“Shifu?” Hua Qian Gu drowsily opened her eyes, looking at the dim shadow of the white figure under the candlelight.
Bai Zi Hua turned around, walking to her bed, his hands holding a cup of tea.
“Do you feel better? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”
“I’m a little dizzy, how long did I sleep?” Hua Qian Gu looked around her, the room was not large, simply furnished but clean and comfortable.
“Not long, you drank very little, you only slept for three days.”
“Three days?!” Hua Qian Gu was shocked, “I only had a tiny sip.”
“After the Immortal Feast, it’s usually for drunk immortals to sleep for three years.” Bai Zi Hua handed her the tea, and Hua Qian Gu drank it noisily.
“Where’s Tang Bao?”
“It also stole some wine to drink, it tasted a little and immediately felt dizzy, falling into the wine cup. It already lost consciousness when it was taken out, it is still sleeping now. It will probably sleep at least a few more days before it can wake up.”
Hua Qian Gu laughed: “Shifu, what is this place? Why do I feel the world is moving, am I still drunk?”
“We are on a boat.”
Hua Qian Gu immediately jumped out of bed in joy, pushing aside the curtains and running outside. They were really on a boat in the middle of a wide river. The water surged against the boat, seeming to stretch on forever, both sides of the riverbank twisted thousands of miles, hauntingly beautiful. The crescent moon curved like a hook, the night sky was high above, and the stars reflected in the river, gleaming brightly like crystals.
The night wind was strong, everywhere was complete silence, she ran to the front of the boat to feel the wind.
“Shifu, Shifu, let me tell you something, I just had a dream.”
“Oh?”
“I had been dreaming for the past three days, I dreamed I was first a boring stone staying under a big tree every day. Around me were grass, flowers, and plants, I had a lot of friends. However, I was never happy because I envied the birds in the sky, they had wings so they could fly and see the world. So in the second dream, I became a bird. Yet I was still not happy because I wanted to go higher and further, I was jealous of the sun. Finally, in the third dream, I became the sun, but I did not realize that it would be even sadder. Every day, I was high in the sky, looking down at the grass, flowers, and plants playing with each other, I was alone hanging high up in the sky. I was very sad and regretful, it turned out my ultimate wish was that I could return to being a little stone.”
Bai Zi Hua walked over to her, patting her head: “Then what happened?”
Hua Qian Gu gently leaned against his back.
“Nothing else happened because I only had three dreams, I couldn’t return to being a stone and had to continue to stay as the sun. However, I understood that even if I was lonely in the sky, I’m very content that at least I could see everyone every day, providing everyone with warmth, and I could also see a lot of interesting things in the world. I was very happy in the end.”
“Dreaming about three lifetimes, that is the effect of the Forgetfulness wine. Do you understand the meaning of your dreams?”
“Yes.” Hua Qian Gu nodded firmly, “Shifu, I do understand, the beginning is the best. Also, even if you can’t go back to the beginning, as long as the heart doesn’t have obsessions, and be yourself, people can live happily.”
Bai Zi Hua knelt down, looked at her, and nodded: “Xiao Gu, everyone has a different dream at each stage, sometimes it is to be free, sometimes it is deep like an ocean or high in the sky. Even if I’m the future you will have the wings of an eagle, or the power of the sun, you must remember how you feel when you were a little stone, blessing everyone in the world.”
“Yes!” Hua Qian Gu did not fully understand Bai Zi Hua’s meaning, but she swore to herself that she did not want to be a bird or the sun, she only wanted to be a little stone next to Shifu forever.
“Xiao Gu, the sword manual I gave you, have you been practicing?”
“Yes.”
“I will teach you another sword technique, it’s not to fight enemies, it only serves for self-cultivation and purifying the heart, beneficial for increasing internal energy. I will demonstrate for you once, you must watch carefully.”
Hua Qian Gu heard this and was overwhelmed by joy. She has followed Shifu for many years, beside personally teaching her to play the zither, he did not teach her anything else and let her study on her own most of the time. She had never seen Shifu fight with someone, nor saw him practice swordsmanship. How strange, did Shifu take the wrong medicine today?
“This sword technique is called ‘Jing Hua Shui Yue (an unrealistic rosy view), it is based on the idea of ‘nothingness.’”
Bai Zi Hua flew to stand on the water, his white robe seemed purer under the moonlight, and his body was surrounded by a silver glow. He was reflected in the water, beautiful like a mirage, causing Hua Qian Gu to take a deep breath.
Bai Zi Hua suddenly moved in harmony with the wind, walking on water like it was the ground. The white figure flashed by, the hair black like ink, calmly and quietly, powerful like a dragon, light like a sparrow, as if a deity descended from Heaven. Hua Qian Gu was stunned, standing frozen on the spot. Felt as if she went back in time when she met him at the Immortal Feast.
