Chapter 1 The Roadside Stall

The carriage stopped behind a horse caravan shop on the side of the road. This place wasn't near any village or town, but it was an important hub for horse caravans to transport goods. The horse caravan shops were specifically set up for these people.

Those who traveled the martial world and roamed the north and south might have tasted delicacies, but they could also make do with these small mountain shops.

There were rooms, rooms with grass sheds. One could wrap themselves in a mat or clothes and sleep for a while.

There was food, and even meat, which smelled fragrant.

At this moment,

the blind man was sitting in front of this large pot of "meat dishes," holding two steamed buns in his hand.

Ding Heng and Cui Linfeng were using the spoons given to them by the shopkeeper, happily eating from the pot. Both of them also held large steamed buns, taking two bites of vegetables and a large bite of the bun, eating with great relish.

This was horse caravan cuisine, but this horse caravan cuisine was completely different from what the blind man knew...

"What's wrong, not used to it?"

The Sword Saint sat down next to the big pot and asked the shopkeeper for a spoon, also holding a steamed bun in his hand.

The Sword Saint was indeed a sword practitioner; his movements were fast and precise. With a "whoosh," he scooped out a large meatball from the pot, put it in his mouth, and then took a bite of the bun.

"Hoo..."

The Sword Saint let out a satisfied sigh, appearing very pleased.

This feeling was like a Sichuanese person who hadn't eaten authentic hotpot for a long time finally returning home and eating it.

The blind man swallowed his saliva. The spoon was in his hand, but he couldn't bring himself to use it.

It wasn't that he disliked everyone sitting together and not using serving chopsticks; the blind man wasn't that particular. After all, they were on the road, and having a hot meal was already a great treat.

Thinking about rushing on the road, it was impossible to calculate where they would rest today and where they would eat tomorrow.

But the problem was that there was something wrong with this big pot of food. It was leftover food that the shopkeeper had specially collected from restaurants and inns in the small town more than ten miles away, transported back, and mixed together to eat. It was boiled into a big hodgepodge. This was horse caravan cuisine in Jin, because people who made a living by foot power generally had limited living conditions, but they wanted to eat something greasy, so they specifically relied on this to eat.

Sometimes the food inevitably went bad, but the shopkeeper had a way to deal with it. Like selling mutton skewers in later generations, he would put a lot of spices in it, and the rotten smell would be covered up, leaving only the fragrance.

The way of selling money was also interesting. It was calculated by the spoonful. How many spoonfuls you took, that's how much you paid in the end, similar to counting bamboo sticks for skewers in later generations.

So, taking a spoonful was really something to consider. If you scooped up meat, you felt like you had made a profit, but if you scooped up a few vegetable leaves, tsk tsk...

The Sword Saint was eating with great relish, which made the blind man wonder if the Sword Saint's master had specifically brought him here to practice swordsmanship when he was a child.

Everything comes from the same source, and understanding one thing leads to understanding everything else. It was also very reasonable. Who said you couldn't practice swordsmanship with a spoon? As long as you have a sword in your heart even without a sword in your hand.

Thinking about these messy things in his head, the blind man didn't dare to eat this stuff. He asked the shopkeeper for a bowl of hot water and squatted on the side, slowly gnawing on his steamed bun.

Finally,

Ding Heng and Cui Linfeng finished eating first. The Sword Saint was still continuing his battle. The shopkeeper's youngest son was staring at the Sword Saint's movements with wide eyes.

The Sword Saint's spoon was starting to get more and more excessive. He was no longer satisfied with just scooping one spoonful, but was hooking horizontally. With one spoonful, he was pulling out seven or eight times more than a full spoonful.

The youngest son was about to cry as he watched. If this person scooped up so much of this big pot of horse caravan cuisine, they wouldn't be able to make back their capital. If people who came later glanced over and couldn't even see any meat, who would be willing to sit down and continue scooping?

The shopkeeper was an old man who was old but still energetic. Seeing this, he wasn't angry, but silently brought over another bowl of rice wine.

"I didn't order wine," the Sword Saint said.

"It's on the house, please accept it."

