The warriors hidden in the crowd had dim eyes and began to leave in silence.
Among them, some came here because of the Martial Saint.
Some warriors regarded the Martial Saint as their last hope. Even though they knew that the Martial Saint had died under the thunderbolt, they still felt that the Martial Saint had some backup plan, which might be the hand of Qiao Zhong, who was an eyewitness at that time.
But now their hopes have been completely dashed.
Daozhen also noticed the changes in the expressions of many warriors in the crowd. He glanced at the body sitting on the ground, supported by broken knees, and his heart was moved.
"You could have died dignified and painlessly, but you had to struggle. Why did you have to do this?"
"But it is precisely because of this, because of weakness and pain, that the tenacity of mortals is revealed."
Daozhen sat at the entrance of the teahouse facing the street, watching this scene, and he was amazed and made a judgment;
"This trip to Caishikou was worthwhile."
"As far as individuals are concerned, Qiao Zhong's attitude before his death was exactly the same as his previous deeds. It's a pity..."
Daozhen glanced at the noisy crowd around him.
In front of the crowd, the hunchbacked old man finally picked up the steamed bun on the ground. He carefully tore off the dirty part of the steamed bun that was stained with dirty shoe prints, wiped it with his sleeve, looked at the blood stains on it, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's a pity that his death is of no benefit to the country or the people. This is the best example of a brave man."
"Just because you smashed a statue, you think you can kill the immortal with your mortal self?"
"It's just a moment of excitement, and it's just something for people to talk about after dinner."
"Even this topic of conversation is only temporary." Daozhen continued to sip his tea and made his judgment while talking to himself.
However, his attitude of giving orders had already been heard by others.
"If you think that the death of one or two heroes can bring about a new world, then you are too arrogant."
"But even so, their deaths were not meaningless."
A voice sounded nearby.
Daozhen turned his head and saw a man dressed as a swordsman in green, who was the storyteller Jiang Chen.
He once again witnessed the death of the Qiao family, and at this moment he couldn't help feeling a little excited.
He was a person who had been rescued by the Qiao family. He couldn't bear to listen to the words of the man in the bamboo hat, and a thousand thoughts emerged in his mind.
From ancient times to the present, every time a dynasty changes, there will always be an uprising.
The earliest rebels could only gain a posthumous reputation at most, but ended up with a tragic death. They often faced the full force of the entire dynasty, and they were just one or two stepping stones.
So in his opinion, the Qiao family is just a few stepping stones.
“A tree as big as two people’s embrace grows from a tiny seed; a nine-story tower starts from a pile of earth.”
"A seed won't grow into a towering tree in a flash. It takes years of watering to grow. It's not something that happens overnight." He said angrily:
"If you see one or two seeds breaking through the soil and then demand of them the same as if they were towering trees, saying that such seeds cannot provide shade, then you are ignorant and arrogant."
“Even if it’s as small as one or two stepping stones, it’s not meaningless.”
In the old Yancheng, Guo Yan's family was the only one in power and had no rivals. He was also very scheming and had sophisticated tactics.
Therefore, even though Master Guo was domineering and violent, no one dared to pull out his tiger whiskers, because the gap in strength was too great, and this was not a target that ordinary warriors, including Jiang Chen, could fight against.
So the days passed one by one, the Guo family became increasingly powerful, and they built Yancheng into their territory. Gradually, no one said anything, and at most they only dared to say that Guo Yan doted on his young son excessively.
Until a stubborn stone died at the hands of Guo Yan.
Then the second one, the third one... .
For Jiang Chen, who witnessed the collapse of the high-rise building of the former city lord Guo Yan, he could empathize with him and was very excited.
Because he is a person who was touched by witnessing the tragic death of the Qiao family.
"You mean... Qiao Zhong is a stepping stone for mortals to climb to the top and become enemies with immortals?" Daozhen narrowed his eyes, but was not angry.
To him, the sharp words of mortals were like the barking of a fierce puppy at people. He did not feel angry at all, but instead found it a bit interesting.
"..." Jiang Chen opened his mouth but did not respond this time.
"Stop talking and let's go." The Shunfenger next to him suddenly changed his expression and pulled him out.
Daozhen was left alone, continuing to sit at the entrance of the teahouse sipping tea. He saw the crowd at Caishikou gathering and dispersing, and only a few bloodstains remained on the loess at the execution ground.
"Jiang Chen, what you did this time was inappropriate."
Shunfenger pulled Jiang Chen to a deserted place, then put on a stern face and started to scold this junior.
"Do you know who that man in the bamboo hat was?" he asked seriously.
"... Who is he? Does he have a powerful background?" Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat.
He still had some passion in his heart, so he was emotional and spoke without thinking. Now thinking back, it was indeed inappropriate to argue with passers-by in Caishikou.
This is the imperial capital, and the people eating onlookers on the roadside could indeed be princes and nobles.
Judging from the tone of that person's voice, he was indeed condescending and had the air of a meat-eater.
"How should I know?" Shunfenger spread his hands righteously.
Jiang Chen:
His heart almost beat out of his chest, thinking he had offended some important person. You said you didn't know
"How dare you speak like that without knowing who he is?" Shunfenger's face darkened:
"The words spoken by the man in the bamboo hat just now were indeed somewhat extraordinary."
"Generally speaking, there are only two possibilities for a tone of speech like that."
"The first one is the immortal cultivators from the immortal sect." He said:
"When they face mortals, they have a kind of inherent arrogance, and the tone of the man just now is indeed very similar."
Jiang Chen had just arrived in the imperial capital, and he had started an argument with a man who was suspected to be an immortal cultivator in the street
Jiang Chen suddenly felt uneasy.