He did not bring a sword, but it seemed like he had a sword. The stars reflecting in the water began to glow brighter, they flew up and surrounded Bai Zi Hua. The silver blade in his hand that appeared and disappeared pointed to the sky and pointed to the water. The water suddenly stopped flowing in the river, and the river solidified. He flew up into the air, using the power of the illusion sword, and the river immediately fragmented into pieces.
Many years later, Hua Qian Gu often recalled the memory from that night of watching Shifu showing her a sword technique on the river. It was the most beautiful memory of her life. If possible, she would not mind exchanging her life, just so she could return to being a little stone next to him.
“Do you remember all of it?”
Hua Qian Gu raised her head and looked at Bai Zi Hua, full of admiration and awe as if he were a god.
He only needs to look at her a little and her heart would be calm like a quiet river.
“I’ve remembered everything.”
That night, Bai Zi Hua sat on one side, and occasionally gave her pointers as she practiced the sword technique on the river. She laid down near him when tired and watched the stars. She never thought life could be more perfect than this moment.
In the following days, they continued their travel. Passing mountains and rivers, dropping by to visit famous mountains and many fairyland places. In order to help her gain more experience, they even went to a lot of wooded mountains and swamps, monster caves, and tombs. Although the fragrance from Hua Qian Gu’s body attracted terrible evil spirits that not even Xiao Hong and Xiao Bai could get rid of, the immortal aura from Bai Zi Hua scared monsters and demons so much they knelt down to beg for mercy as soon as they saw him. Hence Bai Zi Hua occasionally did not stay with her, forcing her to go to places where there were a lot of monsters and demons so she could fight them, they also went to the cracks between the monster realm, demon realm, and human realm so she could seal the cracks.
Hua Qian Gu was used to dealing with evil spirits but she was still afraid of ghosts. But, Bai Zi Hua refused to allow Xiao Hong and Xiao Bai to help her! Poor Hua Qian Gu had to continue fighting them off, including being chased and bit by the evil spirits.
Under Bai Zi Hua’s extreme teaching methods which are more like torture, Hua Qian Gu’s life seemed to be on the line all the time.
Bai Zi Hua repeatedly said people have to respect the heart, with no fear in the heart. Being fearless is the most powerful thing.
Hua Qian Gu inwardly thought in distress that as long as Shifu was alive, she could never become the most powerful. Because he was more frightening than evil spirits! She could run away and hide from the evil spirits, but her legs always became weak whenever she saw Shifu and did not have the strength to run away.
Bai Zi Hua had the aura of an immortal so he usually had to use mystic arts to disguise himself around humans. Hua Qian Gu was the only one who saw his real appearance, humans could only see him as a normal man.
But using mystic arts to disguise or transform could easily be exposed if met with specialized instruments or someone more powerful. That was the reason Sha Qian Mo had to wear a human mask when going to Mount Chang Liu.
Today Hua Qian Gu and Bai Zi Hua arrived at Hang Zhou. Her stomach started crying from starving, hence the two went into an inn called Yue Lai to rest.
Everyone in the pugilist world knew stepping the foot into Yue Lai Inn was the same as stepping into the martial arts world. When eating, it was not unusual to see plates and chopsticks flying everywhere……
As a result, after Hua Qian Gu ordered enough food to fill a big table, busy devouring the food along with Tang Bao. A butcher knife flew over and embedded itself into the middle of the table.
Bai Zi Hua elegantly put some cauliflowers into his mouth, not bothering to raise his eyebrows. Hua Qian Gu was too busy eating, by the time she realized what was happening, the butcher knife already landed in front of her face, no more than 10 centimeters from her nose.
Hua Qian Gu was stunned for a moment, then took a deep breath, and slurped the vermicelli and half a vegetable leaf hanging outside her mouth.
A short man with a big head, big ears, and shiny face, ran up to them with bare chest, bowing his head and apologizing over and over: “So sorry, so sorry, it’s a mistake, it’s a mistake.”
He pulled out the butcher knife, spat out his saliva two times into his hands, then took aim carefully. This time, the knife inserted itself precisely into the corner of another table.
Everyone at that table froze for a moment, then withdrew their swords. They glared at the butcher. The butcher saw the enemy side had five people, but he only had two people, they not only had more people but were also taller than him. Seeing himself at a disadvantage, he quickly climbed onto Hua Qian Gu’s table.
“Hey! My cabbage!” Hua Qian Gu painfully looked at his big feet stepping on their food.
The server was bringing out the food casually, he had gotten used to this type of situation long ago. However, was the cook in the kitchen lazy and did not wash the vegetables carefully because he noticed that there was a fat worm on one of the plates? Never mind, they would not die from eating it anyway.
The server brought out a caramelized meat plate: “Guests, please enjoy your food.”