The Sword Saint nodded, took the wine bowl, drank a mouthful of wine, and then put down the spoon, shaking his head and sighing:

"It's been many years since I've tasted this flavor, I really miss it."

"That's right," the old shopkeeper responded with a smile.

The Sword Saint reached out and touched the shopkeeper's youngest son's head, asking:

"How many spoonfuls?"

"Twenty."

"It's clearly eighteen," the Sword Saint corrected.

The shopkeeper's youngest son pouted, looking at the Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint touched his pocket and said:

"Calculate the other two's together. By the way, that blind man didn't take a single spoonful."

"Here you go." The old shopkeeper handed over a bamboo skewer.

The Sword Saint gave the money, took the bamboo skewer, and walked back to the carriage while picking his teeth.

Behind the carriage lay a person, his face covered in blood, his right arm broken. He wasn't dead, but he was already on the verge of death.

"Sir, this dog thief wanted to take advantage of us entering the shop to steal from our carriage."

Ding Heng reported.

The carriage was right next to the shop. Those eating here, not to mention that Ding Heng and Cui Linfeng were both veterans of the martial world, the blind man was even more like a walking radar, and there was also a dignified Sword Saint sitting here. To try to steal this carriage, this thief was really unlucky.

Inside the carriage, the child started crying again.

Ding Heng hurriedly picked up the child. As soon as he picked him up, the child stopped crying.

"Hehe."

The Sword Saint smiled, looked at the blind man, and said:

"Tell me, that Marquis's son is really strange. Everyone else cries when they hold him, but this rough man with a sweaty body and a fierce face holds him, and he doesn't cry, but even smiles."

The blind man said:

"The Marquis's son likes the aura of killing."

"What about me? I've killed more people than that Ding guy, haven't I?"

The blind man shook his head and said, "Sir, you only have pure sword energy, no killing intent. The killing intent has long been refined away by you."

"You rascal, you used to be a fortune teller, right?"

"Sir, you are wise, you saw through that."

"I've been traveling the world for some years, and there aren't many people who can talk like you."

"Sir, you flatter me."

The blind man was also helpless in his heart. These days, he really relied on flattery to make a living, and there were six others who were as miserable as him.

"Everyone's full, let's get on the road," the Sword Saint shouted.

The carriage started moving again.

It was still Ding Heng sitting in the carriage holding the child, Cui Linfeng inside ready to breastfeed at any time, and the blind man and the Sword Saint driving the carriage.

"Didn't eat a single bite."

"My mouth was spoiled when I was a child, my apologies." The blind man said apologetically.

When others share "childhood delicacies" or "local specialties" with you, but you don't eat a single bite, it's really disrespectful.

"Hehe, it's just that you're not hungry enough."

"Yes."

"The world is bored and likes to rank the Four Great Swordsmen. To be honest, Li Liangshen among the Four Great Swordsmen can handle this. The other two can't eat it either."

"It's well known that the diet of the Zhenbei Marquis's mansion is bland. It is said that on the day the Zhenbei Marquis entered the capital, he ate four or five ducks in one go."

"Hehe, yes, but do you know that Li Liangshen only eats blandly? This blandness is nothing more than some difference from the delicacies of real dignitaries, but he was adopted by the Marquis's mansion as an adopted son since he was a child. No matter how bad his life is, how bad can it be?"

"That's the truth."

"Furthermore, that Baili Feng of Qian, the world thinks that he became successful because he entered Shangjing in white clothes on a boat that year, and was worshiped by the Qian emperor as the martial arts teacher of the crown prince. In fact, the Baili family was originally a large family in Jiangnan, and they had tens of thousands of acres of fertile land."

"I see, I really didn't know that."

"Furthermore, that one from Chu was originally a great noble in Chu, and his family's fiefdom was not small at all, so he had the leisure to spend decades studying sword-making."

The blind man immediately said:

"Only you, sir, are from the common people?"

When people want to express their feelings, you have to help them build a ladder.

