed to be surrounded, and the air around him became sticky. His heart became very chaotic. He thought of the eyes that were disgusted with silence, and the heart-killing man holding a candle. Finally, he saw the skeleton of Xiahou Pei lying on the ground, looking at the high sky.
Xia Houlin lowered his head and looked at his palm, which had arrow marks left by Liu Guizang.
"how should I do?"
Akiba smiled softly, his smile was as gentle as ever, like the warm wind blowing under the spring flowers.
He suddenly restrained his smile, and his expression was as solemn as the gods and gods in the high temples, "Kill the heart and burn the medicine cave. In July and a half, we will all die!"