Hua Qian Gu quickly accepted the dish, not allowing the server to put it on the table, afraid that the fat man would step on it. She took her bowl and chopsticks, then retreated to a corner to eat. Having to fight evil spirits all day yesterday, she was tired and her entire body was sore. She usually had to eat vegetables only when with Shifu, she couldn’t miss a chance to replenish her strength now.
Hua Qian Gu used her chopstick to pick up the meat, before she could put it into her mouth, there was a sudden shout in panic: “Rainstorm needles!”
Countless needles that were thin like ox hair shot forward like a rainstorm. When Hua Qian Gu started practicing hidden weapons, she was attacked many times by water droplets from Bai Zi Hua. Out of reflexivity, she picked up eight meatballs between her ten fingers, absorbing the needles with her internal energy.
By the time she realized it, her eight lovely meatballs looked like hedgehogs. Hua Qian Gu roared in frustration, losing her cool. Although Shifu warned her many times not to attract attention, not to cause trouble, not to bully normal humans, she could tolerate everything, but could not tolerate what happened to her meatballs!
Hua Qian Gu used the most dangerous weapon among the seven popular weapons in the martial arts world – a folding chair – jumping into the fight against the two groups.
“Huhuhu! My meatballs! Give me back my meatballs!”
Bai Zi Hua slightly leaned sideways, avoiding the flying vegetables. He closed his eyes and ignored everything — what eyes did not see is regarded as clean. He sighs, this was the result of recklessly accepting a disciple.
“Please have mercy, Miss Heroine, please have mercy!”
The matter was settled after those people agreed to compensate Hua Qian Gu with 20 plates of large meatballs.
Sprawling on the table to eat meat while compassionately solving a dispute between two gangs, she felt like the auntie of the neighborhood committee.
The reason for the fight was an invitation to the Martial Arts Tournament.
In the end, the invitation was handed to Miss Heroine. In this way, the two gangs would no longer need to fight each other.
She got to eat and drink to her full, and was able to do some exercise, Hua Qian Gu kicked her arms and stretched her legs, oh wait, not right, it should have stretched her arms and kicked her legs.
“Shifu, are we going to participate in the Martial Arts Tournament?”
“Shifu told you so many times, do not create trouble in the mortal world, why mess with those who are just ordinary people.”
“Yes, yes, yes, that’s why I solved the problem with the mortal way.” Hua Qian Gu grinning, stretched out her piggie hands, “By using—my fists!”
She circled around Bai Zi Hua: “Shifu, let’s go, let’s go. I’m tired of fighting evil spirits, I’m a better fighter now. Now I run slower than before when I see ghosts and sometimes use mystic spells to destroy them when they’re not paying attention. The Martial Arts Tournament sounds so interesting, I’ve never seen it. Let’s go, let’s go, if I accidentally become the leader of the martial arts world, you’ll be the teacher of the martial arts world’s leader, how impressive!”
Bai Zi Hua shook his head helplessly, he wanted to go traveling so she could gain more experience, if it makes her happy, it should be all right just to go see it.
“You can only watch……”
“ Not allowed to participate……” Hua Qian Gu automatically finished what he wanted to say, she happily jumped up, acting like a piglet that escaped from its cage. Tang Bao rested on her shoulder, holding onto a piece of meatball, eating it joyfully.
Bai Zi Hua walked slowly behind her, watching her bouncing up and down happily, he could not help but smile too. They had been traveling for two months, Hua Qian Gu seemed to be more cheerful and lively than before. He thought to himself, if he were not an immortal, exploring the world with this mischievous kid every day, maybe that would not be such a bad thing after all.
Looking up at the blue sky and white clouds high above, his heart actually felt a slice of joy.
In less than six months, his catastrophe would arrive. Perhaps this was why he has been teaching her rapidly recently, easing off from disciplining her and indulging her a little more. Bai Zi Hua deliberately left the mountain with her because he wanted to teach her as much as he could in these last days.
He did not care if he could survive the doomsday, he had cultivated to this level, life and death no longer mattered to him. Years ago when he first saw her at the Immortal Feast, he already knew she would be the predestined fate of his fatal curse, but in the end, he still chose her as his disciple. At that moment, he was prepared to accept the consequences.
It was difficult to change fate, but the right to make the decisions was in his hands.
He used to worry that Xiao Gu would be lonely if he were no longer with her. What should he do to help her change her unfortunate destiny? Later, he saw that she slowly made many friends, more people began to love her, and he was gradually reassured. There were Tang Bao, Qing Shui, Luo Shi Yi, Shuo Feng, Dong Fang Yu Qing, Xuan Yuan Lang, and even Sha Qian Mo……
There were grass, flowers, and plants so even if she became the sun, she would not be lonely, she would not be held back and has nothing to worry about.
And all he could do is to be with her as much as possible.
His face that was usually cold like frost now appeared warmer, his fathomless eyes were still so dark that it was difficult to guess his thoughts. His lips were like a merciful lotus that can capture everything.
noveldream 