"I can't really be called a commoner. My surname is Yu, the imperial surname of Great Jin, but everyone has seen clearly what kind of life the Yu emperors lived in the past few years. To be honest, my parents passed away early when I was a child, and my younger brother and I often couldn't even get enough to eat."

"Therefore, sir, among the Four Great Swordsmen, I have always admired you the most. It's really too inspiring."

"Heh, so the world evaluates our four swords as having their own fate and their own merits, but they don't know that the path I take with my sword is completely different from the path they take."

"Sir, I dare to say..."

"Dare to say? You're not timid at all. You cut off my younger brother's head, dared to chase after his older brother's carriage, and dared to sit next to his older brother for so many days."

"..." The blind man.

"Afraid?"

"That was a matter on the battlefield, serving their own masters." The obsequious look on the blind man's face faded away, leaving only a touch of indifference.

"This is what you should look like. Don't say, you're quite handsome."

The blind man suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

The hobbies of Jin people are really...

"After the Yan army withdrew, before I went to Litian City, I went back to the Jingji area. Did you go there and eat a bowl of meat soup? A time-honored shop."

The blind man thought for a while and said, "Sure enough, having a picky mouth will really cause trouble."

That night, the Yan army pacified the Jin army in the Jingji area.

The blind man and other Devil Followers joined forces to kill Yu Huacheng. Liang Cheng took the head to report his meritorious service, while the blind man knocked on the door of a time-honored meat soup shop in the city. It was said to have been passed down for a century and he drank a bowl of meat soup.

Still carrying the unscattered smell of blood, and then drinking a bite of delicious food with a historical heritage, it was very in line with the blind man's favorite petty bourgeoisie sentiment.

"I often go to that shop too," the Sword Saint said. "How was the taste?"

"It was really delicious."

"Well, let's do this. I believe that you were serving your own masters. My hatred, my younger brother's death, I will count it on Tian Wujing, and I don't want to pursue others, otherwise it's unrealistic for me to go and kill tens of thousands of Jingnan troops alone."

"Thank you, sir."

"But since you have delivered yourself to my door, then I will not be polite. You have to answer, what is the difference between my sword and the three of them? If you answer correctly, everything will be fine. If you answer incorrectly, leave your life behind."

The blind man took a deep breath,

and didn't think much about it,

slowly opening his mouth and saying:

"The sword of the Chu sword maker has too much craftsmanship; the sword of the Baili family is too noble; the sword of Li Liangshen has too much violence, only you, sir..."

"What kind of aura do I have?"

"Earth aura."

"Oh?"

"I'm not flattering you, the reason why the Jingnan Marquis's wife dared to hand the child over to you is obviously because a gentleman can be deceived with righteousness, but this is also the most respectable thing about you, being trusted by an enemy is itself a kind of truth."

"Well, although it's not flattery, I find these words more pleasing to hear than flattery. Smell it."

"Hmm? Smell what?"

"Didn't you smell it?"

"Smell what?"

The Sword Saint reached out and pointed forward, while stopping the carriage,

"Nobility is pressing."

On the side of the road, a woman walked out. The woman was wearing a dark yellow long dress and holding a sword in her hand.

"Baili Xianglan?" the blind man said.

"Oh, you know a lot of people, interesting."

"I've seen her before, I know her, she doesn't know me."

The Sword Saint pointed to Baili Xianglan in front of him,

and said to the blind man:

"Look, we haven't taken a bath for a few days in order to hurry on the road, but this person who came to rob us actually took a bath, burned incense, and changed into a clean dress before coming out. Look at those shoes again, they came out of the mud, but they didn't get much mud on them, they were also newly changed.

This is what is called overwhelming nobility."

Baili Xianglan held her sword in front of her,

and said;

"Baili Xianglan, greetings, Sword Saint of Jin."

The Sword Saint leaned back slightly,

waved his hand,

and said:

"Miss, you've mistaken me."

Baili Xianglan said:

"I didn't expect that the Sword Saint of Jin would also like to joke in front of women."

"I'm not joking, there's no Sword Saint of Jin."

"Aren't you?"

"But Jin has already perished."

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There is only one chapter today, the one I owe will be made up tomorrow, don't panic!