"So, what about another possibility?" he asked again.
"Another possibility is that he is just a crooked butt who is trying to point fingers at others." The man with the ear sneered:
"He laughs at the stupidity of the people who only know how to dip steamed buns in blood, and laughs at Qiao Zhong who is like an ant trying to shake a tree, but he doesn't know that he is also one of the people, and yet he likes to stand on a high place and give orders."
"There are many people like him in this imperial capital. Why do you care about him?"
Jiang Chen: ... .
"In short, you acted rashly in this matter. Don't make the same mistake again in the future." Shunfenger looked at the junior.
He was Jiang Chen's guide into Tingchao Tower, but in fact, the two were not from the same faction in Tingchao Tower.
The storytellers of "real things" and "strange stories" are not incompatible, but the difference in their philosophies is as great as heaven and earth.
Now he can see the difference between the two.
At the very least, he would never argue with a passerby who was suspected to be a cultivator at the vegetable market in the imperial capital.
... .
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, with a faint moonlight covering Caishikou.
At this time, there were no pedestrians in Caishikou, and the remaining bloodstains on the ground were covered with loess by the officers and soldiers, leaving only a deep black and red color on the soil.
Qiao Zhong's headless body had been collected long ago. After all, he was a fourth-rank warrior anyway. If the body was not disposed of, it might attract bloodthirsty monsters.
Under the moonlight, Qiao Mu's head was hung on a sharpened wooden stake, and the flowing blood dyed the stake red.
The public beheading at Caishikou was intended to serve as a warning to others.
This is not a matter of just one knife. The head of the vicious criminal has to be hung on a wooden stake for the public to watch.
A tall and burly warrior looked at the head on the wooden stake from afar, picked up the wine jug at his waist, and gulped it down.
He was the tall warrior who had given way to the hunchbacked old man.
There are actually quite a few warriors like him who disguise themselves and secretly watch executions, and he is just one of them.
However, from the execution in the morning until now, there has been no turnaround as he had imagined, which has left him with no choice but to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
"What Qiao Zhong, what martial saint, they are all just a handful of yellow earth..."
He was walking staggeringly on the street and suddenly stopped.
In front of him there appeared a figure shrouded in a robe.
"Sword Ghost, the former master of soul refining, has now become a drunkard. How come you really regarded the Martial Saint as the last hope for martial artists of our generation, but now your martial arts faith has collapsed?" The man in the long robe spoke with plenty of sarcasm.
"What does it have to do with you? What does it have to do with me?" The sword ghost's eyes were dancing with drunkenness and he burped.
“Although the Martial Saint is dead, for hundreds of years, with the Wudang founder Zhang Zhenren as the leader, there is still a legend in the world about entering the Tao through martial arts,” said the man in the long robe.
If the Martial Saint is the last hope in the hearts of some warriors, then entering the Tao through martial arts is the dream in the hearts of some warriors.
"Wake up, the Wuji Association can never take on the main responsibility, and our generation of the Wudao League is committed to the pursuit of martial arts to enter the Dao!"
"Use martial arts to enter the Dao, and cultivate a martial arts golden body, which can be invulnerable to swords and spears, water and fire, and can break all laws with one force, and is not afraid of strangers!"
“... ..”
In the night.
Wayne, covered in a black nightgown, stood in the shadows, looking at the man in the robe who was talking from afar.
“When the Martial Saint dies, all kinds of demons and monsters jump out…” He leaped up and disappeared into the night.
Chapter 127 Old Age
The night was gradually deepening.
Caishikou, which is bustling during the day, is now quiet with few pedestrians.
There was a lonely wooden stake standing at the execution ground, and Qiao Mu's head was stuck on it.
When he died, his eyes were still wide open. Even now that he is dead, his eyes are still not closed. His aura is so majestic that it is difficult to look at him directly.
As a cool breeze blew by, his hair fluttered in the wind, occasionally obscuring his face, but the fierceness in the dead man's eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
Qiao Mu stood at the corner of the street, looking at his current head through the dim moonlight.
"As expected of me, I died in a very impressive manner."
"I don't think it's necessary to recycle brains." Qiao Mu thought to himself:
His headless body had been collected by officers and soldiers, leaving only his head for public display. There was actually no need to bury him.
Glancing sideways around, he saw a few soldiers standing guard and chatting under the awning. They were obviously keeping an eye on Qiao Mu's head to prevent any accidents.
"Then why not let 'Qiao Zhong's' head stay a little longer."
Qiao Mu didn't care. He didn't shy away from his own corpse anyway. He could fight alongside his own ashes at any time. So what was a head
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, a patrol officer came towards him. They looked at each other and quickly walked up to him:
"Father, why are you here so late? Why don't you go home and rest?"
"I..." Qiao Mu rolled his eyes and thought about what to say.
Before he could finish his words, the officer saw Qiao Mu's deliberation and frowned:
"Can't find the way? Where do you live? How come no one is watching you and letting you go out for a walk so late at night?"
"My home... is in the east of the city?" Qiao Mu rolled his eyes and asked hesitantly.
The two officers looked at each other, both feeling helpless.
"This Caishikou is in the west of the city. You've taken the wrong road."
"It's late at night, so you'd better be careful on the road." The soldier gave some casual instructions before turning around and leaving.
They did not question the old man Qiao Mu in detail... They did not seem to think that it was suspicious for an old man to appear in Caishikou so late at night.
"Am I already a harmless old man? So I'm not suspicious?" Qiao Mu subconsciously touched the wrinkles on his face, feeling a little subtle.
Now he is very old, at the age of ninety.